WHY YOU BELIEVE Dr. FJ May and Dr. H. Lynn Stone Section I – The Light of the World Continues to Shine (John 1-9) Lecture 9, On the Edge (John 5: 2-9)
Scripture: John 5: 2-9
“And there is in Jerusalem, near the door of the sheep, a pond, called in Hebrew Bethesda, which has five porches. In these lay a multitude of sick, blind, lame and paralyzed, waiting for the movement of water. Because an angel descended from time to time to the pond, and stirred the water; and the one who first descended to the pond after the movement of the water, was healthy of any illness he had. And there was a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying down, and knew that he had been like that for a long time, he said: Do you want to be healthy? Lord answered the sick man, I have no one to put me in the pond when the water is agitated; and in the meantime I go, another descends before me. Jesus said to him: Get up, take your bed, and walk. And immediately that man was healed, and took his bed, and walked. And it was a Sabbath that day. ”
Introduction: A life on the edge
Today I would like to tell you about this great miracle. But more specifically, let’s talk about a man with a severe problem who spent 38 years long years of his life on the verge of receiving God’s blessings, grace and power. That is the subject of this message “On the edge.”
Thirty-eight years is a long time. It is almost the average of a man’s active life, of productivity. It can be the average life of a minister in full-time service. Thirty-eight years is a long time.
But here we see a man who had spent so many years waiting by the side of a pond, wanting to receive God’s help, needing the supernatural touch of God’s power and grace and being so close to it but never close enough. This man was separated from health and vitality by only one step approximately. Just one step away was healing, strength, health, vitality, real life. This man was so close and so far at the same time.
What really separated him was not that step but his own negative thinking of himself because he resigned himself a little to his situation, almost accepting it as part of his fate or destiny, without seeing any hope to prevail. Without seeing any escape door of that prison, of being helpless, helpless, weak, a failure, having no strength, no real life and no health. Finally, he simply resigned himself to it and all the time he thought in a negative way about himself.
I was simply on the bench near where the action was, but not really where it was happening. He was an observer and every time the time came and the angel came and the waters were moved, all he managed to do was just take a look. He was so close to divine angelic activity, but he never really touched her. All he could do was watch longingly. His life was always “on the edge!”
A. The challenging question
Then one day, Jesus came and challenged this man. Jesus challenged the very essence of this man with what I think was a question that He would ask each person who listens to him. And I dare to say that He has asked you this question, throughout your life, in the midst of your misery or problems, perversities or diseases, afflictions, doubts or fears. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jesus comes again and again and asks the question, “Do you want to be free of this? Do you want to be complete? Do you want to change your life? Do you want something different? ”
As you can see, today the Lord Jesus wants to somehow challenge each person. There are people today who simply, in a sense, are on the bench. They are close to the holy activity. They are very close to the miraculous power. They have seen it, they have witnessed this. They have seen it year after year, they have seen God work. They have seen God move, they have seen His miracles. They have seen the power of His Word and the power of His Spirit, and all this has not yet worked actively in their lives. They are simply on the edge. They keep thinking, “Maybe this is for me,” or, “Maybe someday,” or, “Maybe someday it will come.”
If you feel this way today, I want to challenge you with the words of Jesus and let you know that Jesus is digesting your life and He sees you waiting on the edge of the pool of God’s blessings, power and grace.
He sees where you are. He sees the negative attitude in your own life and the way you become sedentary by fear, doubt and worry. He sees the way you stop and fail or refuse to plunge into God’s blessings, power and grace.
He sees everything and now wants to challenge you. Today He wants to touch you with His Spirit glories and His Word so that you may cast out and forsake any worries and plunge desperately into the power, grace and love of Jesus Christ, that you give yourself completely to His mercy and love. When you do, you will find the glorious power of God to sustain you, strengthen you, support you and make your life different.
B. Human excuses
When Jesus challenged this man with this question, he began to give all kinds of excuses that come out of a life with negative thinking. Sometimes I think that the greatest enemy of the church is the supposed people who are full of the Spirit but who present any excuse to God for staying on the bench and not entering the mainstream of the movement of the Spirit of God. The greatest thing that the church needs to do at this hour is to throw all worries to the winds and plunge, in faith, into the mainstream of the movement of the grace and power of God.
1. The first excuse: “I have no one!” But their kind of attitude brings some excuses that seem very familiar. The first thing he said was, “Lord. . . I have no one to put me in the pond. I depend on someone. Could you send me some man to help me get into the pond? ”
How much I wish we could deliver our yearning faith not to any personality but to focus and address Jesus of Nazareth to find the man of miracles and allow him to Transform our lives. Amen? Oh hallelujah! Praise the name of Jesus! I don’t have anyone, I depend on someone. I’m looking for someone else, I’m not looking inside me. Some time ago I stopped looking inside myself hoping to find the strength. I have no one.
I have seen many people who have waited depending on men to raise and promote them even within the work of God. This is a sad state when we, as ministers called by God, try to get closer to personalities, to men to open the doors for us when God who calls and enables us has sent us, and, when God himself is the one who He goes before us filling us with His power and Spirit. Would you say Amen? Hallelujah!
1. The second excuse His next excuse was, “I am too weak. I can not get up”. What he was really saying was, “I am very slow.” I know what it means to be slow, I have been invaded with that kind of thing in my life. My father tried to encourage me to hurry me, he never had much success. Mine was temporary but this man was so slow that it was the main thing that was wrong with him, the fluctuation. He saw the water stir and move, and I don’t think he saw the angel.
2. I am not sure if they could or could not see the angel physically. But suddenly they saw an unusual commotion in the water; Do not try to ask me to explain it to you because that was an arrangement of God and I do not try to explain the arrangements that God has to deal with such cases. However, I suppose they could see what was happening, and, while he tried to make up his mind and tried to get up to reach the pond with his foot, someone else entered before him. So he said, “I am very weak, I cannot achieve it. I have no one to help me. ”
1. The third excuse The third excuse was to blame others for their failure. The other people are too aggressive and too fast, they are very dizzying and ambitious and they rush in front of me. There are some very sad stories that people tell, “If it hadn’t been for such a guy”, or, “If I hadn’t arrived a little late,” and they continue making excuses for all their failures.
C. With God there are no excuses
I am feeling a little reckless and at once I will try to tear down the bras underneath to let you know that God has no patience to tolerate excuses for your failures. No one likes to hear excuses.
Some time ago I was a freshman in college. I was doing very well in English and at the same time I was pastor of a church. One day I came to class and Dr. Lowery took a short exam, with deep questions like: what was the name of Ferjanser’s cow? Half crazy questions. Of course, I had not read the subject and took a zero.
So with great dignity, and with my preacher’s face, I walked towards him after class and gave him my excuse. I explained that I had been so busy in the pastorate that I had not been able to read that particular assignment and that is why I failed the short exam. Dr. Lowery looked at me, shook his head and said, “Mr. May, I’m here to rate you on what you know, not on what you don’t know.”
That was the day I learned more at school than all the other days of my life. I learned that one is not promoted by just making excuses. You don’t get a job just by making excuses. If you are going to look for a job and tell the person who interviews you all the reasons why you cannot do that job, do you think they will use it? Of course not.
However, that is the way we live our Christian experience, talking with God all the time and making excuses for our failures. We blame others for our failures, or we usually say, “I am seeing someone, or I am looking for a special moment, a special place, a special person or a real opportunity.”
I’ve heard some preachers say, “Oh, if I could only get one chance.” Well I will tell you that the only opportunity you can get and the only opportunity you can take is to break your own will on the altar of consecration, God will open the door of opportunity and power.
D. The enabling mandate
Jesus quickly moved without hearing all his excuses. He changed that question to a challenging order. If you are doubting, if you are thinking, if you are fluctuating, you do not need to deduce many things and you do not need to be psychoanalyzed either. What you need is to go to the Word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you and you must hear the resounding command that the Lord Jesus does. That will clear your mind, that will clear your thinking faster than anything else. Receive the mandate. The Lord Jesus said to him, “Get up, take your bed, and walk.”
Jesus was ordering him to do something physically impossible. But, something happened. Listen, I want to tell you that you should not fear anything that Jesus commands you to do. It may seem impossible, but along with the Word of God and God’s command comes the power and authority to see him fulfill that mandate. Hallelujah!
If you could see deeply in the Hebrew language and could understand what the Word of the Lord says, and if when the Word of the Lord comes to the prophet you could fully understand what it means, then you would see that when God gives the Word along with it comes the authority and power to accomplish what the Word has said. When He speaks His voice has authority and power, the world hears him, the universe hears him, the animal kingdom hears and understands him and they obey.
Today I read some psalms that speak about the voice of the Lord. When He speaks, He causes the calves to be born. The animal kingdom, the material universe, everything hears His voice because the Word is accompanied by power. Jesus’ mandate extends to us and along with the Word comes the power to operate and rise in faith and respond in faith. He says, “Get up!”
Here we find a man who had not been standing for a long time. The only way he had been on his feet is when he leaned on someone who helped him get up. Jesus said, “Get up!” Hallelujah! I hope we hear His divine call and that somehow if you find yourself facing self-pity, or if you are in a cloud of confusion and fear, if you are stuck in the mud of doubt and disbelief, I hope you will hear His command ” Get up! ”“ Get out of that. ” Rise in faith, touch God and let Him touch you! Hallelujah! Because when you start to stand up, when you start to climb, Your great hand will take yours and the fortress will flow like a torrent. Oh hallelujah!
Then He said, “… take your bed, and walk.” Here we see a man who for 38 years had had his back on the bed, and now carries his bed on his back! This tells me that whatever problem you face, if you only heard Jesus’ command, you could solve it. If instead of self-pity you listened to the Lord’s command, you could get up and walk with any burden or problem you had and solve it by the grace and power of God!
I feel the Holy Spirit that I must exhort you today, there is nothing that comes against you that you cannot handle with the power of Jesus Christ. No matter what your bed or what your bed is, you can carry it in the name of Jesus Christ.
The Bible relates that, “… instantly that man was healed …” I like that word instantly because it speaks of the present! Here we see a man who had lived on the edge for so long that he could only visualize some kind of future going out in the picture. Until Jesus helped him understand that he could live in the present.
What I am telling you in this message is that Jesus is in the present life. He is here with the challenge for his life. He is not aiming for tomorrow or the next day or next week. If there are big and noble things you want to do for God, start now! If it is a matter of prayer and faith what you want to do, do it now! If there is a ministry of the gifts of the Spirit that you want God to work through your life, start now! We serve the God of the present. I know that He is the God of the past and of the future but, gloriously, He is the God of the present and immediately His touch can transform and change him. He is the God of now. YOU DON’T HAVE TO LIVE ON THE EDGE EVER.
And there is in Jerusalem, near the door of the sheep, a pond, called in Hebrew Bethesda, which has five porches. In these lay a multitude of sick, blind, lame and paralyzed, waiting for the movement of water.