Book of Common Prayer

¹² My brothers, take care that not one of you has a heart that does not believe. Such a heart will take you away from the living God.

¹³ But talk to each other every day while `Today' lasts, so that wrong ways will not fool any one of you and your hearts become hard.

¹⁴ We have our part with Christ if we go on to the end and believe in him as we did at first.

¹⁵ God is still saying now, `Today, when you hear me speak, do not make your hearts hard. That is what happened when the people turned against me.'

¹⁶ Who were the people who heard him and yet made him very angry? It was all the people whom Moses led out of the country of Egypt.

¹⁷ With whom was God angry for forty years? He was angry with the people who had done wrong. And they died in the desert.

¹⁸ Who were the people God said would never go into his resting place? They were the people who would not listen to him.

¹⁹ So then, we see that they could not go in because they did not believe him.

²³ Many people believed in Jesus' name when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast. They believed in him because they saw the big works he did.

²⁴ But Jesus would not trust himself to them.

²⁵ He knew what all people are like. He did not need anyone to tell him about any person, because he knew what was in a person's heart.

3 There was a man named Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee, a ruler and leader of the Jews.

² One night Nicodemus came to Jesus. He said, `Master, we know you are a teacher sent by God. We know this because no person could do the big works you are doing if God did not help him.'

³ Jesus said, `I tell you the truth. No person can see God's kingdom if he is not born again.'

⁴ Nicodemus said, `How can a man be born when he is old? Can he go inside of his mother again and be born?'

⁵ Jesus said, `I tell you the truth. This new birth is by water and by the Spirit. No person can enter God's kingdom if he has not been born that way.

⁶ That which is born of a person is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷ You must not be surprised when I say, "You must be born again."

⁸ The wind blows where it wants to blow. You can hear the sound of it. But you do not know where it comes from, and you do not know where it goes. It is the same way with everyone who is born of the Spirit.'

⁹ Nicodemus asked Jesus, `How can such things be?

¹⁰ Jesus answered, `Are you a teacher of the people of Israel and you do not know this?

¹¹ I tell you the truth. We know what we are talking about. We talk about the things we have seen. But you will not believe what we tell you.

¹² You do not believe what I have told you about things on earth. So how will you believe if I tell you about things in heaven?

¹³ No one has ever gone up to heaven - only the One who came down from heaven. That One is the Son of Man who is in heaven.

¹⁴ Moses lifted up a snake on a piece of wood in the desert. So the Son of Man must be lifted up.

¹⁵ Then everyone who believes in him will not die, but will live for ever.