Step 1: Opening and Introduction to the lesson – Personal Testimonies from last week’s study and Reflection: When you were a child, what was the most serious illness or injury you ever had?
Step 2: Hear – Read: Jesus Heals the Official’s Son. John 4:43-54.
Step 3: Explore – Discover the Passage
- Why does Jesus go to Galilee? Now that Jesus is home again, what motivates the people to welcome him (ref 2:23)?
- How do you account for the contrast between the crowd’s welcome (v. 45) and Jesus’ comments in verses 44 and 48? How are the Galileans alike and unlike the Samaritans in verses 39-42?
- What motivates the royal official to travel so far? How does Jesus test the basis for the official’s request? What is the result? How would you have responded to what Jesus told him to do? What does this miracle tell you about Jesus?
- How does the official confirm the cause of his son’s healing? What was the result?
Step 4: Connect – Apply the Passage:
- When you bring your problem to God (such as a sickness in the family), do you tend to accept his word or keep fretting and fussing? Why?
- When have you taken God at his word (even though the circumstances were seemingly impossible), and discovered that he did exactly what was promised? Why?
- When was a time when you did something for the Lord and it had a multiplying affect? How has Jesus tested the basis of your faith recently? What is the result?
- Referring to Chapters 3 & 4: Are theological education and spiritual insight necessarily related? What have you learned from these conversations about your approach in witnessing? What do these chapters reveal about God, Jesus and man?
Step 5: Reflect: …So he and all his household believed.
