First Love

Announcer: Welcome to First Love with Dr. Robyn Kassas and Dr. Nathan Kassas, where faith meets real life. In this weekly broadcast, you'll discover practical and spiritual keys to reclaim God's story in your life, deepen your relationship with Jesus, and encounter Him as your first love, whether for the first time or all over again. No topic is off-limits as we make Jesus real, relevant, and relational. Stay with us. Your journey back to First Love starts now.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Hello everybody and welcome back to First Love. My name is Dr. Nathan Kassas, and I have the pleasure of hosting with Dr. Robyn Kassas. Dr. Robyn, how are you today?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I'm doing fine. The weather's amazing and God is good.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Amen. We have been on an important journey discussing the 15 gates of Jerusalem, some that are still in place to this day, as well as the ancient gates of Nehemiah's rebuild in Nehemiah 3.

Going beyond the geography and the archaeology, we are speaking on the spiritual significance of these gates and how they represent different conversations that we all need to have and go through with the Lord and the Holy Spirit to bring us to the likeness of Jesus Christ. Dr. Robyn, last week you were emphasizing that we can't skip the gate because we have bought into this wrong translation as well as wrong understanding of all things have become new. That is a very widely circulated belief that when I accept Christ, everything automatically becomes new and I don't have anything to fight anymore. Now it's just believing and receiving.

There's truth to that, but also we brought out 2 Corinthians 5:17, that favorite scripture that everybody quotes: "the old has passed away and all things have become new," and how it's actually misunderstood.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It gives a lot of room for a lot of interpretation, that scripture.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: If I could just quickly give us a recap, in 2 Corinthians 5:17—and this is a scripture, and we're not debating this scripture, but we're bringing light to what Paul was really meaning—it says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." I would encourage you to go and listen to our previous session of how we brought what Paul says after about being reconciled to God. It's through the finished work of Christ that you become new. It's not by your own doing. His work is finished; yours has just begun.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It's really becoming new. Because of Christ, we are becoming new.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: If I could just give a little theological grounding here, if you go to the root word in the Greek of that passage for "becoming," it comes from the root word in Greek in Strong's 1096, *ginomai*. *Ginomai* is to come into being, to happen, to be made, to become. What's significant is that this is a present indicative active tense of the verb.

Present indicative active, if you remember English class, is actually "becoming" as a continual, ongoing work, not a past tense of "already become." It should be translated correctly: "the old things have passed away and all things are becoming new." That's what we brought out. Every day there is a becoming that we can step into to become more like Christ.

If we have become new and all things have already been done, then why does Paul, again in Philippians 1:6, a famous scripture, say, "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion"? If it's already finished, then there's nothing to complete. Or Peter in 2 Peter 1:5-7 says, "Add to patience virtue, and to virtue brotherly kindness." He goes forth: perseverance. Salvation is instantaneous, but sanctification is progressive.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I like for us to look at this word "completion" because that doesn't say completed. It says "brings it to completion." So it's ongoing all the time. Nothing is there; it's ongoing. But the potential for it to be all there is the hope.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: That's the hope for a future. "I have a hope and a future for you," Jeremiah 29. Another important scripture that leads to this is 2 Corinthians 3:18: "are being transformed with unveiled face into the same image of Christ from glory to glory." But the verb there is "are being transformed," not "have been transformed."

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Again, it's always progressing, ongoing, always. It's always a process of progression.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Again, I want to add another scripture because this one relates to Jesus' own progression of growing. It says in the Gospel, "And Jesus added to him daily wisdom." If Christ has to go through the progression of the manhood journey and being added wisdom, we can't skip it. We can't think it's automatic. Luke 2:52: "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." He had to increase in wisdom in the human experience. Just because He was God in the flesh, He didn't have all wisdom because He took off His deity.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: He took it off, the deity. So He had to rely on the Holy Spirit to increase in it just like we do. He wrapped Himself in flesh for a very good reason. God wrapped Himself in flesh to show that even God wrapped in flesh can overcome flesh. But I think we have to see that if Jesus was to do it the way He wants to show us to do it, it has to be progressive.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: To quickly add in some neuroscience before we go into the main meat of the thing, salvation is instantaneous, but biology shows us that just because you accept Christ and your spirit is made alive, your nervous system still stores and carries the old pathways of the old life. It doesn't instantly replace or retrain the brain of years of wrong wiring.

This is the "becoming." You still have memories that exist and your emotional responses still need to be retrained. That's that encouragement: "put on the mind of Christ daily, be strengthened and transformed by the renewing of your mind." This is that whole process called neurogenesis and neuroplasticity where the gradual strengthening of new pathways overpowers the weakening of old pathways.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: There has to be new thinking. When you are still tied to old thinking—stinking thinking—you can't be healed. That's where we're going to go now. We're going to talk about when you went through the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. John says in his Gospel there was a pool located right next to the Sheep Gate and it was called the Pool of Bethesda. This was the pool of stirring. "Bethesda" in Hebrew means mercy, House of Mercy. It had five columns for a reason. Five is the number of grace.

We want to come back after the break and discuss: yes, we want to lay down our old life, we're at the Sheep Gate, and we want to be transformed, but God doesn't leave us empty. He leads us to the next step, which is healing.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: He shows us how to lay our life down. Once you lay down the old life, then God begins the healing process of the effects of the old life. The old life is not alive, but its effects are still present in your body and in your emotions. That's when He begins stirring the water and asking you to let His water touch those places so that they can be healed. That is why we look at "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastures, besides still waters." Now, what still waters? What does it represent? The still waters of the Pool of Bethesda. Before He can heal me, He has to lead me. That's where I want to talk to you: how He leads you.

Announcer: Hi, my name is Dr. Robyn Kassas, and I'm Dr. Nathan Kassas. We'd love to invite you to join us every Monday at 9:30 PM for First Love. God is bringing us back to His original plan, a relationship with the fullness of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the full package of salvation and it's available through this broadcast. Join us for First Love every Monday at 9:30 PM because the one who loved you first is still loving you best.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: All right, Dr. Robyn, we've come back and you left us with that little teaser right before the break to whet our appetites and stir us.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It's the pool that had to be stirred.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: I just want to give a little history here. Historically and geographically, the Pool of Bethesda was located in the northeastern area of Jerusalem, immediately north of the temple complex and near the Sheep Gate. John describes it in John 5 as having five covered porticos. Archaeological excavations uncovered a double pool complex with four surrounding colonnades and a fifth running along the central partition, corresponding strikingly with John's geographical description.

The Sheep Gate provides access to the temple area. What does that mean to the believer? You can't access the temple, the presence of God, the new life, the tabernacling with Him until you go through the Sheep Gate which leads you to the crucified life.

Dr. Richard Booker, one of the professors that I studied with under the Institute of Hebraic-Christian Studies, said there are two saviors in America. There's the version that God saves me and then He gives me everything. Then there's the savior that He saves me but then I give Him everything.

This Sheep Gate is important. We've talked about this now for two weeks because it's such a beginning. It's the entrance. The first one is the sheep approaches the place of sacrifice. The old life is surrendered. But now, like in baptism, after you get saved, the next station is a water baptism because the old life has to be washed away as well as the water has to heal the effects of the old life.

The effects of brokenness are what God wants to stir to be healed. We're not broken, but the effect remains.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Once you realize that the crucifixion and you entering to that place of the altar of sacrifice—which is in the temple and now we're talking about it in the Sheep Gate—once you've done that, you need healing. That's what the Pool of Bethesda is all about. And this is where the testimony begins. This is where you need someone to help you. It's interesting: the Lord becomes your shepherd, but a shepherd leads. The sheep don't lead. The first part is "The Lord is my shepherd; He leads me. I shall not want." A sheep does not choose the route. The shepherd leads it. Before He heals it, it's got to be led before healed.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Now why is that? Because death does not automatically heal damage. Let me bring a naturopathic insight here. When we kill a parasite in the body by detoxifying the body—maybe of a dysbiosis in the GI tract—the body produces a response to the death of the parasite because the body has been storing that parasite. But the parasite, when it's killed, it releases toxins into the bloodstream. Sometimes you actually go worse as a sign of healing before you get better. People would say, "I'm not healed because I'm worse," but that's the sign of the parasite and its effect being released into your life, dying out, being filtered. The old life may be laid down spiritually, but its effects can remain active.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It has to be restored. The soul has to be restored and that's the work of the good shepherd. But he has shepherds that lead the sheep through that gate. That's the work of the shepherd: through that gate he is to lead them. They are not to lead themselves and they don't choose the route that they go in. They need to be restored, their soul. How can then this be instantaneous? It's not.

How does that work in my life every day? You may have died to bitterness. You may have declared, "I don't want to be bitter." But your body is still bracing for betrayal. You may have renounced fear. You may declare, "I'm not afraid. I cast out that spirit of fear." Yet, your nervous system still reacts as though danger is present.

In a spiritual sense, you say, "Well, what is my part to play in this if the Lord is my shepherd and I have other shepherds that lead me? What is my part to play? I don't get to choose the route." No, you don't. That's the shepherd. But we must permit ourselves to be led. "He leads me." Let's go through that. Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He leads me beside still waters." Now why are the waters still?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Because they have to be stirred before healing can come. That's why you must be involved in it, to give permission or to permit yourself to be led. This is what it's all about.

The waters of Bethesda were still until the belief in the culture of the time was that the angel would come and stir the water. As it stirred the water, it would release healing in the pool and those that were sick would come. David prophetically says, "He leads me besides still waters," not raging waters. They're not moving waters. They have to be moved so that He can restore my soul.

This is one of the most difficult things at the Sheep Gate because they want the experience without going in. We want the stirring, we want the healing, but we don't want the surrender.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: This is a divide that I could bring out as a neuroanalyst. This is the trap and the quicksand of people's lives. You want healing. You want God to heal your patterns, but yet you still live in the nervous system pattern of yesterday. We also want Jesus to heal our old life, but we don't allow Him to confront our old life that produced it.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: He's not going to heal something that should be dead. He's going to heal the new life that has the effects of the old life still present. But we have to let Him confront the old life that produced this state that we're in.

So here at the Sheep Gate, we're saying the old life, because of the surrender, because of the laying down like a lamb—Jesus the lamb who laid down His life willingly: "no man takes my life from me, I lay it down, but I pick it up again." We lay down our life willingly. Then the old life loses its authority. But the next place of the Pool of Bethesda healing is where mercy begins treating the wounds that the old life has left behind. We want relief without surrender and we want restoration without death and we want a pool without a gate.

God is not calling the old nature to die without providing mercy in the person, in the new nature that He's emerging from it. But here's the key: the Sheep Gate is not a gate of divine cruelty because we have come to that place where we look at God as hard: "you just want me to die, you just want me to lay down, tell me what to do." No. God is not killing you; He's killing what's been killing you. He's not emptying you to abandon you. He's stirring you so that He can restore you.

"He leads me beside still waters," and they have to be stirred so that He can restore me. What's that stirring? That's the confrontation of all the old life mindsets that I've never let Him touch.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That man that went to the Pool of Bethesda had something he had to be healed of. We have something that we need to be healed of when we come to salvation: healed of sin, healed of a sinful life. But we allow Him to lead us, lead us to the old place, to the place of death. But do we fully surrender to that death?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: The gate of the Sheep Gate removes the agreement with the old life, but the pool washes its residue from your responses. I know this to be a reality in my own life. I am a new creation in Christ, but I still have the responses stored in me of the old man. We protect those very patterns from which we ask Him to heal us from.

So, Dr. Robyn, it's important that we realize the first gate is the surrender gate, the Sheep Gate. But then God doesn't leave us empty after we've surrendered. He doesn't say surrender everything, give everything away, give everything up and that's it. He wants to fill us with His Spirit in those empty places.

That water represents God's Spirit touching those places that have been stagnant. Culturally, the Hebrews believed that when the angel stirred the water, the water had to be still because it represented stagnation in life and God would release an angel to interrupt the stagnation. We can't interrupt stagnation if we protect it. If we protect it, we're not ready to give it up.

That's why it has to be a process and a progression because He knows our form. He knows our frame. He wouldn't take something away from us immediately; it would devastate us. Little by little He does it. That's only step one: the salvation. Then He moves us on to step two and to step three, which brings us into other places and other gates that are so important.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: The man in John 5 had been close to grace, but he had resisted the movement of grace. He had been close to healing, but he had never entered the water. Some of us are like that man. His excuse was, "I've been here 38 years, but I have no one to put me into the pool." Jesus turns around and says, "Let's go to the root. What do you want? Do you want to be healed? Don't give me the excuse. Don't give me the protection statement. Give me what your heart desires."

He was close to movement but had stopped moving himself and Jesus gets right to it and says, "I can't let you excuse this anymore. Do you want to be healed?" And he replies, "Yes, I want to be healed."

When we protect our patterns, we end up realizing that we're in a process of being stagnated because there's no movement, there's no life. Death brings life. That's the key. I'm realizing I've held onto it, I haven't surrendered it because I've believed that it's giving me something that Christ isn't. When I lay that down and I surrender it like a sheep led to the slaughter, I can get a new way to view that Christ can give me what this can't. Christ can give me the fullness of life beyond a dream, beyond an achievement, beyond a relationship.

If we realize this, we realize after crucifixion comes resurrection. After resurrection comes ascension. We don't go down, but we go up. Have a good night.

Announcer: Thanks for spending time with us today on First Love. If today's message spoke to you, share it with someone. And if you're looking for more teachings, visit www.torcc.org for more. We'll be back next week, same time, same truth. And as you go, don't forget: the one who loved you first is still loving you best.