“I tell you the truth, whoever hears by word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned: he has crossed over from death to life.”
~ John 5:24
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever had a guy, gal or kid get on your case because of something that you said or did? Are you okay with being criticized? When some of God’s specially chosen guys – who had become known as Jews, criticized Jesus one day, they pushed Jesus’ hot button causing Jesus to jump all over them. The day was a Sabbath. Jesus was in the city of Jerusalem for one of the three feasts that the Jews celebrated annually. The confrontation occurred near the Sheep Gate. A pool was located near the Sheep Gate. The pool was called Bethesda. Guy who were blind, lame and paralyzed would congregate around the pool of Bethesda. These physically challenged guys would spend most of their time as beggars around the pool of Bethesda. God would send an angel every so often who would pass over the pool of Bethesda causing the pool’s water to ripple. The first physically disabled guy who was able to get into the pool of Bethesda after the angel who had been sent by God to ripple the pool’s water rippled the pool’s water would be healed of whatever physical disability that he had. The verse that explains an angel’s role of rippling the pool of Bethesda’s water is omitted from some Bible versions. There is no other place in the Bible where a verse number is missing. John 5 does not have verse 4. This verse specifically references an angel – who had been sent by God to do it, rippling the water in the pool of Bethesda. Later versions of the Bible have omitted this verse believing that John did not write the verse while earlier versions record this verse that is found between accent marks in early manuscripts. The implication of the accent marks is that the verse may have been added to John’s missive after it had been scribed by John. When He arrived at the pool of Bethesda, Jesus went to an invalid to hear the guy’s story. The guy told Jesus that he had been a cripple for 38 years. The guy told Jesus that he did not have anyone to help him get into the pool of Bethesda when he saw the water in the pool ripple as the angel who had been sent by God was rippling the pool of Bethesda’s waters. Jesus asked the guy if he really wanted to be cured as the guy – because of his condition, could make a living as a beggar. The guy told Jesus that he wanted to be cured. Jesus told the guy to pick up his mat and walk away – which the guy did as Jesus disappeared into the crowd.
How do you think the invalid guy felt after being cured of his physical disability? Your grandpaa thinks that the guy had to have felt euphoric. When some local Jews saw the guy who they knew had been physically disabled walking around carrying his mat, they got on the guy’s case because the guy was doing something on a Sabbath that he was not supposed to be doing. The guy who had his physical impairment cured told these Jews that a guy who he did not know had stopped to talk to him by the pool of Bethesda and had healed him of his physical infirmity. Jesus found the guy who He had cured of His physical disability later in the temple that was in the city of Jerusalem. Jesus told the guy whose physical debility He had cured that he needed to stop sinning or something worse would happen to him. Jesus did not heal the guy at the pool of Bethesda who had been an impaired invalid for 38 years because of the guy’s faith in Him; Jesus just cured him. Your grandpaa does not know if the guy ended up making a decision of faith to believe in Jesus. The guy did tell the local Jews at this time that the guy who had healed him of his physical impairment was Jesus. When the local Jews were told by the guy who had been cured by Jesus after having been physically disabled for 38 years that Jesus was who had cured him, they went bananas. These local Jews could not accept that a guy would comport himself the way that Jesus was comporting Himself. These local Jews could not accept that a guy would have the gall to deliberately break a Sabbath law by healing a guy of a physical infirmity on a Sabbath. These local Jews could not believe that a guy would refer to Himself as God – as His Father God’s Son. These local Jews decided to kill Jesus right then and there for the way that Jesus’ actions and words were flaunting their Sabbath laws and were confronting how they thought that God saw them as particularly special dudes.
The local Jews would get an earful from Jesus. Jesus told the local Jews that His message was weightier than John the Baptist’s message. Jesus told the local Jews that even though they studied the Bible, that they did not know what the Bible said. Jesus told the local Jews that they were out to only get praise from other guys – that they really were not interested in obtaining the praise that only comes from God. Jesus told the local Jews that they did not have the love of God in their hearts because if they did, they would be giving God the credit for everything. Jesus told the local Jews that they would not have eternal life because He had not given them eternal life because they had not gone to Him to ask Him for eternal life. Jesus told the local Jews that even Moses – whose laws they were using to make their own laws, would condemn them. Jesus began His diatribe against the local Jews by saying what is in verse 24, ““I tell you the truth, whoever hears by word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned: he has crossed over from death to life.” When your grandmaa and grandpaa talked with a guy, gal or kid in Bolivia and Guatemala about making a decision of faith, they would use a tract that was written in Spanish that was called Cinco Pasos Hacia la Vida. The tract has drawings in it of a canyon that has a cross bridging from one side of the canyon to the other side of the canyon. The cross in the drawings in the tract that is bridging a canyon is an illustration of the cross that Jesus suffered and died on as being the only way to go from the ridge that signifies hell – the ridge where every guy, gal and kid is destined, to the ridge that signifies life – the ridge where heaven is.
John 5 (654)