Don't Miss it
Notes
Transcript
Thank you Pastor Jonathan and team. You know I tell Jon all the time I’m completely naive about music, I don’t really focus on it that much, I tell him any specific questions or feedback he’s seeking he probably needs to go find someone else. One day he asked me about the team’s set and there was an issue with the drums and I told him I didn’t even notice there weren’t any drums for that song. I think I made his brain hurt a little. But, with all that I don’t know about music one thing I do know is most songs have a chorus. It’s that part of the song that gets repeated. Why do song writers repeat the same thing throughout a song, it’s so that the message sticks with us, so we don’t miss it.
That’s what I’ve titled the message this morning but before we get there I wanted take a few minutes and share briefly about summer camp. Our student ministry had the chance this past week to travel down to Georgia for summer camp and this is one of the biggest events on our calendar. We’ve created a short video that will help you get a brief snapshot of our week.
Play Video
I asked our entire group if anyone would be willing to share for a few minutes about their experience and I did get one person to volunteer, so I’m going to ask Clay to come and share for a few minutes about his highlights at camp.
It’s hard to get them to come up here and talk but they actually do talk to one another and open up at camp. And a lot of what we discuss is repeated throughout the week and they have lots of chances because the more they share the better chance they’ll have at retaining what God has been revealing to them.
For those of you that may be unfamiliar with the environment at summer camp, one of the best ways to describe it that we are ushered into the presence of God day after after day. So here’s my question as we open up to today’s key text in John 5, how do you respond when you are ushered into God’s presence? When God reveals himself to you, what do you do? As we look at this John 5 together we’re going to see a few ways that cause us to miss being in the presence of God and how we can avoid it.
Stand as we read
John 5:1–5 (ESV)
1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
John 5:6–9 (ESV)
6 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?” 7 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.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
John 5:9–12 (ESV)
Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 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.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”
13 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. 14 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.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
Prayer
Let’s set the stage for this miracle. Jesus approaches this pool called Bethesda where lots of sick people gathered. I asked Pastor Mike if he had any pictures of the pool of Bethesda and he sent me a few, so you can get a visual for what this scene looks like. I’m hoping once Pastor Mike gets working in Pastor Mike Impact Ministries I’ll be able to get with him for a trip to the Holy Land. So here’s what the pool looks like. Down in verse 7 we get some clarity on why this man, who is probably paralyzed in some way, has been sitting at this pool. The belief was that when the waters bubbled the first person who got in the water would be healed of whatever ailment they had. Some of your bibles may actually have a little note because there actually is no verse 4 in chapter 5. Most scholars believe that was added later to explain this belief a little clearer but some of the most trusted manuscripts of the gospel of John don’t have verse 4 so our modern bibles took it out. Nonetheless, the point is that this man is sitting there, along with a bunch of other people with a variety of diseases hoping to get into the water first so they’d be healed.
Jesus shows up to this place and he intentionally approaches this one man. Let’s consider that for just a minute. Why is it that Jesus approaches this one guy? We’re never told, we have no idea why Jesus decides to help this guy and not any of the other invalids. This was God’s sovereign choice. What that means is that Jesus had a specific reason for this course of action and he has no reason to let us know what that reason is. When this happens in our life we have a choice to either trust God and allow him to move in our life or we can stay in a place of bitterness and frustration wondering how God could allow these things to happen.
Jesus asks him a simple question. “Do you want to be healed?”
John 5:6 (ESV)
“Do you want to be healed?”
This guy has been dealing with the sickness for 38 years. That’s my entire life. He’s obviously older than that, why would Jesus ask this question? I mean it could be seen as borderline rude and antagonistic. The guy doesn’t know who Jesus is. Of course I want to be healed, why else would I be sitting in this place. What is Jesus searching for? I think Jesus is bringing in clear view that the first step toward wholeness is a deep desire for it.
As a pastor I really appreciate this question. God really can’t do anything in your life unless you have a deep desire to see it happen. Whenever I get ready to take a young guy through a discipleship program I make sure they count the cost. I want to be sure they have a desire to grow in their relationship with Christ.
Here’s the first way we may miss what God wants to do in our life, we don’t really have a deep desire for it.
1. We don’t have a desire for it.
1. We don’t have a desire for it.
If that’s you you need to work on identifying, why is this not a deep desire of mine? Often it’s because we’ve developed a liking toward the things of the world. The things that can gratify the desires of our flesh move into focus in our lives and naturally push out the desire to please the Lord. That’s what Jesus means in;
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
In a few verses earlier he says,
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Sometimes we miss what God wants to do in our life because our desire for the things of the world are greater then the things of heaven. One of the things some of the students admitted this week was, I say I’m too busy to spend time with the Lord but that’s really just an excuse. I can make the time if I really wanted to. For something that you truly desire you’ll make a way. So if you aren’t spending time and investing in a relationship with the Lord it’s because you really don’t want to.
Now here’s what else can happen though, and it’s what Jesus was testing in this guy’s life. He was testing his desire but it wasn’t necessarily based on his sin, although there were some issues there that we’ll get to, Jesus was testing to see if he had a sustained desire to be healed. He was suffering for 38 years. Do you know what happens after prolonged periods of pain and hurt, you start losing hope. It’s so easy to get worn down by circumstances in your your life and I wonder how often we miss God working because we’ve lost our hope of relief or healing.
About a year ago I hurt my foot, at this point I’m not even quite sure how it happened but the only thing I can trace it back to is when I was mocking how my niece rides her scooter. And thinking about it that would serve me right. But the pain hasn’t gone away, I’ve seen a few different doctors, have had a few different medications. I’ve seen some relief and then it’ll get bad again. I’m generally an optimistic person but I’ve had thoughts in this past year that were like, well this is what it is now, my foot is just always going to hurt. Many of you have been dealing with ailments much longer than a year, maybe even for 38 years, and maybe it’s gotten easy and comfortable for you to accept it instead of believing that God has led you to this point so he could do something miraculous in your life.
This sick guy gives a somewhat weak response. You can somewhat feel the weight of his helplessness. Because he acknowledged that he did want to get well, so his will was still there, but he was making excuses. Well yeah I want to get well but I have no one to lift me up into the water. People keep on beating me and I can’t get there fast enough. He was living with the assumption that the only way to experience hope and healing is if someone brought him there. You cannot rely on someone else for you to grow spiritually. Yes we’re the church, yes God designed us for community and accountability. Yes we should be pouring in and discipling others. But after your life you will be the one to face God, no one else is going to face God on your behalf. We need to stop making excuses for why we are far from God, stop blaming people and circumstances, and be willing to say, yes Jesus make me well, make me whole.
Out of this response Jesus says,
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
There are a lot of stories of Jesus healing people in the Bible but this one is a little bit unique. Often times when Jesus heals someone their healing is a direct result of their faith in who Jesus is. They worship Jesus as the son of God and through their faith he brings about a great miracle. This guy doesn’t show any faith before Jesus heals him. Frankly, he doesn’t show a whole lot of faith after either. I don’t think the point of this story is about the sick man, in verse 9 John gives us this little detail that sets the scene for not only the remainder of this account but of the entire book of John.
9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath.
The Jewish religious leaders had set up some rules for the Sabbath. Because saying no work on the Sabbath was too vague and they needed to draw a line in the sand from what is right and wrong. They divided work up into 39 different categories. One of those is about carrying, you can’t carry stuff on the Sabbath.
So they see this guy carrying his bed which was probably some type of straw matted together and rolled up, and they said, hey you can’t do that. The guy says the man who healed me told me to do this. They asked him who it was and he didn’t even know. Can you believe that? He didn’t even care to know anything about this Jesus who just completely changed his life. But the focus now is on the religious leaders and it leads us to the second way we miss God.
2. We’re stuck in our own righteousness.
2. We’re stuck in our own righteousness.
Can you imagine seeing someone fully recovered from a 38 year old illness that left him crippled, only to say, hey why are you carrying that mat, you can’t carry that it’s against the rules.
Not may of us would admit to saying that right, but I wonder if anyone has been critical of the fact that I chose to wear a hat today. He was preaching the word but I couldn't really hear anything because I was too focused on the fact that he was wearing a hat. That’s why I wore this today. It’s so easy for us to get caught in this behavior without even realizing it. I don’t even wear hats when I talk but it’s only because it’s hard for you to see my eyes when. Our speaker at camp all week had a hat and it was hard to see his eyes when he preached. But I can remember being a teenager in my church and I was at some missions event at our church because even as a teenager I loved the church, so if the church was open for something I was there. I showed up and I had a hat on. I can remember an older guy who was a bit of a curmudgeon, he came up to me and said, “I’m so glad you came out to church for this special missions event and are learning about how to have a bigger heart for the world.” Nope! He said “ You’re in church, you need to take off your hat.”
When we get stuck in our own righteousness we can miss what God is trying to do in our life.
I’m going to go ahead and take this off now, I made my point and would really rather preach without this, even if it means having horrible hat head.
Let’s finish up with verses 14-15,
14 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.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
Jesus had left the scene. John continues to make sure we know that nothing was going to happen to Jesus until his appointed time. They weren’t going to capture his unless he allowed it. But Jesus shows back up to find this man he had healed. Why? Because he had more care and concern for his spiritual condition than his health.
Here’s the last reason we miss God working.
3. Sin.
3. Sin.
Ultimately every bad thing that happens on earth is a result of sin. But, sometimes our sins have direct consequences on our life. I believe that’s what this man experienced. I think his sickness was a direct result of some type of sin he committed. I actually think that’s why Jesus chose to heal him.
So Jesus, who cares more about the condition of our heart says to this man, go and sin no more. Sin will be bring about something far worse than your 38 years of suffering.
Since God cannot be in the presence of sin the longer you continue in sin the further from God you get. I know for me as I’ve gotten older I’ve really had to honestly evaluate my thoughts and actions. When I was younger my sins were so explicit to me and obvious that I’d come before God in confession, God I’m sorry for watching this and thinking this and saying this.
Now, my mind has gotten really good at blinding me to my own sin. I have to seek counsel from others. I need to humbly sit in God’s presence and evaluate my relationships, how I speak to others, what I think about throughout the day. Sin, left unchecked in your life will cause you to miss what God has for you.
Are you missing what God is trying to show you? When we begin our week of camp I remind our students that it’s up to them to allow themselves to be challenged by God. That it’s up to them how much they are really willing to be honest and real with one another. In other words is it your desire to actually grow in your relationship with other Christians and God or are you here for another reason. We had a lot of fun this week, and I think I’m returning with more camp memories than I ever have. But in a lot of our students I saw them being real and vulnerable and stepping way outside their comfort zone. I believe they did that because there was a deep desire to grow in their relationship with the Lord. When you have that desire you start doing things that normally would make you timid and fearful. Do you have a desire to grow in your relationship with the Lord? What is holding you back?
Maybe you’ve gotten stuck in your own righteousness and your routine and actions have meant more to you then the source of all this activity. Coming to church is great, I love being at church! But it should only be significant in your life if when you are here your purpose is to connect with the God of the universe. If you are reading the bible, praying, attending church or doing anything spiritual without connecting your heart with God’s heart than you are missing out on what God has for you.
If you are stuck in your sin then you most certainly are missing what God has for. Repent and confess and come back into God’s presence. Some of you may be stuck in your sin because you’ve never truly made a commitment to the Lord.
When Jesus says that something worse may happen, he’s talking about final judgement.
We’re all going to stand before God one day. If you’ve declared Jesus as your savior and are living for him then he has already paid the penalty for your sin. If you don’t acknowledge Jesus as Savior and place him as Lord of your life then you will face judgement for your sin and you will be separated from God. If you’ve never made a commitment to Christ I’d love to invite you to do that this morning.