The Bible says that we need to encourageeveryoneto meet together.
This is a way to grow infaith.
It is said that the Lord does not ignore those who gather in the name of the Lord.
In Matthew 18:20, Jesus said,
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
This is why we need to gather together.
In doing so, we must understand that we have to gather in groupswith our focus on Jesus.
There are various meetings in a church.
We have small group meetings, men’s group, women’s group, senior’s group, and other meetings that are endorsed by the church.
We should gather often.
However, our meetings should be Jesus-centered.
We should not forget that our meetings should be centered on Jesus.
Of course, social gatherings are also important to make intimate relationships among church members.
However, we need to rememberthatthe importance of having Jesus as our focus in these meetings.
Jesus went to Jerusalem during the Passover, a Jewish holiday.
It was a tradition for all Jews to visit Jerusalem for the holiday season because the holy temple is in Jerusalem.
When Jesus visited Jerusalem, there were a lot of people.
They gathered at the Jerusalem temple.
Although Jesus was there, He was not the focus of this gathering.
As such, Jesus was ignored.
Instead of staying at the temple, Jesus went to the pool of Bethesda.
It was considered to be one of the bigger ponds in Jerusalem.
And therewerefivecovered colonnadescalled Solomon’s Porch.
Thesecovered colonnades turned out to be gathering locations for the sickpeople who believed a legend.
According to this legend, people who were sick will be healed if they are the first one to jump into thepoolwhen the waterstirred asan angel descendedupon thepool.
All the people stricken with sicknessesgathered around the pool based onvague expectation.
Their eyes were fixated on the pool.
They did not care about anything else.
They were completely preoccupied.
Jesus came to the pool where the sick gathered.
Jesus, the One who could cure them all came to the pool.
However, no one looked at Jesus.
No one received Jesus as the One who could solve every problem and cureevery sickness.
They did not even realize that the Son of God was nearby because they were so focused on the pool.
They were only concerned when the water was stirred.
I think we are the same as these people who gathered around the pool.
I am sure that we are identical to these people, as we too expect our problems and issues to be solved in a worldly mannerrather than in Jesus’ way.
What were they thinking as they were staring at the pool?
They might be thinking how they can be the first one to jump into the water.
They saw those people around them as their competition.
They did not see each other as someone that they can share their suffering and pain.
They did not see them as someone who needed their help.
To survive, they had to competeand winagainst their brothers and sisters that were suffering as they were.
What about us?
Are we any different than these people?
Jesus told us to love one another as ourselves.
Do we live by Jesus’ teaching?
Isn’t it true that we sought out once or twice to trample our neighbors in order to stand on top of them?
Isn’t it true that we ignored our neighbors even though we knew that they needed our assistance?
We canrealize that we are not so different than the people that were gathered at the Pool of Bethesda.
Among the people, there was a man who has suffered for 38 years.
He was so sick, he couldn’t’ do anything without other’s help.
This man probably was seen by many doctors.
He most likely has used various medications.
However, no doctor nor medicine could cure him.
This is why he finally came to this pool expecting that if he can be the first one into the water before all others, he may be miraculously cured from his sickness.
But it was impossible for this man to jump in the water before others.
During my ministry, I have met many people like this person.
They come to the church as their last resort after failing in their countless attempts to solve their problems.
Just like this man whocould not jump into the water fast enough, there are people that have decided to come before Jesus as their last option.
Of course, this is also grace.
But the sad thing is that these people just cannot sever their ties to their worldly hope.
Many of these people pray to Jesus asking for His help.
They ask the Lord to give them one more chance to succeed.
They ask Jesus of this so that they can go back to where they came from.
The man at the pool had the same mentality.
Jesus asked him,“Do you want to get well?”
This was a very important question.
Our Lord is asking the same question to us.
“Do you want to get well?”
Here, Jesus is asking all of us whether we have hope.
Without hope, we are dead.
If we don’t have hope, even God Almighty cannot help.
Fortunately, this man did not give up his hope yet.
He still hoped to be well.
He desired to be cured.
However, his hope was misplaced.
His answer can be found in verse 7.
“Sir, 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.”
Who asked this man this question?
It was Jesus Christ.
Jesus was standing in front of this man, asking whether he wanted to get well.
However, this man, not realizing to whom he was speaking continued to focus on the pool.
He believed that the pool was the only solution.
He truly believed that his only chance to walk again was to wait for the angel to descend upon the pool.
So, this man was asking Jesus to help him get in the water when it is stirred.
Instead of asking Jesus to cure him, the man was asking Jesus to physically help him to get in the water before others.
This is a truly sad situation.
Who is he talking to?
He was talking to Jesus who is almighty.
He was talking to Jesus who could solve all his problems.
Rather than asking Jesus to cure his sickness, he was asking Jesus to assist him into the pool.
Brothers and sisters, what about us?
We often ask our Lord to help us based on our plan.
We often ask God to help us to solve difficult problems, and let us do the rest according to our plan because we tend to think that we know our problems better than God.
However, this is not right.
If we truly believe that Jesus is the Lord of our lives, we should leave everything to Jesus.
We should follow and obey the will of the Lord.
Miracles always happen when we obey.
Jesus continued to speak to this man,
“Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
If this man did nothave a desire to obey these words,what could have been his reply?
“Sir, are you kidding me? Do you think I like not being able to walk? Don’t you think I would like to get up right now and walk around?”
He could have complained to Jesus if that was the case.
20181007 Sunday Worship Sermon
Set your eyes upon Jesus
John 5:1~9
It is important to gather at church.
We should gather together as much as possible.
The Bible says that we need to encourage everyone to meet together.
This is a way to grow in faith.
It is said that the Lord does not ignore those who gather in the name of the Lord.
In Matthew 18:20, Jesus said,
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
This is why we need to gather together.
In doing so, we must understand that we have to gather in groups with our focus on Jesus.
There are various meetings in a church.
We have small group meetings, men’s group, women’s group, senior’s group, and other meetings that are endorsed by the church.
We should gather often.
However, our meetings should be Jesus-centered.
We should not forget that our meetings should be centered on Jesus.
Of course, social gatherings are also important to make intimate relationships among church members.
However, we need to remember that the importance of having Jesus as our focus in these meetings.
Jesus went to Jerusalem during the Passover, a Jewish holiday.
It was a tradition for all Jews to visit Jerusalem for the holiday season because the holy temple is in Jerusalem.
When Jesus visited Jerusalem, there were a lot of people.
They gathered at the Jerusalem temple.
Although Jesus was there, He was not the focus of this gathering.
As such, Jesus was ignored.
Instead of staying at the temple, Jesus went to the pool of Bethesda.
It was considered to be one of the bigger ponds in Jerusalem.
And there were five covered colonnades called Solomon’s Porch.
These covered colonnades turned out to be gathering locations for the sick people who believed a legend.
According to this legend, people who were sick will be healed if they are the first one to jump into the pool when the water stirred as an angel descended upon the pool.
All the people stricken with sicknesses gathered around the pool based on vague expectation.
Their eyes were fixated on the pool.
They did not care about anything else.
They were completely preoccupied.
Jesus came to the pool where the sick gathered.
Jesus, the One who could cure them all came to the pool.
However, no one looked at Jesus.
No one received Jesus as the One who could solve every problem and cure every sickness.
They did not even realize that the Son of God was nearby because they were so focused on the pool.
They were only concerned when the water was stirred.
I think we are the same as these people who gathered around the pool.
I am sure that we are identical to these people, as we too expect our problems and issues to be solved in a worldly manner rather than in Jesus’ way.
What were they thinking as they were staring at the pool?
They might be thinking how they can be the first one to jump into the water.
They saw those people around them as their competition.
They did not see each other as someone that they can share their suffering and pain.
They did not see them as someone who needed their help.
To survive, they had to compete and win against their brothers and sisters that were suffering as they were.
What about us?
Are we any different than these people?
Jesus told us to love one another as ourselves.
Do we live by Jesus’ teaching?
Isn’t it true that we sought out once or twice to trample our neighbors in order to stand on top of them?
Isn’t it true that we ignored our neighbors even though we knew that they needed our assistance?
We can realize that we are not so different than the people that were gathered at the Pool of Bethesda.
Among the people, there was a man who has suffered for 38 years.
He was so sick, he couldn’t’ do anything without other’s help.
This man probably was seen by many doctors.
He most likely has used various medications.
However, no doctor nor medicine could cure him.
This is why he finally came to this pool expecting that if he can be the first one into the water before all others, he may be miraculously cured from his sickness.
But it was impossible for this man to jump in the water before others.
During my ministry, I have met many people like this person.
They come to the church as their last resort after failing in their countless attempts to solve their problems.
Just like this man who could not jump into the water fast enough, there are people that have decided to come before Jesus as their last option.
Of course, this is also grace.
But the sad thing is that these people just cannot sever their ties to their worldly hope.
Many of these people pray to Jesus asking for His help.
They ask the Lord to give them one more chance to succeed.
They ask Jesus of this so that they can go back to where they came from.
The man at the pool had the same mentality.
Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
This was a very important question.
Our Lord is asking the same question to us.
“Do you want to get well?”
Here, Jesus is asking all of us whether we have hope.
Without hope, we are dead.
If we don’t have hope, even God Almighty cannot help.
Fortunately, this man did not give up his hope yet.
He still hoped to be well.
He desired to be cured.
However, his hope was misplaced.
His answer can be found in verse 7.
“Sir, 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.”
Who asked this man this question?
It was Jesus Christ.
Jesus was standing in front of this man, asking whether he wanted to get well.
However, this man, not realizing to whom he was speaking continued to focus on the pool.
He believed that the pool was the only solution.
He truly believed that his only chance to walk again was to wait for the angel to descend upon the pool.
So, this man was asking Jesus to help him get in the water when it is stirred.
Instead of asking Jesus to cure him, the man was asking Jesus to physically help him to get in the water before others.
This is a truly sad situation.
Who is he talking to?
He was talking to Jesus who is almighty.
He was talking to Jesus who could solve all his problems.
Rather than asking Jesus to cure his sickness, he was asking Jesus to assist him into the pool.
Brothers and sisters, what about us?
We often ask our Lord to help us based on our plan.
We often ask God to help us to solve difficult problems, and let us do the rest according to our plan because we tend to think that we know our problems better than God.
However, this is not right.
If we truly believe that Jesus is the Lord of our lives, we should leave everything to Jesus.
We should follow and obey the will of the Lord.
Miracles always happen when we obey.
Jesus continued to speak to this man,
“Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
If this man did not have a desire to obey these words, what could have been his reply?
“Sir, are you kidding me? Do you think I like not being able to walk? Don’t you think I would like to get up right now and walk around?”
He could have complained to Jesus if that was the case.
What about us?