SERMON
TITLE: Real Wholeness
SERMON TEXT: John 5:1-9
PREFACE
This may come as a shock to some and a
disappointment to others, but your house, the one you just spent $20,000
repairing, is temporary. In time it will
perish. The wardrobe in your closet, the $30,000 car in your garage and the
toys you’ve accumulated won’t make it into eternity. The older I get the more aware I am of the
fact that our bodies won’t survive the ravages of time. So, what’s the deal? You, the real you, your inner self, your soul
is what will spend forever with God in a new body. For this reason, God is, as we should be,
more interested in who you are than what you own. He cares about and for you, but your physical
health and financial status aren’t nearly as important to Him as they are to
you. We’re seeking to survive in the
now, but God is preparing us for eternity.
If heaven’s streets are made of pure gold, then what kind of people is
God preparing to walk those streets and dwell in His eternal presence? God is preparing a people, His people for His
presence and His eternal purposes.
IN OUR TEXT
Jesus asked the man at the
Pool of Bethesda a very interesting question.
The verse says, When Jesus saw him lying there,
and knew that he had been in this condition for a long time, He said unto him,
“Do you want to
be made whole?” (John 5:6).
The context of this verse
is familiar to most of us. It tells of
the pool at
Many physical maladies are
the products of deeper root issues:
So, when Jesus asks “Do you want to be made whole,” His question deals
with more than a paralyzed limb or bodily weakness. It reaches for root issues that may require personal
repentance and produce a painful emotional catharsis. His question may endanger wrong attitudes and
expose long hidden unresolved heart issues.
This idea may be easier to
see in Luke’s account of the healing of the ten lepers. (See Luke 17:11-19.)
11 And it came
about while He was on the way to
12 And as
He entered a certain village, there met Him ten leprous men, who stood at a
distance;
13 and they
raise their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"
14 And when He
saw them, He said to them, "Go and should yourselves to the
priests." And it came about that as
they were going, they were cleansed.
15 Now one of
them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God
with a loud voice,
16 and he fell
on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him.
And he was a Samaritan.
17 And Jesus
answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where
are they?
18 Were none
found who turned back to give glory to God, except this foreigner?"
19 And He said
to him, "Rise, and go your way; your faith has made you whole."
On His way to the
cross, Jesus passes through the borderland between
Lepers
were not allowed into the mainstream of society. They were forced to live outside the city
gates and apart from their family. To be
a leper was bad enough, but to be a Samaritan
leper compounded the problem.
Somehow these ten lepers had overcome the hurdles of religion and race
that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans. They had joined together in an effort to deal
with the unique challenges of being a leper.
Together, the ten had kept one another from the insanity inflicted by
loneliness and isolation. They were
survivors, but Jesus' presence presented them with the opportunity to escape
the bondage forced on them by their leprosy.
The
law mandated that they cry "unclean," but faith compelled them to cry "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." (v.13). According to Luke
it was a passionate cry, "they raised their voices, saying,
'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!'" (v.13).
Instead
of responding with an immediate healing, Jesus responded with a command, "Go and show yourselves to the priests"
(v.14). Luke tells us that their
obedient faith was rewarded—"as they were
going, they were cleansed" (v.14).
Of
the ten that were healed only one, the lone Samaritan, returned to glorify God
and give thanks to Jesus. To this man,
the Samaritan, Jesus says, "Rise,
and go your way; your faith has made you whole"
(v.19).
Excuse
me for taking a bit of liberty with this passage, but Jesus seems to give
something to this uncommon worshipper that the other nine did not receive. The nine Jews were cleansed and healed, but
the Samaritan, the Samaritan was made WHOLE.
The
English word "whole" refers to that which is complete
or lacks no part or element.
Jesus imparted
physical healing to all of the 10 lepers, but out text suggests that to the
returning Samaritan He imparted inner wholeness.
Some time ago I watch a documentary that
dealt with the crimes
He
was able to stifle his conscience for 40 years.
For 40 years he successfully avoided the pain associated with his brutal
crimes, but as he
You
can be sure that being a leper came with its share of impoverishing inner
wounds.
The
hopelessness of their condition must have been maddening, but then came their
moment with Jesus—“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” In a moment, the wildest dreams of ten men
lost in the dark hopeless of leprosy became a reality.
It’s
possible to be healed of leprosy and still bear the wounds and scars of years
of ostracism and verbal abuse and isolation. It’s likely that the 9 went home
What
about you and me? Physically, we’re
doing fine. We
Could
it be that you know of someone who is in need of wholeness? Could it be that something on the inside of
you and I is missing, damaged or wounded? Our repeated attempts at meeting our inner
needs and numbing our inner pains have failed.
·
We think that
if we can get that raise our life will be full.
·
When you start
college this fall or when you make that big move to
·
You’re sure
that somewhere out there is the spiritual nugget you need to make your life complete.
o
One more altar
service,
o
one more
Wednesday evening Bible discussion,
o
one more spiritual encounter and it will all come
together.
·
You’re not
without hope. You’re just waiting for
the day when your long awaited SHIP makes it into harbor.
o
Then you’ll
have the healthy body you’ve prayed for,
o
the seven
figure bank account you’ve been seeding for,
o
the exceptional children that are all serving God as
missionaries to the pigmies of
o
Then you’ll
have the marriage you’ve always dreamed of and
o
the cottage in
All
of those things deal with externals and offer us the escape of unrealized fantasies,
but they do nothing to address the unresolved issues on the inside, issues that
are robbing us and destroying us.
We’re
so focused on something out there
that we fail to enjoy the rich spiritual life God has for us now. Why?
Because, even though we’ve been cleansed and healed we lack wholeness.
I’m
not talking about sinless perfection. I’m referring to…
·
the healing your heart needs from the wound inflicted
on it by a verbally abusive spouse or parent.
Outwardly, you
·
I’m talking
about that empty place in your soul that is being created by ungrieved losses.
·
I’m thinking
of your insensitivity to others. It’s a
by-product of the many betrayals you’ve experienced at the hands of parents,
friends, lovers, your spouse and even the Church. In an attempt to protect yourself, you’ve
become calloused. You can’t feel pain
anymore, but neither can you feel pleasure.
·
I’m referring
to the relief you need from the frustration sourced anger that seethes inside
of you.
·
It’s the need
you have of being delivered from the reoccurring pain of never being good
enough.
What
if I told you that Jesus came to heal you of all those dis-eases;
all those things that rob you Christ purchased wholeness? What if I told you that He came to give you
rest from all the things that weigh you down and rob you of real joy and
peace? Well, hang on to your hat, Jesus
has a question for you and that question is, “Do you
want to be whole?” Do you want a
radical change in your life? Do you want
freedom from the shadow that always hangs over you and the wall that always
makes wholeness a dream instead of a reality?
Jesus is asking us, you and me, “Do you want to
be whole?”
If
we want the sense of wellbeing that comes from wholeness, then we must be
willing to abandon the comfort and security of the world we’ve built for
ourselves and face reality—God’s reality.
Abby was liked by everyone. If you didn’t take pleasure in Abby the
country girl, then she would become Abby the city girl. She was well equipped with many faces, and if
you waited around long enough she would find and wear one that you would
approve of. It wasn’t’ a counselor and
it didn’t happen in a $75 an hour therapy session. It wasn’t gentle and it wasn’t planned. It was brutal and violent and unannounced and
cathartic, but it was effective! A
crude, burly, bearded man exposed the game, and gave Abby the truth she needed.
“I
know why I don’t like you,” he said. “You don’t know who you are. I watch you change every couple of seconds
and you don’t even realize you’re doing it.
I’ve met some of the best con-men in the world, but you get the blue
ribbon for being the best. You’re afraid
that people will not like the real you, so you never give them the real you.
You don’t know who you are!” In that moment the actress lost her stage, but a process began
that gave the woman personhood. If you
don’t believe it, just ask her. But be
careful, you might just hear Jesus asking you, “Do you want to be whole?” Do you?
Do
you?