Easter Possibilities - Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 25, 2025)

Scripture Readings: Acts 16:9–15 | Psalm 67 | Revelation 21:10–22:5 | ​John 5:1–9

“Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.” (John 5:8-9).
 
We are drawing near to the end of the Easter season, a time when we Christians reflect on the Good News of the Resurrection of Jesus, and the New Creation God is bringing about in Him… the news of Christ victory over sin and death, and rising again to new resurrection life… and how this event confronts us all with a new way to exist in the world: as a new community drawn together into the story of the Risen Christ, and living His way in the world.
 
Our Scripture readings today invite us to reflect on some of the surprising ways that our Saviour Jesus brings about God’s good Kingdom in people’s lives… and they also invite us to consider what new and surprising possibilities the Risen Lord may have in store for us… today and down the road… if we will trust Him, and listen to Him, and seek to walk in His ways.
 
Our first reading today from the book of Acts gives us an account of an episode in the missionary work of the Apostle Saul, better known by his Greek name Paul. At first glance, this story might seem pretty straightforward: Paul shows up to a new city, shares the Good News of Jesus, and creates a new Church community. What could be simpler, right? But when we step back a bit, and see what led up to this moment, and to this fateful meeting, we might begin to appreciate anew the surprising ways that God works in our lives to bring about unseen possibilities.
 
If we back up from our passage in Acts 16:9-15, and read just a few verses earlier… we see that Paul and his fellow missionaries kept running into what seems like a strange problem: the Holy Spirit of God kept stopping them from sharing the Good News with people!
 
Acts 16:6-8, “They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia [that is, in the western region of modern-day Türkiye]. When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.”
 
I mean, what’s going on here? Why would the Holy Spirit be actively stopping Paul from sharing the Gospel with anyone? Doesn’t He want everyone to come to know the Good News of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord?
 
Well yes, but as it turns out, this story reminds us that God actually knows best how and when to share this Good News. All throughout the book of Acts, we see that what leads to the Good News of Jesus spreading out from Jerusalem to embrace the nations, is not a series of random encounters, or a thoroughly planned out strategy on the part of the Apostles, but rather it’s the work of God’s Holy Spirit, working through Jesus’ disciple’s as they are attentive to the guidance of the Lord, and remain willing to let Him lead the way.
 
And this is a good reminder and invitation for you and I today too. God still speaks to His people… not in ways we can control, or manipulate, or manufacture on demand, but as we draw near to Jesus in prayer, and in faith, and as we seek to step into His story… understanding His agenda more and more through the Scriptures… God’s Spirit continues to lead His people.

​Sometimes we call this process discernment. A posture of openness and eagerness to hear and to do God’s good will. Discernment means not just assuming that all our ideas are divinely inspired, or sanctioned by Him… but humbly tuning in to Jesus, and being receptive to His direction… which, while it will never break from the Gospel, the Good News about the Risen Lord Jesus, that we find in the Bible… we may at times discover that our Lord has some surprising ways for us to share in His story, and to share it with all those around us.
 
But back to the story of St. Paul in Philippi.
 
As Paul set about his missionary work, journeying from town to town, his usual approach would be to go first of all to the local synagogue to share the Good News of God’s Messiah, Jesus the Risen Lord, with his fellow Israelites… with those most familiar with God’s promises and ways, though his message would then spread to all sorts of Gentiles as well.
 
But as Paul and his friends journeyed through the Roman province of Asia, God’s Spirit kept stopping them from preaching the word, even though that seemed to be both the obvious thing to do… and what they wanted to do. They had their own plans, that, as far as they could tell, were perfectly in line with what God was wanting them to do… but the Lord kept on clearly saying no.
 
Not because God didn’t care about these other communities. Down the road, many early Christian churches would be founded in that region. But as it turns out, God was saying no to Paul’s plans because God had a surprising new direction for his ministry.
 
Acts 16:9-10, “During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.” (Acts 16:9-10). Paul and his companions discerned the leading of the Holy Spirit, and didn’t hesitate to get to work. Even though it doesn’t turn out quite like they had imagined it.
 
They cross the Aegean Sea, and step foot in Europe, arriving in the Romanized Greek city of Philippi. And here we find no mention of a synagogue in the city. Paul’s go-to method for sharing the Good News of Jesus, stopping in at local synagogues didn’t happen… and some scholars think that this means there was likely not enough Israelite men in Philippi to form one. Ten Jewish men in a community were the minimum requirements for a synagogue to be maintained, so if Philippi was almost entirely made up of Gentiles, Paul’s normal pattern of ministry wouldn’t work here at all.
 
But what Paul finds instead of a synagogue is a gathering of women outside the city… women who were open to the Good News of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord. Paul had been led to the region because of a vision of a Macedonian man asking for his help, but the Spirit leads him instead to some God-fearing women like Lydia, who eagerly receives the Gospel and is baptized into Christ, establishing the first Christian community in Europe.
 
And this episode begins a new, surprising, and challenging chapter of St. Paul’s missionary work. Just read the rest of Acts 16 this afternoon, and you’ll get a sense of it. Listening to God, including when God’s Spirit said no, opened up these new possibilities that Paul would not have imagined before… and pathways for the Good News of Jesus to be shared with those hungry to hear it.
 
There may be things that we want to do… as disciples of Jesus, and as a parish community here at St. Luke’s… things that might have worked well for us in the past, or that seem to be in line with our understanding of God’s Kingdom work… that He might be saying no to today. And there are probably things that He is calling us His people to take part in that will push us and stretch us, just like with Paul and his compatriots.
 
But the message of Easter reminds us that we are called to follow the Risen Lord Jesus Himself… to listen to His Spirit, not simply to a series of ‘timeless truths’, or ‘guiding principles’ for life. Listening to Jesus, discerning His will for us can be far more surprising and full of possibilities than we realize. So let us keep drawing near to Him in worship, in prayer, and the study of the Scriptures… the story of Jesus… and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help discerning His will for us today.

But discerning our Lord’s will is just the first step. Once we can clearly hear what He wants for us… what comes next?
 
Turning to our Gospel passage from John Chapter 5, we hear an account from early on in Christ’s ministry where He meets someone who has very little hope that his life could be changed for good.
 
St. John tells us that there were many living in those days with serious medical and social challenges… people without the power of sight, or the ability to walk… who were drawn to a certain pool in Jerusalem where there were rumours of miraculous healings taking place when the waters were stirred up. This site was filled with people desperate for help… searching for hope anywhere they could find it. Even if the hope was fleeting… it was all that they could find to hold onto.

Sound at all like today? People all over our world… and right here in Gondola Point are searching for hope… but often in all the wrong places. They’re searching for things like connection, and meaning, and community, and peace… but many are ending up caught up in addictions, bitterness, prejudice, and many other self-destructive ways.
But the Good News is, Jesus shows up right where these people were. Right where we are. He steps into the reality of their pain. He sees their suffering, their sense of longing… and He also sees another way for them… and for us all to find life.
 
And so, in John Chapter 5, Jesus approaches a man who had been unable to walk for 38 years… and He asks him a profound question: “‘Do you want to be made well?’ 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 making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’” (John 5:6-7).
 
There’s no one who cares enough to help him, he says. He's just left alone in his misery. The man wants to be well, but he cannot see any way for that to happen.
 
But Jesus sees the way… Jesus is Himself the way… and so Jesus tells the man what he must do. John 5:8, “Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
 
Now the man has a choice. He knows what he’s being called to do… even if it seems impossible. And now he has to choose between letting his own understanding of what is possible lead the way, and remain on his mat alone… or to trust Jesus, and do what He says… to stand up, take his mat, and walk.
 
But even before the man does what Jesus tells him to, suddenly a whole world of new and surprising possibilities open up. John 5:9, “At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.” In an instant, Jesus transformed this man’s whole life. But that’s only the first half of the story… as it turns out, some Jewish people living in Jerusalem had a real problem with the ways that Jesus was working… particularly because Jesus seemed to be challenging their understanding of God’s plan regarding the Sabbath rest.
 
John 5:9-13, “Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there.”

The man was stopped by some devout Jews who were concerned that whoever had healed this man was not someone who took the Living God’s ways seriously enough. After all, the Sabbath rest was sacred! It’s one of the Ten Commandments, and served as a key reminder of the Living God’s gracious rescue of Israel from slavery in Egypt… and point forward to the hope of God’s ultimate rescue of Israel and the world, when all suffering and evil will have been dealt with, and God’s faithful people will be made whole at last.
 
The Sabbath rest was a gift to God’s people… a sacred sign of His saving love for them, in the past, the present, and the future.
 
But in their eyes, Jesus seemed to be jeopardizing this sacred sign by asking the man to pick up his mat. There were some commandments in the Law and the Prophets against bearing burdens on the Sabbath day, and these commandments were elaborated on and emphasized in the teachings and traditions of later elders. For faithful Jews, keeping the Sabbath was not an option. It was God’s clear will for His people.

But alongside these commands against bearing burdens on the Sabbath, imagine for a moment the incredible burden that had just been lifted off of this man’s life by Jesus! Imagine the newfound sense of freedom and joy that now came over him! The people around him were focused on the man’s apparent neglect of concern for the Sabbath, but he had just been set free from being bed-bound for 38 years!
 
And Jesus knew there was even more good work to be done: He sought to set the man free from more than just his physical bondage, but from slavery to sin as well… to set him free to fully share in the new life of God’s Kingdom.
 
John 5:14-17, “Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’
 
Jesus the Risen Lord still has work to do in our world today. Through His Holy Spirit at work in us who believe in and seek to follow Him… to do what He tells us to do… our Saviour Jesus is still at work transforming lives, setting people free, and opening up all sorts of glorious and challenging possibilities.
 
And there are also many today… including people who earnestly see themselves as being obedient and faithful to the ways of the Living God… and who may even call themselves Christians… who are not really open to doing what Jesus is calling us to do… or to the changes that He’s trying to bring about in the world.
 
So then, how do we make sure that we aren’t among those who are actually opposing Him? Well, one important step is to keep practicing humble discernment: to pray, alone and together with other believers, for God’s gracious guidance. To keep on studying His story, the Holy Scriptures, alone and together, to learn His ways. And then to keep trying to put into practice everything that Jesus tells us His people to do, and to listen attentively, even when what He says makes us uncomfortable.
 
Maybe like Paul, we have our own plans… but God has a different vision for us… and for the people that He wants to bring into our lives?
 
Maybe we have been sitting alone for a long time with our own pain and discouragement, and can’t seem to see the presence of Jesus our Risen Saviour right there along side us, or imagine how He could ever turn our lives around?
 
Maybe we want to push back against the things that the Holy Spirit is doing around us, because they seem to challenge what we hold to be precious… even though it might mean missing out on something even more valuable?
 
Whatever our challenge might be today, the Good News of Easter calls us to be open to the surprising ways that the Risen Lord is still at work in our world. And so, with the Holy Spirit’s help, may we draw near to His table in faith… and seek to discern His word to us today, and in the days to come… and may we say yes to whatever He may want to do in and through us. Amen.