But we're making our way through the gospel according to John, and today, our focus is going to be exclusively upon one subject. Today, our focus is gonna be on the subject of pain, and more specifically, we're going to be looking at prolonged pain. If pain were a classroom, there is no question whatsoever that anybody who has any kind of understanding about the Bible, they would hand out this as the textbook for prolonged pain. There is a sense in which the Bible, on every single page, pretty much, there's somebody in pain. It is the story of the history of pain, in some sense. From Job, to Paul, to Jesus. Everywhere you turn through this book, you're gonna find somebody in pain, and specifically, I say, chronic or prolonged pain. When pain is prolonged, sometimes something terrible can happen to people. Listen closely to me. When pain is prolonged, it opens up the door for a vulnerability to believe lies that will lead you to false sources of hope. As a matter of fact, Satan uses our pain as opportunities to offer you kinds of pain relief that at the moment seem like they're doing the job. Only to prove somewhere down the line, a little bit later, that these were actually devices of the devil to keep you from your true source of help. Pain demands a response from you. When pain comes, you can't just ignore it. You have to respond somehow. And Satan uses those responses, listen closely to me, to open up a door so that you will be susceptible to believe superstitious things that you normally wouldn't believe. In our study through the Gospel of John, we've come to chapter five. And in the fifth chapter, the very first thing we're gonna read about is a man who had been in pain for a long period of time. How long, you ask? So glad you asked. Roughly, almost four decades. 38 years to be exact. And he was suffering in pain, and because of that, an opportunity presented itself for him to believe something that ordinarily a Jew would never believe. And such is the case with so many of us when pain is prolonged. And so the title that I've assigned to this message in the opening verses of chapter five, shouldn't surprise you by now, it's Suffering and the Susceptibility to Superstition. And the main point, the lesson that I wanna show you, we call it the big idea here in our church, the main thing that I hope you go from here and tell the person who you're gonna have breakfast with immediately after what the sermon was about, this is it. So snap a picture of it on the screen if you want to. Sustained suffering, so when pain is prolonged for a long period of time, it increases the susceptibility to superstition, to believe things that ordinarily you'd say, that's just ridiculous, I'd never believe that. Oh yeah? Be in pain for long enough, you'd be amazed at what you can believe. Everyone in this room, from the smallest ones to the oldest ones, you're going to experience pain. Some of you, relatively minor. Some of you, relatively major. Some of you, it's only going to last for a little while. Some of you, it's going to last the majority of your lifetime. Some of you, it's going to be physical. Some of you, it's going to be emotional and physical, or spiritual and psychological. But make no mistake, living in a fallen world means that you will experience some degree of pain in your lifetime. And when that comes, you are going to respond. How you respond, in many cases, will determine whether or not you're following Jesus. This is a message you cannot afford to miss. Today we're gonna examine some of the most dangerous warnings, right from this passage in John 5, about believing lies when you're in a prolonged period of pain. And so I'm gonna pray. And this is not time for you to tune out, this is time for you to pray with me. Gotta ask God to do what we just sang. Did you mean open the eyes of my heart? Then ask him. Father, open the eyes of our heart. We need to see the truth. In this age of deception in which we live, it is so hard to see the truth because the lies are so thick. So I pray for everyone in this room that you would grant to us a clarity of mind, an attentive heart, a distraction-free environment where we can focus on the truth and believe it for the sake of our souls and our warfare against an enemy who hates us with an everlasting hatred. Help us, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. John 5, we're gonna start in verse 1, we're gonna read through verse 9, but we're only gonna look at the first part of verse 9. We're gonna look at the remainder of verse 9 and then the rest of the passage next Sunday, okay? So John 5, 1 through 9a. Here's what it says. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool. an Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. 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 a long time, he said to him, do you want to be healed? 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. Jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed and walk. And at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked. Now follow me, church. There is a direct correlation, a line you can draw between the intensity and the duration of this man's pain and his susceptibility to believe a lie. And I'm calling it superstition. And you may be saying, where's the superstition in this passage? You made that the title and the big idea, I don't see it. Can I answer that? You're gonna need an open Bible here, not just on the screen. So there's one in front of you if you don't have it. You're gonna have to look. I want you to look down at your Bible, at John 5, it's in the New Testament, fourth book, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and I want you to find and focus on verse 4 of John 5. Now some of you are saying, got it, right away. Some of you, your heart just started to get a little fast and you're getting a little anxious because you're like, I don't have a verse 4 in my Bible. Don't panic, I want to explain to you why that may be. Some of you may have been reading along and going to your wife, he skipped a verse. No, I didn't. I want to explain why some translations in our English have a concluding part of verse three and a verse four and some do not. In my study, I look at every translation that I can find and including the Greek or Hebrew. and I lay them all out and I read all of them. My go-to Bible, in case you wanna know, because I've been asked this numerous times, is the New American Standard or, more recently, the Legacy Standard version, which was translated most recently by the Master's Seminary because they stopped printing the New American Standard. And it is the best word-for-word translation that we have in the English. So when I study, I use the New American Standard. Sometimes, for readability's sake, it can be a little wooden. That's why we use the ESV when I preach. but I want to read to you the New American Standard Version, a portion of it. Here it is up on the screen. After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters. For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. One man was there who had been there an invalid for 38 years, and it continues on the rest exactly as we read it in the ESV. Now, I want to explain to you, I want to take two, three minutes to explain why Bible critics, those who are textual critics and scholars, don't worry about this. They don't get all anxious about this and why you shouldn't either. This does happen from time to time and I want to explain it so that you don't panic when you see it, okay? So give me three minutes of your undivided attention. Actually, you better give me your undivided attention for the rest of the sermon, not just three minutes. Sometimes when this happens, it requires you to explain how we got our New Testament and why it is absolutely 100% reliable. As of September 2001, which is the last time I looked, there were roughly, drum roll, roughly 6,000 Greek New Testament manuscripts that we have uncovered, discovered, and preserved. In case you don't know anything about textual criticism and the way that we find historical documents and affirm that they're true, that is unheard of. 6,000 ancient copies of the New Testament. Here's how those documents are preserved. They're copied by hand by copyists or a long time ago it was scribes. Sometimes a copyist error, you know, maybe he sneezed and lost his place and copied it wrong. It doesn't mean that the New Testament is an error. The New Testament is preserved because Jesus said it would be. It means that the copyist who is a sinner, not inspired, made a mistake. So what we do is we look at all of those 6,000 copies that we have and we find what is the absolute, we look at where are the variants and we compare it to all of the majority of the manuscripts that we have. Sometimes we'll find variants and usually it's just a word and sometimes it's just a jot over a particular phrase or something that's left out and it's once in a while, not the majority of the manuscripts. In this particular case, it's a full verse. And almost unanimously, all of those who are textual critics, who's made it their life's work to determine why these things have happened, they've all come to the same conclusion about the end of verse three and verse four. And here's the conclusion. The conclusion is one scribe or copyist decided to insert there a commentary of what was the prevailing belief about the superstition in those days of what was happening. He put it in there, it is not part of the Gospel of John. He put it in there as like a parenthesis of what was kind of the running dialogue around the townspeople of why these things were happening and why so many people gathered there thinking that these magic waters somehow had healing properties. And so, the New American Standard and other translations, very few of them, insert it in there as like a parenthesis, a commentary. But make no mistake. The ESV translation and most other English translations exclude it because it is not part of the Gospel of John. John did not write that. Nevertheless, nevertheless, that doesn't mean it's useless. It doesn't mean it's useless. So if you have it in your Bible, like I do in my study Bible, keep it there. Don't get white out. It's useful as a commentary. I use probably 30 commentaries every single week so that I'm not coming up with something that somebody else didn't because I don't wanna be a heretic. I wanna stay on the right line of thinking that historical Christians have thought about for centuries. And so we can use this parenthetical statement that was inserted there to help us understand, just like we would a commentary, what was the prevailing thought of people about these waters and why were people gathering there thinking that the pool was magic? That's what we're gonna use this for. Everybody still with me? Okay, that brings us to the focus that I'd like to draw your attention to for the rest of the time we have remaining. I wanna figure out why it is that people believe this about this angel coming up, stirring up waters, and why people believe this superstition that they'd get healed if somebody went into the water. These were devout Jews, the children of Abraham. They grew up with the truth. What would cause somebody who knows the truth, like you all do, right? to believe a superstitious lie like this? How can that happen? Could never happen to you, right? How did it happen to them? And what brought Jesus there? This morning, what I want to show you is of such critical concern, before we examine this piece by piece into three warnings, I want to explain why this is so important. Why superstition has the susceptibility to lead people astray. Pain As I said earlier, demands a response, and here's how thousands and thousands and thousands of young people have responded to emotional pain, psychological pain, and the general pain of just being a human being. We are noticing a mass exodus of people from the church, especially of a certain age group, because they've determined that the promises of God don't deliver immediate enough pain relief as something that I can find on YouTube or some guru on YouTube tells me some different way that I can have more immediate relief for my psychological problems. Or the first time I smoked weed, that gave me a little bit of a more immediate pain relief and it opened my eyes to a whole new kind of way of thinking and seeing the world. And so, yeah, trusting in God's promises, it just takes too long to wait on the Lord to renew my strength like wings on eagles. So, you know what? I'm just gonna stick with the gurus I find on YouTube and smoke weed from time to time, because it's more immediate. I'm not saying that to be crass. I'm saying it because it's happening. I'm saying that people are in pain. You are in pain. And people believe lies when they're in pain because they just want help from somewhere. God says, wait on me. And people today say, I don't want to wait. I need something now. So they go to pools because they think the water's magic. We believe superstition, I'm going to show you in just a little bit, way more than this guy did. And so there's three warnings I want to show you right from this text so that we won't fall into the prey of believing lies that have come from the devil. Everybody with me? First warning I want to show you from this passage is this. Sufferers, especially prolonged, are susceptible to superstition because they simply long for healing. They just want some relief from their pain. And unfortunately, the search for healing often leads people to mysticism. Mysticism. Look back at verses 1 through 4. We're going to stick with the New American Standard version today. 1 through 4. Look on the screen. After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who are sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters. For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in, was made well from whatever diseases with which he was afflicted." Now, friends, the context understanding what this pool was and what was happening is so critical for you to understand how this superstition arose. You got, look, get out a tape recorder, turn your iPhone on. You have got to listen. I'm going to throw so much history at you, you're probably only going to get half of it, okay? If you miss this, just come up with me, we'll go get an omelet, and I'll retell you the whole thing. It's really important. This pool in Bethesda was originally Jewish. You can read about it in Nehemiah. It's the same pool that we read about there. But it didn't stay Jewish. I want to tell you a little bit about what this was. First, children in the room. This is not a swimming pool. There's no diving board here. This is not for recreation. This originally was for the bathing of animals. Here's what would happen. Originally, back in Nehemiah and that time when it first was created, they would bring the animals that were going to be made into a sacrifice to Yahweh, the Lord. and bring it to the temple for sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. They would bring these animals there, bathe them, and then bring them into the temple. That's why it says it's near the sheep gate. That's why this was made. But eventually it became this other thing, and here's why. I have some models that were made. This pool was actually discovered in the 19th century. We know exactly where it is. If you go to Israel, don't go now, by the way, but if you ever do go to Israel, you can see this pool. You can, there's signs right there. Today it is in Muslim territory and it's called the Lion's Gate or the St. Stephen's Gate, but it is the Pool of Bethesda. This is a model, you can see, I had to cut the temple off so that I could fit it on the screen. Can you go back to that last screen? The temple is absolutely huge and these little squares that have red porticos, roofs on top, that's the Bethesda Pools and the Sheep Gate is right there. Now go to the next one. It's a little bit of a zoomed in picture of it. This is what they would have looked like. These were enormous structures, okay? And we have found an early 1st century Roman version of this, which I tried to discover what the differences would have been between the one that the Jews built and the Roman version, and they're so subtle, there's really no differences. Here's what it would have looked like in the 1st century times. This is what it looks like, okay? It's huge, and they had these roofed colonies so that you would protect the people from the beating down sun. They'd go and sit under there, and then, This supernatural thing that they thought happened, the stirring up of the waters, here's what it was. It's really very simple. They would have these, it was two levels, and on the first level, they would turn on the water flow from the above level, and it would flow down into the bottom level pools, and all the water would come in, and it would look like it was bubbling up. And so the people came to believe that something was stirring up these waters. Although it, this is the most important part, although it began as a Jewish pool, it did not remain Jewish. At this time, when Jesus was there, this was under Roman occupation, and it was entirely occupied by Roman rule, and the Romans were the one who used these pools. It was more than likely that this eventually became a shrine to a Greek god named Asclepius. This is gonna get good. Asclepius was the god of health and medicine. We still today use his symbol. It's a snake wrapped around a pole. That's Asclepius. It's a sign for modern medicine. Pretty good-looking guy, huh? He had two daughters, they say. You'll know his daughters, too. His daughters' names were Hygieia. Does that sound familiar? What word do you hear there? Hygiene, that's where we got our name for hygiene. And his other daughter's name was Panacea. I just listened to a medical conference where this term was used. It's a term which means like a cure-all. They use it in medicine all the time, apparently, I didn't know that. Hygiene, cleanliness, and healing. So this Greek god Asclepius was absolutely famous among these people. And it's more than likely because this was a time of a Jewish feast, which we just read about there, it's a feast day, that they would open it up just during Jewish feast days to have Jews come in and enjoy the healing powers of Asclepius. It is entirely plausible that these blind, lame, and paralyzed were not waiting for Yahweh. to heal them. It is entirely plausible, and I'm saying, I think this is true, that the Jews of that day would go in there because they were so desperate that they'll go get healing from any source. Unless you say, Pastor Luke is way off track on this one. I wanna show you what the second century Christian apologist named Justin Martyr had to say about this, in case you think I'm way off. Justin Martyr, look on the screen, he said, When the devil brings forward Asclepius as the raiser of the dead and healer of all diseases, may I not say that in this manner likewise he has imitated the prophecies about Christ? Do you understand what he's saying? He's saying this false god, Asclepius, who Satan put forward as an imitation, he's getting all the credit for the work that Christ is doing. He's that popular among the people of Justin Martyr's day. Jesus would heal somebody, and they'd say, the power of Asclepius. And martyrs saying, it's not Asclepius, it's Christ. Friends, I'm telling you that's what was happening at the Pool of Bethesda. This was pagan superstition mingled with the truth. His point was that Christ doesn't play well with superstitious false gods. And that's the point I'm laboring to make with you this morning. How would these Jews have believed, how would Christians believe such nonsense, which I'm gonna get into in a minute? Superstitious stuff I see coming in the church all the time. How do we get to that place? How did this guy get to that place? How did all these Jews come to believe this superstition about an angel making the water's magic? It's very simple, he's desperate. I've known some people who were otherwise very level-headed in their doctrine. who've come to believe some wacky stuff because they've been in pain for way too long. And so they substitute what they know is true for a little bit of something else. And they mingle it together with their true beliefs. Look, I believe in Jesus, but this can't hurt, just a little bit of this. That's what's happening here. Friends, nowhere is this more prevalent today than with the false faith healers of our modern day. False faith healers that you see every single time you turn on TBN. They're a dime a dozen. They prey on sufferers because they know they are most vulnerable, most susceptible to believing a lie. And while there have been many of these false faith healers, I'm sure you can mention a few of them, none has been so influential and so dangerous in our modern day as Benny Hinn. Benny Hinn has become one of the most dangerous faith healers in the modern history. And he has traveled all around the world with his false prosperity preaching gospel. Here's how it works. He says, listen, if you simply sow a seed of, let's say $100 today, and give it to the ministry of the Lord, God's ministry, Benny Hinn's ministry, then God's gonna bless your household. That's a prosperity gospel and it is false, it is a lie from the pit of hell. Why do I say that? Because it's the same thing Satan offers to people who worship him. You follow me? I'll give you whatever you want. Riches, money, success, health, wealth, prosperity. So he takes people like this woman who are in serious pain and have been suffering for who knows how long and he dupes them and takes their money and he does it in the name of Jesus. Benny Hinn has been using these kinds of things for decades to fool people. And you know what he does? He takes his jacket and he waves it over people and everybody falls down. You've probably seen this on TV. It's just a show. Well, Benny Hinn's downfall started a few years back. He is nowhere near as popular as he used to be, thanks to one brave man. His nephew, Kosti Hinn. Kosti Hinn used to help his uncle to put on these charades. And Kosti Hinn said, I can no longer do this. And so he went public and exposed his uncle for the fraud that he was. And he's since written several books. And Kosti decided, I need to know the truth about what the Holy Spirit's power actually is. So he went back to school, and he went to the master's seminary. Good choice, Kosti. He got his master's degree, continued writing books, and now, Kosti Hinn has been on lots of different talk shows. Here's a picture of him. This is a particular one where he exposed his uncle for the first time, and he has been on CNN and NBC and Fox. I'm highly recommending that you read some of Kosti's books. As a matter of fact, my wife has been reading this newest one, which just came out last month. It's called Knowing the Spirit. And the purpose of this book is to tell you the truth about what the Holy Spirit does, true spirituality from the scriptures instead of the lies of superstition that are propagated by his uncle and others like him. As a matter of fact, Costi happens to be a classmate of mine. He was sitting right next to me on my first day in our doctoral program at the Master's Seminary. Here's a picture of us just a few months ago. I actually thought, I have a call with Costi on Tuesday, because he's gonna critique my sermons and I'm gonna critique his. I thought, you know what, I'm gonna see if I can get him to speak this morning via Zoom or something to tell you guys one main thing. that he saw for years what I'm trying to tell you this morning. About how susceptible people are when they're in pain. People being wheeled up in wheelchairs and lied to by his uncle telling them that they're healed now in the power of God. And then going back home only to sink deeper into despair because I guess God didn't want to heal me because my faith wasn't strong enough. Thank God for brave, courageous men like Kosti Hinn, and may God bless his ministry. Someday I'm gonna get him here to come and speak to you all. So for each of these three warnings, I wanna give you one practical application so that you know how not to be duped by superstitious false teachers. Are you all interested? So for this first warning, I think the exhortation that comes right from the text is pretty obvious. I have it on the screen for you. Don't let pain change your theology, what you know about God. Let your theology change how you see your pain. In one of his best-selling books, C.S. Lewis wrote something that has become one of his most oft-quoted pearls of wisdom. Those of you who've read C.S. Lewis probably know this quote. Here's what he says. God whispers to us in our pleasures. He speaks in our conscience, but He shouts in our pains. It, pain, it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Friends, listen to me. When pain and suffering are prolonged, be it physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual, here's what happens to people, especially Christian people who know their Bibles. They call upon the Lord, Lord, I need you, Lord, I need you. They maybe sing the song, Lord, I need you, how I need you. And when he doesn't answer in their timing, Lord, I can't deal with this pain any longer, so I'm gonna go and find something to ease my pain. And suddenly, they start to change the way that they think about the Lord. They change what they believe about the Lord, just subtly sometimes at first, and then it grows, because they allow their pain to tell them how to read their Bibles. Don't do that. Allow your Bible to tell you how to read your pain. Let me tell you what will happen at that point. If you allow your Bible to tell you how to read your pain, you, you specifically, the one who has endured the longest pain in the room, you will begin to have an understanding of the suffering servant in ways that maybe the rest of us might not ever be able to unless we have the depth of pain that you do. You see, pain becomes a lens. through which you are able to understand the excruciating pain that Jesus went through. And that pain is given to you by God. I know it sounds maybe even inappropriate for me to say this. Pain can be a gift if you just learn to see the glory of Jesus who could have avoided this pain, but for your sake, he endured someone driving nails through his hands when he could have said, I'm not doing this, I'm God. But He did, He endured that pain for you. Pain has been given to you, some long, some short, some severe, some minor. Pain has been given to you so that you can see the glory of a Savior who would die for you. Allow your theology to shape how you see and understand pain. Don't let your pain shape your understanding of God, okay? But lest we read a passage like this and think it's only about physical healing, we'd be missing some of the most important lessons from this passage. No, a man who's prolonged in suffering and pain, who's been sitting there for 38 years, something isn't, it's not just physical anymore, something happens here and something happens here. It starts to sink you into despair. There's no hope. God can help her or him or her or him, but not me. I guess I'm just not important to him. And suddenly you start to sink into despair. That's the second warning I want to show you. It leads people into superstition. Warning number two is this. Sufferers are susceptible to superstition because they long for hope. And of course they long for hope. As soon as you lose hope, that's it. You're done. And they long for it. And here's the problem. Satan knows that we long for hope in a painful world. And he often offers the opportunity, when he sees you in prolonged pain, to lead you to sources that will not help you. That's what we see happening here. Look at verse five, and especially this question that Jesus asks him. One man was there who'd been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he'd already been there a long time, he said to him, do you want to be healed? Now this odd and seemingly out of place question has been the subject of countless books. You can probably go to Barnes & Noble and find a book that was written on this question. So many people love this verse. I've written several devotionals on this verse myself because it seems out of place. It is not. Any psychologist who's dealt with people who have gone through a divorce or serious grief or loss of a child, they know exactly why Jesus asked this question. It's because not everyone who's in pain wants to be healed. Here's why. It's actually pretty simple when you think about it. Sometimes when people are in prolonged pain, especially for 38 years, sometimes they've adopted and created an identity around that handicap. And if they don't have this, well then who am I? And the fear of not knowing who they are is greater than just living the way that they've always lived. And so many, many, many, many times people choose to identify by some handicap or, listen closely to me, or some sinful craving because they've lost hope that God can actually change them or change their circumstances. Now for the next five minutes, You need to listen closely, otherwise you're gonna walk out of here misquoting me and saying I said something I didn't. Okay? We'll get to this next Sunday, but I wanna show you that sometimes physical handicaps, sickness and suffering can be a direct relationship to someone's personal sin. Glance down with me at verses 13 and 14. Just glance, we're gonna get into this next Sunday, but look at it. I have it on the screen for you if you wanna follow along there, if you're not fast enough in turning. Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, or look, you're well, you're all better. So sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. Whoa! Now listen to what I'm not saying. Everybody paying attention? Everybody? I'm not saying to draw a line between someone who's sick and someone who is a sinner and say, Pastor Luke came in with a cold today, I wonder what he did to deserve that. That is not what I'm saying. But I am saying. What I am saying is that sometimes, and this is one of those times, there is a direct correlation between someone's personal sin, especially if it's continued, and a physical ailment that results from it. But you can't always draw a correlation. For example, remember when the Pharisees came to Jesus and they said, Who was it that sinned? This man or his parents that caused him to be born blind? And Jesus said, it was neither this man's sin or his parents that caused this man to be born blind. He was born blind so you'd see the glory of God. In other words, he was born blind so that I could heal him and you'd believe in me. It wasn't him or his parents. In other words, you can't draw a direct correlation. But I'm drawing a direct correlation in this case because Jesus does. Look at these two verses on the screen. I'm drawing a connection here. Do you want to be healed? Jesus asks him. And presumably he says, well, yes, of course I want to be healed. That's why I'm sitting here. And so verses 13 and 14, then sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you. This man, according to Jesus, his sickness was in direct response to some personal sin in his life. That's why when Jesus healed the paralytic a little bit earlier, You know the paralytic whose friends loved him so much they cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down so they could get to Jesus? You know the story I'm talking about? Jesus says this. Which is easier to say to the paralytic? Your sins are forgiven or to say get up and pick up your mat and walk? In other words, it's saying the same thing. I can either tell him your sins are forgiven and he'll be healed or I can tell him get up and he'll be healed. Because sin is the result, or sickness is the result of sin. He doesn't separate the two. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I tell you, get up, pick up your mat and go home. Suffering is the result of sin. How do I know? It's very simple. There is no sickness in heaven. Why is there no sickness in heaven? Because there's no sin in heaven. The reason why sickness exists on planet earth is because sin exists on planet earth. So when Jesus asks the man, this is where it gets important. When he asked the man, do you wanna be healed? It's the same thing as saying, sir, do you believe that God, Yahweh, has the power to change your circumstances? Or have you given up hope entirely that he can change you? That's what he's asking the man. Because many people in that circumstance completely give up hope that God can change them. And know this, this is important. Very, very rarely do people who are in prolonged pain abandon their trust in God entirely. Instead, here's what they do. They still say, of course I still believe in God, and of course I still believe in Jesus, but... I just have to change it a little bit because I get my pain relief from this source. And so the change is subtle. They take a little bit of superstitious belief and the truth that they get from some other source of spirituality and they mingle it together with their Christian belief. So I haven't totally put God up on the shelf. I've just added a little bit that I noticed some of my friends get relief from. So I'm not done with Jesus. I just added a little bit to him. Allow me a moment or two to expound upon why this is bad from a man by the name of Voltaire. Now, those of you who know who this is, you might say, why is Pastor Luke gonna quote from Voltaire? He's not even a Christian. So I do this cautiously. Voltaire was a French philosopher. Are you interested? Okay, good. I'm gonna tell you anyway. Voltaire was a French philosopher in the Enlightenment era. He was a genius. He was a genius apologist in the mid-1700s. And although he was not a Christian, as a matter of fact, he wrote some pretty mocking things about what we would call Orthodox Christianity, he was, in that time, the world's best apologist, refuting the absolute, utter idiocracy of being an atheist. Some of his writings on atheism make you go, how could anybody be an atheist? Voltaire ripped that worldview to shreds and he wrote something because he was a deist. Do you know what a deist is? A deist is somebody who believes that there's a God, but doesn't necessarily believe he's the God of the Bible. Just believes that clearly there's an intellectual being behind all this. You can just see it in nature, can't you? Go like this, of course you can. You can't bring order out of chaos. He wrote something in one of his writings that was so applicable to what we're studying, I thought, my people have to see this. If you wanna dismiss it because he's not a Christian, fine, but I wanna show you this. Voltaire said this. Superstition is to religion or theology or true spirituality. Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy. The mad daughter of a wise mother. Here's what this means. Oh, don't miss this. This is so good. Astronomy is a legitimate science, a way to study the wonders of the celestial bodies and the science of our universe. But when you take astronomy, a legitimate way to study the beauties of God, and mingle it together with astrology, you make those legitimate scientists, astronomers, look like fools when you compare them with those who have created this hybrid bastardization of what is a legitimate practice. Astronomy has been used, the study of our universe has been used historically, and it continues to be today, to lead many people to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Did you know that? Astrology is a complete distortion of that good and true practice of astronomy. Here's why this is important according to Voltaire. The same exact thing happens to true theology, true study of God through his word. True spirituality, listen to me, is the study and practice of the revealed wisdom of God through His Word. This book is not natural. It is the mind of God that has been revealed to us through men. It is from a different realm. And so, just as astronomy has this mad or insane counterfeit daughter called astrology, so too does true spirituality have this mad or insane daughter called superstition. And sometimes superstition creates those who actually study theology and who have a true understanding of actual spirituality through the Holy Spirit. When people mingle those together and they don't rightly divide, it makes people think that we're just a bunch of wackos. You have to understand that superstition is just people who are mingling together, messing with the supernatural without the guardrails of the Word of God. That's what superstition is. Like this man who was a Jew and he knew the truth about Yahweh and His power to deliver him. He exchanged the truth of what he knew for a myth about an angel who could make the water's magic. Christians today often exchange what we know to be the truth about a spiritual life and fellowship with God through His Son and the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We take that truth and we mingle it with all kinds of counterfeits, and here's what ends up happening. Listen closely to me. We end up relying on ourselves for relief from our pain. Self-reliance for pain relief. Well, God couldn't help me, so I'm just gonna go get pain relief from somewhere else. Which brings me to the second application that I wanna give to you. A practical application so that you don't mingle the truth with some superficial nonsense that can't really help you. Second application is this. Don't let your sorrowful despair, and you will have seasons of that, Don't let your sorrowful despair lead you to self-reliance. Instead, let those seasons of sorrowful despair lead you to self-denial, because here's what I'm telling you. Listen, that's where hope is found. Let me explain. When the pain becomes unbearable, Christian people, they know what to do. Go to God. And when God takes too long, they say, God, you didn't, listen to my words, you didn't deliver me from my pain, and so I'm gonna have to take the matters into my own hand and deliver myself from the pain. Paul suffered more than anyone else ever. More than Job, more than you, anyone other than Jesus, Paul was the greatest sufferer, and he learned a lesson. about what God was teaching him through his prolonged pain. Please, please, please look at this on the screen. Paul said this, we need to learn from this man. Paul said, we don't want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that we experienced in Asia. How bad was it, Paul? We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, We felt that we'd received the sentence of death. So Paul, what did you do? What did you learn? Here's what he learned. Look, we learned that, the pain that he was experiencing, that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. So you see where I'm getting this? I learned from my pain, don't be self-reliant. Don't go looking for something else to deliver you. Rely on the only one who can. That's why he says this. He delivered us from such a deadly peril and He will deliver us. On Him, we, say this with me, we have set our hope that He will deliver us again. Hope comes when you say, I will not go the way of the world. I will not rely on myself to find a mechanism to deliver me out of this pain. No, I will rely on my deliverer. And if he chooses to lead me out, fine. If not, then I will go into the fire like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and know he'll be in there with me. That's what we learn from Paul. There's a third and final warning offered to us for this man's encounter. I'm going a little overboard, but you don't care, right? It's the most important lesson of the passage, so I hope you're not getting tired. Warning number three. Sufferers are susceptible to superstition because they long for a helper. Not just help. They want a helper. Someone please see my pain and help me. Look at verse seven through 9a. The sick man answered him, sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water's stirred up. What's he saying? There's no one to help me. But while I'm coming, somebody else steps down just right before me and dives in. Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your pallet, and walk. Immediately, the man became well. He picked up his pallet and began to walk. Wow, don't you wish you could have been there to see that? Those whose pain is prolonged, they long for help. No big aha moment there, we all know that. The danger comes, listen closely to me, when like this man, your desperation leads you to accept help from the devil, who wants nothing more than for you to do this. Look at me. For you to see God, like the shepherd with his arms open, come to me and I will lead you beside still waters. For you to look at him and go like this. The moment you look around God for some remedy that you think is behind him, some more immediate gratification, look, I know you mean well, good shepherd, and I'm sure that grass is lovely, but it's just too long of a wait. And this guy on YouTube says, I can have it now. Or this drug says I can have it now. That's what Christians do over and over again. I'm saddened to see how many Christians around the world have been duped into believing lies about the healing powers of handkerchiefs. You should laugh. If you've ever seen an episode of TBN, they will sell you a tissue that apparently has some healing powers on it, When you get it at home, you hold this thing and you rub it, and for some reason, holding this handkerchief that they've blessed because you sewed $100 into their ministry, somehow, that tissue has magic powers. Same thing as this pool. It's just a superstition. It should make you chuckle. But lest you chuckle too loud and run home to put your Phillies jerseys on, because that'll make them win. Let me remind you of a couple other superstitions that Christians are prone to. I wonder how many people today still hold a crucifix in your hand when you pray as a carryover from your Catholic upbringing. Like just holding this piece of metal is somehow gonna make God listen to you stronger. Or I wonder how many people think that just by holding their Bible close to them, that somehow is gonna make your prayer have more power. Superstition, nonsense. I wonder how many people have good luck charms all over their car. This'll keep me from an accident, really? What power are you actually relying on? I wonder how many people put angels around your house at Christmas time thinking they ward off evil spirits. I wonder how many think it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding. Nonsense. I wonder how many people do the sign of the cross before they go out on the basketball court thinking that's going to make me kill this team. Really. I always wish they'd take that part out of Rocky because I love Rocky. Rocky, don't do that. It's not going to make you beat Clubber Lang. I wonder how many people still think Friday the 13th brings bad omens, stay in your house on that day. How many people think don't walk under a ladder, it's bad luck. You broke a mirror. How many years of bad luck is that supposed to be? How many people know this? Knock on wood. Do I have to go on? These are superstitious beliefs adopted from paganism and they have no place in our Christian super, in our Christian theology. Jesus does not mingle himself with superstition. He was able to do for this lame man what no one else could. He alone could make him better because he alone is the helper of mankind. Now I had 13 different occasions. I'm only gonna show you one. I had 13 different occasions in just the book of Psalms alone where the Lord, Yahweh, is called the helper of mankind. 13, I have one. Psalm 46. God is our refuge and strength and ever present, what church? In times of trouble. Calling Jesus your helper is different than calling Jesus your savior. Do you know how? Calling Jesus your savior means you have put your trust in him to forgive you of your sins so that you will inherit eternal life when you die. Calling Jesus your helper is to say, while I'm here, When the pain comes and when it is prolonged, I believe that he will be with me. So if you will say, he is my helper and I need no one else but him. I don't need superstition. I don't need an angel. I don't need magic waters. I have Jesus and Jesus is sufficient. Then I'm telling you on the authority of God's word, he will carry you through until the pain is done. The writer of Hebrews explains why Jesus is able to help you. Here's what he says, Hebrews 2.18. Because he, Jesus, because he himself suffered, so he's in pain, because he suffered when he was tempted, He's able to help those who are being tempted. Listen to me. He knows when pain comes, do you know what comes knocking on the door? The next moment? Temptation. As soon as you're in pain, you're like, I just want this to go away. I need something to make me feel better. Right? Can I get an amen? Who are you going to go to that understands the temptations that come when pain comes knocking? He understands. That's what qualifies him to help you, not an angel, not a lucky magic rabbit's foot that you hang from your car window, not Benny Hinn, not Pastor Luke, nobody but Jesus can understand the pain you're going through. That's why he can help you when you're in the thick of it. So for this third warning, let me offer you one final practical application. Don't change your theology. Don't look to anything else to help you. Finally, don't reach around God for remedy from pain. Instead, reach around your pain for God who is your remedy. So, same illustration. This time, when pain is staring you in the face, and it's been staring you in the face for years, say, I'm not gonna fix my attention on you. I'm gonna look around you to my help, which is behind you. Here's what Satan would love to do when you're in pain. Here's what he does. He wants you to fix your gaze on one place and one place only. And can you guess where it is? He wants you to fix it on you and on your pain. Woe is me, woe is me. I would like you to sit with Johnny Erickson Tada for a month and see how long you say woe is me. When the pain comes, yes, cry out to the Lord, but only for a season, recognizing that his help comes in the morning. Don't focus on the pain because you will go insane. Focus on the help that is offered you, which is behind the pain. Look around the pain to the help. Friends, I'm out of time. You've been great listeners, because I went a little bit overboard today. Let me summarize what we learned here today. When the pain comes, so does the susceptibility to believe superstitions. Don't fall for the enemy's lies. Three practical applications. Don't change your theology when you're in pain. Let your theology change how you see your pain. Second, don't let sorrowful despair lead you to self-reliance. Instead, be like Paul. Let your sorrowful despair lead you to self-denial. I promise you, that's where hope is found. Thirdly, don't reach around God for remedy from pain, for some other thing that you think will help you. Reach around your pain for God, who is your remedy. Father in heaven, What a lesson we have here in John chapter five about suffering and the susceptibility to superstition. Help us all to remain grounded in the truth of your word and to say along with Paul, God is my helper. What can man do to me? We thank you Lord for this word and we pray you'd help us to apply it to our lives. In Jesus name I pray and everyone said,