Sunday: The Pool of Bethesda — John 5:1-9
The crowd around that pool must have been a pathetic sight: hundreds gathered who were lame, feverish, blind, withered, and diseased, all with the hope of being healed. Jesus focused that day on just one. For 38 years the man had been infirmed, and was too weak for even a chance of reaching the healing waters. That day, healing waters came to him in the form of the Great Physician. But before Jesus spoke life into him, the man had to affirm that he “wanted” to be healed. Strangely, people sometimes hide behind infirmities! Healing requires change.
Monday: On the Sabbath Day? — John 5:10-16
How easy it is for a man to forget his prior condition after the Lord has delivered him! With the divine touch comes new challenges: “sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you” (v. 14). We must avoid opening new doors to suffering. That Jesus healed the man, and told him to carry his bed on the Sabbath day spurs religious rebuke, for “religion” always looks to the negative side. Jesus may have even chosen the Sabbath day to expose this hypocrisy.
Tuesday: Equal with God? — John 5:17-22
The Son can do nothing of Himself because of His inseparable union with the Father: nor will the Father do anything of Himself, because of His infinite unity with the Son. In this perfect unity, Christ stands apart from all of creation. God, the great Creator, performed His work by the Word that would become flesh (John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:1-3). Because Jesus appears to usurp prerogatives solely attributed to God (v. 17, the right to work on the sabbath), His hearers think that He thereby claims a position equal to that of God, a claim that naturally sounds blasphemous to them. Jesus explained that He is not independent of or in opposition to the Father. His activity is not self-initiated. The Father directs and has sent the Son; They always work together.
Wednesday: To Honor the Son — John 5:23-24
Jesus’ unity with His Father is so complete that the honor of God is tied to Jesus. To reject or dishonor the Son is to reject and dishonor God. Since Jesus has the unity and divine prerogatives of the Father, to trust His message and His Father is to have in the present time eternal life (John 3:36). No judgment will come in the future (he will not be condemned (John 3:18; Romans 6:13; 8:1) because he has already passed from one realm—death—into another—life (Ephesians 2:1, 5).
Thursday: Life & Judgment — John 5:25-29
Jesus now returned to the two central prerogatives of God: life (vv. 21, 24-26) and judgment (v. 22, 24-25, 27). Jesus has both because the Father had given Him both. In Himself Christ, the Logos, has life as an eternal gift of the Father (John 1:4), but in the Incarnation authority to judge was also delegated to Jesus. As the Son of Man (Daniel 7:13), authority is given to Him.
Friday: The Supreme Witness — John 5:30-38
John the Baptist’s function was that of a witness. A good witness tells the truth as he knows it. John’s witness to Jesus was valuable, but ultimately Jesus didn’t need human testimony. John was only a lamp, but not the true Light. The thought in this discourse moves from Jesus’ unity with the Father to the Father’s witness to Jesus. The Father was the Son’s supreme, divine Witness.
Saturday: Sent by the Father — John 5:39-47
Somehow a veil was over the minds of these Jewish scholars (2 Corinthians 3:15), and they failed to see Jesus as the Promised One. He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrificial system, the true righteous Servant of Yahweh, the coming Prophet, the Son of Man, the Davidic King, and the promised Son of God and great High Priest. In spite of the clarity of the revelation, they refused to come to Him for life (John 3:19-20). If the Jews really believed Moses, they would believe Christ, for Moses wrote about Him.