Pastor Bryan Walmer

After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five colonnades. 3 Within these lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.” 8 “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” 9 Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath. The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.” 11 He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” 12 “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. 13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. 14 After this, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” 15 The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 Jesus responded to them, “My Father is still working, and I am working also.” 18 This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill him: Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God. John 5:1-18 CSB

Jesus is greater than any of us could imagine in our wildest dreams.

The human heart is:
Unaware of our need for God - We focus our hopes into things we think can make us well when Jesus is who we need.

Ungrateful - Thankfulness does not come naturally for us but is worth working into our lives.

Irresponsible - We tend to not want to own our stuff. We would rather blame something/someone other than us than take responsibility.

God’s heart towards us in response:
God pursues us - God comes after us, always making the first move towards us rather than making us come to Him.

God’s pursuit of us is relentless - It never stops. He is continually chasing us.

God’s relentless pursuit of us never changes - God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

Will we respond differently than the man did?