Waiting All Your Life

Well, have you ever had to wait in a doctor's office? Yeah? Okay, if you have, you know what it's like. I heard about one guy who actually was left in a waiting room. And the office was closed. It was kind of a back room in the corner and the doctor and nurse forgot about him. And there he is, back in that waiting room, he noticed things were getting off of quiet. He didn't hear anybody moving around anymore, so he finally opened the door and looked out the hallway was dark. The office was closed. Now I know all of you who work in doctor's offices around here say that would never happen in our doctor's office. And I'm sure it probably wouldn't, but it did happen to one guy. Can you imagine waiting a year and never getting in to see the doctor? Five years, ten years? Can you imagine going to the doctor every day for 38 years and never getting in to see the doctor? It's just hard to imagine, isn't it? And so it's difficult for us to grasp what the man in our story today in John V was experiencing when he's waiting for physical healing for 38 years. John chapter five, as we journey through the gospel of John and John's record of the life of Christ, we find today the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda. There is always more than meets the eye to the healings and miracles of Christ. In fact, the Old Testament prophets clearly identified what Jesus, the Messiah, would do when he came. And what the kingdom would look like when the Messiah showed up. For instance, Isaiah 35 verses 5 and 6, you see on the screen. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened. The ears of the deaf unstopped. Then with a lame leap like a deer, the mute tongues shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. That's what it will look like when the Messiah comes Isaiah said. There will be healings, miraculous, amazing healings that will be done by the Messiah. And so, as Jesus does this, healing is basically offering to the nation his credentials. These are my credentials. I am fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah. Here it is. You can see it. In fact, John tells us that's exactly why he put in the record of his gospel the miracles that he did. On chapter 20 verses 30 and 31, say this, Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah. In other words, you believe he is the promised one. The one that Isaiah and others talked about. These are recorded for the express purpose that you will believe that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. And so, John records these amazing miracles as Jesus credentials to Messiah ship. To the being the Son of God, the one who came to be the King of the Jews and the Savior of the world. In chapters 5 through 11, John records four amazing startling miracles. The miracle of the man here at the pool of Bethesda in John 6, the feeding of the 5,000. In John chapter 9, the healing of the man blind from birth. And in John chapter 11, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. And so, John records these miracles for the express purpose of proving these are the credentials of the Messiah. This is what Isaiah was talking about. This is the Son of God. This is the Messiah. Now, the story of the man at the pool points out in a unique way the glories of the person of Christ. That's what all the miracles are designed to show as we've just seen. But this one points out in a unique way the glories of the person of Christ. And I want us to see this morning what Jesus shows himself to be in. What we see about the Savior as we look at this healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda. In John chapter 5, the first six verses we see first of all the pity of Christ. Now, the word pity sometimes carries a negative connotation in our today. But it certainly didn't in Bible times. It was a word that could be used to translate a major Hebrew word in the Old Testament for compassion or loving kindness and a major Greek word in the New Testament for mercy. It had the idea of pity and not just to be moved but to be moved inwardly at people's needs so much that you had to do something about it. You reached out to help. You couldn't help yourself. You were so moved inside. Had compassion to the extent that you had to help. And that's a fitting word to describe what happens with Jesus and this man at the pool. Notice first of all what Jesus saw. Verse 1. Sometime later Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. We're not told by John which one it was. There were three every year that every Jewish male was required to attend. So we know that it was one of those three where there would be a great crowd of people in Jerusalem. Jerusalem would be very crowded because of this festival. But notice verse 2. 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. Now this is what you would see today if you would go through the sheep gate and turn to your right. This next picture shows us what Jesus would see if he were going in today. Do we have that picture on the screen there it is. That's all that's left of the pools of Bethesda today. It would have been excavated by archaeologists. But let me show you what it would look like in Jesus' day. The model of the city of Jerusalem found that the Holy Land Hotel in Jerusalem gives a model of the city as it was in the first century. This is the pool of Bethesda. And you can see it was a large structure with two separate pools and like John says five colonnades or porches, the four sides and then the one running down the middle between the two levels of the pools. This was a huge structure. And it had water inside that was considered to be healing water. It's kind of like mineral springs or something like that. The water would bubble up and people would desire to get into the water to be healed. And so Jesus saw that pool. But he also saw in verse 3 a great multitude of people. Look at verse 3. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie. The blind, the lame, the paralyzed. This great hoard of hurting humanity, lying at these pools, crawling under these porches to get shelter from the heat or the rain at times. From in this knee demonstrated in Jesus would see this great crowd of people. At the end of verse 3 and verse 4 you find this middle of verse 3. And they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had. If you have the NIV this morning or any other modern translation you find those two verses verse 4 and that part of verse 3 is really a footnote. It's not following through in the text. And there's a reason for that. That part of this story was not found in any early version of the Bible up until several hundred years after Christ died. And so it probably was a later insertion and does not really belong in the text. It found its way into the King James version because the King James used very late copies of the Greek New Testament to write the New Testament translated. But it probably reflects an ancient tradition and superstition about why people were gathered at the pool. People in that they believed that what was causing the disturbance of the water was an angel coming down to disturb it. It probably was some kind of bubbling mineral springs, kind of warm springs, that kind of thing. And people had a superstition in that day that it was an angel that came down. The first one in the water would actually be healed. The Bible does not support superstitions like that nor does the Bible ever record any instance of playing a cruel joke on hurting people. Okay, I'm going to come down and stir up the water and the first person that gets in if you're not fast enough, sorry. Maybe next year God does not count the names of any kind of cruel joke on hurting people like that. And so this part of the passage probably describes an accurate perception of the day, but the water would be stirred by the bubbling of the springs and people felt that they could get in. They would be healed. Verse 5, notice what Jesus sees. One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in that condition for a long time, he asked him, do you want to get well? Now here's what Jesus sees. He sees this huge area of the pools of Bethesda. He sees a huge crowd of people gathered there in desperate hope, despairing, almost hopeless because only one person is going to be able to get into the water when it's stirred. And so this huge crowd of humanity, but Jesus also sees this one person. And so I want you to look beyond what Jesus sees. I want you to also look at what Jesus saw and felt. What did Jesus see and feel? We know that Jesus reached out in compassion because he felt pity, mercy, compassion for this man. But as Jesus walked through that gate of the city on the northeast corner of the wall of Jerusalem, he would see this huge pool and a huge crowd of people. But unlike most other people, he did not just walk by. This is a crowded time in the city of Jerusalem. People are in and out constantly these city gates. And most people were used to seeing this crowd of people. They would just walk by, but not Jesus. Jesus is moved by what he sees. We know that from what Matthew's gospel says in Matthew chapter 9, Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, moved with pity on them, had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. And so Jesus is moved with compassion when he sees this crowd. Unlike most people who just pass on by, he stops. He notices, he looks, he feels compassion in his heart, but he sees not only the crowds in this huge group of people in despair by the pools. He focuses his gaze on one person, one man, verse five, who had been there for 38 years, when Jesus saw him lying there. His gaze focuses in the midst of all of this crowd on one person and his need. And he inquires about him and finds out he's been there for a long time. So Jesus not only sees the crowds, he sees the individual too. And I'm so reminded that he still does that today. Jesus sees the crowds of hurting people. He looks down upon the mass of humanity and his heart is moved at the needs of people and the hurts of people. But he also focuses on each individual. He's looking at you today. His gaze meets yours today. His heart connects with yours today. And Jesus is focusing upon you and whatever your needs are, whatever shape you come to church in, whatever burdens you carry with you, whatever heartaches and tragedies have been set you in your life. Jesus knows about those and he focuses his attention and his gaze on you individually. He's concerned about your needs. So often people think, God even noticed me, is he forgotten about me? Does he know what's happening with me? And I assure you that our loving Savior focuses his gaze upon you individually and he knows exactly what's happening with you. But when I see this act of my Savior, this compassion, the pity of Christ, I'm also moved to look at myself and to look at us and ask this question, what do we see and feel? Do we have that same compassion? Do we have that same pity that is willing to recognize the needs of the masses of great numbers of people but also to focus in on the hearts of individuals? There's a story that is told of a man who fell in a pit and couldn't get out. A new age mystic came by and said, you only believe you're in a pit. A self-righteous legalist came by and said, only bad people fall into pit, you deserve that. An IRS agent came by and asked if he was paying taxes on the pit. The charismatic came by and said, just claim that you're not in the pit. An optimist came by and said, things could be worse. A pessimist came by and said, things will be worse. And Jesus came by and lifted the man out of the pit. Now that simple little story is designed to remind us that it is much easier to analyze and criticize people's problems than it is to get down on the pit with them and help them out. And we so often do that. We analyze why people are where they are. We criticize people for what's been done in their lives rather than having hearts of compassion like our Savior who gets down in the pit with someone who walks over to the pool, who goes inside and focuses on that man and gazes upon him and his need. Do we have that same vision spiritually? Do we have that same compassion spiritually? You know, I'm so grateful to serve in a church that I believe does have that kind of compassion. I'm thankful to be in a place where when people are divorced, we don't look at them and say, well, you must have failed. You'll never be restored. No. We offer a ministry called divorce care to help them work through the issues, the struggles, the difficulties, the life changes and challenges they will face and find a group of people who will reach down and help them out of the pit. I'm so glad that I serve in a place where when people are struggling with the death of a family member or a friend, we don't just have to look at them and say, oh, you just got to get over it. No, we provide a grief share ministry to take people through what they're feeling and understand their emotions, understand their loneliness and their heartache and their anger and come alongside with some people who will reach out to help them heal and adjust to a new reality in their life. I'm so glad for that. I'm so grateful that we're in a church where people who are fighting addictions and hurts and habits and hang-ups are not told, well, you've made a mess of your life. We don't want anything to do with you. We're better than that. I'm so grateful we're not in a place like that. We have a ministry that reaches out to folks, celebrate recovery because we all have hurts and we all have hang-ups and we've all struggled with habits that we struggle to get over. I'm so glad we have a place of warm acceptance, a safe place for people to come and to find healing in their souls, to find people who will reach out to them and love them, not analyze and criticize, but reach down into the pit and help them. I'm so glad we're in a place like that and I hope every person at Johnston Chapel has that heart and I hope we never lose that heart of wanting to reach out to lost and hurting people, meet them where they are with the needs they have in their lives and gently, tenderly, graciously, compassionately with the biblical sense of pity, bring them to the Savior. The pity of Christ, as He sees the masses of people but as He focuses on the one individual and His need. But Christ never stops with just pity, He never stops with just compassion. True compassion always results in action to try to meet needs and that leads us to the power of Christ because what we see next is a tremendous demonstration of His power. Look again at verse 6. When Jesus saw Him lying there and learned that He had been in that condition for a long time, He asked Him, do you want to get well? Sir, the invalid replied, 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. 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 walked. Oh, the power of Christ. Notice if you will, though, first the question. The question that Jesus asked, it seems odd, seems strange, it almost seems uncaring and cruel in this man's life. In this condition for Jesus to ask the question, He did in verse 6. When He saw Him lying there and learned He had been in this condition for a long time, He asked Him, do you want to get well? Of course He wants to get well, He's been there 38 years. What kind of question is that? Aren't there some questions you just don't ask? Do you ask a football coach who's got the number one team in the nation playing the worst team in their conference? Do you ask that coach, are you going to win the game, Saturday? How is he supposed to answer that question? You know how they all do? Well, you know, that team really is a lot better than their record implies and we've got a lot of injuries with key players. We've got to learn to get off the ball quicker. We've got to learn to execute better. If we play good football, there will be a competitive game. Well, he knows he's going to slaughter him by 40 points, but how do you answer that question? For years, the greatest golfer in history, Jack Nicholas has been asked the question, will Tiger Woods break your record of 18 major championships? Which once seemed to be a record unapproachable? But Tiger Woods began winning them right and left and now has 14. And so Nicholas for years has been asked that question and he's always answered the same way. Yes, I believe he will break my record. Well, it's been six years since Tiger Woods is one of a major championship and recently Nicholas was asked that question again. Do you still think he'll break your record of 18? And Nicholas finally broke. He said, I would be an idiot if I answered any other way. Yes, he will break my record. Now, leave me alone. I mean, how do you answer a question like that? Do you stop when a guy you see a guy pulled off the side of the road with the hood of his car up? Do you stop and asking, is there something wrong with your car? Oh, no, I'm just here to hug my carburetor. Of course, why would you even ask that? In many, many years of hospital visitation, I have never stood by someone's bed. And I don't whether you have either a gym or any of those pastors here. I've never stood by someone's bed and said, do you want to get well? So, why did Jesus ask that question? Do you want to get well? It's because Jesus sees much deeper than we see. And Jesus knows how the human heart and mind works. Jesus knew that in that day, there would be many people in this very condition who, because they were invalid, earned a pretty good income through begging. So, the question is a valid one. Do you really want to get well? Have you given up everything? Are you at the end of yourself and really want to get well? But, aha, my friend, there is a similar question that each of us must face before we get spiritual healing, before we get saved, and that is, do you really want to get saved? Do you really want Christ? And again, the question may seem like a rhetorical question. Of course, the answer is obvious. Of course, I want to be saved. Of course, I want to go to heaven, but it's not that simple. There are some of you here this morning that would prefer to hang on to your sin. And so you wait. There are some who would prefer to hang on to their self-righteousness, thinking that really, you know, I'm okay. I'm as good as such and such. I'm as good as a person sitting across the pew from me. There are many who would prefer to hang on to their bitterness. If I really get saved, I'm afraid I'll have to forgive my parents. I'll have to forgive my whatever. There are some who really would like to hang on to their addictions. This is my comfort. This is where I go to get help. I don't think I can give this up, and so I hang on to it. And you've not really come to the point yet where you are willing to give up anything, where you are at the end of yourself, and you realize you need Christ. Or there are those who have heard the claims of the gospel and realized that if I come to Christ, it may mean I have to give up some things in my life that I'd rather hang on to. It may mean that I'll have to change my lifestyle. This will threaten me, or it may mean that I have to admit my pride, or that I've been deceived all these years. Is it possible, my friend, that there are some here this morning who would prefer to hang on to their pride, their self-deception, self-righteousness, bitterness, sin, addiction, whatever it may be? So Jesus asks you the question this morning. Do you really want to be saved? Have you really come to the end of yourself and your own efforts? Are you willing to give up what's holding you back? Are you willing to trust me for your salvation? That's what Jesus is asking. That's the reason for the question. And every one of us needs to answer that same question before we will come to Christ. If not, you're not ready to come to Christ. But there's no reason why you can't give up those things today and come to Christ. He asks you that probing question, do you really want to get well? Do you really want to be saved? That's the question. When the man answers, basically still focused upon his physical need, I have no one to help me into the pool. I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. When he answers that it's hopeless, I can't do it. In Jesus' realises is at the end of himself, there's nothing left to hang on to. And so he responds with the healing. Notice the healing. Amazing healing in verses 8 and 9. Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your mat and walk at once. At once the man was cured. He picked up his mat and walked. Just like all the healings of Jesus except one which he accomplished in two stages and there was a reason for that. Just like all the miracles of Christ, they were instantaneous and complete. Here's a man who has been paralyzed for 38 years and he immediately gets up and starts walking. There's no need for muscle tone to be developed. There's no need for therapy to strengthen himself. Immediately his muscles work. And he's able to walk. That's an instantaneous miraculous healing. That's not doctoring. That's not therapy. That's a miraculous healing. And Jesus does that for this man. But again I'm thinking of us today and I'm thinking of where we are spiritually and how this applies. I'm reminded that Jesus says much the same thing to those who are lost in sin, to those who need Jesus as their savior. Jesus says basically the same thing. Are you at the end of yourself? Do you really want to be healed? Do you want to be saved? Then if so, get up. In order for this man to do that, he had to believe the word that Jesus was saying. Imagine he's been lying there 38 years. And all of a sudden here's a man who's telling him to get up and something happens in that man's heart where he reaches out in faith and understands that Jesus means what he says and he has the power. And so he stands up. He responds by trusting in the word of the one who told him to get up. And my friend, if you're going to be saved, if you've come to the end of yourself and you really are ready to be saved, then you need to place your faith in the word of the one who says believe on me and you'll have eternal life. Receive me and you will become the children of God. You need to place your faith, your trust in Jesus who died on the cross for your sins. It's a matter of responding to him in faith and what he has said in his word. But then Jesus also says to us, take up your mat. It's amazing. This man was to make no provision to ever live here again. He was out of this life. You will not need this mat. You will not need to stay in this place anymore. Yours is a new life. Take up your mat. Get out of here. And that's what Jesus says to us when he saves us. Make no provision for the flesh. Paul says in Romans 13, verse 14, don't go back to that life. If you're in Christ, you're a new creation. All this past, the new has come. Take up that mat. You won't need that anymore. You don't need this place anymore. You're new in Christ. Take up your mat. And walk. Paul says that once we are saved, we are to walk worthy of the calling that we've received in Christ Jesus Ephesians 4.1. And so the call to salvation is a call to come to the end of ourselves. Trust Christ as our Savior when He says, get up, when He says, trust me and you'll live. Make no provision for the old life. Walk away from it and begin to follow Christ. Walk after Him. That's what salvation is. And the same power of Christ demonstrated in this healing will also be operative in your life spiritually. If you'll simply give up on your own efforts, come to Christ in faith. Turn away from the old life and begin to follow Him. Jesus will save you just as miraculously as He healed this man. He will live. And turn your life around. Change your life and give you an eternal destiny in heaven. The power of Christ. Sadly, that is not the end of the story. Because as the story develops, there is a protest against Christ. And this protest comes from people that we already have come to expect it from. They are called the Jewish leaders or in some translations of the Jews. And expression that we've already noted, John uses some 70 times to refer to the religious leaders in Israel. The Pharisees, the scribes. Those who were the religious leaders. Verse 9. Middle of the verse where we stopped. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath. Uh oh. Red flags go up. Warning lights are flashing. John is alerting us to the fact this is going to cause trouble. Great miracle. But it happened on a Sabbath day. And so the Jewish leaders swing into action. Verse 10. And so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath, the law forbids you to carry your mat. Now it's pause for a moment to examine the Sabbath traditions. And that's exactly what this was. This was not a part of the Old Testament law. This was one of their Sabbath traditions. The Old Testament taught that the Sabbath day, the seventh day when God rested from His creative work was designed to be a day of rest and focusing upon God in the Jewish heart and home. And so it was to be a day of rest and worship. There were some Old Testament precedents for not carrying burdens on the Sabbath day. If you read the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah the Prophet in chapter 17 is told by God to go to the city gates of Jerusalem and watch people bring their wares in to sell and set up their shops on the Sabbath and warn them. Keep the law of God. Keep the Sabbath day holy and making a day of rest. In the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah found the same thing after the captivity and the return of the Jews. Nehemiah chapter 13 verse 15. Look at it on the screen. And though in these days, I saw people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. Here's the problem. The Old Testament law said that it should be a day of rest and worship. But the people were making it a day of business as usual. What is talked about in those passages in Jeremiah and Nehemiah is not picking up a mat and carrying it. What is talked about there is doing your work like you would normally do on Tuesday. Bringing all your wares to sell into the city, setting up your shop, your cart and selling just like you do on any other day and not allowing that one day to be sacred. Now I know what some of you are thinking. You're thinking, oh, should we not sell anything on Sunday? Should we not go to a restaurant on Sunday? Hey, this is Old Testament. This is before the cross, before the church. This is the law of Moses for the nation of Israel. Be careful about applying those to the Sunday today. Sunday is not a Sabbath. That was given for Israel. That's under the law. So be careful about applying that kind of thing to carefully to today. But the point is this, the law of Moses never said you couldn't carry a mat on the Sabbath. It said you're not supposed to do your work as normal on the Sabbath. But you see what the Jews did, what the Jewish leaders did is they decided, okay, the law says don't do any work. You know, we really need to help people understand what that means. And so they came up with 39 works that you could not do on the Sabbath, just so you would know for sure. 39 works you can't do on the Sabbath. And each of those works were called father works and they had children under them, descendants under them. So subcategories. Let me give you an example of how ridiculous this became. One of the 39 works that the Jewish scribes in Pharisees said you could not do on the Sabbath was you could not plow. Okay, how do you define plowing? Well, in their mind it included digging. You could not dig a hole. You could not dig a ditch on the Sabbath. It also included pulling out a chair if that chair was on the ground because to pull out a chair on the ground would probably plow up a little bit of dust. So that was against the Sabbath traditions. It also included, now get this, you could not spit on the ground and rub it with your foot because that would be plowing. Now mind you could spit on pavement but not on dirt because you would be plowing. So you're really spiritual if you spit on pavement. Right? You're unspiritual if you spit on dirt. That's how ridiculous legalism gets. We still have the same thing with us today. One of the things that the Pharisees also said, one of the 39 categories was carrying burdens. Ah, so this is the one they're going to nail him on. I just see them working down through their categories. Number 33. Oh, there it is. You can't carry a burden. Now let's go into the subcategories. Ah, here it is. Do you know what they included under carrying burdens on the Sabbath? You could not wear false teeth because that would be carrying a burden on the Sabbath. They said you could not, if you're a tailor, you could not carry your needle. If you were a scribe, you could not carry your pen. They also said you could not wear any unnecessary clothing on the Sabbath. I'd really like to see how that one would play out today. It's yeah, ridiculous this got. And so they nail this guy on carrying his mat because that's under subcategory 5c3f. You know, it's that ridiculous. And the sad result of these Sabbath traditions is found in verses 11 through 16. Here's the sad result. But he replied, the man who made me well said to me, pick up your mat and walk and notice their response. This is all they're concerned about. So they asked him, who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk? The man who was healed had no idea who it was for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, see you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you. Now here's here's the point. The Pharisees and religious leaders are only concerned about him breaking one of their Sabbath traditions. They don't care a bit that the man's been healed. And they don't care a bit about his soul, but his spiritual needs. Jesus has healed him, but he's gone a step further. There's probably too much hubbub about his healing in the pool of Bethesda for there to be any real serious addressing of his spiritual needs. And so Jesus hunts him down, finds him in the temple and says, you have spiritual needs that are greater than your physical needs. And if you don't address those spiritual needs, if you don't come to me in faith and your life is transformed by the gospel, by the grace of God, if you don't come to me, then you will experience something much worse than 38 years of paralysis. That's what Jesus is saying in verse 14. Your spiritual needs are much greater than your physical needs and the spiritual punishment, if you don't address those spiritual needs is far greater than any physical agony you would experience. An eternity in hell awaits you if you do not come to me in faith. That's what Jesus is saying to him. Jesus is concerned about his soul. Jesus is concerned about reaching out to him. And the legalists, the Pharisees, are only concerned about carrying out their nitpicking religious traditions. We want to make sure those stay in place. My little hair splitting man-made regulations. Chuck Swindall in his excellent commentary on John helps us to imagine this in present day terms. He says, imagine that you have a friend, a neighbor who has been paralyzed from the neck down for 30 years because of an accident that he incurred that long ago. But then one Sunday morning at 6 o'clock in the morning, you hear a lawnmower running in the yard beside yours. And you get up to see who is making all the noise and rattling all the windows in the neighborhood with that infernal lawnmower at 6 o'clock on Sunday morning. And you open it up and lo and behold your formerly paralyzed neighbor is gleefully delightfully racing through his yard. Healthy and whole, mowing his yard. What would you say? If you're one of the Pharisees, you would say, hang shut that thing off. You know you're not supposed to mow on Sunday. That's what you would say. God help us if we are so concerned about hair splitting little legalistic traditions that we don't care anything about the souls of people. I'll never forget when we 12 years ago started our contemporary service. It was fairly well known. It was common knowledge that another pastor here in town very publicly took our church to task for that. And one of the things he said, which was publicly disseminated over the radio, was basically, I don't want people with green hair coming to my church. Well, you know, thank the Lord. I would love people with green hair coming to our church. We already have a lot of dear elderly lady with blue hair. And some of you color your hair black. Right? Some of you color it blonde. Some of you color it brown. Are you spiritual because of the color you use? Is that it? Are we going to get that ridiculous? Just like the Pharisees did? You can spit on the pavement, but don't spit on the ground or you're plowing. I think God, I'm also in a church that doesn't, doesn't care if someone comes to church with green hair, body piercings and tattoos, because God's more concerned about your heart. And we better be too. God's more concerned about where you are on the inside and that you come to know him. And he'll do whatever needs to be done otherwise once you come to know him. But if we stop people at the door because of our man made religious traditions, we're no better than the Pharisees. So I'm thankful for people with blonde hair, brown hair, black hair, blue hair, green hair, red hair. I don't care. Bring it on. We just want to see you get saved. So you come to know Jesus and grow in him. The protest against Christ. We can't lose sight of the fact, like the Pharisees did, that the life of a man was transformed that day. We can't lose sight of that. He was a man that started the day without hope, paralyzed by a pool, desperate, hopeless knowing that if the water is stirred again, he won't get in. He has no hope. He started the day that way and he ends the day laughing and walking and leaping in the air carrying his mat and with new life in Christ. And God could transform your life in just as dramatic a way today if you would let him. Maybe you're hanging on to your past. Maybe you're hanging on to that sin, that bitterness, that unforgiving spirit, that addiction, that pride. And you're waiting, you're waiting, you're waiting, hanging on to all of that. And Jesus is asking you today, have you come to the end of yourself? Do you really want to be saved? Because if you do, I offer you a miraculous salvation and instantaneous new life today. That's what he's offering you. That's what he says he's willing to give you. But some of you are still waiting. Some of you are waiting for life to slow down and then you'll give some attention to spiritual things. Some of you are waiting till you have this special feeling and you'll know it's right. Come on. If you're waiting for that, the devil will make sure you never have whatever you consider to be a special feeling and the time is right. The Bible says behold now is the day of salvation, today is the day of salvation. You don't have to wait for any special feeling or something to happen. Some people are waiting for someone else to get their life straightened out. When my wife gets straightened out, when my husband, when my whatever, then I'll think about you're waiting. You're waiting. Some people are waiting because they just don't feel like they're ready yet. I've talked to people in their 80s and 90s who say, well they understand the gospel. You're witness to them and they say, I'm just not ready yet. Come on. You're 85 and you're not ready. When are you going to be ready? Don't wait any longer. Come to Christ today. Don't wait in your paralyzed, lame, helpless condition, waiting for something special to happen. It's already happened. Jesus has already died for you and he makes the gospel plain and clear to you and he offers the invitation for you to come to Christ. If you are waiting for something to happen, you will wait too long and it will be too late to turn to Christ. Come to Him today, my friend. Come to the end of yourself and be willing to lay aside your sin, whatever it may be, pride, self-righteousness, addiction, whatever it may be. Lay that down and say, I need Christ. I need Christ. Just come to Him. Don't wait any longer. You'll save you today. Let's pray together. Father, thank you that the Savior waits for us even today. Thank you, Father, that no matter where we are, no matter what we've done, no matter where we've been, you're simply waiting for us to say, yes, I'm ready. I want to be saved. I come to the end of myself. I give up everything I'm hanging onto. I'm ready to be saved. And you offer spiritual healing instantaneously, powerfully to everyone who turns to faith in Christ. I pray, Father, if there's anyone here this morning that's just been waiting, waiting for whatever. I pray that they would realize that today the weight is over. They can come to Christ right now. May today be the day of salvation for someone. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.