SEVEN Series: Do You Want to Be Healed?

A short, engaging podcast that accompanies our sermon series, offering additional insights, practical application, and behind-the-scenes conversations to help you go deeper into God's Word throughout the week.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

And when Jesus calls us out, it's uncomfortable, right? And like in this man's case, right now, this means job. This means integrate back into society. This means a different outlook, right? Right. What he currently was used to. Hi, Zach.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Hello. How are you? Good. How are you? Great. Awesome. Awesome. Zach, but thank you so much for joining today. We are in the middle of our seventh series right now, where we are talking through some of these big moments in the book of John that Jesus has, whether it's a miracle that he does or has a big conversation. And today we are in John chapter five. And you um so graciously gave us your time and your talents uh to write this week's Devo that's in our journal. And so I wanted to get you in here today to kind of uh help us unpack uh this passage a little bit. Tell us what's going on, tell us um maybe a little bit about what you wrote about in your Devo. Uh, but kind of again start off uh today with just giving us a recap of what's happening here in John chapter five.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Yeah, man, I love this recount of what's happening, what we get to read of God's word breathed out. So Jesus is coming for a feast. Um, and as he's approaches and coming in, he comes across a pool of Betheta, uh, and or Bethesda, sorry, and he ends up coming in, and what you witness and when you see in this scene is surrounding this pool are paralyzed folks, blind folks. It's described in the Bible as just invalids, right? Which the original Greek really is just without strength. Um, so these are folks that had circumstances happen to them. Maybe they were born that way, maybe it's something that happened. And he comes across a gentleman that's been there for 38 years, 30 years, 38 years waiting to really get into this pool, right? He's at his last end, his hope is someone carry me to this pool. And the belief was around that that this pool would bubble prior for natural causes and things like that. But in their context, right, without Jesus, they believe that man, if I could just get carried into this pool, for I can get into it when it bubbles, I have a chance of being healed. Yeah, and that's where they are placing all this at. So if you can imagine this scene and with the colonnades and things that are around, Jesus approaches this man and he's laying there. Um, but the whole context shifts, right? This is a Sabbath day in this crowd happening, but Jesus asks such an important question because he goes up to the man and says, Do you want to be healed?

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

And you would think, right, as a reader, you just you're like, that's it. Like, that's what we crave, right? And as humans, if for that healing that we know the power of Jesus. Uh, but this man has put his hope and so much other things outside of Jesus in the scripture and looking for a savior that he gives an excuse, which I think we all could relate to at some point in our life, right? And he's like, Man, no one will carry me to this pool. Like, I just can't do it no more. No one will carry it. I've been sitting here, like, I'm just done. Yeah, but Jesus asks him that. And then by the grace and the power of Jesus Christ, heals the man and tells him to stand up and walk. Um, so then the scene expands because now he's caused some trouble. Yeah, people are kind of noticing that someone just stood up and walked. Right. And it's on a Sabbath day. Uh, there is other uh Pharisees, other people around that that are looking at this and wondering what is happening. They're saying this shouldn't be happening. Before they can even question Jesus and ask, he disappears. And they start asking the gentleman, man, what just happened? And he was like, I don't know. This guy just came up to me, told me to stand up and walk. I'm walking, right? Yeah, and he's he's thrilled. So later on, we're brought in towards the end of the passage of that um uh passage that we go through, and we actually arrive at a temple. Jesus finds the man, goes up to him, and just says, See, you're healed. Yeah, right. And he goes, Now sin no more, and sends him on his way. And man, what a powerful story to think about. And just imagine that you now are able to walk after 38 years of not being able to do so. Right. And the first thing that Jesus Christ says is like, look, you can walk. Yeah, pointing out the obvious, right? Right. Um, and going through there. So it's a powerful story of what it looks like um to have a conversation with Jesus and what it means to encounter him.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Right. Yeah. So good. Um, so so tell us a little bit about uh the the diva that you wrote and the some of the things that that you personally took out of your time with this passage.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Yeah, we are all faced at a time where we need Jesus, right? And we've had our hope and things outside of that. Yeah. Right. It's like if I work harder, if I put more hours into it, maybe if I just uh was better at doing something, or if I had the skills, right? Or we start blaming, like, man, Jake's not doing this for me, that didn't happen, or my spouse didn't do that, and all these reasons of life, right? We can actually become angry uh just with the world, with our station, and where it's at. But from my time in this passage, when you look at it, Jesus is inviting us and asking us, do you want to be healed? And the reality of it is the most earthly thing I can say is he doesn't need your excuses, he knows them all, he created you, right? Right? What he needs is your obedience.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Do you believe in the power of Jesus Christ? You know who he is. And he's asking you that today. He's asking that of me of do you want to be healed in these areas? You got to surrender it to him. Yeah. And when you do that, um, we've all had it. And in my devo, I I I compared it to the word invalid, right? Which is a financial statement of really going in. And it's more of the feeling of not being seen, right? Or from the just gentleman's standpoint, like no one cares, no one's carrying me to the to the pool. Yeah. Uh, but Jesus cares. And when we redirect where our hope and face that into the power, mercy, grace of Jesus Christ, our everything can change. Yeah. Right? We can stand up and walk, um, proverbially what that what that looks like.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Yeah. Now I do think there is another interesting idea that we get from that question of do you want to be healed? This man has been laying there for decades, you know. Like that this is basically his home. Every like there, whether this pool could actually heal somebody or not, there have been people that have come and that have gone and that know that he this is where he dwells. You know, this guy has a reputation of just laying there beside this pool, and there's always an excuse. There's like you said before, Jesus knows all the excuses, he knows all your situations, um, because he's God of the universe, you know, he's king of everything. He he he has full knowledge of all this. But I do think that there's some another side of this question of do you want to be healed? Where because this man has been here for so long, it's a part of who he is. He's so used to and maybe even in love with his brokenness. You know, I know that I have had seasons in my life where I had things I knew were bad for me. I had things that were that there were sins I was committing, there were lifestyle changes I needed to make. There are still some life chance style changes I needed to make. I really love Oreos. But um, but I know that if I change these things, then I'm gonna be better off. I'm gonna be healed. You know, there's gonna be improvement in my life. But I think sometimes we get so trapped in our sin. We get so trapped um in the effects of the sins of others, even and things of things that maybe things other people have done to us, or maybe even things people aren't doing for us, that we make it such a part of our identity. We make the pain, we make the things that are the shortcomings in our lives a rich part of our identity. And so I think again, another interesting way to look at this this question that Jesus asks of do you want to be healed? He's asking the question, not just do you want to get up and be able to walk again? Like, do you want a better life? It's do you really want to be set free from this part of your identity? Do you really love me enough? You know, or do you really have faith in me enough for me to reascribe to you who you are? You know, um, that that's a huge element of this whole study that we're doing right now. Is we've heard Pastor Andrew say a lot in his sermons that this that this uh study is to help us know who we are because of whose we are, and that affects the way that we live, you know. And so Jesus asking this question, I feel like he's asking me this question of like, man, do you really want to be healed of the stuff that you the baggage that you have that you could be laying at my feet? You know, do you really want to be done with this or not? You know, what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yeah, absolutely. Because I think when we hear comfort zone, right, or I'm being comfortable, we always attribute to good.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

But we can be comforted and feel comfortable in our struggles and our challenges and even in our sin. And it just becomes comfortable. Yeah, and when Jesus calls us out, it's uncomfortable, right? And like in this man's case, right now, this means job. This means integrate back into society. This means a different outlook, right? Right. What he currently was used to. Right. That's uncomfortable. Yeah. And for you and I, it may not be a physical, it may be a spiritual healing, a mental healing that needs to take place, right? But we're probably comfortable in some of those spaces with our sin. We're comfortable in the secret parts, right? We only talk about with our our spouses, and Jesus is going to call us out to be uncomfortable in the next stages when he does that.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

He he calls he calls living for him the narrow path for a reason. Not a lot of people want to take it, you know. Not a lot of people want the to bear their cross and follow him. And sometimes what that means is a recognition of, man, I've screwed up in this way, you know, and I want to be healed from it. But that means that I have to confess, I have to repent, I have to change the way I'm living, I have to maybe enter a space where I have more personal responsibility over my life. There's no one else to blame for some of this stuff. And for this guy, again, he's had decades sitting here. I mean, who else is there to blame if the water really could heal him? Who else is there to blame that he's not he's not gotten in the water? You know, he and I do I do think that there is, again, kind of going back to this idea of just a comfortability in being able to blame our situation for the way that we live. When Jesus himself was he grew up poor, uh, he you know, probably had a weird relationship somewhat with his with his earthly siblings, yeah, you know. Um even the like making claims of being the son of God and all of his siblings probably hearing the story of his miraculous conception, you know, he Jesus was so special, you know, he may have been bullied, yeah, you know, probably was bullied, um, you know, was was poor his entire life, you know, was persecuted, was betrayed by some by some of his best friends and denied by them. The the people, some of the people that he specifically chose out, you know, um by hand, you know, uh called them out personally to follow him. And then also like had all this people his entire life that just wanted to take from him, just wanted to take from him. But he still did the right thing every single time. He still lived within God's will, without sin and follow God, yeah, without sin.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

So um yeah, I think I mean you're absolutely right, right? And just like in the garden, right, the excuses is completely ignored. Yeah. And it is here too, because Jesus tracks them down in the temple, and you know, it doesn't scripture doesn't say, but we can safely assume Jesus being all-knowing the creator knew the jumps, he was in the temple, right? Yeah, and tracks them down and actually finishes that story with sin no more. So there's another call to action. Not only was there a physical healing, there was a call of sin no more. Yeah, right. And and so it's important people don't miss that too, because the Jelma gives an excuse. Jings Jesus brings it right back to him and is like, hey, don't sin no more.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Yeah. Yeah. And so that's directed right at the man, not anybody else, not family, not circumstances, but to the man and tells him to sin no more.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Yeah. So good. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Zach. I really appreciate your time today, man. I'm really hoping that this is a huge blessing and an encouragement to some people that are watching today, just to be able to maybe lay some things down at the feet of Jesus and say, I don't want this to be a part of who I am anymore. I don't want the this pain or I don't want um this this sin struggle to be a part of my identity anymore. I want to be healed. I want to be able to move forward no matter what that means. Um thank you so much, man. I appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

My pleasure. Thank you.