Bible Study in John 5
1 Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. One who was there had NLV been an invalid for thirty-eight years.6 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? 7 “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.”
Questions
What do you think is the significance of Jesus’ question “Do you want to get well”?
Is the invalid man seem like he is seeking a relationship with Jesus?
Was there a point in your life when you asked yourself, “do I want to get well”?
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
Questions
Why do you think the Jewish leaders were focused on the Sabbath law rather than the miracle that had just occurred?
Do you think the people were confused with this new teaching since they were still under the law and OT commandments?
Have you ever experienced a situation where rules seemed to overshadow the needs of people? How did you respond?
What does this encounter say about Jesus’ view of the Sabbath and His mission? Jesus was deliberately provoking the Pharisees. But why?
Is Jesus pointing to a New Covenant that doesn’t entail OC rules and regulations.
How has this New Covenant teaching affected your life?
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ 12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. 14 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.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Questions
In v11 and v15, do you think the man yet realizes that this man who healed him was God? How would you of reacted?
Why might Jesus have chosen to slip away from the crowd? Did he want to be identified yet?
Why do you think Jesus found the man at the temple? What significance does the temple hold in this context?
What do you think Jesus meant by stop sinning or something worse might happen to you? What do you think “stop sinning means”? What could be worse than being invalid for 38 years?
Do you think the man was turning Jesus in or sharing the “good news” of his healing?
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 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.
Questions
What are the two reasons the Pharisees are incensed at Jesus?
Were the Pharisees interested in investigating the power which allowed Jesus to perform a miracle, or just criticizing Jesus for breaking their customs?
Do you think the people of Jerusalem understood exactly what He was implying?
19 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. 20 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.
Questions
Why is it significant that Jesus does only what He sees the Father doing? What does this say about His obedience and mission?
What do you think Jesus means when He says the Father will show Him “even greater works”? What kinds of works might He be referring to? Read Philippians 2:13
21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that 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.
Questions
What other three additional things have been given to Jesus?
What does it mean when Jesus says, “the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it”? How does this relate to our understanding of salvation?
Why is it significant that the Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son?
Why did Jesus come into this world according to John 9:39?
What are the implications for someone who does not honor the Son, according to this passage? How does this inform our witness to others?
24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him (the work God wants) who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 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. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 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. 30 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.
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