Living Below The Healing | Pastor Marcus St.Julien | MOTIV8 Church

Revelation 12:11 puts the fight in plain language: the enemy is defeated “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” The blood belongs to Jesus, and Calvary settled that part. The testimony has a name on it, and that part requires an open mouth. A testimony is not a highlight reel. A testimony is a witness statement, and a witness only has to show up and tell what was experienced.

John 5 brings that truth down to the Pool of Bethesda. Bethesda was not a hospital. Bethesda was a holding area, the address for people who had run out of options. The sheep gate carried lambs toward sacrifice, and sick people lay near the entrance, close enough to be seen but far enough to be discarded. Jesus went there first. The first move in the story is not the man’s move. The first move is Jesus coming toward somebody who could not come toward him.

The man had been sick for thirty eight years, and John does not explain how it started. The length of the wound matters more than the origin story. Abandonment works like that. The lie does not stay in childhood. The lie grows up and starts saying, “Something must be wrong with me.” Pain turns people into furniture when everybody gets used to seeing them in the same place. Jesus saw the man, and Jesus knew the man.

Jesus’ question, “Would you like to get well?” exposes how long pain can become identity. The man never says yes. The man explains, “I have no one.” That is not just a medical problem. That is an abandonment problem. The empty chair inside the heart keeps auditioning people for a seat that only belongs to Jesus. Girlfriends, jobs, church, ministry, perfectionism, and performance cannot carry that kind of weight. People fail under the pressure of being made savior.

Jesus does not argue with the excuse. Jesus says, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk.” The man thought the water was the gift, but the gift was standing in front of him. Thirty eight years ended in one sentence. Living below the healing means forgetting what God already did, using restored eyes, restored lungs, and restored life for things that deny the miracle.

The mat becomes the picture of changed authority. The man carries the thing that used to carry him. Obedience immediately disappoints people, because the crowd notices the mat before it celebrates the miracle. Jesus later finds the man in the temple and says, “Now you are well, so stop sinning.” Grace refuses to let blame sit where it does not belong, and grace also refuses to let pain become a permanent hiding place.

---

Key Takeaways

• 1. Testimony is a witness statement A testimony does not have to be dramatic to be real. The quiet survival, the hidden endurance, and the steady decision to keep getting up can still bear witness to God. The witness does not need to sound like the lawyer or the judge, because the authority is in what God actually did. [01:25]
• 2. Jesus makes the first move John 5 begins with Jesus going down to the place where discarded people were laid. The man does not crawl toward Christ first. Christ comes toward the man first, and that movement is the gospel in plain view. [09:14]
• 3. Pain can become identity A long wound can start feeling like a name, a home, and a reason to stop asking for freedom. The mat can become familiar enough that comfort feels safer than healing. Jesus’ question presses beneath symptoms and asks whether wholeness is truly desired. [17:08]
• 4. People cannot fill Christ’s seat Abandonment creates an empty chair in the heart, and wounded souls often put human names on it. Relationships, jobs, ministry, and achievement collapse under the weight of being treated like saviors. Christ alone can sit in the place where ultimate belonging is settled. [19:27]
• 5. Grace heals and calls forward Jesus heals the man before correcting him, but Jesus does not leave him unchanged. Grace removes false blame without allowing pain to become an excuse forever. The miracle is not the end of responsibility, because wholeness calls for a different walk. [40:15]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [00:15] - Every Survivor Has a Testimony
• [02:41] - Blood and Testimony Defeat the Enemy
• [06:18] - John 5 and Living Below Healing
• [07:23] - Bethesda, the Place of No Options
• [09:14] - Jesus Goes Down First
• [10:49] - Thirty Eight Years of Pain
• [15:19] - Jesus Sees and Knows
• [17:08] - Do You Want to Get Well?
• [19:27] - The Empty Seat of Abandonment
• [24:32] - Trauma, Lust, and Chasing Proof
• [28:49] - Stand Up, Pick Up, Walk
• [34:16] - Carrying What Used to Carry Him
• [37:11] - Obedience Will Disappoint People
• [40:15] - Grace Heals and Requires Responsibility

Bible Reading

John 5:1-15
“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, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 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. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who healed me said to me, “Take up your bed, and walk.”’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take up your bed and walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.’” [07:20] [10:44] [15:36] [28:49] [40:15]

Revelation 12:11
“And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” [02:50]

Observation questions

1. In John 5, what details show what kind of place Bethesda was, and what kinds of people were gathered there? [07:23]
2. Before Jesus told the man to get up, what two things does the passage say Jesus did with the man? [15:36]
3. How did the man answer Jesus’ question, “Do you want to be healed?” What does he talk about instead of simply saying yes or no? [19:10]
4. After the man was healed, what did the crowd focus on, and what did Jesus later say to him in the temple? [34:16]

Interpretation questions

1. Jesus made the first move toward a man who had run out of options. What does that reveal about how Jesus approaches people who feel stuck, ashamed, or forgotten? [09:14]
2. The man had been in pain for thirty-eight years, and Jesus still asked, “Do you want to be healed?” Why can a long season of pain make that question harder to answer than it first appears? [17:08]
3. The man said, “I have no one.” How can those words point to more than a physical problem? In what way can human relationships be asked to carry what only Christ can carry? [19:27]
4. Jesus healed the man first and later told him, “Now you are well; stop sinning.” How do grace and responsibility work together in this passage? [40:15]

Application questions

1. A testimony is a witness statement, not a highlight reel. What part of God’s faithfulness in this season of life has been real but easy to dismiss because it does not seem dramatic enough to share? [01:25]
2. Jesus goes toward people who cannot get to him on their own. Where has that already been true in personal life, even if it was only recognized later? [09:14]
3. Pain can become identity if it sits long enough. What struggle, label, or old wound has started to feel normal enough that freedom almost feels unfamiliar? [17:08]
4. The empty chair in the heart cannot be filled by a relationship, a job, ministry, or performance. What has most often been placed in that seat, and how has that pressure affected life and relationships? [19:27]
5. The man carried the mat that used to carry him. What would it look like to handle an old wound or old story from a different place of authority instead of letting it define every choice? [35:18]
6. Obedience will disappoint people sometimes. Where is there a need to choose God’s will even if someone else may not understand, approve, or stay pleased? [37:11]
7. What happened to a person may not have been their fault, but what is done with it becomes part of their responsibility. What is one concrete next step toward wholeness, honesty, or repentance that needs to be taken now? [41:06]