John 5:1-18—Jesus Claims Equality with God + PDF Teacher's Notes

Why did John record this healing of the lame man? What point did he want to make to the unbelieving Jews who originally read this?

A key question of John's Gospel concerns who the true identity of Jesus. This healing showed Jesus authority over the Sabbath and His relation to the Father: that of equality. Jesus is God in human form.

Synthesis: What did He want from his original Jewish readers? He wanted them to believe. Jesus recorded this incident with the leaders because it shows their growing and irrational opposition to Jesus. John does not want his readers to make the same mistake.

Lord, Liar or Lunatic? It has often been pointed out that Jesus is either

1. who He claimed to be (God), or
2. he was crazy, or
3. He was an evil liar intent on misleading people for his own nefarious purposes.

Application: Christ's amazing claims to be God demand that we honor Him as God and submit to Him as Lord.

NIV John 8:24 . . . if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.