Encountering Jesus - In Despair [3] - Neil Ryan
July 20th, 2008 by sound
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Sermon
Good to see you all here this morning.
Glad you have survived the service!
I noticed in news from USA Today that in Knoxville a man is suing his Church for 2.5 million dollars, because he fell over during a prayer time and hit his head.
He said he asked God for a ‘real experience’ while he was praying, and although this has happened before, someone has always managed to catch him!
He told the court that since June last year he has struggled with medical bills, loss of income pain and suffering!
Truth is - from time to time we all get knocked over.
Something comes along – disappointment, sickness, broken relationship, sudden loss or financial disaster….
We feel like we’ve been run over by bus!
Sometimes the repercussions are felt for a long time.
This morning we come across a man who had been reeling for 38 years!
We don’t know how old this man was but he had been coming to pool of Bethesda for 38 years.
We know almost nothing about this pool or what is referred to as the ‘stirring of the waters’.
v4 has little support from earliest manuscripts, so in NIV has rightly inserted it as a footnote.
However, one thing is certain; the people believed this pool that was fed by underground springs was, from time to time, stirred by an angel.
They believed the first one in water after that could expect a miracle of healing.
We have no idea whether it happened.
Who was healed or how many but we do know ….here a great number of disabled people used to lie….the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
Whether it was the angel stirring or whether it was a natural phenomena – vast numbers of needy people believed this was the place where God did miraculous things!
Every day these people lived in hope that this would be their day! That today their lives would change.
We have no idea how often the waters stirred but if it was once a day, then this man has been disappointed 13, 870 times!
That’s why I’ve called this message:
Encountering Jesus – In Despair
How many times can you have your dreams dashed before you despair?
How many times can you be disappointed?
How often can you suffer in the same place before you don’t want to go there anymore?
This man has come back to the same place 13,870 times and he’s there again today!
He’s a strange mix of hope and despair.
He still comes to the pool.
When the water stirs he still makes the right moves.
But after 14,000 disappointments, he’s not expecting much anymore.
That’s why Jesus comes up to this man and asks what looks to be a crazy question
Do you want to get well [v6]
To us this question looks so benign but Jesus wants to bring to life something that died a long time ago.
There was a time when he dared to dream but those dreams had become less frequent and now he hardly ever had them!
He’s just numb!
We would say…..He has every right to be numb.
So what if he is going through the motions – what else can you do after 14000 setbacks?
How do you keep hope alive when it keeps getting dashed over and over again?
It’s like Jesus says,
You sit here waiting for some stirring in the water but I want to know what is really stirring in your heart.
That’s what makes this story so compelling.
We think this is just another story about some miracle that Jesus performed.
But it’s much more than that.
It’s a challenge to us who have been knocked over, bruised, hurt, disappointed – who have become numb to it all.
God comes and says,
‘Is anything stirring within?’
Is this just another day?
Is this just another time of worship?
Is this just another prayer?
Is this just another Bible Study?
……do you want to be made well?
This question was not meant to insult the man it was meant to renew an old flame that had flickered and flickered and finally had been extinguished.
William Quayle was an eccentric old Methodist Bishop who lived from 1860 to 1925.
One day he was riding on a train and got involved in a discussion with several businessmen who did not know him.
Finally they asked, “What’s your line of business, what do you deal in?”
Quayle thought for a moment and replied, “Horizons – I deal in horizons”
I love that!
Jesus dealt in horizons.
For 38 years all this man saw was a pool.
For 38 years all he looked for was the bubbling of the water.
For 38 years all this man saw was others who got what he wanted most!
Jesus comes along and lifts his horizons.
…. You need to lift your eyes beyond the pool!
Read v7
A simple yes or no would have sufficed but this man can’t even entertain the possibility any more.
He goes right into the reason why it’s never going to happen.
It’s possible this man had grown comfortable with what he was.
After all he didn’t have to work.
He didn’t have to carry the weight of responsibility.
He didn’t have to live with other people’s expectations.
There was a measure of sympathy from people passing by.
He enjoyed the friendships of that little community.
There is something in all of us that prefers to stay the way we are -
It justifies the chip we have on our shoulder.
It fuels our anger at the world.
It feeds our crippling sense of self pity.
It provides an escape from facing reality.
I know we don’t want to even talk about these things but there is a side to us that can make the most of our bad health or our tough circumstances.
There are times when I have thought I would like to have some form of ailment where I was bad enough to be off work for 6 months but good enough to enjoy every day of it!
Sometimes the hardest thing is to be well!!!
Please don’t think I am saying if you are not well, that you are just a fake who is looking for a way to avoid a good day’s work.
But this is a confronting question.
Do you want to be made well?
Eg
Yesterday Ava [grand daughter] opened up Lyn’s midwifery book and wanted to look at it.
Lyn said, “Don’t touch that darling”
Ava said, “What’s in the book?”
Lyn said, “Nothing for children”
Ava said, “I want to read about nothing”
If you read about this man it was a story about nothing!
Nothing had happened in 38 years!!
13870 days of nothing!
Jesus says, “Do you want something?”
Do you still want something to change?
Do you want a life beyond your disappointment?
Or do you want to live with all the reasons why nothing can ever change?
While this man was still thinking about how to get into pool Jesus says,
Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.
At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
I love the way John tells this story.
This man thought the best that Jesus could do was to help him into water.
Jesus tells him pick up his mat!
When it comes to our circumstances we often think we know exactly what God should do for us.
God deals with us in at least 5 different ways when we find ourselves sitting alongside this man.
1. Instant
There are times when in response to prayer and faith, God brings instant healing, change, relief or deliverance.
This is the prayer we pray most and the response we get least!
2. Natural
This is where God has already provided the process for healing and we just have to allow it to happen.
Eg. Cut my finger. Within 3 days it is healed! We don’t get excited about that but imagine if God made us with no healing capability!
3. Leading
God leads us to people, places, moments that bring healing or some kind of resolution to our need.
We may be seeking it or it may come quite unexpectedly.
It may come in worship service, communion or a conversation with a friend.
But by a miracle of God’s Spirit he leads us in a way that changes our thinking or direction or heals some wound, or resolves some crisis.
4. Grace
This is where God says,
I’m not going to give you what you want but I am going to make you who you need to be!
Thorn in the flesh thing [2 Corinthians 12:7-10]
This is the thing we want least but God offers the most!
Sadly, grace is seen as consolation prize these days.
In our consumer driven spiritual climate God has to keep up with our incessant demands to prove he is more worthy than all the other post modern options we have today!
We have had a renewal of WORSHIP STYLE in the last 20 years, I believe what we need today is a renewal of WORSHIP!
….. my grace is sufficient
5. Eternal
We sometimes fail to see that God heals us by wrapping up this earthly tent and giving us a new and eternal body.
We call it death; the Bible still calls it a miracle of ultimate healing.
You know there is something we glossed over at the beginning.
Jesus was in Jerusalem for the feast of the Jews
We’re not sure what feast but the place you would most expect to find Jesus ….. is in the Temple.
Eg.
Even as a 12 year old he was found in the temple discussing things with religious leaders!
John wants us to know that he doesn’t just hang out in the Temple, he knows his way to Bethesda.
He knows where you are.
He knows whether it is 38 years or 38 hours.
He knows whether the flame has been extinguished.
He knows whether we have gotten used to this crowd.
He comes this morning with one question,
Do you want to get well?
Peter Goers writing in Sunday Mail this morning about World Youth Day
“WYD is an explosion of innocence over experience – a definition of faith”
That’s a common misunderstanding of faith.
It’s something that comforts the innocent but it’s redundant when we gain experience.
Jesus comes not just to the innocent but to the experienced and says –
Do you want to get well?
Discussion Questions:
1. Intro
Share a time when something ‘knocked you over’.
How did you deal with it?
How does faith impact these times?
2. Read v1-5
Because v4 only appears in later manuscripts it is included as a footnote in the NIV. However it does help us to see that the people who gathered at the pool of Bethesda believed it was an angel that stirred the waters from time to time.
How are we to think about these special kind of Divine manifestations?
Are there modern equivalents?
….great number of disabled people…an invalid for 38 years
Every day these people lived in hope that this would be their day!
That today their lives would change.
We have no idea how often the water stirred but if it was once a day, then this man has been disappointed 13,870 times!
How do we deal with repeat disappointment?
What sorts of things disappointment you as a Christian?
How much is disappointment related to expectations?
Do we have realistic expectations of God?
Eg. We often ask things from God that are well in excess of what 75% of world’s population could ever dream of.
It’s like the old line – I cried because I had no shoes, 'till I met a man who had no feet.
Do we expect God to keep us in the manner in which we have become accustomed?
3. Read v6
To us this question looks so benign but Jesus wants to bring to life something that died a long time ago.
There was a time when he dared to dream but those dreams had become less frequent and now he hardly ever had them!
He’s just numb!
We would say…..He has every right to be numb.
So what if he is going through the motions – what else can you do after 14000 setbacks?
How do you keep hope alive when it keeps getting dashed over and over again?
What do we do when the fire has gone out and we feel like we are just going through the motions?
Is a certain amount of cynicism inevitable as we get older?
4. Read v7
A simple yes or no would have sufficed but this man can’t even entertain the possibility any more.
He goes right into the reason why it’s never going to happen.
It’s possible this man had grown comfortable with what he was.
After all he didn’t have to work.
He didn’t have to carry the weight of responsibility.
He didn’t have to live with other people’s expectations.
There was a measure of sympathy from people passing by.
He enjoyed the friendships of that little community.
There is something in all of us that prefers to stay the way we are -
It justifies the chip we have on our shoulder.
It fuels our anger at the world.
It feeds our crippling sense of self pity.
It provides an escape from facing reality.
Sometimes the hardest thing is to be well!!!
Discuss