John 05 Round Two: Jesus Explains Why We Read the Bible

A man waits thirty-eight years by a pool for healing—and walks home carrying the mat that once carried him. That moment at Bethesda isn’t just a miracle; it’s a mirror that shows how easily we cling to rules and miss mercy when it stands up right in front of us. We lean into John 5 to explore how Jesus turns a Sabbath controversy into a revelation of who He is and why the Word of God is meant to lead us to the Word made flesh.

We unpack Jesus’ bold claims about His relationship with the Father: shared work, shared life, and entrusted judgment. Rather than flattening the mystery, He invites us to live inside it with relational language—love, seeing, showing, sending. From the promise that the dead will hear His voice to the assurance that belief crosses us from death to life, we trace how authority and compassion meet in the Son. Along the way, we examine the witnesses that validate His mission: John the Baptist, the works themselves, and the Father’s testimony.

The heart of the conversation centers on Scripture’s purpose. You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, yet they point to me. We talk about how to read the Bible to encounter Jesus, not just to collect facts; why salvation is a free gift and freedom grows with our daily obedience; and how gratitude can widen our view so we see God’s work beyond our narrow worries. Expect practical prompts, clear takeaways, and a renewed desire to open your Bible as a meeting place, not a checklist.

If this resonated, subscribe, leave a five-star review, and share the episode with a friend who’s hungry to read Scripture with fresh eyes. Then tell us: what chapter of the Bible has shaped you most?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Today’s Focus
• 0:44 Community Shoutouts And Reviews
• 1:46 Setting The Context For John
• 3:18 Healing At Bethesda On Sabbath
• 5:05 Gratitude Over Legalism
• 6:35 Freedom After Healing
• 7:38 Claiming Equality With The Father
• 10:50 Life, Judgment, And The Trinity
• 13:08 Witnesses To Jesus’ Authority
• 14:24 Why We Read Scripture
• 16:10 Challenge To Know God’s Word

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, John chapter 5. Man, once again, another amazing chapter. And if I were to give this chapter a title, it would be Jesus Explains Why the Bible is so important. Like, why do we read the Bible? If we have received Christ as our Savior, are we not done? Why should we read the Bible? Well, Jesus is going to jump into that as well as a whole bunch of other good stuff. Can't wait to get into this. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you are liking the video on YouTube. You are commenting. You are sharing this with everybody. If you are listening to the podcast, you are my brothers and sisters. I'm so thankful for that. Make sure that you are leaving us a five-star review and help us get the word out. I would love to know that we are really working hard together to develop a community of just gushing about the Bible together. You know, just being fellow travelers in God's word. So make sure you're going to our Facebook page. You can find it in the show notes section. You can type in Bible breakdown discussion. And I want to know how you're relating to this. And I want to know this. What is your favorite chapter in the Bible? What of all the chapters in the Bible, what is your favorite? I don't know what mine is. I've got to really think on it. There's some that I love, and there's some that I um I don't read often. Like I don't read the Song of Solomon that often. If you don't know why, uh go read it. And then you'll then you'll know why. It is just, it makes me feel awkward. It's fine. It's fine. But this one today is a really, really good one. So remember the context of what's going on. The author is the Apostle John. He's the best friend of Jesus. And he's writing to the church. He's writing primarily to the seven churches that we read about in the book of Revelation that he is an overseer over. And he is not focusing on the blow-by-blow account of the life of Jesus. He's left that to the other gospels that are possibly already in circulation at the time. But he has been inspired by the Holy Spirit to give the central message that Jesus preached, primarily in the final chapter of or final year rather of his life. And think about this. If your best friend were to give a message about you, what would they say? Well, Jesus' best friend says, I'm gonna tell you guys something. I walked with him for three years. He's God. And here's the thing you may have 99 problems, but Jesus ain't one of them. He is the king, he is God, and this is his message. And so what we're realizing is seven different times in the message that Jesus is sharing with us in the Gospel of John, it says there are seven signs to point to the divinity of Jesus and seven statements that he makes. He makes these I am statements to point to the fact that he is not just a healer, he is not just a messenger, he is God. And we're gonna get into that more today as he claims to be the Son of God. So if you got your NLT Bibles open with me, got your cup of coffee ready, I want you to send me a picture in our Facebook group of your favorite cup of coffee as well. Let's dive into this. We're gonna read this and then we're gonna break it down together, okay? Because the more we dig, the more we find. Here we go. John chapter 5, verse 1 says, Afterward, Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the sheepgate, at the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people, blind, lame, or paralyzed, lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, Would you like to get well? I can't, sir, the sick man said, for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always get there ahead of me. Jesus told him, Stand, pick up your mat, and walk. Instantly the man was healed. He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking. This miracle happened on the Sabbath. So the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, You can't work on the Sabbath. The law doesn't allow you to carry your mat. But he replied, Well, I mean, the man who healed me told me, pick up your mat and walk. Well, who said such a thing as that? They demanded. The man didn't know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and told him, Listen to this, now that you are well, stop sinning, or something else worse may happen to you. Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. You know, it's amazing to me. I'm gonna pause for a moment that the Jewish leaders couldn't see the forest for the trees. You ever heard that phrase before? It's like you get so focused on minute details that you lose the sight of what's going on. They were so focused on getting the letter of the law perfectly accurate that they missed that a miracle had happened. And isn't that true so many times in our life that we get so focused on a certain area of our life that we don't realize the good things that God is doing all around us? That's why it's so important for us to take a step back and have an attitude of gratitude in our life because many times there's more going on good in our life than bad. Now, that's not always the case. There are very difficult seasons we go through, but most of the time, the reason why we are struggling so bad is because we are hyper-focused on one area rather than stepping back a little bit to see that God is actually doing great things in other areas of our life. The other thing I love about this is that Jesus told him, now, Jesus is not saying the reason why he was sick was because he had sinned. He was saying, I need you to stop sinning. Like whatever it was going on in this guy's life, he wasn't perfect. I need you to stop sinning or something else bad is going to happen to you. And so what Jesus is not afraid to tell us is that I am willing to heal you, but you are only as free as you're willing to be. In other words, salvation is free. Freedom is an opportunity. If we are willing to remove all the things that break us, all of the poison that wants to destroy us, we need to get rid of all of that stuff so we can keep the freedom that Jesus has given us. So once again, this is not legalism. This is not saying we earn our salvation. Salvation is free. Freedom is an opportunity based on the way we follow after Jesus. And that's what Jesus is saying. You want to stay free? Do you want to stay, you know, like you are right now? Walk in freedom. Get rid of the sin, get rid of whatever broken places in your life so you can walk in freedom. All right. The next thing, Jesus is going to talk about how he claims to be the Son of God. So here we go, verse 16. So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. I mean, can you imagine? Can you imagine harassing Jesus? Well, it doesn't work out well for him. Here we go, verse 17. But Jesus replied, My father is always working, and so am I. So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God. So Jesus explained, I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father shows him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants. In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him. I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death to life. And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed, it is here now, when the dead will hear my voice, the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will live. The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his son. He has given him authority to judge everyone because he is the Son of Man. That's a an Old Testament uh phrase for the Messiah. Don't be surprised. Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead will, when all the dead will hear in their graves, will hear the voice of God's Son, and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment. I can do nothing of my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will. Now pause. Jesus just said a mouthful of theologically rich and deep topics. We could take every single verse and write a book on the theological complexity that is the Trinity and the tri-unity of God. It is this interesting transubstantiation, is the word, where you have God who is now housed in flesh. And so he is equally God and equally man. But then when you add to it that he is also co-equal, co-eternal, co-all-powerful with the Father, our brain starts to slowly fall apart because there really is not an adequate analogy. Like, you know, you ever heard the analogy of trying to understand the Trinity is like the sun? You have that big ball of light, you have the actual light you see, and you have the height, the heat that you experience. That's the Trinity. Well, I mean, yeah, but yet no, because there is this interesting dynamic where they are co-equal, co-eternal, all-powerful, yet they have given themselves, Father, Son, and Spirit, different jobs, different roles within this complete total unity. And that's what Jesus is trying to help us slowly grasp. I mean, imagine, imagine you were to take an ant, like a little insect, like a little ant, and try to teach it advanced calculus. It wouldn't communicate, right? Like there's so many barriers you wouldn't even try. That would be like God, or that is what it's like when God is trying to help us understand his divine nature. It's like trying to teach advanced calculus to an insect. There's so many barriers to get to that understanding. Why would you even try? Yet God, in his infinite wisdom, is trying to give us dignity by helping us understand the infinity, the impossible to understand. And so one of the things he's trying to do is he is trying to say, Jesus is God, the Father is also God, and in their perfect symmetry, in their perfect unity, they work together completely. So the Father is the creator of all, so is the Son. The Son has been given authority to judge all, just as the Father creates, the Son creates justice, the Spirit gives life, and my brain explodes. But that's what Jesus is saying is he is saying, Yes, I am God just like the Father, but the Father is not me, and I am not him. So if that didn't hurt your brain a little bit, you're not thinking about it. All right, let's move on. Verse 31. If I were to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid. But someone else is also testifying about me. I assure you that everything that he says about me is true. In fact, you sent investigators to listen to Johnny B. John the Baptist, and his testimony about me was true. Of course, I have no need of human witnesses, but I say these things so that you might be saved. John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message. But I have a greater witness than John, my teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they prove that he sent me. And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face, and you do not have his message in your hearts because you do not believe me, the one he sent to you. Now, what Jesus is going to say in the rest of it is why we read the Bible. Are you ready? Here we go. Why do we spend time going through this one chapter at a time? Here we go, verse 39. You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but the scriptures point to me. Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life. Your approval means nothing to me, because I know you don't have God's love within you. For I have come to you in my Father's name, and you have rejected me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them. No wonder you can't believe this, for you gladly honor each other, but you don't care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God. Yet it isn't I who accuse you before my father. Moses will accuse you. Yes, Moses in whom you put your hopes. For if you really believed Moses, you would believe in me because he wrote about me. But since you don't believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say? Jesus is just telling it like it is. I mean, he is just ripping these people up because they have a form of godliness, but have no idea who God is. And here's the the concern I have as a just a Christian, forget a pastor, just a Christian, is what Jesus is saying, and the rest of this is he is saying the reason why you read the Bible is because it shows me. It helps you get to know me. It points to God so that now we know. And I have this horrible feeling that that one day when all of this is over with and we stand before God, there's gonna be this moment of reckoning where God is going to say, Why didn't you get to know me? Why why did you not do this? Well, I mean, you know, I I did this and did that. No, no, no. But the Bible points to me. So why did you spend so little time in my word? That is how I've chosen to reveal myself. So this is this biding critique that Jesus gives that you claim you want to know me, but yet you don't try to get to know me. And so I don't want to be that person. I want to be someone who is just consistently going through the Bible one chapter at a time. Because once again, verse 39 says, You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. That is not what the scriptures do. The scriptures point to the one who does. So we we don't we don't worship the Bible, we worship the God of the Bible, and he has revealed himself through scripture, and so we honor the scripture because by knowing it, we know God better. And so here's the question I would have for you as we end. Jesus is revealing himself to us through his word. The overall message of the Gospel of John is Jesus' best friend saying, He is God. How can we learn about Jesus as God in this chapter? Well, to me it's very clear, and that is we learn his word. It's by learning his word that we learn that it points to him, and when we find him, we find life. Let me pray for us today. We we've been hearing a whole lot about Jesus. Let's talk to him, then let's read our scripture and we'll be done. Father, thank you so much that you give us the dignity and the honor of explaining the impossible. Lord, the the idea that you, Father, and you, Son, and you, Spirit are co-equal, co-eternal, same in your godness, yet separate in your personhood. Lord, it is so hard to understand, but I'm thankful for that because I don't want to serve a God that's as big as me. I don't want to serve a God that fits inside my head. I want a God that astonishes me and surprises me, makes me feel like an idiot because I don't understand. Thank you for being bigger than my ability to comprehend, because it is my joy to investigate and discover you more every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Don't forget that John 20 says, These things were written, that you may continue to believe that Jesus is God, and that by believing in him, we will have life by the power of his name. I hope you're experiencing that power and that life every day because the more we dig, the more we find. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for John chapter six.