Jesus Loves the Broken - Part B

God give us that kind of prescription in our glasses. Fill our prescription with the kind of love that allows us to see people like you saw them.

To observe them with compassion. We need our sight corrected. We need to be more far sighted. We are so near sighted we can't see past ourselves so often.

Our deal, our thing, our issue, our problem will give us that kind of vision. Christian researcher and author Ed Stetzer said, A church without the broken is a broken church. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shows you the perfect example Christ said on how to love broken people and how you can follow it. Before we begin, here's a resource that will give you fresh insight about God's extraordinary love. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus loves the devout and the doubters, priests and prostitutes, the diseased and the depressed. Jesus just loves people, all people, no matter what's their past or their present. Sadly, sometimes it's the people who need love the most, who feel the most rejected, even by the church. But if Jesus loves all people, shouldn't we? We want to help you grasp God's relentless love for people by sending you the complete four booklet Jesus Loves People collection by Skip Heitzig. These booklets look to scripture to demonstrate Jesus's love for people from every walk of life. Get all four Jesus Loves People titles, including Jesus Loves the Broken and Jesus Loves Addicts when you give a gift of $25 or more today to help expand this Bible teaching outreach.

To give, call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, let's dive into today's teaching. We'll be in John chapter five as Skip Heitzig begins the study. 75% of marriages where there is chronic illness end in divorce, 75%. And that is because the spouse, the caregiver, is frightened at the prospect of long term care and 75% of the time will flee the marriage. So circumstances can rub against a person's life and rendering that person crushed, broken. E. Stanley Jones, some of you have heard the name of that great missionary to India, said that he knew of a pastor who prepared a series of 10 sermons. And they were, it was a series called How to Avoid a Nervous Breakdown. Before he had finished the 10th message, he had one. He had one himself, broken by circumstances in his life. Something else I'd like you to notice as you look at your Bibles in verse three, this man was broken by people.

Now I want you to see this. In these porches, in this pool of Bethesda, and I'll describe that to you, in Jerusalem, there lay a great multitude of sick people. So here's a place where they just stuck sick people or allowed them to congregate. There's a great multitude of sick people blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. It's important that you know that in ancient cultures, they did a lousy job of caring for the sick.

They did not have programs like we have today. If you were sick back then, if you were broken back then, you would either become a beggar in the streets or at the gates, or you'd simply congregate where people knew the sick people were, in this pool of Bethesda. Now the pool of Bethesda, and there is evidence of it still to this day, was about two feet, maybe three feet deep. This large rectangular pool by the sheep gate because they would bring sheep into the city and they would clean them up and get them ready for sacrifice. But we're told there was a great multitude of sick people. One commentator suggests that you probably find about 300 of them every day in that place, but on festival times like this, great feasts where people would gather to Jerusalem, you would find about 3,000 sick people congregating together. Now it doesn't take a great imagination to envision what this would look like and what this would smell like.

If you've ever visited a third world country hospital and you have seen sometimes two patients per bed in a little single bed, they don't even know each other, but they're put in the same bed and their families are camped around on the floor cooking food for them. What it looks like, sounds like, and smells like. I've experienced it reminds me of what I read here. Now why were they there? Well it speaks about the moving of the water. Evidently there was some subterranean spring that fed this pool that caused the water to bubble up every now and then. And so people thought it was an angel that did that, and that's why it is written, by the way, though it is written in your Bibles this way, in the most ancient manuscripts, it doesn't say the angel stirred up the water. So it is believed that a scribe, in trying to describe to us what people believed in that day, said it was an angel that did it. Either way, people congregated there in hopes of finding healing.

Bethesda is a word that means the house of mercy. It's ironic because it had become a house of misery where a great multitude had gathered together. But I'm bringing this to your attention because this is how many broken people feel. They feel just like they did in ancient times that our culture doesn't do a very good job in taking care of them. They feel isolated. They feel shelved, sort of like this camera here. This camera ordinarily sits on a shelf at home.

It's to remind me of my past, my father, but that's all it is. It just sort of sits there, broken, on the shelf, for me to walk by and be amused by. And people who are homeless feel like they're on the shelf. People walk by them and are amused by them. AIDS victims often feel they're on the shelf. People walk by and are amused by them. Those in nursing homes feel like they're on the shelf.

People walk by. They're amused by them. There's no real involvement or care. They feel broken by people. This man broken by circumstance, broken by people, and also he was broken by time, verse 5.

I just want the length of time to settle into our hearts. A certain man was there who had an infirmity almost four decades, 38 years. The next verse says, Jesus saw him and knew that he had been in that condition a long time. Here's a man on whom time had taken its toll. Not only had he been broken by the circumstance of disease and broken by the relegation of a place by people, but he got up every single day to the same reality so that his helplessness turned into hopelessness. Whatever hope he had of getting better had vanished decades before this. It was just this daily hopeless routine. Sometimes people say, well, you know, time heals all wounds.

No, it does not. Sometimes the longer the time protracts and elongates, it feels like eternity upon eternity to a person in this condition, and they spiral downward from helplessness to hopelessness. I've appreciated the honesty of Paul the Apostle in 2 Corinthians when he said he had suffered beyond the ability to endure so that we despaired even of life.

It always caught me off guard. It's like, that's Paul, despairing of life. What could have happened to him? Well, he goes on, and his honesty is unveiled in chapter 11 of that book. He says, I have labored and toiled, and I have often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst, and I have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked, and besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. It's that daily pressure, day after day, week after week, that adds up, it takes its toll, and it finds a person crushed. Like the psalmist said, my tears have been my food day and night, crushed, rubbed down by circumstances, by people, and by time. And how has brokenness expressed?

Well, a number of different ways. Depression is one. Anger is another. Substance abuse will be true for others. Others will be antisocial in their behavior. Others will be suicidal in their thinking. And others will self-injure. Cutting, self-injury, a number of different ways it's done. But basically, it's when a person has the emotional problems that are so pronounced, they feel they can't share, they can't put it into words, they can't articulate the amount of grief or shame or hurt or anger they feel. And it hurts so badly, emotionally, that they resort to self-injury physically because it takes their mind off the other pain. When I go to a dentist, when he starts putting the stuff in my mouth, the needles and the drills, I'll often pinch my finger so hard, just so I'll think about a different hurt.

There's people who live like that. Now let's see how Jesus loves this man. How does he approach this man? Well, we know he heals him, so that's a great part of it, but there's something else, and I want you to see how Jesus handles the broken, how he approaches a broken person, because this is what we ought to do. First of all, Jesus observed him compassionately. He observed him compassionately. Verse 6 is really striking. It says, Now a certain man who had been there who had an infirmity 38 years, when Jesus saw him lying there, out of this huge, miserable crowd, Jesus sees one guy, he saw them all, he knew them all, but he zeroes in on one person, one solitary human being. He saw him. And this is really the great story of Jesus. He was able to speak to crowds and move crowds, and people would say after he would speak, never a man spoke like this man. And yet, you could get him one on one, and he would be so individual and engaging with Nicodemus, or the woman at the well, or this needy man here in our story. Loving the broken begins by how we see the broken.

It's by how we observe them. One of the great stories of the New Testament is when Jesus is surrounded by a huge crowd of people up in Galilee. They start coming toward him.

A lot of people go, This is awesome. They're coming to hear me. Those weren't Jesus' thoughts. It says he saw them. He saw them and he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd.

It's that kind of compassion that enabled Jesus to see like he saw. How do you see broken people? Do you see them? Do you view them with embarrassment?

Do you see them as an inconvenience? I've always loved the story of the two boys talking out in front of school. You know, little boys will say anything to each other. And they were observing parents picking their kids up, and one boy said to his friend, I'd hate to wear glasses all the time, wouldn't you? It's something a little boy would say. And his friend said, I don't know.

If they were my grandma's glasses, I don't think they'd be all that bad. He said, Well, what do you mean by that? He said, Well, you know, my grandmother has this way of seeing if somebody is hurt or if somebody needs something. And she says just the right thing. And one day I asked her, Grandma, how is it that you can see people like that? And she said, I don't know. I think it's just the way I've learned to look at things as I get older. The other little boy really didn't get it.

So he said, I think you're right. It must be her glasses. And I think God give us that kind of prescription in our glasses, fill our prescription with the kind of love that allows us to see people like you saw them, to observe them with compassion. We need our sight corrected. We need to be more farsighted. We are so nearsighted. We can't see past ourselves so often. Our deal, our thing, our issue, our problem.

Lord, give us that kind of vision. Observe compassionately. Here's the second thing he did. He interacted honestly. This has always been striking to me how Jesus talks to this man, but he's very honest.

In verse six, Jesus saw him lying there, knew he had been in this condition. And he asked him, he said to him, Do you want to be made well? What kind of a question is that? This guy's been crippled 38 years.

You want to get better? It sounds cruel. In 30 years of doing hospital visitations, I've never asked this question. I'd never have the guts to ask that question. But Jesus asked it and it was appropriate.

And here's why. Verse six tells you the clue. He knew that he had already been in that condition a long time. He had learned to live this way so long that now a change in his condition and circumstances would mean a change in his responsibilities.

J. A. Findley said that in those days in the Middle East, a man who would have been healed could lose a substantial living. He had been so used to the system of being a beggar and laying around and collecting handouts from people that Jesus would ask this question. He said for him to be healed means that he has to join a very hard workforce and work for pennies a day as a hard laborer. So he's a broken man.

But if he is healed, he has to take on new responsibilities. So he asked them, Do you want to be made well? Are you content with your condition? Do you want change? Do you really want a different life?

Roger Fredrickson, a commentator on this, was very helpful to me this week. He writes, So often people succumb to their illness, bedding down with their alcoholism or heart trouble or partial paralysis or whatever. They become psychological and spiritual invalids retreating within themselves, avoiding responsibilities, becoming more and more self-centered as they demand sympathy from others. So every now and then in dealing with this kind of defeated person in the office or at a hospital bed or in a luncheon appointment, I have asked that question. Do you want to be made well? I read that and I thought, you know, I've never asked that question, but maybe I should start asking it now. In some cases, Jesus is so honest as he deals with him.

Well, notice something else. In verse 14, afterward, after the healing took place, Jesus found this man in the temple and said to him, See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worst thing come upon you. What? What could possibly be worse than 38 years of being broken?

You know the answer to that? There's something far worse that could happen. Eternal suffering because of unrepentant sin could mean this man could be eternally lost. And though the disease had taken the best years of his life away, unrepentant sin would take his eternity away.

Now just think about this. Probably no one had ever spoken to this man like that. No one had ever talked to this man about his sin.

You don't do that. He's sick. You don't talk about their sin. But Jesus did.

Why? Because he loved him. And he knew there's something far worse. So loving the broken means preaching the unbroken gospel. At some point, if you care for that person, you will care for that person's soul. If you merely feed that person or make them better, it is temporary. Unless at some point you are honest enough to talk about something far worse than any physical brokenness or malady. As Augustine well put it, If I weep for the body from which the soul is departed, should I not weep for the soul from which God is departed?

So observe compassionately, interact honestly. And the third thing Jesus did, he expected adversity. He knew what was coming. Verse 9. Immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, It's the Sabbath.

It's not lawful for you to carry your bed, he answered them. He who made me well said to me, Take up your bed and walk. Then they asked him, Who is the man who said to you, Take up your bed and walk?

Now they're hunting him down. But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, See that you have been made well.

Send no more or less to worse thing come upon you. Now notice something in verse 13. They couldn't find Jesus because Jesus had what? Withdrawn himself. He knew that doing this, showing this kind of love and compassion would put him right in the bullseye. So he withdrew. He got out of the way. This was not the time to be arrested and be crucified. That would come later.

It was all in a perfect timetable. So expecting adversity, Jesus withdrew himself. Because love has consequences. And one of the great consequences of loving the unlovely is you'll be misunderstood by people.

We've had enormous groundswell of love and support for this series. Jesus loves people. But what has amazed me is some of the messaging we have gotten back from Christians. Who will say, I can't believe you guys are saying that Jesus loves prostitutes? Good. I'm glad you're reading it well. That's exactly what we are saying.

You got the message. Jesus loves homosexuals? Yes he does.

Yes he does. That does not mean in saying that all of these people that Jesus loves that he condones their choices or their behaviors. But he does love them and he will forgive those who come to him his way. And it's time the church starts saying that Jesus loves people. You know a few years ago we did a huge outreach, a few of them, to the AIDS community in this town.

We just brought them food and loved on them. And they received it very suspiciously because of what they've heard about Christians in the past. But what we found is it was very controversial and we were misunderstood by both the faith community as well as those in the AIDS community. And then over the years we have ministered to inmates. And when they get out of prison we've actually hired many of those inmates here at the church. And people have said, oof, that's risky. That's risky to hire those guys. You know what, it was risky when they let me come. We're all a risk. And I find that Jesus was so often willing to take that risk.

Now let me just say something else as we wind this down. Expect adversity. Not just from the community who will misunderstand you but from the very people you're trying to help sometimes. You will find push back and blow back and they'll say things about you. You're trying to love them and help them and they'll say nasty things to you or do nasty things. There's an adage in the mental health community that goes like this, hurt people hurt people. People who have been hurt will often be the ones who will hurt reactively because it's like it temporarily numbs the pain that they have experienced of rejection.

So expect anything. But don't let that hold you back from loving the broken. There was one American artist that noted that when the Japanese mend broken things that oftentimes they will aggrandize the damage done to that thing by filling in the cracks of the broken object with gold. Interesting. They would fill in the cracks with gold because they say when something has been damaged now it has a history and now it's more valuable. It's more beautiful.

I love that thought. Here's this broken man, what a history he had. And by the way there's no record that he even knew who Jesus was. But Jesus came and was merciful to him and loved him, this broken man.

He had a history and he was valuable. Because a single human being is the most beautiful, the most valuable and potentially the most powerful thing God ever made. I have to say this in closing. There is a brokenness that God loves. There is a brokenness that God wants. The Bible says a broken and contrite spirit, oh Lord, you will not despise.

He loves when we are humbly broken before God because we realize our failures, our sins, our inadequacies and we bank on him for compassion and forgiveness. That concludes Skip Heiseck's message from the series Jesus Loves People. Now, here's Skip to tell you about how you can keep encouraging messages like this coming your way as you help connect others to God's love. You know, you can never be out of Jesus' reach, no matter what you've done, no matter where you've come from, no matter where you're going, he loves you and he's ready to welcome you when you come to him.

That's great news that the world needs to hear. And you can help share that news and keep these teachings coming to you through your support today. Your gift helps connect more people with the love of Jesus. Here's how you can give right now. You can give online at connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you. Tomorrow, Skip Heiseck turns his attention to the topic of homosexuality and how you can cultivate Christ's heart for that community in yourself. If God loved the world, then we should love the people that are in that world as well. Jesus loves people. That's the theme of this whole series.

He loves gay people, straight people, prostitutes, thieves, drunks, atheists, agnostics, religious people, and even you and I. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection. A connection. Connect with Skip Heiseck is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.