The Healing Pool

Welcome to the Awakening Church Podcast.

We exist to awaken this generation to new life in Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

To find out more at awakeningchurch.com.

Last week we kicked off this brand new series called This Is Good.

And boy, do we need good news in our day and age.

And we have these journals right here.

I hope you've been enjoying them, that you've been diving in.

If you're like, hey, I'm just catching up to this.

I don't have a journal.

Well, we would love to get you a journal.

You can uh just respond to, you know, one of the prompts that we have for getting connected.

We'll get you a journal.

And then we're also doing Bible memory.

I hope you're leaning into memorizing the scripture with us, getting God's word in your heart.

Uh, it is powerful for our hearts and lives and minds.

And so uh we want to engage fully as a community in this series.

So dive in with the journals, uh, get God's word with the Bible memory.

My family, we've been working on it together and saying it.

And it's been a great thing that we uh kick around um together.

So hopefully you're doing the same.

Well, last week we said this that when the New Testament writers, as they documented the life of Jesus, they called it good news.

That there's something about his life, his teaching, what he did that was fundamentally good.

It's what we call the gospel, right?

The first four books of the New Testament are known as the gospels or literally good news.

It's the Greek word uangelion.

It means good news or news that makes one happy, information that causes one joy, words that bring a smile.

I like that.

A message that causes the heart to be sweet.

See, this about Jesus' life is not just good advice, not just his teaching that will somehow make your life better.

It is fundamentally good news.

See, N.

T.

Wright talks about news this way.

We said it last week, that it's uh something has happened as a result of which the world is a different place.

That something happened, that Jesus in his day and age in ancient Palestine, that the world is a different place.

Our world today is a different place.

And so we're talking about what exactly is this good news?

What is it that is actually good for us today?

And so, if you were journeying with us last week, we talked about the heart of God.

Like what makes Jesus good news today?

Well, the heart of God.

What is God really like?

And we said that God is fundamentally a father who longs to welcome you home.

And then this week we're gonna look at the healing pool.

Because chances are, as we closed our time last week, you might have said, Yeah, but what about?

Okay, I get it, Ryan.

God wants to welcome me home, but but what about my deepest pain?

What about my broken world?

What about that secret thing that is covering me in shame?

What about that?

Is there good news for my broken world?

Does Jesus bring something to the table there?

There is this amazing passage, and if you got your Bibles, John chapter 5, verse 1.

John 5:1

It's this story.

It's this amazing story in which we see the author helping us understand how Jesus is good news in the midst of your broken world.

Jesus is good news in the midst of some of your deepest pain and heartache.

If you wouldn't mind, open up John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

We'll pick up the story in verse 1.

Uh, the gospel writer John says it this way.

He says, Sometime later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.

Now, there in Jerusalem, near the sheep gate, a pool was a pool, which was in Aramaic called uh Bethesda, or Beth, uh hang on.

Let me see that.

Bethesda.

There you go.

Good grief.

Sorry, my brain's a little tired.

Bethesda, there we go, I got it right.

And which is surrounded by five colored colonnades.

So get in your mind, there's this pool, it's being uh sourced by natural spring water, and and it's this covered area.

So in the on the hot summer Palestinian days, this is a cool and refreshing place to hang out.

And so here, a great number of disabled people used to lie.

The blind, the lame, and the paralyzed.

It just was packed with people who were in deep need and poverty, who suffered physically.

And says one who was there had been an invalid for 38 years.

We don't know how old this man was.

We don't know, you know, exactly his age, but we know he is at least 38 or older.

Now, listen to this.

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been there in this condition for a long time, he asked him, Do you want to get well?

What a funny question.

I mean, isn't it obvious?

I mean, if you've been lame for 38 years, if you're unable to walk, don't you want to walk?

Do you want to get well?

But there's something behind that as well.

Because isn't it true that whether it's your pain or your addiction or or the brokenness in your world, that it so becomes a part of you, it becomes your identity of who you are.

And to lose that might feel like losing yourself.

Or do you want to get well?

Is do you want to change and step into a new way of life?

Do you want to get well?

Sir, the influid replied, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.

Now, what this man is saying is there is this superstition that people believed in at this pool of Besesda.

It's like they believed that when the water was stirred, that literally an angel of the Lord would come and put his finger and kind of stir the water around, and the first person to get into the water would be healed.

Well, you you gotta recognize that if you're really severely disabled or blind, you didn't even get to see this.

And so only the most able bodies were able to take advantage of this.

And this man's been trying year after year to get into the water and never quite can get in first.

Only the able bodies.

Now, many scholars think this pool was sourced by a natural spring, and that that stirring that they saw was literally the spring water gurgling up as it does at times.

And so you think about this water having some natural healing property in and of itself, just like a spring today, where if you have aches and pains and some of these sort of things, you get in the water and you're refreshed and revived.

And so you see people with severe pain, severe disability, watching those with some of these aches and pains get in the water, walk out feeling refreshed.

And he's going, look, he's looking at it.

I want to get well, I can't get to the water, I can't get to the healing pool.

It's too far away, and nobody's around to help me.

Then Jesus said to them, This is so good.

Get up.

Come again.

Get up.

No, no, no, I can't get to the pool.

No, get up.

Get up, pick up your mat and walk.

And at the word of Jesus, at the word of Jesus, this man who had been unable to walk for 38 years experienced supernatural healing.

And he once the man was cured, he picked up his mat and walked.

And you're going, that's great, Ryan.

But what about my broken world?

What about my pain?

What about the things that have been holding me down?

And I feel like I haven't been able to walk.

I feel like I've been looking at other people who are getting ahead.

I just feel stuck.

What what does this have to do with me?

Where's the good here for me?

Well, the first thing, um, I I just gotta tell you, it's it's it's not gonna sound good, but it is good.

So um you ever have that where something doesn't sound good, but it is good?

At first, it's not really good news, but it is good news because you had to think about something differently.

This is this.

All right, you ready?

So this is good.

This is good.

Listen up.

There is no magic healing pool.

And you're like, okay, thank you, Ryan.

We don't live in the age of superstition, we live in the age of science.

Thank you very much.

We can go back and examine this and look at the archaeological evidence and realize, okay, the natural spring and some of the natural, you know, things that happen with the mineral pools and how that helps certain people, but it wouldn't help heal someone who is paralyzed.

There is no magic healing pool.

How is that good news?

Well, here's why it's good news.

Because whether you realize it or not, every single one of us is searching for a healing pool.

Every single one of us has something out there that we can't quite get into that we're hoping and think, if if we're only able to get into it, if we only could get over there, if we could only get our foot into the water when it's stirred, then we'd be healed.

Then our life would work out, then my marriage would work out, then I'd be whole.

See, we all have a healing pool.

Every person has a magic healing pool.

They believe if they can just get in, it will fix their life.

And for some it's a relationship, isn't it?

For some, you've been single a really long time and you want to be married, and you think and you're saying, if I just find the right person, then that person will feel the ache in my soul.

And for some, you're married.

And you're going, like, if I just found the right person, then that person would feel the ache in my soul, and the person I'm married to isn't the right person, and COVID has only brought that about to greater realization.

It might be with relationship in regards to kids, and you long to have kids, and if I just had kids, then my life would be fulfilled, satisfied.

It might be with your job.

If I just got this job, if I could just get my foot over here, if I just had this success, if I could get, you know, um build up this reputation, if I if I advanced through the company, if I'm able to get this degree, if I'm able to have this, you know, financial security.

See, what's your healing pool?

What's the thing that you believe if you get it, it will finally fulfill you, make you whole.

See, the the interesting part about the healing pool is uh this story with the natural minerals, is we can see someone getting into the pool just a little bit and go, like, oh, they're refreshed.

It must be good.

We see someone who made a lot of money, got a lot of fame.

And when you track their lives, you realize there is no magic healing pool.

It just left them worse off than where they began.

See, this is good, and this is the starting place, and you have to embrace this.

There is no magic healing pool.

Okay, so let's get to some good news, Ryan.

Thank you very much.

I didn't tune in to be depressed.

Okay, this is good.

Only Jesus can heal and bring wholeness to your life.

Only Jesus can bring healing and wholeness to your life.

See, see, the reason the first is so good is it brings you to the place where the pursuits of your life you come to the realization that they'll no longer satisfy and they will not provide what you ultimately want or need.

Yeah, I mean, think about this.

The solution to this man's problem is standing in front of him.

And Jesus asks, Do you want to get well?

And the man goes, Yeah, but I can't get over there.

I can't get over there.

And she's like, I'm right here, but you're focused over there.

Do you want to get over there or do you want the healing that's right in front of you?

See, I want to explain maybe why for some Jesus hasn't worked for you.

Do you notice?

When Jesus asked the question, do you want to get well?

The man didn't ask Jesus to heal him.

He asked him to help him.

He said, I need help getting over into that pool.

I want to be well, but this is what's going to heal me.

And friends, I just got to say, too many of us are asking Jesus to help us get into the pool that we think will satisfy, the pool we think that will bring healing, the pool that we hope will sometime fulfill the ache and the wholeness in our soul.

And Jesus is standing in front of me like, I don't want to help you, I want to heal you.

I want to heal you.

See, see, when you say, Okay, Jesus, help me get over here, it's not gonna fulfill you.

When you go, there is no magic healing pool, Jesus, only you can bring healing and wholeness.

And so, God, I need you.

All of me for all of you.

God, I need you.

Only Jesus, only Jesus, only Jesus.

So let me ask you, have you been adding something to the equation?

Jesus plus whatever else will bring wholeness, Jesus plus that job, Jesus plus, you know, uh my finances, Jesus plus that relationship, Jesus plus my kids coming back to you, Jesus plus, and just go, no, only Jesus.

And Jesus is standing and asking the question do you want to be healed?

Do you want to experience the tender touch of the loving Savior who sees you, knows you, loves you, and responds to you?

And would you shift your eyes from whatever healing pool you've been looking at and turn your eyes to him and just go, yes, Lord?

Yes, Lord.

Yes, Lord.

I want to take a minute and look at this text from just a different perspective.

We've been looking at it from the perspective of the paralyzed man.

I want to look at this from Jesus' angle for a second.

In fact, scholars would tell us that the first four chapters of John is really how other people experience Jesus.

And chapters five through ten is really kind of giving the bird's eye view of Jesus' experience.

And I want us to shift the question and ask a question for those of us who have indeed experienced the good, the healing, the whole work of God in our lives.

For those of us who said, We get it.

Now we might, you know, cast our eyes to the healing pool, but we said yes, only Jesus, and we've experienced his radical grace in our life.

How do we bring this good news to a hurting and broken world?

This is good.

How do we bring this good news to your neighbors, to your friends, to your family, to your coworkers?

And I want to suggest in this text that Jesus sets the example for us to follow.

For us, it's not just to experience the good news of Jesus, to have our lives changed, to have our hearts be transformed.

We are then called to participate in sharing this good news with everyone around us.

When you get something good, when you have something amazing, you can't help but share it with people.

You're like, this is amazing.

I gotta tell you, this has changed my life.

And by the way, you do this with the silliest of things, with that kitchen tool.

You're like, this tool is amazing.

This just changed my life.

And then we do this when our lives have been transformed.

You go, this is good.

How do we share that?

Well, Jesus sets the example.

Let me look at just three things where Jesus sets the example for us to share this good news.

The first, if you notice, Jesus went where others avoided.

If you're gonna go a day at the pool with the family, you didn't go to this pool.

You didn't go to the pool of Bethesda, Bethesda.

I can't say that today.

Oh well, uh, you won't go to that pool.

Why?

Because it's got a lot of people that make you feel uncomfortable.

This is the pool that you avoided.

This is the place that you walked around.

And Jesus went where others avoided.

See, the question is who are you avoiding?

Who am I avoiding?

Maybe what conversations have we been avoiding because they're uncomfortable.

You know, in Silicon Valley, the oddest thing, and especially you move to the area, you've experienced this in Silicon Valley, we avoid our neighbors.

Drive in, we drive out, and now we're stuck with our neighbors in COVID.

And yet COVID has had this, you know, weird phenomenon, is it almost gives us an excuse to avoid people altogether.

Don't even make eye contact because if I make eye contact, I might get sick.

I don't know where that came from.

See, Jesus went where others avoided.

People who were different, people who didn't have the same thinking or values or political ideology.

What about people who might make you uncomfortable?

I'm not talking about hanging out with people that I think are dangerous.

That's not what I'm saying.

But I do think about the people in our church that are loving the homeless right now and going out with blessing bags.

Or someone that you just think's odd or is just kind of takes a little extra grace to love.

Jesus went where others avoided, and he set the example for his followers that followers of Jesus do the like, do the same and like.

And then Jesus asked rather than assumed, do you want to get well?

Do you want to get well?

See, the church recently has had a history of answering questions nobody's asking.

And then trying to, you know, somehow act like we're we got it all together.

Jesus asked this man a question.

He just says, Do you want to get well?

What if instead of trying to have all the answers, we just began to become better question askers?

By the way, it is so powerful when you ask a question, invite a response in, to share the gospel isn't to come and I got all this stuff I need to drop on you, I got knowledge I need to drop on you, I got truth.

Hello, sit down.

It's like, no, no.

I want to engage in your life, I want to know where you're at, I know what I want to know what's going on, and I just want to tell you about if you want to hear about the God who's changed my life, or you just ask a question.

Like, how are you doing?

Really?

You know, COVID has done this and it along as well as racial injustice in our world, it the deep pain and hurt in our lives is just sitting right underneath the surface, isn't it?

We used to be able to cover it up with distractions and noise and activity, and now we can't, and it's just right under the surface.

So you don't have to ask like these really deep process.

Questions to get at the heart for people.

You just have to ask the simple question, how are you doing, really?

And listen and ask a follow-up question.

For example, I was um I was at Creighton Barrel the other day.

We didn't have um any more glasses, they've just been breaking over the years, and so we don't have one set of anything, and we're using mason jars, which is great, but then they were breaking.

So we needed to get some new glasses, and finally we're able to go in the store.

So we go into the store and getting glasses, and we're so excited, and finally have a set of glasses that are all the same.

And so we're checking out, and I'm checking out, and Jenny's looking at some other things, and this lady, we're just talking, you know, mass to mass talking.

It's just the way we talk, you know, these days.

And and she's asking me, Oh, how are you doing over COVID?

I'm all fine, and we're talking about kids.

And then I ask her, How are you doing?

I like how are you making it through COVID?

It was literally the question.

We're in a store with people around.

She is working behind the counter.

I'm on the other side.

One question.

And she just begins to tear up.

And she says, My dad just recently passed away.

See, the pain is just below the surface.

You don't have to ask a lot of questions.

And and then I said, Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry.

And she's like, Yeah, it's been so hard and you know and painful because I wasn't able to be there for the funeral, and we had to do this thing virtually, and and it's just been so painful.

And then she began to share some other things in her life.

And in that moment, I just was like, you know, I'm so sorry, and get to pastor her and I let her know.

I said, I think God set this moment up because guess what?

I'm a pastor.

And she just began to weep.

Jesus asked questions rather than just assume, would you become a question asker?

He wants to use that to take that pain underneath the surface so that he can bring healing and wholeness.

And then finally, we see Jesus, he led with compassion and then followed with clarity.

And if that sounds familiar, I've said that before.

And you're going, like, well, I didn't quite see that in the text, Ryan.

Well, I didn't finish the story.

You see, this man got up, he's like, Woohoo! I can walk, and and the crowd just like gets so excited, and and Jesus kind of slips away.

And then some it happened that this, you know, miracle happened on the Sabbath day, and he's carrying a mat, and he had these weird rules, like you can't carry mats around.

And he's like, the guy who healed me told me to get up and carry my mat.

So I'm gonna follow the guy who healed me and not your rules there.

Thank you very much.

He's like, What is the name?

I forgot to ask.

I just got healed 38 years, been stuck here, and I, oh my gosh, have you ever done that?

Where you get so excited in the moment, you just couldn't, you're like, I totally forgot to ask.

Well, Jesus comes back and finds him.

And notice what it says uh when he finds them.

He says, Later, Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, See, you're well again, you're whole again.

Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.

That there was a way and a pattern and direction of your life that was creating harm and destruction.

He said, Stop doing that.

Or you might experience worse consequences.

And then the man went away and told others what Jesus had done.

He led with compassion, he met Jesus's physical need.

And then he followed with clarity.

He met this man's spiritual need.

And what we tend to do is inverse that in the church historically.

We lead with clarity, we lead with truth.

We just got to tell you, hey, we we gotta make sure we get your theology right.

There's no, there's no magic healing pool.

So get your theology right.

Jesus going like, no, I'll I'm the healing right here.

I don't even need to correct that because the minute I heal you, your eyes are gonna be fixed on me.

He led with compassion and then followed with clarity.

And we do have to be clear.

We have to bring them the gospel.

But what does it look like for us to lead with compassion and to love others and to meet their needs right where they're at?

Well, we're gonna talk way more about this next week in the whole gospel.

You don't want to miss that.

But for this week, I want to close with our memory verse.

Okay.

If Jesus is the example for us to follow, then this is why Jesus says this.

A new command I give you.

Love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

By this, the whole world, everyone will know you are my disciples if you what?

Help me out, say it in your room.

Love one another.

Love one another.

Love one another.

I just want you to take those three things and just put instead of Jesus' name, love before it.

Because Jesus is the full expression of love.

Love goes where others avoid it.

Love asks rather than assumes.

Love leads with compassion and then follows with clarity.

The place where this person was waiting for God to meet him in his broken world was the name of the pool that I can't say.

Bethesda.

I really just struggled with it today.

It means house of mercy.

House of mercy.

Mercy is not getting what you deserve.

For many, you're in that space where you've been looking to a healing pool, something to somehow save you.

And finally, today you recognize I only Jesus.

And would you turn your eyes to him and say, God, would you come into my life and heal me and make me new?

And for others, the church is to be the house of mercy.

The church is to be the place where those who are hurting and needing and broken feel most calm, comfortable to be able to say, This is me.

This is what I'm going through.

And instead of shame and guilt or condemnation, they experience love and grace and compassion.

See, we have an opportunity awakening.

The opportunity in this season when we are not able to go to church is we have a greater opportunity to be the church to our neighbors, to be the church to our friends, to be the church, the hands and feet of healing in the name of Jesus to those around us.

Will we be the house of mercy to your neighbors and to your coworkers?

Extenders of grace.