Jesus Heals a Lame Man
5 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,[a] with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.[b] 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.’”
12 “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.
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.
Watch First Video (The Chosen: Jesus heals Paralytic at Pool of Bethesda): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntuUN0Lg1Es&list=PLSyJOUg4Tk68WMR4aERWfOGYBu85LwPS8&index=93
•Question: You are not coming back here. That life is over. Have you ever felt that Jesus has told to you to pick up your mat and walk? - Walk away from a situation or place, or rut you’ve been stuck in?
Watch Second Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPgWfOLmpPw&list=PLSyJOUg4Tk68WMR4aERWfOGYBu85LwPS8&index=95
Lame Man Walking | Tony Evans Sermon // Acts 3 //
•It’s hard to man up if you cannot stand up.
•You can be at the church house, but still not able to stand on your own two feet.
•Far too many men are lame, they may not be physically lame, but mentally lame. So much so that he cannot take on his manly responsibilities.
•Far too many lame men think that money will solve their problems. In life there are often things that money cannot buy.
•Silver and Gold, I do not have, but what I do have I will give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, stand up and walk!
•Far too many men pray for the wrong thing. Men often pray for stuff, but God wants to change the person. When you only want stuff from God, you’ve got it backwards. Stuff is good, but only when it comes from God.
•Give is a grace word; it cannot be earned.
•We have a generation of Men where people have grabbed them and pulled them in the wrong direction.
•You must be plugged in. Your appliances will not work unless they are plugged into the power. Just like that, we CANNOT work the way we are supposed to, unless we are plugged into the power of Jesus.
•When God moves in your life, you will let it be known!
Discussion Questions:
1. Have you ever felt like you’ve ever needed to pick up your mat and walk?
2. Has anyone ever mentored you or picked you up spiritually?
3. Have you ever helped pick someone else stand up spiritually?
4. There is power in the name, but there needs to be connection with Jesus. Agree/Disagree?
5. God can meet you in the middle of your life and turn your life around. Agree/Disagree?
6. It’s time for us to get up, stand up and start moving. What can we do to stand up and start moving?
Further Study:
Watch Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlBOmQ1PaMY(Chosen: Jesus heals the paralytic; Mark 2)
Set a goal this month to get into the word and read:
•Acts 3:1-26•When reading these passages, what jumps out at you?
If you don’t have one already, find at least one person who can mentor you. And find at least one person to mentor.
If you have not been tithing, consider taking the step of faith and tithe.