Jesus would say, “Do you want to get well? Get up, pick up your mat and walk. See you are well again, stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

Those are the 28 words Jesus spoke to a man who had been sick for 38 years. The words are as poignant and relevant to us today as they were to that man over two thousand years ago.

Discipleship is not just having biblical knowledge.
It’s living out biblical knowledge in pure devotion and obedience to God from a heart of gratitude having good fruit produced in and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” I tell you the truth, every one who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

When looking at the story of the man at the pool in John 5 we often overlook the compassion of Jesus that is found in verse 6.

When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

Jesus sees us and He knows of our condition and He is asking us the same question today. Do we want to get well? If we do, then we have to accept the discipleship pathway, which is the only pathway Jesus offers to be fully set free.

Another way of defining the discipleship pathway is coming to terms of what it really means to love Jesus back.

Jesus said in John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.

If we want Jesus to show up and fix our mess, than we have to learn and live out what it means to love Him and embrace that discipleship pathway to freedom from whom the Son sets free you are free indeed.

Be Blessed and Encouraged

Bill Rieser Encounter Pastor

bill@thehopeencounter.org