Milagros De Jesus, Agosto 30, 2026

Good morning, church. Good morning, church. Good morning, church. How great to be with you guys today. Beginning a new series, The Miracles of Jesus. But also, if you're watching online, or through the Pando app, we're also very glad that you're with us. And our prayer for those that are here, or those that are watching, is that God would transform our lives through the Word of God. This year we're going to be meditating on the power of God. And that's how we can see the signs over here saying God is able. God is able to do much more than we can think or imagine. And what better place to see this than in the miracles of Jesus. Jesus is the exact image of the glory of God. He's the revelation of God's character. Emmanuel, which means God with us. The chosen Messiah, the one that was to come. The Word that was made flesh. Who can show God's power in a way that no one else had been able to before. And it's when someone finds themselves before the person of Jesus,

and understands who Jesus is, that everything can change in their life. As we can see in today's story. And something that we want to do in order to share with each other the power of Jesus in our lives. You'll see that we have several places where you can take pictures. And it's not just so that we can see how handsome or how beautiful we are. But it's also to share with each other the power of God in our lives. But it is to take that picture and then write down one of the miracles that God has done in our lives. It could be in your life, it could be in the life of someone you know. Maybe it's a physical miracle, maybe it's a spiritual miracle. But it's a tangible way of seeing what God is doing in our congregation. And when we think in the miracles of Jesus, it's important to have the perspective of the Apostle John when we think about these things. And the perspective wasn't just to impress us with all these miracles. Because many people can be impressed by the miracles of Jesus. But they still didn't give their lives to Jesus. So what was the purpose that John had

in writing the book that we're going to be reading in today? Well, chapter 20, verses 30 and 31, the Apostle John says this. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name. The purpose of the Apostle John wasn't just to show that Jesus was a good prophet. Not just to think that Jesus is just someone that was very wise. But that He was the Son of God. And that by believing in Him, we may have eternal life. Mira lo que vemos en el mismo capítulo 5, otro de las razones por las cuales estos milagros sucedieron. Let's look at chapter 5 and we can see another of the reasons why these miracles happened. So after he performs this miracle, the Pharisees get upset because he did so on the Sabbath day. But look at what Jesus responds to the Pharisees.

But Jesus answered them, My Father is working until now, and I am working. Look at verse 18, how the Pharisees react. This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal to God. Not just because he was doing things that made the Pharisees uncomfortable in their definition of the Sabbath, but because Jesus was making himself equal to God. Jesus is God. Jesus is the Word made flesh. And lastly, in the same chapter, Jesus receives the same worship as the Father. Verses 21 through 23. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son. Verse 23, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent him. This word honor has to do with worship. Jesus is of the same essence of God the Father. Jesus receives the same worship as God the Father. Therefore Jesus is God as is the Father. And so the miracles of Jesus are a reminder of the person of Jesus, of the power of Jesus. And it's important to understand as we're studying the miracles, that Jesus was fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament that were going to be fulfilled throughout his life. And that in the time of Jesus' life, through his life he would have to show one way and another why he was the Messiah that was to come. That's why when John the Baptist asks him, are you the one that we've been waiting for? How does Jesus respond? He would tell him that the blind can see, the deaf can hear, the lame can walk. He was saying, look at the works that had been prophesied about me and see how they are happening today. And that's what brings us to the text today, that it's a narrative story, historic narrative,

which is important because as we're studying the Bible, we should understand that it happened with a purpose, in a moment, for certain specific people. So that we may not describe the text and say, oh, Jesus is going to do the same exact thing in the same exact way today. That would be a fatal interpretation mistake. Nonetheless. God is the same today as well, and He's still working in powerful ways, but that doesn't mean that He's going to do exactly as He did in certain moments in history. And with all of this in mind, we're going to jump into our text this morning. So let's go to John chapter 5 verses 1 through 9, and we're going to read the whole thing. And we're going to ask you to stand if you can, and read the Word of God. And we'll do the same. The Spanish speakers can read with Alfredo, and the English speakers can read with Josué. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, a pool, an Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonies. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. For an angel went down at certain season into the pool, and troubled the water. Whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been there a long time, He said to him, Do you want to be healed? The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, Get up, take up your bed, and walk. And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. This is the word of God. You may be seated.

Jesus just came from performing a miracle in Galilee, and he says he went up to Jerusalem. So when we're looking at the geography, and he's going up to Jerusalem, Galilee is above Jerusalem, but topographically, Jerusalem is up higher. And that's why it says he went up to Jerusalem. And it says that he was there for a festival. And when you read commentary, some may say that it was the Passover, when the lamb was slain so that the people of Egypt could leave. Some say that it is the Feast of the Tabernacles, where they remembered that they lived in the desert, living in tents. So I was just going to let you know that there was one of these possibilities, but then I read another commentary, and it listed almost all of the festivals the Jews had, so I just gave up and said, it was a festival. That's what the text says. Because the point isn't what festival was it, the important part isn't the festival, but the actual day when it happened, the day of rest. There's something else that we can learn as we're reading these things, that when the text is silent, maybe we should be silent as well. It says this place was by the gate of the sheep, and it was a large pool about the size of a football field, and it said it had like five doorways, just imagine it. Imagine hundreds of sick people waiting there for a miracle, in a pool that was called Bethesda, which means house of mercy. The word mercy is a compound word. Misery the first word, is the second, and it's this idea that in the heart someone can feel the misery of someone else. So when they arrive to receive mercy, what they're really saying is, is there anyone that feels the same misery that I'm feeling right now? Is there anyone that can respond to the misery of the situation that I'm living in? And it says that in this place, a miracle would happen every so often. In the extra-biblical or documents, the historical documents outside of the Bible, there's no mention of this miracle happening, but there was a certain hope that someone could be healed,

which tells me that as humans we will respond to what little hope we can find, even if it's just a very small amount. Imagine someone that's been sick for 38 years, and he's told, there, there you might be healed. And in the middle of all of them, he'd spent a long time, and they were all waiting for the water to move. And some may ask, well, verse four doesn't appear the same way in the ESV than it does in other versions. And it's because in some manuscripts that are a little bit later, that portion doesn't appear. Sorry, earlier manuscripts, it doesn't appear. But it does appear later on. And so something that certain scribes that were transcribing the Bible added it as a commentary. But church, the fact that a certain portion does appear in some manuscripts and doesn't appear in others should not surprise us. It should actually encourage us because it shows us that a great deal of work has been put into making sure that we had the most accurate and faithful text. And you realize that when you look at all of these changes, that they don't affect any of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. I'm going to give you an example of how this textual analysis happens. It's like whenever you send a text message to someone and you notice that you have a typo there. And so you type it again, and then autocorrect changes another word. And then you write it up a third time. And that one has another typo, but when you read all three together, you get the message. And so we have more than 24,000 documents of the Scripture of the New Testament so that we can know what it's really saying. Let's read the King James Version. It says, For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water, whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever

disease he had. And sometimes hope can make us lose logic. I'm very imaginative. And so whenever I think, okay, well, if what has to happen is that whenever the water moves, the first person has to jump into the water. I'm sure that the deaf person is going to arrive before the lame person, because he can see. Even the blind man can make it sooner because at least he can hear. The one who's got a diseased hand maybe is going to make it sooner than the other three. But the paralyzed man's just there. And I don't understand. And the thing is, in our perception of hope, even if it doesn't make sense sometimes, we are hard-headed and we stay there. Now what's going on here? That Jesus, in the midst of all these sick people, he goes to one of them. And let's read this. It's going to remind us of our second point. But the duration of the suffering does not rule out the possibility of Jesus performing the miracle. What does verse 5 say? One man who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, do you want to be healed? What a question Jesus asks him. How long has this man been sick? Thirty-eight years. And what's the question that he asks him? Do you want to be healed? You've got to ask yourself, why does Jesus ask this question? But while he's asking this question, many times our life feels this way.

You see that maybe someone else is receiving the miracle that you've been praying for for a long time. You see that someone else is receiving an answer to the prayer that is very similar to your own need. And in those moments we doubt the goodness of God. Those moments we ask ourselves, does God understand my misery? And it's hard for us to understand that God treats each individual in a different way. And for some, the miracle of being freed from that misery. For some, the miracle is that He does free them from that misery. But for others, the miracle is that He strengthens them to go through that time of misery. And we must trust in His goodness. When we don't understand the purposes of God, we must trust the character of God. And I'm beginning to think, I don't know if I even gave you my first point. I think I just skipped it, went off the off ramp. And the first point has to do with there being a whole bunch of sick people and that the human condition highlights the need for a Savior. Sometimes we may ask ourselves, why is there so much need? Why is there so much suffering? Because it's when things look the hardest and the most difficult that we realize that God is the only one that can help. It's almost as if our human need can remove that anchor that is in things that will go away, the earthly things. How do you react when the miracle doesn't arrive in your life, but it does arrive in someone else's? Are you trusting and rejoicing for your neighbor? Do you want to be healed? And I think Jesus asked this question to show us what the paralyzed man was trusting in. Because in my mind, the answer would have been simple, yes. What does the paralyzed man answer?

Let's see. I'll ask you, if Jesus asked you this right now, if he asked this question in areas of your life that you've been struggling with for a long time, and he said, do you want to be healed? Would you give him the explanation of why you haven't been healed? Would you tell him all the things that you've tried? Would you give him excuses, why this, why that? I think many times we do. But Jesus heals him despite his lack of faith and understanding to show that his power is strengthened in weakness, is shown in weakness. He heals to show his power, and he does it in an incredible way. Even though he didn't have faith in Jesus, even though he didn't even understand who was asking him if he wanted to be healed, you'll realize that he didn't even know who he was. Because even when the Pharisees ask him, hey, who healed you on the Sabbath? He says, I don't know who that was. It's incredible. But that shows us a reality that is not contrary to Scripture. Many people that don't necessarily understand who Christ is or believe in him receive miracles. They receive gifts. They receive things that they never even imagined that they could receive. The problem is that when they don't respond in worship to God, but they turn away from Jesus, those gifts are going to be judgment for them on the Day of Judgment. And that's why Romans 2 says, repitameno por favor, does not the mercy of, should not the mercy of God lead you to repentance? Instead, you're accumulating wrath for the day of wrath, because you're receiving so much goodness from God, instead of surrendering before God, you're turning away from Him. Look at what verses 7 through 9 say. The sick man answered Him, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water

is stirred up, and while I am going, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed and walk. And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that was the Sabbath. He says that he's trusting in at least three things. Someone to bring him down to the pool. But imagine just asking the deaf guy, hey, can you help me? The deaf guy's going to say, hey, I'm trying to get to the pool myself. I know my imagination runs away with me, so I need to go back to the text. He had faith in the pool. He had faith in what others said, that there was an angel that stirred up the pool. But at no moment did he say, yes, you could heal me. And if you think of the areas in which you've been struggling in your life, what are the things that you're putting your faith in? And not everything that helps is bad in and of itself. The problem is when that becomes what we trust in for our hope in life. Because then it becomes into what impedes us from experiencing the miracle of Jesus. Having faith in God doesn't mean that all of my problems and sicknesses are just going to go away. It means that we trust in him whether he delivers us from affliction or not. Because we have a hope that goes beyond this life. And we know that even if through this life we go through sickness, when he returns there will be no more sickness. We know that even though in this world we may experience need, we know that if we trust in him when he returns there will be no more need. But how hard is it to put our eyes upon Jesus? How hard is it to quit trusting in the things that we've been trusting in for so long and just trust him? And though Jesus didn't promise to heal everyone that is in sickness because here he only healed one of the many sick people there, he did promise to give eternal life to all those that would trust in him. But how many of you are like the paralyzed man, trusting in other things and not in Jesus?

Wanting to get into the pool of salvation by our own strength. Putting trust in other people. Putting trust in family, in our jobs. Trusting good works. And that's why you still haven't been able to get into the pool of salvation. That's why they still haven't been able to make it to the pool of salvation. Me encanta la respuesta del paralítico cuando Jesús le da la orden. I love the response of the paralyzed man when Jesus gives him the order. Dice, levántate, toma tu camilla y anda. He says, get up, take up your bed and walk. ¿Cómo sabemos que en ese momento confía en Jesús? How do we know that in that moment he trusted Jesus? Porque lo único que hizo fue hacer lo que Jesús le dijo. Because he did exactly what Jesus told him to do. Muchos de nosotros queremos una fórmula mágica para que Dios sane nuestras vidas. Many of us want some magic formula for Jesus to heal our lives. Pero a veces es tan básico como obedecer la palabra de Dios. But sometimes it's just the basics of obeying his word. Sin excusas. No excuses. Sin justificaciones. No justifying. Sin racionalizarla. No trying to over-rationalize. ¿Qué es lo que Jesús te ha estado diciendo por mucho tiempo

y lo único que tienes que hacer es tomarlo y caminar? What has Jesus been telling you to do for a long time and all you have to do is take it up and walk. Y él te está diciendo, escucha mi palabra y obedecela. And he's telling you, listen to my word and obey it. Pero seguimos tirados, paralíticos espiritualmente. But we continue lying there, paralyzed spiritually. Pero es que le he orado al Señor, le oro que me ayude y que me quite esto. Oh, but I've been praying to the Lord and praying for him to take this away from me. Toma tu camilla y anda. Take up your bed and walk. ¿Qué son las cosas que no estás haciendo que te ha dicho en la palabra que lo hagas? What are the things that you are not doing that the word has told you to do? Que simplemente tienes que hacer. That you should simply do. ¿Escuchas la pregunta de Jesús a tu vida? Are you listening to Jesus' question into your life? ¿Quieres ser sano? Do you want to be healed? ¿Qué le vas a decir? What are you gonna answer? Y mientras el equipo de alabanza pasa. As the worship team comes up. Yo creo que la mejor respuesta es decirle a él en oración que confiamos en él. It's for us to tell him in prayer, we trust in you.

Ya sea que nos quite la aflicción. Whether you take away the affliction. O que nos de la fuerza para endure. Or you give us the strength to perdurar. En la aflicción. Through affliction. Iglesia, él es el único que puede ayudarnos. Church, he is the only one that can help us. Y mientras pensaba en esta canción esta semana. And as I was thinking on this song this week. Que cuando uno ora recordando la fidelidad de Dios pasada. That when one prays remembering God's past faithfulness. Le da una confianza en el presente. It gives one trust in the present. Y nos de esperanza para el futuro. And gives us hope for the future. Y cuando piensas que nosotros le oramos al Dios de Moisés. And when you think that we're praying to the God of Moses. By the way, al Moisés que vamos a ver cuando estemos en el cielo y hablemos con él. The same Moses that we're going to talk to when we're in heaven and gonna see him. Y que sabemos que el mismo Dios que oró con Jacob. And we're gonna know that the same God that worked. El mismo Dios que oró con Abraham. The God of Abraham. Que está escuchándonos y disponible para nosotros. He's listening to us and he's available to us. Que nos impide decirle, sí, Señor, confío en ti. What is stopping us from saying, yes, Lord, I trust.

Sí, Señor, te obedezco en este momento. Yes, Lord, I will obey you in this moment. Porque lo que tú digas es mi bendición. Because whatever you say is my blessing. Así que iglesia, pongámonos de pie. So church, let's stand. Terminemos orando y cantando. Let's finish worshiping and singing. Padre, venimos delante de ti, Señor. Father, we come before you. Entendiendo que tú eres el Dios que nos escucha. Understanding that you are the God who listens. Que el Dios que hace milagros. The God who performs miracles. No basado en nuestras obras. Not based on our own work. Sino en las obras de tu hijo, Jesús. But on the work of your son, Jesus. Señor, perdónanos por confiar en cosas que no ayudan. Lord, forgive us for trusting in things that do not help. Señor, perdónanos por tanto tiempo estar al lado de algo que no va a traer solución a nuestros problemas. Lord, forgive us for spending so much time next to things that are not going to bring a solution to our problems. Hoy queremos tornar nuestra mirada a ti. Today we want to turn our eyes upon you. En oración. In prayer. Escúchanos hoy, Señor. Hear us today, Lord.

Por amor de tu nombre. For your namesake. En el nombre de Jesús oramos. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen.