John 5:1-47

From Galilee, Jesus returned to Jerusalem to observe one of the Jewish feasts. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, there is a pool called in Aramaic, The House of Loving Kindness, surrounded by five covered porches. Hundreds of sick people were lying under the covered porches—the paralyzed, the blind, and the crippled—all of them waiting for their healing. For an angel of God periodically descended into the pool to stir the waters, and the first one who stepped into the pool after the waters swirled would instantly be healed. Among the many sick people lying there was a man who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that the man had been crippled for a long time. Jesus said to him, “Do you truly long to be well?” The sick man answered, “Sir, there’s no way I can get healed, for I have no one to lower me into the water when the angel comes. As soon as I try to crawl to the edge of the pool, someone else jumps in ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up! Pick up your sleeping mat and you will walk!” Immediately he stood up—he was healed! So he rolled up his mat and walked again! Now Jesus worked this miracle on the Sabbath. When the Jewish leaders saw the man walking along carrying his sleeping mat, they objected and said, “What are you doing carrying that? Don’t you know it’s the Sabbath? It’s not lawful for you to carry things on the Sabbath!” He answered them, “The man who healed me told me to pick it up and walk.” “What man?” they asked him. “Who was this man who ordered you to carry something on a Sabbath?” But the healed man couldn’t give them an answer, for he didn’t yet know who it was, since Jesus had already slipped away into the crowd. A short time later, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “Look at you now! You’re healed! Walk away from your sin so that nothing worse will happen to you.” Then the man went to the Jewish leaders to inform them, “It was Jesus who healed me!” From that day forward the Jewish leaders began to persecute Jesus because of the things he did on the Sabbath. Jesus answered his critics by saying, “Every day my Father is at work, and I will be, too!” This infuriated them and made them all the more eager to devise a plan to kill him. For not only did he break their Sabbath rules, but he also called God “my Father,” which made him equal to God. So Jesus said, “I speak to you eternal truth. The Son is unable to do anything from himself or through his own initiative. I only do the works that I see the Father doing, for the Son does the same works as his Father. “Because the Father loves his Son so much, he always reveals to him everything that he is about to do. And you will all be amazed when he shows him even greater works than what you’ve seen so far! For just as the Father has power to raise the dead, the Son will also raise the dead and give life to whomever he wants. “The Father judges no one, for he has given to the Son all the authority to judge. Therefore, the honor that belongs to the Father he will now share with his Son. So if you refuse to honor the Son, you are refusing to honor the Father who sent him. “I speak to you an eternal truth: if you embrace my message and believe in the One who sent me, you will never face condemnation. In me, you have already passed from the realm of death into eternal life!” “I speak to you an eternal truth: Soon the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will arise with life! For as the Father is the source of life, so he has given the Son the power to impart life. The Father has transferred to the Son the authority to judge, because he is the Son of Man. “Don’t be amazed when I tell you these things, for there is a day coming when everyone who has ever died will hear my voice calling them back to life, and they will come out of their graves! Those who have done what is good will experience a resurrection to eternal life. And those who have practiced evil will taste the resurrection of judgment! “Nothing I do is from my own initiative. As I hear the judgment passed by my Father, I execute those judgments. And my judgments will be perfect, because I seek only to fulfill the desires of my Father who sent me. If I were to make claims about myself, you would have reasons to doubt. But there is another who bears witness on my behalf, and I know that what he testifies of me is true.” “You have sent messengers to John, and what he testified about me is true. I have no need to be validated by men, but I’m explaining these things so that you will believe and be saved. “John was a blazing, shining torch, and for a short time, you basked in his light with great joy. But I can provide more substantial proof of who I am that exceeds John’s testimony—my miracles! These works which the Father destined for me to complete—they prove that the Father has sent me! And my Father himself, who gave me this mission, has also testified that I am his Son. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his Word truly live inside of you, for you refuse to believe in me or to embrace me as God’s messenger. “You are busy analyzing the Scriptures, poring over them hoping to gain eternal life. Everything you read points to me, yet you still refuse to come to me so I can give you the life you’re looking for—eternal life! “I do not accept the honor that comes from men, for I know what kind of people you really are, and I can see that the love of God has found no home in you. I have come to represent my Father, yet you refuse to embrace me in faith. If someone comes in their own name and with their own agenda, you readily accept him. Of course you’re unable to believe in me. For you live to enjoy the praises of others and not the praise that comes from the one true God. “I will not accuse you before the Father. The one who will incriminate you is Moses, the very one you claim to obey, the one in whom you trust! If you really believed what Moses has written, then you would embrace me, for Moses wrote about me! But since you do not believe what he wrote, no wonder you don’t believe what I say.”