After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem.

  Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic
called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a
multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there
who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him
lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he
said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him,
“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is
stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at
once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

  Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had
been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to
take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me,
that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked him,
“Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now
the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had
withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found
him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more,
that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told
the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the
Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on
the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until
now, and I am working.”

  This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him,
because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even
calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

  So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can
do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father
doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is
doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you
may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life,
so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges
no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor
the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the
Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to
you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal
life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to
life.

  “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here,
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who
hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has
granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him
authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not
marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs
will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the
resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the
resurrection of judgment.

  “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment
is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who
sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not
true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that
the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and
he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I
receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be
saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to
rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is
greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given
me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness
about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me
has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard,
his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding
in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search
the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal
life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to
come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from
people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If
another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you
believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek
the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will
accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on
whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would
believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his
writings, how will you believe my words?”

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001
by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.