John 5:5 – And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

John 5:6 – When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

Hello readers, new blog today and I hope it will be a blessing to you. Today I will be basically gleaning from the healing of the impotent man in John 5. Please read the chapter for yourself, and today I want to focus on the phrase “a long time in that case”. This man had been impotent for 38 years! That is a long time! He never got better on his own. Noone ever made him better. Noone could ever take him where he was wanting to go. And he was stuck that way for a long time. His case was impotence, what’s the case with you? Have you been a long time in your case? How long has your issue and your condition stopped you from rising and moving in your life?

In this chapter, there weren’t just a few, the Bible says there were a “great multitude” of impotent folk laid up at the pool of Bethesda. The multitudes have problems. There’s a lot of people out there hurting and needing helping. This man was impotent. We generally think of impotent with relation to being unable to reproduce, but impotence mainly refers to powerlessness. Which is a massive problem we all suffer from. We are powerless to save ourselves from our sins. Just how impotent is your Christian walk if you are saved? Is it lacking power? Is it lacking potency?

Notice how religion was going on while these people were all laid up… because religion was not benefiting or reaching the people at the pool. You need Jesus, we all need Jesus, just like this man needed Jesus. Dead religion won’t help, but the Holy Spirit moving upon the precious word of truth will. And if you are going to be relying on others to raise your life up out of the deathbed of sin, you’re going to die that way. This man was going to die this way if Jesus didn’t save him. He had become used to that deathbed, but God had so much better for him. He had got comfortable in his excuses, but when Jesus found him, the excuses stopped. Jesus is going to have to find you friend, and when he does, don’t miss your moment. I thought about how many people had problems here, and yet we read that only one was healed.

So what’s your case? What’s the case with you? There were a few different cases at this pool, and the first one was impotence which this man suffered from. As already stated, to be impotent means to be without power. And we a multitude that had impotence in common in that they were all powerless to help themselves. God knows you don’t have power, that’s why he gave you power to be saved and rise up through Jesus Christ and walk. You cannot be saved and live it by your own power. You will fail, it’s 100% God’s grace all the way. Today, if you are reading this, know that Jesus has been sent to you, he’s seen you in your case, he’s sought you out and found you, and he is asking you what he asked this man “Wilt thou be made whole?” Do you want it?

Where this man was impotent, we read in another scripture that Jesus Christ is the “blessed, and only Potentate”. Sounds like he’s got all the power! Because he does, he has all power in heaven and in earth. He is the supreme power. God has given him that. So the cure for impotency in your spiritual life is the Potentate. And he is the “only” Potentate, he is the ONLY one that can help you. He alone can give you the power to “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”

Maybe you’re blind. Yes, physically you can see, but spiritually you can’t see a thing. You can’t see hell. You can’t see judgment. You can’t see the gospel even, because Satan has blinded your eyes. How can people refuse forgiveness of sin and eternal life? Because they’re blinded. You’ve gotta be seriously blind to choose hell. Maybe you’re saved, but there’s blindness in your life because you’re not reading or obeying the Bible. Maybe you’re making blind decisions in your life because of your blindness. “Where there is no vision, the people perish” Maybe you’ve just been blinded by losing hope and faltering in faith, and you can’t see ahead to glory. We need our blindness healed. And as believers, let us all pray “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”

Maybe you’re halt. You’re not making progress in life. Saved people struggle with halting. Because halt does not only refer to stopping, and a Christian life that has stopped dead in it’s tracks through doubt, denial and disobedience… but it also refers to faltering and hesitation as a result of a wavering and double mind. “How long halt ye between two opinions?” No man can serve two masters, if you are trying to have God and the world, that will result in a halt life, you will not go forward. Jesus Christ is not on your smorgasboard, you’re either for him or against him… there is no half way. Am I halt? I sure feel halt a lot of the time. When everything should be moving forward as a Christian, fellowship has stopped, growth has stopped, witnessing has stopped. I wasn’t born again to halt.

Maybe you’re withered. You’ve just dried up on the vine. You wonder what’s happening. But you didn’t see that little disconnect between your branch and the vine. When branches are severed from the main stem, they wither up because they’ve lost connection to the life source. As soon as Adam sinned, mankind has withered up ever since. We got cut off from God by our sin, and because we have no life in ourselves, we wither up. We all struggle with withering. Jesus told us to abide in him for a reason, and when I’ve stopped abiding, I’ve withered up like a dead stick. How about you? You will sure wither up in unbelief and when you stop praying, reading the Bible and obeying God. What has withered your life up? “When Christ, who is our life…”

All these people, the great multitude, may have had different issues specifically, but they all shared the case of “waiting”. They were waiting for a freak even that never came. It dangled in front of them, tempting them, but they never got it. They were waiting for a “moving”, and maybe you’re waiting for divine moving that you never can seem to get in on. You see others seem to get something, but you miss out. God seems to be moving in other people’s lives, but not yours! And you’re jealous and envious of others that “got it” as you comfort yourself in excuses and blame that this man did. How many of our lives are laid up in blaming others, that’s literally what our society is built on, blaming others for me being the way I am. But Jesus has come to you today. Don’t miss your day of visitation. Imagine if this man flipped Jesus off, would he ever have had a chance to be made whole again? Don’t sin against the Holy Spirit when he moves on deep of your heart.

Jesus knew this man’s case, and asked him what seemed to be a state the obvious question. Of course I want to be made whole… duh! But that’s not how the man responded. Yes we know he did want to be fixed, and Jesus knew he did, but he asked him do you want this? It just shows us how Jesus Christ’s healing is there if we want it. It’s not a question of availability to us as individuals, it’s a question of willingness to accept what God freely offers up. Jesus didn’t charge him, or give him false hope, or lie to him… he cared for this man, and he cares for you. Do you want this? Will we take it? Will we just take forgiveness and eternal life? Man there’s power in the gospel to save and seal. Instead of giving God justifications and excuses and blame, just believe on him and be made whole.

Notice how Jesus came to empower this man. We love “empowerment” in 2022, but true empowerment only comes in believing on Jesus Christ. He is the only Potentate remember. If he’s got all the power, you won’t find true empowerment from any other source. And he empowers us to rise up and walk for ourselves. You can take up that bed you’ve laid on, you made your bed and have laid in it… but you can pick it up and take it with you. How can I live with this past 38 years? Just take it up and move on. “Wilt thou be made whole?” Do you want it?

I said I was going to focus on the phrase “a long time in the case”. I haven’t hugely, but it’s the take home message if nothing else, this phrase to think on. Because as time goes along, it gets harder and harder to get out of what case we are in. It becomes our reality, we get used to our prison and pretty soon can’t imagine life any other way. There’s a lot of people out there who have been “that way” for a long time. And they don’t think it can ever change. And it can’t. Man’s methods and means cannot do it. 38 years this way, it’s impossible. But with God all things are possible. You can rise up out of your condition, you can take up that bed you’ve laid in and you can walk. Not based on your power, but through the power of God. Jesus has all the power, he is sufficient for these things, so just believe on him, trust in him, take him at his word, that’s what this man did, and end that long time in your particular case today. It can end, it will end, and a new chapter of an eternal life starts with Christ.

Blog Bethesda Bible Christian Faith God Gospel Grace Holy Spirit Jesus KJV Power Salvation Saved Truth