John
Chapter 5
1 After this, the Jews had a festival, and Jesus went to Jerusalem.
2 In Jerusalem near the sheep trading area, there is a pool named Bethesda in Hebrew, with five covered walkways.
3 In this place, many sick people, blind, lame, and paralyzed, waited for the water to move.
4 An angel sometimes went into the pool and stirred up the water. The first person to get in after the water was stirred was healed of any illness they had.
5 A man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 The weak man said to him, “Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred, and while I am trying to get there, someone else goes in before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”
9 Right away, the man got well, picked up his mat, and walked. That day was the Sabbath.
10 The Jewish people said to the man who was healed, “It is the Sabbath day; you are not allowed to carry your bed.”
11 He replied, “The one who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 Then they asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?”
13 The healed man did not know who had cured him, because Jesus had slipped away due to the crowd in that place.
14 Later, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Look, you are healed. Don’t sin again or something worse may happen to you.”
15 The man left and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
16 So the Jews were against Jesus and wanted to kill him because he did these things on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus replied, “My Father has always been at work to this very day, and I too am working.”
18 So the Jews wanted even more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but also claimed that God was his Father, making himself equal to God.
19 Jesus replied to them, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He only does what he sees God doing. Whatever God does, the Son does the same.”
20 God loves the Son and shows him everything he does: and he will show him even greater things than these, so that you will be amazed.
21 Just as God brings the dead back to life, the Son also gives life to whoever he chooses.
22 God does not judge anyone, but has given all judgment to the Son.
23 Everyone should respect the Son just like they respect the Father. If someone doesn’t respect the Son, they don’t respect the Father who sent him.
24 Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me, has eternal life and will not be judged; but has moved from death to life.
25 Truly, truly, I tell you, the time is coming, and it is now, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
26 Just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.
27 God has given him power to judge because he is the Son of Man.
28 Don’t be surprised: a time will come when all in the graves will hear his voice.
29 People who have done good will rise to live; those who have done bad will rise to be judged.
30 I can do nothing by myself; I make judgments based on what I hear, and my judgments are fair because I don’t follow my own desires, but the desires of God who sent me.
31 If I speak for myself, my words are not true.
32 Someone else speaks for me, and I know that what he says about me is true.
33 You sent people to John, and he told the truth.
34 I don’t accept praise from people, but I tell you this so you can be saved.
35 He was a bright and shining light, and for a while you were happy to enjoy his light.
36 I have proof stronger than John’s: the tasks God gave me to complete, which I am doing, show that God has sent me.
37 God, who sent me, has testified about me. You have never heard his voice or seen his form.
38 You don’t keep God’s message inside you, because you don’t believe the one he sent.
39 Look in the Bible; you believe it has the words for eternal life, and it tells about me.
40 You don’t come to me to have life.
41 I do not seek praise from people.
42 But I know you do not have God’s love in you.
43 I came in my Father’s name, but you do not accept me. If someone else comes using his own name, you will accept him.
44 How can you believe when you accept praise from each other but don’t look for the praise that comes only from God?
45 Don’t believe I will blame you before God: Moses, who you trust, is the one who accuses you.
46 If you had believed Moses, you would believe me because he wrote about me.
47 If you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?