Read John 5:1
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.
Jerusalem is about a 5 day walk from Cana. On Holy days, Jewish men are required to come to Jereuslem.
Read John 5:2-5
2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda 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.
He may have been an older man, sick for so long, left to sit around and beg, no one cared for him.
*Have you ever met anyone like this man?
But Jesus he cares, he cares for the people no one cares about.
Read John 5:6
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?”
The sick people went to the pool to be healed, so maybe the man was thinking Jesus was asking why aren’t you in the pool. Or maybe people did not really get healed, but the water made them feel better for a little while.
Read John 5:7&8
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.”
*Did this man know Jesus? Did he ask to be healed? Why did Jesus heal him? Jesus saw something in him and healed him.
Read John 5:9&10
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 Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
*What is the Sabbath? Do you think it is silly not to be able to carry a mat on the Sabbath?
Read John 5:11-13
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12So 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.
*Do the Jews even care that this great miracle was done? Do they care about the law more than hurting people? Should be care more about people or about keeping the law?
Read John 5:14
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.”
*Even though this man was healed, did he still need to repent of his sins? What is worse than sickness? Death in hell
Read John 5:15-18
15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.
17 Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”
18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
*Why did they persecute Jesus? Did the Jewish leaders see the miracle?
*Why are they mad more about Jesus calling God his Father? They did not believe in Jesus, they were blind to his miracles. They studied the Old Testament, it is all about Jesus; they should have known him when He came.
19So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.
20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished.
21 For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants.
22 In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge,
23 so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.
24 “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.
25 “And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live.
26 The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son.
27 And he has given him authority to judge everyone because he is the Son of Man.
28 Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son,
29 and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.
30 I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.
31 “If I were to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid.
32 But someone else is also testifying about me, and I assure you that everything he says about me is true.
33 In fact, you sent investigators to listen to John the Baptist, and his testimony about me was true.
34 Of course, I have no need of human witnesses, but I say these things so you might be saved.
35John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message.
36 But I have a greater witness than John—my teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they prove that he sent me.
37 And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face,
38 and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you.
Read John 5:39&40
39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me,
40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
Jesus is the Bible, the Word. They refused to believe, all they see are manmade rules.
We need to believe like the official whose son was healed and not like the Jewish leaders who find faults in little things. Do not refuse to believe.
41 “Your approval means nothing to me,
42 because I know you don’t have God’s love within you.
43For I have come to you in my Father’s name, and you have rejected me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them.
44 No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.
45 “Yet it isn’t I who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes.
46 If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.
47 But since you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”