John 4:46-5:17 – The Gospel of John

Well, good morning, everybody.

Please take your seats.

Let me add my welcome to uh to Duncan's.

My name's Mark.

I'm one of the leaders here at the church.

And if you're new here, you're visiting, you're really welcome here with us.

We're going to be looking at that passage from John's Gospel that was read for us by Alice.

If you need a Bible, you can uh run down and grab one.

Or if you've got one on your phone, you should uh you should look that up because what we're going to be seeing, we need to see from the text.

So it's going to be good to have that in front of you.

Let me invite you now to turn to that passage at the end of John 4.

Uh, as we're going to be looking at it again.

If you need a Bible, I'm going to pray now and you can uh nip down and grab one.

Uh, or if it's on your on your phone, we'll be picking up uh well, we'll pick up briefly from uh verse 43, actually, but let me pray.

Father, we thank you for this chance to gather again.

Thank you for this uh series in John's Gospel, exploring uh who Jesus is, and we pray, Father, for attentive and soft hearts uh this morning.

Help us uh to hear these words of Jesus and to understand them.

Uh, not just to understand them in terms of head knowledge, but to be transformed by them.

Please would you grow us, mature us in our faith, we ask in his name.

Amen.

You know, one of the things that people often say if you if you talk to them, or maybe in fact you've said it, is uh when you're talking about God or about spiritual things, somebody will say something like, I like to think about God as dot dot dot.

Or when I like to uh when I think of God, I prefer to uh to emphasize his ABC.

Or I don't really like to think about God as being XYZ.

Essentially that's a way of saying there's things about God, there's things about Christianity, there's things about Jesus that kind of make me feel uncomfortable, that I don't really prefer.

And so I'm going to try and kind of gloss over them.

I'm gonna take the uh I'm gonna take the stuff that I that I like and I'm going to uh to leave the stuff that I don't like.

A bit like a kind of uh Christianity variety pack.

You know, you get the variety pack of cereals and you go straight for the frosties because they're the best.

And then you might do cocoa pops, but who's gonna eat the cornflakes?

Uh and you kind of think, no, I'm just gonna leave them in the back, and they gather up at the back of the of the cupboard, or maybe that's just my house.

Um what happens though, when you're kind of interacting with faith in that sort of way of saying, I prefer to think of God like X, Y, and Z, is what ends up happening is you end up kind of worshipping an idealized version of yourself.

It's it's you taking your thoughts and preferences and opinions and projecting them upwards uh onto God and saying, That's what I like, I'm fashioning God in my own image rather than uh God creating us in his image.

Do you know if your God never challenges you, if your God never makes you feel uncomfortable, then maybe you're just worshiping your own assumptions.

Maybe you're just worshiping your own thoughts.

If God is God and we're not, he's gonna say things that make us bristle from time to time.

On the face of it, these two instances that Alice read for us, these two healings, uh, are simply cases of uh of somebody, of people in need of help.

And we could just have a sermon about how lovely Jesus is that he went and helped those people.

But John doesn't let us do that, and Jesus doesn't let us do that because Jesus says some things that are uncomfortable here.

He asks some weird questions.

John does for sure want us to see that Jesus has the power to heal.

We believe in that as a church, we believe in that as Christians, that Jesus has the power to heal, we pray for that.

We also believe that Jesus is compassionate and gracious and kind.

But you scratch below the surface of these two instances and you see that Jesus doesn't actually fit our categories.

The Jesus of John's gospel, the Jesus of the Bible actually uh wants to challenge us in various ways.

He wants to push us slightly in order to deepen our faith.

In the same way that uh that when a storm shakes a tree, its roots go deeper.

That Jesus has come to kind of give us a little bit of a shake so that our roots go deeper into him.

He doesn't fit our assumptions, he doesn't sit neatly into our political or social or moral categories.

He is gracious, but he's also challenging.

So let's have a look at a couple, two, in fact, challenges that he offers from each of these instances.

One each.

The first question around the challenge in this healing of the official son is really this do you want a miracle worker or do you want a savior?

Do you want a miracle worker or do you want a savior?

Let's pick the story up at actually at verse 43.

It's my bad that I didn't uh uh tell uh the guys to put the reading earlier, but you know, you prep a sermon and you realize, oh, actually I need to go back or I need to go forward.

So cast your eye back to verse 43, where it says, After two days he departed for Galilee.

So he's back up in his home region, and then we get this little saying of Jesus, verse 44, for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his hometown.

So he's gone back home to a place of dishonor.

Then we read verse 45.

So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast.

For they too had gone to the feast.

That's the feast where he turns over the tables in Jerusalem, and he's also healing people in the temple courts.

But do you notice what's going on there?

John in verse 44 says that Jesus saying was, a prophet is without honor in his hometown.

But then in verse 45 we read that the Galileans welcomed him.

Shouldn't we be expecting, because of verse 44, some dishonoring, some unwelcome faces?

What's going on?

Well, verse 45 helps us.

They had been to the feast, they had seen Jesus the miracle worker.

What John is pointing out, and which will become more apparent, is that they welcomed him as miracle worker, as sign giver, but not as savior.

Now, verse 48, uh, in comes an official's son.

So he's back in his hometown area.

So Galilee is basically there's a whole bunch of little villages all connected to one another.

And so he's back in his home region.

He's there where he turned water into wine.

And what happens is that this royal official, probably from the court of Herod, comes in, and we learn in the end of verse 46 was that his son was ill.

Not just that his son was a little bit ill, but verse 47 says that he was near to death.

So this royal official makes this 20-mile journey, we think, from the court of Herod, where he would have been staying with his family, to be with Jesus in order to implore Jesus to come down and to heal his son that was dying.

Imagine the desperation of the father who has to make this decision of do I stay and say goodbye to my son, or do I make this 20-mile walk, jog, run?

To try and get this guy to come the 20 miles back?

Do I have that sort of time?

Is he still going to be alive when I get back?

If he's dead, will I forever regret those last moments that I missed?

But but I have to make this attempt.

Do you feel the kind of the anxiety and the emotional weightiness of it all that this desperate father comes to Jesus and says, please, please come.

My son is about to die.

You can hear the desperation in his voice in verse 49, where he says, Sir, come down before my child dies.

This powerful man from the royal court.

It's rendered completely powerless.

Helpless to save his son.

Isn't that what tragedy and suffering looks like?

Isn't that what tragedy and suffering does in our lives?

It makes us feel utterly helpless.

It doesn't matter how powerful you are, it doesn't matter how wealthy you are, suffering can lay you in the dust.

You feel utterly helpless.

Here comes this man.

But look at Jesus' response.

Jesus doesn't say, Oh, right, okay, let's go.

Sorry, guys, gotta run.

That's not what he says.

Have a look at verse 48.

So Jesus said to him, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.

It's important to note, and this is why I want you to have the text in front of you.

It's important to note that while he's speaking to the man, the you there is plural.

He's addressing the crowd and the man as part of the crowd.

You all seek signs and wonders.

You see?

It's a plural you.

He's saying, you're all sign seekers.

You're welcoming me because at heart you're wonder worshippers.

You want my miracles, but you don't want me.

Are you hoping that I'm going to make more wine for you?

And what about the official?

Is he a sign seeker too?

He's in the crowd of people who just want to see a miracle, but is he one of them?

Is he only here because his son is sick?

Isn't this often actually how we approach God?

I have a need.

I need God to meet it.

I have a problem.

I need God to fix it.

I have a sin.

I need God to forgive it.

God becomes useful to us.

A resource to tap from time to time when our backs are against the wall or when we don't quite feel very good.

We view him as useful.

Jesus doesn't immediately grant the man's request.

He rebuffs him.

He pushes back slightly.

Jesus is in the habit of doing this.

Jesus likes to get it.

He pushes a little bit.

Again, it's like that shaking of the tree that makes the roots go deeper.

He just gives this man just a little bit of a shake.

He just rebuffs him ever so slightly.

He offers up this challenge.

Why?

Why doesn't he just go?

Oh yeah, I'm coming.

Because he's trying to elicit true faith.

Look at verse 49 and 50.

The official said to him, actually, let's pick it up from 48, just to get the sense of the conversation.

Jesus says, Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.

The official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies.

Jesus said to him, Go.

Your son will live.

The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

The father of this dying son cries out in desperation.

He doesn't respond with some reason theological argument about who he thinks Jesus is.

You know, Jesus says, verse 48, unless you see signs and wonders, you'll not believe he doesn't say, No, no, I realize that you are, you know, God from God, light from light, true God from true God.

I realize that you are the one sent from heaven who was always at the Father's side.

And I really he doesn't do any of that.

He doesn't respond with any theology, he just responds with desperation.

Sir, come down before my child dies.

He simply casts himself on the mercy of Jesus.

And how does Jesus respond?

Go.

Your son will live.

The man wanted him to come down.

Come, come, let's make the 20-mile journey together.

Presumably thinking that Jesus needed to be in the proximity of the boy, needed to be able to touch the boy or anoint him or speak some words over him.

But Jesus just says, go.

And what do we read?

The man believed the word that Jesus had spoken.

The man put his faith in Jesus' word, that in him simply saying, Go, your son will live.

He took him at his word that his son will be well.

And indeed, that's confirmed that at the very same time.

You see, the man doesn't press Jesus more.

He doesn't say, No, no, you don't understand.

Don't just, don't just give me words.

Don't just say, Go, he'll be okay.

No, I need you to come and to show up and to be there.

No, he doesn't do that.

He doesn't press for a physical sign.

He looks at Jesus and takes him at his word.

He believes him.

Two things here.

What kind of Jesus are you looking for?

Are you looking for the miracle worker, the sign seeker, the Jesus who will make your life a little bit better?

The augment who will keep you happy, give you a job, give you a place to live, give you kids when you want them.

That Jesus.

And when he doesn't do those things, you're like, how could God be so horrible?

Maybe you're a wonder worshiper.

You see, God is useful.

Do you just want a happier life?

Or do you want Jesus no matter the cost?

Challenging, isn't it?

The second thing to notice here, the man's faith is imperfect.

He believes because he wants his son to live.

And who can blame him?

Jesus doesn't.

Jesus doesn't continue to offer recriminations.

Jesus takes that man's imperfect faith and he begins to grow it.

So do you see the graciousness of Jesus, not just in the healing, but the graciousness in the way that he rebuffs the man slightly so that he can grow imperfect faith and mature the guy.

You know, in terms of my own personal story, I began to take my faith more seriously when I was when I was 19 years old, not much older than some of you here.

And I took my faith, began to take my faith more seriously, in large part, quite frankly, because I wanted to be a good husband.

I wanted to be a good father.

I love the idea of having a family, and I wanted to be a good a good enough person who deserved those things.

I probably wanted those things.

In fact, if I was if I'm honest, I know that I wanted those things more than I wanted God.

I wanted God to give me those things.

God was gracious.

He didn't send me away, he invited me to believe in him, and I began to realize over a process of years that he would be enough.

You see, Jesus takes imperfect faith and he grows it into true faith.

And so we read again at the end of the narrative in verse 53, if you flip over to it, the father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, Your son would live.

And he himself believed and all his household.

I wonder, I wonder if we're told in verse 53 that he believed again, because actually what happened is that his his faith evolved, that in that moment his faith leveled up.

He was beginning to mature.

It deepened, it changed.

It certainly spread.

It spread to his whole household.

We may seek the Savior, however imperfectly.

But we're invited to take him at his word and to trust him where he leads.

In order to do that, he will grow and refine your faith.

Think of our mission as a church.

Do you know what our mission as a church is?

City Church Dublin exists to connect people to Jesus, to grow them to spiritual maturity that they might serve the community and go to the nations.

Connect, grow, serve, go.

Often we talk about connecting people to Jesus.

We have very evangelistic sermons, messages, kind of real kind of apologetic depth, or at least that's the hope from time to time.

But this is about growing.

This is about you maturing as a Christian.

Are you seeking the Jesus who is useful to you?

Or the Jesus who is your savior?

The Jesus who is your, who is the sign, who's the sign giver, the wonder worker, who makes your life go with a bit of a pop, a bit of a bang.

Or the one who you will take at his word and trust wherever he leads.

Jesus will take you in perfect faith and grow it into that.

If you follow him, if you let him, if you take him at his word.

To mature as a believer of Jesus is to move from seeking him as someone who helps you simply to live a better life, to fix an issue, to being someone who follows him no matter where he leads.

That's the first challenge.

The second challenge comes here with the healing at the pool of the Sabbath.

And again, we can see it as a question: do you want healing or do you want holiness?

Do you want healing or do you want holiness?

The narrative moves back to Jerusalem.

So we were uh we were at the top of the country, we've moved back down uh to Jerusalem to another feast.

We don't know what feast it was, doesn't really matter.

But he's back there in Jerusalem.

And this incident in John 5 uh proves to be a turning point in the gospel because after this, the religious leaders aren't just kind of curious about Jesus, they're not just wary about Jesus, they want him dead.

It's a pivot in the gospel.

Jesus, upon returning to Jerusalem, goes to this pool called Bethesda, where there's a, we're told, a multitude, a multitude of invalids, of blind, lame, and paralyzed.

Uh, you'll notice actually, if you're if you're really eagle-eyed, that uh where it says verse three, if you look beyond verse three, there's no verse four.

Do you see that?

Oh my goodness.

It just goes from three to five.

Why is that?

Uh well, if you've in some Bibles, there'll be a footnote where verse four is inserted.

And verse four simply explains the uh the superstition around the pool.

We think probably what happened is that some later copyist wrote in because it was becoming unfamiliar.

So he's like, uh, what happened was that they believed that an angel stirred up the water.

That's why uh the man says, There's nobody to put me into the water when it stirred up, because the belief was that you would lie this around the side of the pool.

And as soon as the the water began to bubble, they believed that an angel was kind of stirring the pot, that the first one in or the first ones in were healed.

That was the superstitious belief at the time.

And that's what verse four explains, but it's not in the earliest manuscripts.

And so it's not here in this text.

We can talk about that later if you like.

But I want us to notice just a couple of things.

First of all, notice Jesus' knowledge here in verse 5 and 6.

One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there for a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be healed?

Jesus knew that he had been there.

This is another one of Jesus' kind of divine appointments, like him having to go to Samaria to meet the woman at the well.

Jesus knew supernaturally, divinely, that he'd been there for such a long time, a lifetime.

When we encounter Jesus, we encounter the one who has full knowledge of you.

Full knowledge of who you are.

How does that make you feel about it?

Just think about that for a second.

To be fully known by him.

That might actually make you feel quite uncomfortable.

Until you realize that you're fully loved by him, too.

You see, to be fully loved, but not fully known, it's kind of sentimental.

It's just kind of hallmark hard twaddle.

But to be fully known and not loved, that's terrifying.

Jesus fully knows you and fully loves you.

Jesus' knowledge of the man is made even sweeter by his compassion.

He goes to the pool.

He makes a point of being there.

He doesn't have to.

He's going up to a feast, presumably he's going to the temple courts, but he makes this detour.

He seeks out this man in the same way that he seeks out the woman at the well.

He's looking for him.

And here again we see something of the character of Jesus.

Not just his full knowledge, but that Jesus moves towards, deliberately towards those in need.

He moves towards those who are brokenhearted.

Who are weak and weary.

It's a horrible experience, isn't it?

And maybe you've been through it, that actually sometimes when you go through a season of suffering, that your friends begin to withdraw.

They move backwards.

You think, why are you doing that?

And in part it's because sometimes people don't know what to say, and it's just it's too awkward.

But you feel that distance, you feel that they're moving back from you, but that's not what Jesus does.

Jesus doesn't move away from you in your suffering, he moves towards you in your brokenheartedness.

Do you see?

He goes to the pool.

But look at what he says to the guy.

Again, there's a little, there's a little push.

I mean, imagine this question.

Jesus says to the guy in verse 6, do you want to be healed?

What a question.

Imagine walking into a hospital.

You're to the to the ICU and going out to the people saying, Do you want to be well?

It's slightly funny, but it's also kind of rude.

Like, what do you mean?

Like, of course I do.

He's like, is this guy cruel?

Or is he an idiot?

Or is he both?

So what's going on?

Why does Jesus ask this question?

Maybe Jesus was trying to awaken in the man the last dying vestiges of faith.

You know, there's those there's those faint little embers of of hope, and and Jesus is trying to revive them by asking this question.

Or maybe Jesus is essentially saying, hey, you know, why haven't you gotten into the water yet?

It's been 38 years.

Because you know, so sometimes sometimes people become a little bit entrenched in their, in their, in their victimhood, in their in their disability, in the thing that's wrong.

It kind of becomes their identity, and it actually becomes quite a comfortable place.

Maybe Jesus is pushing that.

Maybe.

But I think there's something else going on.

The man responds in verse 7.

The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.

And while I'm going, another steps down before me.

And Jesus asks no more questions.

He doesn't say, Oh, why is that?

And oh, well, why don't we hang out for a while and we'll see if it gets stirred up?

No more questions.

No more conversation.

Just a command, verse 8.

Jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed and walk.

And at once, after 38 years, and at once, immediately, the man was healed.

He took up his bed.

Bless you.

And walked.

I think that Jesus asked this question, do you want to be healed?

Because this man actually had no hope left.

His response is so pitiful, isn't it?

I have no one to put me into the water.

Somebody gets down before me.

He's so hopeless.

There's no, well, maybe next time, maybe if you stay here, I might be able to get in.

Or it's not even maybe you could do something.

I heard that you were doing things in the temple courts, but I couldn't get there.

It's nothing.

Who's gonna put me in?

So utterly hopeless.

And Jesus heals him.

Here's the point.

There was nothing faithful or religious or even moral about the man.

But Jesus, full of compassion, full of mercy, full of grace, heals him.

He had nothing left.

Those embers weren't there.

He was completely cold, spiritually speaking.

And Jesus comes and shows him mercy.

Shows him grace.

The grounds for the healing was Jesus' grace, not the man's righteousness.

Not the man's hope, not the man's faith.

It was all a gift from Jesus.

Jesus doesn't move away from you in your misery or in your hopelessness.

He moves towards you in gracious compassion.

His remedies might not be what you want, not be what you sought.

But that is not because he is heartless.

John brings another element into the story there at the very end.

So you see the paragraph, it's actually still verse 9, where it says, now that day was a Sabbath, or was the Sabbath.

This is going to be a problem for the religious leaders.

And we're going to park all of that into next week because we're going to see Jesus' defense in detail.

Basically, trailer is that Jesus can only do these things if he's God.

And so he's going to give a defense about how it is that he is God.

So that's going to be next week.

But the religious leaders, you can say, Oh, there's an issue here.

The healing was on the Sabbath.

The religious leaders come and they find the guy and they say, Well, you shouldn't be carrying your mat because that's work.

Who knew?

Don't carry your bed today or yesterday, whatever day you find, don't carry your bed because that's work in the minds of the religious leaders.

The religious leaders are going to have a problem, but religious leaders always have a problem because Jesus doesn't fit into their boxes.

Religious people always have an issue because Jesus doesn't fit their categories.

He explodes them, he kicks them down.

He doesn't follow their rules.

So we're just going to note the opposition now and look at it in more detail at Jesus' defense next week.

For now, the religious leaders question the man who was healed, but the man who was healed doesn't know who healed him.

Do you see that?

I have no idea.

Why?

Because Jesus had withdrawn.

He'd moved away.

Because a crowd was coming in its place.

It's there in verse 13.

Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, and there was a crowd in place.

And this is where things take an even more unexpected turn.

People think of God, well, God's job is to forgive me, God's job is to heal me.

That's what he does.

But think about it a little bit more.

John has already told us that at this pool at Bethesda, it was full of people.

It was full of people who were in need.

A huge crowd of blind people, lame people, sick people.

And Jesus healed one guy.

Did you notice that?

There's loads of people there, and Jesus heals one guy.

He doesn't go around zapping people.

You know?

But it's kind of what we would think that he should do, or what we would do if we were given in that sort of like you you wouldn't you go into the uh to the to the pediatric cancer ward and go healed, healed, healed, healed.

Wouldn't you do that?

But Jesus doesn't do that.

Do you see?

He doesn't go sight, hearing, walk.

He could totally do it, but he heals one guy.

Why?

Why does he heal one guy?

Because healing isn't the goal.

Healing isn't the goal.

Holiness is.

This is where this text gets really challenging.

Look at verse 14.

And afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, See, you are well.

Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to ye.

What is especially challenging about this verse is that Jesus seems to be making a connection between the man's disability and his sin.

In fact, the see no more, comma, that nothing worse may happen to you, could be better rendered, see no more lest.

That kind of draws the link tighter, doesn't it?

Sin no more lest something worse may happen to you.

Jesus in John 9, if you're taking notice, John 9 verse 3, is emphatically clear that bad, that not all bad things happen to people as a direct consequence of their sin.

John 9:3

And we need to remember that.

That if some tragedy, if some suffering befalls you or someone you love, don't end up like Job's coveters who come to go, oh, oh, once noble Job, what sin have you committed?

Jesus says, no, no, no, no.

Bad things don't just happen to sinful people, right?

It's not as a direct consequence of someone's sin.

But here, Jesus does seem to be saying that there was a connection between the disability for 38 years and some sin that the man had committed.

I really wrestled with that this week.

I've never read it this way, but I'm convinced that's what's going on.

Let me explain.

And if you're challenged by it, certainly I'm it's hard to hear.

But think about it further.

Imagine with me for a second that in Bethesda there were dozens of people at the pool who were suffering through no fault of their own.

Some terrible accident had rendered them blind, some violent attack had left them lame.

But Jesus heals the guy who, from an earthly perspective, doesn't deserve it.

Guys, could that be why no one is there to put him in the pool?

Could that be why people step over him to get in?

Because they look at him and go, we remember what he did.

He doesn't deserve it.

We get in first.

I'm not helping him get in.

Could that be why he says, nobody's there to put me into the pool?

And Jesus goes to him.

Why?

Because Jesus came to rescue the worst of us.

Are you okay with that?

Have you settled that in your heart?

Have you settled that in your mind that Jesus came to rescue the worst of us?

He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor.

Our sins, they are many.

His mercy is more.

Because if Jesus can redeem the worst of us, then there's hope for all of us.

The healing isn't the goal.

Holiness is.

That's why he withdraws.

He's not going to be tagged as another faith healer.

He goes or he has come into this world to bring something more.

So he says to him, see your well, sin no more.

And that's the gospel, guys.

That's the gospel.

People think that Christianity is sin no more, and I'll make you well.

But no, the gospel is I'm going to make you well, I'm going to redeem your life.

And I go and sin no more.

Now I live a life of holiness.

Now follow me.

Now put your faith in me.

Take me at my word.

Follow me where I lead.

That's the gospel.

People think it's I've got to clean up my act morally before God will like me, before God will accept me.

That's not the gospel.

He comes to the worst of us so that we can be assured that he can save all of us.

That's the gospel.

That's the message of Christianity.

But he comes to the man and says, See, you're well, I sin no more.

He's telling the man that the healing of his body was not the end.

The issue that Jesus cares about is his holiness more than his health.

Jesus cares about your holiness more than he does about your health.

He cares about your holiness more than your happiness.

Are you okay with that?

Do you see?

Jesus is saying, sin no more.

I've healed your body so that I can heal your soul, so that nothing worse might happen.

I take that to be the final judgment on the last day.

And Jesus is inviting the man to trust Jesus for the rest of his life, to believe in him, saying, He's saying to the guy, what good is it if I've healed your body and you get to the last day?

And you face, you face me as an enemy, and you face my judgment and my wrath, what good is it that I've healed you for a lifetime if you spend an eternity estranged from me?

If you perish in the final judgment?

For the reader, for us, in the sense we don't, we don't, that question kind of goes unanswered.

It hangs in the air for us to answer.

Do we want healing?

Or do we want his holiness?

The point is this, and with this we begin to draw to a close.

The gospel, the message of Christianity offers us glimpses of the kingdom, four tastes of resurrection power.

And that's what these healings are.

We absolutely believe today that Jesus heals people.

We pray for that earnestly, we expect that, we long for that, we want that.

But we also know that people go through their whole lives with disabilities and impairments, with burdens seen and unseen, that are never relieved in this life.

Jesus healed one man at the pool at Bethesda and withdrew.

Why?

In order to put an emphasis not on the healings, but on the call to walk with Jesus in holiness.

Jesus' first coming gives us a foretaste of what full, abundant life looks like.

And his second coming will bring the absolute healing and restoration and redemption of our bodies.

That is the promise of the gospel.

That if you are carrying a burden and you are crying yourself to sleep, saying, Lord, take this from me.

And that prayer, it seems, is falling on deaf ears.

There's a promise for you that is as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow.

And that is, by trusting in Jesus, you will one day walk in wellness in the kingdom of God.

That you will one day be healed.

You think of Jacob who wrestled with God, and as he wrestled with God, what did Jacob do?

What did God do?

He busted his hip and he walked with a cane for the rest of his life.

He walked with a limp.

Jacob on that last day will throw aside his cane and he will walk.

He will run into the arms of his savior, the Lord Jesus.

Do you believe that that will be you?

That is the promise of the gospel.

It's not now.

It's kept in heaven for us.

We persevere through sufferings and trials, knowing the sure and certain hope that we will be made whole again, that we will be giving resurrection bodies that will never befall to sickness, that will never die, that will never be sad again.

That's the promise of the gospel.

The aim of the four tests in the Gospels and that we receive and that we see now in this life is to call us to deeper faith and holiness.

It's to shake our tree so that our roots go deeper.

Johnny Erickson, Johnny Erickson Tada was born in Baltimore in 1949.

When she was 18 years old, she went cliff diving in Chesapeake Bay, which is in Maryland.

And as she was diving, she misjudged the shallowness of the water.

And she dove in.

She hit rock bottom and fractured the third and fourth vertebrae.

And since that moment she's been paralyzed from the shoulders down.

She's now 72 years old.

She's been paralyzed for 54 years.

No healing.

No healing.

Listen to her words.

He, that is God, has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me.

The more intense the pain, the closer his embrace.

I would rather be in this wheelchair, knowing Jesus, than on my feet without him.