John chapter 5

vs 25

Jesus may or may not be talking about physically dead people, but certainly the spiritually dead hear him and are given life.

vs 26

So it's not just that Jesus is alive, but that he has life in himself, in the same way that God has life, and was able to impart that life onto his creation.

vs 27

There is obviously a great deal of importance in this title which Jesus chooses for himself. It is by this title that Jesus judges. Perhaps Jesus judges because as a man he knows what we've been through. We usually think of him as a great intercessor for that, but perhaps it makes him a good judge too.

vs 28-29

This is very true of people who will actually be dead. But again it could be taken figuratively. Notice that Jesus uses a picture of complete resurrection, not just of the good guys. Perhps the bad guys would wish they stayed dead.

vs 30

God tells Jesus how to judge? Pretty incredible. And one of the reasons that Jesus is an impartial judge is because he serves God. So when he is judging the people he is talking to (who will kill him later) he is actually telling them that he will judge even them impartially.

vs 31

Remember, you need the testimony of two or three witnesses.

vs 32

Who is Jesus talking about? The next few verses tells us. It's not actually John the baptist - Jesus says he doesn't accept human testimony. God testifies for Christ.

vs 33

John TB does too, and they obviously respect John TB, because they sent people to him to ask about Jesus, and his answer was correct. So now, do they throw away the testimony of the person they respect?

vs 34

John TB is just another witness to these people, in the hope that they might accept and be saved. Because it is hard to accept the somewhat nebulous testimony of God (if you weren't there to hear it, anyway), but you can hear people talk just fine.

vs 35

If they listened to him before, if they even thought he was the Christ, then why do they not listen to who he said he is (the person who would identify the Christ) and accept Jesus is the Christ?

vs 36

If they look at the work of Jesus, they will see who he is. I mean, he healed a guy who had been sick for years and years. Do they think "Is this the Christ?" or only "He did it on WHAT day?" Funny how sometimes we can ignore the big picture to pick on a little nonsense thing.