We’re diving into John 5:1-18. We are going to stand next to a pool called Bethesda, look into the eyes of a man who had been stuck on a dynamic of defeat for thirty-eight years, and watch Jesus utterly shatter the religious status quo.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in a habit, a mindset, or a cycle of excuses, this passage is going to hit close to home.

John 5:1–18 (ESV)

1After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.

3In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

5One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

7The 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 going another steps down before me.”

8Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

9And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

10So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”

11But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ”

12They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”

13Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.

14Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

16And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

17But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

18This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

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This podcast focuses on five pillars:

1. Vision & Strategy for the modern era.
2. Revitalization & Renewal for the plateaued church.
3. Leadership Development.
4. Pastoral Ministry and all the ups and downs.
5. The Stats & Trends that will define the church this year and in the years ahead.

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