AMEN 2012: Testimony

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

AMEN 2012 Plenary Sessions

Ted N.C. Wilson

God’s Special Plan - Medical Missionary Work

Dale Leamon

Jesus Our Health, Part 1

Jeff McAuliffe

Contemporary Tent Making

Tim Howe

Phil Mills

How a Physician/Dentist Testimony Can Affect Lasting Change Leading to Improved Patient Outcomes

John Chung

Trust and Obey and Trust

Jesus Our Health, Part 2

Brian Schwartz

Growing in Grace and Experiencing Repentance

Mark Ranzinger

The Testimony of Jesus

Jesus Our Health, Part 3

We've been told to follow Christ's methods, haven't we?

And that's an enigma because we say, okay, but I'm not Jesus.

You know, I'm not trying to prove that I have the divine life within myself, although I should have the divine life within myself.

After all, he started divine and added the human.

I start human and add the divine through the Holy Spirit.

But It can seem like a big question mark just follows that.

And I'm quite sure I don't have all the answers.

But I would just like to review with you 1 story this morning from the Gospel of John, from which we can gain some lessons about Jesus' method.

This is of course the man healed at the pool of Bethesda.

Starting with the first verse, After this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

This will now be his second trip during his ministry to Jerusalem.

You may remember in the first trip he cast a lot of people out of the temple, had an interesting visit with Nicodemus, met a woman at the well on his way back up towards Samaria.

Jesus had already had rather negative encounters with the leaders in Jerusalem by this time and they were quite determined already that he couldn't be the true Messiah and they were out to prove that.

Now he's back in Jerusalem but apparently somewhat incognito and he's there on the Sabbath day.

It says in verse 2, now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having 5 porches.

This is actually not a very good transliteration, it says it could be Bethsatha.

Anyway, this pool was probably considerably underground, even in those days.

I don't mean that it was literally in a cave, but it would be down below street level, because the water was gravity-fed in those days, wasn't it?

And to get water into Jerusalem, you couldn't get it into a pool without it being considerably below street level.

You probably had to go down a number of steps, but surrounding it was a colonnade.

And in those days, there were a great multitude of sick people there.

Blind people, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

All right, we want to ask ourselves how Jesus worked.

Well, number 1, he went where sick people were.

Why would you go to where sick people are?

Does Jesus care who he puts in his kingdom?

He's just going to the highways and hedges.

We sometimes think, oh, that person would make a great potential for the kingdom, and we look at somebody who's already a conservative Christian and living a good lifestyle and seems to know their Bible quite well and knows how to pray and, ah, what a great Adventist they would make.

In many cases they're not even slightly interested in being Adventist, they're quite happy where they are, thank you, and they make a lousy evangelistic candidate.

So where do you look for evangelistic candidates?

Hurting people more often have an open mind and an open heart.

1 of the reasons why we absolutely must not allow ourselves to be stuck in a situation where speaking of our faith to those who are ill is forbidden.

Of all the people who most desperately need a hopeful word of faith, it's the ill.

And many times their minds are open to such words.

It was on the Sabbath, we get so many lessons here about Jesus' operation.

Sabbath, by the way, is a good day for evangelism.

We Adventists tend to kick up our heels, pick up our heels, not kick them up.

And rest, After all, it's a day of rest, right?

And we regard that as our privilege and we love the Sabbath because it's a time to just get past all the, although if you're a physician that may not be the case at all.

But anyway, Jesus thought the Sabbath was a great day to find people and of course that is true.

So they had this tradition, you know, that an angel came down from at certain times and the pool would be stirred up and the water would be, you know, moving in motion and then whoever would step in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had.

Now this was obviously an idea that had gained quite a bit of credibility and the only way we can imagine that it gained any credibility was that apparently people actually were healed sometimes.

And whether you want to think that was primarily the placebo effect or whether you want to say that the Lord healed them or Satan, I don't know.

We're not told, we're not given any commentary, but apparently some people were healed when they got in the water after it had been stirred.

A certain man, verse 5 says, was there who had an infirmity for 38 years.

Thirty-eight years is a long time to be sick, but I know people who have been sick longer than that, as do you.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, he said to him, do you want to be made well?

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

But while I'm coming another steps down before me." And Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed and walk.

And immediately the man was made well and he took up his bed and he walked.

That day was the Sabbath and we won't go into the Sabbath controversy portion of the story but I want you to see Jesus' next meeting with the man.

It says in verse 13, the 1 who was healed did not know who it was who had healed him, for Jesus had withdrawn a multitude being in that place.

Verse 14, afterward Jesus found him in the temple.

I like the way that says that, don't you?

Jesus found him and said to him, See you have been made well.

Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.

Would all of you agree that if you're found at all, it was Jesus who found you?

Now let's see if we can learn some vital things from this story.

First of all, starting with the last point that we just read, Jesus said, sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you.

What we want to do here is first of all notice that Jesus really knew a lot about this man.

I don't know whether he was seeing the history of everybody all the time, I hardly think so.

After all, Jesus lived in a normal human body, and he obviously did become tired, and so we know that he had to limit himself to what the brain can handle.

Now the human brain is amazing and can handle immensely more than most of us use it for, and Jesus undoubtedly used his a great deal more than we use ours, but I don't think that he had a constant readout of everybody's life as he was looking around in a casual way.

I suspect that he asked the father to open this man's file.

And then I suspect that he was instantly given the details of this man's life.

Now, by the way, I think that's very important because I believe that point number 1 in Jesus' method, well maybe it's point 1A.

I mean point 1 would be to actually meet the person, right?

Seek out the sick, look for opportunities to meet the person and meet the person.

But 1A would be Know everything you can about that person.

Jesus' method involves really knowing people.

And you may say, yes, but I can't just ask the Father to give me a file on that person's life.

I'm not saying it will work just as it did with Jesus, that your mind will suddenly have the man's history, but I will say this because of experience.

If You want to know the person, and I hope you do, because until you know the person, the good you can do for that person is very limited.

Secondly, until you know the person, the influence you can have on that person is very limited.

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AMEN 2012 Plenary Sessions

Jesus Our Health, Part 1

Transcript

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Recorded

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Sound Doctrine