1 After that, Jesus went south from Galilee country to Jerusalem city for another Jewish ceremony.

2 There was a gate into the city called the Sheep Gate, and there was a pool of water near that gate. The name of the pool was Bethesda. It had 5 shade shelters around it, 3 and a lot of sick people lay there. Some of those people were blind, and some of them were crippled, and some couldn’t move at all.

4 You see, those sick people wanted to get better, and they believed that sometimes one of God’s angel messengers came down and stirred the water in that pool. And they believed that after that, the first person to get into the water got better from any sickness they had.

5 Jesus came to that pool, and there was a man lying there that couldn’t walk. He was crippled like that for 38 years. 6 Jesus saw the man lying there, and he knew that the man was crippled for a very long time. So Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get better?”

7 The man said, “Yes, sir, I do, but I haven’t got a friend to help me get into the water after it moves. Somebody else always gets in first.”

8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your swag, and walk.” 9 Straight away, the man was better. He got up, picked up his swag, and started walking around.

This happened on the Jewish rest day. 10 So the Jewish leaders said to the man that got better, “Hey, you can’t carry your swag on our rest day. You are breaking the law.”* Nehemiah 13:19; Jeremiah 17:21

11 The man said, “But the man that made me better told me to. He said, ‘Pick up your swag, and walk.’ So I did.”

12 The Jewish leaders asked him, “Who is this man that said, ‘Pick up your swag, and walk?’ ” 13 But the man didn’t know who made him better. There were a lot of people in that place, and Jesus had already left.

14 Later on, Jesus found the man at God’s ceremony house, and he said to him, “Look, you are better now. So stop doing things that God says are wrong, or something worse might happen to you.”

15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus that made him better. 16 The leaders were angry with Jesus for making people better on the Jewish rest day, so they started to make trouble for him.

17 Jesus said to them, “God, my father, is always working, and I am always working too.”

18 That made the Jewish leaders more angry, and they tried to find a way to kill him. They said to themselves, “This man breaks God’s law and works on our rest day. And he calls God his father too. That means he is saying that he is the same as God. He has to die.”

19 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said to them, “Listen, I am telling you straight, God is my father, and I am his son. I can only do what my father does. I can’t do anything on my own. I do the same things that I see my father do. Whatever he does, I do the same. 20 Listen, my father loves me. I am his son, and he shows me everything that he is doing. And my father will show me even more powerful things to do. You will see them, and you will be surprised. 21 You see, my father can make dead people alive again. And I am like my father, I can give life to anyone I want to.

22 My father does not judge anyone. I am his son, and he told me to be the judge of everyone. 23 My father did that so that everyone will respect me, just like they respect him. If you don’t respect me, you are not respecting my father. He is the one that sent me to you.

24 Listen, I am telling you straight, God is the one that sent me. If anyone listens to what I say and trusts God, they will live with him for ever. He will say they are not guilty, and he will not punish them. You see, they were going to die, and they were going to stay dead for ever. But now it is different for them. They will live with God for ever.

25 Listen, there are people that are spiritually dead, but I am God’s son, and I am telling you straight, a time is coming when they will hear my voice, and if they listen to me, they will come alive spiritually. And that time is happening now. 26 You see, my father has the power to make people come alive. And he has given that same power to me.

27 I am God’s special man from heaven, and God told me to be the judge. 28 Why are you shocked? A time is coming when all the dead people will hear my voice. 29 They will hear me, then they will come alive again. The people that have done good things and lived the way God wants them to, those people will live with him for ever. But God will punish the other people, the people that went against him and did bad things.* Daniel 12:2

30 You see, I can’t do anything on my own. My father sent me to the world, and he tells me the way to judge. I only want to judge the way he wants me to, not my own way. And his way is the right way, so I only judge the right way.

31 Think about this. If I am the only one that tells you who I am, you don’t have to believe me. 32 But there is somebody else that talks about me. He is God, and I know that the things he says about me are true.

33 Remember that you sent some men to ask John about me. Well, everything that he told them was true.* John 1:19-27; 3:27-30 34 I don’t really need a human being to talk about me. But I’m telling you that the things John said about me are true. You see, I want you to believe them. Then God will save you.

35 John told you about me. He was like a bright light shining in the darkness, and for a while, you were happy with the things he said.

36 You see, John told you that God sent me, but the things that I do show even more clearly that God sent me. And I have to finish the job he sent me to do.

37 Yes, God is my father, and he sent me. And he told people about me. But you have never seen him or heard his voice.* Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22 38 You see, God sent me to you, but you don’t believe me. This shows that you don’t really want to hear God’s message.

39 I know that you read God’s book all the time, and you think that if you do that you will find out how to live with God for ever. I want you to know that those words in God’s book, they tell you all about me. 40 And if people come to me, then they can live with God for ever. But you don’t want to come to me.

41 I don’t need people to say good things about me. 42 But, I know all about you. I know that you don’t really love God. 43 My father sent me to tell you his words, but you do not listen to me. But whenever other people come and tell you their own words, you always listen to them. 44 And you like other people saying good things about you, but you don’t try to live God’s way so that he will say good things about you. He is the only God, but you just care what people think about you, not what God thinks about you. That is the reason why you don’t believe in me.

45 I will not stand in front of God and tell him about the wrong things you did. Moses will do that. You hope Moses will say, ‘You followed the law that God told me to write, so you will be all right.’ But he will not say that. 46 You see, Moses wrote about me. So if you really believe the things that Moses wrote, you will believe in me. 47 But no, you don’t really believe the things that Moses wrote, so you don’t believe what I say.”