3 Jesus and Nicodemus
There was a man names Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and a Jewish leader. 2
One night he went to Jesus and said, "Sir, we know that God sent you to
teach us. You could not work these miracles, unless God were with you."
3 Jesus replied. "I tell you for certain that you must be born from
above(k) before you can see God's kingdom!" 4 Nicodemas asked, "How
can a grown man ever be born a second time?"
5 Jesus answered: I tell you for certain that before you can get into
God's kingdom, you must be born not only by water, but by the Spirit. 6 Humans
give life to their children. Yet only God 's Spirit can change you into a child
of God. 7 Don't be surprised when I say that you must be born from above. 8 Only
God's Spirit gives new life. The Spirit is like the wind that bows wherever it
wants to. You can hear the wind but you don't know where it comes from or where
it is going.
9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
10 Jesus replied: How can you be a teacher of Israel and not know these
things? 11 I tell you for certain that we know what we are talking about because
we have seen it ourselves. But none of you will accept what we say. 12 If you
don't believe when I talk to you about things on earth, how can you possibly
believe when I talk to you about things in heaven?
13 No one has ever gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down
from there. 14 And the Son of Man must be lifted up, just as that metal snake
was lifted up by Moses in the desert.(l) 15 Then everyone who has faith in the
Son of Man will have eternal life.
16 God so loved the people of this world so much that
he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal
life and never die. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its
people. He sent him to save them! 18 No one who has faith in God's Son will be
condemned. But everyone who does not have faith in him has already been
condemned for not having faith in God's only Son.
19 The light has come into the world, and people who do evil things are
judged guilty because they love the dark more than the light. 20 People who do
evil hate the light and won't come into the light, because it clearly shows what
they have done. 21 But everyone who lives by the truth will come into the light,
because they want others to know that God is really the one doing what they do.
(j) miracle: see note at 2.11. (k) from above: Or "in a new
way." The same Greek word is used in verses 7, 31.
Jesus and John the Baptist
22 Later, Jesus and his disciples went to Judea, where he stayed with them
for a while and was baptising people. 23-24 John had not yet been put in jail.
He was at Aenon near Salim, where there was a lot of water, and people were
coming there for John to baptise them.
25 John's followers got into an argument with a Jewish(m) man about a
ceremony of washing.(n) 26 They went to John and said, "Rabbi, you spoke
about a man when you were with him east of the Jordan. He is now baptising
people, and everyone is going to him."
27 John replied: No one can do anything unless God in heaven allows it. 28
Surely you remember how I told you that I am not the Messiah. I am only the one
sent ahead of him. 28 At a wedding the groom is the one who gets married. The
best man is just glad to be there and to hear the groom's voice. That's why I am
so glad. 30 Jesus must become more important, while I become less important.
(m) a Jewish man: Some manuscripts have "some Jewish men."
(n) about a ceremony of washing: The Jewish people had many rules about washing
themselves and their dishes, in order to make themselves fit to worship God.
The One Who Comes from Heaven
31 God's Son comes from heaven and is above all others. Everyone who comes
from earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who
comes from heaven is above all others. 32 He speaks about what he has seen and
heard, yet no one believes him. 33 But everyone who does believe him has shown
that God is truthful. 34 The Son was sent to speak God's message, and he has
been given the full power of god's Spirit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has
given him eternal life. But no one who rejects him will ever share in that life,
and God will be angry with them for ever.
4
Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was winning and baptising
more followers than John was. 2 But Jesus' disciples were really the ones doing
the baptising, and not Jesus himself.
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
3 Jesus left Judea and started for Galilee again. 4 This time he had to go
through Samaria, 5 and on his way he came to the town of Sychar. It was near the
field that Jacob had long ago given to his son Joseph. 6-8 The well that Jacob
had dug was still there, and Jesus sat down beside it because he was tired from
travelling. It was midday, and after Jesus' disciples had gone into town to buy
some food, a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well.
Jesus asked her, "Would you please give me a drink of water?"
9 "You are a Jew," she replied, "and I am a Samaritan woman.
How can you ask me for a drink of water when Jews and Samaritans won't have
anything to do with each other?"(o) 10 Jesus answered, "You don't know
what God wants to give you, and you don't know who is asking you for a drink. If
you did, you would ask him for the water that gives life." 11"Sir,"
the woman said, "you don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where
are you going to get this life giving water? 12 Our ancestor Jacob dug this well
for us, and his family and animals got water from it. Are you greater than
Jacob?"
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty
again. 14 But no one who drinks the water I give will ever be thirsty again. The
water I give is like a flowing fountain that gives eternal life."
15 The woman replied, "Sir, please give me a drink of that water! Then
I won't get thirsty and have to come to this well again."
16 Jesus told her, "Go and bring your husband."
17-18 The woman answered, I don't have a husband." "That's right",
Jesus replied, "you're telling the truth. You don't have a husband. You
have already been married five times, and the man you are now living with is not
you husband." 19 The woman said, "Sir, I can see that you are a
prophet. 20 My ancestors worshipped on this mountain,(p) but you Jews say
Jerusalem is the only place to worship."
21 Jesus said to her: Believe me, the time is coming when you won't
worship God either on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans don;t
really know the one you worship. But we Jews do know the God we worship, and by
using us God will save the world. 23 But a time is coming, and it is already
here! Even now the true worshippers are being led by the spirit to worship the
Father according to the truth. These are the ones the Father is seeking to
worship him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship God must be led by the
Spirit to worship him according to the truth.
25 The woman said, "I know the Messiah will come. He is the one we
call Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26 "I am that one, " Jesus told her, "and I am speaking to
you now."
27 The disciples returned about this time and were surprised to find Jesus
talking with a woman. But none of them asked him what he wanted or why he was
talking with her. 28 The woman left her water jar and ran back into town. She
said to the people, 29 "Come and see a man who told me everything I have
ever done! Could he be the Messiah?" 30 Everyone in town went to see Jesus.
31 While this was happening, Jesus disciples were saying to him, "Teacher,
please eat something." 32 But Jesus told them "I have food that you
don't know anything about."
33 His disciples started asking each other, "Has someone brought him
something to eat?"
34 Jesus said: My food is to do what God wants! He is the one who sent me,
and I must finish the work he gave me to do. 35 You may say that there are still
four months until harvest time. But I tell you to look, and you will see that
the fields are ripe and ready to harvest. 36 Even now the harvest workers are
receiving their reward by gathering a harvest that brings eternal life. Then
everyone who planted the seed and everyone who harvests the crop will celebrate
together. 37 So the saying proves true, "Some plant seed, and others
harvest the crop." 38 I am sending you to harvest crops in the fields where
others have done all the hard work.
39 A lot of Samaritans in that town put their faith in Jesus because the
woman had said, "This man told me everything I have ever done." 40
They came and asked him to stay in their town, and he stayed for two days. 41
Many more put their faith in Jesus because of what they heard him say. 42 They
told the woman, "We no longer have faith in Jesus just because of what you
told us. We have heard him ourselves, and we are certain that he is the Saviour
of the world!"
(p) this mountain: Mount Gerizim, near the city of Shechem.
Jesus Heals an Official's Son
43-44 Jesus had said, "Prophets are honoured everywhere, except in
their own country." Then two days later he left 45 and went to Galilee.
The people there welcomed him, because they had gone to the festival in
Jerusalem and had seen everything he had done.
45 While Jesus was in Galilee, he returned to the village of Cana, where he
had turned water into wine. There was an official in Capernaum whose son was
sick. 47 And when the man heard Jesus had come from Judea, he went and begged
him to keep his son from dying. 48 Jesus told the official, "You won't have
faith unless you see miracles and wonders!" 49 The man replied, "Lord,
please come before my son dies!"
50 Jesus then said, "Your son will live. Go on home to him." The
man believed Jesus and started back home. 51 Some of the official's servants met
him along the road and told him, "Your son is better!" 52 He asked
them when the boy got better, and they answered, "The fever left him
yesterday at one o'clock." 53 the boy's father realised that at one o'clock
the day before Jesus had told him, "Your son will live!" So the man
and everyone in his family put their faith in Jesus. 54 This was the the second
miracle(q) that Jesus worked after he left Judea and went to Galilee.
(q) miracle: See the note at 2. 11.
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