F4F | Twisted Scripture with Mikala Hubbard: John 5

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So we're going to do another segment on twisted scripture.

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This passage is not an easy passage. It's from the Gospel of John chapter 5. It's the healing of that paralytic at the pool of Bethesda.

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Not an easy text. And so we're going to head over to Awaken Church and we're going to listen to Michaela as she's going to supposedly preach on this text.

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She shouldn't be preaching by the way. And she's going to twist it up really badly, like turn it into something that it's not.

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And then we're going to unwind it and actually take a look at what this passage is legitimately about. So let's whirl up the desktop and let's pull up the web browser.

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And this is Michaela Hubbard of Awaken Church down there in San Diego. And she's 10 minutes into the sermon so far, but she hasn't read the biblical text.

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That's a bad sign, by the way. And she's talking about an account where she went to visit the doctor and she was in a waiting room.

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And because she's trying to set the foundation for the sermon where the kind of the big illustration is the idea of being in God's waiting room.

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That's the big point that she thinks that this text is about.

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So let's take a look. We chose to wait outside of the waiting room. And I was reminded how much

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I do not like waiting. Anyone here like waiting? There's one person up there that likes waiting. It's probably because you're way more mature than the rest of us.

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And you know about the goodness of God. I did not prepare myself for the grating sound.

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I feel like I'm listening to a valley girl like, OK, fine, for sure, for sure.

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She's a valley girl and there ain't no cure. OK, what happens when you're patient and you wait on him?

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Good job. So many times in my life, I found myself in God's waiting room.

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Anyone else here found yourself? Have you found yourself in God's waiting room? What? In God's waiting room?

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Yes, I know. I know. I know. Truth bomb number one is this, because what

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I have discovered as we're praying for something, as we're going after something, as we're believing something, as we're in God's waiting room, it's oftentimes not the miracle that God wants to get to us.

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It's the process of transformation that is the miracle that he wants to get to us. Yeah, I have no idea what you just said.

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And that waiting room time is so important and it's so important how we handle it. What do we do in the time of waiting?

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What do you do in your way when you're in God's waiting room? Read a magazine, scroll through Instagram.

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What do you do? How do we act? How do we respond? How do we lean into God? How do we see God? How does one lean into God?

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What does that even mean? How do we see our father in heaven? Does our perception of God change just because he's having us wait?

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No, you signed up to go see that doctor because somebody said that he had an answer. You're sitting in the waiting room. Do you sit there and wonder if the doctor knows what he's doing because he's making you wait?

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I'm wondering if you know what you're doing. I don't think you do. No, but how oftentimes we do that with God.

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We're sitting there waiting in his waiting room and all of a sudden we're like, God, maybe you don't want to do that.

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Oh my gosh. Maybe you don't care. The Valley Girl thing is just grating on me.

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Maybe I didn't hear you right. No, you're in God's waiting room for a reason. And we can trust God in those times.

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So I want to dive into that a little bit today. Starting in John 5, John 5, 1 to 8, we're going to read.

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All right. So here comes the text. All right. So he's going to read out part of it. Okay. Let's see what she does.

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The story of a man who. Not an easy text. Waited and what he did. And we're not going to follow what he did.

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A man healed. John 5, 1 through 8. After this, there. Are we on the right words?

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Right script? Yes. Okay, good. After this, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, a pool, which is called in Hebrew.

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Bethesda Bethesda Bethesda Bethesda. Bethesda, I could say it.

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And also, by the way, if I had to wait on God, I'd also be by a pool. So he. Drinking a

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Mai Tai for sure. I'm sure he was sort of smart. It's called in Hebrew Bethesda having five porches.

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And these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, ingrown toenails, fevers, norovirus, waiting for the moving of the water.

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And here are all these people that are sitting in God's waiting room. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water.

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Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had.

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So here we see God calls one person at a time at a certain time and they can get in the pool and they get their appointment for healing.

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Again, not an easy text. Recent archeological discoveries help us with this.

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I'll explain why there's a challenge in this text. A certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years. Long time, the

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Bible says that's a long time. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, 38 years is a long time.

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He said to him, do you want to be made well? So here he is waiting, waiting, waiting. And then

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Jesus asked him a question. Jesus shows up, asks a question. How many times in our life are we waiting on God? He shows up and he asks a question.

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That's never happened to me. Hasn't happened to you either. There I was,

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I was suffering and waiting and waiting and waiting and finally Jesus showed up and asked me a question.

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That's not what this text is about. Twisted scripture indeed. We're way off.

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This is a form of reading yourself into the biblical text, by the way. This is called narcissus. Narcissistically reading yourself into the biblical text.

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Isosgesis is to read things into it. So it's narcissistic, isosgesis, this is narcissus.

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The sick man answered him, sir, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up.

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But while I'm coming, another steps down before me. Wah, wah, wah. Jesus says, here

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I am. Do you want to be healed? You've been waiting all this time. I'm here for you. And the guy, victim, complacent.

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I don't know. Every time I go to get healed, someone goes in front of me. Oh my gosh. If I was Jesus, I'd be sloppy.

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I am in pain. I grew up in Southern California. I know this culture well and oh man.

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But I'm not, thank God. Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed and walk.

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And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked. Jesus in all his awesomeness, ignores the guy's victim mentality, ignores his response and says, get up, get up.

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Not an easy text. I'm telling you, she has no clue what this passage is really going after.

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Pick up your mess, pick up your mess that you've created, your bed and you got all comfortable in your situation and you probably got a good tan.

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You probably all your friends are there. You see all these people get, no. Stop it with the question and the excuse and get up, take up your mess and be healed.

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And he took up his bed and he walked. He walked away. Truth bomb. Stop expecting someone to do something for you that you can do yourself.

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Amen. Oh, what, what?

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The guy's a paralytic. He can't heal himself. What are you talking about?

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The man had to get up, take self responsibility. If we're in the waiting room of God and God comes ask you a question, are you wanting to?

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God doesn't ask me questions like that. What are you talking about? This to happen. Sometimes you're gonna have to act and most of the time you're going to have to act.

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You're gonna have to get up, clean up the mess that you made, fix some mentalities and move forward. I feel like I'm getting a scolding.

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The title of this message today is a certain time. A certain time. So I have an answer to the question based off of this story, a certain time.

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When is the perfect timing of God? A certain time. It's a certain time. Let me tell you the definition of certain.

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It's defined, definite, fixed, sure to come or happen. This text is not about some certain time in your life that God's gonna bring about in your life.

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What are you talking about? Inevitable, established beyond doubt or question. It's indisputable.

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There is a time. There is a time that is ordained and anointed by God for that thing you've been praying for, for that thing you've been believing for, for that marriage that you want.

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Where does it say that in scripture? It doesn't say that in John five. For that baby that you've been so desperate for. There is a certain time.

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There's a certain. So you're dealing with infertility issues and so John five is gonna let you know there's a certain time when your infertility challenges are gonna just evaporate.

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Boy, this is bad. In time. Micah 7, 7 says this, but as for me,

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I watch in hope for the Lord. I wait for God, my savior. Now, waiting for God is a good thing because you'll know, we go through difficult times as Christians and we pray to God to give us relief for the suffering that we're experiencing, the persecution, things like that and we have to wait for the

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Lord for sure, but that's not what John five is about.

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Now, she's explained to us what she thinks this is about. It's about God's waiting room and a certain time when

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God's gonna create breakthrough in your life. No. Let's talk about our sponsor again.

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Our sponsor today is again, the Word of the Lord Endures Forever. You need this podcast.

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If you have been imbibing in sermonage like this, you have no clue what the

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Bible teaches. You really don't know God's word at all. I hate to say it, but that's just the truth and the

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Word of the Lord Endures Forever is a brilliant podcast walking through step -by -step, verse -by -verse, line -by -line, entire books of the

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He's currently working through the book of Acts and it's stellar and if you go into their archive, you can see that he's worked his way through quite a few books of the

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Bible. Genesis, Amos, Hosea, Joel, Matthew, Mark, John. Uh -oh, he's worked his way all the way through the gospel of John?

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Yep, which means John five would be on the list of things to talk about. And again, it's not an easy text.

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There's a couple of different ways to interpret that passage and there's been a recent archeological discovery that adds a little bit of light to it and maybe lends itself towards a particular way of understanding this text, but this is not an easy text.

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And this woman, she has clearly not even studied it and she's not interested in really preaching what it's really about, but Pastor Will Reardon does.

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So I recommend if you're looking for a podcast, something that you can listen to that will walk you through the biblical texts that you can listen to in your car, will listen to while you're working out, listen to while you're cooking dinner, things like this.

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is their website address. You will thank me later after listening to this podcast.

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All right, let's talk about what this text really is about. And here's the issue.

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I mentioned that there was a recent archeological discovery and the recent archeological discovery is written about in December of 2014.

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And here's the issue. The Pool of Bethesda, which here's an artist's depiction of the

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Pool of Bethesda, they've found the site. They know exactly where it is.

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And here's the issue. The Pool of Bethesda was what's called an

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Asclepion. Yeah, an Asclepion is a temple or a complex designed for worshipers of the false god of the

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Greco -Roman Empire known as Asclepius. It was a healing cult, a health and therapy cult, if you would.

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And so, the Pool of Bethesda was an Asclepion, which means the fellow there who was lying on his mat and waiting for his healing, he was in a false god's temple.

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Uh -huh. And so, you can find this article. We'll put a link to it down below at, you know, for the

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Israel Institute of Biblical Studies. And this creates a challenge as far as a right understanding of what this passage is about.

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So, let's take a look. So, here's, let me read this out and then you'll see how then the

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Asclepion information kind of changes this a little bit. But even without that information, there have been church fathers who've rightly understood this text even without that bit of information.

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You can tell by the reaction of the fellow who was healed. So, watch this. So, after this, there was a feast of the

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Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, there was in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five -roofed colonnades.

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That's kind of a common thing of Asclepions, by the way. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed.

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One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time.

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He said to him, do you want to be healed? Okay, now note, if this is really an

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Asclepion, Jesus is asking this guy, do you want to be healed? Because what are you doing here?

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Asclepius can't heal you. Is it any wonder it's taking you so long to be healed, right?

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So, the sick man answered him, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred and while I'm going another steps down before me.

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And Jesus said, get up, take your bed and walk. And that once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked.

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Now, the day was the Sabbath. So, the Jews said to the man who had been healed, it's the Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.

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Now note here, Michaela in her sermon never gets to this part.

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Yeah, that's just saying that because her sermon's all about a certain time and this guy got healed at a certain time, right?

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So, now the day was the Sabbath. So, the Jews said to the man who had been healed, it is the

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Sabbath, it's not lawful for you to take up your bed. But he answered them, well, the man who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and walk.

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And they asked him, who is the man who said to you, take up your bed and walk? And now the man who had been healed did not know who it was for Jesus had withdrawn.

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And there was a crowd in the place. Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, listen to what

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Jesus says to this guy. See, you are well, sin no more that nothing worse might happen to you.

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In all of Jesus' healings in the rest of the Gospels and even in the rest of the Gospel of John, does

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Jesus ever talk that way to somebody he's healed? Sin no more so that nothing worse might happen to you?

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No. So note here, that's an interesting statement coming out of Jesus' mouth.

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If this is truly an Asclepion, and Jesus found him in a pagan temple waiting to be healed by a pagan

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God, now this takes on a whole different layer of meaning, right?

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So then here's what happens, okay? The man now goes and rats on Jesus.

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So the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. It was

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Jesus, he's the man who healed me. Make, you know, get him in trouble. And this was why the Jews were persecuting

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Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father's working until now and I am working.

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Yeah. So this text, not easy, because you have

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Jesus giving a very stern warning to somebody he's just healed, and that person retaliating against Jesus by turning him into the authorities.

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Uh -huh. And what would make sense in this context is the proper understanding that this guy was sitting in a pagan temple.

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That takes on a whole other meaning. And so you'll know in the interpretive history of the church when you read the writings of the church fathers, okay, there's at least one notable one that actually kind of keys in on this, the fact that this guy ratted on Jesus and that Jesus went after him hard.

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And here's the thing, just because he was healed by Jesus doesn't mean that his soul was healed as well. And that's kind of the point is that Jesus may have healed his physical body, but this guy's not a believer in Jesus at this point.

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Just because he's been physically healed doesn't mean that he trusts in Christ. And his actions and his retaliation against Jesus kind of bear that out.

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And so you'll note that here we see that catastrophe, health catastrophes are linked ultimately to sin.

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And Jesus says, you are well, sin no more so that nothing worse might happen to you.

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The worst that could happen to him is this guy ends up in hell. And that's the point is that just because you're physically healed doesn't mean you're spiritually healed.

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And the thing we need to be about the business of paying attention to is that our soul is right, that we have faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins.

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And then by the power of the Holy Spirit, we bear fruit in keeping with repentance, mortifying our sinful flesh and its passions and not believing falsely regarding God.

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This is a text that has a lot of meaning, deep meaning and a good warning for anybody who would be an idolater.

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And also focusing us on what really matters and the fact that Christ bled and died for our sins so that we would not have to face the wrath of God.

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That's the worst thing that can happen to us. So, like I said, not an easy text.

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You need a little bit more information to kind of help tease out what's really going on here. Mikayla, the valley girl from San Diego, it's just completely oblivious.

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She's gonna preach about what she wants to preach about, but you get the idea. Another great example of twisted scripture.

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So hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description. I'd like to make a shout out to those of you who are members of our crew and say, thank you.

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You make it possible for us to continue to bring Fighting for the Faith to you and to the world. And then those of you who would like to financially support us by joining our crew, all the information on how you can join our crew is down below in the description.

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And until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.