Sunday Gathering - John 5 : 1-15 - Andy Holingum - Sermon Only

Cheers, Shane. Good morning, everybody. Nice to see you. If you've got a Bible, then do turn to John, the book of John, the fourth book in the New Testament, and we're in chapter 5 this morning, and I'm just going to read the first 15 verses, okay?

And I'm reading from a version known as the New International Version. So it says this,

some time later jesus went up to jerusalem for a feast of the jews now there is in jerusalem near

the sheep gate a pool which in aramaic is called bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered

colonnades here a great number of disabled people used to lie the blind the lame the paralyzed now

in my bible i've got a little footnote at this point because there's a verse here which is missing

which is verse 4 and in the footnote it talks about the fact that verse isn't in the earliest

manuscripts so for those of you that have done alpha recently and done all that textual criticism

stuff about how we know the truth of the bible the earliest manuscripts we have don't have verse 4

but later ones do and verse 4 says 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 he had. And then we come back to verse 5. One who was

there had been an invalid for 38 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'm trying to get in,

someone else goes down ahead of me then Jesus said to him get up pick up your mat and walk

at once the man was cured he picked up his mat and walked the day on which this took place was

a sabbath and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed it is 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 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 Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well so I wonder

if you were to have two minutes to explain to somebody who Jesus is how would you go about

doing that you know when we were at work we used to talk having an elevator pitch because America

so if you're in a lift for two minutes and you got someone's sole attention for two minutes

how would you get across in that time what you do so if you had two minutes to tell somebody about

Jesus what would you say and more importantly how have you how do you know where have you got that

from right because we learn about Jesus through reading the bible we learn about Jesus through

talking to one another don't we we learn about Jesus through our own experiences we even

learn a little bit about Jesus and shape him in our heads based on the culture in which we live

or we have come from or the society and all these voices and all these things are influencing us

in terms of who we think Jesus is and what we think he is about and it's so important that we

come back like we do Sunday after Sunday to look at the scriptures because I don't know about you

but for me sometimes I get a little bit fluffy around the edges in terms of who I think Jesus is

and I get a bit warm and fuzzy

and I can notice I get a bit influenced

by the culture in which I live

and I want Jesus to fit the culture a bit more

than actually maybe he really does.

And so coming back to the Bible

is something that helps us knock off those bits

that we've got a bit wrong

and to straighten that up.

It's a little bit like, I don't know, in your house,

but if you use recipes when you make meals.

You know, when you first make a meal for the first time

and you read the recipe

and you go through all the stuff

and you make the meal.

But if you do that week in, week out routine,

pretty soon you forget looking at the recipe and think oh I know this I'll just get on and do it

and then you might add a little bit of flair here and change a little bit of that there

and then a few years go by as you get older like I do and you start forgetting things you think you

know what I need to go back and look at the recipe and just remind myself and think oh blimey it was

a teaspoon of chili powder not a tablespoon no wonder you know and so going back to the recipe

reminds us of what it is we're supposed to be doing and this is just like coming back to

that recipe to remind us of what Jesus is all about and so in this passage today I find it

very challenging because it certainly knocks a few off the edges where I've gone a bit skewy

and remember when we started the book of John in the first chapter twice John told us Jesus was

full of something can anybody remember what that was he's full of grace and truth perfect

absolutely and what we see as we go through John is Jesus interacts with different people

we see in demonstrating that grace and truth remember we talked about it's really hard for

you and I to be people who are full of grace and truth because we tend to be either we love the

grace of God and we God loves everybody and he's merciful all the time and all this and we're all

like that or with people who love the truth and the word of God says this and you've got to change

and we tend to fall into one of those two camps but here is Jesus full of both of those things

at the same time and in this story we see that being worked out and we'll see that in other

stories as we carry on through the book of John but I want you just to picture the scene at the

minute of the passage we've just read there is this sheep gate in Jerusalem and there's this

room there with a pool of water. And in this room, this room is chock full of people with

disabilities, the lame, the paralyzed, the blind. And the room, as far as the eye can

see, all you've got is men and women with disabilities. And they're waiting for those

waters to be stirred to be the first one to get in. And you can kind of picture in your

minds I can't use people jostling for position lying on the ground perhaps some sitting maybe

some standing and a little bit like the boxing day sales people getting their elbows out ready

to get first in the line because they want to be there as soon as the waters are stirred because

there's only one person that gets cured apparently when that happens and you can the room is full

chock full of people with disabilities in the version I read it says there's a great number

of disabled people so it's a little bit like a hospital in that sense it's full of people

with disabilities wanting to be made well and into this scene walks Jesus the son of God

and he surveys it all and it's interesting to me we don't have time to get into this but he walks

past the lame the blind the disabled he doesn't stop he doesn't speak to them all he doesn't heal

them and that causes us some questions which we don't have time to get into but he makes a beeline

for this one guy who's been an invalid for 38 years and for this one guy this is the day

the grace of God has come to this man on this day for 38 years he struggled with this

disability and now this is the day that God comes to him and so Jesus makes this way to this one

man he's been an invalid for 38 years all the time lying there in this room as part of his routine

of life all the time but he's there hoping that he could be the one that is going to be healed but

knowing in reality he's never going to be first in that pool because the measure of his disability

means he can't get in there first people always get in ahead of him and what must that have felt

like? You know, how must that have felt for him? You know, the frustration, the sadness, the sense

of, you know, I can't do anything about this. In that sense, the system is against him. He's stuck

there. This is how I get better, but I'm never going to get better. But this is how I get better,

but I'm never going to get better. And the system is against him. He has no chance. There are too

many other people in a better situation than him there are too many other people with more going

for them there's too many other people with friends to help and you can picture you're

overwhelmed by the circumstances of which he's facing and you know and like a lot of us in that

sort of situation he probably thinks why me why am i like this why have people been dealt better

cards in life than me and have more choices it reminds me a little bit you know with that

you remember that thing at school where you pick teams and you pick them out of you out of you out

of you out of you and we were always the last to be picked right and the emotional effect on that

as a kid and it reminds me this guy is like that and for a lot of us and for a lot of people out

there that's their lot in life that's what life is like for them but on this day on this day the

son of god comes to this man and brings the grace of god into his life and so jesus asks him this

question do you want to get well and you kind of read that you think excuse me jesus haven't you

read the first four verses i mean they're all disabled right they're all there because they

want to get well he's been ill for 30 years jesus what are you doing asking do you want to get well

Of course he does.

But if we just think about that for a minute,

we've seen Jesus do this sort of thing before.

He asks a question that looks pretty daft on the face of it,

but actually has got a real purpose behind it.

And he's asking this question again today.

Remember in John chapter 2, we saw the calling of the first disciples,

and how Andrew and this other disciple left John the Baptist.

They followed Jesus, and Jesus turns around and says,

what do you want?

Jesus, when we encounter him, he's going to ask us that question.

What do you want?

And so we ask this guy, do you want to get well?

Jesus, when we encounter him, he asks us those questions.

And his questions are for purpose.

And it seems to me maybe Jesus is asking the question of this man

because really what he's asking him is how desperate are you to get out of this situation?

or actually, have you accepted the situation you're in

and you just think this is your lot in life?

Because he'd been like this for 38 years,

disabled, unable to get a cure.

His daily routine was set.

It was his normal.

And the reality is for a lot of people

in that sort of situation,

there is some security that they build

into that routine in their life.

They're used to it.

They get comfortable.

But yes, they want to be healed, but that just becomes an idea in their head.

They've got a routine that they're safe with, that they feel comfortable with,

and there's security in how he does each day.

For this guy, if Jesus heals him, he's going to have to look for a job.

Yeah?

It's a massive change.

For this guy, if Jesus heals him, he's going to have to live somewhere else probably,

no longer in sheltered accommodation.

for this guy if Jesus heals him he's going to stop relying on the NHS yeah yeah totally yeah he's

he's going to lose his benefits because he's going to be up and working and well so there is

so Jesus asking him the question do you want to heal me is to make him think flip you know if I'm

in for this Jesus then there's going to be big changes in my life and the grace of God when it

comes to you and to me it's the same thing are you in for the big changes in your life that Jesus is

going to bring because it is a revolution when he comes and so even though he wants to be well

Jesus questions are always probing always seen because there is a risk in following Jesus

there is a transformation there is an upset that is going to take place when the grace of God

invades your life, whether that's the first time you encounter Jesus, whether that's for healing

for something or in whatever shape or form that is. So Jesus asks him the question, do you want

to get well? And the man answers, the man answers with his own limited understanding. Do I want to

get well? Well the only way I can get well is to get in this water but I haven't got anybody to

help me get in this water Lord. So it's a bit of a weird question but I need someone to help me to

get into the water. He says, I have no one to help me. See, Jesus comes to bring the grace of God to

that I have no one to help me, people. I have no one to help me. Jesus brings his grace to those

that are disadvantaged, to those that are weak, to those that are poor, to those that have no advocacy,

no one to speak up for themselves, to those that are overcome and overwhelmed by the system around

them, to those that are vulnerable to abuse like this man was, to those that are vulnerable to

exploitation. The grace of God comes to those who have no one to help them. You see, maybe this man

had friends or helpers, maybe they supported him in that situation that he was in,

but he had no one, no friends to help him out of that situation, no friends to help him rescue

himself from that situation until the day the grace of God invaded his life and brothers and

sisters in the church this morning that's what he calls you and I to be men and women who help

people out of the overwhelming circumstances they are in who men and women who go right into the

places where people like this guy are right and sit alongside them and bring the grace of God

into their lives.

You see, Jesus could have turned up to this place

where all these disabled people were

and he just could have stood in the doorway,

looked around, seen this guy.

Oh, you over there.

No, no, not you, the one behind you.

Get up and walk.

He could have stayed at a distance,

shouting, preaching, but he doesn't.

He walks right in amongst them all.

He sits down next to this guy

and he engages him in conversation.

And that day, the grace of God

came to transform that man's life.

and he jesus calls you and i every single one of us who own his name here this morning

to be exactly the same and to come alongside those that are disadvantaged those that are

overwhelmed by life circumstances and to sit alongside them and bring the grace of god to them

and so jesus heals the man and he changes his life completely with us i like the way you know

Jesus asked the question, which seems really strange, do you want to get well?

The guy answers it in the only way he knows how, I can't get into the water,

and Jesus completely ignores his answer.

He doesn't say, that's not what I'm talking about, mate.

He doesn't say, well, okay, I'm going to change the way you think about healing now.

He doesn't say any of that.

He just says, get up.

And so the man gets up and picks up his mat and walks.

And as the grace we read in the passage, as the grace of God breaks out in this man's life,

for the first time, so begins the slow build-up of antagonism towards that same grace of God

by the Jews and the Jewish leaders. We won't get into it today because it's going to grow as we

carry on through the book of John. But the Jews spot this guy standing up and carrying his mat

and they can go up to him and say, it's the Sabbath, what are you carrying your mat for?

Because that's the kind of thing they did when they're bothered about their laws.

you know this guy had been disabled for 38 years he had no hope no help and now all of a sudden

he's up and walking around and the question isn't is blimey how did that happen the question is what

are you carrying him out for you know it it kind of shows the wrong place but what it also shows

behind that and what we'll see as we're growing as we go through the book of john is the threat

that Jesus brings and the grace of God brings

to those who remain in power

through unjust laws and through control.

And that's what's starting to happen here,

just starting to open.

And we'll see as we go through the rest of John

how that grows and the challenge

Jesus brings to that situation.

And so we read that Jesus slips away

through the crowd so that when the guys

who were the Jews challenging the man

saying well who told you to carry a mat what fellow told you to carry a mat he just says i

don't know i don't know yeah he's been healed of a disability he's had for 38 years and he doesn't

know who's done it right it's fascinating isn't it and then we get to verse 14 and so we have the

second conversation that jesus has with this man in the passage 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 so

here we see both the things right the grace of God coming to this guy and bringing healing to him and

restoration to him when he doesn't deserve it but Jesus comes to him and he and that's what happens

and now we see the truth of God coming to him as Jesus challenges him about his lifestyle and the

choices that he's making the grace of God comes to him and brings healing but Jesus always sees

beyond the mere external physical thing this guy obviously physically changed he's up and he's

walking about when he's never done that for 38 years so he's clearly physically changed and

everybody can see that but God always goes to the root of our issues of what we are like inside what

makes us tick why we think the way we do why we make the choices that we make what our heart is

like in the old testament we read about what god called a prophet called samuel to go and find the

next king of israel and told him it would be one of the sons of his chap called jesse and samuel

finds this man jesse and tells him to bring out all his sons and they're all hunky looking you

know a star men with a with a biceps and all the rest of it and samuel thinks oh this must be the

next king and God has to say to him no it's not him man looks on the outside but God looks on

the heart you see the heart we can hide from everybody else but we cannot hide it from God

and so Jesus goes to the root of the issue for this man on the outside he's changed but Jesus

says stop sinning stop it you know there's no detail no explanation simply stop it the point

is that when a man or a woman encounters Jesus there needs to be real change in how that person

lives their life. Jesus' warning is that you cannot let God heal you and then just carry on living life

the way that you want. We cannot cherry pick the bits of Jesus or cherry pick the bits of

Christianity that we want. You know I'm here because I like the nice songs or I love the food

when we have gatherings together or I love the good company and the friendships but have no real

change in how we live our life or the values that we live by or the priorities that we put on

we're called jesus calls us to change our lives and so he says to this man stop sinning stop it

it's not like you know stop sinning please it's not stop sinning you know if because it's a bit

awkward it's not um uh so sometimes when we go out driving i shan't say who's driving but when we go

driving and our son-in-law is following us, he has been known to say you treat the road signs

speed limits as if they are a recommendation. So Jesus isn't saying this is a recommendation,

he's saying stop sinning, period. It's a command and actually we see that carrying on through the

pages of the new testament so paul writes to the church at colossi just to put some

substance on this paul says to them rid yourselves of all such things as these anger rage malice

slander and filthy language from your lips do not lie to each other he says rid yourself of it these

are strong words and as the church of jesus we need to respond to what he's saying to us and not

think we can be nice bedfellows with these things and kind of it's okay because what they do as well

actually don't know so it's all right no we are to deal with these issues in our lives because

jesus said stop it and we need to get a hold of that paul carries on to trying to sort out the

mess of the church in corinth he writes in the second letter he says i fear that when i come to

you i'm going to find discord and jealousy this is in the church right fits of rage selfish ambition

I want my way

slander, gossip

talking about people

behind their backs, arrogance

and disorder and I will be grieved

over many who have not repented

of the impurity, sexual

sin and debauchery in their lives

Jesus says when he calls us

yes we want to sing, we want to love the grace

of God but he also comes to us

and says stop sinning

it's always interesting in our culture

we have lots of songs about the grace of God

lots of songs about you know

Jesus I believe you're my healer

I've not heard many songs

Jesus help me stop sinning

maybe someone could write a song

about Jesus I want to stop

sinning find a tune for it

help me to stop sinning because we don't

do we because we don't like that bit

it's a bit awkward but actually

we need both of those things

it's a revolution about how we

live our lives Andrew arranged some training

last Monday

about how to

work with people with drug and alcohol addictions and the challenges around that. And the guy

talking about that, Mick, he said one little thing in the middle. He talked about at its

root, alcohol and drug addiction and pornography addiction and other things, at its root, it's

about self-obsession. It's about being obsessed with me. I want me. I want to do what I want

to do. I want my way. And as I thought about that, I thought, that's just true about sin.

that's true about when I get angry

when I get impatient

it's not just about

what you might mistakenly think

are major addictions

this is about everything, this is true

the root of this is about self-obsession

so Jesus says we've got to deal with it

and that means admitting it

and that means addressing it

and that isn't a one-off thing

that we carry on going through our lives

having to tackle this and to deal with it

I remember when I was thinking about 20 or 30 years old

thinking, oh, it'll be great when I'm 50 or 60

because everything will be sorted out.

I won't sin anymore.

Everybody will be really nice

and we'll get on so well together.

No, it isn't like that.

Alas.

We still have to work at it.

We're still caught to do it.

You see, we can't have this Jesus

without this Jesus.

We can't have a Jesus who we want to heal

and we want to know his love

and we want to know his warm, fuzzy feelings

without having this Jesus who says, stop sinning.

We can't have a wedding Jesus without temple Jesus.

Remember that?

Otherwise, we make a mockery of the gospel.

Really?

You see, what does Jesus say to the Pharisees?

He says, produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

That's what he calls us to do, to be men and women

who not simply repent,

but then our lives change, our lifestyle changes, the choices that we make changes.

So a modern word for this would be we need to recover the integrity of our walk with Jesus.

Brené Brown describes integrity as choosing courage over comfort,

choosing what is right over what is fun, fast or easy

and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.

We need to be men and women of integrity as we walk with Jesus.

Authentic following of Jesus means both responding to those grace moments

when he relieves, he heals, he restores, he sets free,

but also responding to this truth that our lives must change.

It's interesting, I'll finish with this.

interesting that when Jesus

healed the man

he had no idea

who had healed him, he had no idea

who Jesus was

but when Jesus told him to stop sinning

to change his lifestyle

then he knew

it was Jesus

Amen