Book of Common Prayer

¹⁹ So, my brothers, we can go into the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus.

²⁰ He made a new and living way for us. He opened up God's way specially for us. It lets us through the big curtain or cloth which hides God from us. This happened when Jesus gave his body as a sacrifice.

²¹ Also, we have a high priest who has charge of God's people.

²² So let us come to him with a true heart. Let us come because we believe all these things. Let us come with our hearts washed clean from our wrong ways. Let us come with our bodies washed with clean water.

²³ We must hold on to God's promise that we have said we believed. And we must never let go. He has promised and he will do it.

²⁴ Let us think of one another and help one another to love and to do good things.

²⁵ Do not stop going to church meetings. Some people do stop. But help each other to be strong. You must do it all the more as you see the Great Day coming closer.

²⁶ Do we go on doing what is wrong after we know the truth? If we do, then there is no sacrifice any more for the wrong things we do.

²⁷ But we will be judged, and that makes us fear. God's anger will be like a very hot fire that will burn up those who are against him.

²⁸ Any man who broke the law of Moses was killed, if two or three people proved that he had broken the law. He will not be forgiven.

²⁹ But the person who should have much bigger punishment is the one who turns against the Son of God. That person was made holy by the blood of the new agreement and then calls it nothing. He no longer honours and respects the Spirit who has been so kind to him.

³⁰ We know God who has said, `I am the one who will punish people. I will repay them.' Also, `The Lord will judge his people.'

³¹ People should fear very much to be punished by the living God.

² In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there is a wide water hole. The Jews called this water hole Bethesda. It had five places with roofs for people to stand under.

³ Many sick people were lying on these places. Some of them were blind. Some were lame. Some were very thin and stiff so that they could not move by themselves. All of them were waiting for the water to move.

⁴ An angel came down into the water at a certain time and made it move. The first person who stepped into the water when it moved was healed of any sickness that he had.

⁵ A man was there who had been sick for thirty eight years.

⁶ Jesus saw the man lying there. He knew that he had been sick for a long time. He said to him, `Do you want to be healed?'

⁷ The sick man said to him, `Sir, I have no man to put me into the water when it moves. While I am trying to get in, some other person comes and gets in before me.'

⁸ Jesus said, `Get up. Take up your bed and walk!'

⁹ The man was healed right away. He took up his bed and walked. This happened on the Sabbath day.

¹⁰ So the leaders of the Jews talked to the man who was healed. They said, `It is the Sabbath day. It is not right for you to carry your bed.'

¹¹ But he answered them, `The man who healed me said to me, "Take up your bed and walk." '

¹² They asked him, `Who is the man who told you to take up your bed and walk?'

¹³ The man who was healed said, `I do not know who he is.' Many people were at the place and Jesus had gone away.

¹⁴ After that, Jesus saw the man in the temple. He said to him, `See, you are healed. Do no more wrong things. If you do, something worse may happen to you.'

¹⁵ The man went away and told the leaders of the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

¹⁶ The Jewish leaders made trouble for Jesus because he did this on the Sabbath day.

¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, `My Father is still working and I am working also.'

¹⁸ This was why the leaders of the Jews tried much more to kill Jesus. He had broken the law of the Sabbath day. And also he called God his Father. In that way, he was making himself equal with God.