Closer To Heaven
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Join the Hit the Mark panel as they discuss Sabbath School Lesson 1 – Signs That Point the Way. It’s the fastest hour of the week!
(0)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/sabbath-school-lesson-1-signs-that-point-the-way/
Daily Lesson for Thursday 3rd of October 2024
The miracle by the Pool of Bethesda provided an excellent opportunity for John to emphasize who Jesus is. John takes nine verses to describe the miracle and about 40 verses (see below) to describe the One who performed the miracle.
Image © Jim Howard at Goodsalt.com
John 5:18 can be disturbing because it seems to say that Jesus was breaking the Sabbath. However, a closer look at John 5:16-18 shows that Jesus argues that His “work” on the Sabbath is in line with His relationship to His Father. God does not stop sustaining the universe on the Sabbath. Consequently, Jesus’ Sabbath activity was part of His claim to divinity. The religious leaders persecuted Him on the basis of supposed Sabbath-breaking and a claim to equality to God.
Jesus defends His actions in three steps. First, He explains His intimate relationship with the Father (John 5:19-30). Jesus indicates that He and His Father act in harmony, to the point that Jesus has the power both to judge and to raise the dead (John 5:25-30).
Second, Jesus calls four “witnesses” in rapid succession to His defense—John the Baptist (John 5:31-35), the miracles Jesus does (John 5:36), the Father (John 5:37-38), and the Scriptures (John 5:39). Each of these “witnesses” gives testimony in favor of Jesus.
Finally, in John 5:40-47, Jesus sets before His accusers their own condemnation, revealing the contrast between His ministry and their self-seeking. Their condemnation, He says, will come from Moses (John 5:45-47), the one in whom they have set their hopes.
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How can we be careful not to fall into the trap of believing in God, even having correct doctrines, but not surrendering fully to Christ? Bring your answer to class on Sabbath. |
(1)Daily Lesson for Wednesday 2nd of October 2024
Signs, wonders, and miracles, in and of themselves, don’t prove that something is of God. But, on the other hand, when they are of God, it’s a dangerous thing to reject them.
Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com
Read John 5:10-16. What lessons can we take away from the amazing hardness of the religious leaders’ hearts in regard to Jesus and the miracle He had just performed?
When Jesus revealed Himself to the man who had been healed, the man immediately told the religious leaders that it was Jesus. One would think this would be a time to praise God, but instead, the leaders “persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath” (John 5:16, NKJV).
Healings were allowed on the Sabbath only in an emergency. This man had been disabled for 38 years; thus, his healing was hardly an emergency. And then, too, what was the necessity of having him take up his bed? One would think that someone with the power from God to perform such a miracle would also know if it was permissible to carry a mat home on the Sabbath day. Clearly, Jesus was seeking to take them to deeper biblical truths beyond the man-made rules and regulations that had, in some cases, stifled true faith.
What do these other accounts teach about how spiritually hard people can become, regardless of the evidence? (Read John 9:1-16; Mark 3:22-23; Matthew 12:9-14).
How could these religious leaders be so blind? The likely answer is that it was because of their own corrupt hearts, their false belief that the Messiah would deliver them from Rome now, and their love of power and lack of surrender to God. All these helped cause them to reject the truth that stood right before them.
Read John 5:38-42. What was Jesus’ warning? What can we learn from these words? That is, what could be in us that blinds us to the truths we need to know and apply to our own lives?
(0)Daily Lesson for Tuesday 1st of October 2024
The next sign John records took place at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-9). It was believed that an angel caused movement in the water and that the first sick person to enter the water would be healed. As a result, the porches of the pool were crowded with those hoping to be cured at the next occurrence. Jesus went to Jerusalem, and as He passed by the pool, He saw the waiting throng.
Image © The Classic Bible Art Collection – Formerly Standard Publishing at Goodsalt.com
What a sight it must have been, too! All these people, some surely quite ill, waiting and waiting by the water for a cure that surely will not come. What an opportunity for Jesus!
Read John 5:1-9. Because anyone by the pool obviously wanted to get well, why did Jesus ask the paralytic if he wanted to be healed (John 5:6)?
When one has been sick a long time, the sickness becomes the norm. And strange as it may seem, it can sometimes be a bit disturbing to leave the disability behind. The man implies in his answer that he wants healing. The problem is that he is looking for it in the wrong place—while the One who made man’s legs is standing right in front of him. Little did the man know who was talking to him; although after the healing, he might have started to understand that Jesus was, indeed, Someone very special.
“Jesus does not ask this sufferer to exercise faith in Him. He simply says, ‘Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.’ But the man’s faith takes hold upon that word. Every nerve and muscle thrills with new life, and healthful action comes to his crippled limbs. Without question he sets his will to obey the command of Christ, and all his muscles respond to his will. Springing to his feet, he finds himself an active man. . . . Jesus had given him no assurance of divine help. The man might have stopped to doubt, and lost his one chance of healing. But he believed Christ’s word, and in acting upon it he received strength.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, pp. 202, 203.
Jesus later encountered the man in the temple and said, “ ‘You have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you’ ” (John 5:14, NKJV). What is the relationship between sickness and sin? Why must we understand that not all sickness is a direct result of specific sins in our life?
(2)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24d-01-the-miracle-at-the-pool-of-bethesda/
Join It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and one of this quarter’s authors, Dr. Thomas R. Shepherd, as they provide additional insights into this week’s Sabbath School lesson, “The Beginning of the Gospel.”
(0)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/1-signs-that-point-the-way-it-is-written-discussions-with-the-author/
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