2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES
Wednesday in the Word
Second Baptist Church
July 23, 2025
John 5:10-30
Verses 10-11. Picking up with the invalid man who was healed by Jesus on the Sabbath, we see that the Jewish leaders told the healed man that he could not carry his mat on the Sabbath day. If you recall verse 9, Jesus not only restored the invalid’s man ability to walk, but Jesus specifically told the man to pick up his mat and walk with it. Jesus intentionally told the man to carry his mat knowing it would cause the outwardly spiritual leaders to correct the man for carrying his mat. The ancient Jews expanded the commandment to rest on the Sabbath day to include things like carrying a mat. Their expansion of the rule was not inspired by the holy spirit. Jesus sought to expose the hypocrisy of those extra rules and the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. When the religious leaders tell the man that he was breaking the rules of the Sabbath, he responded by stating the man who healed me told me to pick up the mat. The religious leaders should have leaped for joy about the man’s healing, but instead their hard hearts focused on the least important thing. They only focused on a small man-made commandment over the miracle working of the Lord.
Verses 12-13. Instead of joy, these religious rulers wanted to know, not the man who healed him, but the man who told him he could carry his mat. Their focus was on supposed rule breaking verses someone’s deliverance. The man who was healed didn’t even get Jesus’ name. Jesus had slipped away before he could find out who he was. And apparently the man didn’t try very hard to find out either.
Verses 14-15. The text says that later Jesus finds the healed man in the Temple doing something he should not have been doing. Jesus rebukes the healed man for his activities letting him know that something worse might happen to him if he doesn’t stop sinning. Often, we run back to sin when the Lord has moved mightily in our lives. The man left Jesus angry about being rebuked and informed the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who healed him. How ungrateful this man was. He knew that by telling the Jewish leaders it was Jesus that they would make trouble for Jesus.
Verses 16-18. Jesus will begin to confront the Jewish leaders with his divinity. In these next few verses Jesus will make the bold claim that He and the Father are one. The text says that the Jewish leaders intensified their persecution of Jesus because he was doing things on the Sabbath. Jesus responded that because his Father is always at work, so is he. Jesus is implying that he is divine in nature being equal with the Father. Jesus was basically saying he was the Messiah. Jesus’s claims in this verse were considered blasphemy. At this point the Jews want Jesus dead. Breaking the sabbath was one thing, claiming equality with God by saying you are the son of God was too much.
Verses 19-23. Jesus makes several claims of equality with God. 1. He states that he is the Son and the Son only does what the Father is doing. The Son only does what the Father does. 2. Jesus states that he as the Son is shown all that God the Father desires and he does the will of the Father who sent him. Jesus even adds that the Son will do even greater things that the Father has for him to do. 3. The Son can give life just as the Father can give life. 4. The Father has given all the power to judge to the Son, and since the Son has all power to judge, the Son must be honored like the Father. Jesus is stating that there is no space between the Father and the son. Jesus will later say in John 10:30 that he and the Father are one. Jesus and the Father as one is not really a concept we can fathom in the flesh, but Jesus is talking about spiritual things.
Verses 24-27. Jesus doubles down on his claim of divinity by stating that even his words have the power of life and death. Jesus states that whoever believes his words has eternal life and will not be judged because they have gained eternal life. Jesus even shares that the dead will come back to life when they hear his voice. Probably a foreshadowing of Lazurus being raised from the dead. Jesus states that as the Father has life in him, he too as the Son has life in him. Life to give to whomever he chooses. Jesus states that he has been given authority to judge who gets eternal life. Saying he has this authority and divinity caused the Jewish leaders to flip out. He was basically saying he has divine authority over them.
Verses 28-30. Jesus tells the crowd that a time will come when all who are in their graves will hear the clarion call from the Lord to rise up from their graves. Jesus shares that some will rise to life and some will rise to judgment. Jesus states that he can only do what the one who sent him wants him to do. He is simply doing what pleases the Father.
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