"Do You Want to Get Well?"

“Do You Want to Get Well?”

 

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?” 

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up!  Pick up your mat and walk.”  At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.             John 5:3, 5, 6, 8

 

In Jerusalem, during the time of Jesus’ ministry, there was a pool which was surrounded by five covered colonnades.  This place was known as Bethesda, and there a great number of disabled people used to lie waiting for the “stirring of the water, they believed that the stirring was done by an angel, and the first to get into the pool would be cured.  Some were blind, lame or paralyzed, and some could not get into the pool without help from another person.  (This legend is NOT in the earliest manuscripts.)  Amongst them was a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying on his mat, He perceived that the man had been this way for a long time.  He KNEW the situation and He KNEW the man.  He asked the man, “Do you want to get well?”  Jesus wanted to raise the man’s hopes and get him to FOCUS on Him.

 

In the spiritual sense, mankind’s biggest problem is that they either don’t realize they are SIN-SICK and need HEALING or they don’t want to be HEALED from their SIN-SICKNESS.  They may be perfectly happy in their SIN-SICK condition, which will lead to SPIRITUAL DEATH, and an ETERNITY in Hell.  

 

Note that Jesus gave the man instructions on what to do in order to be HEALED.  He told him to:  “Get up!  Pick up your mat and walk.”  When the Holy Spirit starts dealing with your HEART, and you come under CONVICTION, or feeling SORRY for your SINS, there are some things you MUST do to be HEALED from your SIN-SICKNESS, which can ONLY be cured by the BLOOD of JESUS CHRIST. 

 

First, you MUST TURN AWAY FROM your sinful lifestyle and TURN TO God with a TRUE REPENTANT HEART.  Then you MUST CONFESS your sins to Him, and ask Him for His FORGIVENESS.  You MUST BELIEVE, with ALL your HEART, that Jesus died for YOU, and is ALIVE in Heaven, making intercession for you, before God.  You MUST ACCEPT His gift of SALVATION, and be HEALED from your DEADLY SIN-SICKNESS. You MUST DO this NOW, in order to ESCAPE an ETERNITY in HELL, and to GAIN an ETERNITY in HEAVEN.  PLEASE DON’T REJECT SO GREAT A SALVATION!  He’s waiting and coming SOON!!!