 John chapter 5 The Healing at the Pool Sometime later Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the sheep gate a pool which in our make is called Bethesda in which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie, the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. 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? 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. Then Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured, he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, it is a Sabbath the law forbids you to carry your mat. But he replied, the man who made me well said to me pick up your mat and walk. So they asked him, who was this fellow who told you to pick up your mat and walk? The man who was healed had no idea who it was for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. 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. The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who made him get well. So because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, my father is always at his work to this very day and I too am working. 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. 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. 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 for just as the father raises the dad and gives them life, even so the son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover the father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the son, but 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. 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. 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. For as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the son of man. Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 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. 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. If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies in my favor and I know that his testimony about me is true. You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. I have a testimony way tear 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 and the father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form. These are the very scriptures that testify about me. Yet you refuse to come to me and have life. I do not accept glory from human beings but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 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. How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? But do not think I will accuse you before the father. Your accuser is Moses on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses you would believe me for he wrote about me but since you do not believe what he wrote how are you going to believe what I say?