Today my message is entitled “Believe in Hope Again!” I received the idea of this message from a devotional by John Blase in “Our Daily Bread” dated April 14, 2019 titled “Hope Restored.”
John asks a question that relates to the message today. “In what ways has your hope grown cold?”
I pray expectantly that each of you find new reasons to continue in the hope you have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lawrence Richards, in his book “The Bible Reader’s Companion,” comments on hope:
““Hope” carries no hint of uncertainty. The Greek word conveys a sense of settled confidence and expectation. Because we are sure of eternal life we give ourselves freely to live by God’s revealed truth.”
2 Corinthians 3:12 NIV
Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
Today, we are looking at a well known story from God’s Word. The apostle John’s Gospel is full of events during Jesus’s time on earth and this is one of those times where Jesus touches someone’s heart and body.
John 5: 1-9a NIV
The Healing at the Pool
1 Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.
2 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.
3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
Lawrence Richards comments on verse 4: “This verse is omitted from the NIV because no manuscripts of John earlier than the 4th century contain it. Most believe this was a superstition, added to the text long after John wrote.”
It is included in the New King James Version for example.
John 5 continued:
5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
6 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?”
7 “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.”
This seems like a silly question but it had deep intent. After all these 38 years, the man was used to others providing for his needs. If he gets well, he will now have to provide for himself and what can he do after 38 years not working? His skills and abilities could be severely limited. Will he actually want to be healed? Is his response a real struggle or an excuse. How would we respond today in this situation?
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
Notice how in this story, Jesus only says two short sentences but they are incredibly powerful and life changing. “Do you want to get well? Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!”
What would be your response to Jesus if He asked you the same question today?
William Barclay, in his book “The Gospel of John,” gives us a view of this command for today: “The first essential towards receiving the power of Jesus is the intense desire for it. Jesus comes to us and says: “Do you really want to be changed?” If in our inmost hearts we are well content to stay as we are there can be no change for us. The desire for the better things must be surging in our hearts.”
1 John 3: 1-3 NIV
1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he (Christ) appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
1 Timothy 4: 9-10 NIV
9 This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.
10 (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.
Finally, let me quote from Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians:
2 Thessalonians 2: 16-17 NIV
16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
I now will read the prayer that John Blasé finished his devotional with to close todays message.
“Jesus, there are places in my life where hope has grown weak and cold, or even dead. You know this. You also know I want to hope again, I truly do. Restore to me the joy of hope, a hope born by trusting you. Amen”
Read as benediction: Jenee Baldwin’s article in the Dawson Creek Mirror newspaper, July 11, 2019 titled “Do you know the Shepherd?”
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