Text:
‘Afterward Jesus found him in the temple’ – John 5:14
Thought:
What happens to you afterwards is very important. This man had just been totally healed by an amazing miracle.1 Yet he didn’t know who had told him to, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’, for Jesus immediately disappeared into the crowd the moment the miracle occurred. When the religious authorities interrogated him for carrying his bed on the Sabbath, he replied that he was only doing what he had been told to do. Despite suffering from an infirmity for 38 years, he couldn’t identify the one who had healed him.
Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple, expressing his thankfulness. He didn’t forget God after being healed and helped in such a wonderful way.
During the 1978 pioneer crusade in Wadebridge, an ex WREN Petty Officer entered the hall supported by 2 sticks. After receiving prayer for healing, she marched out shouting, “Gangway”, her friend walking behind her carrying her sticks!
Afterwards she came only occasionally to the church. When a return visit of the evangelist was planned, I called to invite her to the service. She lived in an upstairs flat but always left the front door open to save her from coming down the stairs to answer the door. “Who is it?”, she shouted down. “From the church”, I replied and mentioned the forthcoming meeting. “Not interested”, she snapped and never came to the church again. How sad to find her in the bingo hall and clubs for the elderly, but never wanting to be in the place where God had blessed her with healing. It seemed her body had been touched but not her heart!
During the same crusade, a mother dropped off her 9 year old son who had wanted to come, although she wasn’t interested one bit. He was cross-eyed, but after prayer his eyes were wonderfully straightened. When his mother returned to collect him, she burst into tears over what had happened. Yet, afterwards, neither ever came to the church.
It’s concerning too when people regularly attend church until something happens. Maybe it’s the loss of a job, partner, parent or child, marriage to a non-churchgoer, or the start of a family. For others it’s simply the pressures of life, demands of the job or wanting to make money. It could be hobbies or other leisure activities that crowd out God and church.
The Bible records a lady called Anna 2 whose husband died after only 7 years of marriage, leaving her childless and a widow. Not wanting to remarry, she didn’t become bitter and abandon her faith. Instead she chose to live a life of prayer and service in the temple, praying and fasting continually. When Jesus was brought to the temple for his dedication, she had a revelation from God that He was the Messiah, and so told the others who were looking for His coming.
Church is not a convenience store to conduct our baptism, marriage and funeral whenever we want it to. It’s there as a witness to a living Saviour, a place we continually go to for fellowship, worship and instruction from God’s word, in order to be a shining light during the week in our communities. If all those who used to go to church decided to return this Sunday, almost every place of worship would be full to overflowing. How it would shake the community that believes the lie, that God and having a personal faith in Jesus is largely irrelevant.
One question I often get asked is, “What happens to those who live the worst of lives, yet apparently go through life unaffected by trouble, tragedy and illness?” “Life’s not fair when that happens” people exclaim. But what they forget is that something happens afterwards!
It’s important to take note of what the Bible says, ‘It’s appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment’. 3 Regardless of what people say or think, it’s impossible to miss that judgement day before a righteous God. It’s not going to be a pleasant time, for the Bible declares, ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’. 4 To be eternally lost is at stake. This is why Christians have put their faith in a Saviour – the Lord Jesus Christ. Saved from that awful judgement day, they face another judgment which evaluates their life as a Christian 5, but one which will never result in the losing of their salvation.
After reading Today’s Teaching, what will you do now? Be found in the right place at the right time for the right reason, I trust.
1 – John 5: 1-13
2 – Luke 2:36-38
3 – Hebrews 9:27
4 – Hebrews 10:31
5 – 1 Corinthians 3:12-15
Thanks for the message Norman.
May we endlessly give thanks, with a grateful heart, to our prayer-answering God!
thanks Ps Norman for these teachings and they are really true.
We come in the church to complete Gods’ will to worship, to praise Him, to teach His words and serve him, not to look after our needs. Our needs comes after as additions and blessings.