5 Now a man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 Jesus, upon seeing this man lying there and knowing that he had already been in that condition for a long time, said to him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” 9 Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. John 5:5-9

We spend our lives striving to be happy. For many, the purpose of life is to be happy. Wherever you are in life, it’s common to ask, “Am I happy? Am I doing the things that make me happy?” It’s an ongoing struggle. We do something or achieve something that we think will make us happy, but it doesn’t. We acquire something we think will make us happy, but it leaves us feeling empty. We look to books, philosophers, the people around us, and the world for answers, but for Christians, God has given us the clear answer in the parable of the man who has been ill for thirty-eight years. 

Think about this man who has been sick and lame for decades. He tried for years to get into the pool of Bethesda, which was believed to have healing powers; people with disabilities would wait for an angel to stir the water, but this man could never get in because nobody helped him. Jesus tells him to get up, pick up his mat, and walk, and the man, who had been ill for thirty-eight years, picked up his mat and walked away. Can you imagine the joy this man felt? Would it be an exaggeration to say this was the happiest man in the world? No! 

This is where we find the answer. Our happiness rests in curing our illnesses. That’s it! We are the happiest person in the world when we discover and cure our illness. We can divide our “illnesses” into three categories: physical, mind and heart, and spirit. Let’s take a look at each. 

When we are cured of a physical illness, there is immense joy. Outside Bethesda was a “multitude of those who were sick, blind, limping, or paralyzed.” These are physical ailments. When God cures our physical illnesses, we are filled with joy, but these ailments are generally few in nature. Although it can happen, we are not constantly bombarded with physical illnesses. 

However, regarding sicknesses of the mind and heart, it’s an ongoing battle until the day we die. What are the characteristics of a healthy and happy mind? A healthy heart and mind accept God’s knowledge as its sole knowledge. A healthy mind adopts God’s wisdom, lives God-centrically, adopts God’s love as the only true love, adopts God’s truth and holiness, and accepts God’s sovereignty. This is a sound and healthy mind! But how do we live? Do we apply God’s knowledge to our lives or rely on worldly knowledge? Is that why we’re so fixated on money and success? Do we have only God’s love in our hearts, or are we filled with carnal desires? Do we believe in God’s sovereignty or try to forge our own path? What is your truth? Our minds and hearts have been so corrupted, it’s impossible to find happiness unless we acknowledge the disease and cure it. 

Finally, our spiritual illness refers to our spirit’s inability to influence our minds and hearts. The spirit itself is perfect: it is a regenerated spirit that is sinless. When we say “spiritually sick,” we’re not referring to the content of the spirit, but it’s inability to influence the mind. For example, we know having a particular thought or desire is wrong with God. We feel it, and our spirit tells us so, but for whatever reason, whether money or carnal desire, we can’t throw our desires to the side and listen to our spirit. That is the sickness we’re talking about. We know doing this act on Sunday will violate the Lord’s Day, but it will make us a million dollars. The spiritually healthy and sound person will incline their ears to their spirit, listen to it, and reject the million dollars. The spiritually ill person will hear the spirit and know in his heart of hearts what the right thing to do is but does not have enough strength to follow through. 

Do you want to be happy? Then, there must be a synergistic relationship between your illnesses and curing them. In other words, this cycle must be nonstop and ongoing. Discover an illness. Cure it. Discover another illness. Cure it. Make yourself better with every situation in life you encounter. Are you unhappy or unsatisfied? Perhaps you have a mountain of illness inside of you but have not done the work to cure them through Jesus Christ. We’re always on the hunt to find what strays from God, His knowledge, wisdom, and love because we know curing these illnesses is the only way to true happiness. 

Please click for Korean sermon https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1985-5-12-short-12345