NT Lesson 63-64 John 4-5

https://www.lds.org/manual/new-testament-seminary-teacher-manual?lang=eng

Lesson 63: John 4

Introduction

While traveling to Galilee, Jesus passed through Samaria and taught a woman at a well. The woman testified to others that Jesus was the Christ. Later, Jesus healed the son of a nobleman.

I. John 4:1–42  Jesus teaches a woman of Samaria

---Write the following question on the board:

What is the most valuable natural resource on the earth?

---Ask students to respond to the question on the board. Consider displaying pictures of natural resources such as soil, iron, coal, oil, gold, or diamonds.

---Invite a student to read aloud the following statement by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

“We might initially think that gold, oil, or diamonds have the greatest worth. But of all the minerals, metals, gems, and solvents found on and in the earth, the most valuable is water” (“A Reservoir of Living Water” [Church Educational System fireside for young adults, Feb. 4, 2007], 1, lds.org/broadcasts).

---Display a clear glass of clean water.

• Why is clean water so valuable? (You might invite one or two students to share an experience that helped them appreciate the importance of water.)

---Look for what Jesus compared water to as we study John 4.

---In John 4:1–3 Jesus left Judea and traveled to Galilee.

---Read John 4:4 aloud, and ask the class to look for the area Jesus passed through while traveling to Galilee. Ask students to report what they find.

---Invite students to locate Judea, Samaria, and Galilee on the chart “The Mortal Life of Jesus Christ at a Glance” (located in lesson 5), or invite them to look at Bible Maps, no. 11, “The Holy Land in New Testament Times” to locate the three regions.

• Why is it significant that Jesus traveled through Samaria instead of going around it? (Jews typically traveled around Samaria rather than passing through it because of the hostility that existed between Jews and Samaritans [see James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, 3rd ed. (1916), 172]).

---Read John 4:6–9 aloud. Invite the class to follow along, looking for what Jesus asked of a woman when He stopped in Samaria.

• What did Jesus ask of this woman?
• Why was she surprised when Jesus asked her for a drink?

---Display the picture Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (Gospel Art Book [2009], no. 36; see also LDS.org).

---Read John 4:10–12 aloud. Invite the class to follow along, looking for Jesus’s response to the woman.

• According to verse 10, what did the Savior offer the woman? (Explain that the phrase “gift of God” refers to Jesus as the Savior of the world.)
• According to verse 11, what did the woman ask Jesus?

---Read John 4:13–14 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for what Jesus said about the water He offered.

• What did Jesus say about the water He offered?

---Invite a student to read aloud the following statement by Elder David A. Bednar. Ask the class to follow along, listening for what the living water represents.

“The living water referred to in this episode is a representation of the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel. And as water is necessary to sustain physical life, so the Savior and His doctrines, principles, and ordinances are essential for eternal life. You and I need His living water daily and in ample supply to sustain our ongoing spiritual growth and development” (“A Reservoir of Living Water,” 2).

• According to Elder Bednar, what does the living water represent?

---On the glass of water that you have displayed, place a label that says The Savior and His gospel.

• Why is water an appropriate symbol of the Savior and His gospel?
• How would you summarize the Savior’s words in verse 14 as a principle? (Students may use their own words but should identify the following principle: If we come unto Jesus Christ and earnestly partake of His gospel, then we will receive eternal life.)

---Read John 4:15–18 aloud. Invite the class to follow along, looking for what the woman requested of Jesus and how the Savior responded.

• According to verse 15, what did the woman request of Jesus?

---Jesus’s response helped the woman understand her need for the living water He offered.

• According to verses 17–18, what did Jesus reveal about this woman? (Point out that Jesus’s answer indicated that He knew this woman had struggled to find a meaningful and lasting marriage relationship but that by living with a man who was not her husband, she was not obeying the law of chastity.)
• What thoughts or feelings might this woman have had when Jesus revealed details about her that a typical stranger could not have known?
• How might the Savior’s words have helped the woman realize her need for the living water He offered?
• What truth about the Savior can we learn from these verses? (After students have responded, write the following truth on the board: Jesus Christ knows our sins and offers us His gospel to help us overcome them.)
• Why is this truth important to understand?

---Read John 4:19–20 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for what the woman said to Jesus.

• What did the woman say that demonstrated that her perception of Jesus was changing?

---In Samaria is a mountain named Mount Gerizim. Centuries before the Savior’s mortal ministry, the Samaritans built a temple there as a place of worship. Unlike the Jews, however, the Samaritans did not have the priesthood authority to perform ordinances, and they rejected many teachings of God’s prophets.

---Take turns reading aloud from John 4:21–23, including Joseph Smith Translation, John 4:26 (in John 4:24, footnote a). Ask the class to follow along, looking for what Jesus taught the woman about worshipping God.

• How do true worshippers worship Heavenly Father?
• According to the Joseph Smith Translation, what blessing comes as we worship God “in spirit and in truth”?
• What principle can we learn from these verses? (Students may use different words but should identify the following principle: If we worship the Father in spirit and in truth, He will bless us with His Spirit.)

---Invite a student to read aloud the following statement by Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Ask the class to look for and mark what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth.

“Our purpose is to worship the true and living God and to do it by the power of the Spirit and in the way he has ordained. The approved worship of the true God leads to salvation; devotions rendered to false gods and which are not founded on eternal truth carry no such assurance.

“A knowledge of the truth is essential to true worship. …

“… True and perfect worship consists in following in the steps of the Son of God; it consists in keeping the commandments and obeying the will of the Father to that degree that we advance from grace to grace until we are glorified in Christ as he is in his Father. It is far more than prayer and sermon and song. It is living and doing and obeying. It is emulating the life of the great Exemplar [Jesus Christ]” (“How to Worship,” Ensign, Dec. 1971, 129, 130).

• According to Elder McConkie, what does it mean to worship God in spirit and truth?
• When have you been blessed as you have sought to worship the Father in spirit and truth?

---Invite students to consider what they can do to better worship the Father in spirit and truth.

• Ask a student to read John 4:25–26 aloud. Invite the class to follow along, looking for what Jesus revealed about Himself to the woman.
• What did Jesus reveal about Himself to the woman?

---Read John 4:27–30 aloud. Ask the class to look for what the woman did after talking with the Savior.

• What did the woman do after talking with the Savior?
• What did she say that indicated she had gained a testimony of Jesus Christ?
• What truth can we learn from this account about what will happen as we gain a testimony of Jesus Christ? (Students may use different words but should identify the following truth: As we gain a testimony of Jesus Christ, we are filled with a desire to share it with others.)

---In verses 31–37  Jesus’s disciples returned with food. When they asked Him to eat, He taught them that He was sustained not by eating but by performing His Father’s will. He then invited them to see that opportunities to preach the gospel were abundant.

---Read John 4:39–42 aloud. Ask the class to look for the impact of the woman’s testimony on the people in her city.

• What impact did the woman’s testimony have on the people in her city?
• According to verse 42, what did the people say to the woman?

---Testify that as we come to know the Savior and partake of His living water, we will be filled with a desire to share our testimonies of Him with others.

II. John 4:43–54  Jesus heals a nobleman’s son

---John 4:43–45 says that after Jesus taught the woman in Samaria, He entered Galilee, where He was received by the people.

---Provide students with copies of the following handout.

---Read John 4:46–54 silently and answer the questions on the handout.

(click to view larger)

John 4:46–54

1. Who met Jesus and what blessing did he seek from the Savior?
2. Based on what Jesus said, why did He delay granting the blessing this man sought?
3. How did this man demonstrate that he did not need a sign to believe?
4. According to verses 51–53, how was this man’s belief in Jesus Christ confirmed?
5. What principle can we learn from this man’s experience?

© 2015 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All right reserved.

---After sufficient time, invite students to share their answers. As they report the principles they learned from the nobleman’s experience, help them identify the following truth: As we believe in Jesus Christ without needing signs, the Lord will confirm our belief.

• Why is it important to believe in Jesus Christ without needing signs?
• What are some ways that the Lord confirms our belief as we exercise faith in Him?

---Conclude by testifying that as we seek the Lord in faith, He will bless us with evidence to sustain our beliefs.

Commentary and Background Information

John 4:4. “He must needs go through Samaria”

Elder James E. Talmage of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles provided understanding as to why it was significant that Jesus passed through Samaria: “The direct route from Judea to Galilee lay through Samaria; but many Jews, particularly Galileans, chose to follow an indirect though longer way rather than traverse the country of a people so despised by them as were the Samaritans. The ill-feeling between Jews and Samaritans had been growing for centuries, and at the time of our Lord’s earthly ministry had developed into most intense hatred” (Jesus the Christ, 3rd ed. [1916], 172).

John 4:10–14. The Savior offers living water

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles quoted the Savior’s words in John 4:14 and taught that drinking “deeply of living waters” will bring us great happiness. He then asked:

“Do you wish to partake of this living water and experience that divine well springing up within you to everlasting life?

“Then be not afraid. Believe with all your hearts. Develop an unshakable faith in the Son of God. Let your hearts reach out in earnest prayer. Fill your minds with knowledge of Him. Forsake your weaknesses. Walk in holiness and harmony with the commandments” (“The Abundant Life,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2006, 100).

John 4:10–14. The scriptures are one way to partake of Christ’s living waters

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that one way we can partake of Christ’s living waters is studying the scriptures:

“The scriptures contain the words of Christ and are a reservoir of living water to which we have ready access and from which we can drink deeply and long. You and I must look to and come unto Christ, who is ‘the fountain of living waters’ (1 Nephi 11:25; compare Ether 8:26; 12:28), by reading (see Mosiah 1:5), studying (see D&C 26:1), searching (see John 5:39; Alma 17:2), and feasting (see 2 Nephi 32:3) upon the words of Christ as contained in the holy scriptures. By so doing, we can receive both spiritual direction and protection during our mortal journey” (“A Reservoir of Living Water” [Church Educational System fireside for young adults, Feb. 4, 2007], 2, lds.org/broadcasts).

John 4:46–54. Healing the nobleman’s son

Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles emphasized the significance of this miracle:

“This is the first healing miracle that is set forth in detail in the Gospels. Those performed at the Feast of the Passover and throughout all Judea are not described or explained. This miracle—the second performed in Cana—adds a new dimension to Jesus’ healing ministry that we have not seen up to this point. It is in fact a dual miracle: one that healed the body of the absent son, and one that cured unbelief and planted faith in the heart of the present father” (The Mortal Messiah, 4 vols. [1979–81], 2:12).

© 2016 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

Right margin extras:

Do not be afraid of silence

Students might not respond to a question immediately, but do not be troubled by this silence. Sometimes students simply need an opportunity to reflect on the question and how to respond. This reflection can facilitate instruction by the Holy Ghost

Lesson 64: John 5

Introduction

The Savior attended a feast (likely the Passover) in Jerusalem and healed a feeble man at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus Christ taught that He represents Heavenly Father and explained why people need to honor the Son of God. He also described other witnesses who had testified of His divinity.

I. John 5:1–30  Jesus heals an infirm man on the Sabbath and teaches about His relationship to the Father

---Display a picture of pieces of a broken pot or dish (or you could draw a picture of a broken dish on the board).

---Ask students to raise their hands if they have ever broken something important or valuable. Explain that as children of Heavenly Father, we are important and have great worth. However, because of our choices or the challenges we face, at times we may feel broken or like we have little value.

• What are some ways in which someone might feel broken spiritually, physically, or emotionally? (List students’ responses on the board.)

---Look for a truth as we study John 5:1–9 that can help comfort us and give us hope when we feel broken.

--- John 5:1 says that after Jesus Christ ministered in Galilee, He traveled to Jerusalem to observe a Jewish feast, most likely the Passover (see John 5:1, footnote a). While in Jerusalem, He went to a pool near the temple.

---Read John 5:2–4 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for who was gathered around the pool.

• What kind of people gathered to the pool of Bethesda? (Point out that the words impotent, blind, halt, and withered [verse 3] describe people who were sick, feeble, or disabled in some way.)
• What were these afflicted people waiting for? (Explain that there may have been a spring that occasionally flowed into the pool and caused the surface of the water to bubble, which may have provided some relief to these people’s ailments [see Bible Dictionary, “Bethesda”].)

---Invite a student to read aloud the following statement by Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

“No doubt the pool of Bethesda was a mineral spring whose waters had some curative virtue. But any notion that an angel came down and troubled the waters, so that the first person thereafter entering them would be healed, was pure superstition. Healing miracles are not wrought in any such manner” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1965–73], 1:188).

• What did Elder McConkie teach about the belief that an angel caused the waters to heal the first person to enter them?
• What do you think the scene was like at the pool, with so many people hoping to be healed by being the first to step into it?

---Take turns reading aloud from John 5:5–7. Ask the class to follow along, looking for whom the Savior saw lying near the pool.

---Display the picture Christ Healing the Sick at Bethesda (Gospel Art Book [2009], no. 42; see also LDS.org).

• How do these verses describe the man the Savior saw?

---Read John 5:8–9 silently, looking for the Savior’s response to the man. Ask them to report what they find. Invite them to consider marking the phrase “the man was made whole” (verse 9).

---Write the word Bethesda on the board. Explain that Bethesda can be translated as “house of mercy” (Bible Dictionary, “Bethesda”). Write this definition next to Bethesda on the board. Explain that mercy is compassion or kindness. The greatest act of mercy ever performed was the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

• Why was Bethesda an appropriate name for this location, especially after the Savior healed this man?
• In what ways might we all be like this man at the edge of the pool of Bethesda?
• What truth can we learn from the Savior’s healing of this man? (Although students may state it differently, be sure to emphasize that through the power and mercy of Jesus Christ, we can be made whole.)

---To help students understand this truth, invite a student to read aloud the following statement by Elder Merrill J. Bateman, who gave this insight while serving as the Presiding Bishop. Ask the class to listen for ways in which the Savior can make us whole:

“Just as the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda needed someone stronger than himself to be healed (see John 5:1–9), so we are dependent on the miracles of Christ’s atonement if our souls are to be made whole from grief, sorrow, and sin. … Through Christ, broken hearts are mended and peace replaces anxiety and sorrow” (“The Power to Heal from Within,” Ensign, May 1995, 13).

• What are some ways in which we can be made whole through the mercy of Jesus Christ and His Atonement? (You may want to explain that we may be made whole either in this life or in the next.)
• What must we do to receive mercy and healing through the Savior’s Atonement?

---Ask students to ponder times when they have witnessed or felt the power, mercy, or compassion of Jesus Christ help them or someone else who felt broken, whether spiritually, physically, or emotionally.

---Write the following incomplete statement on the board: I know the Savior is merciful and compassionate because …

---Ask students to consider how they would complete this statement. Invite a few students to share their responses.

---John 5:10–16 says that the Savior later found the man in the temple and counseled him to “sin no more” (John 5:14). When the Jewish leaders learned that the man had been healed by Jesus on the Sabbath, they persecuted and tried to kill the Savior.

---Read John 5:17–18 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for another reason the Jewish leaders were angry with Jesus.

---As recorded in verse 17, the Savior taught the Jewish leaders that by healing the man, He was doing Heavenly Father’s work. The Savior then taught about His relationship to the Father.

• According to verse 18, what is another reason why the Jewish leaders were angry with Jesus? (They believed Jesus was guilty of blasphemy because He had said God was His Father and therefore claimed to be equal with God.)

---Write the following question on the board:  

What did the Savior teach about His relationship to our Heavenly Father?

---Divide students into pairs. Invite each partnership to read John 5:19–22, 26–27, 30 aloud together. Invite them to look for answers to this question.

---After sufficient time, invite students to report what they found. Summarize their answers to the question by writing the following truth on the board: In all He does, Jesus Christ represents Heavenly Father and seeks to obey His will. Explain that the Savior invites us to do the same.)

• Why is it important to understand that in all He does, Jesus Christ stands as the perfect representative of our Father in Heaven?

II. John 5:31–47  Jesus taught about numerous witnesses that testify of His divinity

---Bring to class a small nut that is still in its shell (a small pea pod would also work). Hold the nut in your hand so that students cannot see it. Explain that you are holding something that has never been seen by the human eye. Ask students to raise their hands if they believe you. Invite a student who is unsure whether this is true to pick a few classmates to view the object. Show these students the object, and invite them to tell the class whether you are telling the truth.

• How is the truthfulness of any claim strengthened by having more than one witness?

---Show the class the nut, and explain how its interior has never been seen by the human eye.

---Read John 5:31 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for what the Savior said about His own witness of His relationship to Heavenly Father. Ask students to report what they find.

---Point out that the Joseph Smith Translation clarifies verses 31 and 32: “If I bear witness of myself, yet my witness is true. For I am not alone” (Joseph Smith Translation, John 5:32–33). Explain that the Savior was teaching the Jews that they had other witnesses in addition to His.

---Write the following scripture references on the board:

John 5:32–35; John 5:36; John 5:37–38; John 5:39; John 5:45–47.

---Assign each reference to one or more students. Ask them to read these verses and to look for other witnesses of Jesus’s divinity. Help students make a list of these witnesses by inviting them to write what they find on the board next to their assigned references.

---Explain that despite having many witnesses of Jesus Christ, the Jewish leaders did not believe in Jesus’s divinity. Point out in verse 39 that as Jesus spoke of the scriptures He said, “For in them ye think ye have eternal life.”

• What false belief was Jesus pointing out to the Jews? (Explain that many Jews in Jesus’s day believed that merely studying the scriptures would allow them to receive eternal life. They failed to understand that the purpose of the scriptures was to point them to Jesus Christ. He said, in essence, “You think you have eternal life, but search the scriptures, for they testify of me.”)

---Read John 5:40 aloud. Ask the class to follow along, looking for what the Jews needed to do to gain eternal life.

• Even though the Jews studied the scriptures, what did they refuse to do that would have helped them qualify to receive eternal life?
• According to the Savior’s teachings in verses 39 and 40, what must we do to receive eternal life? (Help students identify a principle similar to the following: Only by coming unto Jesus Christ can we receive eternal life. Write this principle on the board.)

---Remind students that eternal life includes becoming like Heavenly Father and living forever with our worthy family members in His presence.

• What does it mean to come unto Jesus Christ? (To come unto Christ is to exercise faith in Him, repent of our sins, and obey His commandments.)
• Why is coming unto Jesus Christ essential to receiving eternal life?

---Invite students to consider the ways in which the witnesses listed on the board can help someone come unto the Savior.

• When has one of these witnesses of Jesus Christ helped you come unto Him?

---Ask students to ponder what they will do to more fully come unto the Savior so that they can receive eternal life.

---Conclude by testifying of the truths taught in John 5.

Commentary and Background Information

John 5:17–47. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”

According to Elder James E. Talmage of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the Savior’s response to the Jewish leaders recorded in John 5:17–47 “stands as the most comprehensive sermon in scripture on the vital subject of the relationship between the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ” (Jesus the Christ, 3rd ed. [1916], 208).

In a doctrinal statement dated June 30, 1916, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:

“Jesus Christ spoke and ministered in and through the Father’s name; and so far as power, authority, and godship are concerned His words and acts were and are those of the Father” (“The Father and the Son: A Doctrinal Exposition by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,” Ensign, Apr. 2002, 17).

John 5:29. The Resurrection of mankind

While pondering John 5:29, the Prophet Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon received the vision recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 76. This vision gave them additional understanding about the Resurrection and the plan of salvation (see D&C 76:11–19).

John 5:39. “Search the scriptures; … they are they which testify of me”

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:

“In the end, the central purpose of all scripture is to fill our souls with faith in God the Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ—faith that They exist; faith in the Father’s plan for our immortality and eternal life; faith in the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which animates this plan of happiness; faith to make the gospel of Jesus Christ our way of life; and faith to come to know ‘the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [He has] sent’ (John 17:3)” (“The Blessing of Scripture,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2010, 34).

© 2016 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

Right margin extras:

Make lists

A list is a series of related ideas or instructions. Looking for lists in the scriptures can help you and your students identify key points that are emphasized in the scriptures.