The greater works of Jesus

John 5

The place of work

What is the place that work has in your life?

• A means to an end

Perhaps for you your work is something that is a means to an end. You get paid to what you do, and it merely provides you with what you need to put a roof over your head and food on the table. Work is just about surviving.

• An end in itself

Perhaps for you work is something you enjoy and feel passionate about. You are doing what you always wanted to do, and you find a great deal of meaning and purpose in doing what you do. It’s more than just surviving but it is about thriving.

• Come to an end

Perhaps, for some of you, work, at least paid work, has come to an end. You have retired and are no longer getting paid to work. Of course that doesn’t mean you don’t work. Whether we are getting paid to do something or not we all work in some way. If we are getting a job done or completing a task whether it is mowing the lawn, doing the gardening or washing the dishes or the floors or doing the shopping or putting out the garbage we are working.

• For Jesus it was to do the will of the one who sent him and to finish His work

Today we begin a series of Bible talks that will take us from chapter 5 to 12 of the gospel of John over the next couple of months. In these chapters we see Jesus doing the work of the one who sent him and how different people will respond to the work that he was doing both in Jerusalem and Judea and in Galilee.

In chapter 4 the Lord Jesus explained to his disciples that his food was to do the will of the One who had sent him and to complete or finish the work that God, the Father, had given him to do. He talked about that work and likened it to sowing and reaping a harvest, a crop for eternal life. At that time, he was working among the Samaritans and hearing him, they believed him and concluded that Jesus really is the Saviour of the world (see John 4:34-42). But, in chapter 5 today we will see that the Jewish leaders quickly became unhappy with the work that Jesus was doing among them and we are going to see why they wouldn’t believe in him.

Working on the Sabbath

The story moves from Galilee at the end of chapter 4 to Jerusalem in chapter 5. We are told that Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals (v1). We don’t know what festival Jesus was there for and that must mean that, in this case unlike at other times, knowing this isn’t an important detail in the story. What is important is what happened at the Pool of Bethesda that was located near the Sheep gate and that it happened on the Sabbath.

The pool of Bethesda

The pool of Bethesda is today several feet under the north-eastern part of the Old City. Excavations over the last century or more have revealed that there were two pools near what is referred to in the book of Nehemiah as the Sheep Gate (Neh 3:1; 3:32; 12:39).  Excavations uncovering five colonnades around these pools would almost certainly indicate that one of these twin pools was the one that John is referring to in his account.

• People believed that they would be healed with the stirring of the water.

At one of these pools people who were sick or disabled would lie waiting for the water to be stirred obviously believing that they would be healed. Some Greek manuscripts have an explanation for why they thought this would take place, but the oldest Greek manuscripts don’t and that’s why our NIV doesn’t have any explanation[1].

• It was “first in best dressed”

But whatever the reason for believing that they would be healed with the stirring of the waters what they also believed was that it was “first in best dressed”. For when Jesus asked an invalid who had been lying there for 38 years whether he wanted to be healed the man replied that he had no one to help him into the pool when the water stirred and that while he was trying to get in someone else went in ahead of him.

• The Lord Jesus approached the man.

What is interesting in the story is it was Jesus who approached this man on the Sabbath and not the other way around as in so many of the other healing miracles. At the time of the healing and even immediately after, the man didn’t even know who it was that he had been talking with. The Lord Jesus seems to have picked this man out from all the others when he learned that he had been there for 38 years.

• The Lord gave the command and he was healed

The Lord healed this man by just commanding the man to get up and pick up his mat and walk. The man was cured instantly. His legs were immediately strengthened. The withered muscles would have been renewed and he picked up his mat and walked. For those with eyes to see the Jesus was revealing something of who he was, his glory and his power to heal and restore the man.

The dispute

But the healing led to a dispute between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. When the Jewish leaders saw the man walking around with his mat on the Sabbath, they told him that he was breaking the Law because the Law forbade him from carry his mat on the Sabbath.

The Scriptures did forbid the carry of a load through the gates of Jerusalem or out of your house or to do any work on the Sabbath (see Jeremiah 17:21-22). But the loads that the Scriptures largely had in mind were those that had to do with “one’s customary employment”[2].

• Jewish teachers had extended the prohibitions about work

The Sabbath was about resting from your labour or work that you did on the other six days a week perhaps as a farmer or a carpenter or butcher or blacksmith. But what had happened is that by NT times, Jewish scholars/rabbis had developed an oral tradition (see Matthew 15:1-9) that had extended the prohibition to include all kinds of things that they regarded as work.

By the time the oral tradition had been finally codified and written down by the end of the second century AD or early third they had included 39 types of classes of work[3]. This included things like the tying or a loosening of a knot[4], sowing more than one stitch, writing more than one letter, making two loops and the carrying of anything from one place to another except on compassionate grounds.[5]

• The Jewish leaders seemed more concerned about their traditions than what God was revealing.

So instead of wanting to know who had performed this amazing miracle the Jewish leaders were more interested in knowing who had told the man to take up his mat and break the Sabbath. They were more concerned that the man wasn’t following their traditions than they were for what God was revealing to them through the healing.

At first the man didn’t know who had healed him, but after Jesus found the man, and warned him to stop sinning, he went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. When the Jewish leaders found out that it had been Jesus they responded by beginning to persecute him.

John 5:15-16

The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. ¹⁶ So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him[6].

Jesus’ defence of his work

From verse 17 the Lord Jesus defends the work that he was doing on the Sabbath. First, he argued that, like God, his Father he was working doing his Father’s work (17-20) and secondly, His Father had an even greater works than these for him to do (20-30).

He was doing his Father’s work

The Lord Jesus first made it clear that like God, whose work continues in this world and doesn’t stop, even on the Sabbath, Jesus is working, getting on with his Father’s work.

John 5:17 -18

In his defence Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

This is the first instance in the gospel where we are told that that that the Jewish leaders were looking for ways to kill Jesus[7]. Their opposition was not just because he was working on the Sabbath but because it was clear to them from what he was doing and saying that he was calling God his own Father and that he was making himself equal with God.

And the Lord Jesus didn’t deny this, instead, he went on to continue his defence explaining that he is in perfect communion with the Father only doing what the Father shows him to do. What the Father does, he does. He isn’t independent of the Father. He wasn’t acting alone. Doing the things that he was doing on the Sabbath, wasn’t Jesus going rogue. He and the Father work in perfect unison together with one another, the Son doing only that which he sees his Father doing.

John 5:19-20

19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.

The work that Jesus was doing was His Father’s work. He was doing the will of the one who sent him as he told the disciples back in chapter 4. He had come to finish the work that his Father had sent him to do. And the Lord Jesus went on to explain that the Father would show him even greater works than these for him to do.

He would do even greater works

It was if Jesus was telling them, “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. You think these things are amazing, just wait you will be even more amazed with what is to come. What they had seen him doing up to that point, was just a small taste of what was to come. It was like seeing the movie trailer of a movie before it comes out. It hopeful gives you enough of the movie to make you want to go and see the whole thing.

John 5:20b

Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.

The greater works that the Son has been given to do are: (1) He is the giver of life. (2) He is the judge of this world.

(1) Jesus is the giver of life

The Son is the one who gives life in a world where death comes to all.

John 5:21

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.

• Death comes to all

In life, we ignore the reality of death as much as possible but eventually all of us will face it before too long. It might be through the untimely death of loved one or a friend that turns our life upside down or for some of us it is more gradual process of just saying goodbye to those who have gone before us (our grandparents and then our parents) that reminds us that life is short and that in this world every beginning inevitably has an end.

• The Son gives life to whoever he is pleased to give it

But Jesus said that just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whoever he is pleased to give it. Because as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself (v26). He not only restores people limbs and makes them walk again, but the truly amazing things is that he can also give us back our lives and make us live again.

In verse 25 Jesus says that the time is coming where the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear it will live.  In verse 28 he tells them that the time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out.

The voice of the Lord Jesus will go out and all the graves that you see as you drive past at the Northern suburb’s cemetery will all break open, and the dead will rise for the day of judgment will have come. Billions upon billions of people will be bodily resurrected and verse 29 makes it clear that some will rise to have eternal life, and others who have done evil will rise to be eternally condemned.

(2) Jesus is the judge of the world

And it will be Jesus Christ who on that day will be their judge. He is not only the Saviour of the world, but also the judge of the world. He is the judge of all who have ever lived or all who ever will live and are yet to live. The Father has entrusted all authority and judgment to the Son so that the Son might be honoured by all in the same way that they honour the Father.

John 5:22-23

22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him.

The test of whether a person is right with God is how they related to His Son who he has sent into the world to be both be its Saviour (the giver of life) and ultimately its judge.

• We need to cross over from death to life before that day

But to ready for that day when we will stand before the Lord Jesus as the judge of the world, we need to have already crossed over from death to life. And the only way that happens is through hearing the word of Jesus and believing God, the Father who sent him to be their Saviour.

John 5:24

‘Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

Jesus underlines the importance of what he says here using a solemn formula: “Very truly I tell you”.  What is emphasizing is that we need to believe. It’s those who hear the word of Jesus and believe in him who sent Jesus into the world so that we might live who will not be condemned for they have already crossed over from death to life. On the day of judgment, you will know them by their fruit that believing has produced in their lives. But it is the one who believes has eternal life and will not be judged.

We aren’t like those who have no hope when our turn comes and we are the one who is at the head of the line looking death in the eyes. The Lord Jesus reassured Martha about her brother who died that he would rise again. He said to her …

John 11:25-26

‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?’

This is what we believe.  We aren’t like those who don’t know what will happen to them on the Day of Judgment because we already have crossed over from death to life. And Jesus has gone before us rising from the dead.

The Father’s testimony

But if we are going to be ready for that day, we must believe the one who sent Jesus. We must believe what God has said about his son. In verses 31 to 47 the Lord Jesus talks about His Father’s testimony and why some don’t believe it. He says that he doesn’t rely on his own testimony or even that of John the Baptist but his Father’s.

John 5:36-40

36 ‘I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

• A much weightier testimony

Jesus says that John bore testimony to him and but the testimony that we need to listen to is much weightier than John’s. Jesus mentions John for it at least for a time the Jews chose to enjoy his light.  But ultimately, they ought to listen to Jesus for God the Father bears witness to his son. He does this in two ways. Firstly, his testimony is heard through the works themselves and secondly through the Scriptures that they diligently studied. Jesus said that they had searched the Scriptures because they thought that in them was eternal life. But the reality was these Scriptures testified concerning Jesus. They all pointed to the one who is life. Yet they still had refused to come to him to have life.

• There are no excuses for ignoring it

They had no excuse for this. In verses 41 to 44 Jesus says that they were like this for they didn’t seek the glory from God, but their own. What they loved was to accept glory from one another. Here Jesus has diagnosed the problems with those who were having trouble believing in him. His work gave no room for them to glory in themselves for it glorified God, not them. In the last few verses Jesus says to them on judgment day it will Moses who will condemn them. They loved searching the Scriptures, but they did not believe in Jesus, the one Moses wrote about.

Hearing and believing

Ultimately all of us must give up on getting ourselves into the pool. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves better – to deal with sin and escape the coming judgment. The biggest problem with the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem was they could not or would not recognise that were just like the man on the mat.

• We can’t save ourselves

The reality was that they could not do anything to make themselves better. We can’t save ourselves. It didn’t matter how much they searched the Scriptures to find eternal life. It wasn’t a matter of keeping their traditions and keeping the law. They needed to come to the one the Scriptures spoke about and put their trust in him. They need to turn for Jesus for life. The Lord Jesus would finish the work that his Father had sent him to do. On the cross he would cry out, “It is finished” and he would breathe his last and bring forgiveness of sin and life to all who believe.

• We must hear and believe him

All of us must stop putting our hope in ourselves. It won’t be the one who has tried to keep all the rules who will not be condemned. It isn’t even the one who has diligently searched and studied the Scriptures who will find eternal life. It will be those who have heard Jesus and believed him.

We must hear his voice today and believe. We must believe his Word. He the one who is both the Saviour of the world, the giver of life, and its judge, the one that one day we will stand before. He is the resurrection and the life, but the question is, ‘Do believe this?’

• People need to hear His Word

And, If we believe that Jesus really is the Saviour of the world then as Jesus told his disciples back in chapter 4 we need to open our eyes and look to the field because they are ripe for harvest (4:35). He sends people like us out into the harvest to reap what they have not sown. People need to hear his word. Our life’s work is to be getting on with his work. We are his workers caught up in his great work. We need to be telling the people around us of the one who is the resurrection and the life.

[1] The KJV does but that’s because at the time the translators didn’t have access to the older and more reliable Greek manuscripts that have turned up since the KJV was produced in 1611.

[2] D.A. Carson, “The Gospel according to John” page 244.

[3] The oral tradition which had been verbally repeated from teacher to pupil for many generations begun to be written down in AD 120 and was complete by AD 200 or AD 220 (see the article on the

‘Mishna” in Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible for more detail).

[4]  Colin G. Kruse, “John Revised Edition”, IVP New Testament Commentary; page 208.

[5]  Carson, page 244 and Kruse page 209.

[6]  Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture citations are taken from The Holy Bible: New International Version (Anglicised Edition, 2011) (Revised and updated edition). (2011). Hodder & Stoughton.

[7] See also 7:1; 8:37, 40; 11:8, 53; 12:10)