T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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It was said th a t an angel went down into th e w ater at certain times and troubled (or stirred ) th e w ater and who ever first stepped in afte r th a t would be made well of w hatever disease he had. Jesus saw one poor man lying in one of the porches who had been sick for 38 years, and said to him : “Wouldn’t you like to be made well?” The man answered, “I: have no one to help me get into the water. Someone always pushes in ahead of me.” Isn ’t th a t ju st like people are today? Naturally, if a mother had brought her sick boy th ere, she would w ant him to be th e first one to get in the w ater, for it is n atu ra l to want th e best things for ourselves and for those who belong to us. Have you ever seen people pushing o th er people around trying to get ahead of them on th e street cars? Is th a t th3 rig h t spirit to have? Does it please Jesu s to have boys and girls always w anting the best things and the best places? W hat kind of a bed do you th ink the sick man was lying on? (It was really ju st a m attress, so th a t it could be rolled up and carried if necessary.) W hat did Jesus say to the man? (v. 8.) W hat did the man do then? (v. 9.) How long was it afte r Jesus told him to “rise up and w alk” before he was able to get up and walk away perfectly strong and well? (Imm ediately.) Why was Jesus able to heal the man? (Be cause He is God’s Son.) We read in the first chapter th a t Jesus created all things and in th e second chapter th a t He tu rn ed w ater into wine, and in the fou rth chapter th a t He healed the nobleman’s son w ithout going to the house, bu t by ju st saying the word, and now we have th is story of how He healed th is poor man who had been waiting 38 years for someone to help him. Do you th ink the man was happy? Does Jesus love to help people?
hear not, yet they judge. Great will be the condemnation when those who so judge are judged!
THE JUNIORS THE HELPLESS MAN Jo h n 5:1-9
(TO THE TEACHER: Review the lessons from the F o u rth Chapter— The Woman at th e Well; The H arvest F ield; The Happy Fam ily; The Healing o'f the Nobleman’s Son.) Today’s lesson affords a wonderful op portunity for painting a word picture, which always in terests the children. Read the passage and get th e scene firmly fixed in your own mind. Then explain to the children briefly about th e Three Great Feasts of th e Jews, which God told them to keep in order th a t they m ight remember im portant events in th e ir history— The F east of th e Pass- over in memory of the night they left Egypt; The F east of Tabernacles, when they built booths in the streets and on th e housetops and lived in them for a week, in memory of the tim e th a t they lived in ten ts in the w ilderness; The F east of Pentecost when they brought th e first fru its of th e harvest and pre-' sented them to God in th e Temple. Ex plain th a t these feasts were something like our Christmas and E aster time, and question the children as to what events these commemorate. When God gave th e law to Moses many hundreds of years before, He com manded th a t if possible every Jew should go up to the city of Jerusalem a t least th ree times a year, to attend these three feasts. There were many other feasts too, bu t these were th e most important. Our lesson today tells us th a t a feast was being held in Jerusalem and there were a g reat many people in Jerusalem , and Jesus and His disciples had come up to the feast too. There was in Jerusalem a pool of water in which sick people were cured.
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