Participants: Michael Kontes
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000417
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00:30 Hello friends, I'm Michael Kontes
00:32 and I want to welcome you to Faith Chapel. 00:35 Today we're gonna look at the gospel of John 00:37 and how Jesus deals with illness and sickness. 00:40 But first let us pray. 00:44 Father, we come to thee now and we thank thee 00:46 for the life that you've given us, 00:49 the life that you've given us is an abundant life 00:51 and we thank thee for Your hand 00:53 and Your guidance in our lives. 00:55 Be with us now as we break open 00:57 the bread of life in Jesus name, amen. 01:02 Friends, when you have come across the situation 01:04 may be a loved one, a friend, a coworker, 01:07 a church member, brother, sister, 01:09 who has come down with an illness. 01:13 What kind of questions have you asked? 01:16 Have you asked may be why did this take place? 01:19 Have you wanted to point the finger and say, 01:22 try to get down to the root and say, 01:24 what is going on here? How did this come to be? 01:28 Well, let me share with you 01:29 the gospel of John has this kind of situation 01:32 and we're going to go and look at it today. 01:34 We're gonna see not only how the disciples responded, 01:37 but in turn how Jesus responded. 01:39 Let us open up our Bibles to the gospel of John, Chapter 9. 01:46 "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man 01:50 which was blind from his birth. 01:53 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, 01:59 this man, or his parents, that he we born blind? 02:05 Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned, 02:10 nor his parents, but that the works of God 02:14 should be made manifest in him. 02:20 The common belief about suffering in 31 A.D. was that 02:25 all suffering of affliction and disease was a result of sin. 02:30 People commonly assumed that disease and disorders 02:35 on both the personal and national level 02:39 could be traced back to some sin. 02:42 Now in the Jewish mind, all infirmity, all deformity, 02:48 all trouble in your life could somehow be traced back 02:52 to something you did 02:54 or something that your parents did. 02:57 Now friends, I can share with you today that, 03:00 that is from that mindset completely bogus and false. 03:07 Now there is a partial truth in that. 03:10 And let me share to you the partial, partial truth. 03:13 Adam and Eve are original parents, because of their sin, 03:18 we are in the state that we're in today. 03:20 But not all affliction can be traced back to something 03:26 we have done or that our parents have done. 03:30 Now, notice it's human inclination for us 03:35 to point our finger and try to find the problem 03:37 and say, you know, the reason why Tim is sick 03:42 is because of some sin he has done in his life. 03:45 The reason why Judy is sick is because some sin 03:48 her mother and father committed. 03:53 Friends, that absolutely distorts the picture 03:58 that God wants us to have. 04:00 Now this mindset is prevalent not just in 31 A.D., 04:06 but even today. 04:09 As many of you know, I've shared my story 04:11 on my daughter's illness and sickness 04:14 and her eventual passing 04:16 and that has been a very important event 04:22 and a very important time in my life, 04:24 so lot of my illustrations and so on come during this time. 04:27 I like to share with you something. 04:29 During this time my daughter was diagnosed, 04:31 we're in the third day in the hospital. 04:33 On the way out walking out of the hospital with my father, 04:36 you know, my father is a very 04:38 staunch Greek orthodox individual 04:40 and was struggling that I have left my faith 04:43 and as we're walking out I also believe, 04:45 while I was walking out of the hospital, 04:47 he is also been struggling on how his granddaughter 04:50 could come down with this sickness. 04:53 Didn't have an answer for it. 04:54 And the only thing he could say as we were walking out, 04:56 he goes Mike, Arianna has cancer 04:59 because you did not baptized her. 05:02 You see in the Greek Orthodox tradition 05:04 you're baptized as an infant. 05:07 You're baptized as -- and I, my wife and I Regan, 05:09 we specifically chose not to have Arianna baptize. 05:12 We wanted Arianna to make that choice herself. 05:15 You see the Bible says, believe and be baptized. 05:19 And as an infant, she didn't have any belief 05:23 because that Greek word belief pistevo is an action word. 05:26 We wanted her to come to a -- place where she could believe 05:29 herself and make the -- decision for herself, amen. 05:33 Now my father was struggling. 05:35 My father was looking for answers and the only thing 05:37 he could point to was that -- because I did not baptize her, 05:43 because Regan and I did not baptize her, 05:46 this illness must have been a judgment from God. 05:49 Now as I was walking out with my dad, and he said 05:52 that I looked at my dad and I said, 05:53 "dad, have you, you know, I'm really sorry that you've 05:56 that picture of God. 05:57 What do you do with all the people in your faith 05:59 who had been baptized as an infant 06:01 and come down with illnesses?" 06:03 He was quite quiet, didn't know how to answer. 06:05 I understood that my dad was struggling 06:07 with how to answer this question, 06:08 so I understood the motive. 06:10 Now what do you do though as a parent, 06:15 when something happens to your child? 06:17 How do you respond? 06:19 You see, child birth should be something 06:21 that brings out great joy and happiness. 06:25 The occasion of child birth should be 06:27 an occasion of great joy. 06:30 Here the mother gives birth and after all the birth pains, 06:35 as I watched my wife take three 06:38 of our children into her arms. 06:41 She didn't remember the pain, and now she looked 06:44 upon this beautiful child. 06:46 What if you are a mother of a child and the child 06:49 comes out from birth being blind. 06:52 You are in, you nurse your child. 06:55 One of the most intimate acts that a mother 06:58 could do is nurse her child. 07:00 And as you're nursing your child and you look into 07:03 the eyes of your child, you cannot see 07:05 that look of contentment. 07:08 How about being a father and wanting to take 07:11 your blind son to go play football, 07:13 basketball, or baseball. 07:17 He really can't do that, is if you take him out to go play 07:20 catch with the football you might bonk him in the face. 07:23 Can you imagine the kind of guilt that you would carry? 07:27 Ever wanting to take him fishing and you take 07:29 him fishing and in fact he catches the fish, 07:31 but he can't even see the fish that he catches. 07:34 What kind of guilt would we carry? 07:38 Now in 1999, that I've been sharing with you when my 07:44 daughter got sick we received the phone call. 07:45 My wife specifically, she received the phone call, 07:49 she was sitting down at the, sitting down 07:51 on the kitchen floor next to the stove. 07:54 Now I was walking by, and my wife was very quiet, 07:58 but tears were streaming down her cheeks. 08:02 As tears were streaming down her cheeks, I stopped 08:04 and I just looked, look at her because I knew the cry 08:08 that my wife had was not a joyful cry. 08:12 It was a cry of guilt and as she was finishing up 08:18 the phone call, she wrote down on a piece of paper something 08:23 and she hung up the phone. 08:25 And I said honey, "what's going on?" 08:29 She just nodded her head, nothing. 08:32 I said no honey, "what's going on?" 08:34 And my wife began to share with me that someone 08:38 had called this up specifically once again my wife 08:42 and started sharing with my wife that the reason 08:45 that my daughter, Arianna had brain cancer 08:50 was because of the diet that we were giving her. 08:56 Friends, can you imagine here is a mother, 08:59 her daughter is dying. 09:01 Her daughter is three days in a coma and receiving 09:03 a phone call saying, you know what, I felt impressed 09:07 to call you and to let you know 09:09 that I think the reason why your daughter is sick, 09:12 the reason why she is possibly gonna die is because the diet 09:16 that you've given, You've given her too many Cheerios, 09:21 she has eaten too many big Macs, french fries, 09:25 drinking too many cokes. 09:27 This is absolutely devastating. 09:31 And so as my wife told me that now I've to tell all of you, 09:34 I'm a lot like Peter in some ways friends good and bad. 09:39 When my wife told me that situation, 09:41 I looked down and said is this the phone number, 09:43 because on that piece of paper it had a name, 09:45 it said 'Mrs' and just an initial 'M.' 09:48 The person that didn't even leave their name, 09:51 so I picked up the phone and I started dialing 09:54 this phone number, and as I was dialing this phone number 09:58 a lady at the other end picked up and goes hello, 10:03 and I said, "Hello, is this, is this Mrs. M" 10:06 and she goes "yeah, this is Mrs. M." 10:08 And I said, "Hi, Mrs. M, I'm Michael Kontes, 10:11 you just called and spoke to my wife just." 10:13 Oh yeah, Mr. Kontes, "how are you doing?" 10:16 And I said, "You know Mrs. M, 10:19 I'm not doing too good right now." 10:22 She said, why, what's going on? 10:23 I said you know, my wife just told me that you called up 10:26 and you basically told my wife that the reason why Arianna 10:29 has cancer is because of the diet that we've given her. 10:34 And Mrs. M, said well, you know, Mr. Kontes this morning 10:38 in my daily devotions I was reading a book 10:43 and as I was reading this book, it talked about 10:47 healthful living and one of the things that I knew 10:49 is that you are a new convert with your wife and you guys 10:53 probably have not been keeping all of the dietary habits 10:56 as you probably should have and I think 10:59 that this is the reason why your daughter 11:00 came down with brain cancer. 11:03 And when she told me that friends, I was, 11:06 I was dumb founded. 11:08 I could not believe that this is what she was saying to me. 11:11 And as soon as she said that, as my custom was 11:14 I went straight into prayer. 11:16 I went straight into prayer and as I went into prayer, 11:21 I asked the spirit to impress me, to impress me 11:27 with something to say that would touch this lady. 11:31 And I said, "Mrs. M, do you know that my father 11:37 who is in his late 60s every morning he wakes up 11:42 and he has a cup of coffee, at least one if not two, 11:45 not just your Folgers cup of coffee, he has the Turkish mud 11:49 where you got to put like a big boating oar and stir it, 11:53 has a little shot of Cognac every so often 11:57 and goes off to work. 12:00 And then when my father comes home, my father 12:03 has a little glass of wine, and I said you know, 12:08 I've also watched him Mrs. M that, you know my father 12:12 has eaten lots of different foods, lots of different meats, 12:17 clean and unclean. 12:18 But why is it that my father doesn't have 12:22 this type of cancer either. 12:26 And she was very quiet on the other line, very quiet. 12:30 There was dead silence 12:35 and then she said, but I felt, 12:40 I felt that the spirit was leading me to call you 12:44 and to tell you that, and then I went into more prayer 12:52 and I started praying. 12:55 "Lord, what can I say that will touch this lady 12:59 that she will never be able to run someone else over?" 13:02 Now friends, she might have had good motives, 13:04 I can't judge motives. 13:07 But in the midst of a crisis when a t parent is already 13:12 carrying massive guilt, is this the appropriate time 13:16 to call up and say the reason why your daughter is dying 13:18 is because the diet that you've given her? 13:21 So as I was praying the Lord gave me an answer and I said 13:28 "Mrs. M, have you prayed for my family?" 13:34 And there was dead silence on the phone. 13:37 Have you prayed for my family? 13:44 And I knew, the spirit had impressed me on my heart 13:47 knowing that she hadn't, she was dead silent. 13:51 And then she said, "No I haven't." 13:53 And I said, "Mrs. M, you've the audacity to pick up 13:58 the phone and call my wife and to tell her that the reason 14:03 why our daughter has brain cancer, is because of the diet 14:06 that my wife has been giving her, but you never have 14:09 prayed for my family." 14:12 And then I went on to say, "Mrs. M, do me a favor, 14:17 please don't ever call my house again, 14:19 but I would really appreciate 14:21 if you keep my family in prayer." 14:24 And I hung up the phone. 14:26 Brothers and sisters, there is no reason when someone 14:31 is sick, we see an ailment take place for us to begin 14:35 to assume that the judgment of God is upon individuals. 14:39 When we look at the Bible from Genesis to Revelation 14:43 and we open up and we look at, we look at the Book of Job. 14:47 And you saw all the afflictions there in the Book of Job 14:50 that Job went through. 14:52 Was that the judgment of God or as Job 14:55 says it was because could Job was blameless 14:59 and perfect in his sight that Job was allowed to be touched 15:03 by the hand of Satan. 15:12 I will share with you this is a devastating, 15:14 devastating situation. 15:16 The Bible says in Corinthians, that we will be judged 15:19 by everything that comes out of our mouths 15:21 and our actions whether good or bad, 15:24 Second Corinthians 5:10, I believe. 15:27 Can you imagine being this blind person's 15:31 parent in the first century? 15:34 How about this, this young boy growing up 15:39 the kind of pain that he had to deal with. 15:42 When he went, I can imagine him being 15:44 at the Isaiah Prophet School Elementary there in Judah. 15:51 And as he is in school all of the kids are out during recess 15:54 and playing kickball, but little Frankie 16:00 has to sit next to his teacher, because he can't play. 16:07 How about walking down the hallways of school? 16:12 And hearing the snickers, listening to Susie, 16:17 talk to the Cathie the new girl at school, and saying, 16:20 "Oh, by the way that's Frankie, he is blind." 16:24 Rumor has it that his parents committed a terrible sin, 16:31 a terrible heinous sin, and the judgment of God 16:35 has rested upon him. 16:37 Can you imagine being that young boy hearing that? 16:41 Notice in this verse, there is, there is much in it, 16:45 but verse 3, specifically reads, neither have 16:51 this man sin nor his parents, but the works of God 16:58 should be manifest in him. 17:03 That's pretty powerful. 17:05 That should lead us to realize that there are times 17:09 that people become sick, it is not the judgment of God. 17:13 It's because what has taken place that started up with 17:16 a war in heaven with an angel that wanted to stand 17:21 in the place of God, that decided to war 17:24 against his maker, decided to spread discontent in gossip. 17:28 Finally the lines were drawn, he was thrust out of heaven, 17:33 put down here upon earth, decided, decided like 17:37 the selfish person that he was. 17:40 You know, I just had a thought most of you, 17:42 have any of you ever seen the movie "The Grinch." 17:44 Notice the Grinch is sitting on top of his mountain, 17:47 and he is looking down there on Whoville, 17:49 and the Whoove's come out and they are all singing 17:52 and they are happy, it's the joyous Christmas occasion, 17:55 and he begins to get angry and filled with hated 17:58 and animosity and he wants to do an act 18:00 to destroy Whoville's happiness. 18:04 Friends that Grinch was the Satan, as he looked upon 18:09 the Garden of Eden and saw Adam and Eve, 18:12 contented happy and joyful. 18:15 He purposed in his heart that he would bring such woe 18:18 upon the human race that he would cause massive pain 18:24 in hopes of he would separate humanity from its maker 18:29 forever and he was somewhat successful. 18:35 Humanity was separated from its maker. 18:39 But Jesus, the Father in Jesus, decided 18:45 that they would bridge a gap and make 18:47 reconciliation for mankind, 18:51 so that the works of God might be manifested. 19:00 After my daughter passed away, we had her funeral service 19:05 in Sacramento, California. 19:10 I had approximately, we had at the funeral service 19:15 approximately four to five hundred people show up 19:18 somewhere in the four, five hundred, six hundred. 19:21 Two hundred were church members and the other 19:26 three or four hundred were people from my Greek community 19:31 that I was raised with. 19:33 They came to the funeral service and as they came 19:37 and they sat they watched as Pastor Doug Batchelor 19:44 preached the sermon, preached the sermon on hope. 19:49 They watched as Pastor John Lomacang came 19:55 and sang a song "Just Be There," Just Be There, 19:59 a song about a child who is dying, singing to 20:04 his or her parents "Just Be There," 20:07 just to make it in heaven. 20:11 At that time, young Steven Batchelor also sang a song, 20:15 many tears were shed and as people began to leave 20:22 the funeral service after it was done. 20:25 In fact, let me back up just one second, 20:28 I in fact got up and shared a couple of words 20:31 and one of the things I said as I got up, and I said, 20:36 I know my daughter is asleep. 20:39 She is sleeping in the arms of Jesus, and I have gone over 20:42 and over in my head, why this has taken place? 20:47 And the only answer I get from God is "why not?" 20:53 And I sat down and as the family and friends 20:57 and coworkers began to come out at the end 20:59 of the funeral service and greet us, many people came by 21:04 and they whispered in our ears, 21:09 God was glorified this day, Mike, Regan, 21:14 God was glorified through the death of your daughter. 21:21 You know what, I still her and it still touches me, 21:27 because I miss my daughter. 21:30 But you know, I can go on knowing that God 21:34 was glorified that through my daughter's death 21:38 people had an opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ, 21:42 people had an opportunity to be able to realize 21:46 that even through death, God is good. 21:55 Today, as I look back in hindsight, I do have joy 22:04 and I do have happiness, because I know that day 22:10 that my daughter through her life 22:14 the glory of God was shown, through her life 22:17 and that day through her death. 22:21 And I will be the first one to tell you friends, 22:24 that I will not raise my hand and say God, 22:28 "Hey I got two other boys, go ahead 22:31 and put them through the same affliction." 22:36 I can't tell you that I would say that prayer. 22:40 But the one thing that I can tell you is that day 22:44 through the life and through the death of my dead daughter, 22:47 God was glorified. 22:48 Now there are many parts of this story, many parts, 22:54 and as we're getting towards the end of the story, 22:56 there is a part where Jesus picked up some dirt and mud 22:59 and put it on his eyes and said 23:00 "Go wash and make yourself clean. 23:03 There was an obedience aspect that the blind person 23:06 had to do and had to follow. 23:10 But the specific message and the specific points 23:13 I want to bring out today is that affliction 23:16 is not caused by God. 23:17 There is no reason for us as people to pickup the phone, 23:21 get on the computer, send out emails to people and say, 23:24 "Hey you know what, I know Frank committed adultery 23:29 and left his wife and the reason why he is sick, 23:32 is because this is the judgment of God." 23:35 None of us, none of us have the right to stand up 23:42 and to proclaim that the judgment of God 23:45 is dropping on anyone. 23:46 God has not given us that right. 23:49 And I'm glad I don't have that right, 23:50 because personally for me, 23:53 I don't know if that's right at all. 23:55 I think to some degree that would be a curse. 23:57 Now, there is balance no doubt, that when someone 24:01 does something and we read throughout the Bible 24:02 when prophets have called out sinners. 24:05 Yes, I agree, but I can share with you today, 24:09 I'm glad, I'm not a prophet, Amen. 24:14 Now, next time a friend, a family member, 24:24 a coworker, a coworkers child, a friend's child, 24:30 a church member's child, you hear comes down 24:33 with an affliction, and -- the disease, and an illness. 24:38 You don't have to proclaim and ask God, 24:41 God is this happening because of the child sin 24:48 or the parents' sin. 24:51 What you can do is you could sit back and say God, 24:55 I'm not gonna worry about why this person is sick? 24:58 I want to put this individual in prayer. 25:02 I want to talk to this person. 25:04 I want to give them encouragement. 25:06 I want to give them hope. 25:08 I want to send a card to them, may be on a weekly basis 25:11 encouraging them saying, "God loves you, 25:13 God is gonna strengthen you, God is there for you." 25:21 Notice, the first question asked in this 25:25 three short verses in the gospel of John Chapter 9, 25:30 basically what the disciples are asking is who is to blame, 25:35 but yet Jesus would not allow them to point any blame, 25:40 and this is brothers and sisters well, I will tell 25:42 you as a church member, stand up if there is people 25:46 in your church, and people start asking questions, 25:48 don't allow others to start blaming what's going on 25:51 and speculate what might be taking place. 25:55 If you're a pastor and you know something is 25:56 going on with the family sick and you hear 25:59 that there is some kind of speculation you as a pastor 26:03 should be the first and God would hold you accountable 26:07 if you knew something was being said and spread 26:11 and you did not put out that fire. 26:15 Notice the disciples were looking to what happened, 26:20 what caused this? 26:21 They were looking backwards. 26:24 Jesus had none of it and Jesus didn't say what happened, 26:29 Jesus was looking at it from a futuristic perspective 26:32 saying, not what happened, but what can become of this. 26:38 And the reason why is that Jesus is looking 26:41 at taking situations, and always turning them into good. 26:47 Jesus is looking about taking any situation that is hurtful 26:51 in someone's life whether a physical ailment 26:54 or even a spiritual ailment, and He is looking for us 26:58 as individuals to be able to say, Jesus, 27:01 Lord Jesus please take this burden, 27:03 I cannot carry it anymore and he is looking to take it 27:07 from us after we handed it to Him, embrace it, 27:11 and be able to say you know what Mike, 27:13 I'm gonna take this and in due time I'm gonna give 27:17 it back to you when you are ready to take this situation, 27:22 to take this circumstance and use it for My glory. 27:27 And today brothers and sisters I could stand up 27:30 and I can tell you as what it says, once again 27:32 on my daughter's gravestone, 27:34 the Book of Psalms 118 verse 17, 117 says 27:40 "I shall not die, but proclaim the works of the Lord." 27:46 Today, I will tell you that Jesus Christ is embracing you, 27:52 wanting to do the works of the Lord through your ailment. |
Revised 2014-12-17