John 5:8-9
1 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” 7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” 8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” 9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking!
He’s so focused on his solution that he can’t see God’s solution.
The truth is, sometimes in our search for a solution, we settle for the familiar.
Jesus didn’t come to give us better coping mechanisms for brokenness. He came to
8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”
9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking!
Three simple commands through which Jesus activates real, lasting change in our lives:
• Stand up – the call to
• Pick up your mat – the command to leave behind what kept you down
• Walk – the invitation to
1. Stand up
He issues a challenge: Get up.
God often challenges us at the point of our impossibility:
The only way to do the impossible is to depend entirely on Him.
2. Pick Up Your Mat
It’s Jesus removing the temptation to go back. To stay stuck. To relax into what’s familiar.
That one phrase from Jesus was a challenge to burn the bridge behind him.
If we keep the “mat” nearby, we often find ourselves slipping back.
Jesus is serious about real change. And He knows that if you leave the mat there, it won’t be long before you lie back down on it.
3. Walk
Jesus expected him to move forward—not just to get up, but to keep going.
Jesus doesn’t just give us the strength to stand—He gives us the strength to