Christ Comes to the World

1 Before the world began, there was the Word.^[a] The Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ All things were made through him. Nothing was made without him. ⁴ In him there was life. That life was light for the people of the world. ⁵ The Light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not overpowered^[b] the Light.

⁶ There was a man named John^[c] 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. The true Light gives light to all.

¹⁰ The Word was 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. But his own people did not accept him. ¹² But some people did accept him. They believed in him. To them he gave the right to become children of God. ¹³ They did not become his children in the human way. They were not born because of the desire or wish of some man. They were born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became a man and lived among us. We saw his glory—the glory that belongs to the only Son of the Father. The Word was full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ John told about him. He said, “This is the One I was talking about. I said, ‘The One who comes after me is greater than I am. He was living before me.’”

¹⁶ The Word was full of grace and truth. From him we all received more and more blessings. ¹⁷ The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No man has ever seen God. But God the only Son is very close to the Father.^[d] And the Son has shown us what God is like.

John Tells People About Jesus

¹⁹ The Jews in Jerusalem sent some priests and Levites to John.^[e] The Jews sent them to ask, “Who are you?”

²⁰ John spoke freely and did not refuse to answer. He said clearly, “I am not the Christ.”

²¹ So they asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”^[f]

He answered, “No, I am not Elijah.”

Then they asked, “Are you the Prophet?”^[g]

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

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

²³ John told them in the words of the prophet Isaiah:

²⁴ In the group of Jews who were sent, there were some Pharisees. ²⁵ They said to John: “You say you are not the Christ. 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 one here with you that you don’t know. ²⁷ He is the One who comes after me. I am not good enough to untie the strings of his sandals.”

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

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him. John said, “Look, the Lamb of God.^[h] He takes away the sins of the world! ³⁰ This is the One I was talking about. I said, ‘A man will come after me, but he is greater than I am, because he was living before me.’ ³¹ Even I did not know who he was. But I came baptizing with water so that the people of Israel could know who he is.”

^32-33 Then John said, “I did not know who the Christ was. But God sent me to baptize with water. And God told me, ‘You will see the Spirit come down and rest on a man. That man is the One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’” John said, “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven. The Spirit looked like a dove and rested on him. ³⁴ I have seen this happen. So I tell people: ‘He is the Son of God.’”^[i]

The First Followers of Jesus

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

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

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

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

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

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

⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴ Philip was from the town of Bethsaida, where Andrew and Peter lived. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, “Remember that Moses wrote in the law about a man who was coming, and the prophets also wrote about him. We have found him. 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. He said, “Here is truly a person of Israel. There is nothing false in him.”

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

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

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

⁵⁰ Jesus said to Nathanael, “You believe in me because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. But you will see greater things than that!” ⁵¹ And Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth. You will all see heaven open. You will see ‘angels of God going up and coming down’^[m] on the Son of Man.”

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a man named Nicodemus who was one of the Pharisees. He was an important Jewish leader. ² One night Nicodemus came to Jesus. He said, “Teacher, we know that you are a teacher sent from God. No one can do the miracles you do, unless God is with him.”

³ Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth. Unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s kingdom.”

⁴ Nicodemus said, “But if a man is already old, how can he be born again? He cannot enter his mother’s body again. So how can he be born a second time?”

⁵ But Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth. Unless you are born from water and the Spirit, you cannot enter God’s kingdom. ⁶ A person’s body is born from his human parents. But a person’s spiritual life is born from the Spirit. ⁷ Don’t be surprised when I tell you, ‘You must all be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wants to go. You hear the wind blow. But you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going. It is the same with every person who is born from the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus asked, “How can all this be possible?”

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

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

¹⁶ “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. God gave his Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. ¹⁷ God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ He who believes in God’s Son is not judged guilty. He who does not believe has already been judged guilty, because he has not believed in God’s only Son. ¹⁹ People are judged by this fact: I am the Light from God that has come into the world. But men did not want light. They wanted darkness because they were doing evil things. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light. He will not come to the light because it will show all the evil things he has done. ²¹ But he who follows the true way comes to the light. Then the light will show that the things he has done were done through God.”

Jesus and John the Baptist

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

²⁵ Some of John’s followers had an argument with a Jew about religious washing.^{[c] 26} So they came to John and said, “Teacher, remember the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you spoke about? He is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

²⁷ John answered, “A man can get only what God gives him. ²⁸ You yourselves heard me say, ‘I am not the Christ. I am only the one God sent to prepare the way for him.’ ²⁹ The bride belongs only to the bridegroom. The friend who helps the bridegroom waits and listens for him. He is glad when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That is the same pleasure I have. And my time of joy is now here. ³⁰ He must become greater. And I must become less important.

The One Who Comes from Heaven

³¹ “The One who comes from above is greater than all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth and talks about things on the earth. But the One who comes from heaven is greater than all. ³² He tells what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts what he says. ³³ The person who accepts what he says has proven that God is true. ³⁴ God sent him, and he tells the things that God says. God gives him the Spirit fully. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has given him power over everything. ³⁶ He who believes in the Son has eternal life. But he who does not obey the Son will never have that life. God’s anger stays with him.”

Jesus and a Samaritan Woman

4 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more followers than John. ² (But really Jesus himself did not baptize people. His followers did the baptizing.) Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard about him. ³ So he left Judea and went back to Galilee. ⁴ On the way he had to go through the country of Samaria.

⁵ In Samaria Jesus came to the town called Sychar. This town 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. Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” ⁸ (This happened while Jesus’ followers were in town buying some food.)

⁹ The woman said, “I am surprised that you ask me for a drink. You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan.” (Jews are not friends with Samaritans.^[d])

¹⁰ Jesus said, “You don’t know what God gives. And you don’t know 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 Jacob, our father? Jacob is the one who gave us this well. He drank from it himself. Also, his sons and flocks drank from this well.”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Every person who drinks this water will be thirsty again. ¹⁴ But whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again. The water I give will become a spring of water flowing inside him. It will give him eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water. Then I will never be thirsty again. And I will not have to come back here to get more water.”

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

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

Jesus said to her, “You are right to say you have no husband. ¹⁸ Really you have had five husbands. But the man you live with now is not your husband. You told the truth.”

¹⁹ The woman said, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. 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 what you don’t understand. We Jews understand what we worship. Salvation comes from the Jews. ²³ The time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. That time is now here. And these are the kinds of worshipers the Father wants. ²⁴ God is spirit. Those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth.”

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

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

²⁷ Just then his 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 said to the people, ²⁹ “A man told me everything I have ever done. Come see him. Maybe he is the Christ!” ³⁰ So the people left the town and went to see Jesus.

³¹ While the woman was away, the 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 somebody already bring Jesus 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 You say, ‘Four more months to wait before we gather the grain.’ But I tell you, open your eyes. Look at the fields that are ready for harvesting now. ³⁶ Even now, the one who harvests the crop is being paid. He is gathering crops for eternal life. So now the one who plants can be happy along with the one who harvests. ³⁷ It is true when we say, ‘One person plants, but another 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.”^[e]

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus. They believed because of what the woman said: “He told me everything I have ever done.” ⁴⁰ The Samaritans came to Jesus and begged him to stay with them. So he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ Many more believed because of the things he said.

⁴² They 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 that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Jesus Heals an Officer’s Son

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 Jesus arrived in Galilee, the people there welcomed him. They had seen all the things he did at the Passover Feast in Jerusalem. They had been at the Passover Feast, too.

⁴⁶ Jesus went to visit Cana in Galilee again. This is where Jesus had changed the water into wine. One of the king’s important officers 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. He went to Jesus and begged him to come to Capernaum and heal his son. His son was almost dead. ⁴⁸ Jesus said to him, “You people must see signs and miracles before you will believe in me.”

⁴⁹ The officer said, “Sir, come before my child dies.”

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

The man believed what Jesus told him and went home. ⁵¹ On the way the man’s servants came and met him. They told him, “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 exact time that Jesus had said, “Your son will live.” So the man and all the people of his house believed in Jesus.

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