Use this free Bible lesson for teenagers in your Youth Group or Sunday School Ministry at church. The discussion and teaching will help High School and Middle School students realize how they are part of Jesus’ plan to invite them youth group or Sunday School. As time allows, add a fun group game to begin your teaching time.
Lesson Introduction
This lesson is about Jesus healing a man that had been disabled for 38 years. Jesus asks an interesting question and the man’s response should cause us to reflect on what we should do to see and help each other. Jesus also tells the healed man to not sin anymore to speak to his spiritual health.
TEACHING RESOURCES
- Lesson time approximately 45 min
- Bibles or cell phones to read John 5: 1 -15
- Drama Props; small blow up pool, mat (sleeping bag)
DRAMA / YOUTH GROUP SKIT
Two very short scenes
Preparation – Read the Scripture
Scene 1 – The Healing at the pool
Props:
- Small pool
- A Mat (sleeping bag)
Actors:
- Prolog reader
- Disabled Man
- Jesus
- The Crowd (the rest of the youth group)
A few questioning Jews
Ask who is willing to be the disabled man and Jesus in the short reenactment of the scripture. Also need a prolog reader to read verses 1 – 5. Tell the rest of the group they will be the crowd and a few will be asked to be the questioning Jews. Give them 5 minutes to set it up using verses 6 – 13. They can use Jesus’s words and the disabled man’s words directly from the Bible. Have the blow up pool and mat ready for them to use. Encourage them to be creative in acting it out.
Start the drama…
Prolog reader sets the scene by reading John 5: 1 – 5
Drama John 5: 6 – 13 Jesus walks up and he and the disabled man have a conversation with the crowd nearby. Then the healed man walks away carrying the mat and is questioned by the Jews
Once the drama is over have everyone take a seat for the lesson discussion.
Youth Group Discussion: Do You Want to Get Well?
How did the man respond when Jesus asked him the question?
No one will help me
Do you think the man’s answer was meant to show us something? Why not answer with a simple yes when Jesus asked the question?
What did the man say he needed?
Someone to help him. For people to not step around him.
There are many ways to feel or be disabled, ill or afflicted. The disabled people at the pond were blind, lame and paralyzed. Disabilities that were obvious. And yet no one helped the man.
What are ways you might feel disabled or afflicted?
Lonely
Afraid, fearful, panicked
Depressed
Anxious
Marginalized
Not smart enough
Not attractive enough
Have you ever felt disabled or afflicted in life?
Anyone willing to share?
And when you felt this way what did you need?
Did someone help give you relief or are you still waiting for someone to help you?
Anyone willing to share their experience and how they see the world?
What did Jesus do for the man?
First, He saw him. Then, He engaged him. Then, He helped him.
Jesus said: “Stand up, take your mat and walk”
Important! What does Jesus want to do for you?
First of all, he sees you. He wants to engage you. He wants to ask you if you want to be made well.
Will you be receptive to that question?
After I’m Made Well, What should I do?
The man didn’t know who Jesus was because Jesus slipped away into the crowd. The man went to the Temple. Probably to give thanks for his miracle. What should we do immediately when we are given relief from our afflictions?
Give thanks to God.
Jesus told the man to ______________ (pick up his mat)
Do you think picking up the mat and carrying it might be a reminder for him of what he should do?
When you have been helped with your affliction, even in a small way, what should you do?
Give thanks to God and then because you remember how you felt, look for a way to help someone else
Then you will be helping to build the Kingdom of God here on Earth.
We need to live in Community, helping each other to overcome our afflictions, and growing in Christ.
It is a beautiful Way. You have an affliction, you ask Jesus to help and send someone to help, they see the affliction, they help in some way, and in gratitude you do the same.
And the story continues…..
Another even more important type of Healing
Drama
Scene 2 – In the Temple
Props:
- The Temple (a space)
- A Mat (sleeping bag)
Actors:
- Jesus
- The Healed Man
- Jews for the man to tell his story to after he leaves the Temple
Scene 2
Jesus finds the man in the Temple and talks to him. The man then leaves and tells his story to Jews.
Have the students act it out.
What did Jesus say to him?
“See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
What do you think Jesus meant when he said “…so that nothing worse happens to you”?
The consequence of sin would be worse than the physical affliction he used to have.
The man had been made well physically. Now Jesus was addressing his spiritual life. The need to stop sinning. The need for forgiveness of sin. Another even more important gift. The gift of being made spiritually well.
Optional: Say, And that’s not all the layers to the story! The Jews got angry that Jesus healed on the Sabbath! If you want to know more read John 5: 10 – 18.
Questions:
- Do you have an affliction that you wish someone would help you with?
- Have you prayed to Jesus for help? Prayed that he would send someone to help you?
- Sharing your hurts and needs within our youth group community is part of Kingdom Living. Have you shared them with your youth leader or an adult volunteer so they could see them?
- Do you believe that Jesus cares about your daily struggles as well as your spiritual life?
- Have you given thanks to God for a friend, teacher, adult, youth minister….. who helped you through a difficult time where you felt afflicted?
- Have you helped someone else that you saw was hurting?
- How is your spiritual life?
- Have you asked Jesus to forgive your sins?
- Do you need to be healed?