John 5 - Wiersbe Study Bible

5:1–15 Our Lord’s first two miracles recorded by John were somewhat private in nature. The servants and the disciples knew that He transformed the water into wine, and the servants and the nobleman’s family knew that He had healed the sick son. The miracle recorded in chapter 5 was not only public, but it was performed on the Sabbath day and incited the opposition of the religious leaders.

5:3 John described these people as “sick . . . blind, lame, paralyzed.” What havoc sin has wrought in this world! But the healing of these infirmities was one of the prophesied ministries of the Messiah (Is. 35:3–6). Had the religious leaders known their own Scriptures, they would have recognized their Redeemer, but they were spiritually blind.

5:6 Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed. You would think that the man would have responded with an enthusiastic, “Yes! I want to be healed!” But, instead, he began to give excuses! He had been in that sad condition for so long that his will was as paralyzed as his body. But if you compare verse 6 with verse 40, you will see that Jesus had a spiritual lesson in mind as well. Indeed, this man did illustrate the tragic spiritual state of the nation.

5:9 The miracle would have caused no problem except that it occurred on the Sabbath day. Our Lord certainly could have come a day earlier, or even waited a day, but He wanted to get the attention of the religious leaders. Later, He would deliberately heal a blind man on the Sabbath (9:1–14). The scribes had listed thirty-nine tasks that were prohibited on the Sabbath, and carrying a burden was one of them. Instead of rejoicing at the wonderful deliverance of the man, the religious leaders condemned him for carrying his bed and thereby breaking the law.

5:16–18 The Jewish leaders did not prosecute the man who was healed, even though he had broken the law, but they did begin to persecute the Lord Jesus. As the guardians of the faith, the members of the Jewish Sanhedrin (the religious ruling council) had the responsibility of investigating new preachers and teachers who appeared in the land, lest some false prophet come along and lead the people astray.

5:17 The penalty for such blasphemy (claiming to be God) was death. It is here that the official persecution of Jesus began, culminating in His crucifixion. In the days that followed, our Lord often confronted His enemies with their evil desire to kill Him (7:19,25; 8:37,59). They hated Him without a cause (15:18–25). They ignored the good deeds that He performed for the helpless and hopeless, and centered their attention on destroying Him.

5:19–23 Instead of denying their accusation, He endorsed it! If today a man made this kind of a claim, we would conclude that He was joking or mentally disturbed. Jesus was certainly not insane, and there is every evidence that He was deadly serious when He spoke these words. Either He is what He claims to be, or He is a liar, and if He is a liar, how do you explain all the good He has done in the lives of needy people? Nobody wants to trust a liar; Jesus’ disciples were willing to die for Him.

5:20 Not only did the Father show the Son His works and enable Him to do them, but the Father also shared His love. The first three gospels open with the Father calling Jesus “My dearly loved Son,” and John echoed this statement in 3:35. We usually think of the Father’s love for the lost world, as in 3:16, but we must also remember the Father’s love for His dear Son.

5:25–30 For Jesus to claim to have power to raise the dead was a blasphemous thing in the eyes of the Jewish leaders; they believed God alone had that power. They said that Jehovah held the three great keys: the key to open the heavens and give rain (Deut. 28:12); the key to open the womb and give conception (Gen. 30:22); and the key to open the grave and raise the dead (Ezek. 37:12). As far as the gospel records are concerned, Jesus had not yet raised anyone from the dead, so to make this claim was to invite even more opposition.

5:29 Believers will be given resurrection bodies so that they might reign with Christ in glory. Unbelievers will be given resurrection bodies—but not glorified bodies—that they might be judged and then suffer punishment in those bodies. Bodies that were used for sin will suffer the consequences of that sin. The fact that Jesus has the authority to raise the dead is proof that He is equal with the Father, and therefore He is God.

5:31–47 Who were the witnesses to Jesus’ identity? The first was John the Baptist (vv. 32–35), whom the religious leaders had interrogated carefully (1:19–27). In fact, at the very end of His ministry, our Lord pointed the rulers back to the witness of John the Baptist. The second witness was the witness of His teachings and miracles (5:36). The third and final witness our Lord summoned was the Word of the Father (vv. 37–47). The Old Testament law required the testimony of two or three witnesses (Num. 35:30; Deut. 17:6); the Lord met that requirement by giving three trustworthy witnesses.

5:35 Whenever God raises up a spiritual leader who commands attention, there is always the danger of attracting people who want to bask in his popularity but not submit to his authority. A “mixed multitude” followed Moses and Israel out of Egypt, people who were impressed with the miracles but not yielded to the Lord. The prophets and apostles, as well as the great leaders in church history, all had to put up with shallow people who followed the crowd but refused to obey the truth. We have them in churches today.

5:39,40 The very Scriptures that the Jewish leaders used to defend their religion would one day bear witness against them. The Jews knew what Moses wrote, but they did not really believe what he wrote. It is one thing to have the Word in our hands or our heads, but quite another thing to have it in our hearts. Jesus is the Word made flesh (1:14), and the written Word bears witness to the Incarnate Word.