In this message entitled “Mighty Munchings with the Master”, Chris Carrie explores some of the lessons we can learn from Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand. In this story the disciples faced a challenge beyond their ability to meet – the hungry crowds seemed for them to be a problem they could not solve except by sending the people away. It was actually an opportunity for God to be glorified as thousands were blessed by His provision. Perhaps some of the problems we see in our lives are really God-sized challenges where we must rely on Him to come through so that He can receive the glory and people can receive His blessing.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Discovering Jesus Pt 15 - John 5:9b-16
This message is entitled "Responding to the Healing Touch of Jesus". In the follow-up to Jesus' miraculous healing of the man who was crippled for 38 years, we see two rebukes directed at the man as he leaves the scene of his healing.
The first of these is from Jews who were zealous for God's laws but had unfortunately missed the point of what God intended by them and what God was currently doing. The second rebuke was much more serious - it was from Jesus Himself who said "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you".
In this message we explore the warning given to this man but deserved by all of us - we have all sinned and fallen short of God's standards (Rom 3:23). In Revelation chapter 20 we read that Jesus will return and will judge the world - all of us will be judged according to what we have done. And we won't be judged by our own standards but by God's. The inevitable result is that we will be found guilty of rebelling against Him. The inevitable judgement is eternal death - being cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:11-15).
This is unwelcome news - it's not fun being told off, and it's not much fun having to face the consequences of our wrong actions or our lack or right ones. However the message is not finished. The gospel (good news) of Jesus starts with these inescapable and awful realities, but then reveals the way of deliverance that God planned out for us before time began. Jesus took the penalty for our sin so that we could be forgiven and God would be justified in offering us eternal life! Jesus invites all of us to turn from our sin and embrace Him as our Saviour and Lord. The consequences of choosing to continue in sin are awful in this life and the next. God does not want that for any of us, He wants us to turn from sin and receive eternal life from Him (2 Peter 3:9).
Jesus' death and resurrection have achieved healing for all of us (Isaiah 53:5). Healing from sin and it's consequences. That healing will be completed when He returns to make all things new (Rev. 21). How will you respond to the healing touch of Jesus? Will you accept it, or will you reject it and try to make it on your own? The cripple at the pool of Bethesda had been trying for 38 years for physical healing with no success. Only Jesus could heal him. The same is true for our souls. Turn from your sin and accept His offer of new life today.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Discovering Jesus Pt 14 - John 5:1-9a
In this message we look at the story of the healing of the cripple at the pool of Bethesda. ; We discover that the power of God that brought about healing in that story is the same power at work in us to deliver us from bondage and enable us to live the abundant life Jesus promised.
John 5:1-9a
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda
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.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. [1]
Introduction
When I was a teenager I would often lay on my bed and daydream about stuff – I’d imagine myself as an NBA basketball player or as an AFL footballer, and as well as thinking about my athletic exploits I would also think about how I would witness for Jesus from that position of success and respect.
I would love to know how much time, energy and money I poured into basketball during those years – but I think it would be a little scary to find out.
But being a great sportsman wasn’t the only dream I had. I would also daydream about conversations that I would like to have with people around me that I wished I’d have more confidence with. I’d dream about things I’d like to say that I never did say, things I’d like to do that I never did do. Something always held me back.
Have you experienced that? Have you had unfulfilled dreams because something held you back from achieving them? Maybe it’s doubts or fears that have held you back. Maybe there were other obstacles, maybe physical ones like the man in our story suffered from.
For most of us our biggest regrets tend not to be things we’ve done that we wish we hadn’t; they tend to be the things we wish we’d done but didn’t.
I wonder today what in your life remains unfulfilled? Where do you feel that you are not experiencing the fullness of life that God intends? Where do you feel that you are not doing the things God would like you to do? What is it that holds you back from having the life you long for and were created for, and what does Jesus want to do about that?
I want you to keep these questions in mind as we explore the story of Jesus at Bethesda Pool.
In this picture you can see that Bethesda Pool is right up against the edge of the city of Jerusalem
Notice the 5 covered colonnades (2 are split-level, so it actually looks like 7 in the picture!). This is where verse 3 tells us that a “great number of disabled people used to lie”.
While we’re looking at verse 3, this is a good time to bring up the fact that some of you may have Bibles which do not have a verse 4! Some of you may have Bibles that have brackets around the last bit of verse 3 and all of verse 4.
This is a quite rare case of Bible scholars looking at the thousands of ancient manuscripts that we have of the New Testament or parts thereof and seeing some differences in them that are not easily explained. A lot of the more recent manuscripts contain the explanation of why people waited by the pool for healing, but the oldest manuscripts that have been discovered don’t have that information in them. This is a very interesting issue to discuss, however it does not in any way affect the meaning of this story. There is risk that if I took the time to properly explain this issue to you that you might be distracted from the actual message of the text, and that would be a tragedy.
In our story today we discover a man whose dream is to be well – to be able to walk. Yet in an apparently cruel twist of fate his disability is the very thing that prevents him from accessing what he believes he needs in order to be made well. He cannot get into the pool first when the waters are stirred up – some other person seeking healing always beats him in. So his dream is denied yet again, and he goes back to lying helpless on his mat.
I want you to feel, to empathise for a moment with the frustration and hopelessness that this man must have experienced. To be crippled for 38 years and believe there is a cure that is just out of your grasp. To know that many other people consider you to have brought this affliction onto yourself through some sin.
Into this situation steps Jesus, and He says:
1. “Do you want to get well?”
This might sound like a silly question! The guy had been an invalid for 38 years – of course he wants to be well! Why else would he be camped out here trying to get into the pool when it gets stirred up?
Actually, it’s not a dumb question at all, but a very important one. In our society we have a whole bunch of recognised illnesses that are brought on by the attitudes and actions of the sufferer – they produce their own misery. You may also have come across people who are quite content with the ailment that they suffer from. Sometimes it’s because it provides them with attention, or an excuse to be idle, or a way of expressing some other hurt, or the opportunity to control their own pain or the lives of those around them, or a way of avoiding responsibility, or even a way of earning income. In some parts of the world parents even maim their own children to make them better beggars. Sometimes physical sickness or immobility is a choice, and getting well must also be a choice.
Sometimes when the suffering isn’t your choice, it’s still a tough thing to choose wellness. As much as this man dreamed of being able to walk, it would still present him with a new set of challenges. How would he pick up his life? How would he earn a living now that he no longer needed to beg? Was there a family somewhere for him, or would he need to find some place to belong? He was being presented with an opportunity to leave the known for the unknown, but that is scary as well as enticing.
It’s interesting that the man does not answer Jesus’ question. What he does is point out the barrier that stops him from being healed. Verse 7 describes his response:
“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.”
The man has a belief about how it is that he can be healed, and the knowledge that it is beyond his ability to make it happen. He does not realise that God is going to heal him in a way that He would never have expected.
2. “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
Wouldn’t it have been fascinating to have watched this take place?
I wonder if the man’s legs were instantly transformed and he just stood up as most of us could. I wonder if there was an initial struggle as limbs that were crippled for 38 years adjusted to being used. Was there discomfort or pain?
John doesn’t bother to tell us, we just need to know that the man was healed at a word from Jesus. Whether he was healed then got up, or whether he was healed as he was getting up; the fact is that he was healed, he picked up his mat and he walked.
I’ve entitled this message “Experiencing the Healing Touch of Jesus”. What is it that this story teaches us about experiencing the healing touch of Jesus?
Should we expect the power of God to be expressed in our lives in a similar way today, or was this sort of activity confined to the work of Jesus and His Apostles?
Let’s face it, all of us are impacted by physical suffering. Whether it’s ourselves or some of the people in our lives that we care deeply about, we would love to see complete physical healing and restoration take place.
I’ve prayed with and for people for healing many, many times. I’ve anointed people with oil in the name of the Lord, I’ve lain hands on people with my fellow Elders or fellow believers on numerous occasions. God has always answered our prayers, but only sometimes has God granted full healing to the person we prayed for.
I believe that one of the things that we need to do though is to enlarge our vision of what healing is all about.
Physical healing is a great blessing from God, but He has not promised to do that for every believer until He does away with all sickness and sin when He makes all things new (Rev. 21).
However it is not just our physical bodies that are crippled, and it is not just our physical bodies that need to experience the healing touch of Jesus. In fact, the Bible itself places a lot more emphasis on the way that Jesus wants to heal other parts of our lives, how he has promised to heal other parts of our lives, and how he already has healed other parts of our lives.
You see I have known many cripples, but only a tiny proportion have been crippled on the outside. Most of them are crippled in spirit, crippled in mind, crippled in heart.
In John 10:10 we read:
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”
Satan wants you to spend your life as a cripple on the edge of the pool. Thinking that if only you were faster or cleverer or stronger or luckier or more attractive or had more help – then you’d be able to have the life you dream of. Then you’d be able to do what you long to do. Then you wouldn’t be held back by whatever it is that has got you beat right now.
Jesus has come to give us life, life to the full. Whatever that looks like for us, according to His good, pleasing and perfect plan (Rom 12:2) – not our will but His. It’s not about what our limitations are, or how big the obstacles are, it’s about His will for us and His power to achieve it.
Often God gives us a glimpse of what that looks like for us as His Spirit stirs within us. For me as a teenager, it was a burning desire to share the word of God with people, to teach it and apply it in the situations of life. Yet far too often it remained a dream because I crippled by a fear of rejection and ridicule.
Again I wonder what is your God-given dream, and what is it that holds you back from achieving it? What is the obstacle that you have become fixated with, and are using as an excuse for not running the race that Christ has marked out for you to run (Heb. 12)?
It may be the case that there is a physical problem that you are facing that is holding you back from God’s best for your life. If so, will you trust Him to heal it?
It may be the case – and in my experience this is far more common – that there is something inside you that is holding you back from God’s best for your life. If so, will you trust Him to heal it? Will you obey when He tells you to get up, pick up your mat and walk?
Don’t be crippled by ungodly attitudes such as jealousy, grumbling, fault-finding and so on.
Don’t be crippled by selfish desires, lusts or ambitions.
Don’t be crippled by addictions of the body, of the heart or of the mind.
Don’t be crippled by material things that have a hold on your heart.
Don’t be crippled by a fear of rejection, ridicule, criticism or danger.
If you could do anything for Jesus, what would it be? What’s holding you back?
If you believed that Jesus could do anything for you, what would you ask for?
Don’t play it safe.
Don’t lay for 38 years on a mat trying to make it on your own or making excuses for yourself.
A great number of people used to lie around Bethesda Pool. Undoubtedly they made themselves as comfortable as they could be, but they didn’t really want to be there. They wanted to be healed.
Many churches are crowded with people who have not yet answered the question “Do you want to be well?” They have not yet obeyed the voice which commands them to rise up and walk.
Don’t go through your life being held back from God’s best for you.
Don’t fill your life with regrets or empty dreams. Experience the healing touch of Jesus that frees you to really live for Him.
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