John 5:1-17

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 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.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”

What’s your favourite drink?

Nek nominations

Invalid always late – 38 years

“Do you want to get well?”

“I have no one to help me”

“Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

He walks... Away from Jesus!

He doesn’t know Jesus...

He tells the Jews... (splits on Jesus?)

Maybe the man believed in Asclepius, the god of medicine...

Asclepius and his staff with the snake wound around it

Jesus shows that faith in Asclepius doesn’t heal

Healing doesn’t necessary lead to faith

God gives faith in a relationship with Him

The gospel is about Jesus

"But these miraculous signs are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." - John 20:30

“Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.”

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” - John 4:10

“'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.' By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive." John 7:37-39

Jesus gives living water

“By this he meant the Spirit”

Let’s get practical:

1. God gives the Spirit – the living water

2. Ask God - "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” - Luke 11:13

3. Trust God – in the normal spiritual things of life

1. Daily examen – look for God’s presence in your life

2. Lectio Divina – read the Bible spiritually

3. Practice the presence of God – do and live for Him

“Let your living water flow over my soul.” I will pray with you – also afterwards in the consistory at the back