A way God works (Sunday 5/7/17 goals #1: Lives changed)

ATTN: You’ve heard the phrase, “God works in mysterious ways,” and that’s true. But that does not mean that we are totally in the dark about how He works. One reason the Bible is so thick is because God is giving us examples after examples of how He works. He wants us to know how He works, so that we would better know Him and follow Him. Today, we will look at a passage in John 5 and as we read, I will make a few observations that give us an insight into how God works.

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic[a]called Bethesda,[b] which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.[c] 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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.

1. God does not perform miracles for everyone.

There was a multitude of sick people around that pool that day, the Bible says. Jesus approaches one man and heals him. Question: Why only that man? Why not all of them? It would’ve been real easy for Jesus to have gathered everyone and healed them all, but He doesn’t. There were other times Jesus would stay in one place a long time and heal everyone who would come to Him, but in this case, He heals just one man and disappears. Now, imagine if this man who is healed comes back to the pool and is telling this story to everyone there. And you are also one of the sick ones. You find out that while this man was healed, Jesus never asked you if you wanted to be healed. And you are still invalid. How would you feel?

Our 21st century twisted American mindset would think, “For the sake of fairness, wouldn’t it have been better if no one got healed, rather than just one man gets healed? Because it’s not fair to others who didn’t get healed….”

But God doesn’t seem to operate that way. Rather, God seems to operate on this principle:

2. Jesus does for a few people what He would eventually do for all people.

The way God consistently works is: He selects a few people to do a miracle only to show the rest that He would eventually do a greater form of that miracle for everyone who trusts in Him. Now, if miracles make you uncomfortable because they don’t quite fit into our 21st century scientific mindset, I’m not one of those. I fully believe in miracles and Jesus performed many. And I still think He performs miracles today. But He doesn’t do it for everyone. He does it for a few people, and the rest are to deduce from that God will eventually do a greater form of those miracles for them eventually. Rev 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

ILL: When I was a young man and teaching 3rd & 4th grade Sunday School class in Virginia, I discovered that if I befriend one child, then all the children will think I’m their friend! There must’ve been 12-15 children in my class, but I didn’t have to befriend every one of them. All I had to do was really well-liked by a couple children, and every other child would think I’m their friend. For example, after Sunday School one day, I was playing with children from my class in the church playground, and a child who was brand new to my class acted and talked to me like he’s known me his whole life! Since I was nice to other children his age, he must’ve thought that I would be nice to him as well. And he would be right.

Isn’t that different from how we adults think? When we see God doing something great for someone else, we think, “What about me, God? How come you haven’t done that for me?” But really the right way to think is, “God will do that for me one day, if not here, then in the next life a far greater miracle than that!” That is faith in God. Then, we can genuinely be happy with God’s grace on someone else’s life because that is a foretaste of what He will eventually do for us as well. God does for a few people what He will eventually do for all people.

 

Let’s keep reading: Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews[d] 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.’”

 

Oops! Maybe Jesus forgot that it was the Sabbath and accidently got him in trouble by telling him to pick up his bed and walk? No. Jesus was fully aware that it was the Sabbath and He is making a point. And one of those points is:

3. An encounter with Jesus will make us enemies

John 15:18, 18“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

When we follow Jesus’s directives, we will make enemies. Sometimes, our own family members will be against us. Sunday was your family day but now you go to church and your family member may want to do something else and when you don’t listen, they resent it. They say you love Jesus more than you love them!

If you are a teenager, it becomes increasingly difficult to hang out with your friends you have known since kindergarten because they now do things that make you feel uncomfortable. And when you opt out, they say things like, “What, you don’t like us? Too good for us, huh?”  

ILL: When I told my ELL Bible class that I was a virgin until I married at age 34, you should’ve seen the look on their faces as if to say, “What’s wrong with you?” What’s wrong is that I decided not to follow the world and follow Jesus.

Depending on your work environment, following Jesus will label us as bigoted, prejudiced, narrow-minded, sexist, boring – because we won’t party wild like they do, uneducated – because we don’t believe in evolution, and fear-mongers – because we believe in hell.

If you have a personality like I do – that you want to be liked by everyone – then that makes it really hard. Turning to Jesus means turning your back on the world. But I can tell you from experience that I have never met anyone who regretted that they followed Jesus rather than the world.

ILL: Last Friday was such an example. Dara’s farewell party. She epitomizes so much of what we’ve been teaching for the last several years – put the community first before the individual, lead your heart rather than following it, sacrificial giving rather than selfish hordeing, taking risks and trying out a ministry, and then stick to it day in and day out – that’s faithfulness. I was so overjoyed to be celebrating and now blessing another body of Christ in New Mexico our treasure in Dara.

The world doesn’t know that kind of joy. There is so much more joy to be had in Christ than in the world. Make enemies with the world to follow Christ if we have to. And often, we have to.

 

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.

 

Quick comment: Our healing or blessing does not always depend on our faith. This man had no faith. He didn’t even know who healed him. God is not limited by our lack of faith!  Some denomination and personnel will say that if you are not experiencing God’s miracles, then it’s your lack of faith. That is not always true. God can do miracles with our without us. God can remove the lump on your kidney of a believer or an unbeliever. Our faith is not the limiting factor. His will is.

 

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.”

5. Holiness matters (our sin may be the cause of our misery)

well, what could be worse than 38 years of immobility? Going to hell! Is Jesus saying that this specific lameness is a result of his sin? It seems that way in this case! Now, if you have been coming to as one, you know that not everything bad that happens is because of our fault. A blind man born blind – the disciples asked whose fault it was and Jesus said neither, but it happened to reveal God’s glory. But that doesn’t mean that all bad things that happen to us have a cause somewhere else. Sometimes the cause is us. Don’t blame the devil or God when the fault is yours.We are to blame directly for the disease or for the misfortune that’s happening to our lives.

If you are in financial difficulties b/c you have squandered it or you were lazy, don’t say that God is testing you. Repent and ask God to deal with you according to his mercy and not according to your laziness. Holiness matters. If your children are unruly because you have never disciplined them because you have decided to listen to Opera rather than the Bible, then it’s your fault. Although, keep in mind that It’s possible that even though you have done everything biblically, still they go wrong.

Focusing on God’s mercy and grace only works when we know how holy God is. It’s when we strive to live holy lives and we fall short that we depend on Christ to help us. But if we emphasized mercy and grace without the holiness of God, we diminish God’s grace.

– war against your sin. – run (avoid) or tell a friend. If you keep sinning, you will go to hell.

 

15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 18 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 with God.

Do you see that this was not about the sick man but was about Jesus? John the writer of this gospel is making a point here.

6. Miracles are not about what He does but who He is. (v. 18)

We see this time and time again. The miracles were done really to show who He was. Listen, Jesus didn’t do miracles to get seekers.  I used to think, “Jesus did that to draw the crowd. How else will people come to Him b/c just like we are, those 1st century jews were selfish – they are all asking, what’s in it for me? What will He do for me? Oh, he will heal me of my disease? Oh he will put food on the table for me? I’ll be there. So, this healing, or food, miracles were a marketing ploy to draw the people, and then give them the gospel. Just like some churches will have a famous person – like Russell wilson to speak and then through the back-door, give them the gospel. How else will you draw a large crowd to church?

No. Jesus gave bread to people to give them an object lesson that He is the Bread of life. He healed people to let them know that He will heal them of the greatest disease – sin and death. He raised the dead to let them know that He is the resurrection and the life. What He gave them was sorely to point them to Jesus. What He really wanted people to get was who He was. That He is the son of God, redeemer, savior, who will save them from their sins and become their greatest treasure. After all, those people who were healed of Jesus eventually died. Those who ate the bread got hungry again. Even the ones who were raised from the dead, died again. The miracles weren’t the end goal. Jesus was.

APP: Don’t come to Jesus to get what you want and when he gives it to you, You forget about Him. If so, you’ve just used him. He absolutely wants us to come to Him for help, but he wants to give us Himself more than the comforts, and healing and riches.  we come to a life crisis- God brings it about so that we will come to God and find him. But as soon as we are not in crisis, we lose the sight of God. You totally miss the point. God brought that crisis in your life to lead you to Himself. But when the crisis is alleviated, you forget Jesus, you’ve missed the lesson.

Yes, pray that God will heal, pray that your business won’t tank, pray that our church will grow, but don’t make that the ultimate desire of yours. Make your ultimate desire that Jesus may be known and loved and glorified.