Pastor Blaik J. Westhoff
Scripture: Acts 3:1-26
Sermon Study Questions:
1. Followers of Jesus respond to human need. What human needs are you aware of that may be calling for your attention?
2. What role does outreach play in evangelism?
3. What are some ways human needs can be met without large budgets?
4. Can you think of an example of where God met a need in an unexpected way?
Further Study:
John 5:1-15 (NIV)
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” 11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” 12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. 14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
1. Why did Jesus ask the man “Do you want to get well?”?
2. What other motivation could the man of had other than ‘to get well’?
3. In light of the man’s miraculous healing; why were Jewish leaders angry that the man had violated the Sabbath?
4. Why did Jesus later tell the man “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”?
5. What does this passage teach us about the way Jesus met human needs?
6. Is there a teaching in this passage that could be pointing you toward outreach and meeting human needs?