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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...
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
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...
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)
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).
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
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.
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