God’s Spirit Poured Out

³⁰ I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.^{(C) 31} The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.^{(D) 32} Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.^(E)

²² Now that you have purified your souls^[a] by your obedience to the truth^[b] so that you have genuine mutual affection, love one another deeply from the heart.^{[c](A) 23} You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.^{[d](B) 24} For

That word is the good news that was announced to you.^(D)

The Living Stone and a Chosen People

2 Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander.^{(E) 2} Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation^(F)— ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.^[e](G)

Nicodemus Visits Jesus

3 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ² He came to Jesus^[a] by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.”^{(A) 3} Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”^{[b](B) 4} Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.^{(C) 6} What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You^[c] must be born from above.’^{[d] 8} The wind^[e] blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”^{(D) 9} Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”^{(E) 10} Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

¹¹ “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you^[f] do not receive our testimony.^{(F) 12} If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.^{[g](G) 14} And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,^{(H) 15} that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.^[h](I)

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.^(J)