On Wednesday evenings, we are studying the book of John.  The passage I have selected for this sermon is the one we studied on Wednesday evening. 

          There’s a lot in this story.  There is the compassion of Jesus.  In many of the stories we read about Jesus, people came to him asking for healing.  But in this one, Jesus was moved to compassion by this man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  Jesus asked the man this probing question that still challenges us:  “Do you want to get well?”

          Also in this story is the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders.  In the story, Jesus heals a man who has been lame for thirty-eight years.  But the religious leaders are only concerned with the fact that the man, who has been healed, is walking about carrying the mat he had been lying on.  That’s because Jesus had the audacity to heal this man on the Sabbath, and it is against their laws for the man to carry his mat on the Sabbath.

          As I read this story, listen to understand the story, and then we will talk about how this story might speak to us.

John 5:

¹Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. ²Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ⁵One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶When 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?"

 ⁷"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."

 ⁸Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." ⁹At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
      The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."

 ¹¹But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' "

 ¹²So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"

 ¹³The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

 ¹⁴Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." ¹⁵The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

          There are two ways this story speaks to us.  First, there is the question Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to get well?”

          To begin with, we should know that Jesus has compassion on our needs, just as he had compassion on this man.  And when we come to Jesus asking for healing—from our illnesses, our inadequacies, whatever problems we have—Jesus asks us this same question.  “Do you want to get well?”

          At first thought, we would certainly say, “Yes, of course I want to get well!”  But if we’re really, truly honest, the answer is often not so simple.  We want to be strong, but we don’t really want to faithfully exercise.  We want to lose weight, but we don’t really want to give up the foods that make us fat.  We want to be well, but we may have other addictions that we cling to, even while knowing that they jeopardize our wellness.  We want to be happy, but we don’t want to let go of our anger.  We want to be successful, but we don’t want to work very hard.  We want to be financially secure, but we don’t want to deprive ourselves of the things we want now.  The list could go on.  But the truth is that we’re not always sure we really want to get well.

          Getting well will require us to change, and we’re not always ready to change.  This is true for us individually and for us as a church.  We think we want our church to get well—to be a healthy, thriving, growing church.  But maybe not, if it means we will have to make the changes that will make our church more inviting to people other than ourselves.

          In the end of the story, Jesus tells the man to stop sinning.  We have no idea what this man’s sin might have been, but apparently Jesus knew that if the man wanted to maintain his newfound wellness, he was going to have to make some changes in his life.

          So I ask you to ask yourself:  Suppose Jesus were to answer your prayer and heal you.  Then suppose he was to say to you what he said to the man in the story:  "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."  If Jesus said that to you, what would Jesus be talking about?  Only you know for sure.  Think about it.

          The second thing we noticed in this story is that the religious leaders were totally in opposition to Jesus.   They were unreasonably nitpicky, and they had absolutely no appreciation for the miracle that Jesus had just performed. 

          Whenever we encounter the religious folks in the Gospels, we church folks need to listen up.  Because we have the same tendencies they did.  We look different and our rule book is a little bit different, but otherwise we are exactly like them.

          Jesus comes by and performs a miracle in our very midst, and we are so busy checking the rule book that we entirely miss it.  Why do you think that is?

          God has been blessing our church in many ways.  Some of his blessings we like, and some we don’t much appreciate.  We have our minds made up how we want things to be, and God better just take a number and sit in the waiting room while we decide whether or not we will allow him to bless us.

          I believe that when God brings blessing and healing to our church, he also says to us as a church, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."

          Most church people think the Bible is full of criticism towards sinners.  The truth is the Bible has a lot more very hard things to say to the religious people. 

          One way we as Christians in the church get ourselves into trouble is by focusing on ourselves.  When we have an inward focus, we become unhealthy.  An individual who is inwardly focused is usually an unhealthy person, and it’s the same thing with a church that is inwardly focused.

          When most of our energy goes to taking care of our own needs as a church, we become less interested in the needs of the world around us.  And if we are not interested in the world around us, what good are we as a church?

          One way we are going to work on being more outwardly focused is by praying for those friends and neighbors and acquaintances who we know need to know Jesus Christ.  We’re giving you a brochure called Bringing My World to Christ.  In the brochure, you will see there are two panels where you can make a list.

          Think about who you know that needs to know Jesus.  I would like you to pray about this, and ask God to give you a list of five people who you will commit to pray for for the next year.  Perhaps you know right away who those people are, or perhaps you need some time to think and pray about it.

          I would like you to take this brochure home and prayerfully consider it.  Ask God to help you write this list.  Then, write the list twice—once on each of the two panels. Cut or tear off the end list, and bring it to church with you next Sunday. 

          Next Sunday, we are going to bring these lists to the altar and as a congregation we will commit to pray for these people for the next year.  I will encourage you, from time to time, to continue praying regularly for the people on your list.

          Pray that God will use you in some way to reach out to each person on your list.  Not by clobbering that person over the head with the gospel, but praying continually for that person.  As you pray, I will invite you to simply watch God begin to work in that person’s life.

          I believe that if we do this, God is going to bless our effort.  I believe that if each one of us makes a list and commits to praying for these people, we will see God do something amazing.  Because God really does want to do something here—most of the time we are the ones who prevent God from working.

          A year from now, we are going to have a celebration of what God has done through this effort.  I believe that if we are faithful, God will bless this effort, and we will see lives changed.  I am imagining that we will have some stories to tell of how God worked in our hearts as we prayed for our friends and relatives and neighbors.  I am imagining that God is going to do some amazing, wonderful things.

          Do you believe it?  Do you know five people who need Jesus in their lives?  I’m pretty sure you do.  And we are going to commit to praying for those people who need to feel the healing touch of Jesus in their lives.

          Now, we will need to be careful not to be like the religious leaders in the story we read.  When Jesus heals someone, we don’t want to be the ones who are standing there with our arms folded across our chests asking why he is carrying his mat on the Sabbath, do we?  For us, it might be that we don’t like some of the people God chooses to send our way.  Maybe we don’t think they fit our idea of what a Christian should look like.  Maybe they will have gifts to give us that we don’t want to receive.

          So as we are praying for those people who need to meet Jesus, we will need to also pray for ourselves, that our hearts would be soft and open to them—not hard and closed. 

          If you’ve had a newborn baby in your family recently, you know that newborns are sometimes a lot of trouble.  They’re always hungry and they cry.  They need lots of care.  They keep you awake at night.  New Christians can also take quite a bit of care.

          But consider the alternative.  No new birth means death.  The choice seems obvious:  it only makes sense to choose life.  But the truth is we often prefer death to life.

          The scripture we read earlier in the service speaks to this choice.  After Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, he continued to lead them through the wilderness for forty years.  As they prepared to enter the Promised Land after forty years in the wilderness, Moses spoke these words to them.  It is an incredible speech, and I encourage you to read the entire passage again and think about what it means for you as an individual and for us as a church. 

          Let me read just the last two verses, Deuteronomy 30:19-20:

¹⁹ This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

          God always gives us a choice.  Even when he healed the man who had been lame for thirty-eight years, he gave him choices.  First, he asked the man, “Do you want to be healed?”  The man could have said “No.”  Then, when he healed him, he said to the man, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."  Once again, the man could have refused.  And finally, Jesus told the man, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."  Once again, the man had a choice to make.

          This little brochure that I have given you is just another offer of a choice.  You can choose to lose it this week, or you can choose to prayerfully consider it, fill it out, and bring it back.  Then, you can choose to faithfully pray for God to draw those people to himself, or you can choose to forget all about it and go your way.

          And as God works in our church and people do come, you can choose to ignore them or even criticize them, or you can choose to welcome them as brothers and sisters in Christ.

          God is always inviting us to choose life.

Prayer:

Lord God, we are sometimes caught midway between life and death.  It’s easier to die.  It’s easier to go on sinning; to wallow in our misery; to choose the easy way out.  Help us to choose life.

Lord, as we consider who you would lead us to commit to pray for, give us faith in you.  Help us to believe that you can heal those who need to be healed.  Help us to believe that you care about those who are lost, and that you want to use us to pray and to reach out to them with love.  Lord, we commit this effort, “Bringing My World to Christ,” to you, and ask that you would work a miracle—first in our hearts, and then in the lives of our neighbors.     Amen