5 Jesus Heals a Sick Man
Later, Jesus went to jerusalem for another Jewish festival. (r) 2 In
the city near the sheep gate was a pool with five porches, and it's name in
Hebrew was Bethzatha.(s) 3-4 Many sick, blind, lame and crippled people were
lying close to the pool.(t)
5 Beside the pool was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6
When Jesus saw the man and realised that he had been crippled for a long
time, he asked him, "Do you want to be healed?" 7 The man
answered, "Lord, I don't have anyone to put me in the pool when the
water is stirred up. I try to get in, but someone else always gets there
first."
8 Jesus told him, "Pick up your mat and walk!" 9 Right then
the man was healed. He picked up his mat and started walking around. The day
on which this happened was a Sabbath.
10 When the Jewish leaders saw the man carrying his mat, they said to
him, "This is the Sabbath! No one is allowed to carry a mat on the
Sabbath." 11 But he replied, "The man who healed me told me to
pick up my mat and walk." 12 They asked him, "Who is this man who
told you to pick up your mat and walk?" 13 But he did not know who
Jesus was, and Jesus had left because of the crowed. 14 Later, Jesus met the
man in the temple and told him, "You are now well. But don't sin
anymore or something worse might happen to you." 15 The man left and
told the leaders that Jesus was the one who had healed him. 16 They started
making a lot of trouble for Jesus because he did things on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus said, "My Father has never stopped working, and that
is why i keep on working." 18 Now the leaders wanted to kill Jesus for
two reasons. First, he had broken the law of the Sabbath. But even worse, he
had said that God was his father, which made him equal with God.
(r) another Jewish festival: Either the festival of
Shelters or Passover. (s) Bethzatha: Some manuscripts have "Bethesda"
and others have "Bethsaida." (t) Pool: Some manuscripts add, "They
were waiting for the water to be stirred, because an angel from the Lord
would sometimes come down and stir it. The first person to get into the pool
after that would be healed."
The Son's Authority
Jesus told the people: I tell you for certain that the Son cannot do
anything on his own. He can only do what he sees the Father doing, and he
does exactly what he sees the Father do. 20 The Father loves the Son and has
shown him everything he does. The Father will show him even greater things,
and you will be amazed. 21 Just as the Father raises the dead and gives
life, So the Son gives life to anyone he wants to.
22 The Father doesn't judge anyone, but he has made his Son the judge
of everyone. 23 The Father wants all people to honour the Son as much as
they honour him. When anyone refuses to honour the Son, that is the same as
refusing to honour the Father who sent him. 24 I tell you for certain that
everyone who hears my message and has faith in the one who sent me has
eternal life and will never be condemned. They have already gone from death
to life.
25 I tell you for certain that the time will come, and it is already
here, when all of the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. And those
who listen to it will live! 26 The Father has the power to give life, and he
has given the same power to th Son. 27 And he has given his Son the right to
judge everyone, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Don't be surprised! The
time will come when all of the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man,
29 and they will come out of their graves. Everyone who has done good things
will rise to life, but everyone who has done evil things will rise and be
condemned.
30 I cannot do anything on my own. The Father sent me, and he is the
one who told me how to judge. I judge with fairness, because I obey him, and
I don't try to please myself.
Witnesses to Jesus
31 If I speak for myself, there is no way to prove I am telling the
truth. 32 But there is someone else who speaks for me, and I know what he
says is true. 33 You sent messengers to John, and he told them the truth. 34
I don't depend on what people say about me, but I tell you these things so
that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that gave a lot of light, and you
were glad to enjoy his light for a while.
36 But something more important than John speaks for me. I mean the
things that the Father has given me to do! All of these speak for me and say
that the Father sent me.
37 The Father who sent me also speaks for me, but you have never heard
his voice or seen him face to face. 38 You have not believed his message,
because you refused to have faith in the one he sent. 39 You search the
Scriptures, because you think you will find eternal life in them. The
Scriptures tell about me, 40 but you refuse to come to me for eternal life.
41 I don't care about human praise, 42 but I do know that none of you love
God. 43 I have come with my Father's authority, and you have not welcomed
me. But you will welcome people who come on their own. 44 How could you
possibly believe? You like to have your friends praise you, and you don't
care about praise that the only God can give!
45 Don't think that I will be the one to accuse you to the Father. You
have put your hope in Moses, yet he is the very one who will accuse you. 46
Moses wrote about me, and if you had believed Moses, you would have believed
me. 47 But if you don't believe what Moses wrote, how can you believe what I
say?
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