Making wise choices enriches and makes life happy.
A company hiring staff had this question in the written application.
"You are driving through the night in the storm. At the bus stop, three people are waiting for the bus. One is an old lady who seems to be dying, another is the doctor who has saved your life before, and the last one is an ideal person you have been dreaming of. Now you can take only one of these three in your car. Whom will you choose? Make your choice and explain why. "
This was a question intending to see the wisdom to cope with a situation.
Any answer will have its own reasons.
You may be able to save a life by taking the dying old lady in your car.
It may also be a good opportunity to repay the doctor for saving your life.
However, once this opportunity passes, you may not see your ideal person again.
So you could choose your ideal person to put in your car.
Who would you choose?
One person answered this question perfectly and overcame 200 other applicants and got hired.
He described his answer as follows.
"I will give the doctor the key to my car. And I will have the doctor take the old lady to the hospital. And I will stay at the bus stop with my ideal person and wait for the bus together."
Isn’t this a wise answer?
He is a clever man.
In our journey of faith, we will be presented with constant choices to make.
I hope that we will make the best and wisest choices.
Actually, you and I have already made the best choices.
I believe that we have chosen the way of faith out of many paths in lives, and have decided on the journey of faith as the best choice.
I hope that all of you will go through this journey of faith with the Lord.
What is happening in the scripture we read today?
Jesus is now on his way to Cana in Galilee.
We know well what happened in Cana.
In John 2, Jesus showed us the miracle that made water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana.
Perhaps the people who were in Cana at that time saw or heard about the miracles that Jesus had done.
Meanwhile, about 20 miles from Galilee, there was a city called Capernaum.
One of the king’s servants was in Capernaum.
However, his son got seriously ill.
This king's servant seemed to have heard of Jesus at that time.
He knew about Jesus who healed sick people and even raised the dead.
As soon as he heard that Jesus was coming to Cana, he ran to Cana, met Jesus, and begged him to come to his house and heal his son.
But Jesus told him something irrelevant instead of saying that Jesus will surely heal his son.
Jesus said, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
When Jesus said “you”, he said it in plural form.
Jesus said this because Jesus had directly experienced the people in Galilee, especially the Canaan people.
Jesus knew that they only seeking signs and wonders.
Many people demand signs and wonders before they put trust in God.
They think signs and wonders will prove that Jesus is truly the Messiah.
However, to the servant in today’s text, seeing signs and wonders was not important.
In fact, he did not care whether Jesus was the Messiah or not.
He just wanted to have his son be healed.
So once again he begged Jesus to come with him.
But Jesus did not go with him.
Instead, Jesus said, "Go! Your son will live. "
Brothers and sisters, if you were the servant, how would you feel?
I would have been very disappointed.
I would have felt angry to Jesus.
But this king 's servant believed in the words of Jesus, and went back to his house and found that his son was actually healed.
So he and his whole household believed.
This story can be titled as “The second sign of Jesus in Galilee," or "Miraculous healing in Galilee."
When we hear these miraculous stories in the Bible, we often think, "This is what happened at the time of Jesus in the old days, miracles do not happen nowadays ... "
Perhaps some of us think, "Why are not these miraculous things happening these days? If such miraculous things were to take place at this time, more people would believe in Jesus...”
Apostle Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 3: 2,
"And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith….”
How could Paul be so sure about ‘not everyone has faith’?
What kind of person did Paul have in his mind when he thought of people without faith?
Let me give you two examples.
Someone is standing in the middle of a desert.
Imagine this.
He is now exhausted.
His mouth is so dry and his tongue is stuck to the roof of his mouth.
Suddenly, he is seeing something in the distance.
He is unsure but he is thinking.
“What is that on the horizon? Could it be water? Could it be an oasis?”
His mind is beginning to run toward it.
But his reason is stopping him from running off.
It is telling him.
“It is a mirage, not water. Do not be stupid. You will only waste your strength.”
Then he is turning to the opposite direction according to the judgment of reason.
Now, those without faith are like this man standing in the desert.
They think that there is no Jesus, no God, and faith is merely an illusion.
So they turn around and walk away.
But you know what?
Wherever you turn, you’ll only see the desert.
What would you do?
Let's take a look at another example.
Someone is standing at the entrance to the mountain.
He is going to climb to the summit.
At the bottom of the mountain, there is a sign that describes several ways to climb to the top of the mountain.
The ways to the top are invisible.
So it is impossible to know which way is the easiest way to get to the top.
At last, he is choosing one way and starting to climb.
Soon he is realizing that the way he chose is too difficult.
There are too many gravels and it is hard to walk on.
20190519 Sunday Worship Sermon
"The Miracle of Faith" (John 4:46-53)
We are always making choices.
The kinds of choices we make define our lives.
Making wise choices enriches and makes life happy.
A company hiring staff had this question in the written application.
"You are driving through the night in the storm. At the bus stop, three people are waiting for the bus. One is an old lady who seems to be dying, another is the doctor who has saved your life before, and the last one is an ideal person you have been dreaming of. Now you can take only one of these three in your car. Whom will you choose? Make your choice and explain why. "
This was a question intending to see the wisdom to cope with a situation.
Any answer will have its own reasons.
You may be able to save a life by taking the dying old lady in your car.
It may also be a good opportunity to repay the doctor for saving your life.
However, once this opportunity passes, you may not see your ideal person again.
So you could choose your ideal person to put in your car.
Who would you choose?
One person answered this question perfectly and overcame 200 other applicants and got hired.
He described his answer as follows.
"I will give the doctor the key to my car. And I will have the doctor take the old lady to the hospital. And I will stay at the bus stop with my ideal person and wait for the bus together."
Isn’t this a wise answer?
He is a clever man.
In our journey of faith, we will be presented with constant choices to make.
I hope that we will make the best and wisest choices.
Actually, you and I have already made the best choices.
I believe that we have chosen the way of faith out of many paths in lives, and have decided on the journey of faith as the best choice.
I hope that all of you will go through this journey of faith with the Lord.
What is happening in the scripture we read today?
Jesus is now on his way to Cana in Galilee.
We know well what happened in Cana.
In John 2, Jesus showed us the miracle that made water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana.
Perhaps the people who were in Cana at that time saw or heard about the miracles that Jesus had done.
Meanwhile, about 20 miles from Galilee, there was a city called Capernaum.
One of the king’s servants was in Capernaum.
However, his son got seriously ill.
This king's servant seemed to have heard of Jesus at that time.
He knew about Jesus who healed sick people and even raised the dead.
As soon as he heard that Jesus was coming to Cana, he ran to Cana, met Jesus, and begged him to come to his house and heal his son.
But Jesus told him something irrelevant instead of saying that Jesus will surely heal his son.
Jesus said, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
When Jesus said “you”, he said it in plural form.
Jesus said this because Jesus had directly experienced the people in Galilee, especially the Canaan people.
Jesus knew that they only seeking signs and wonders.
Many people demand signs and wonders before they put trust in God.
They think signs and wonders will prove that Jesus is truly the Messiah.
However, to the servant in today’s text, seeing signs and wonders was not important.
In fact, he did not care whether Jesus was the Messiah or not.
He just wanted to have his son be healed.
So once again he begged Jesus to come with him.
But Jesus did not go with him.
Instead, Jesus said, "Go! Your son will live. "
Brothers and sisters, if you were the servant, how would you feel?
I would have been very disappointed.
I would have felt angry to Jesus.
But this king 's servant believed in the words of Jesus, and went back to his house and found that his son was actually healed.
So he and his whole household believed.
This story can be titled as “The second sign of Jesus in Galilee," or "Miraculous healing in Galilee."
When we hear these miraculous stories in the Bible, we often think, "This is what happened at the time of Jesus in the old days, miracles do not happen nowadays ... "
Perhaps some of us think, "Why are not these miraculous things happening these days? If such miraculous things were to take place at this time, more people would believe in Jesus...”
Apostle Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 3: 2,
"And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith….”
How could Paul be so sure about ‘not everyone has faith’?
What kind of person did Paul have in his mind when he thought of people without faith?
Let me give you two examples.
Someone is standing in the middle of a desert.
Imagine this.
He is now exhausted.
His mouth is so dry and his tongue is stuck to the roof of his mouth.
Suddenly, he is seeing something in the distance.
He is unsure but he is thinking.
“What is that on the horizon? Could it be water? Could it be an oasis?”
His mind is beginning to run toward it.
But his reason is stopping him from running off.
It is telling him.
“It is a mirage, not water. Do not be stupid. You will only waste your strength.”
Then he is turning to the opposite direction according to the judgment of reason.
Now, those without faith are like this man standing in the desert.
They think that there is no Jesus, no God, and faith is merely an illusion.
So they turn around and walk away.
But you know what?
Wherever you turn, you’ll only see the desert.
What would you do?
Let's take a look at another example.
Someone is standing at the entrance to the mountain.
He is going to climb to the summit.
At the bottom of the mountain, there is a sign that describes several ways to climb to the top of the mountain.
The ways to the top are invisible.
So it is impossible to know which way is the easiest way to get to the top.
At last, he is choosing one way and starting to climb.
Soon he is realizing that the way he chose is too difficult.
There are too many gravels and it is hard to walk on.
He is stopping and thinking about it.
Then he is turning around and coming down.