John 5

Along with WSC, I taught John 5 to our "teen" Sunday School.  At first I was going to try to compare how Jesus interacts with the sick man to how he interacts to the Pharisees.  I start to realize, none of them deserve Jesus.

He asks the man at Bethesda if he wants to get well.  The teens rightly reasoned that some folks enjoy being disabled so that they don't have to work.  Jesus must have known this was that kind of guy. 

He then tells him, "Get up, pick up your mat and walk."  Despite who he is, Jesus heals the man.

The Jesus tells him, "See, you are well again.  Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."  Immediately the man goes and rats out that Jesus healed him on the Sabbath.  But Jesus did heal this scoundrel, and he used that as an opportunity to include some good Calvinistic theology in this Gospel.

Verse 17: My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.
That was a notable verse to me.  It shows how God never stops in working for our salvation.

Verse 21: For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
Jesus heals who he wants to heal.  It has nothing to do with your choice or mine.  God unconditionally elects his sheep.

Verse 24: I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he as crossed over from death to life. 
Those who hear Christ's word and believe have already crossed from death to life when they believed.  This resurrection happened first.

Verse 28: Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out.
They would not be able to hear unless he first called them.

43: I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you accept him.
Showing that they never knew the Father.  Despite John the Baptist's testimony and the testimony of the Scriptures, they do not accept Jesus, but the other Pharisees show up with no credentials and they just listen to them and their man-made rules.