“JESUS & THE SABBATH”
YEAH! CHURCH - SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2022
"Doing Life with Jesus”
Today’s Lesson - “Jesus & the Sabbath”
Video Story/Resource:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMj1ggINLe4 (The Chosen – Jesus heals at the pool)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1cykPOiMuY (God’s Story – Jesus Heals at the Pool of Bethesda)
Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man
John 5:1-18, NLT – “Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” 7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” 8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”
9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, 10 so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!” 11 But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” 12The leaders demanded, “Who said such a thing as that?”
13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 So the Jewish leaders began harassing[c] Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. 17 But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” 18 So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.”
Jesus healed a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years…that’s a long time! But instead of praising God for the miracle and being excited for this man who could now walk, the religious leaders told him he was breaking the Sabbath by carrying his bed. They were so sure that they knew right from wrong, but over and over again Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Their understanding of what the Sabbath was for and how to honour it fell short. They thought it was just about following another rule; Jesus showed that while it was a day from resting from regular work, it was actually a day for doing good work, too.
Engage:
• Jesus saw a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years and he felt compassion for him. Why do you Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed, rather than simply healing him without asking?
• When the man said, “Yes,” Jesus then told him to pick up his bed. What happened next?
• Even though Jesus did a miracle, the religious leaders were more concerned that the man was carrying his mat. Why was this an issue for them?
• By healing this man on the Sabbath, Jesus challenged the religious leaders’ understanding of what the Sabbath was for. What reason did Jesus give for healing on the Sabbath? (Hint: What does this week’s verse tell us?)
Weekly verse:
Mark 2:27, NLT – “Jesus said, ‘The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.’”
Prayer – Dear God, thank you for correcting us when we misunderstand what is important to you. Help me not to be stubborn like the religious leaders were and refuse to see my own mistakes. Help me never to put anything ahead of showing your love to others. Help me to be just like Jesus.
2022 Theme verses:
Colossians 2:6-7, NLT – “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
~ Pastor Jane