Introduction

John 5:2-8 ESV  Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.  (3)  In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.  (5)  One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  (6)  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?”  (7)  The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”  (8)  Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

John 5:14-15 ESV  Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”  (15)  The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

John 5:18-20 ESV  This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill [Jesus], because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.  (19)  So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.  (20)  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

John 5:24-25 ESV  Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.  (25)  “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

• What a wonderful story!
  • Jesus heals a man who has been unable to walk for thirty-eight years.
  • He simply walks up to Him, asks Him if he wants to be healed…
  • Then Jesus heals this man… and the man walks away.
    • Why did Jesus do this? Why did Jesus heal this man?
      • Was it because He was merciful and wanted to show mercy to this man?
        • No, it wasn’t. Though Jesus is merciful, that’s not why He healed this man.
      • Was it because Jesus is so abundantly good that He by nature want’s to heal the sick?
        • No, though Jesus is that good and that powerful, that’s not why he healed this man.
      • Was this simply an act of love and charity from Jesus?
        • Nope, though Jesus is loving and charitable, that’s not why Jesus healed this man.
      • In fact, Jesus when talking to the Jews accusing Him of healing on the Sabbath, Jesus tells us all why He healed this man… did you catch it while we read it?
    • The answer to “Why did Jesus heal this man” is found in verses 19-20:

John 5:19-20 ESV  So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.  (20)  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

• SO THAT YOU MAY MARVEL…
  • That’s why today’s message is titled “That They May Marvel”

• That they might marvel… I changed the language in the text from “That you may marvel” to “that they might marvel” because in this passage in John, Jesus is talking to the unbelievers… to those who didn’t know Him.
  • He said “I do these works, and things even greater, that unbelievers might marvel… that they might see the Power God has given me and then know that the Father sent me and believe in me and the father.”
  • Jesus was literally saying that this miracle was to show the people that I am sent from God and that I AM GOD.
    • And through showing them that they would be saved.
    • That they would marvel.
    • And, again, what is the result of people marveling at the power of Christ?

John 5:24-25 ESV  Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.  (25)  “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

Modernized John 5

• Now, I want to modernize this story from John 5 for you.
  • I took the liberty of re-writing this from a modern perspective…
  • Obviously I am not suggesting that scripture needs to be re-written, I jus think this creates a word picture to help you understand how the truth of John 5 applies still today…
• So here it is, John 5:2-25 from the PCP, the Pastor Christian Paraphrase.

Now there was in Japan, near the City of Sapparo, a Hot Spring called the Jozankei Onsen Hot Spring, where many people would come to find rest. One man was there who had been blind all his life. When the missionaries saw him laying there, and perceiving that the time was right from the Holy Spirit, they approached him and asked “Man would you like to be healed?”. The man replied “I have been blind since birth, I have seen the best doctors in the world, I assure you that I can not be healed.” But the missionaries persisted saying “The God of Heaven and Earth has sent us to Japan for such people as you, and He can heal you”. So, when the man agreed, they prayed for him, by the authority of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit they said “Open your eyes” and the man opened his eyes and began praising God.

Now the crowds at the Hot Spring new this man, for he came almost every day to rest in the warm waters, and they gathered around asking what had happened. He told them “It is the Jesus who these missionaries preach of who healed me”. When the crowds heard this they marveled, and began earnestly desiring to know more about the God who has the power to heal.

The missionaries addressed the crowd saying “It was not by might nor strength that this man was healed, but by the power of God who sent us to proclaim the good news. That you, people of Sapporo, may know that there is a God in heaven and if you would believe in Him, you too can be saved. Behold, the hour is coming, and even is hear, where many people in Japan who have been spiritually dead for generations, will believe in Christ and be raised to life!”

And thus, hundreds were added to the church of Sapporo that day.

• What do you think of that story?
  • Does it sound fantastical?
  • Make believe?
  • Outlandish…
  • It’s not… Stories like that happen all the time…
• But pastor how dare you suggest that we can do what Jesus did! Of course He could do miracles, He was GOD!
  • I am not suggesting that… I am suggesting that we can do MORE! Even greater miracles!
  • And how can I suggest that? Because that is what Jesus said!

John 14:12-17 ESV  “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  (13)  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  (14)  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.  (15)  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  (16)  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,  (17)  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

• Yes I believe in miracles!
• Yes I believe in signs and wonders!
• Yes I believe that the Holy Spirit is active an alive and moving and powerful!
• Yes I believe that these signs are still for today!
  • BUT WHY HAVEN’T WE SEEN THESE KINDS OF SIGNS AND WONDERS?!
    • BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT FOR YOU!
    • THEY ARE FOR THEM! Those who don’t know Jesus, those who don’t believe…
    • The anointing for miracles is for the MISSION FIELD!
• Does that mean that miracles don’t happen here in the church?
  • Of course we know they do…
  • But you want to see miracles of a Biblical proportion… then you need to get on the mission field!

Story from East Timor

• As many of you know, Amanda and I were sent here with a team of missionaries from Victory Family Centre Singapore…
  • The founding pastor, the late Reverend Rick Seaward, sat us down after 6 or 7 months of living in Singapore and told us “I need you to understand the power of miracles on the mission field… because I want the church you plant in America to plant churches around the world, and to do that you are going to need the power of the Holy Spirit… so pack your bags, tomorrow morning you are going to spend two weeks in the poorest nation in the world, Timor Leste, and I am praying that you will see miracles”.
• So we packed and went…
• We spent our first week in the capital of Timor Leste, Dili…
  • Now Dili was the wealthiest part of East Timor, and still it was poorer than any part of America I have ever been in.
    • Our hostess, Pastor Sandy Lim, warned us that Christianity was highly persecuted in Timor Leste, and that people are killed, and churches burnt down, on a fairly regular basis because of Jesus. She also told us of a horrible civil war that had recently taken place, where citizens were mass murdered in the streets…
    • This was a hurting nation.
  • Nonetheless, while we were there in the capitol we visited a home group of a church there and though we could not understand their language, they gave Amanda a guitar and asked her to lead worship… and that’s what she did.
  • We had a great time, pretty standard mission trip stuff… No miracles yet…
  • As we entered our second week there a girl was brought to us who was deaf in both ears… we were asked to pray for her…
    • FINALLLY! I thought to myself. It’s miracle time….
    • And we prayed passionately for this young girl…
    • We cried out, we prayed in tongues, we were on our knees, we covered her ears with our hands…
    • But in the end… nothing happened…
      • I was beginning to have doubts…
    • We then traveled to a village of straw and mud huts…
    • While there we attended a church service and met the locals…
    • On about the third day there, we were sitting by the road and we see a man coming down walking with a bamboo stick he was using to feel for the road.
      • The man was clearly blind.
    • As he approached us he nearly feel into a MASSIVE storm drain, but right before he did our translator cried out to him to stop.
    • The translator ran up to him and asked where he was going and if he would like to stop for a glass of water…
    • The man went with the translator for water… and then moments later the translator ran out to us…
      • This man want’s to be healed and receive Jesus! Come and pray with us!
      • So we did… we walked back to were they were, and there was the blind man, a pastor, and the translator… They said, lets pray…
      • So we started praying… but I was still doubting… so I prayed “Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief… don’t let my unbelief stop this man from being healed.”
    • As we were praying the translator yelled out “Open your eyes” in portuguess, and I understood it because the phrase was “Abra seus olhos” which was very similar to the Spanish phrase “Abre tus ojos” which I already knew how to say…
    • So the translator yells out “Abra sues olhos” “open your eyes” and for the first time in more than a decade, the man opened his eyes…
    • The man then began to shout out “I can see things… shapes and shadows…”
    • We kept praying… and his vision go better. And he began praising God.
    • After we prayed I still wondered if it was real… my flesh was fighting me hard to convince me it was all fake…
      • Until the previously blind man started shouting like a mad man…
      • He looked at some children playing soccer about 100 yards away and yelled out “CHILDREN! I CAN SEE YOU!”
      • Then he saw a truck driving by about 200 yards away and started yelling out “TRUCK I SEE YOU! TRUCK I SEE YOU!”
      • Yet still I was doubting… “Was this an actor paid to convince us miracle are real?”
      • Then this man did the unthinkable… he started shouting to everyone in the village “PRAISE GOD! PRAISE JESUS! PRAISE GOD! PRAISE JESUS! JESUS HAS HEALED ME!”
      • He then grabbed our translator by the shirt collar and demanded “Come and start a church in my house! Right now! Let’s go to our village, they need to know about Jesus! Use my house, it will be your church!”
        • Y’all before we came into this village we were warned because weeks before the villagers burned down the local church and chased out the Christians with machetes…
        • Now this guy was praising Jesus as Lord from the top of His lungs and offering us his house for a church.
• The next day we went to visit a paralyzed girl.
  • The translator told her to sit up… she did, instantly healed.
• We then visited the translator father and mother who were not Christian’s, they mocked us and said “If your God can heal why has he not healed our neighbor”
• The translator said “Good question, lets go next door” so we went next door and this old man came out…
  • He was so arthritic that his fingers and toes had withered and curled. He could barely walk even with the aid of his cane.
  • We asked if he wanted to be healed and if he wanted to be saved… he said yes to both…
  • By the time we were done praying for him his hands and feet looked normal, and he jumped (and I mean jumped) out of his chair and began a cheerleading routine for Christ with the energy of a High schooler… jumping, shouting, waving his arms… all for Jesus!
• As we were winding down our trip we got a video testimony from the home group we visited our first week there…
• They said “We praise God for sending these missionaries, Amanda and Christian, because of the might miracle he worked through them”
  • Miracle? We thought… the deaf girl was not healed!
• They continued “Ever since we have been saved and started this home group, we were terrified to sing to Jesus, because we thought our neighbors would turn us in or kill us… but Amanda and Christian loudly praised Jesus with no fear for their own life! Now we are not afraid! Now we sing and preach the gospel loudly! Thank you Jesus!”
  • Amanda and I were like “we… did not know that about your neighbors…”.
• Y’all, the Late Reverend Seaward sent us to East Timor to see miracles… and by the end of our trip we thought we were walking in the book of acts… I only touched on a few of the MANY miracles that happened there while we were there… but it changed everything for us!
• And I share this because I believe that what God showed us in East Timor is what God is going to do in Japan…

John 5:19-20 ESV  So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.  (20)  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

John 14:12-17 ESV  “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  (13)  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  (14)  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.  (15)  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  (16)  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,  (17)  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

• Would you notice that in both of these passages Jesus starts by saying “Truly, truly” as if to emphasize “No matter what anyone says, no matter what your flesh or your emotion tells you… YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT I AM ABOUT TO SAY IS TRUE! Greater works of miracles are coming and they will be the doorway of salvation for many!

Conclusion

• To conclude I want to affirm and confirm… WE ARE SENDING A TEAM TO JAPAN! We are going to Sapporo! THE LOST SHEEP OF JAPAN WILL BE FOUND!
  • But we are not sending them alone, they go with the power of the Holy Spirit!
  • But the Holy Spirit only comes when you are born again…
• Gospel Call
• Japan Missionary Call
  • Have them come forward, pray over them.
• MFP SLIPS
• We speak to nations (Japan Specifically) be open!