John 3–4

Jesus and Nicodemus

3There was a man from the Pharisees ^xnamed Nicodemus, ^ya ruler ^zof the Jews. ²This man came to Him at night and said, “Rabbi, ^awe know that You have come from God ^bas a teacher, ^cfor no one could perform these signs You do unless God were with him.” ^d

³Jesus replied, “^•I assure you: Unless someone is born again, ^efhe cannot see the kingdom of God.” ^g

⁴“But how can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked Him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

⁵Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born ^hof water and the Spirit, ^ijhe cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶Whatever is born of the flesh ^kis flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit ^lis spirit. ⁷Do not be amazed that I told you that you ^mmust be born ⁿagain. ⁸The wind ^oblows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. ^pSo it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” ^q

⁹“How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

¹⁰“Are you a teacher ^rof Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. ¹¹“I assure you: ^sWe speak what We know and We testify to what We have seen, but you ^tdo not accept Our testimony. ^u12If I have told you about things that happen on earth and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about things of heaven? ¹³No one has ascended ^vinto heaven ^wexcept the One who descended from heaven ^x—the ^•Son of Man. ^yz14Just as Moses ^alifted up the snake in the wilderness, ^bso the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵so that everyone who believes in Him will ^chave eternal life. ^d

¹⁶“For God loved ^ethe world ^•in this way: ^fHe gave His ^•One and Only ^gSon, ^hso that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. ⁱ¹⁷For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn ^jthe world, but that the world might be saved through Him. ¹⁸Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, ^kbecause he has not believed in the name ^lof the One and Only Son ^mof God.

¹⁹“This, then, is the judgment: The light ⁿhas come into the world, ^oand people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For everyone who practices wicked things hates ^pthe light and avoids it, ^qso that his deeds ^rmay not be exposed. ²¹But anyone who lives by ^sthe truth comes to the light, so that his works ^tmay be shown to be accomplished by God.” ^u

Jesus and John the Baptist

²²After this, Jesus and His disciples went to the Judean countryside, where He spent time with them and baptized. ²³John ^valso was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People were coming and being baptized, ²⁴since John had not yet been thrown into prison. ^w

²⁵Then a dispute arose between John’s disciples ^xand a Jew ^yabout purification. ^z26So they came to John and told him, “Rabbi, ^athe One you testified about, and who was with you across the Jordan, ^bis baptizing—and everyone is flocking to Him.” ^c

²⁷John responded, “No one can receive a single thing unless it’s given to him from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, ^dbut I’ve been sent ahead of Him.’ ^e29He who has the bride ^fis the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly ^gat the groom’s voice. So this joy ^hof mine is complete. ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.”

The One from Heaven

³¹The One who comes from above ⁱis above all. The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms. ^jThe One who comes from heaven is above all. ^k32He testifies ^lto what He has seen and heard, yet no one accepts His testimony. ³³The one who has accepted His testimony has affirmed that God is true. ^m34For God sent Him, and He speaks God’s words, since He ⁿgives the Spirit ^owithout measure. ³⁵The Father loves the Son ^pand has given all things into His hands. ^q36The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who refuses to believe in the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him. ^r

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

4When Jesus ^sknew that the Pharisees ^theard He was making ^uand baptizing more disciples than John ^v2(though Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), ³He left Judea ^wand went again to Galilee. ^x4He had to travel through Samaria, ^y5so He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property ^zthat Jacob ^ahad given his son Joseph. ^b6Jacob’s well ^cwas there, and Jesus, worn out from His journey, sat down at the well. It was about six in the evening. ^d

⁷A woman of Samaria came to draw water. ^e

“Give Me a drink,” Jesus said to her, ⁸for His disciples had gone into town to buy food.

⁹“How is it that You, a Jew, ^fask for a drink from me, a Samaritan ^gwoman?” she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with ^hSamaritans. ⁱ

¹⁰Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, ^jand who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.” ^k

¹¹“Sir,” ^lsaid the woman, “You don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do You get this ‘living water’? ¹²You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, ^mare You? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”

¹³Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. ¹⁴But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again—ever! ⁿIn fact, the water I will give him will become a well ^opof water springing up within him for eternal life.” ^q

¹⁵“Sir,” the woman said to Him, “give me this water so I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”

¹⁶“Go call your husband,” He told her, “and come back here.”

¹⁷“I don’t have a husband,” she answered.

“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. ¹⁸“For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

¹⁹“Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that You are a prophet. ²⁰Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, ^rsyet you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” ^t

²¹Jesus told her, “Believe Me, ^•woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans ^uworship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. ^v23But an hour is coming, and is now here, ^wwhen the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. ²⁴God is spirit, ^xand those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” ^y

²⁵The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah ^zais coming” (who is called Christ ^b). “When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

²⁶“I am He,” ^cJesus told her, “the One speaking to you.”

The Ripened Harvest

²⁷Just then His disciples arrived, and they were amazed that He was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do You want?” or “Why are You talking with her?”

²⁸Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the men, ²⁹“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could this be the Messiah?” ^d30They left the town and made their way to Him. ^e

³¹In the meantime the disciples kept urging Him, “Rabbi, ^feat something.”

³²But He said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

³³The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought Him something to eat?”

³⁴“My food is to do the will of Him ^gwho sent Me ^hand to finish His work,” ⁱJesus told them. ³⁵“Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open ^jyour eyes and look at the fields, for they are ready ^kfor harvest. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, ^lso the sower and reaper can rejoice together. ³⁷For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ^m38I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from ⁿtheir labor.”

The Savior of the World

³⁹Now many Samaritans ^ofrom that town believed in Him because of what the woman said ^pwhen she testified, ^q“He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰Therefore, when the Samaritans came to Him, ^rthey asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days. ⁴¹Many more believed because of what He said. ^s42And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior ^tof the world.” ^u

A Galilean Welcome

⁴³After two days He left there for Galilee. ^v44Jesus Himself testified ^wthat a prophet has no honor in his own country. ^x45When ^ythey entered Galilee, the Galileans ^zwelcomed Him because they had seen everything He did in Jerusalem ^aduring the festival. ^bFor they also had gone to the festival.

The Second Sign: Healing an Official’s Son

⁴⁶Then He went again to Cana ^cof Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. ^d47When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea ^einto Galilee, he went to Him and pleaded with Him to come down and heal his son, for he was about to die.

⁴⁸Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, ^fyou will not believe.” ^g

⁴⁹“Sir,” ^hthe official said to Him, “come down before my boy dies!”

⁵⁰“Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what ⁱJesus said to him and departed.

⁵¹While he was still going down, his slaves met him saying that his boy was alive. ⁵²He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at seven in the morning ^jthe fever left him,” they answered. ⁵³The father ^krealized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” Then he himself believed, along with his whole household.

⁵⁴This, therefore, was the second sign ^lJesus performed after He came from Judea to Galilee. ^m