Don’t lose hope. Perhaps the hardest place in your life is the place where Jesus intends to reach you.
John 5:1-9 – 1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath.
Have you ever been in a season of life where you wondered whether God is even hearing your cries? I have. My life in Pakistan was nothing but a long season of affliction— not because I did something, but because of my faith and identity in Christ. Though that season ended, I still battle the recurring nightmares of gunfire and attacks. In fact, I had one just last week. As I shared it with Sarah, I realized that, as much as I hate those nightmares, I am deeply grateful for them because they remind me of God’s grace. I should have been dead, but God preserved me to testify to His saving grace.
You see, while pain leaves memories, grace leaves monuments. If you are trapped in a never-ending season of suffering, know this– God’s silence is not God’s absence. Delayed answers are not denied answers. Your kairos moment, when God’s timing intersects ours to deliver us, may be closer than you think.
The Problem
The longer we suffer, the harder it becomes to hope, because hoping begins to hurt. It feels safer to expect nothing than to be disappointed again. People need to know that hope in the Bible is not wishful thinking. It is an anchor. It is confidence in the character of God. Hope is a person, and His name is Jesus.
In John 5:1-17, one day, that Hope walked into a hopeless world of an invalid. This divine appointment in this man’s prolonged crying was his kairos moment for deliverance.
The Big Idea
In prolonged suffering, those who truly trust Jesus discover that helplessness is never hopelessness. Though circumstances may leave us powerless, they can never rob us of hope, because our hope rests not in our situation but in our Savior.
God promises, “Those who hope in me will not be disappointed” (Isaiah 49:23), and Romans 5:5 affirms that “hope does not put us to shame.” We see this hope in all divine appointments in John 4-5. The Samaritans were hoping for the Messiah to come and restore them, and the Royal Officer was hoping for Jesus to come with him and restore his son.
In John 5:1-9, the man was hoping the pool will restore him. In this series, Divine Appointments, so far, we have seen: Divine Appointment in Personal Comfort (John 4:1–42) and Physical Crisis (John 4:43–54). Today, we will explore Divine Appointment in Prolonged Crying, Part 1 (John 5:1-9).
Jesus meets a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. Imagine thirty-eight years of suffering, shattered dreams, disappointment, and dependence. Thirty-eight years of watching others move ahead while he remained stuck. It is long enough to lose hope. Long enough to lose dreams. Long enough to be bitter. Long enough to wonder whether God even cares.
Some of you know exactly what that feels like. Not thirty-eight years beside a pool. But years of unanswered prayers. Years of chronic illness. Years of broken relationships. Years of grief. Years of loneliness. Years of regret. Years of disappointment. Years of waiting. You have prayed. You have fasted. You have cried. You have hoped. Yet the situation remains unchanged.
Divine Appointment in Prolonged Crying, Part 1
If that is where you are today, this sermon is for you because this story is not about one man’s affliction; it is actually a powerful revelation of human unbelief, human suffering, and the heart of God who suffered with and for us. Through this divine appointment in the prolonged crying of an invalid man, we discover three truths: the reality of suffering, the reach of the Savior, and the response to the sign.
The Reality of Suffering (John 5:1-6)
John 5:1-2 begins, “1 After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.” Ironically, Bethesda means “House of Mercy,” but it was filled with misery. It presented a picture of a fallen world; humanity in distress, shattered by sin, brokenness, desperation, and waiting.
We see that in John 5:3, “3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.” Day after day, people waited and hoped for a miracle. Everywhere you looked, there was suffering. Everywhere you turned, there was pain. Everywhere you listened, there were cries for help. Does that not sound like our world today?
Like the pool of Bethesda, we have places in our life where we sit like the invalids crying for help. But thank God, mercy is not ultimately found in a place. Mercy is found in a Person, and that Person is Jesus Christ. When He makes an appointment with us, He picks us up from the multitude, like this invalid man in John 5:5.
A quick side note: In the ESV translation, the next verse is not John 5:4 but John 5:5, because it is not in the earliest, most reliable Greek manuscripts. It was added in the 5th-6th centuries by scribes who copied the explanation of the traditional belief in the margins into the biblical text. Just in case you are curious, it is still in the KJV and it reads, “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”
Let’s continue with John 5:5, “5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.” Notice that his name is never mentioned. He is identified by his condition. His sickness had become his identity. That is what suffering often does. What begins as something we experience eventually becomes something that defines us. We stop saying, “I have a struggle,” and start saying, “This is who I am.”
But notice something beautiful. Everyone else saw a condition. Jesus saw a soul. They saw an inconvenience. Jesus saw someone worth saving. You see, when crowds see conditions and credentials. Jesus sees you. You may be unknown on earth, but you are never unnoticed in heaven.
That is what we see in John 5:6, which reads, “6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”” Notice two words: Jesus saw. Jesus knew. He saw what others missed. He knew what others could not understand. Jesus knows every moment of your suffering. Every disappointment. Every tear. Every failed attempt. Every sleepless night. Every question.
You may suffer silently, but you never suffer unseen. You may feel forgotten by people, but you are never forgotten by Jesus because there are no forgotten people in the eyes of God. Perhaps, the greatest encouragement in this passage is this: The man wasn’t looking for Jesus. Jesus was looking for him. He didn’t seek Christ, but Christ sought him. That is the gospel, and that is grace. Grace is receiving what we do not deserve. Grace is heaven pursuing rebels. Grace is God-loving sinners before they even know Him.
The Bible teaches that we love Him because He first loved us. We seek Him because He first sought us. The gospel is this: salvation begins not with our search for God, but with God’s search for us. Healing begins not because we deserve, but when He decides. All miracles, whether spiritual or physical, begin not with the faithfulness of the sufferer. It begins with the initiative of the Savior.
I heard a mature believer in a long season of pain ask whether God even cares. Just last week, another mature believer said, “I feel I am in this situation because I must not be doing enough for God.” Listen to God’s Word in 2 Timothy 1:9, “9 who [God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began…”
In John 5, we do not know whether the man was born paralyzed or what caused it, or how old he was. The only thing we know is that Jesus chose to make a divine appointment to heal him, and in John 5:6, Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be healed?” At first glance, the question seems unnecessary. Of course, he wants to be healed. Then why did Jesus ask? Jesus had to resurrect hope before He could heal, which becomes clear in John 5:7.
Application
Don’t lose hope. Perhaps the hardest place in your life is the place where Jesus intends to reach you.
The Reach of the Savior (John 5:7-9)
John 5:7-9 continues with the man response to Jesus’ question, “7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”“ He does not answer Jesus’ question directly. Instead, he explains why his situation cannot change. Years of disappointment had trained him to expect failure. Prolonged suffering often produces a deeper wound than physical pain—hopelessness.
If you have stopped asking God for big things because you no longer believe they are possible. If you have lowered your expectations to protect yourself from further disappointment, is it possible you are already there? Perhaps you have forgotten that your God is greater than your problems.
Jesus must resurrect hope before healing, and hope in Hebrews 11:1 is part of faith; it says, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for…” The man in the story needed faith, but the prerequisite of that was hope. The answer to his problem was no longer in the pool. The answer was standing right in front of him.
Jesus says next in John 5:8, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” When you have the power to command life, you don’t need theatrics; you simply command, and it happens. You say let there be, and the universe comes into existence from nothing.
John 5:8 is a call to an active faith that came into existence the moment God incarnate uttered those words. The result of that hope and faith is in John 5:9, “9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.” There is a deep theological truth that we should not miss: faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17), and faith always requires action that seems impossible.
Think about how impossible these commands sounded.
“Get up.” The man had not been able to do that for thirty-eight years.
“Take up your bed.” How can a man carry a bed when he cannot carry himself?
“Walk.” How can someone walk who has not walked in decades?
Everything Jesus commanded was humanly impossible. And that is exactly the point. What is impossible with man is possible with God. Jesus said that in Luke 18:27.
Someone asked me recently why God had to wait until the last moment to deliver. I said otherwise, we will think that somehow, we were able to do it in our own strength.
Application
Jesus often commands what we cannot do, so that we might discover what only He can do. His commands carry His power to resurrect hope, faith, and a new life.
Closing Thought
As I close, to fully appreciate divine appointment in prolonged suffering, I want you to imagine what these 38 years must have been for the invalid man. Every morning, he woke up to the same condition. Every evening, he went to bed with the same problem. Every year brought another reminder that nothing had changed. Pain has a way of wearing down the soul. The longer suffering lasts, the more difficult hope becomes. If you are there today, Jesus is asking you the same question He asked the man: “Do you want to be healed?”
Action Step
Whether you are looking for physical healing, relational healing, spiritual healing, emotional healing, or financial healing, it does not matter, just answer the question: “Do you want to be healed?” If yes, then answer this question: “Do you believe He can heal?” If yes, then stand up wherever you are because in obedience to God’s Word, I want to do something I usually don’t. I am going to pray for healing. James 5 says, “The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well.” I have faith that Jesus, who said, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk,” and the paralyzed man walked, can heal you. Do you have faith that He can?
Appeal
When He heals you, don’t neglect your responsibility to testify before others that Jesus healed you because that is exactly what this man in the story did.
Inductive Bible Study: Observation, Interpretation, Application
Observation: What Does the Text Say?
- Where does this event take place (vv. 1-2)? What was the condition of the people gathered there (v. 3)?
- How long had the man been an invalid (v. 5)? What does that tell us about the severity and duration of his suffering (v. 5)?
- According to verse 6, what two things are specifically said about Jesus before He spoke to the man?
- What question did Jesus ask the man (v.6)? How did the man respond (v. 7)?
- What contrasts do you see between how others may have viewed the man and how Jesus viewed him?
- What repeated themes about suffering, waiting, and hope stand out in this passage and Sunday’s message?
Interpretation: What Does the Text Mean?
- Why do you think John emphasizes that the man had suffered for 38 years? What does this reveal about prolonged suffering?
- Bethesda means “House of Mercy,” yet it was filled with misery. What does this teach us about the fallen world and where true mercy is found?
- Why is it significant that Jesus saw the man and knew his condition before speaking to him? What does this reveal about Christ?
- The man was not seeking Jesus; Jesus sought him. What does this teach us about grace and God’s initiative in salvation?
- How can suffering become part of a person’s identity? Why is it important to remember that our condition does not define us?
- What does this passage teach about God’s apparent silence and delayed answers? How is God’s timing different from ours?
Application: How Should This Change Us?
- Have you experienced a season of prolonged suffering, unanswered prayer, or disappointment? How has that affected your hope?
- In what ways have you been tempted to let your struggles define your identity rather than your relationship with Christ?
- Which statement from the message encouraged you most:
- “God’s silence is not God’s absence.”
- “Delayed answers are not denied answers.”
- “You may suffer silently, but you never suffer unseen.”
Why?
- Are there scars, painful memories, or difficult experiences that God has used to remind you of His faithfulness? Share an example.
- Are Is there an area of your life where you have stopped expecting God to work because disappointment feels safer than hope? How can you begin trusting Him again?
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