Looking for an Angel and Missing the Savior

John 5:1-16

Three Excuses and a Betrayal

The Gospel of John is also known by theologians as the Book of Signs. Jesus did many miracles, likely every day, as he walked. His compassion moved Him to heal, feed, and counsel those who needed His words or actions.

John focuses on seven signs.

John 5 is the third sign, but though it is a very familiar story that we tell children, it is the cliffhanger that we may have missed.

Jesus enters Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate by the Pool of Bethesda. This pool is noted because a multitude of the sick gathered there. (vs. 3) waiting for the water in the pool to be troubled or move, because an angel stirred the water, and the first one into the pool was healed. (I would not drink that water!)

Now we meet the star of the children’s Bible story in verse 5. He has been sick for 38 years.

Jesus walks up, and Jesus singles him out from the multitude and asks an odd question, followed by the man’s even odder answer.

Look at verse 6. Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?”

“Of course!” or “Yes, please!” But look at the response of the sick man in verse 7.

I can hear his whiny voice to Jesus. It is not an answer but his first excuse. “Sir” (not Lord or Rabbi!) (You have to read this part in your best whiny voice.) “I don’t have anyone to put me in. Someone always gets in before me.”

Jesus was a man on a mission. The man could have said, “Go fly a kite,” and Jesus would have said the same thing in verse 8, “GET UP, take up your bed and walk!”

This is beautiful. I love verse 9–Instantly, the man got well and picked up his bedroll and started to walk. And how did the man respond? “Thank you, Jesus?” Hug the Master? Nope! If he said anything to Jesus, it is not in the passage.

Then, next verse, the “Jews,” the keepers of the micro laws, say, “Hey dude, you are not supposed to be carrying that bedroll today! It is the Sabbath.”

But Mr. Whiny voice, rather than rejoicing and celebrating the end of 38 years of bondage to sickness, and sharing his testimony of victory, offers his second excuse. He says in verse 11, (Say it out loud in your whiny voice.) “That man who made me well told me to pick it up and carry it.”

Then, as the interrogation continued, when asked who this man was, Mr. Whiny says the most unbelievable words in the Gospels! His third excuse. “I don’t know who it was, because he slipped away into the crowd.” WHAT?

The man who had been looking for an ANGEL for 38 years did not recognize the SAVIOR! He did not even get his name! Face-to-face, yet he still did not know Jesus.

But that is not the end of the story! It gets worse!

In verse 14, Jesus sees the man in the temple complex and starts the conversation. “See! You are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.”

I don’t remember Jesus ever saying anything like that to anyone he healed. But what did the healed man do? What would you have done? Knelt to the ground and poured out tears of thanks.

But Mr. Whiny, in the next verse, goes to the Jews and reports that it was Jesus!

Most Bibles place an editorial break there, but verse 16 goes with all that has come before. “Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because He was doing these things on the Sabbath!”

Jesus knew all that would happen as he walked into the multitude of blind, lame, and sick at the pool. He chose the man who would open the way for His crucial teaching that follows.

I am left with only one question. What happened to the ungrateful, whiny man more filled with excuses than faith, looking for an angel? How haunting were the last words Jesus said to him? “Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.”

OK, two questions. How often have I been that sick, whiny, excuse-filled, faith-lacking man?

“Oh, Lord, forgive me for my arrogant, excuse-filled lack of faith.”

Consider a world without Easter

A Moment of Eternal Significance

What if?

What if: Peter had convinced Jesus in Matthew 16:25 not to go back to Jerusalem, but to remain in Galilee as a carpenter and itinerant rabbi? They continue as friends and grow old together.

What if: Jesus had not ridden the donkey from the Mount of Olives to the adulation of the hundreds in the dusty street?

What if: In the Garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus prayed, “Let this cup pass from me.” As the authorities approached, Peter pulled a sword, and rather than an ear being severed, he hit the neck he had aimed at, which led to a sudden bloody death.

What if: Rather than Jesus going to the cross, Peter was arrested and crucified for his crime of murder, and Jesus returned to Galilee to care for his mother, rather than handing John that responsibility.

What if Jesus did not die on the cross at age 33? There would be NO RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD! No Resurrection for Jesus, nor for us. Life continues, slogging through daily existence, attempting to keep the law.

What if the tomb was not empty, but heaven is? There is no celebration of Christmas or Easter. Life’s joy, hope, and compassion ended. The church, singing songs of rejoicing, with the expectation of the sweet by and by are never written. Darkness! Darkness, of unrepentant lives. Lifetimes of helpless, hopelessness.

We live our lives like the humanists among us. Go for the gusto, because all you have is what you can get here. It is a reflection of the words to the song Imagine by the great theologian John Lennon, “Imagine there's no heaven, It's easy if you try. No hell below us. Above us, only sky. Imagine all the people. Livin' for today. Ah”

He was a great songwriter, great musician, but right now he is not IMAGINING!

The curtain between the " Holy of Holies " and us was not torn, top to bottom, by the hand of God. Rather, there is an eternal barrier between sinful man and Holy God.

What if the Man Jesus overcame the God Jesus and He turned his back on His calling? The pain, the humiliation, the physical, mental, and social pain. Add to that the worst pain. The pain He most derided. The pain of sin. The man who knew no sin suddenly receives the pain of guilt, of my sins, of yours. The sins of mankind for centuries were leveled upon his beaten and stripped shoulders and back. But the worst, the greatest ‌pain; The penalty for sin is separation from Father God. So as the mountain trembled, and the sky went dark, Jesus was, for the first time since before creation, separated from His relationship with His Father God and the Spirit of God. In that agony of the cross, the pain of the nails, and the suffocating weight of His beaten body crushing the air from his lungs all faded to the gripping pain of the deep eternal darkness of that separation. We cannot imagine such pain. That was the “cup” Jesus prayed He might be spared.

Without that death and resurrection that we now celebrate as Easter, we are stripped of the foundation of Western civilization and Christian hope. It is a stark picture of a world where the "Good News" simply never arrives, replaced by the weight of the Law and the silence of the grave.

The "Silent" Galilee

Instead of the "King of Kings," Jesus remains the "Nazarene carpenter." In this timeline:

The Ministry Fades: Without the catalyst of the Passion, Jesus likely remains a localized sage. His teachings on love and the Sabbath would still exist, but without the power and covenant provided by the Resurrection, His teachings might have been relegated to a footnote in Jewish history, similar to other first-century rabbis like Hillel or Shammai.
A Private Grief: Jesus caring for Mary is a poignant image. Can you identify with his feeling of choosing to leave His beloved widowed mother? Of turning to a trusted friend, John, asking that he care for the one who struggled to birth Him. In a strange contrast, Mary’s heart is still pierced. But not for a son who is wrongly accused and killed. But her heart is broken because he is alive yet "failed" his messianic destiny–the one who triumphed over death.

The Fate of the Movement

Peter’s Legacy: Peter dies not as a martyr for a risen Christ, but as a violent zealot executed for a common crime. The "Rock" becomes a grain of sand blown by time. A cautionary tale about the futility of resisting Rome with steel.
The Dispersal: Without the post-resurrection appearances or the Comforter sent by the resurrected Jesus, there is no fire of Pentecost. The disciples likely return to their fishing nets in Galilee. The movement dies in the garden with the victim of Peter's sword.

If Jesus had not finished Easter:

A World Without "The Light"

No Western Culture as We Know It: Much of the art, music (Bach, Handel), and architecture (the great cathedrals) of the last two millennia would vanish.
The Weight of the Law: Without the concept of Grace, the human psyche remains tethered to meritocracy. The "hopelessness" stems from the inability to ever be "good enough" for a distant, unapproachable God.
The Silence of the Grave: Without the empty tomb, death remains the ultimate victor. The door that slams shut at our last breath. The human story ends at the cemetery gates, with no bridge between the finite and the infinite. The only future for our eternal souls is one separated from all that is good and holy. Separated into the darkness of eternity from God.

But Jesus’ last word tells the actual story of Easter. Tetelestai. IT IS FINISHED.

The Slow Leak March 28, 2026

Everyone has experienced this if you have driven a few miles: the dreaded slow leak.

And with more modern cars, the irritation of a slow tire leak is compounded by the bright warning light, which eternally reminds you of it.

So what do I do?

I get out and do a quick survey. Walk completely around and look closely at each of the four tires. There is no obvious flat spot. All four tires have good, deep tread. I will head to my appointment and deal with it later.

And later, the irritating bright warning is lighting up my dashboard. Maybe I will stop on the way home. I turn on the radio, sing along, and before you know it, I am home.

The next day, same song, second verse. I don’t need gas; I need air. So I pull out the little clacky plug into the formerly labeled “cigarette lighter” air pump, and make the circle and tighten up all the pressures.

All good. No warning light. Life is good.

But the next day, it is back! A quick look around, and all four tires look equally round on the bottom as they are on the top. Maybe one is just a little squishy. I decide I am good to go. So this is a job for a professional! I will drive by and let my favorite tire guy give it a look. But the day was busy, no time for a stop today, and I still have my clackety air pump.

The next day, the same thing. Now my lovely, patient wife is out of patience. She said, “I do not want to be stranded!”

“Sweetheart, this is not a blowout. It is just a little slow leak. Slow leaks don’t strand you!” I replied.

She gave me her best long, cold look. “Get it fixed.”

“Tomorrow is Sunday, dear.” I whimpered.

“Monday!” she answered simply.

I was out early the next morning and pumped up all four perfectly round tires. And, soon, we were in our seats in the worship center.

Then the pastor loaded my wagon:

The Danger of the Slow Leak

Scripture Focus: Hebrews 2:1 — "Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it."

1. The Nature of the Leak

A blowout is obvious—it’s a crisis, a scandal, or a sudden loss. But a slow leak is more dangerous because it’s deceptive.

The Hiss: It’s the small compromises, the "just this once" moments, or the gradual fading of our daily habits.
The Drift: You don’t wake up one day and decide to lose your faith or ruin a relationship. You simply stop paying attention, and like a boat not tied to the dock, you drift.

2. Common Sources of Spiritual Leaks

Where is the pressure escaping? Usually, it’s through small punctures we ignore:

Neglect: Not doing the "bad" things, but simply stopping the "good" things (prayer, community, gratitude).
Comparison: The social media trap that slowly drains our joy by making us want someone else's life.
Unresolved Offense: Holding onto a small grudge is like a microscopic hole; eventually, it will empty your heart of peace.

3. The Warning Signs

How do you know you’re leaking?

Loss of Traction: You find it harder to get through normal discipleship.
Poor Handling: You’re more irritable, less patient, and "steering" through life feels heavy.
The Rim Hit: You start feeling the "bumps" of life much harder because you no longer have the internal cushion of Spirit-led peace.

4. How to Patch the Hole

You can’t just keep "refilling" without fixing the puncture.

Identify the Puncture: Be honest. Is it busyness? A secret habit? A lack of boundaries?
Apply the Patch: This is repentance. It’s not just saying sorry; it’s a structural change to the "tire" of your soul.
Regular Maintenance: We stay full by staying connected to the source. You can't run on yesterday's air.

The Bottom Line: You don’t have to crash to be in trouble; you just have to stop paying attention. It’s time to pull over, find the leak, and let God restore the pressure.

Thanks, Pastor!

January 15, 2026

The Two Requests

Luke 11

Do you ever wonder about prayer?

I mean, really? You may bow your head, close your eyes, fold your hands as you were told as a child, as if that was the formula. Is that working?

We are all familiar with “The Lord’s Prayer,” or the model prayer. So much so that most of us can still quote it from VBS 30 or 40 years ago. But sometimes, being so familiar with a scripture, we read right past the truth for today.

Jesus’ closest 12 had the same question. “Teach us to pray.” Now it is likely those 12 boys (and they were just older than boys, young men) had grown up in devout Hebrew homes where there was the habit, the expectation, the routine of prayer.

But just as with anything that is done out of routine, rather than out of passion, their prayers lacked vitality, reality, and response.

They were not that different from us. They looked across the street to see the cars parked in John the Baptist’s disciples’ driveways and decided they wanted that kind of connection.

“Lord, as John has taught his disciples, teach us.”

Jesus was full of surprises, including this model prayer that today many call the Lord’s Prayer.

Of all the things that Jesus might have modeled in his pivotal teaching to those closest to him, those who would become the core teachers and leaders going forward, what did he model?

Remember your prayers as a kid?

Remember your prayers from yesterday?

Likely a shotgun blast of your heartfelt concerns, beginning with your own life and needs, radiating through progressively widening circles of relationships until you end up praying for the WORLD.

I’m no expert, and the truth is, that’s kinda what I do.

But from the heart of an expert on prayer, Jesus, we have this model, outline, plan, guidance for prayer.

In Luke 11:3-4, Jesus transitions from God-focused petitions (His name and His kingdom) to human-focused petitions. This shift highlights a beautiful balance: God is concerned with both the temporal (the bread that keeps us alive today) and the eternal (the forgiveness that keeps us alive forever).

By placing these two requests side-by-side, the prayer suggests that we cannot fully live in the "now" without bread, but we cannot truly live for "eternity" without grace.

THE FIRST REQUEST

1. The Temporal Request: "Give us each day our daily bread."

The Greek word for "daily" used here is epiousios, a rare term that scholars have debated for centuries. Its placement here serves several functions:

* Radical Dependence: By asking for bread "each day," we acknowledge we are not self-sufficient. Just as the Israelites received manna in the wilderness one day at a time, we are reminded that our survival is a gift from the Father. Just as the manna did not last, neither does yesterday’s connection. God desires an ongoing relationship, actually more of an ongoing conversation. Many have a good approach to begin their day with prayer and end it with prayer. But the reality is, prayer, like a conversation, is ongoing without beginning or end. How would your friend or spouse view your relationship if you had a conversation only when you wanted or needed something? Well, it might not be the strongest connection. Just because our connection with God is spiritual through prayer, is no reason to make it just once or twice a day with my top ten need list. But just as Jesus points out later in the chapter, God does want to know our needs and concerns. Beginning in verse 5, Jesus offers ridiculous comparisons of earthly requests with a non-response for the midnight bread (see the theme here?), which is granted with persistent requests. In this example, we are told that just being a friend was not enough to grant the request, but based on the persistence of the request (v. 8), the friend did get up and “give him as much as he needs.”

Jesus follows with the admonition to ‘keep asking, keep searching, and keep knocking in verse 9. In verse 10, look at one word, EVERYONE.”

Jesus concludes this section on prayer with the preposterous comparison of “what father among you” (another reflection of the prayer “Our Father”) would give a snake rather than a fish or a scorpion rather than an egg.

BUT DON’T MISS THIS!

Jesus cuts to the bone as he says in verse 13, “If you then, who are evil…” The Hebrew mind was that they were the good guys, and Gentiles were evil. I kinda’ think the disciples thought that they were the cream of the good crop, because look who they were hanging with… But Jesus sliced it to the quick of their heart - YOU, YOU GUYS WHO JUST ASKED ME HOW TO PRAY ARE EVIL.

Jesus follows with the answer! In our Bible, the answer to the original question about prayer is separated by paragraphs of explanation, but in just a second, we will look at it.

BUT FIRST, A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

There are times when we think just like the 12. We think we are the good guys. Look who we hang with. But Jesus had a word for us too. EVIL. No, we are not terrorists. We are not rebels. We work hard and care for our families and our communities, and we go to church. None of that changes that just as the 12 were called out by the Son of God, those words call me out 2,000 years later. EVIL! Let that sink in. The disciples really knew in their hearts that Jesus was right. And you and I know that Jesus is right when points that finger of truth at our hearts.

NOW, THE GOOD STUFF

Jesus concluded this teaching on prayer with His disciples (and with you and me) with this game-changing, earth-shattering, KINGDOM COME proclamation.

“How much more will the heavenly FATHER give the HOLY SPIRIT to those who ask Him?

Can I get an AMEN?

Each of us has a link to the Kingdom. Our Heavenly Father still bestows the gift of the Holy Spirit (that is different than the GIFTS of the Holy Spirit)

Now, I am about to tell you more than I really understand. But in God’s sovereignty, He made it possible for me to exchange my EVIL for Jesus’s pure, unstained, perfect righteousness. So in God’s eyes, after I repent, proclaim that Jesus is my Lord (boss, master) and acknowledge that God did the impossible by raising Jesus from the cold, gray dead. I am seen by God as perfect. I do not understand. But by FAITH I accept this as truth. Then God gifts us with His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to be our internal guide in the faith, our connection with the Father, in Jesus name.

We are blessed who have asked and received!

NOW, BACK TO THE MODEL PRAYER

* The Scope of "Bread": While it literally means food, it symbolically represents all physical necessities—health, shelter, and the means to work. It validates our physical existence; God does not view our material needs as "unspiritual."

* The "Bread of Tomorrow": Some scholars translate epiousios as "bread for the coming day." This gives the request an eschatological flavor—we are asking for a small taste today of the great banquet that awaits us in God's kingdom.

THE SECOND REQUEST

2. The Eternal Request: "Forgive us our sins..."

Immediately after asking for physical sustenance, Jesus moves to the soul’s most desperate need. In the Lucan version, the word "sins" (hamartias) is used, but it is linked to "indebtedness." Some of our versions speak of “forgive our debts…”

* The Debt of Sin: Sin is framed as a moral debt. Just as bread satisfies physical hunger, forgiveness satisfies the "spiritual hunger" for reconciliation with God. Without this, the physical bread only sustains a life that is spiritually bankrupt.

* The Vertical-Horizontal Link: Luke adds a crucial clause: "for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us." This creates a bridge between the eternal and the temporal. Our experience of God's eternal grace is meant to overflow into our daily, temporal relationships.

* Ongoing Maintenance: Unlike the "once-for-all" justification mentioned in later epistles, this is a prayer for daily fellowship. Just as the body needs food every day to stay healthy, the soul needs the regular practice of confession and forgiveness to remain in communion with God.

IN OTHER WORDS

Just because you confessed your sin and asked for forgiveness when you were saved, your life might need a little touch-up. Some sin has separated you again from a right relationship with God. We must DAILY clear that relationship.

This does two important things, maybe three:

It clears a path for open communication with God. He already knows how we have messed up. He wants us to be honest with Him.
It is good for us to evaluate ourselves in the pure, holy light of the Holy Spirit’s prompting to see what we are trying to hide from God and trying not to admit to ourselves.
Once we have done #1 and #2, it makes it a lot easier to be with the other humans we live and work with. As we are forgiven, we forgive those around us. Which is harder? They go hand in hand. That is why our mamas told us to fold our hands. (I just made that up.)

Blessings in your prayers through the day!

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