Who is Jesus: The ‘Son of Man’ whose voice raises the dead
Main point (for leader): Among all the sick people in this chapter, Jesus searched out a paralytic and ascertained that he lacked any willpower before he healed him by simply speaking one word, as a graphic illustration of Jn 1:13. This may scare or comfort, respectively, depending on whether we question the justice of God in this matter, or whether we appreciate his unmerited grace when Jesus saves the empty-handed, least deserving, spiritually dead and lame sinner.
Read: John 4:43-5:47
Introduction: This passage starts with the description of two miraculous healings by Jesus which he then used to illustrate how he fulfills yet another OT prophecy, now from the book of Daniel about a ’Son of Man’ at the right hand of God (Dan 7:13-14) who gives life simply by His word, Jn 5:25.
1) v45-47: After his escape through Samaria, Jesus arrived in Galilee. By that time (after Jn 2), what was his reputation there? Why?
- How did John describe the attitude of the Galileans, v45? Jn 2:23
- When meeting an official in the town of Capernaum, did Jesus commend or criticize his attitude toward him, v48?
- How did this official and his attitude differ from the Samaritans in Jn 4:42-44?
- Jesus only promised that the son will live, instead of instantly healing him: Why? What could be the lesson the reader is supposed to understand here?
2) Is Jesus a healer who depends on our ‘faith’ in miracles?
- Read Mark 6:1-6. What was the true reason why Jesus was “unable” to do miracles in his (unbelieving) home town: Lack of faith in miracles? Or unbelief that Jesus was the promised Messiah? =>
- What should we expect of miracles: Can they convert anyone or substitute for the word of God to convince unbelievers of its truth? Jn 4:42; cf Lk 16:31
- How did most people respond to supernatural signs? cf Jn 2:23-24
- Why were they far from converted by what they saw, despite their enthusiasm about the power of Jesus?
(John will later say much more about the ‘powerful works’ of Jesus (v36), in what sense thry are greater than even the most spectacular healings, and how we can be sure of that)
3) The pool of Bethesda was a water reservoir just north of the temple in Jerusalem. What are we told about the disease of the hopeless invalid there? incl. physical, v4; social, vv3+7, and mental aspects, vv6+7?
- For a map, see Pool of Bethesda => What exactly was Jesus doing in that place during a feast, v5-6? What else would you expect a ‘faith’ healer to be doing (and saying) instead?
- How did Jesus heal this cripple? i.e. by what means, v8 (cf Gen 1:3; Ps 33:9), to what extent, v9, and by what power, vv17-19:?
- Why did he ask him “Do you want to get well”?
- Perhaps even more surprising: Did the lame answer the question? Why not?
- What did the answer of this man reveal about him and his will power?
- How can literally or spiritually crippled people lose even the will to get well?
- What was the effect of this miracle? Did it convince unbelievers of the truth of the gospel, vv16 & 18?
4) The command to sin no more (v14), and the following discourse in vv19-36 suggest that Jesus healed those mortal and crippling illnesses deliberately as metaphors (signs) for how he saves: What does it signify that Jesus healed someone who could not even ask to get healed? cf v25 =>
- How can someone who is dead ‘hear’?
5) How did John describe the people in this chapter who could not be saved?
- Were they less interested or willing to be cured from their sins than the lame cripple, v18? Or if they were more interested (as judged by their religious zeal and effort, v18 & 39), why were they apparently not favored by Jesus?
- Was their root problem that they were even ‘more dead’ in sin than the paralytic? cf Eph 2:1-2
- Why did Jesus tell them that they have ‘never heard God’s voice’ when in fact he was directly speaking to them, v37? How can one hear and yet, in some sense, not hear? cf Heb 3:7-8
- Were they ‘dead’ (unable to hear) because they refused to come to Jesus? Or did they rather refuse to come to him precisely because they were spiritually dead (unable to hear), v39-40?
- Did Jesus say that their refusal was simply their own ‘free’ choice? Or did he teach the opposite, i.e. that we all depend on the will of God and his undeserved favor (=grace) towards any of us? cf Jn 1:13
- Why will some of the dead hear the voice of the Son of God only at a future hour, while others hear it already now, vv25&28?
- What answer of Jesus do you find in vv26-27?
- What is his advice how to cope with this seemingly unfair reality (seemingly for us), v28?
6) v27: Why did Jesus call himself the Son of Man?
- Read Dan 7:13-14. What did this much older prophecy from the book of Daniel foretell about the Messiah who will eventually rule over all nations?
- Did this prophecy predict that Messiah will establish his throne on earth?
- Or does it predict that his rule will require his prior ascension ‘on clouds into heaven’ to the Ancient of Days (i.e. beyond space-time?), v13? cf Ps 68:18; Heb 4:14 [For a description of how the NT described this as fulfilled in Jesus, see e.g. Mk 16:19; Lk 24:51; Jn 20:17; Acts 1:2]
7) Personal & and application
- Many find themselves trapped like the lame man at the pool of Bethesda: Paralyzed all life long by the “disease” of sin, isolated amidst a crowd of superstitious people, disconnected. (How) can you relate to this experience?
- Does the present description of human nature, and its need for salvation square with your own experience? Why or why not?
- If you think you found such salvation, what was it that made you “spiritually alive”, and what has been your response?
- If you think you didn’t, how will you go about finding out whether Jesus is who he said he is, whether He indeed has all authority and power to help you?
- What makes you certain whether or not you hear what this chapter calls the ‘voice of the Son of God’?
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