John 5 - "Do You Study the Bible to Gain Knowledge or to Know Jesus More?"
The Healing at the Pool
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] 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. [4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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?” 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.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
We don't know what specific feast Jesus went up to Jerusalem for. It was probably one of the three annual feasts that required attendance from every Jew. (Guzik) The reason these disabled people used to lie there was that they thought the pool had some supernatural healing properties, which were activited when the pool was stirred up.
Clarke and others believe that this certain time was feast time, perhaps specifically Passover. The idea is that the people gathered around the pool in expectation of healing at the Passover season or other feast seasons. “Once a year only, saith Tertullian. Others (more probably) at all their great feasts, when the people met out of all parts at Jerusalem.” (Trapp)
If there were people genuinely healed by the waters of the Pool of Bethesda, it was one of many unusual occasions of healing in the Bible. (Guzik)
Jesus sees a man who was an invalid and had been lying there for 38 years. Whether people had neglected him, or he didn't ask for help we don't know, but Jesus asks him a very important question, "Do you want to get well?" The fact that he asks him the question presupposes that there were some people there who did not want to get well.
There are many people who are sick and don't necessarily want to get well today was as well. Or, they have given up trying. They have become resigned to their condition. Anybody who has been chronically sick probably has felt this at one point or another. If someone has been praying all this time, they might think God has given up on them as well.
The man doesn't really answer Jesus' question, but Jesus heals him anyways. Jesus shows his power over all types of disabilities when he says, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!" Note the man first had to get up, then pick up his mat and walk. The miracle required that he had faith in Jesus' words and he took the first step and Jesus met him there.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” 11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 So 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. 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.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Given what we know of the Pharisees already, it is not surprising the Pharisees rebuke the man for carrying his mat on the Sabbath, despite the fact that a paralyzed man of thirty eight years finally was able to walk. It is pretty hard to believe they could be so small minded and so lacking in compassion for this man. When they asked him who healed him, the man said he didn't know, because Jesus has slipped into the crowd.
When Jesus found him back at the temple he said something very curious to him, "See you are well again, stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."
What does this mean? Did the man's sin cause his disability. Did he lead a sinful lifestyle that he went right back into after being healed? Since the man immediately went to tell the leaders that it was Jesus who made him well, perhaps he was afraid to acknowledge Jesus is public?
Jesus found him because He was concerned for his spiritual health (sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you), not only his physical health. Living a life of sin is worse, and will bring a worse result, than being crippled for thirty-eight years. - Guzik
Jesus' physical healings were always designed for people to receive ultimate healing, which could only come through Him. Though someone is healed, they will still die. Yet, one who is delivered from sin by faith in Jesus will never die!
The Authority of the Son
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
When the Pharisees persecuted Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, he only made them more angry when he connected his relationship with His Father (God) with working on the Sabbath. In effect, Jesus was saying that he had a unique relationship with God the Father that superseded Sabbath Day laws. For all intents and purposes Jesus was putting himself on a par with God. This kind of blasphemy was deserving of the death penalty, and the Jewish leaders were more than ready to exact this punishment on Jesus.
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
Jesus surely didn't make the matter any better when he connected everything he did with the Father. In fact, he went as far to say that he could do everything the Father was doing. He continued to refer to himself as the Son, and to God as His Father. Once again he was equating himself with God. Make no doubt about it, Jesus unquivocably claimed to be the Son of Living God. He claimed to be God, because no human being would make the claims he made in these verses. He caps it off by saying, "Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father."
24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 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 judge because he is the Son of Man. 28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
Twice Jesus uses the words, "Very truly I tell you." In John's gospel this phrase denotes a special emphasis on what Jesus is saying. Jesus will even have the power to raise someone from the dead, which we will see later in John's gospel. Jesus has also been given the authority by the Father to judge the living and the dead. The Father has deputized him to judge those who He judges. Jesus' judgments are always just, as the Father is just. No one will be judged unfairly. Everyone will have an equal chance to accept Jesus as their Savior. By not believing in Jesus', God's own Son, they judge themselves.
Testimonies About Jesus
31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true. 33 “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. 36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study[c] the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
John the Baptist was the first person to give a testimony as to the identity of Jesus. Indeed John's testimony is true, but Jesus doesn't need human testimony to verify or authenticate who He is. Jesus' testimony about his true nature is shown through the signs and miracles he did. Though it is very clear that Jesus is from God, the people will still reject him. Therefore, God's word does not dwell in them.
They studied the scriptures thinking that this will get them into heaven, but the purpose of the scriptures were to lead people to Jesus. Martin Luther said the primary purpose of the bible is to make "people wise unto salvation." Famously he said,
"The Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid."
41 “I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God[d]? 45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
Jesus rebukes the leaders for not believing in him although they would be quick to accept someone else. Jesus doesn't need recognition from any human being or religious leader. In rejecting Jesus, they reject the means by which they could enter the kingdom. The religious leaders were keen on quoting Moses and were legalistic about the application of Mosaic Law. They turned 10 commandments into over 600.
But since their hopes were on Moses, they would be judged by the Law Moses brought. The ironic thing was that Moses himself testified to Jesus. Here is just one instance from the book of Deuteronomy, the last book of the Pentateuch commonly known as the Law or the Torah.
The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear. (Deuteronomy 18:15)
When you study the bible to always see Jesus in the scriptures? Do you study the bible to gain knowledge, or to know Jesus more?
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