Red Letter Questions, Part 9: Do You Want to Get Well?

Brian Behrends, Creative Pastor

Psalm 100:1–5
¹ Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
          ² Worship the Lord with gladness;
          come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the Lord is God. 
          It is he who made us, and we are his;
          we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
          and his courts with praise;
          give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
          his faithfulness continues through all generations.

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John 5:1–6

¹ Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 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. ^[4]  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?”

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John 5:7
“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.”

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John 4:13–14
¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

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John 5:8–9
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.

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Small Group Questions

1. What are three things you’re thankful for this week?
2. Are most your prayers asking God to come down and change your situation or invitations for God to change you? What do you think about your answer?
3. What’s the most common excuse you give when Jesus asks if you want to be well? What’s getting in the way of the breakthrough you desire?
4. The man in this story put his faith in a pool to heal him even though Jesus was the only one who could give him the healing he needed. Is there something other than Jesus you’re currently putting your faith in? What is it?
5. What does “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” mean for you this week?
6. How can we pray for you right now and throughout the week?