Read the Gospels in 40 Days

The Word became human

1 In the beginning, the Word was already there. The Word was with God. The Word was God.^{[a] 2} He was with God from the beginning. ³ God made all things through the Word. God did not make anything without him. ⁴ It is the Word who caused everything to live. Because of this, he has brought light to all people. ⁵ The light shines in the dark, and the dark cannot put out the light.^[b]

⁶ God sent a man to bring his message. His name was John.^{[c] 7} He came to tell people about the light. God wanted everyone to believe in the one who is the light. ⁸ John himself was not that light. God sent him to tell people about the light. ⁹ The true light gives light to every person. That light was now coming into the world.

¹⁰ The Word was now in the world. God had made the world through him. But the people in the world did not know who he was. ¹¹ He came to his own place, but his own people did not accept him. ¹² Some people did accept him and they believed in him. He gave authority to those people to become God's children. ¹³ They did not become God's children in the usual human way. They were not born because some people wanted to have children. They were not born because of what any man decided. No! They were born from God.

¹⁴ The Word became a man. He lived among us. We saw his great glory. He has the glory of the Father's one true Son. He is full of God's grace and truth.

¹⁵ John told people about the Word. He shouted, ‘This is the man that I told you about. He comes after me. But he is greater than I am. He was already there before I was born.’ ¹⁶ The Word is full of everything that we need. We have all received one good thing after another good thing. ¹⁷ God gave his Law to us through Moses. But Jesus Christ brought God's grace and his truth to us. ¹⁸ Nobody has ever seen God. But God's only Son has shown God to us. He is very near to the Father, and he himself is God.

John the Baptist is not the Messiah

¹⁹ The Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask John, ‘Who are you?’^{[d] 20} John did not refuse to answer. He said, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ ²¹ So they asked him, ‘So who are you? Are you Elijah?’ John said, ‘No, I am not.’ They asked, ‘Are you the Prophet?’ John answered, ‘No.’

²² Then they said, ‘Tell us who you are. We must say something to the people who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ ²³ He said, ‘I am the voice of somebody shouting in the wilderness:

²⁴ The men who came to ask these questions were Pharisees. ²⁵ They said to John, ‘You say that you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet. So why do you baptize people?’ ²⁶ John replied, ‘I baptize people with water. But there is someone here among you that you do not know. ²⁷ He is the one who comes after me. I am not good enough even to undo his shoes for him.’

²⁸ All these things happened at a place east from the Jordan River. It was a village called Bethany. John was baptizing people there.

²⁹ The next day, John saw Jesus, who was coming towards him. John said, ‘Look! Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of people in the world.^{[f] 30} This is the man that I told you about. I told you, “He comes after me, but he is greater than I am. He was already there before I was born.” ³¹ I did not know him. But I had to show Israel's people who he was. That is why I am baptizing people with water.’

³² Then John told them, ‘I saw God's Spirit come down from heaven. He came down like a dove and he stayed on Jesus. ³³ I would not have known who Jesus was. But God had sent me to baptize people with water. And God told me, “You will see the Spirit come down. He will stay on someone. That is the person who will baptize people with my Holy Spirit.” ³⁴ Now I have seen this. So I can tell you that this is God's Son.’

Jesus' first disciples

³⁵ John was standing there again the next day, with two of his disciples. ³⁶ He saw Jesus, who was walking past them. John said, ‘Look! Here is the Lamb of God.’ ³⁷ When the two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Then Jesus turned round. He saw that they were following him. He asked them, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi (which means “Teacher”), where are you staying?’ ³⁹ Jesus replied, ‘Come with me and you will see.’ So they went with him. They saw where he was staying. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. And they stayed with him that day.

⁴⁰ Andrew was one of the two disciples who had followed Jesus. They had heard what John had said about Jesus. Andrew was Simon Peter's brother. ⁴¹ The first thing that Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon. Andrew said to Simon, ‘We have found the Messiah.’ (‘Messiah’ and ‘Christ’ mean the same.) ⁴² Then he brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at Simon and he said, ‘You are Simon, John's son. Your name will be Cephas.’ This name is the same as Peter, which means ‘rock’.

⁴³ The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He met Philip, and Jesus said to Philip, ‘Follow me.’ ⁴⁴ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, came from the town of Bethsaida. ⁴⁵ Philip went to find Nathanael. He told Nathanael, ‘We have found the man that Moses wrote about in the book of God's Law. The prophets also wrote about him. He is Jesus, who is Joseph's son, from Nazareth.’ ⁴⁶ Nathanael said, ‘I did not think that anything good could come from Nazareth!’ Philip replied, ‘Come and see.’

⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael, who was coming towards him. Jesus said, ‘Here is a completely honest man. That is what a person from Israel should really be like.’ ⁴⁸ Nathanael asked, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you before Philip asked you to come. I saw you when you were under the fig tree.’ ⁴⁹ Nathanael said, ‘Teacher, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.’ ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, ‘I told you that I saw you under the fig tree. Now you believe me because I told you that. But you will see much greater things than that.’ ⁵¹ And Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you this: You will see heaven open. You will see God's angels. They will be going up and they will be coming down on the Son of Man.’^[g]

The marriage at Cana

2 Two days after that, there was a marriage party. It was in the town of Cana, in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there. ² People had asked Jesus and his disciples to come to the party too. ³ When people had drunk all the wine, Jesus' mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’ ⁴ Jesus replied, ‘Woman, why do you tell me this? It is not my time yet.’ ⁵ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you to do.’

⁶ There were six big pots there. People had used stone to make them. Each pot could contain about 100 litres of water. The water was there so that the Jews could wash themselves in the way that their special rules taught. ⁷ Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the pots with water.’ So they filled the pots to the top. ⁸ Then he said, ‘Now take some of the water from the pots and give it to the master of the party.’ So they did that. ⁹ The master of the party tasted the water. The water had now become wine! The master did not know where the wine had come from. But the servants who had given it to him knew about it. Then the master asked the new husband to come to him. ¹⁰ The master said to him, ‘Everyone else brings out the best wine first. When people have had plenty to drink, then they give people cheaper wine. But you are different. You have kept the best wine until now.’

¹¹ Jesus did this first miracle at Cana, in Galilee. In this way, Jesus showed how great and powerful he was. And his disciples believed in him.

Jesus goes to the temple

¹² After this, Jesus went to a town called Capernaum. His mother, his brothers and his disciples went with him. They stayed there for a few days.^[h]

¹³ It was almost time for the Jewish Passover festival. So Jesus went to Jerusalem.^{[i] 14} He went into the yard of the temple. There he found people who were selling cows, sheep and doves. Other people were sitting at tables to change coins for people. ¹⁵ So Jesus made a whip from some pieces of rope. Then he made all the people leave the temple quickly, with the sheep and the cows. He threw onto the ground all the coins of the men who changed money. He turned their tables over. ¹⁶ He said to the people who sold birds, ‘Take them out of here! Do not make my Father's house into a market!’ ¹⁷ His disciples remembered what it says in the Bible: ‘My love for your house burns inside me like a fire.’^[j]

¹⁸ Then the Jews asked Jesus, ‘What is your authority to do this? Do a miracle to show us that you really do have authority.’ ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, ‘If you destroy this house of God, I will build it up again in three days.’ ²⁰ The Jews replied, ‘People have worked for 46 years to build this house. But you say that you will build it again in three days!’ ²¹ But the house that Jesus was speaking about was his own body. ²² The disciples remembered this when Jesus had become alive again after his death. They remembered that he had said this. Then they believed what the Bible taught. They also believed the words that Jesus had spoken.

²³ While Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover festival, he did many miracles.^[k] Many people saw these miracles that showed he was from God. As a result, they believed in Jesus. ²⁴ But Jesus himself did not trust the people. He knew what all people are really like. ²⁵ He did not need anyone to tell him what people are like. He knew already what was really in each person.