Four Steps to Experiencing a Miracle from Jesus (John 5)

Can miracles still happen today? In this message from John 5:1–15, Pastor Chris Teien unpacks the story of Jesus healing a man at the pool of Bethesda—and outlines four practical steps for experiencing the power of Jesus in your own life. Whether you're praying for healing, provision, or breakthrough, this episode encourages you to trust Jesus, take action, and share your story of transformation with others.

Key Points:

1. Be Willing to Change – John 5:6. Jesus asked the man, “Do you want to get well?” Sometimes we stay stuck in our condition because change requires responsibility. Jesus’ question still challenges us today: Do we really want healing and transformation?
2. Tell Jesus About Your Need – John 5:7. The man shared his helplessness. When we pray honestly and boldly, Jesus listens and responds in His timing.
3. Trust Jesus’ Instructions – John 5:8–9. The man obeyed Jesus without delay—he stood, picked up his mat, and walked. Trusting and acting on Jesus’ word opens the door to miracles.
4. Talk to Others About Your Experience with Jesus – John 5:15. After being healed, the man testified to the religious leaders that it was Jesus who made him well. We’re called to boldly share our story of what Christ has done.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:

• Reflection on how some people use their dysfunction as identity—and how Jesus wants to move us beyond it.
• Honest discussion about televangelist-style “miracles” versus authentic, God-glorifying healing.
• Encouragement to share your testimony like a woman who was healed after being in a coma for weeks.
• Personal story of watching someone knit through pain as a powerful witness of perseverance and grace.

Notable Quotes:

• “Do you want to get well? Because healing means your life will change.”
• “God gets the glory—whether He heals immediately, or strengthens us to walk through the pain.”
• “Don’t let your mat become your identity. Jesus calls you to get up and walk.”

Actionable Takeaways:

1. Pray honestly and tell Jesus what you need—don’t hold back.
2. Ask yourself if you truly want healing, and be willing to make changes if He answers.
3. Trust Jesus’ instructions, even if they don’t make logical sense.
4. Share your testimony—someone else’s faith may be sparked by your story.

Scripture References:

• John 5:1–15 – Healing at the pool of Bethesda
• James 1:6 – Ask in faith without doubting
• John 14:13–14 – Ask in Jesus’ name
• Hebrews 12 – God disciplines those He loves
• Romans 6–8 – Living free from sin
• Revelation 19:11 – The King will return in power

Keywords:
miracles, healing, John 5, Bethesda, trusting Jesus, prayer, obedience, transformation, testimony, faith

Closing Statement:
Miracles aren’t just for Bible times—they’re possible today. But often they begin when we trust Jesus enough to take the first step. Be willing to change, pray boldly, obey faithfully, and share freely. God still works wonders in the lives of those who seek Him.

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

So, four steps to experiencing a miracle from Jesus. Last week I mentioned that some people and theological circles say they don't believe necessarily in miracles. But sometimes that comes down to theologically hair splitting in the definition of a miracle. So I believe that God can do miracles. I believe that answers to prayer are miracles. I believe that God can do amazing things in our lives when we ask, and that sometimes we will be able to tell other people about the miraculous things God did in our lives. I don't believe that there's certain people that run around and can do God's miracles on demand. I do believe that some people are really good at praying for people to be healed and to have help and stuff. I believe God can work through those people. But it's that God gets the glory, not them. Not like some of these people on TV, that if you if you say the right prayer and you touch the TV while they pray, and then you send in your seed of faith offering that you'll be healed. I and then if you didn't, if you weren't healed, it's because you didn't have enough faith. I'm not on board with them. But I think that the God who did miraculous things in the past can do miraculous things today if he chooses. But it's God. It's God working in our lives, and God gets the glory. God gets the glory, and he also gets the glory when we pray, and he doesn't choose to heal us or to change our situation, and he helps us to get through. So there are seven signs or miracles in the book of John. Turning the water into wine, which I talked about last week, healing the noble man's son, healing the man at the pool, which we'll talk about today, feeding the five thousand, walking on water, healing a man born blind, and resurrecting Lazarus. Those are the seven that John chose to point out. So there's probably between 35 and 37 miracles, actually. Baptist theologian Millard Erickson states a miracle is an intervention in the natural course of events in the world. Secured by divine providence, their purpose is threefold. One, compassion. Miracles meet basic human needs. Signification. Number two, signification. They may establish the supernatural basis of the revelation accompanying them. And three, glorification. Miracles, large and small, bring glory to God both directly and indirectly. So here we have a very interesting miracle that Jesus did. And I was just going to go through the verses, but if you're not familiar with the story, I thought maybe I'd just read it. It's not on the screen, but I'll just read the story, and then I'll go through the verses as we go along. But all right, so I'll start in John chapter 5 and the NIV. Sometime later Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the sheepgate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda, which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie, the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty eight years. 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? 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. And then Jesus said to him, Get up, pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured, he picked up the mat and walked. The day on which he took on this took place the day on which this took place was a Sabbath. And so the Jewish leader said to the man who had been healed, It's the Sabbath. The law forbids you to carry your mat. But he replied, The man who made me well said to me, Pick up your mat and walk. So they asked him, Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk? And the man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, See, you are well again. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. So what's interesting is if you are following along, is that it went from verse three to verse five. So verse four has, in tiny print on the bottom, a note that says, Some manuscripts include here, holy or in part paralyzed, and they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time, an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool, after each such disturbance, would be cured of whatever disease they had. So that's the passage. So that's an interesting thing, too. That so it says in the earlier manuscripts that wasn't there. So it doesn't mean it didn't happen, but it also doesn't mean that you can add to your angel theology, you know, this part that may or may not have happened. So the Hebrews were really, from what I read, the Hebrews were really into angels. And so it could have been a legend, it could have been true, but all of these people were around this pool, and when the waters got stirred up, supposedly whoever got into the water first got healed, so they said. But it appeared there are a lot of people that were blind or paralyzed or invalids that were around this pool. So who knows if it was true or not? But this is what this guy was believing. This is what this guy was thinking. And so as we go through our life, we hear a lot of different things about miracles and healing and blessing and stuff, and I truly believe that God can heal a person. So I've heard great stories of how God has healed people, and I think that God might have healed me of something that was significant. But then again, not everybody gets the healing they want, not everybody gets the financial miracle or job that they need. Not everybody gets the relationship restored, but some do. Sometimes it's miraculous, I think. But nonetheless, we walk forward in faith and we need to trust that as we're walking step by step with Jesus and as we're asking for our need to be met, that if Jesus chooses, out of his sovereignty, he is all-knowing, he is all powerful. If he chooses to heal us, that's awesome, and we should celebrate that. But if he chooses not to heal us, we should keep pursuing Jesus anyway. We should keep trusting him. I think that sometimes when you serve Jesus and you go through life and you have this pain, you have this difficulty, you have this unfair thing that happened to you, or you have this illness, and you continue on and you do it, I think it glorifies God even more. It's one thing when a woman knits a sweater or a hat or whatever for a baby. It's like her ministry. She likes to knit and do these things. It steps it up a little more when you find out that she has painful arthritis, and as she does it, it just hurts her so bad, but it just feels so good for her to be able to have this ministry and do this thing. So she pushes through the pain so that she can deliver the gift. And so I think that God is glorified in that even more. So back to this passage, okay. So there's an invalid, there's this guy that was there, he'd been an invalid for 38 years. Okay, it doesn't mean that he was sitting there by that pool for 38 years, it just meant that for 38 years he's had this sickness, he's had this illness, this thing probably paralyzed. And so Jesus saw him lying there, it says he learned that he'd been in this condition a long time, and he asked, Do you want to get well? What kind of question is that? He's there, he'd like to go in the pool. Do you want to get well? But if you really think about it, if you think about what are the ramifications if he gets well, I mean, he must be able to survive because he's been living for 38 years in this condition, which means that somehow, somehow he's getting the funds and the food to continue to live a life. So if he were to get well, that might change everything. He might be looking out that porticle, he might be looking out there at people that are walking and working, people that are doing labor, people that are trying to make ends meet because they have bodies that work. And so he has had the opportunity to sit there and not do a whole lot. And so, because he has an excuse, because I can't, my legs don't work. But Jesus is like, do you want to get well? Would do you want your life to change? Do you want, do you want to step into the next unknown? Because if you get well, you're probably gonna have to go find a way to provide for yourself. Your life is gonna change. There are some people, some people that get really comfortable in their dysfunction, in their sickness. That's it's their identity. Oh, I have this sickness. This is I I can't do that because this is my, you know, it's their identity. And for you to change that on them might really cause some troubles in their life. But he says, Do you want to get well? When you pray for things, do you want that relationship to be restored? Do you really? Do you really want your finances back on track? If God gave you a financial reset and pulled you out of debt so you could start over, do you think you could do better moving forward? If God were to heal your body, what would you do? Would you change your life? Do you want to get well? There are some people that do want an answer to prayer. They do want to get well and they bargain with God. I don't think it's wrong to bargain with God, God, as long as you keep your commitment. God, if you heal me of this, I promise to serve you the rest of my life. God, if you help my child out of the sickness, I promise to get to church more and to honor God. If you give me that job, if you help me get that raise, I promise to tithe and give to support your ministry. God, if you get me up out of this bed and heal me so I can go out and be free. I promise to go into full-time ministry. I promise to go be a missionary. There's been lots of promises that people have made. And sometimes, sometimes they even follow through, and it's totally life-changing for them. So sometimes God can take us out of our mess and put us into a ministry. Sometimes God can heal us of whatever it is and provide that need and then give us a new lease, a new opportunity in life. Do you want to get well? The guy replies, as I already read, I've got no one to help me. So I can't, someone's always getting ahead of me. I just don't have anybody. So we need to tell Jesus about our need. Whatever it is that we're struggling with, whatever it is that is holding us back, whatever it is that's in the way of us being successful in life, we should go to the Lord in prayer and pray about it. To pray and even be willing to change, even be willing to do things differently, even willing to like put God first in our priority list. People have a lot of different priorities as they go through life, but it always seems when they come to the end of their life, they often wish they would have switched things around. And instead of putting sports first or career first or whatever it is first, they often wish they would have put Jesus first. There's many people that say, I'm gonna get serious about following Jesus when I'm old. So when I retire, then I'll have lots of time to serve Jesus. And those are the same people that are like, well, I would, but I my my body's not working for me like it used to. Or I don't have as many relationships as I had before when I was working or whatever. But tell Jesus about your need. Pray about your need, pray that God would help you, pray that God would heal you, pray that God would work through your life. John 14, Jesus says, You can ask for anything in my name and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. So that's when it's according to Jesus' will. When it's according to God's will, you can expect that he hears your prayer, and if it's the right thing for you, he can answer your prayer. And what does it say? Ask for anything in my name. So that's why when we pray, we're always like, Lord, please provide this. We're just so thankful. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. It's like putting the signature on the check, it's like putting the stamp of authority on the document. So what who are we asking? We're asking in Jesus' name. James 1, 6. When you ask Jesus, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. We have faith that Jesus hears. We have faith that Jesus can answer, and it is a good thing. All right, back to this story. Jesus said to him, Get up, pick up your mat and walk. So he didn't say, Hey, I'm gonna get you down to that pool. He said, Get up, pick up your mat and walk. So at once the man was cured. He picked up his mat and he walked. And the day on which took place was the Sabbath. So he needed, he needed to trust Jesus' instructions. So Jesus didn't say, Hey, okay, I'm gonna heal you. I've here's my credentials, so I've I I can do this. So what's gonna happen in this process is I'm gonna tell you to get up and walk, and then you're gonna be able to walk without falling over, and you're gonna be able to pick up your mat too. When you pick up your mat, some people aren't gonna be very happy about it, but I just want you to know that this is gonna happen and that I'm gonna disappear for a while, but I'll find you later, okay? And we can talk more about this, all right? One, two, three. Okay, pick up your mat and walk. No, Jesus is just like, pick up your mat and walk. So that guy could have just sat there and said, I can't. I can't, never could before. Why do you think it's gonna change now? But instead he could. And he did. And by faith, he did. He trusted Jesus' instructions, and he got up and he picked up that mat and he walked. I think it's a miracle that if you weren't able to walk for that long, you'd even be able to walk. I wonder what his walk was like. It could have been a perfect walk. I wonder what it would be like to walk. I wonder how exciting that would be. And you would think that everybody would look around and they'd be so delighted and they'd applaud and they'd be like, Bob is walking. What's happening here? Oh, this is a miracle. Oh, Jesus did this. But instead, Jesus was kind of secretive about it, and so he just kind of got up and walked. And the the religious police of the day, they weren't very happy about that. So he trusted Jesus' instructions. And you and I need to trust Jesus at his word. When it talks about salvation, when it talks about answers to prayer, when it talks about living the Christian life, we need to put God's word into practice if we want to see results, if we want to see God working in our life. The Bible says that we're supposed to draw near to God and He'll draw near to us. It says that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, he'll give us the desires of our heart. Jesus says if we seek him first, if we seek his kingdom and his righteousness, he'll provide everything that we need. So we need to trust Jesus' instructions. Alright, so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath. The law forbids you to carry your mat. You know what the law forbade? Is that a word forbade? You can't move furniture on the Sabbath. It's the dude's carrying his mat. And they're like, dude, you can't move furniture on the Sabbath. And so some people just get so uptight about the littlest things. Don't be those people that get uptight about little things. Do you know when lost people come to Christ? They might come to this church and they might not look like us. Maybe they'll be tattooed up or pregnant teenagers or lots of piercings or whatever. Maybe they will extinguish their cigarettes at the door. And if we were smart, we'd get a little ashtray out there for them if we don't have one. But nonetheless, as Christ gets in their life, as they start to grow in their faith, they start to change things. They start to change what comes out of their mouth, the words that they say. They go from curse words to praise words. They start to have a different desire in life. They start to have a different pursuit in life. And hopefully we grab them and help disciple them. But nonetheless, don't get uptight. Don't get uptight when somebody comes to this church and sit in your seat. There's lots of extra seats here right now. Hopefully, someday they'll fill up. But if for some reason somebody is sitting in your seat, I know that some of you have seats that you love because you sit in the same place every time. And if you sit in a different seat, it like throws me off and I get all confused while I'm standing up here. It's like, why are you sitting over there? All right, anyway. The guy, the lame guy that got up, the walker now, he's not the lame guy anymore. Now he's he's the walker. He replied, The man who made me well said to me, Pick up your mat and walk. So they asked him, Who is this fellow who told you to pick up your mat and walk? And the man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. So the religious authorities of the day were already looking for a reason to catch Jesus and to shut him down. So Jesus at this point wasn't looking to be caught in the middle of this. So there'll be a time when Jesus wants to be known and seen, and that leads to him being crucified. But at this time, Jesus chooses to walk away, to slip away. And sometimes when God works in our life, we're not really sure if God did it or not. Sometimes we're like, well, it could have been the medicine. You know, I did take that pill, or I did go to the doctor. But you always got to remember that doctors, they practice medicine. Doctors don't do medicine. You never find a doctor that says, yes, we're doing medicine. No, they're all practicing medicine. I'm not sure when they're going to come to the point where they proclaim that we've got it figured out. Because sometimes medicine and the whole medical field is kind of mysterious. Doctors can prescribe things and sometimes they work, but God can work through doctors and medicine and healing. And sometimes he just chooses to heal people straight out without medicine. Anyway, I love this part right here. Later Jesus found him at the temple. I love that Jesus found him. I think there's so many times when we're not really sure what's going on with our faith or whatever that Jesus finds us. Sometimes he sends somebody to be his ambassador, somebody like me and you to go and share about Christ, or anyway. So anyway, later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, See, you are well again. Then he says something that's really interesting and somewhat convicting for every one of us. See, you are well again. And Jesus knew that well meant that you are worshiping, encouraging, learning, and loving. So that's where Rockwell Church comes from, connecting people to Christ the rock, so that we can be worshiping, encouraging, learning, and loving. So that's pretty much what Jesus is saying there. It almost fits. But anyway, stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you. So he had been this way for 38 years. What kind of sin did he do that caused him to have this problem? What kind of sin would cause him to suffer for that 38 years? And he must have still been doing it for Jesus to point that out, that you and I, we need to turn away from sin. I had looked for some ideas of what kind of sin he might have been doing, because sometimes God can judge us, discipline us using sickness, like in Hebrews 12, it talks about God disciplining us. And sometimes that discipline can be some form of sickness. But we need to turn away from sin. What was the sin? Maybe he was a violent man, maybe he got in a fight, and that's why he got paralyzed. Maybe he had a huge temper. He was so angry. Maybe Jesus didn't want him to do it again. Maybe he was a drunkard and he fell or something caused him to have this problem. Maybe Jesus knew that it was the sin that caused him to suffer. We don't know. But we do know that we should not continue in sin. And some people are like, whoa, wait, Jesus forgave me of all my sins, so I don't need to worry about it. But that's not it at all. Jesus loves you so much that he saves you from your sin and he loves you too much to leave you there. So Hebrews 12 talks about how God disciplines those whom he loves. Sometimes we reap what we sow. If we do things that are wrong, we often reap the penalty for that. So in Romans 6 through 8, it talks about considering ourselves dead to sin. Romans 6 says, stop sinning or something even worse. It says in Romans 6 that should we continue sinning, that grace may increase? By no means. We died to sin. So we should turn our back on sin. Sin is doing anything that's outside the will of God. Sin is doing anything that you know you shouldn't be doing that are against the things of God. The more we delight in the Lord and we get into his word, the more we understand what sin is. I often like to think of sin, Jesus pointing out sin in our lives as trying to jump a high bar or being a pole vaulter and trying to get over the bar. So when I first became a Christ follower, I felt like the Holy Spirit worked on some basic things in my life. Like some basic things. Sins like tell the truth. So don't use those words and whatever the basic things. And then as I continued on in my faith and as I got victory over some of that stuff, then the Holy Spirit's like, let's not talk about actions now. Let's talk about heart attitudes and why you do these things. Don't do these things anymore. And so the bar just keeps getting higher and higher as we're trying to be sanctified and set apart to the Lord. But so stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you. Jerry, you want to grab the lights? All right, let's watch a quick video.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

For loving things we should hate and hating things we should love. God forgive us. For speaking when we should stay silent, and staying silent when we should speak. God forgive us. For closing our eyes to injustice and opening them to impurity. God forgive us. For putting you in second place and giving you second best and second guessing your promises to us. God forgive us. So here we stand, guilty and exposed, crying out for mercy. God forgive us. Death was once the end of our story, but now it's just the beginning. You take what is broken and make it beautiful. You take what is hopeless and make it whole. You take what is stained and make it spotless. Because of you, we have a new king, a new heart and a new life, a new status, a new power, and a new purpose. A new home, a new family, and a new future. The greatest part of our story is not what we gave up for you, but what you gave up for us. The grave is empty, the throne is occupied, and the king is coming back. So God, forgive us.

Chris T 24:28

So first he might have been afraid, but then when he met Jesus face to face, he was filled with boldness. And he went right up to them and said, Hey, hey, I was the one who was healed. Here you're looking for me. I want to tell you who did this. It was Jesus. It's Jesus in my life. Jesus made me well. Jesus changed me. And we should talk to others about our experience with Jesus. We should talk to others about our experience with Jesus. So in 2014, there was a radio Focus on the Family, interviewed for two days, Lindsay O'Connor. In 2004, there was a Christianity Today article about Lindsay who was in a coma. Lindsay O'Connor was in the midst of a two-month coma brought on by complications from childbirth. Her family was told to expect brain damage and believed her death was only a matter of time. Her husband Tim faced the possibility of a brain-damaged wife and caring single-handedly for five children, including a newborn. Meanwhile, Lindsay lived in a shadowland of nightmares, awareness, and utter frustration. She writes, I remember Tim holding one of my hands, a neurologist the other, and telling me to squeeze their hands. Unable to do so or speak, I felt my brain screaming, why can't I do this? Maybe I'm dying. Later, my inability to use the call button left me banging a spoon on the bedside table for an hour and a half. No one came. They thought it was the repetitive motor response of a brain-damaged woman. Two weeks after the initial dance on the edge came a death vigil. As I lay dying, the respirator world, pumping air into my lifeless looking body, then sucking it out. My limbs were blue and as cold as refrigerated meat. It did not look like I had any upper level brain function. I was expected to die before morning. I later learned that forty or more friends and relatives stood vigil in the waiting room. Susan, one of my best friends, looked at my gray, barely recognizable body and said, Death is ugly, isn't it? My dad touched my feet and said, I taught these feet how to walk. He agreed with Tim as he made the end of life decisions. Tim anguished over what to do, issuing conditional do not resuscitate orders and rescinded them repeatedly. Then one day, Lindsay woke up. It was weeks before she could speak, but she was going to live. She says, I went into the hospital August 30th and came home just before Christmas, still unable to walk or breathe on my own. In spite of daily physical effects of the trauma, I've learned that radical obedience, in my case, having a baby at 40, is worth it worth any cost, that prayer is inconceivably important and that miracles still happen, and that I have faith worth dying for. All right, so what did she do? As a result of that, she wrote a book. She became a motivational speaker. She raised her kids. She went forward in her life after that long experience, a changed person. More likely to change the world, more likely to glorify God. She went through a very hard time that led to her being much more effective in her days. And sometimes that happens to us too. Sometimes we go through a hard season and it's preparing us for what God has for us next. Sometimes we go through a difficult time and it prepares us to minister to other people that are going through the same pain and struggle. God can use those things.