John 5

Part of Conflict and the Bread of Life📖 John introduction

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¹Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. ✦ ²Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. ✦ ³Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. ✦ ⁵One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. ✦ ⁶When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” ✦ ⁷“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” ✦ ⁸Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” ✦ ⁹Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, ✦ ¹⁰so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!” ✦ ¹¹But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” ✦ ¹²“Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded. ✦ ¹³The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. ✦ ¹⁴But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” ✦ ¹⁵Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. ✦ ¹⁶So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. ✦ ¹⁷But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” ✦ ¹⁸So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God. ✦ ¹⁹So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. ✦ ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. ✦ ²¹For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants. ✦ ²²In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, ✦ ²³so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him. ✦ ²⁴“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. ✦ ²⁵“And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live. ✦ ²⁶The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son. ✦ ²⁷And he has given him authority to judge everyone because he is the Son of Man. ✦ ²⁸Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, ✦ ²⁹and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment. ✦ ³⁰I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will. ✦ ³¹“If I were to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid. ✦ ³²But someone else is also testifying about me, and I assure you that everything he says about me is true. ✦ ³³In fact, you sent investigators to listen to John the Baptist, and his testimony about me was true. ✦ ³⁴Of course, I have no need of human witnesses, but I say these things so you might be saved. ✦ ³⁵John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message. ✦ ³⁶But I have a greater witness than John—my teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they prove that he sent me. ✦ ³⁷And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face, ✦ ³⁸and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you. ✦ ³⁹“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! ✦ ⁴⁰Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life. ✦ ⁴¹“Your approval means nothing to me, ✦ ⁴²because I know you don’t have God’s love within you. ✦ ⁴³For I have come to you in my Father’s name, and you have rejected me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them. ✦ ⁴⁴No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God. ✦ ⁴⁵“Yet it isn’t I who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes. ✦ ⁴⁶If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. ✦ ⁴⁷But since you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?” ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Where this chapter connects

John 5 ·34 John 8 ·30 John 9 ·15 John 1 ·14 John 3 ·14 John 14 ·13 John 6 ·13 John 7 ·12

Christ at the center

John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.

How John 5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereDocumentaryFollowing the MessiahAppian Media · Free · evangelical
A free, beautifully shot 10-part series walking the lands of Jesus' life — Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem, and more.
★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.
DocumentaryHolyLandSiteHolyLandSite · Free · evangelical
Free on-location videos tying biblical events to the actual sites in Israel — the Temple Mount, Galilee, Capernaum, and more.
ApologeticsCold-Case Christianity (J. Warner Wallace)J. Warner Wallace · Free · evangelical
A cold-case homicide detective examines the Gospels' reliability — forensic faith for skeptics and seekers.

Pastoral

★ Start hereSermonMLJ Trust — Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermonsMartyn Lloyd-Jones · Free · reformed
1,600+ free sermons from "the Doctor," including landmark verse-by-verse series (Romans, John, Ephesians, Acts) — a gold standard of expository preaching.
SermonGrace to You — John MacArthurJohn MacArthur · Free · reformed
Decades of careful verse-by-verse expository sermons, especially through the New Testament. (MacArthur, d. 2025; archive remains free.)
SermonGospel in Life — Tim KellerTim Keller · Free · reformed
Tim Keller's gospel-centered preaching — sermons stream free (the complete downloadable archive is paid).
ArticleRecommended NT commentaries (9Marks / Schreiner)Thomas R. Schreiner · Free · reformed
A trusted pastor-oriented guide to the best commentary on each New Testament book.
SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.
VideoVerse By Verse Ministry InternationalVerse By Verse Ministry Int'l · Free · evangelical
In-depth, verse-by-verse expository teaching book-by-book — strong for working straight through a whole New Testament book.
VideoLook at the Book — John PiperJohn Piper · Free · reformed
Watch Piper trace the logic of a passage phrase by phrase on screen — a model of close reading.

Seminary

★ Start hereApologeticsGary Habermas — the resurrectionGary Habermas · Free · evangelical
130+ free videos and lectures from the scholar behind the "minimal facts" method — the start-here on the historical evidence for the resurrection. (Only his books are paid.)
★ Start hereCommentaryThe Gospel According to John (Pillar NT Commentary)D. A. Carson · ~720 pp · Paid · reformed
The go-to mid-level exegetical commentary on John — rigorous and readable.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — John videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on John 5YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — John 5David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JohnMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — John 5Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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