What Jesus Did

[Jesus said,] "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."

—John 5:24 NLT

Key Thought


Every great once-in-a-while, I awaken after the sun is up and the glory of the day has begun. Without my fully realizing it, night has already passed into day, darkness into light. In much the same way, the better I know...

 

[Jesus said,] "In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, so 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."

—John 5:22-23 NLT

Key Thought


"Pay ... honor to whom honor is due!" (Romans 13:7 NRSV) I can't think of anyone more worthy of honor than the Son of God. He left the glory of heaven and became...

 

[Jesus said,] "For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants."

—John 5:21 NLT

Key Thought


Death was our impenetrable barrier as mortals. We could not escape it. We could not go around it. We could not see beyond it. Then the Father sent his Son, Jesus. Jesus conquered death. Jesus destroyed it as our barrier. He showed us what is on the other side of death. Just as surely as the Father raised Jesus...

 

So 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. For 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."

—John 5:19-20 NLT

Key Thought


Astonished? Yes, that is the word for it. Jesus will do many more miracles in his...

 

So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill [Jesus]. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.

—John 5:18 NLT

Key Thought


John's Gospel confronts us with a crucial decision: Is Jesus really the Son of God, God with us in human flesh? John paints the story of Jesus so we see that he claims to be God — the "I am" statements ("I am the good shepherd," "I am the resurrection and the...

 

So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules [by healing on the Sabbath]. But Jesus replied, "My Father is always working, and so am I."

—John 5:16-17 NLT

Key Thought


For centuries, the Father in heaven heard prayers, created babies, healed diseases, and upheld the universe on the Sabbath. Why? So his children, his human creations, could be blessed by his rest and honor him. To turn the Sabbath rest into a legalistic debate and forget...

 

[About the man who had been healed, John wrote:] But 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." Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.

—John 5:14-15 NLT

Key Thought


Stop sinning! Isn't it interesting that while all the fury and fuss were about Jesus' supposed sin on the Sabbath, the real sinner was the man who was healed. He...

 

But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so 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!" But he replied, "The man who healed me told me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'" "Who said such a thing as that?" they demanded. The man didn't know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.

—John 5:9b-13 NLT

Key Thought


You don't know who healed you? You've been trying to get...

 

Jesus told [the sick man by the pool of Bethesda], "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!" Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected.

—John 5:8-10a NLT

Key Thought


God created the Sabbath to be a day of blessing, rest, and reverence. Isn't it strange how easily the rules of misplaced religion can ruin the blessings God longs to bring us? Because Jesus did...

 

One of the men lying [by the pool of Bethesda] had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, "Would you like to get well?" "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."

—John 5:5-7 NLT

Key Thought


"Would you like to get well?" Sometimes our biggest disease isn't what appears in our bodies...