Highlight Moments
- Jesus always holds us even when life makes it feel like God has abandoned us.
- This man has been sitting here for 38 years, crippled while he's in God's nation.
- Sometimes it really feels from life circumstances like God has abandoned us.
- I think all of us are going to get to a point where we want to get rid of something in our life.
- When God says no, eventually we'll just give up.
Summary
In this sermon, the speaker explores the story of the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda, emphasizing that Jesus is always present with us, even in our deepest struggles and feelings of abandonment. The message highlights how trauma and life circumstances can make us feel isolated from God, yet reassures us of His unwavering support.
Sermon Audio
Transcript
The beginning of John 5, we're going to be looking at the paralyzed man at the pool. So all you guys, John 5, how Jesus holds us. Now a couple of things. Does anyone know what book we're in? Killed it. Easy. You guys got it. We're in the book of John. Now some context about John. Does anyone know why John is writing this book? And I'll give you a hint. It's not so that we become depressed. Yes. So we can know Jesus specifically. John chapter 20. He says this. These things are written that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20, 31. John is writing this book about Jesus's life so that we can know who he is. We know what kind of life we'll have following him. And so we can have a real relationship with him and have life eternal. So that's what we're going to be looking at as we look at John chapter five today. So all you guys should be there. If you're there, can we get a let's do this? Okay. That's pretty good. John chapter five. I'm not going to be there quite yet. So what we are looking at today is that Jesus always holds us in life, in trauma, and he walks with us. And what we're going to be talking about today is specifically that Jesus always holds us even when life makes it feel like God has abandoned us, even when trauma makes it feel like we're all alone. And Jesus always holds us and walks with us through those things. That's what we're going to be looking at today. So I don't have any time to waste, guys. One jump right in. John chapter five. We're going to be looking at, if I can find my notes, verses one through three and verse five. So John chapter five, you guys follow along with me. This first thing, Jesus always holds us even when life makes it feel like God has abandoned us. We're going to be looking at the paralyzed man at the pool. So let's check this out. Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 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 are a great number of disabled people used to lie, the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. And one who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. Does anyone know what invalid means? It means he can't walk. So there was someone here who could not walk for 38 years. What we see here in this text, straight off the bat, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a festival as all good Jews did. We see that there's many sick people there. And then we see a man who was crippled for 38 years. Now, as we're looking at this, we are going to be covering a very hard topic. And that topic is why sometimes it feels like God has abandoned us. And we're going to be doing that through the lens of this man who was crippled for 38 years. I hope that by then you guys will see that Jesus is always with us. And this first thing is that we're going to see Jesus is always with us, even when life makes it feel like God has abandoned us. So my first question, do you guys know what country this is that he's in? No. What country this guy is in? He's in he's in Israel, which at this time is called Judea. And what's important about Israel, whose nation is Israel? Not yet, bro. It's God's nation. You guys can just shout it out. It's God's nation. This man has been sitting here for 38 years, crippled while he's in God's nation. Why has God abandoned him? But it gets worse than that. Not only is he in Judea, which is supposed to be God's nation. What city is he in? You guys. Jerusalem to an Israelite back them back then, either Shalom would mean the city of peace. He's sitting in the city of peace. And he's crippled and God won't help him. But it gets worse than that. What gate is he by? The sheep gate. Well, what does the Bible say that God treats his sheep like? Well, let's check it out. Psalm 23. Does anyone know how it starts? No. OK. What is it? The Lord is my shepherd. And what does it say next? I shall not want the irony of this man's life sitting by the sheep gate, a sheep of God, a little lamb of God. But he is wanting. Why has God abandoned him? Why? Why has God not left him in a place of not wanting? But it gets worse than that. What is he sitting by? He's sitting by the sheep gate. And then it says what? That he's sitting by a. Yeah, he's sitting by a pool. What's the very next verse? Perfect. What's the next verse? It says, God leads me. God leads me beside still waters and restores my soul. Why has God abandoned this man for 38 years? Not only is he in Israel called Judea, God's nation, he's in the capital city that to an Israelite would mean the city of peace. Not only that, he's sitting by the sheep gate, which God promises he will lead his sheep and they will not want. He's sitting at a pool where God says. That he will lead his people beside still waters and restore their souls. Why has God abandoned this man? Man, sometimes it really feels from life circumstances like God has abandoned us. And again, guys, it gets even worse than that, because what does Isaiah promise that the followers of God will be like? Those who wait on the Lord will run and not grow weary and walk and not faint. What's the one thing this guy is not able to do? To walk. Why has God abandoned this man? If I was this man starting up in John chapter chapter five straight away, 38 years, four decades, why has God abandoned me to this? And it gets a little bit worse than that, because although it's not in the text, do you guys know what nation had conquered Israel and was over them at this point? That Rome, there's a Romans. And did the Romans believe in the God of Israel? No, they had their own gods. So I'm sure you guys interact with people who don't believe in your God, the God of the Bible, the true God. And for this guy who's sitting there for 38 years, crying out to God to be healed. How do you think the Romans would view that? Well, I think they view it just like this. How does it feel knowing your God has abandoned you? How does it feel not having your God take you out of the situation that you're in, the pain that you're in, the suffering that you're in? How does that feel? Man, that's hard, but God takes us through those times, and I think by the end we'll see why. But just starting out straight out the gate, man, life circumstances sometimes make it feel like God has abandoned us. And this, I believe, is the number one reason why non-Christians don't become Christian, why atheists specifically don't become Christians, is because even if there is a God who's powerful enough to create the universe and do all these things in their minds, obviously this God doesn't care enough about his people to do anything about their situation. I'm not just trying to make you guys super depressed, okay, I promise. It is depressing, because life following Jesus is hard. But as I think we'll see by the end, Jesus always holds us even when, and even in spite of when, life circumstances make it feel like God has abandoned us. This next thing is trauma. We're going to read the next little section, because we got our first little section here, okay? This man has lived for 38 years without being able to walk, and that's hard, and there's no getting around that. That is hard. If I was him, I would feel like God had abandoned me. But our next thing, oh, yeah, thank you there. Have you ever felt like that, like God has abandoned you, whether you are anxious or stressed or depressed or your parents are arguing or you're kicked off the football team or you fail a class or there's gossip about you? I believe every one of us in this room is going to go through this, if you have not already. And that's the reason that I want to talk about this with you guys, also because I see it in the text. But I want to talk with you guys about this, because I think every single one of us is going to reach a point in our life where we ask the question, God, why would you let this happen to me? It's something that all of us need to ask and all of us need an answer to, and I believe this man asks that question. Our next thing, Jesus always holds us, even when trauma makes it feel like we're alone. So I want to look at this next thing with you guys. Look down at John chapter five, verses six through seven, and we're going to get the next little development in the story. 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? Pretty simple question. Obviously, yes. But what does the man say? He says, sir, 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. Jesus, God in the flesh, comes up to this man and says, do you want to be well, do you want to get out of the situation? And what does he say? I can't. And I think we'll get to a point and I think you'll see why in a second, what we see here is that Jesus asks this man if he wants to be healed and the man offers an excuse and he feels like he can't do that. He can't do it for whatever reason. He is not able to get healed. And this is something that. I felt and I know it's something that you guys are going to feel as well, eventually. I want to show you guys a story of something, so I looked this up in chat, it promised me this is real. OK, guys, so check it out. If you put a bunch of fleas in a jar and you put a lid over it, they'll start jumping. OK, they're trying to escape. But if they have a lid over them, what are they going to hit every time they jump? They're going to hit the lid every time they jump. Do you think it's going to feel good or it's going to hurt? It's going to hurt. So they keep jumping, they keep trying to escape and they keep hitting the lid so they don't want to jump that high anymore. So they'll jump a certain height, but they don't want to jump high enough to where they're going to hit their head. Now, you can take that lid off. And they actually won't jump out. Because they don't know the lid isn't there anymore, and so they keep limiting how high they're jumping because they don't want to jump up and hit their head again, again and again and again and again and again. And so they stop jumping higher and they stay at the same level. Eventually, one of them accidentally will jump a little bit higher and be able to escape. And then what happens when they escape? They're free and then the rest of them can follow them. And I believe that's what was happening to this man and why he responds in the way that he responds. He does not say, yes, Jesus, I want to be healed. You're the son of God. You can do anything. Please heal me. Why doesn't he say that? I think it's because this man sat there for 38 years crying out to God saying, God, I want you to remove me from this situation. And if he's still here 38 years later, what do you think the answer was? No, I'm not going to remove you from the situation yet. And so when Jesus comes to him and he asks, do you want to get healed? I believe what was going on in this man's head is something that, again, I think all of us are going to experience. I can't. I can't get healed. I've been crying out to God for 38 years and God has said no for 38 years, he's not going to say yes now, so I'm not even going to try. I think all of us are going to get to a point where we want to get rid of something in our life, we want to get out of situation and we say, God, I want your help with this, not just I want your help. I want you to take me out of this, not grow me through it. I want you to take me out of the situation. And when God says no, eventually we'll just give up. The same thing happens with dogs, if you guys did not know that we have some crazy pictures up here. If you play a sound and then shock a dog over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, eventually, once you just play the sound, it's going to start tensing up and be scared because what does it think is going to happen? It thinks it's going to get shocked, even if it doesn't get shocked, every time it hears the noise now, it's going to recoil and get scared. And what we describe that as is trauma, and it happens with us, it's going to happen with all of us because that's just what happens in life. All right. Things happen over and over and over again and they hurt. And eventually we just say, you know what, I'm going to put up a wall and I'm going to stay as far away from that as I can. And that's what this man does. But what happens? Jesus, God in the flesh, comes up to him and says, hey, do you want to get healed? And what's the obvious answer? Yes, of course I do. But what does he say instead? I can't. I cannot get healed. I see that as trauma, I see that as what was happening with the dog, what was happening with the fleas, we try, we want something. And when God says no, for now, we eventually give up and we say, you know what? It's never going to happen, it can't happen, I can't get better. Situation can't get better because. I'm stupid, situation can't get better because no one wants to help me, the situation can't get better because maybe I deserve what's going on. That's hard, that's sad. And that's what I think was going on with this man. The situation can't get better. And that is a dark place to be in, and I bring it up because it's a place that many of us will go to, a place of thinking I can't get better, not because God has a plan with this, but I can't get better because of me. I can't get better because I don't have anyone to put me in the water. I, I just can't get better. It's not a God thing. I've cried out to you, God, for so long and you don't want to do this fine. I'm not going to count on you for it. And we put up walls and we say, you know what, Jesus, God in the flesh, you're here with me. I'm not even going to ask because I know what the answer is going to be. I believe many of us are going to get to that place and that's a very dark place to be in, and that's why I want to bring it up now. But what was the first part of those two points that I haven't addressed yet? Jesus holds us when life makes us feel like God's abandoned us and Jesus holds us even when trauma makes us feel like we're all alone. But what is the thing that we're going to talk about now? What I hope to be a glimmer of hope that is certainly a glimmer of hope for me and that spoke to me is that Jesus holds us and walks through those things with us. So let's check this out. We're going to read our final section here in John chapter five, verses eight through eleven, as we look at how Jesus comes into this man's life and interacts with him. 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 he walked. And the day which this took place on was a Sabbath. And so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, it's the Sabbath. The law forbids you from carrying your mat. But he replies, the man who made me well said to me, pick up your mat and walk. What happens here? There's something that happens here that everything that I've just set up right here is totally thrown out the window by because this man reacts in a way that is completely contrary to how I would react in this situation. So let's let's check this out. What happens? Jesus heals the man. Previous like Jesus heals this man, the religious leaders oppose him, and then the man shows loyalty to Jesus. Well, why is this so important? Because if I was this man and I believe if most of you guys were this person sitting there for 38 years, that's like four times your guys's age, just about. That is actually it's exactly four times your guys's age. That's a long time. And if I was sitting there for 48 years crying out to God and God said, no, I'm not going to heal you right now, Jacob. Well, if Jesus came and healed me and it only took two words for him to do that. I would have been upset. You know why? Because if all it took was two words from Jesus to heal me, I would be upset that it took God so long to do this when I cried out for so long. All Jesus had to do was say the word and he would have been healed. And so if I was in that situation, this would have been me. God, why did you wait? Why would you wait this long to heal me of this? It's been 38 years. I'm only 22 years old. That's over double my lifetime sitting there begging from other people to pay him money so he can have food because you can't really have a job back then if you can't walk. This man was begging for 48 years crying out to God. Why would God wait? That's what I would say in this situation. God, what the heck? But we see something that's totally out of left field, totally contrary to what I've just been talking about. He doesn't ask that. He does not say, God, why would you do this to me? And it's not just that it's not recorded that he says something like that. What does he say? What is he recorded as saying? Well, the Pharisees say, or not the Pharisees, sorry, the religious leaders, which includes the Pharisees, the religious leaders tell him, hey, it's not lawful for you to walk around with your mat because it's the Sabbath. You're supposed to be resting on the Sabbath. You're not supposed to go and do work, which includes carrying your mat. And what does he respond with? What? That's interesting, because if I was that man who was crippled for 38 years or sorry. Yeah, 38 years and. And Jesus came up and healed me in two words, I would be upset that it took God that long to do something that I've been asking for for so long. But when this man is healed and the religious leaders challenge him on that and say, hey, you're not supposed to walk around with your mat, what does he say? He says, basically, what have you ever done for me? I'm following the person who healed me. I'm following Jesus. Wasn't that interesting? The man wasn't angry with God that he waited so long, he wasn't angry that all it took was two words for Jesus to heal this man. Instead, he seems to understand what we are going to talk about next. And that is why did God wait so long? And unfortunately, scripture doesn't give us, I think, a clear answer on why God would wait so long for something like that. But it does say another thing. The Bible describes how. Before the foundations of the earth, Jesus has taken on all that that man would feel, the Bible says that we don't have a high priest who is unfamiliar with suffering. In other words, Jesus knows the suffering that we go through, not just like, oh, God kind of knows it from far away. Jesus came and personally experienced the pain that we would be going through. And that's really interesting to me, Jesus knows personally what this specific man was going to be going through. And he was with this man through all of it, not only did he know what this man was going to go through before the foundation of the earth, personally feeling all of this. But he also chose. To let this man go through that, but he didn't just say, OK, you're going to go through this over here and I'm going to be over here. He let this man go through this. And he was with him, and that brings me great, great comfort because Jesus knew what those 38 years was going to be like for this man, those 38 years were not an accident. God just wasn't just waiting because he was busy doing other stuff. This was purposeful. He knew what those 38 years were going to be like personally. And he allowed that man to go through it and he was with that man. Jesus always holds us and he walks through those things with us. And I can personally attest to that, because having gone through hard times, I know that the greatest pain brings the greatest growth. And that's right here. The greatest times of pain are the greatest times of growth, I would have thought if this was me, man, Jesus was holding me back for 38 years. Jesus was holding me back, but that's not what this man believed, I don't believe that's what this man believes based off of what he said, is that I think this man knew that Jesus wasn't holding him back, but he was holding him. And I think that's where we need to be, we're not always going to have an answer about, well, why did God wait precisely 38 years? I have no idea. But I do know that Jesus wasn't holding this man back from something better. But that Jesus was holding this man. And I think this man understood. This, sorry, my notes were not clear, I think this man understood this, that Jesus wasn't holding him back, but that he was holding him. So I want to close with some final thoughts. I believe God allowed this man to go through this, not because he just wanted to see this man suffer, but because God wanted to allow this man to have closer relationship with him. And, you know, all of us in here, we can walk. But I believe that all of us are going to go through something similar where God takes something away. And I've personally experienced that. And not for the last time that we will go through things where God takes something away that is standing in the way of us having a closer relationship with him. Because nothing is more important than that, nothing is more precious than knowing that even if we are going through a hard time, even if we're going through suffering, that Jesus is holding us and that Jesus is walking through those things with us. And I believe that if this man could do it all over again, all 38 years of sitting there begging, asking people for money because he needed money to buy food. I believe if he could do it all over again. He would have been even more intentional about the time that he got to spend with Jesus. Because that's what he could do, that's probably all he could do sitting there waiting for people was to spend that time with Jesus. And I think what we need to do from this is that to spend that time with Jesus, all of us are going to go through those things where God takes something away so that it's not standing in the way of us having that closeness with Jesus. And so I think we need to go to him that when we're down, we should spend that time with him because life is going to be hard. That's just universally true. Life's going to be hard. Trauma is real. But Jesus is always holding us, always walking through those things with us. And I think in eternity, looking back and even now looking back, that we'll be thankful for those times of pain, because in the greatest times of pain is when we get the greatest times of growth and the greatest closeness that we need to experience with Jesus. So I'm going to invite in the worship team again. I just want to encourage you guys that it is absolutely worth it to walk through those things with Jesus, knowing that he is holding you and walking through those things with you. So let's pray. God, we thank you for this time. I pray that I was not too depressing, but instead that we can look at the life of a man who just waited and waited and waited and waited for you, God, and we would take after him in continuing to wait, even when times are hard, even when life tells us that you've left us, even when trauma makes us feel like we're all alone, that we would remember would be in your word with your people, remembering that you are with us. You love us. You hold us up. You've prepared these things for us to walk through, that we would know you and bring you glory. God, please remind us that you are with us in that you walk through those things with us, God. So we thank you for this time. Jesus is now we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, guys, we're going to stand up. We thank God that we have the hope that he will walk through all things that we go through with us. We break out to our small groups and talk about it.
