Read the Gospels in 40 Days

The conversation of Christ with Nicodemus. The teaching and baptism of John, and what witness he bears of Christ.

3 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler among the Jews. ² He came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God. For no man could do such miracles as you do unless God were with him.

³ Jesus answered and said to him, Truly truly I say to you, unless a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

⁴ Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter into his mother’s womb and be born again?

⁵ Jesus answered, Truly truly I say to you, unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Marvel not that I said to you, you must be born anew. ⁸ The wind blows where it will, and you hear its sound, but cannot tell from whence it comes and where it goes. That is how it is with everyone that is born of the Spirit.

⁹ And Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be?

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to him, Are you a teacher in Israel, and do not know these things? ¹¹ Truly truly I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and you people do not receive our witness. ¹² If when I tell you all earthly things, you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? ¹³ And no man ascends up to heaven but he who came down from heaven; that is to say, the Son of man who is in heaven. ¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that no one who believes in him will perish, but will have eternal life.

¹⁶ For God so loves the world that he has given his only Son, so that none who believe in him should perish, but should have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world through him could be saved. ¹⁸ Whoever believes on him shall not be condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he does not believe in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the condemnation: that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness more than light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. ²¹ But whoever does truth comes to the light, so that his deeds may be known, that they are wrought in God.

²² After these things, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and there he spent time with them and baptized. ²³ And John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there, and people came and were baptized. ²⁴ For John had not yet been cast into prison.

²⁵ And there arose a question between John’s disciples and the Jews about purifying. ²⁶ And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, of whom you bear witness, behold, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.

²⁷ John answered and said, A man can receive nothing at all unless it is given to him from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves are witnesses that I said I am not the Christ, but have been sent before him. ²⁹ He who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and hears him, rejoices greatly to hear the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this my joy is fulfilled. ³⁰ He must increase in renown, and I must decrease.

³¹ He who comes from on high is above all. He who is of the earth is earthly, and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all, ³² and what he has seen and heard, that he testifies; but no one receives his testimony. ³³ However, the person who has received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true. ³⁴ For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God. For God does not give the Spirit by measure (to him). ³⁵ The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. ³⁶ The person who believes on the Son has everlasting life, and the person who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

The loving conversation of Christ with the woman from Samaria by the well’s side. How he heals the ruler’s son.

4 As soon as the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard how Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John ² (though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples), ³ he left Judea and went back to Galilee. ⁴ And it so was that he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ Then he came to a village of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ⁶ And there was Jacob’s well.

Jesus, then wearied in his journey, sat on the well. And it was about the sixth hour, ⁷ and there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. And Jesus said to her, Give me to drink. ⁸ For his disciples had gone away to the town to buy food. ⁹ Then the woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask drink of me, a Samaritan? (For the Jews will have nothing to do with the Samaritans.)

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink, you would have asked of him, and he would have given you the water of life.

¹¹ The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you have that water of life from? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well, and he himself drank from it, and his children and his animals?

¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. ¹⁴ But whoever drinks of the water that I give him shall never more thirst, but the water that I give him will be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

¹⁵ The woman said to him, Sir, give me of that water so that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, Go and call your husband, and come here. ¹⁷ The woman answered and said to him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have well said, I have no husband. ¹⁸ For you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.

¹⁹ The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, but you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.

²¹ Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. ²² You Samaritans worship you know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation comes of the Jews. ²³ But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For indeed, the Father seeks such to worship him. ²⁴ God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.

²⁵ The woman said to him, I know well the Messiah will come, who is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things.

²⁶ Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he.

²⁷ And at that point his disciples came, and were surprised that he talked with the woman. Yet no one said to him, What are you asking? or, Why are you talking with her? ²⁸ The woman then left her water-pot, and went her way into the village and said to the people, ²⁹ Come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Is he not the Christ? ³⁰ Then they went out of the village and came to him.

³¹ And in the meanwhile his disciples urged him, saying, Rabbi, eat! ³² He said to them, I have food to eat that you know not of. ³³ Then the disciples said between themselves, Has anyone brought him food?

³⁴ Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, There are yet four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you: lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are already white for harvest. ³⁶ And he who reaps receives reward, and gathers fruit unto life eternal, so that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. ³⁷ And this saying is true, that one sows and another reaps. ³⁸ I sent you to reap that whereon you bestowed no labour. Other men laboured, and you have entered into their labours.

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans of that village believed on him because of the word of the woman who testified, He told me all that I ever did. ⁴⁰ Then when the Samaritans had come to him, they besought him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of his own words, ⁴² and said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of what you said, but because we have heard him ourselves and know that this is even indeed Christ, the Saviour of the world.

⁴³ After two days he departed from there and went away into Galilee. ⁴⁴ And Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honour in his own country. ⁴⁵ Then, as soon as he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast. For they had also gone to the feast day.

⁴⁶ And Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ As soon as he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and besought him to come down and heal his son, for he was even ready to die. ⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to him, Unless you see signs and wonders, you cannot believe. ⁴⁹ The nobleman said to him, Sir, come away before my child dies! ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, Go your way, your son lives.

And the man believed the words that Jesus had spoken to him, and went his way. ⁵¹ And as he was going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, Your child lives. ⁵² Then he enquired of them the hour when the child began to recover. And they said to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. ⁵³ And the father knew that it was the same hour in which Jesus had said to him, Your son lives. And he believed, and all his household. ⁵⁴ This is again the second miracle that Jesus did after he had come out of Judea into Galilee.