Christ heals a man at the pool of Bethesda
5
📚After this there was a feast 📖 of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 📚Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, which in the Hebrew tongue is called Bethesda 📖. It has five porticos. 3 📚In these lay a great multitude of infirm people, of blind, lame, and paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool, and stirred the water. Then, after the stirring of the water, whoever first stepped in was healed of whatever disease he had 📖.5 📚And a certain man was there who had an infirmity for thirty-eight years.
5:5 Judging from v 7 the man had some form of paralysis or lameness.⚜
6 📚When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had now been a long time in that condition, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
5:6 The Lord Jesus often took the initiative when He was about to perform a miracle, but not always. Here it seems His purpose in asking this question was to awaken hope in this man. After 38 years and many disappointments his hope must have been dim.
In spiritual matters also Christ would ask us all the same question – “Do you really want to be healed from your sins? Do you have the desire to be saved?” It is those who hunger and thirst for God’s salvation who will receive it. He causes us to desire what He wants to give us. See Matt 11:12 and note.⚜
7 📚The helpless man answered him, “Sir, when the water is stirred I have no one to put me in the pool. While I am moving, someone else steps down before me”.
5:7 Here is the picture of the helplessness of many who are poor, sick, and friendless. It also shows the selfishness of human nature. Each person was concerned with getting into the pool before anyone else could get there. The Lord Jesus, the God of the Bible, is a friend to the friendless, a helper to the helpless (Ps 10:14; 54:4; 72:12-13; 113:5-7; Isa 40:29; 41:17). Many of His miracles were acts of mercy toward the poor and needy.⚜
8 📚Jesus said to him, “Get up. Pick up your cot and walk”.
9 📚And immediately the man was healed, picked up his cot and walked. And that same day was the Sabbath.
5:8-9 Observe that the power to heal was in the word of Jesus. See Matt 8:8. A helpless man could not pick up his cot and walk. But when Jesus commanded him to do so He enabled him to do so. In the very act of obedience healing came. And obedience was attempted because of faith in Jesus’ word. Compare Mark 3:5; Luke 17:14.⚜
10 📚Therefore the Jews said to the one who was cured, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry a cot”.
11 📚He answered them, “The same man who healed me said to me, ‘Pick up your cot and walk.’ ”
12 📚Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your cot and walk?’”
13 📚And the healed man did not know who it was, for a crowd was in that place and Jesus had slipped away secretly.
5:13 The Lord Jesus had no desire for publicity or for arguments with those unbelieving Jews (John 4:3).⚜
14 📚Afterwards Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are healed. Do not sin any more, or a worse thing may come on you”.
5:14 The Lord Jesus followed up the work He began. He does the same in the matter of salvation (see Phil 1:6). He cared about the man’s spiritual condition and looked for him (compare Luke 19:10). In the words He spoke to him there is the suggestion that the man’s disability was a result of his sin, and that there was danger he would continue in his sin. It was far more important for him (and for anyone) to be saved from his sins than to be healed of his infirmity.⚜
15 📚The man left and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
5:15 This man behaved unwisely. Did he not know that telling this to the Jews could bring trouble to the Lord Jesus?⚜
Christ reveals who He is
16 📚And so the Jews persecuted Jesus and tried to kill him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath.
5:16 Jesus was not breaking the Sabbath, only their man-invented rules for the Sabbath. See notes at Matt 12:1-3. They did not care how many remained ill and helpless or continued in sin just as long as others kept their rules. Their character is seen in Matthew chapter 23.⚜
17 📚But Jesus responded to them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working”.
5:17 God the Father is never idle, even on the Sabbath. And Jesus the Son of God was the Lord of the Sabbath (Matt 12:8), and would not be bound by man’s rules. He was saying God was His Father in a special sense that was not true of anyone else. Compare John 10:30-33. They accused Him of blasphemy because they didn’t believe He actually was the Son of God, and they knew that for ordinary men to claim to be God is the worst sort of blasphemy and worthy of death (see Matt 26:65).⚜
18 📚Therefore the Jews tried even more to kill him, because not only had he broken the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
19 📚In response Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say 📖 to you, the Son can do nothing by himself, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever he does, the Son also does the same things. 20 📚For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he does. And he will show him greater works than these, that you may be amazed.
5:20 See John 3:35; 17:24. The mutual love of the Father and Son is seen often in the New Testament. It existed before the world was made and continues forever. The eyes of the Son are ever on the Father as He runs the universe and rules the world, and the Father hides nothing from Him. By “greater things” he meant greater than the miracles He had already performed.⚜
21 📚“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, just so the Son gives life to whom he will.
5:21 This may refer to the raising of individuals from the dead such as Lazarus (John 11:43-44) and others (Mark 5:35-43; Luke 7:11-15). But it is equally true that He is the Giver of eternal, spiritual life, raising people from their death in sin (v 24).⚜
22 📚For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,
5:22 The judgment of all men will be in the hands of the Lord Jesus, but this does not mean that the Father will not participate in it (Acts 17:31). In everything they work together.⚜
23 📚so that all men should honour the Son just as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.
5:23 See the Father’s purpose in giving judgment into the hands of the Lord Jesus. Men must honor Jesus just as they would honor God the Father. Neither the Father nor the Son could ever desire this if the Son did not fully share the essence, the nature of God. Men should never give to any created being the honor that belongs to God alone. Observe what Jesus says here – if men are not honoring the Son of God they are not honoring God at all. Of course, they may say they are honoring Him and may even think they are.⚜
24 📚“Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me, has everlasting life and will not come into condemnation 📖, but has passed from death to life. 📖
5:24 This is one of the greatest promises ever made to men. And it is preceded by words of solemn assurance – “Truly, truly I say to you”. See notes on eternal life at John 3:16, 36. Observe that eternal life is the present immediate possession of the believer. John 3:36 says this life comes to those who believe in the “Son”. Here it says that it comes to those who believe in the Father who sent Him. Again we see the unity of Father and Son – to believe the one is to believe the other.⚜
25 📚“Truly, truly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
5:25 The “dead” here probably means the spiritually dead as in v 24. They hear Christ’s voice speaking to their inmost souls. They hearken to that voice, believe and obey that voice (compare John 10:3-4, 16, 27). Only such will live spiritually. Jesus used this title “Son of God” of Himself three times in John – here, in John 10:36 and in John 11:4.⚜
26 📚For just as the Father has life in himself 📖, even so he has given to the Son to have life in himself, 27 📚and also has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. 📖
28 📚“Do not be surprised at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice, 29 📚and will come out. Those who have done good will come out for the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, for the resurrection of condemnation.
5:28-29 Here the Lord Jesus declares that God will raise all men from the dead. Notice the word “graves” in v 28. He is not here speaking of the giving of spiritual life as in v 24. Raised from the dead here means that the spirits of those who have died will be reunited with their dead bodies and those bodies will rise. See also Dan 12:2; Acts 24:15; 1 Cor 15:20-22; Rev 20:4-6, 11-15.
Jesus says there will be two kinds of resurrection for two very different kinds of people. We might think He would say the two kinds of people are those who believe in Him and those who do not. This is certainly true, but because He put it in another way here we can learn an important truth. That is, doing good is a mark of the believer, doing evil is a mark of the unbeliever. Believers have been born again (John 1:13) and made entirely different from what they were before, and from unbelievers in general (2 Cor 5:18). The evidence that this is so is their doing good (Matt 7:17-18; 25:31-46; Rom 2:6-11; Jam 2:14-26).
Unbelievers may sometimes do what they consider good works. But their motives are wrong even in that, and they are constantly guilty of doing the evil of rejecting God’s Son, disobeying God’s Word, and living according to their fallen sinful nature. They shall rise from the dead only to face condemnation and punishment. Believers will rise to enjoy eternal life.
Jesus does not say that the resurrection of both the good and evil will take place at the exact same time, only that the resurrection of both will certainly take place sometime in the future. Rev 20:4-5 indicates that there will be an interval between the two resurrections. 1 Thess 4:13-17; and 1 Cor 15:51-53 speak only of the resurrection of believers, probably because only that sort of resurrection takes place at the time Paul refers to there.⚜
30 📚“I can do nothing by myself. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who has sent me.
5:30 Observe in vs 19-30 that God the Father sent the Son, He shows the Son what He does (v 20), and He gives authority to the Son (vs 22,27). The three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in the Godhead share the same nature and are equally God, but there is an order in their activities. In authority the Father is greater than the Son (John 10:29; 14:28); the Son and the Father sent the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7), possibly indicating that in the Godhead they are in a higher position than He. But in nature and essence and mind and love and purpose the Three are absolutely one God. If the question arises how can these things be? We can only answer that they are revealed to be so in the Bible, and so we believe them even though we cannot fully understand them.⚜
The evidence of Christ’s deity
31 📚“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.
5:31 In Jewish law a man’s own testimony was not accepted in court. Others had to bear witness about him. Two or three witnesses were required either to condemn him or clear him (see John 8:17; Deut 19:15). Jesus is saying that if there is no evidence for His claims except His own word the Jews should not believe Him. He then speaks of other witnesses for Him. He points this out for their sake, not for His (v 34). He well knew who and what He was.
There are four witnesses – John the Baptist (v 33), the works Jesus did (v 36; John 8:18), God the Father (v 37), and the writings of the Old Testament (vs 39,46).⚜
32 📚There is another who testifies about me. And I know that the testimony which he gives about me is true.
5:32 He probably meant God the Father (v 37), though some think He meant John the Baptist (v 33).⚜
33 📚“You sent to John, and he testified to the truth. 34 📚But I do not receive testimony from man. I say these things that you might be saved. 35 📚He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. 📖
36 📚“But I have a greater testimony than John’s. For the deeds which the Father has given me to finish, the very deeds that I am doing, testify about me that the Father has sent me.
37 📚“And the Father himself, who has sent me, has testified about me. You have not heard his voice at any time, or seen his form.
5:37 See John 8:18; 1 John 5:9. The Father bore witness to the Son through the prophecies of the Old Testament (see note in the Topical Concordance in the back of this Bible under the heading “Jesus Christ, O.T. prophecies concerning”). Also before Jesus’ birth the Father bore witness through an angel (Matt 1:20-23; Luke 1:26-35), at His baptism and transfiguration by direct voice (Matt 3:17; 17:5), and all through His life by working with Him in His mighty works (John 14:10; Acts 10:38).⚜
38 📚And you do not have his word dwelling in you. For you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
5:38 They had God’s word (the Old Testament) and they diligently studied it (v 39), so it was in their minds. But it was not in their hearts. It did not live in them and make them alive (compare Ps 119:11).⚜
39 📚“You search the Scriptures, 📖 for by them you think you have eternal life. And these are they which testify about me, 40 📚and you are not willing to come to me that you might have life.
5:40 They thought they had eternal life but they did not, and they would not come in faith to the only one who could give them spiritual life (v 21; John 3:36). So many people today are like them.⚜
41 📚“I do not receive honour from men.
5:41 Unlike so many religious leaders (v 44), the honor and glory that men might give meant nothing to Him. He never tried to please men that they might praise Him. His whole aim is seen in John 8:29. And He is our example in this as in all things.⚜
42 📚But I know you, that you do not have God’s love in you.
5:42 Jesus knew what was in men – John 2:24-25. And He knew that if they had loved God they would have loved Christ (John 8:42). Their hatred of Him revealed their hatred of God (John 15:24). Though, if asked, would they not have said they loved God? And actually they might have thought they did. Jer 17:9 is always true.⚜
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.
44 📚“How can you believe, you who receive honour from one another, and do not seek the honour that comes from the only God?
5:44 The character of those described here makes it impossible for them to believe in Christ. They themselves are the center of their existence, and their hope is that men will praise them, that they will be honored by fellow human beings in the field of religion or education or whatever their special interest is. God really does not have the slightest place in their hearts. See the opposite of this in Gal 1:10.⚜
45 📚“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is someone who accuses you, the same Moses in whom you trust.
5:45 Jesus did not come to “accuse” or judge (John 3:17). Moses was their accuser. He meant that the God-inspired writings of Moses (the first five books of the Bible) condemned them. This was because they did not really believe what he wrote (though they may have thought they did) and did not practice the truth he recorded.⚜
46 📚For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me.
47 📚But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
5:19-47 In this long passage the Lord Jesus sets forth His claim to be the Son of God (vs 19,20), speaks of some of the things He can and will do (vs 21-30), gives some of the evidence for His claim, and reveals why these Jews did not believe Him (vs 38-47). We have here very profound, very important truth.⚜
5:47 This is a question neither they nor anyone else could ever answer. Let us learn from the above verses that there is great and wonderful evidence for the claims of Christ to be God’s Son. Indeed there is no evidence like it for anyone else in the whole history of mankind. Let us all go where the evidence leads, and trust the Lord Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. If we do not the great loss will be ours.⚜