John 5
5
Jesus Heals a Disabled Man
1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish feasts. 2In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate there’s a pool that’s called Bethesda in the Hebrew language. 3-4It’s surrounded by five rows of columns that have a roof over them. A great number of people who were disabled used to lie down by that pool. These included people who were blind, who couldn’t walk, and who could hardly move. 5One man was there who hadn’t been able to walk for 38 years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and found out that he’d been in that condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get better?”
7“Sir,” the disabled man replied, “I don’t have anyone to help me into the pool when the water starts rippling. I try to get in, but someone else always gets in ahead of me.”
8Then Jesus told him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9The man was healed at once, and he picked up his mat and started to walk away.
But this happened on a Sabbath day, 10so the Jewish leaders said to the man who’d been healed, “It’s the Sabbath day. The law doesn’t allow you to carry your mat today.”
11But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12They asked him, “What man was that? Who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13The man who’d been healed had no idea who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14Later Jesus found him at the temple and told him, “Now that you’re well again, don’t sin anymore, or something worse might happen to you.” 15The man went away and told the Jewish leaders it was Jesus who had made him well.
The Authority of the Son
16Because Jesus was doing things like this on the Sabbath day, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17Jesus said in his own defense, “My Father is always at work right up to this day, and I am working too.” 18After he said that, the Jewish leaders wanted even more to kill him, because he wasn’t just breaking the law for the Sabbath day. He was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself. He can do only what he sees his Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does, 20because the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he’s doing. Yes, and the Father will show the Son even greater things than these, so that you will be amazed. 21The Father raises the dead and gives them life; in the same way, the Son gives life to anyone he wishes. 22And the Father doesn’t judge anyone; he has left it up to the Son to judge, 23so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.
24“Truly I tell you, whoever who hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life. They will not be judged, because they have crossed over from death into life. 25Truly I tell you, a time is coming—and in fact, it has already come—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live. 26The Father has life in himself, and he has given the Son life in his own self as well. 27And because he is the Son of Man, the Father has also given him the authority to judge.
28“Don’t be amazed at this. You’ll see I’m telling the truth when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29and come out. Those who have done what is good will rise to live again, and those who have done wrong will rise to face judgment. 30I can do nothing by myself. I judge only as I hear, and I judge fairly, because I don’t try to please myself. I try to please the one who sent me.
Being a Witness About Jesus
31“If I’m being a witness for myself, you don’t know whether to trust me. 32But there’s someone else who’s a witness in my favor, and I know that what he says about me is trustworthy.
33“You’ve sent people to John, and he has been a witness to the truth. 34I don’t depend on human testimony, but I mention John’s witness so that you can be saved. 35John was like a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose to enjoy his light for a while.
36“I have a witness even greater than John. The works the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I’m doing—are a witness that the Father has sent me. 37And the Father who sent me is a witness about me himself. You’ve never heard his voice, and you’ve never seen what he really looks like, 38and his word doesn’t live in you, because you don’t believe the one he has sent. 39You study the Scriptures carefully because you think they will give you eternal life. The same Scriptures you study are also a witness about me. 40But you still refuse to come to me and receive life.
41“I don’t accept praise from human beings, 42and I know that you don’t have the love of God in your hearts. 43I’ve come in my Father’s name, and you haven’t accepted me. But if someone else comes in his own name, you accept him. 44You accept praise from one another, but you don’t seek the praise that comes from the only God. So how can you believe?
45“Don’t think that I will bring charges against you in front of the Father. 46Moses, the one you build your hopes on, will do that. If you really believed Moses, you’d believe me, because he wrote about me. 47But since you don’t believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
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