Read the Gospels in 40 Days
5 After that, the Jews had a feast and Jesus went to Jerusalem.
2 In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there is a wide water hole. The Jews called this water hole Bethesda. It had five places with roofs for people to stand under.
3 Many sick people were lying on these places. Some of them were blind. Some were lame. Some were very thin and stiff so that they could not move by themselves. All of them were waiting for the water to move.
4 An angel came down into the water at a certain time and made it move. The first person who stepped into the water when it moved was healed of any sickness that he had.
5 A man was there who had been sick for thirty eight years.
6 Jesus saw the man lying there. He knew that he had been sick for a long time. He said to him, `Do you want to be healed?'
7 The sick man said to him, `Sir, I have no man to put me into the water when it moves. While I am trying to get in, some other person comes and gets in before me.'
8 Jesus said, `Get up. Take up your bed and walk!'
9 The man was healed right away. He took up his bed and walked. This happened on the Sabbath day.
10 So the leaders of the Jews talked to the man who was healed. They said, `It is the Sabbath day. It is not right for you to carry your bed.'
11 But he answered them, `The man who healed me said to me, "Take up your bed and walk." '
12 They asked him, `Who is the man who told you to take up your bed and walk?'
13 The man who was healed said, `I do not know who he is.' Many people were at the place and Jesus had gone away.
14 After that, Jesus saw the man in the temple. He said to him, `See, you are healed. Do no more wrong things. If you do, something worse may happen to you.'
15 The man went away and told the leaders of the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
16 The Jewish leaders made trouble for Jesus because he did this on the Sabbath day.
17 But Jesus answered them, `My Father is still working and I am working also.'
18 This was why the leaders of the Jews tried much more to kill Jesus. He had broken the law of the Sabbath day. And also he called God his Father. In that way, he was making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus said to them, `l tell you the truth. The Son cannot do anything alone. He sees what his Father is doing and he does the same.
20 My Father loves his Son. He shows him all that he himself is doing. He will show his Son bigger works than these so that you may be surprised.
21 My Father raises people who were dead, and gives them life. So his Son gives life to anyone he wants to.
22 My Father judges no one, but he has made his Son to be the judge of everything.
23 He did this so that all people would respect the Son, just as they respect his Father. My Father has sent his Son. Anyone who does not respect his Son does not respect the Father.
24 `I tell you the truth. The person who hears what I say and believes in him that sent me will live for ever. He will not be judged. He has already passed from death to life.
25 `I tell you the truth. The time is coming. Yes, the time is here when the dead people will hear the voice of the Son of God. Those who hear his voice will live.
26 My Father has life in himself. And so he has made his Son to have life in himself.
27 He has given his Son power also to judge because he is the Son of Man.
28 Do not be surprised at what I say. The time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice.
29 They will come out of the graves. Those who have done what is good will come out to live. But those who have done what is wrong will come out to be punished.
30 `I have no right to do anything myself. I judge the way I am told to judge. The way I judge people is right. I do not do what I myself want to do, but I do what my Father wants me to do. He sent me.
31 `If I talk about myself, then what I say is not true.
32 But someone else also speaks about me. I know what he says about me is true.
33 You sent someone to John and he has told you the truth about me.
34 I do not need to listen to what a person says about me. But I tell you this so that you may be saved.
35 John was a light burning and shining. For a while you were happy to be in his light.
36 But I have something greater than John to talk for me. It is the works that I do. My Father has given me works to finish. The works that I do tell that he sent me.
37 And my Father who sent me has himself talked about me. You have never heard him speak and you do not know what he is like.
38 The word he talks is not in your hearts, because you do not believe the one he sent to you.
39 `You read holy writings carefully. You think that there you will find out how to live for ever. In the same writings you will read about me.
40 And yet you will not come to me for that life.
41 I do not want people to call me great.
42 But I know that you do not love God in your hearts.
43 I have come in my Father's name, but you will not receive me. If another person comes in his own name, then you will receive him.
44 How can you believe? You are always calling each other great, but you do not want the only God to make you great.
45 Do not think that I will carry a complaint against you to my Father. Moses has already carried the complaint against you. He is the very one you trust.
46 If you really believed Moses, you would believe me too, because he wrote about me.
47 But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?'
6 Then Jesus crossed over the sea of Galilee. (Another name for this sea was Tiberias.)
2 Many people followed him because they saw the big works he had done in healing the sick people.
3 Jesus went up on a hill and sat down with his disciples.
4 The time for the Passover Feast of the Jews was near.
5 When Jesus looked up, he saw many people coming to him. He said to Philip, `Where shall we buy food for these people to eat?'
6 Jesus knew what he himself would do, but he said this to see what Philip would do.
7 Philip answered him, `It would take nearly a year's wages to buy enough food for them, even if each one gets only a little.'
8 One of Jesus' disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, talked to Jesus.
9 He said, `A boy here has five loaves of bread and two small fish. But what can that little bit of food do for so many people?'
10 Jesus said, `Tell the people to sit down.' Much grass was there. The number of men who sat down was about five thousand.
11 Then Jesus took the bread and thanked God for it. He gave it to the disciples and they divided it among those who were sitting. He did the same thing with the fish. The people had all they wanted.
12 When they had eaten enough, he said to his disciples, `Gather up all the pieces that are left so that nothing will be lost.'
13 They gathered all the pieces of the five loaves. Twelve baskets full were left over after all the people had eaten enough.
14 When those men saw the big work that Jesus did, they said, `Truly, this is the Prophet that is to come into the world.'
15 The people wanted to take Jesus by force to make him a king. When he saw this, he left again and went on the hill by himself.
16 In the evening his disciples went down to the lake [called the sea of Galilee].
17 They got in a boat and crossed over the sea toward the town of Capernaum. It was dark, but Jesus had not come back to them.
18 A strong wind was blowing. It made the water very rough.
19 They rowed the boat into the middle of the lake. Then they saw Jesus walking on the water. He came close to the boat. They were afraid.
20 But Jesus said to them, `It is I. Do not fear.'
21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat. Then at once the boat reached the land to which they were going.
22 The people who stayed back on the land had seen one boat only. They had seen the disciples get in it and go away without Jesus.
23 But there were some other boats from Tiberias. It was near the place where they had eaten bread, after the Lord had thanked God for it.
24 The next day the people saw that Jesus and his disciples were not there. Then they went to Capernaum in boats to look for Jesus.
25 When they found Jesus on the other side of the lake, they said, `Teacher, when did you get here?'
26 Jesus said, `I tell you the truth. You do not want me because you saw the big works I did, but you want me because you ate all the bread you wanted.
27 Do not work for the food that spoils, but work for the food that will never spoil, the food that will give you life for ever. The Son of Man will give you that food. God my Father has chosen him to do that.'
28 They asked him, `What works does God ask us to do?'
29 Jesus answered them, `The work that God asks you to do is to believe in the one whom he has sent.'
30 They said, `What big work will you do? We want to see it and believe you. What work are you are going to do?
31-32 ur fathers ate bread in the wilderness. The holy writings say, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat." ' Jesus said to them, `I tell you the truth. It was not Moses who gave you that bread from heaven. But my Father gives you true bread from heaven.
33 He who comes down from heaven is the bread that God gives. He is the one who gives life to the world.'
34 They said to him, `Lord, give us this bread always!'
35 Jesus said, `I am the bread that gives life. Anyone who comes to me will never be hungry. Anyone who believes in me will never be thirsty.
36 But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you will not believe in me.
37 All those whom my Father gives me, they will come to me. I will never turn anyone away who comes to me.
38 I did not come down from heaven to do what I myself want to do. I came to do what the one who sent me wants me to do.
39 My Father sent me. He wants me to lose nothing that he has given me. And he wants me to raise it up on the last day.
40 My Father wants everyone who sees his Son and believes in him to live for ever. I will raise him up on the last day.'
41 The leaders of the Jews did not like Jesus to say, `I am the bread that has come down from heaven.'
42 They said, `Is he not Joseph's son, Jesus? We know his father and mother. How can he say, "I have come down from heaven"?'
43 Jesus answered them, `There is no need for you to talk against me to each other.
44 No one can come to me if my Father does not draw him. He sent me. I myself will raise up the one who comes to me. I will bring him back to life on the last day.
45 The prophets wrote, "God will teach all people." So then, every person who listens to his words and learns what he says, he will come to me.
46 `But no person has seen my Father. The only one who has seen him is the one who comes from God. He has seen my Father.
47 I tell you the truth. The person who believes in me will live for ever.
48 I am the bread that gives life.
49 Your fathers ate bread in the desert long ago, but they died.
50 Here is bread that comes down from heaven. The person who eats this bread will never die.
51 I am the bread that gives life. I came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live for ever. I will give bread so that the world may live. I am that bread.'
52 The leaders of the Jews began to quarrel with each other about what Jesus said. They said, `How can he give us himself to eat?'
53 Jesus said, `I tell you the truth. If you do not eat the Son of Man and do not drink his blood, you will not have life.
54 Anyone who eats me and drinks my blood will live for ever. I will raise him up at the last day.
55 I am real food, and my blood is real drink.
56 Anyone who eats me and drinks my blood is in me and I in him.
57 My Father is living. He sent me. I have my life from him. In the same way, the person who eats of me will live because of me.
58 This bread which came down from heaven is not like the bread that your fathers ate. They ate bread but they died. Anyone who eats this bread from heaven will live for ever.'
59 Jesus was in the meeting house in Capernaum when he was teaching people these things.
60 Many of his disciples heard it. They said, `This is a hard teaching. Who can listen to it?'
61 But Jesus knew that his disciples did not like what he said. He asked, `Is this hard for you?
62 What would you do if you saw the Son of Man go up to the place where he came from?
63 It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh does not help. The words I say to you are Spirit and life.
64 But even so, some of you do not believe me.' Jesus knew right from the beginning which ones of them would not believe. He knew who was going to give him over to people who hated him.
65 Then Jesus said, `That is why I said to you, "No one can come to me unless my Father lets him come." '
66 After that, many of the followers of Jesus left him and stopped travelling around with him.
67 Jesus said to the twelve disciples, `Will you also leave me?'
68 Simon Peter answered, `Lord, to whom shall we go? It is you who has told us how we may live for ever.
69 We believe now, and we know it is true. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
70 Jesus said to them, `Did I not choose you twelve? And one of you is a devil!'
71 Jesus was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Judas was the one who was going to give him over to people who hated him. Judas was one of these twelve disciples.
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