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Sermon
of 12-29-01
What Do You Do When You Are Out Of
Choices
by Dr. David Farmer, pastor
Scripture - John 5:6-7
Based on Desire of Ages chapter 21.
Well I have some good news for you this morning. It's only 361 days till Christmas again. It'll be another time of making decisions on what to buy each other. Another time to decide how much money you're going to spend. It will be another time for making all sorts of choices! Don't you just love this time of year?
Return with me to John 5. I would like for us to look at this story in more details. For years this story didn't make a lot of since to me. Why did Jesus choose this particular man to heal? Why not another that person that was there? Someone that might have been already able to walk? Someone that others had more respect for?
No, Christ chooses this friendless, hopeless, and paralyzed cripple to heal. In fact he was probably worst off than anyone else that was there. Verse 5 says he had been sick for 38 years. So this man was not suffering from a temporary disability. No this man was in pretty bad shape.
The other day as I was reading this story, something clicked inside my head. This story took on a whole new meaning as I thought about Christmas and New Year. Let me try to explain.
The Bible doesn't give us this man's name but he has a name. He has my name. And he has your name. You see this story is about you and me!
According to verse 2, this pool is called Bethesda. It has 5 porches. My Commentaries say that its size was around 55' X 12'. This pool is world famous. Today, from all over the world, the rich and well off still visit it every year. They come there to see this famed pool. But what they mostly see is the people that still come there hoping for healing. The banks are still lined with people with every kind of disease.
It's called Bethesda, which means "house of mercy." But it could also be called Wadley or St. Michaels Hospital. It could be called Randy Sams or Salvation Army. It could also be called the Texarkana Seventh-day Adventist Church. How could be our church?
Take a look around you. What do you see? I see a room full of people that have some sort of pain in their life. People that need healing.
Years ago I decided that church must be more than an emergency hospital. More than a place where the spiritual wounded comes for treatment, for a quick fix. The church - this church must give more than Spiritual IV's. The Church should and must be a place where the hurting comes to find true healing. Can anyone here tell me I'm wrong?
Our story says that people believed that an angel would come and stir this pool. Now something you need to know at this point. If you are using another translation besides KJV, you probably do not have the last part of verse 3 and none of verse 4. This is because older translations leave those parts out.
You see, it was only a myth that an angel came and stirred the waters. Many theologians believe that the last part of verse 3 and all of verse 4 were added in the KJV in an attempt to explain verse 7.
The legend taught that whoever was the first into the trouble pool was healed of whatever disease he or she might have. Many of hundreds of sufferers would visit the pool. But there were so many of the sick and diseased there that when the water was troubled they would rush down to the water. Most of the weaker men, women, and children never make it to the water.
Now picture in your mind a country of starving - dying orphans - and you see the pool of Bethesda. Any time you see a battleground of wounded dying bodies and you see the pool. I've seen it in New York City, Russia and Mexico. Faceless faces of children and adults hoping for a miracle. Most people just walk by and pretend they don't even see them. But not Jesus.
Jesus was in Jerusalem and walking alone. He appears to be meditating and praying. When He came to the pool, He sees the wretched sufferers watching for what they think is their only chance of cure. Jesus longed to heal and make every sufferer whole. He does the same today.
Remember I said a moment ago this story was about us? Look at verse 5 again.
"And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years."
Did you see yourself in that verse? No? But you are there. How are we described in that verse? Turn with me to Hebrews 12:14.
"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:"
See our predicament is just like the cripple in our story.
The Bible says only the Holy will see God. The Bible also says in Matthew 5:8;
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." This is why I say you and I are like the cripple in our story. We are all crippled and paralyzed. None of us are perfect and Holy. The Bible says in Romans 3:23;
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." We are as helpless as the crippled man in John 5. We have as much power to heal our spiritual condition as this cripple man had in healing his illness. Our only hope is in the same Healer as this cripple. Our only prayer is that Jesus will do the same for us as He did for this man.
Now I have some good news. Jesus has already healed us. Listen to Romans 5:8;
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Lets ask the questions; Who's doing the saving here in this verse? We or God? Who is active here? We or God? Who is giving us strength to walk? We or God? Folks, every time it is God!
When the great fish swallowed Jonah he pondered what his choices were. And for three days he kept coming to the same conclusion on his choice - he ain't got one. From where he was sitting there were only two exits and neither looked very appealing. So Jonah does the only thing he could do - he prayed for help and forgiveness. And friends, God heard that prayer and saved him.
Daniel in the lion's den wasn't much better off than Jonah. Jonah had been swallowed and it appeared that Daniel was about to be. But Daniel had faith in God. And God saved him.
Look at Joseph. He is thrown into a pit and sold as a slave by his very own brothers. Years latter, not only has he been saved, but God used him to save his brothers and family from starvation.
All three of these men were trapped, crippled and paralyzed. Their only hope was God and His power to save.
Friends, please take note; God's efforts are strongest when our efforts are useless. I hope you accept that.
Go back to our story in John 5. Look at verse 6; "When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?"
Jesus asks the man if he wanted to be healed? Now look at the mans answer in verse 7;
"The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me."
Is the man complaining? Is he feeling sorry for himself? Or is he just stating the facts? I think he is only stating the true facts of what he believed. But look at what Jesus does next in verse 8;
"Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk."
Verse 9 says the man immediately stood up and walked. But how could he do that? He had been crippled for 38 years. Yet he walks by just Christ telling him to.
Do you wish you could do that with your problems? Well, maybe you can. Listen to 1 John 1:9;
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Friends, the Bible says we can walk like this man. We can walk out these doors this Christmas and New Year Season knowing that you have been healed. Healed from your sickness of sin. You can leave with the assurance you have been forgiven and cleansed. You and I can walk out those doors with our guilt unloaded and off our shoulders. We can get up and walk out with no fear of tomorrow. We can get up and walk out with the assurance of Salvation.
I love the story I once read about a private who ran after and caught Alexander the Greats runaway horse. When the private brought the horse back to Alexander, the General thanked him by saying; "Thank you captain." With one word the private was promoted.
The story goes that when the private walked away from the General he knew he was now a captain. Why? How? Because the general said it and he believed it!
When Jesus told the crippled to get up and walked the crippled believed he could and did. When God tells us that we are forgiven. When God tells us that we are saved. When God tells us that we can walk upright and Holy - we must believe it!
It's not from any of our Holiness or Rightness that will save us. In fact the Bibles says in Isaiah 64:6;
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;"
It will only be from the power and might of God that we are saved.
So what is your choice today? Get up and walk with Christ like the crippled man in John chapter 5? Or stay where you are? The choice is yours.
Friends, there is one more choice you will have to make this Christmas and New Year season. And that choice is what to give Jesus. If you want to give Christ the Christmas present He really wants this year then give Him your heart. That's the gift of all gifts He wants from you and me. Then He wants you and me to believe He is coming for us soon.
So what's your choice today?
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