John 5-6 (Contemporary English Version)

John 5

Jesus Heals a Sick Man

 ¹Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for another Jewish festival. ^{[a] 2}In the city near the sheep gate was a pool with five porches, and its name in Hebrew was Bethzatha. ^{[b] 3-4}Many sick, blind, lame, and crippled people were lying close to the pool. ^{[c] 5}Beside the pool was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw the man and realized that he had been crippled for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to be healed?"

    ⁷The man answered, "Lord, I don't have anyone to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. I try to get in, but someone else always gets there first."

    ⁸Jesus told him, "Pick up your mat and walk!" ⁹Right then the man was healed. He picked up his mat and started walking around. The day on which this happened was a Sabbath.

    ¹⁰When the Jewish leaders saw the man carrying his mat, they said to him, "This is the Sabbath! No one is allowed to carry a mat on the Sabbath."

    ¹¹But he replied, "The man who healed me told me to pick up my mat and walk."

    ¹²They asked him, "Who is this man that told you to pick up your mat and walk?" ¹³But he did not know who Jesus was, and Jesus had left because of the crowd.

    ¹⁴Later, Jesus met the man in the temple and told him, "You are now well. But don't sin anymore or something worse might happen to you." ¹⁵The man left and told the leaders that Jesus was the one who had healed him. ¹⁶They started making a lot of trouble for Jesus because he did things like this on the Sabbath.

    ¹⁷But Jesus said, "My Father has never stopped working, and that is why I keep on working." ¹⁸Now the leaders wanted to kill Jesus for two reasons. First, he had broken the law of the Sabbath. But even worse, he had said that God was his Father, which made him equal with God.

   

The Son's Authority

 ¹⁹Jesus told the people:

   I tell you for certain that the Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing, and he does exactly what he sees the Father do. ²⁰The Father loves the Son and has shown him everything he does. The Father will show him even greater things, and you will be amazed. ²¹Just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants to.

    ²²The Father doesn't judge anyone, but he has made his Son the judge of everyone. ²³The Father wants all people to honor the Son as much as they honor him. When anyone refuses to honor the Son, that is the same as refusing to honor the Father who sent him. ²⁴I tell you for certain that everyone who hears my message and has faith in the one who sent me has eternal life and will never be condemned. They have already gone from death to life.

    ²⁵I tell you for certain that the time will come, and it is already here, when all of the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen to it will live! ²⁶The Father has the power to give life, and he has given that same power to the Son. ²⁷And he has given his Son the right to judge everyone, because he is the Son of Man.

    ²⁸Don't be surprised! The time will come when all of the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man, ²⁹and they will come out of their graves. Everyone who has done good things will rise to life, but everyone who has done evil things will rise and be condemned.

    ³⁰I cannot do anything on my own. The Father sent me, and he is the one who told me how to judge. I judge with fairness, because I obey him, and I don't just try to please myself.

   

Witnesses to Jesus

 ³¹If I speak for myself, there is no way to prove I am telling the truth. ³²But there is someone else who speaks for me, and I know what he says is true. ³³You sent messengers to John, and he told them the truth. ³⁴I don't depend on what people say about me, but I tell you these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵John was a lamp that gave a lot of light, and you were glad to enjoy his light for a while.

    ³⁶But something more important than John speaks for me. I mean the things that the Father has given me to do! All of these speak for me and prove that the Father sent me.

    ³⁷The Father who sent me also speaks for me, but you have never heard his voice or seen him face to face. ³⁸You have not believed his message, because you refused to have faith in the one he sent.

    ³⁹You search the Scriptures, because you think you will find eternal life in them. The Scriptures tell about me, ⁴⁰but you refuse to come to me for eternal life.

    ⁴¹I don't care about human praise, ⁴²but I do know that none of you love God. ⁴³I have come with my Father's authority, and you have not welcomed me. But you will welcome people who come on their own. ⁴⁴How could you possibly believe? You like to have your friends praise you, and you don't care about praise that the only God can give!

    ⁴⁵Don't think that I will be the one to accuse you to the Father. You have put your hope in Moses, yet he is the very one who will accuse you. ⁴⁶Moses wrote about me, and if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me. ⁴⁷But if you don't believe what Moses wrote, how can you believe what I say?

   

John 6

Feeding Five Thousand

(Matthew 14.13-21; Mark 6.30-44; Luke 9.10-17)

 ¹Jesus crossed Lake Galilee, which was also known as Lake Tiberias. ²A large crowd had seen him work miracles to heal the sick, and those people went with him. ^3-4It was almost time for the Jewish festival of Passover, and Jesus went up on a mountain with his disciples and sat down. ^{[d] 5}When Jesus saw the large crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, "Where will we get enough food to feed all these people?" ⁶He said this to test Philip, since he already knew what he was going to do.

    ⁷Philip answered, "Don't you know that it would take almost a year's wages ^[e] just to buy only a little bread for each of these people?" ⁸Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the disciples. He spoke up and said, ⁹"There is a boy here who has five small loaves ^[f] of barley bread and two fish. But what good is that with all these people?" ¹⁰The ground was covered with grass, and Jesus told his disciples to have everyone sit down. About five thousand men were in the crowd. ¹¹Jesus took the bread in his hands and gave thanks to God. Then he passed the bread to the people, and he did the same with the fish, until everyone had plenty to eat.

    ¹²The people ate all they wanted, and Jesus told his disciples to gather up the leftovers, so that nothing would be wasted. ¹³The disciples gathered them up and filled twelve large baskets with what was left over from the five barley loaves.

    ¹⁴After the people had seen Jesus work this miracle, ^[g] they began saying, "This must be the Prophet ^[h] who is to come into the world!" ¹⁵Jesus realized that they would try to force him to be their king. So he went up on a mountain, where he could be alone.

Jesus Walks on the Water

(Matthew 14.22-27; Mark 6.45-52)

 ¹⁶That evening, Jesus' disciples went down to the lake. ¹⁷They got into a boat and started across for Capernaum. Later that evening Jesus had still not come to them, ¹⁸and a strong wind was making the water rough.

    ¹⁹When the disciples had rowed for three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the water. He kept coming closer to the boat, and they were terrified. ²⁰But he said, "I am Jesus! ^[i] Don't be afraid!" ²¹The disciples wanted to take him into the boat, but suddenly the boat reached the shore where they were headed.

The Bread That Gives Life

 ²²The people who had stayed on the east side of the lake knew that only one boat had been there. They also knew that Jesus had not left in it with his disciples. But the next day ²³some boats from Tiberias sailed near the place where the crowd had eaten the bread for which the Lord had given thanks. ²⁴They saw that Jesus and his disciples had left. Then they got into the boats and went to Capernaum to look for Jesus. ²⁵They found him on the west side of the lake and asked, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

    ²⁶Jesus answered, "I tell you for certain that you are not looking for me because you saw the miracles, ^[j] but because you ate all the food you wanted. ²⁷Don't work for food that spoils. Work for food that gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food, because God the Father has given him the right to do so." ²⁸"What exactly does God want us to do?" the people asked.

    ²⁹Jesus answered, "God wants you to have faith in the one he sent."

    ³⁰They replied, "What miracle will you work, so that we can have faith in you? What will you do? ³¹For example, when our ancestors were in the desert, they were given manna ^[k] to eat. It happened just as the Scriptures say, `God gave them bread from heaven to eat.' " ³²Jesus then told them, "I tell you for certain that Moses wasn't the one who gave you bread from heaven. My Father is the one who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³And the bread that God gives is the one who came down from heaven to give life to the world."

    ³⁴The people said, "Lord, give us this bread and don't ever stop!"

    ³⁵Jesus replied:

   I am the bread that gives life! No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who has faith in me will ever be thirsty. ³⁶I have told you already that you have seen me and still do not have faith in me. ³⁷Everything and everyone that the Father has given me will come to me, and I won't turn any of them away.

    ³⁸I didn't come from heaven to do what I want! I came to do what the Father wants me to do. He sent me, ³⁹and he wants to make certain that none of the ones he has given me will be lost. Instead, he wants me to raise them to life on the last day. ^{[l] 40}My Father wants everyone who sees the Son to have faith in him and to have eternal life. Then I will raise them to life on the last day. ⁴¹The people started grumbling because Jesus had said he was the bread that had come down from heaven. ⁴²They were asking each other, "Isn't he Jesus, the son of Joseph? Don't we know his father and mother? How can he say that he has come down from heaven?"

    ⁴³Jesus told them:

   Stop grumbling! ⁴⁴No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me makes them want to come. But if they do come, I will raise them to life on the last day. ⁴⁵One of the prophets wrote, "God will teach all of them." And so everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him will come to me.

    ⁴⁶The only one who has seen the Father is the one who has come from him. No one else has ever seen the Father. ⁴⁷I tell you for certain that everyone who has faith in me has eternal life.

    ⁴⁸I am the bread that gives life! ⁴⁹Your ancestors ate manna ^[m] in the desert, and later they died. ⁵⁰But the bread from heaven has come down, so that no one who eats it will ever die. ⁵¹I am that bread from heaven! Everyone who eats it will live forever. My flesh is the life-giving bread that I give to the people of this world. ⁵²They started arguing with each other and asked, "How can he give us his flesh to eat?"

    ⁵³Jesus answered:

   I tell you for certain that you won't live unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man. ⁵⁴But if you do eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have eternal life, and I will raise you to life on the last day. ⁵⁵My flesh is the true food, and my blood is the true drink. ⁵⁶If you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you are one with me, and I am one with you.

    ⁵⁷The living Father sent me, and I have life because of him. Now everyone who eats my flesh will live because of me. ⁵⁸The bread that comes down from heaven isn't like what your ancestors ate. They died, but whoever eats this bread will live forever.

    ⁵⁹Jesus was teaching in a Jewish place of worship in Capernaum when he said these things.

   

The Words of Eternal Life

 ⁶⁰Many of Jesus' disciples heard him and said, "This is too hard for anyone to understand."

    ⁶¹Jesus knew that his disciples were grumbling. So he asked, "Does this bother you? ⁶²What if you should see the Son of Man go up to heaven where he came from? ⁶³The Spirit is the one who gives life! Human strength can do nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are from that life-giving Spirit. ⁶⁴But some of you refuse to have faith in me." Jesus said this, because from the beginning he knew who would have faith in him. He also knew which one would betray him.

    ⁶⁵Then Jesus said, "You cannot come to me, unless the Father makes you want to come. That is why I have told these things to all of you."

    ⁶⁶Because of what Jesus said, many of his disciples turned their backs on him and stopped following him. ⁶⁷Jesus then asked his twelve disciples if they were going to leave him. ⁶⁸Simon Peter answered, "Lord, there is no one else that we can go to! Your words give eternal life. ⁶⁹We have faith in you, and we are sure that you are God's Holy One."

    ⁷⁰Jesus told his disciples, "I chose all twelve of you, but one of you is a demon!" ⁷¹Jesus was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. ^[n] He would later betray Jesus, even though he was one of the twelve disciples.