Life in Himself (John 5:15-29)

This week’s message deals with the second half of the story at the Pool called Bethesda and explains that Jesus had another motive for healing the crippled man. When he was accused by the Jewish leaders of working on the Sabbath, Jesus made it clear that he was conducting business as his Heavenly Father would. It was a deliberate and controversial move to get the attention of the religious leaders. Rabbis reasoned that God is not idle on any day of the week, including the Sabbath. When Jesus called God “My Father” (not “our”) , he claimed equality with God which was blasphemous – unless it was true.

Devout Jews prayed morning and evening to “our God”, so introducing the idea of equality with God, infuriated the leaders. Jesus taught three elements of his relationship with his Father. They work together, they give life together and God trusts Jesus to judge. Jesus was ready for a fight and used the opportunity to show that he worked in perfect unity with God, even though he knew it would anger his accusers.

Following Jesus isn’t about avoiding confrontation. Jesus wasn’t afraid to pick a fight. We can be just as bold when standing up for the truth because we have the Spirit of Christ in us.

Due to technical difficulties, an audio of this week’s message is not available.

The scriptures we read were: