Church of the Nazarene East Rock
Questions Jesus Asked – Do You Want to Get Well?
When you’re ready, He is.
Today we continue in our 4-part teaching series “Questions Jesus Asked”
Often, we are quite content to ask questions of Jesus. Who are you? Where are you? Do you hear me? How could you let that happen? What do you want me to do?
We often ask questions of Jesus, but do we pause to hear the questions he asks of us?
Today we hear Jesus ask “Do You Want to Get Well?”
John 5:1-8
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
Why did Jesus ask this question?
In asking this question, Jesus is really asking a much deeper question:
-Jesus is asking if he is ready to give up his own methods and depend only on Jesus?
-Is he ready to be free or has his illness become part of his identity?
-Is he willing to reach out his hand for help from the only one who can help him?
“Some, perhaps, may not have yet reached the place this man had reached. They are not helpless enough yet. They are not ready to give up on human efforts to solve their problems. They are not ready to admit they cannot make it on their own. They are still determined to get into the water when it is troubled. Jesus can do nothing for them.”
Ray Stedman
Week 1 Question: “Who do you say that I am?”
Do you know Him?
Week 2 Question: “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I say?”
Do you obey Him?
Week 3 Question: “Do you want to get well?”
Do you need Him?
Bottom Line
When you’re ready, He is.