John Chapter 5

The Healing at the Pool on the Sabbath

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Unnamed feast, generally is Passover in Jewish literature

Story =>

Misery sin brings

The greatness of the mercy of God

Recovery from illness should impress us

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.

This event takes place after Luke 5:39 – Luke only Gospel written in chronological order, all the rest are based on the various themes of the gospel writers.

3 In these lay a multitude of invalids--blind, lame, and paralysed.

4 [not in earlier manuscripts] For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

Darby and Ryle see no reason this verse should be missing – it’s hard to understand, but removing it does not make it ‘go away’.

5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?"

First, He sought the man out. It was Yeshua who saw the paralytic and purposefully approached him.

Second, the Messiah did not demand any faith on the part of the man. At that point in His public ministry, faith was not necessary for a miracle to be received because the purpose of His miracles was to authenticate His messianic claims and to get people to believe.

Third, there was no revelation of Yeshua’s Messiahship.

7 The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me."

8 Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk."

Under Rabbinic law one was not allowed to carry something out of a public place to a private place, or from a private place to a public place on the Sabbath.

9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed."

In support of this charge of unlawfulness, the Jews would allege not merely the general law of the fourth commandment, but the special passages in Nehemiah and Jeremiah, about "bearing no burden" on the Sabbath day. (Neh 13:19; Jer 17:21.)

The Sabbath had become a major observance in Pharisaic Judaism, to the point that it was personalized as the Bride of Israel, and as Jehovah’s Queen.

11 But he answered them, "The man who healed me, that man said to me, 'Take up your bed, and walk.'"

In defence, the man responded that he was simply obeying the One who had healed him. The Jews’ rigid tradition (not the Old Testament) taught that if anyone carried anything from a public place to a private place on the Sabbath intentionally, he deserved death by stoning.

In this case the man who was healed was in danger of losing his life.

12 They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?"

13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.

‘withdrawn’ – only time this Gk ἐκνεύω used (to swim out)

14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you."

Time period is unknown

The cause of all suffering is sin

Spiritual healing is required

15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

He places the emphasis where it belongs; namely, on the healing, in which the Jews had shown so little interest.

16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

17 But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working."

A short, simple justification of the lawfulness of doing works of mercy on the Sabbath. (JCR)

He was claiming equality with God! Jesus also points out that in performing this work of mercy on the Sabbath he had acted in conformity with the example of his own Father and in conformity with the mandate which he had received from him.

Jesus Is Equal with God

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

It is clear that our Lord's words about His Sonship struck the Jews in a far more forcible way than they seem to strike us. In a certain sense all believers are "sons of God." (Rom 8:14.) But it is evident that they are not so in the sense that our Lord meant when He talked of God as His Father, and Himself as God's Son. The Greek undoubtedly might be translated more clearly, "said that God was His own particular Father." (Compare Rom 8:32.) The Jews at any rate accepted the words as meaning our Lord to assert His own peculiar Sonship, and His consequent entire equality with God the Father. (JCR)

By claiming to be the Son of God, by claiming to have God as His unique Father, He was claiming equality with God. (CS)

The Authority of the Son: Jesus Defence

19 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

1. He does the work of the Father

By doing the works of the Father, or works that God does, He proves His equality with God. He has an equal relationship to the Father.

Jesus’ activity is not self-initiated. The Father directs and has sent the Son. The Son’s activity imitates the Father, and the two always work together.

If healing a man on the Sabbath was a sin, then the Father was to blame! Jesus did nothing “of Himself” but only that which the Father was doing. (CS)

20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

When our Lord came to earth as man, He submitted Himself to the Father in everything. “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:9).

21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,

2. Jesus judges all people.

In the Old Testament, the final judgment was a prerogative of God. But if the Son is indeed the One who will judge, He must, therefore, be God Himself.

Cf with Genesis 18:25 (origin of Jewish thought)

23 that all may honour the Son, just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

3. Jesus has power to provide eternal life

The ability to provide eternal life was something that the Old Testament said only God possessed. Therefore, if the Son can provide eternal life, He certainly is God Himself.

“Eternal life” means that they can never die spiritually again, nor can they ever come into judgment, because there is no condemnation in Christ (Rom. 8:1

25 "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

4. Jesus will bring about the resurrection of the dead

25 => His deity

According to the Old Testament, the resurrection from the dead is something that only God could do (Is. 26:19; Dan. 12:2; Hos. 13:14). If the Son is raising the dead, it means He must also be God.

Two more observations must be made regarding these same verses. First, both His humanity and His deity are emphasized.

26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

25 => His humanity

28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice

29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Note the two kinds of resurrections in verse 29:

1. the resurrection of life and the
2. resurrection of judgment.

The resurrection of life is the first resurrection, the resurrection of believers only. The second resurrection is the resurrection of unbelievers only to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. Rev 20:5, 6

Witnesses to Jesus

30 "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Jesus provides a four point defence

31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.

Keep in mind that under the Mosaic Law, a minimum of two witnesses was needed to establish a case; for extra measure, there would be three.

This is true from a pure legal standpoint but it wouldn’t be accepted by the Jewish authorities.

It is pure common sense, for a court of law could never trust a biased self-witness, so Jesus needs to provide 2 or 3 other witnesses to back up what he is saying, that was a requirement of the Mosaic Law under which He lived

32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.

Now Jesus doesn’t name this witness, but we will see it is the Father in v 37

33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.

First witness

34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

What Jesus is saying here is that he doesn’t need the witness of man to authenticate him. Neither he nor the Father needs human confirmation to establish their identity. They are “from above” rather than of earth and exist at a higher level. But the witness is for the benefit of those on earth who need to know the truth of Jesus, believe in Him and be saved.

Remember that John the apostle said in 1:7 that John the Baptist came as a witness to the light that all might believe through his witness 

35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.

Second Witness

John the Baptist was a great voice for God, but he actually didn’t do any miracles (10:41). So, Jesus’s testimony is greater than John because He is going to do the works His father sent him to do, John was only sent as a witness but the Son is greater and so the works of Jesus—His miracles, signs, and wonders—authenticated His Messianic claims and that God was with Him and worked through Him

37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,

Third Witness

This is the witness of verse 32, God the Father bore witness of the Messiah audibly at His baptism when He declared from Heaven: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased (Mat. 3:13–17).

It was the witness of the Bat Kol, the voice of God, a concept that was viewed as authoritative among the Jews of that day.

38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

Jesus does not deny that in a sense the Jews have the word of God. What he does say is that they do not have this word in their hearts as an abiding possession, the reason being that they had not placed their confidence in the One whom the Father has sent for the Messianic task.  They were not able to see, because they rejected Jesus and the veil of unbelief was lying upon the eyes of their hearts (2 Cor 3:15)

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,

Fourth Witness

Scripture

40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

They sought eternal life in the wrong place, because the Messiah—the only basis for life—had come in fulfilment of the Scriptures.

41 I do not receive glory from people.

Jesus identity was not established based on human witnesses or of human approval, no need of praise or esteem from the people around him, for he has all the approval he needs from the father

42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

If there was the love of God they would have received the one sent by God

43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.

To insult or reject one’s ambassador is the same as rejecting him. Jesus comes with the authority of God while the liars appeal only to their own authority.

44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

Not only is it true that the Jews do not believe; they actually cannot believe either, because they are constantly seeking praise from men, not praise which comes down from God. For that reason, they did not love God, and sought the glory of men rather than the glory of God.

45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.

Again, and again the Jews would appeal to Moses and would boast, “We are disciples of Moses,” (9:28). Now Jesus tells them that Moses, the constant object of their hope, to whose scriptures they were always appealing, whose instructions they debated and analysed, would actually prove to be their accuser; the reason being that, in spite of all their boasting about being his followers, they, in reality, did not believe him.

Moses will produce the evidence against them. If they were truly followers of Moses, they would be followers of Jesus, for Moses prophesied of him.

With four witnesses such as these, the problem was not that there was a lack of testimony to His messianic claims.

46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

The real problem, Yeshua said, was that they did not believe Moses.

47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

That might seem a strange accusation to make against Pharisees, but the fact is that the Pharisees believed Moses only the way they re-interpreted him in Pharisaic tradition. They did not believe Moses as “it is written,” whereas Yeshua fulfills the Law of Moses as it is written.