Jesus and the Lonely Man | Sunday Message

A New Beginning presents a book from Pastor Greg Laurie, with help for those suffering loss, called Hope for Hurting Hearts. God has used this book over the years to touch many people. If you've lost a loved one, or if you know someone that's recently lost a loved one, it would be an excellent thing to get this book into their hands, because I really wrote it for them.

So we're offering you a copy of this book, Hope for Hurting Hearts, for your gift of any size. Available at Harvest.org. Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners.

I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you, if you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries, and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to Harvest.org. Good afternoon. Let's pray. Lord, we've just sung it. Your name is Jesus, and you are the Lord in our life, in this church, and we pray that you will be the Lord over our nation as well, because we need you so desperately in America, especially right now. So we commit this service to you, and this message to you, and ask you to speak to our hearts now. We look forward to what your word will say. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. All right, you can be seated. So there was this lady. She was very lonely, and she needed some companionship, and someone told her that there was a talking parrot down at the pet store. And so she went down and said, I heard you have a talking parrot, and I need someone to talk to, and someone to talk to me. Is this parrot really talk? Oh yes, ma'am, this parrot talks. And so she bought the parrot, and she took it home, and it didn't say anything to her for a week and a half.

So she went back to the pet store and said, sir, this parrot does not talk. The pet store owner said, ma'am, did you buy him a swing? Every parrot needs a swing. If you get him a swing, he'll talk all day long. She bought a swing to get home.

She came back another week and a half later. I got the parrot a swing. He still isn't talking. Ma'am, did you get the parrot a ladder? Every parrot needs a ladder. If he has a ladder to go up and down, he'll talk constantly. She bought a ladder to get home.

A week and a half later, she returns. She says, that parrot still isn't talking. Oh, did you get him a mirror?

If he has a mirror to look at himself in, then he'll talk for sure. She bought the mirror and came back a week later and said, that parrot, you sold me? He died. The pet store owner said, did he ever talk?

As a matter of fact, he did. The pet store owner said, what did the parrot say? She said, the parrot said to me, don't they have any food down at that pet store?

Just a bad joke, people. Okay. So I don't know if you feel lonely.

I don't think a talking parrot is going to help you. There's a lot of people who feel lonely in our world today. One in three Americans feel lonely at least once a week. There's acute loneliness among young adults with 30 percent of people ages 18 to 34 experiencing loneliness several times a week or more. Loneliness has become a public health epidemic according to the surgeon general.

And loneliness and isolation create health risks, including anxiety, depression, and illnesses like heart disease and dementia. But wait, we have social media. We can communicate with each other.

That's only thrown more fuel in the fire and we find ourselves more isolated. Bottom line, people need people. We were not meant to do life alone. We need living, breathing friends, not talking parrots, not bots, not just communicating with people online while we're playing a video game. We need to be with people. And that's why being active in church matters so much.

And I'm so glad that you're in church right now. You know, during COVID, we did our services online. We called it Harvest at Home and it's still on and people watch it. And I run into people everywhere that still enjoy Harvest at Home, but many watched it during COVID.

But when church was open again, they didn't return back to church. I remember on one particular Sunday, it was Palm Sunday, President Trump tweeted that he was going to watch the Harvest at Home service and put it out to all of his social media followers. So we had one million people watching us that particular Sunday. And wasn't that great?

And so, including him. And so, we gave a gospel presentation. We gave an opportunity for people to come to Christ. And on that Sunday alone, 11,000 people made a profession of faith and registered that with us. Isn't that amazing?

One young man wrote me and said, I saw the President tweet he was going to watch your church service, so I watched it too. And I was suicidal. And now I've given my life to Christ. So that's great.

But you know what? Church is open. It's time to come back home again, right? Come back to church. I'm talking to you folks watching online.

I'm glad you're watching. I know some of you couldn't get here even if you wanted to. I know some of you aren't able to leave your home for some reason. But I know some of you are still in your pajamas, okay? And you're not even really paying attention. You're flipping through your phone right now, buying stuff on Instagram. Get out of your pajamas and come back to church, right? Come on now. I've noticed it's become very popular for people to wear their pajamas everywhere now. I go to the airport. People walk around with pajamas and a pillow.

It's like, what is going on here? I bring this up because before us in John 5 is a story of a lonely man. In fact, the title of my message is Jesus and the Lonely Man. We're in a series, Jesus and You. We've looked at Jesus and the doubter, John the Baptist. We've looked at Jesus and the moral man, Nicodemus. We've looked at Jesus and the immoral woman, the woman at the well. Now we come to this guy in John chapter 5. Let's read about him. I'm reading John chapter 5 verses 1 to 16, and I'm reading, by the way, from the New Living Translation. 1 to 18, rather.

Read along with me. Afterward, Jesus returned to Jerusalem on one of the Jewish holy days, and inside the city near the sheep gate was the pool of Bethesda with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people, blind, lame, or paralyzed, lay on the porches. One of the men laying there had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, Would you like to get well? I can, sir, the sick man said, for I have no one to put me in the pool.

When the water bubbles up, someone else always gets there ahead of me. Jesus said, Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk. Instantly the man was healed. He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking. But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, You can't work on the Sabbath.

The law doesn't allow you to carry that sleeping mat. But the man replied, The man who healed me told me, Pick up your mat and walk. Who said such a thing as that, they demanded. The man didn't know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him sitting in the temple and told him, Now you are well.

So stop sinning or something even worse may happen to you. Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders it was Jesus who had healed him. So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, My Father is always working and so am I. We will stop there.

Isn't that a great story? Here is my first point. This was a turning point in the life and ministry of Jesus. Up to this point the religious leaders have tolerated Christ. Now they are going to outright turn against him because of this statement that Jesus makes. This statement would ultimately cost him his life. What was that statement? That statement was simply that he was equal with God. Speaking of the Almighty as his Father he said, My Father and I. There in verse 17. Don't let anyone ever tell you that Jesus never claimed to be God for indeed he did.

And this is just one of the occasions. On another occasion he healed a man and then he said, Your sins are forgiven you. And they said, Only God can forgive sins.

Jesus said, Exactly. He was claiming to be God. He was God walking among them. And he had an agenda. He had a schedule.

And God is never late for his appointments. He had people to meet. He had lives to change. He had miracles to perform.

So he was moving along. It is interesting because we begin with the word afterward. And then in Matthew we read the word then often. Mark's gospel immediately. Luke's gospel uses the phrase, It came to pass.

So the idea is Jesus was moving along at a pretty fast clip with a purpose. He knew exactly what he was saying when he claimed to be equal with the Father. He meant what he said.

He said what he meant. Bringing in point number two. As Christians we don't believe in coincidence. We believe in providence. Nor do we believe in luck. Sometimes people say, Boy I am lucky. That is my lucky number.

I don't believe in luck. I believe in providence. What is providence? It means ultimately that God is in control. Even sometimes when events don't make sense God is still working. And that is exactly what Jesus was doing. And he had an appointment with this particular man. And so he sees this lonely individual.

Bringing me to point number three. Jesus seemed to be drawn to lonely people. Drawn to the people who had the greatest need. This man had effectively been abandoned.

And he had this loneliness inside. And no matter who you are. No matter how much money you make. Or how many followers you have on social media. Or how famous you are.

Or how infamous you are. Or if you are unknown that you are still a lonely person deep down inside. Selena Gomez said quote, I am so scared of being alone. And I want people to love me. Freddie Mercury the lead singer of Queen once said quote, You can have everything in the world and still be the loneliest man.

And that is the most bitter type of loneliness. Bringing me to point number four. The man in our story was just hoping for a miracle. Now we read that he was waiting for the waters to be stirred. There was a legend that an angel would sometimes appear.

Move the waters around and if you were close to the water when this happened you would get healed. There is no indication this is a true story. It could have been true.

Maybe it happened once. But that is what this man was hoping for. He had been waiting a long time.

38 years. So he is an older guy. But he is hoping for a miracle in his own life.

Hoping for something to happen to him. You know it is interesting how we read that Jesus saw this man. There were a lot of people there.

A lot of hurting people there. But Jesus zeroed in on this one man in particular. This man that had this great need. And it is worth noting that Jesus didn't preach to everyone. He preached to certain individuals. He didn't heal everyone. He healed certain people. And now he goes to this man and makes what I would say is a provocative statement in verse 14. Now you are well. After he heals them.

Now you are well. Stop sinning or something even worse may happen to you. This would indicate that this man's particular condition may have been a result of some kind of sin. Now when I say that I am not implying nor does the Bible teach that if you are sick or you have a disability it is because you committed a sin. The reality is all sickness, aging, and all the other challenges we face in life are the result of sin in general. You know when our first parents sinned Adam and Eve a sin spread to all of the world. As I have said before if Adam and Eve had not sinned we would never die. If Adam and Eve had never sinned we wouldn't get sick. If Adam and Eve had never sinned I would have a full head of hair.

See this. So in a broad sense all sickness and all things that happen to us of that nature are a result of sin in general. But it would appear that maybe there was something in particular with this man. You know Paul wrote to the members of the church in Corinth and said some of you have become sick and even died because of their sin. The psalmist wrote before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept your word. So sometimes God may allow sickness in your life to get your attention. Maybe you are walking away from the Lord or you are disobeying the Lord or not paying attention to what He is saying.

He might let something happen to get your attention again. Bringing me to my next point. Sometimes God wants to heal us and He is just waiting for us to ask. I am not implying that God heals everyone because He doesn't. Even the great apostle Paul had some kind of a physical problem.

He called us thorn in the flesh. Three times he asked the Lord to take it away. God did not remove that problem but rather said to him my grace is sufficient for you. But on the other hand there are many accounts in Scripture where people were healed instantaneously. Sometimes it happens over a period of time. There was one blind man that was healed and he could partially see.

He said I see men like trees walking. In other words I am getting my vision back but it is not completely back. So look you may pray and say Lord would you heal me and He may heal you just like that. And then that healing may take place over a period of time. And then God can even work through a doctor or through a surgery or through medicine to bring about that healing.

Ultimately I give Him the glory for all of it. But I guarantee I am going to ask for it. The Bible says you have not because you ask not. And then Jesus said ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened. And there is an ascending intensity in the verbs that Christ used implying that we should step up our game.

So first we are asking, then we are seeking, then we are knocking. So keep asking the Lord. Maybe it was the utter helplessness of this man that drew Jesus to him. Maybe he prayed a little prayer. God please send an angel for me to get me healed. And little did he know that God was going to do something better than that. He was going to send His only begotten Son to personally touch the sky. And do you know that God is able to do exceedingly above and beyond that which you could ask or think.

Don't limit God with your prayers. Lord I have this financial need. I ask You to meet it. I need this amount of money. I will say Lord I have this financial need. I ask You to meet it. Please take care of it.

And you want to do even more. I welcome that too. Whatever God wants to do. We think God wants to withhold His blessing. We think that God is stingy. The very opposite is taught in Scripture. This guy wanted an angel to stir the water.

God wanted to send His only Son to transform this man and stir up his life in fact. And maybe you identify with this guy. Maybe you feel like you are all alone.

Maybe your parents or maybe you have been divorced. Or maybe you are single and you are saying am I ever going to find someone. But you know deep down inside I think we have a loneliness for God. And the Bible speaks of a friend that sticks closer than a brother. And that friend is Jesus Christ. And Jesus walks in when others walk out. Sometimes friends disappoint us. Sometimes family disappoints us.

But Jesus will not disappoint you. And this man was in such great need. He was helpless and hopeless. We read that crowds of sick people, verse 3, where they are blind, lame, and paralyzed. This word paralyzed can be translated without strength. Or another translation puts it helpless and powerless. And that is how we all are before we come to Christ.

We are just weak. The Bible says in Romans 5 those who are without strength, those are the ones that Christ died for. You know sometimes people will say to Christians, You know you Christians you turned to Christ because you needed a crutch. Christianity is a crutch. My response is no it is not a crutch.

It is a whole hospital. I need more than a crutch. I am not embarrassed to say that. I need God's help by the way you do too. This man understood his great need for God. You know sometimes it said, Well God helps those who help themselves. The good book says.

Well I don't know what good book you are reading. But the Bible doesn't say that. Effectively the Bible says God helps those who can't help themselves. Or even God helps the helpless.

So Jesus saw this man and now asks him a poignant question. Would you like to get well? What kind of thing is that to ask a man who has been sick for 38 years and is in this sad situation?

Would you like to get well? But it is a valid question because not everyone wants to get well. You know some people like the lifestyle they have chosen. Not every alcoholic wants to stop drinking. Not every drug addict wants to stop using drugs. Not every person living on the street wants to get off the street. You see you can't help someone if they don't want your help. And if they are not going to make some effort on their part whatever you do to rehabilitate them or help them get on their feet again may end with failure. There has to be a willingness on their part as well. Do you want to be healed?

Do you want to change your life? Some people are comfortable in sin. You know how sometimes when you are in bed maybe you get out of bed and then you go back to your bed you try to find that little warm spot you were in. You know what I am talking about? Is it just me? Oh I found it. Little warm spot.

That is how some people are in sin. This is their little warm spot. They are comfortable. They have grown used to the darkness. The story is told from history of a prison that had a dungeon. It was called the Bastille.

And they decided to destroy it because it had outlived its usefulness. And there is this one prisoner who has been confined there for years, decades. And they said, you are free. You can leave the prison. And this man came out of his dark cell into the blinding sunlight and put his hand over his eyes and said, please take me back to my prison cell.

That is how some people are. They don't want to leave their prison cell of sin or addiction or whatever it is. Do you want to change? Do you want to get well? Do you really want your marriage healed? Do you really want to be freed from dependency on drugs or alcohol? Do you really want to be free from your sexual sin? Do you really want to be made well?

Do you really want to change? There is God's part and there is your part. He says, I can't sir.

I have no one to help me get to the pool. Jesus is like, forget the pool. You don't understand what is happening here buddy.

And I love what Jesus says. First of all He asks the impossible. Secondly He removes all possibility for a relapse. Thirdly He expects continued success. First He asks the impossible.

Pick up your sleeping mat and walk. And in this guy's defense he goes for it. He goes, I can't.

He says, alright. And all of a sudden strength is restored to his feet and his legs and he stands up. What an amazing thing.

So he did the impossible. But then Jesus removes any possibility for a relapse. Don't take it with you. You are not coming back here again.

We are done with the pool. We are done with this whole life. It is a new life.

Put your old life behind you. Here is a problem that some people have when they say they are going to become Christians. They don't make a break with the old life. And they don't make a break with the old friends. I can tell you when I became a Christian I had some pretty low life friends. I had friends in low places.

And I had to completely break off my relationship with them because they would have drug me down so fast. In fact they even tried to immediately after they heard I had become a Christian. And I had to make new friends.

And every Christian needs to do this. Your friends matter. You show me your friends and I will show you your future. Look for godly friends.

And if you are a single person look for a godly man or a godly woman. The Bible says, Flee youthful desires and follow righteous faith and peace along with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Psalm 1 says, The happy man doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful. So Jesus is saying to this guy, Pick that thing up and walk your out of here.

This is over with. And I love that radical change that he made. Here is an interesting story in the Old Testament. It is the prophet Elijah coming toward the end of his ministry. And he chooses his successor. His name is Elisha. Very similar names. Sometimes they are confused.

Two guys. Elijah, Elisha. So Elijah sees Elisha plowing out in the field and he throws his garment on him symbolically saying, You are carrying on for me. And then Elisha says, Hey let me go back and say goodbye to my family. Elijah said, Hey what is that to me?

In other words, Dude this is a privilege. What are you doing? You are going to do this?

Come on let's go. Or don't. And you know he knew if that guy went back and said goodbye to his family he would never return. You ever try to leave a family reunion?

It takes really a long time. Especially if you haven't seen him for a while. It is that big reunion once every five years. So you are saying, Well hell I got to go. Oh I have one more piece of pie. Let me tell you one more story.

Hugs and hugs and on it goes. I am really good at leaving places. I don't know if this is a skill or a bad trait but when I am ready to go I will say to my wife, I am leaving. And I will go to the host or hostess. Thank you so much for inviting me. I am sorry I have to go.

Okinoba. I am gone. I am driving home to get in my bed to find that little warm spot. I wonder where is my wife? She is still there. A week later she is there still. You need the jaws of life to extract Kathy out of the social gathering.

She just goes and goes and talks and talks and I have moved on. Ok. And this is the idea. There is a New Testament counterpart to this story. Where Jesus said to a man, Follow me. He said, Let me go and bury my mother and father. Jesus said, Let the dead bury the dead.

Follow me. Now that sounds kind of heartless on the part of Christ. Let me bury my mother and father. They just died and they are lying in the street dead. Yeah let them bury themselves.

Let's get out of here. That is not what was going on. That phrase, Let me bury my mother and father was another way of saying, Let me wait till my mom and dad get old and eventually die and when they are gone then I will follow you. And Jesus said, You do that and you will never follow me. You know it is time to make a break with the past. Jesus said, No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit with the kingdom of God. So he says to this man, Pick up your mat and walk. Put this old life behind you and follow me.

And this is what the man did. Saying goodbye to the past. I remember we had our first crusade at Pacific Amphitheater. We had counselors calling up people. And seeing how they were doing spiritually.

And they called up this one man who had come to Christ the night before. And he said, I am doing great. Yeah I am just out mowing my grass. Oh mowing the lawn. No mowing my marijuana forest down. This guy was a drug dealer and he had all these pot plants in his backyard. He is like mowing them down. I like that.

That is the guy making a break with the past. Let me say a word about the follow up process that we engage in here at Harvest. We take it very seriously. I know people know us for evangelism.

And I don't apologize for that. We have seen thousands of people come to Christ through our ministry over the last 50 years. But sometimes people will say things like, We will harvest their into evangelism but we are into discipleship. Oh nice.

We are into both. In fact we spend more of our time and put more of our efforts into discipleship than we even do in evangelism believe it or not. Because that is part of the Great Commission.

What is the Great Commission? According to Matthew 28 it is going to all the world. Make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

And lo I am with you even to the end of the age. So the Great Commission is baptizing people. It is discipling people.

It is crowning people. It is teaching people the Word of God. Then in Mark's version Jesus says go into all the world and preach the gospel.

So we do all of those things. I am amazed at what I would describe as a baptism movement sweeping the country right now. And there was a group in Southern California that did a big baptism down at Pirate's Cove.

And they were inspired by the Jesus Revolution film which featured a lot of baptism scenes as you recall. And of course we had baptisms there back during the Jesus movement. Then we went a couple of months later and we baptized 4,500 people in one single day. Then we went back a year later and baptized 2,000 more. But you read about these baptisms happening around the country and college campuses.

I think that is really an exciting thing. But we do a lot for new believers. We have something called the New Believers Bible.

We usually mention at the end of our services. There are 10 million copies in print. And we have sent over 600,000 copies of the New Believers Bible to churches that support our crusades over the last 30 plus years. We have 200,000 people going through the Gospel of John and our digital outreach right now. And we have 15,000 more in our online discipleship community. And we have a teaching series on sharing your faith called Tell Someone that has been watched by 100,000 people.

Then here at our church we have 4,500 people in small groups studying the Bible and growing together. So yeah, we are into discipleship in a serious way. But then Jesus says to him, get up and walk.

So now you are up. You have got to walk. See the Christian life on more than one occasion is compared to a walk. Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. As you have received Jesus Christ as Lord, the Bible says, so walk in Him.

So there is God's part. He will save you. He will heal you. Now you have got to walk. Every day you have got to walk spiritually. And sometimes people say, well I tried Christianity and it didn't work for me.

Listen, Jesus Christ is not like some brand of toothpaste that you try and then return. I don't know about you, but I do return things kind of a lot. Now let me explain. I am not taking advantage of anything, but there is something that is available.

And I have to admit on Instagram I have fallen for a few of those things, right. Just click the button. Your phone is on its way, right. That looks pretty cool, but I always check the return policy. Thirty days you can return it they say. And I always want to know is there a restocking fee.

Okay, there isn't. And I will try it and most of the time I don't like it. But sometimes I like it and I will keep the product. But Jesus, oh I tried him out, but I returned it. It didn't work. Jesus is not an it. He is a him and he will change any person who comes to him. I suggest you didn't do your part.

He does his part. Did you take it seriously? Did you start reading your Bible? Did you develop a prayer life?

Did you become a part of church? See a lot of people don't do anything. It reminds me of people that go to gyms and they never lose weight and never get in shape. Well they get in shape, but it is like the shape of a pear. And people call them the Lord's pear, which no one wants.

You don't want someone to call you the Lord's pear. But when you look at them they never work out. They just sit around and talk all day. Or eat donuts. Or go to the gym three days a week. Why don't I, you know, why am I not in better shape?

Because you go to the gym and don't do anything. You see there is your part and a lot of people don't do their part. Closing thought. All around us are people who are lonely, who are hurting, that need someone to reach out to them. See Jesus saw this guy and we need to see these people. They are everywhere.

Sometimes you see them in church. Maybe they are sitting alone. Hey I noticed you are alone. Is this your first time here?

Maybe it is. Do you know anybody? Would you like to go out with us? We are going to get a bite to eat after church. Why don't you join us?

Hey are you in a small group? Good to meet you. And next time you see them you remember their name. You reach out to them. See that is so important to do.

Or when you are just out and about in life you see someone. They are upset. They are hurting.

Maybe they are crying. Is everything okay? Well I just found this news out.

Oh really? Well listen I am a Christian and I believe in the power of prayer. Can I pray for you? You want to know something? Most people will not say no to your offer of prayer.

Even non-believers. Can I pray for you? Okay. Now it might be a little awkward for them but that is okay. Pray for them. See show them you care. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And I think sometimes they are thinking about how we are going to argue people into the kingdom of God. You might be surprised to find how far a gesture of kindness will go.

Hey can I help you? Can I reach out to you? That is what Jesus did for this man. He saw him. We need to see people as God sees them. As sheep without a shepherd. As people that need a Savior. They are all around us. God sees you right now. I think a lot of times we feel unseen, unnoticed, unloved, unappreciated.

Some even think. If I was gone no one would even miss me. What a lie. You are loved by far more people than you know. You are needed. You are wanted.

But most of all you are loved by God. And He sees you right now. Just as Jesus saw this guy 2,000 years ago. In that big crowd He saw this guy.

And walked right up to him. He sees you. And He is ready to enter into your life and you will never be alone again. Jesus died on the cross for your sin. He paid the price for every wrong you have ever done. And He rose again from the dead and now He stands at the door of your life. And He knocks and says if you will hear His voice and open the door He will come in. Have you asked Christ to come into your life yet?

And if not would you like to? Let me give you that opportunity as we close now in prayer. Let's all pray. Father, I pray for any person here or watching or listening wherever they may be. If they don't know you, Jesus, let this be the moment they believe. They don't have to be alone in life. They don't have to feel unloved or unwanted or unseen because you love them. You want them.

And you see them. Help them to come to you and believe. While we are all praying together, if you want Christ to come into your life, if you want Him to forgive you of your sin, if you want this relationship with Him I have been talking about, you could just pray this prayer after me. You can pray it out loud if you like or pray it quietly in your heart. But just pray this with me. Pray, Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. But I know that You are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin.

And rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow You. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. God bless you.