The Good News by John 5

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He Heals a Sick Man at a Pool

1 After that, there was a Jewish festival, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. 2 In Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate, there was a pool, which in Hebrew was called Bethesda. There were five porticoes* around it, 3 where a large number of sick people lay — including blind, lame, and paralyzed — waiting for the stirring of the water. 4 They thought that an angel would come down to the pool sometimes and stir the water, and that the first person to go down after the stirring of the water would be healed, no matter what his sickness was.

5 There was a man there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 Jesus saw him lying there, and he knew that he had been a long time in this condition. So he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to lower me into the pool when the water is stirred. Instead, while I am going down, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.” 9 At once, the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and walked. That was on a Saturday.

10 The Jewish [religious] leaders said to the man who was healed, “Today is Saturday; it is not lawful for you to carry your bedding.”* 11 He answered them, “The one who healed me said to me, ‘Pick up your bedding and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the one that said to you, ‘Pick up your bedding and walk?’” 13 The man did not know who he was because Jesus was hidden among the large crowd.

14 After that, Jesus found him in the Temple complex and said to him, “Watch out! You have been healed, but you must stop sinning, or else something worse will happen to you.” 15 Then the man went to the leaders of the Jews and informed them that Jesus was the one who had healed him. 16 So they began harassing Jesus, because he did this on a Saturday.

The Authority of Jesus

17 So Jesus said to them, “My Father doesn't pause from working, and I am working like him.” 18 For this reason, the leaders of the Jews resolved actually to kill him, because first of all, he violated the commandment [to rest on] Saturday, and secondly, he said that God was his [own] Father, and he made himself equal to God.

19 So Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the Son cannot do anything on his own; on the contrary, he does what he sees the Father doing. And everything that the Father does, the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows him everything that he does, and he will show him greater works than these, and you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so likewise the Son gives life to anyone he wants. 22 The Father does not judge anyone, because he has given all judgment to the Son, 23 so that all would honor the Son as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

24 “I tell you the truth, anyone who listens to my words and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life; he will not be punished on the Day of Judgment, because he has moved from death to life.* 25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming, in fact the time has come, when the dead* will hear the voice of the Son of God,* and all who listen to him will live.* 26 And just as the Father himself is the source of life, he has granted the Son [the power] to be a source of life as well.

27 “He also gave him authority [to conduct] the Last Judgment, because he is the One Who Became Man. 28 Don't be surprised at this, because the time will come when all those who are in the graves will hear his voice, 29 and they will come out. Those who have done good things will rise to eternal life, and those who have done bad things will rise to punishment in the hereafter. 30 I cannot do anything on my own; rather, I judge as the Father tells me. And my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

Testimony About Jesus

31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. 32 There is someone [else] who testifies about me, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. 33 You sent [messengers] to John,* and he bore witness about the truth. 34 I say this, not because I rely on the testimony of people, but that you might be saved. 35 John was a bright shining lamp, and you were willing to enjoy his light for a period of time. 36 But I have a testimony that is greater than the testimony of John: the works with which the Father entrusted me, namely the works that I am doing. These testify about me that the Father has sent me.

“37 Furthermore, the Father himself, who has sent me, bears witness about me. You have never heard his voice or seen his form. 38 And his word is not firmly fixed in you, because you do not believe the one he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that they will lead you to eternal life, and in fact they bear witness about me, 40 but you do not want to come to me that this life might be yours.

41 “I'm not looking for people's praise, 42 but I know you and know that the love of God is not in you. 43 I have come in the name of my Father,* but you have not accepted me. Yet if someone comes in his own name, you accept him. 44 How is it possible for you to believe, when you expect praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from God alone? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. The one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you are putting your hope. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he himself wrote about me.* 47 So if you do not believe what he has written, how can you believe my words?”

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Definitions

 *5:2 portico: a long porch or passageway consisting of a roof supported by columns on one side and a wall on the other. The Pool of Bethesda was divided into two halves. There was a portico on each of the four sides, and a fifth portico between the two halves. See the illustration.

 *5:10 Saturday: Most English versions say the Sabbath, which is the Hebrew term for Saturday. In the Hebrew language it also means “rest.” This was the name for Saturday because it was a holy day on which people rested from work.

 *5:24 has moved from death to life: has moved from expecting condemnation on the Day of Judgment to having the promise of eternal life.

 *5:25 the dead: those who are spiritually dead and don't qualify for eternal life in Paradise.

 *5:25 the Son of God: In the original languages this phrase did not mean God's son by reproduction. Indeed, God himself says in the Scriptures that he is neither a man (The Torah, Numbers 23:19) nor like a son of Adam, and that there is no one like God (The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 46:9). This phrase is an expression of the close relationship between Jesus and God and the divine authority that God has given him as the Messiah. See the footnotes at John 1:45; 1:49. See family in the glossary.

 *5:25 will live: will become spiritually alive through a new birth in the Holy Spirit and will live forever with God in Paradise. In the Gospel, the phrase to live means the same as to be saved and to have eternal life.

 *5:33 John: John the Baptist.

 *5:43 in the name of my Father: on behalf of God my Father and with his authority. See family in the glossary. See John 10:36, where Jesus describes himself as “the one whom the Father has commissioned and sent into the world.”

 *5:46 The prophet Moses wrote the Torah as God revealed it to him. Several passages in the Torah speak about the future Messiah. Here are two of them: “[God said to Moses,] I will raise up for them from their people a prophet like you. I will put my words in his mouth and he will convey everything that I say to him. Whoever does not listen to my words, which he says in my name, I will call him to account.” (Deuteronomy 18:18-19) “From Judah will come kings, from Judah will come rulers, until the one comes who has the right to the throne, and the nations will obey him.” (Genesis 49:10) Judah was the son of the prophet Jacob and the forefather of all Jews.