08.27.17 - My Hope has a Name - Sunday School Lesson

08.27.17 - My Hope has a Name -

We are in our second of a series of lessons on “hope”. Last week, we began with the story of Jesus turning the water into wine. In a cultural sense, it was an example of Jesus taking a “hopeless” situation and bringing “hope” as he amazed those attending AND his new disciples. So it was an event that brought God glory and it began to build the faith of his disciples.

[Source: The source of this lesson is the “YOU” material by Lifeway.]

Setup for Week 2: This week, we are looking at a much more serious situation of hopelessness. Greater than cultural disgrace, this week we are looking at an example where an individual was hopeless due to their medical situation. They needed healing…and it had not come.

Lesson Question: How can we find hope when we’re disillusioned?

Let’s set up the lesson with this question and discussion...

Opening Discussion: What is the difference between “chance” and “hope”?

Chance is not based on any evidence that leads you to know how it will end up.

Hope is based on something - there is evidence that leads you to a conclusion.

Setting up the Story

Let me set up the passage we’ll be studying this morning. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is shown as a miracle worker. His authority and credibility was constantly questioned…and so the miracles served as a validation of everything he was saying. Take a look at the quote on your page...

Opening Up John’s Gospel Healing at the Pool (5:1–15)

Who are we to listen to? Where does truth lie? Should we go on living the way we are, or should we change the way we think and live? This is the essence of the argument that fills John 5. The

Opening Up John’s Gospel Healing at the Pool (5:1–15)

Who are we to listen to? Where does truth lie? Should we go on living the way we are, or should we change the way we think and live? This is the essence of the argument that fills John 5.

Not on their page...

Opening Up John’s Gospel Healing at the Pool (5:1–15)

The big question they posed to Jesus was this: Why should we do what you say? What authority do you have? Why should we change?

Here’s the scene…allow me to read this description…(not on handout)

Opening Up John’s Gospel Healing at the Pool (5:1–15)

In John 5:1–15, John paints a graphic scene for us. There’s the pool, surrounded by five great colonnades. In the background there’s the bleating of sheep as they are led through the Sheep Gate into the temple compound for sacrifice. And filling the view is a crowd of disabled people—not neatly dressed or sitting in wheelchairs, but, for the most part, outcasts and beggars, sprawling over the area wearing rags. Some can’t see, some can’t walk, some can’t move. The smell is overpowering. The sight is pitiful in the extreme. And they’re waiting for something to happen. They’ve been told that when the water stirs of its own accord—as it will, being a seasonal spring fed from the hills around Jerusalem—then the first one in will be healed.

And of all the sick and disabled who crowd into this area, Jesus finds one of the most pitiful—someone who has been coming here for thirty-eight years, a paralysed man who has no help or support. And Jesus speaks just a few words to him: ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk’ (v. 8). And what happens? ‘At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked’ (v. 9).

Opening Up John’s Gospel Healing at the Pool (5:1–15)

In John 5:1–15, John paints a graphic scene for us. There’s the pool, surrounded by five great colonnades. In the background there’s the bleating of sheep as they are led through the Sheep Gate into the temple compound for sacrifice. And filling the view is a crowd of disabled people—not neatly dressed or sitting in wheelchairs, but, for the most part, outcasts and beggars, sprawling over the area wearing rags. Some can’t see, some can’t walk, some can’t move. The smell is overpowering. The sight is pitiful in the extreme. And they’re waiting for something to happen. They’ve been told that when the water stirs of its own accord—as it will, being a seasonal spring fed from the hills around Jerusalem—then the first one in will be healed.

So let’s see how this chapter points us to find hope in Jesus Christ. First of all...

I. Stop Following Everyone Else

John 5:1–6 NKJV

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, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

We start out by seeing the location of this event...

Translation Issue: You may notice that “gate” is in italics in your Bible (or that there’s another word there. It’s because the seems to be a word missing here in the earliest manuscripts. So translators have had to make an informed guess on where this exactly took place (Sheep gate…town…or pool). They have made the determination of gate because it was a small entrance to the city (Sheep Gate) on the northeast side of the city near the temple. That makes sense because it would have been a place where many passed by.

Busy Location: As was mentioned above - this was a busy location. And these beggars and those in need of healing would have been all around the location. It would have been both easy and hard for the people to ignore them. Easy because it was such a common sight…hard because there were likely so many of them.

RhQ about Jesus Ministering Here: What is significant about Jesus coming to this area? It is significant because this is how Jesus did his ministry all along. He didn’t avoid areas like this - He went straight to them. These areas beyond the temple where the “needy” people would have gathered would NOT have been the favorite hangout of the religious elite. But for Jesus…He was drawn to these areas. He went straight toward it.

Discussion Question: What would be an equivalent area (to pool at Bethesda) today? Where do we miss opportunities to serve and love people in the name of Christ? (See vs. 2-3)

Look at this list of HOPELESS people...

sick people

blind

lame

paralyzed

So they were all here without HOPE apart from something miraculous happening. This was not the age of advanced medicine and procedures. They were hopeless without God intervening in their story.

And their hopelessness leads to this verse about the work of the angel...

What is this story about the angel stirring the water? Well, we are going to see in vs. 7 that the man was greatly frustrated by the fact that he could not get to the water in the moment when it was stirred up.

Some say that the mention of the “angel” stirring the water here in this section is an effort to set up what the man said. In other words, some manuscripts add this explanation of the angel coming down…other manuscripts didn’t. Some writers suggest that this “angel” portion was added by later copyists (people recording the Bible by hand) in order to explain the story but that this was never meant to be an actual place of God’s work. In other words, this was a myth…not the work of God. If they were going to be healed, God would do that (and was going to do that right there in their presence). He didn’t need a pool being stirred to do that.

Key Point: The key point in the story is going to be this - the man was trusting in this pool of water more than trusting in God. He believed more in this odd stirring of water than he did in the miracle working God he was about to encounter.

Meeting our Key Character: And after that explanation about the angel stirring the water…we meet the key character in the story.

He had this infirmity for 38 years. So he has suffered for an incredibly long time.

No one would have argued about the difficulty of his situation and his need of the Savior’s touch.

Interesting Connection: But what’s interesting about the length of time that this man had suffered…is that it almost exactly corresponds to the length of the wandering period of the children of Israel.

How interesting that they would have seen the hopelessness of this man’s physical situation…and yet it was a reminder of the spiritual sickness that had been a theme of the Israelites.

Point in the Moment: And now here was the answer right in front of them to their long wandering (even up to the NT period). The question was whether they were going to turn to the ONLY ONE who would give them hope.

And so Jesus addresses the man in the same way Israel needed to be addressed...

John 5:6 NKJV

When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

Key Question: That really is the question that had to be answered in that moment. He had to answer Jesus. Did he really want to be made well?

Discussion Question: What might be some reasons that this man would have answered NO to the question of Jesus in ?

He may have been making a decent income as a beggar given his physical condition. In many countries, the lame child is sent out for the family to beg because they know he’ll bring in more money than the healthy child.

He may have simply rejected the invitation out of fear - I don’t know this man and I don’t know if he is good or bad. Maybe what he is offering isn’t of God at all…maybe it’s some other type of “healing”. Let’s face it - we all have some level of SKEPTICISM when people offer us something.

Connection to Israel: But on a much more profound level - this was the question that was being posed to Israel. They too had wandered in sickness and were in need of healing. But what would be their response - would they receive the only hope of healing or would they reject that and remain in their sin?

The New American Commentary: John 1–11 (2) The Healing at Bethesda (5:2–9a)

The man’s response to Jesus’ question, “Do you want to get well?” (v. 6), revealed both his poor understanding of God and his sense of hopelessness. Instead of answering the question, he gave his gloomy testimony and his perception of how God works. The only hope evident in his testimony was his commitment to a myth of a periodic miraculous troubling of the pool, which allegedly brought healing to the first person able to jump in.

So let’s see that in the next point...

II. Stop Making Excuses

John 5:7 NKJV

The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

Listen to this take on the story...

The New American Commentary: John 1–11 (2) The Healing at Bethesda (5:2–9a)

The man’s response to Jesus’ question, “Do you want to get well?” (v. 6), revealed both his poor understanding of God and his sense of hopelessness. Instead of answering the question, he gave his gloomy testimony and his perception of how God works. The only hope evident in his testimony was his commitment to a myth of a periodic miraculous troubling of the pool, which allegedly brought healing to the first person able to jump in.

The Problem: He was trusting more in this water than the Savior in front of him.

Discussion Question: In what or whom do we often place our trust rather than the Savior who is always here for us?

Discussion Question: What will lead us to a faith response instead of a response filled with excuses?

Then let me read this (not on your handout)...

The New American Commentary: John 1–11 (2) The Healing at Bethesda (5:2–9a)

The important thing to notice first is the man’s poor view of God’s grace. Over the long period of time of living with his problem the man had seemingly become convinced that God operated on the basis of “first come, first served.” Another of his problems was that he undoubtedly felt a sense of abandonment because of his helpless condition and his lack of support from others, particularly in times when he thought healing might be possible. He apparently had become negative, as some sick people do, and he was ready to blame others.

So then let’s see our final point...

III. Start Accepting the Extraordinary Power of Jesus

John 5:8–9 NKJV

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.

Listen to this perspective on what we’ve just read...

The New American Commentary: John 1–11 (2) The Healing at Bethesda (5:2–9a)

In response to the man’s perception of God and of God’s grace, it is interesting that Jesus is not portrayed here as a theological logician or debater. Jesus did not dispute the man’s poor theology or his view of angelic visitation. He simply told him to get up and take his mattress or bedroll (krabbaton) out of that place (5:8). Surely amazed and overjoyed, the man followed Jesus’ orders (5:9a), but that was not the end of the story.

Key Point: In other words, he didn’t call out the man’s mistake - - he just healed him. He is a GOD OF GRACE. Our failures could stack up for miles…but God is a God of Grace and His actions are a reflection of HIS character, not ours.

“Immediately the man was made well”

Discussion Question: What are some ways that are community needs to be made well? What about our country?

Now let’s bring that to a personal level (not for discussion)…in what ways does your own story need to be “made well”? In what way do you need a touch from the Savior?

The Response of the Religious elite: But don’t be fooled into thinking that everyone will celebrate the good work that God does in your life. In fact, this man immediately gets confronted by the religious rule followers. They missed the miracle because they were so stuck on their rules.

A man had just been healed after suffering for 38 years.

He was a walking testimony of the power of God at work.

But what they wanted to fix their minds on was this - you broke a rule.

This will happen in church life all the time. You are on FIRE for the Lord and the “Cold Water Committee” will come along to extinguish that newfound joy in the Lord. Don’t let them succeed. God will deal with them. He will do the work of changing their hearts - - - but don’t let their sin change your view of what God is doing in YOUR life!

We have hope because of the SAVIOR who came along and plucked us out of darkness and has given us LIFE. Let’s be a walking testimony of that this week.