Christ Comes to the World

1 Before the world began, the Word^[a] was there. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was there with God in the beginning. ³ Everything was made through him, and nothing was made without him. ⁴ In him there was life, and that life was a light for the people of the world. ⁵ The light^[b] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not defeated^[c] it.

⁶ There was a man named John, who was sent by God. ⁷ He came to tell people about the light. Through him all people could hear about the light and believe. ⁸ John was not the light. But he came to tell people about the light. ⁹ The true light was coming into the world. This is the true light that gives light to all people.

¹⁰ The Word was already in the world. The world was made through him, but the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to the world that was his own. And his own people did not accept him. ¹² But some people did accept him. They believed in him, and he gave them the right to become children of God. ¹³ They became God’s children, but not in the way babies are usually born. It was not because of any human desire or plan. They were born from God himself.

¹⁴ The Word became a man and lived among us. We saw his divine greatness—the greatness that belongs to the only Son of the Father. The Word was full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ John told people about him. He said loudly, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘The one who is coming after me is greater than I am, because he was living before I was even born.’”

¹⁶ Yes, the Word was full of grace and truth, and from him we all received one blessing after another.^{[d] 17} That is, the law was given to us through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God. The only Son is the one who has shown us what God is like. He is himself God and is very close to the Father.^[e]

John Tells About the Messiah^(A)

¹⁹ The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent some priests and Levites to John to ask him, “Who are you?” He told them the truth. ²⁰ Without any hesitation he said openly and plainly, “I am not the Messiah.”

²¹ They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He answered, “No, I am not Elijah.”

They asked, “Are you the Prophet^[f]?”

He answered, “No, I am not the Prophet.”

²² Then they said, “Who are you? Tell us about yourself. Give us an answer to tell the people who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

²³ John told them the words of the prophet Isaiah:

²⁴ These Jews were sent from the Pharisees. ²⁵ They said to John, “You say you are not the Messiah. You say you are not Elijah or the Prophet. Then why do you baptize people?”

²⁶ John answered, “I baptize people with water. But there is someone here with you that you don’t know. ²⁷ He is the one who is coming later. I am not good enough to be the slave who unties the strings on his sandals.”

²⁸ These things all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan River. This is where John was baptizing people.

Jesus, the Lamb of God

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God. He takes away the sins of the world! ³⁰ This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘There is a man coming after me who is greater than I am, because he was living even before I was born.’ ³¹ I did not know who he was. But I came baptizing people with water so that Israel could know that he is the Messiah.^[g]”

^32-34 Then John said this for everyone to hear: “I also did not know who the Messiah was. But the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘You will see the Spirit come down and rest on a man. He is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen this happen. I saw the Spirit come down from heaven like a dove and rest on this man. So this is what I tell people: ‘He is the Son of God.’^[h]”

The First Followers of Jesus

³⁵ The next day John was there again and had two of his followers with him. ³⁶ He saw Jesus walking by and said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

³⁷ The two followers heard him say this, so they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Jesus turned and saw the two men following him. He asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” (“Rabbi” means “Teacher.”)

³⁹ He answered, “Come with me and you will see.” So the two men went with him. They saw the place where he was staying, and they stayed there with him that day. It was about four o’clock.

⁴⁰ These men followed Jesus after they had heard about him from John. One of them was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to go and find his brother Simon. Andrew said to him, “We have found the Messiah.” (“Messiah” means “Christ.”)

⁴² Then Andrew brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, the son of John. You will be called Cephas.” (“Cephas” means “Peter.^[i]”)

⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He met Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴ Philip was from the town of Bethsaida, the same as Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the man that Moses wrote about in the law. The prophets wrote about him too. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph. He is from Nazareth.”

⁴⁶ But Nathanael said to Philip, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Philip answered, “Come and see.”

⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said, “This man coming is a true Israelite, one you can trust.^[j]”

⁴⁸ Nathanael asked, “How do you know me?”

Jesus answered, “I saw you when you were under the fig tree, before Philip told you about me.”

⁴⁹ Then Nathanael said, “Teacher, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.”

⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Do you believe this just because I said I saw you under the fig tree? You will see much greater things than that!” ⁵¹ Then he said, “Believe me when I say that you will all see heaven open. You will see ‘angels of God going up and coming down’^[k] on the Son of Man.”

The Wedding at Cana

2 Two days later there was a wedding in the town of Cana in Galilee, and Jesus’ mother was there. ² Jesus and his followers were also invited. ³ At the wedding there was not enough wine, so Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

⁴ Jesus answered, “Dear woman, why are you telling me this? It is not yet time for me to begin my work.”

⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do what he tells you.”

⁶ There were six large stone waterpots there that were used by the Jews in their washing ceremonies.^[l] Each one held about 20 or 30 gallons.^[m]

⁷ Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them to the top.

⁸ Then he said to them, “Now dip out some water and take it to the man in charge of the feast.”

So they did what he said. ⁹ Then the man in charge tasted it, but the water had become wine. He did not know where the wine had come from, but the servants who brought the water knew. He called the bridegroom ¹⁰ and said to him, “People always serve the best wine first. Later, when the guests are drunk, they serve the cheaper wine. But you have saved the best wine until now.”

¹¹ This was the first of all the miraculous signs Jesus did. He did it in the town of Cana in Galilee. By this he showed his divine greatness, and his followers believed in him.

¹² Then Jesus went to the town of Capernaum. His mother and brothers and his followers went with him. They all stayed there a few days.

Jesus at the Temple^(C)

¹³ It was almost time for the Jewish Passover, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ There in the Temple area he saw men selling cattle, sheep, and doves. He saw others sitting at tables, exchanging and trading people’s money. ¹⁵ Jesus made a whip with some pieces of rope. Then he forced all these men and the sheep and cattle to leave the Temple area. He turned over the tables of the money traders and scattered their money. ¹⁶ Then he said to those who were selling pigeons, “Take these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a place for buying and selling!”

¹⁷ When this happened, his followers remembered what was written in the Scriptures:

¹⁸ Some Jews said to Jesus, “Show us a miracle as a sign from God. Prove that you have the right to do these things.”

¹⁹ Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple and I will build it again in three days.”

²⁰ They answered, “People worked 46 years to build this Temple! Do you really believe you can build it again in three days?”

²¹ But the temple Jesus meant was his own body. ²² After he was raised from death, his followers remembered that he had said this. So they believed the Scriptures, and they believed the words Jesus said.

²³ Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover festival. Many people believed in him because they saw the miraculous signs he did. ²⁴ But Jesus did not trust them, because he knew how all people think. ²⁵ He did not need anyone to tell him what a person was like. He already knew.

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a man named Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees. He was an important Jewish leader. ² One night he came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a teacher sent from God. No one can do these miraculous signs that you do unless they have God’s help.”

³ Jesus answered, “I assure you, everyone must be born again. Anyone who is not born again cannot be in God’s kingdom.”

⁴ Nicodemus said, “How can a man who is already old be born again? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Believe me when I say that everyone must be born from water and the Spirit. Anyone who is not born from water and the Spirit cannot enter God’s kingdom. ⁶ The only life people get from their human parents is physical. But the new life that the Spirit gives a person is spiritual. ⁷ Don’t be surprised that I told you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it wants to. You hear it, but you don’t know where it is coming from or where it is going. It is the same with everyone who is born from the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus asked, “How is all this possible?”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “You are an important teacher of Israel, and you still don’t understand these things? ¹¹ The truth is, we talk about what we know. We tell about what we have seen. But you people don’t accept what we tell you. ¹² I have told you about things here on earth, but you do not believe me. So I’m sure you will not believe me if I tell you about heavenly things! ¹³ The only one who has ever gone up to heaven is the one who came down from heaven—the Son of Man.

¹⁴ “Moses lifted up the snake in the desert.^[n] It is the same with the Son of Man. He must be lifted up too. ¹⁵ Then everyone who believes in him can have eternal life.”^[o]

¹⁶ Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life. ¹⁷ God sent his Son into the world. He did not send him to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ People who believe in God’s Son are not judged guilty. But people who do not believe are already judged, because they have not believed in God’s only Son. ¹⁹ They are judged by this fact: The light^[p] has come into the world. But they did not want light. They wanted darkness, because they were doing evil things. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light. They will not come to the light, because the light will show all the bad things they have done. ²¹ But anyone who follows the true way comes to the light. Then the light will show that whatever they have done was done through God.

Jesus and John the Baptizer

²² After this, Jesus and his followers went into the area of Judea. There he stayed with his followers and baptized people. ²³ John was also baptizing people in Aenon, a place near Salim with plenty of water. People were going there to be baptized. ²⁴ This was before John was put in prison.

²⁵ Some of John’s followers had an argument with another Jew about religious washing.^{[q] 26} Then they came to John and said, “Teacher, remember the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River? He is the one you were telling everyone about. He is also baptizing people, and many are going to him.”

²⁷ John answered, “A person can receive only what God gives. ²⁸ You yourselves heard me say, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only the one God sent to prepare the way for him.’ ²⁹ The bride always belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who helps the bridegroom just waits and listens. He is happy just to hear the bridegroom talk. That’s how I feel now. I am so happy that he is here. ³⁰ He must become more and more important, and I must become less important.

The One Who Comes From Heaven

³¹ “The one who comes from above is greater than all others. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth. He talks about things that are on the earth. But the one who comes from heaven is greater than all others. ³² He tells what he has seen and heard, but people don’t accept what he says. ³³ Whoever accepts what he says has given proof that God speaks the truth. ³⁴ God sent him, and he tells people what God says. God gives him the Spirit fully. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has given him power over everything. ³⁶ Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. But those who do not obey the Son will never have that life. They cannot get away from God’s anger.”

Jesus Talks to a Woman in Samaria

4 Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard the report that he was making and baptizing more followers than John. ² (But really, Jesus himself did not baptize anyone; his followers baptized people for him.) ³ So he left Judea and went back to Galilee. ⁴ On the way to Galilee, he had to go through the country of Samaria.

⁵ In Samaria Jesus came to the town called Sychar, which is near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his long trip, so he sat down beside the well. It was about noon. ⁷ A Samaritan woman came to the well to get some water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” ⁸ This happened while his followers were in town buying some food.

⁹ The woman answered, “I am surprised that you ask me for a drink! You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman!” (Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.^[r])

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “You don’t know what God can give you. And you don’t know who I am, the one who asked you for a drink. If you knew, you would have asked me, and I would have given you living water.”

¹¹ The woman said, “Sir, where will you get that living water? The well is very deep, and you have nothing to get water with. ¹² Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob? He is the one who gave us this well. He drank from it himself, and his sons and all his animals drank from it too.”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. ¹⁴ But anyone who drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again. The water I give people will be like a spring flowing inside them. It will bring them eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to Jesus, “Sir, give me this water. Then I will never be thirsty again and won’t have to come back here to get more water.”

¹⁶ Jesus told her, “Go get your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ The woman answered, “But I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You are right to say you have no husband. ¹⁸ That’s because, although you have had five husbands, the man you live with now is not your husband. That much was the truth.”

¹⁹ The woman said, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.^{[s] 20} Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where people must worship.”

²¹ Jesus said, “Believe me, woman! The time is coming when you will not have to be in Jerusalem or on this mountain to worship the Father. ²² You Samaritans worship something you don’t understand. We Jews understand what we worship, since salvation comes from the Jews. ²³ But the time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. In fact, that time is now here. And these are the kind of people the Father wants to be his worshipers. ²⁴ God is spirit. So the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming.” (He is the one called Christ.) “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus said, “He is talking to you now—I am the Messiah.”

²⁷ Just then Jesus’ followers came back from town. They were surprised because they saw Jesus talking with a woman. But none of them asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She told the people there, ²⁹ “A man told me everything I have ever done. Come see him. Maybe he is the Messiah.” ³⁰ So the people left the town and went to see Jesus.

³¹ While the woman was in town, Jesus’ followers were begging him, “Teacher, eat something!”

³² But Jesus answered, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³ So the followers asked themselves, “Did someone already bring him some food?”

³⁴ Jesus said, “My food is to do what the one who sent me wants me to do. My food is to finish the work that he gave me to do. ³⁵ When you plant, you always say, ‘Four more months to wait before we gather the grain.’ But I tell you, open your eyes, and look at the fields. They are ready for harvesting now. ³⁶ Even now, the people who harvest the crop are being paid. They are gathering crops for eternal life. So now the people who plant can be happy together with those who harvest. ³⁷ It is true when we say, ‘One person plants, but another person harvests the crop.’ ³⁸ I sent you to harvest a crop that you did not work for. Others did the work, and you get the profit from their work.”

³⁹ Many of the Samaritan people in that town believed in Jesus. They believed because of what the woman had told them about him. She had told them, “He told me everything I have ever done.” ⁴⁰ The Samaritans went to Jesus. They begged him to stay with them. So he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ Many more people became believers because of the things he said.

⁴² The people said to the woman, “First we believed in Jesus because of what you told us. But now we believe because we heard him ourselves. We know now that he really is the one who will save the world.”

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son^(E)

⁴³ Two days later Jesus left and went to Galilee. ⁴⁴ (Jesus had said before that a prophet is not respected in his own country.) ⁴⁵ When he arrived in Galilee, the people there welcomed him. They had been at the Passover festival in Jerusalem and had seen everything he did there.

⁴⁶ Jesus went to visit Cana in Galilee again. Cana is where he had changed the water into wine. One of the king’s important officials lived in the city of Capernaum. This man’s son was sick. ⁴⁷ The man heard that Jesus had come from Judea and was now in Galilee. So he went to Jesus and begged him to come to Capernaum and heal his son, who was almost dead. ⁴⁸ Jesus said to him, “You people must see miraculous signs and wonders before you will believe in me.”

⁴⁹ The king’s official said, “Sir, come before my little son dies.”

⁵⁰ Jesus answered, “Go. Your son will live.”

The man believed what Jesus told him and went home. ⁵¹ On the way home, the man’s servants came and met him. They said, “Your son is well.”

⁵² The man asked, “What time did my son begin to get well?”

They answered, “It was about one o’clock yesterday when the fever left him.”

⁵³ The father knew that one o’clock was the same time that Jesus had said, “Your son will live.” So the man and everyone in his house believed in Jesus.

⁵⁴ That was the second miraculous sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.