The Power to Change: John 5:1-9

Introduction

What is the key to change? How do we change ourselves? How do we break habits that seem to always come up at the wrong time and set us back? How do we break cycles in relationships and in groups and in churches and in the work place? What do we do when we feel stuck? What is the key to change and personal development? These are questions we all face regularly as we seek to mature and grow and become more like the person God created us to be. Questions are great tools. Jesus used questions regularly to get people to look below the surface at the root issues of the heart. In this incident recorded by John in chapter 5 of the book that bears his name Jesus asks a man a penetrating question. Jesus asks, "Do you want to get well?"

Some Background Information

The feast of the Jews mentioned in chapter 5 is not named. It was probably the feast of Pentecost or one of the major Jewish religious festivals. The scene is the pool near the sheep gate. The sheep gate was one of the entrances to the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem like all cities of that time was surrounded by a wall for protection. It was called the sheep gate because it was the gate through which the sheep were brought into the city to be sacrificed in the temple. Archeologists have excavated the site and have indeed found spring feed pools of water there. The pools were surrounded by covered columns probably made of some type of stone. It is in this area that people with various types of illnesses came and waited. According to belief at that time at times an angel would come down from heaven and stir the water of the pool. The first person into the pool after the water was stirred would be healed. This was a local superstition. A helpless man is there who has been lame for 38 years. It is here that he has an encounter with Jesus that changes his life. The healing is interesting from several points. First the man has no idea who Jesus is (see verse 13). The man does not ask Jesus to heal him. In the healing itself Jesus does His part (Speaks the word of healing) and the man does his part (stands and walks). There are several similar miracles in the New Testament where a person is required to act on a word - see for example Acts 3:1-10. It is the encounter with Jesus that changes this mans life.

Devotional Ideas

1. Do a study in your Bible of the questions Jesus asks.
2. Pray to Jesus to change those areas of your life in which you are stuck. Ask yourself the question that Jesus asked this man.

Final Thoughts

No matter what we may think is the reason we are stuck in our lives the only solution is an encounter with Jesus.