John 5; John 6

John 5

1 Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for a Jewish festival.

2 Near Sheep Gate in Jerusalem was a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew. It had five porches.

3 Under these porches a large number of sick people--people who were blind, lame, or paralyzed--used to lie.

4

5 One man, who had been sick for 38 years, was lying there.

6 Jesus saw the man lying there and knew that he had been sick for a long time. So Jesus asked the man, "Would you like to get well?"

7 The sick man answered Jesus, "Sir, I don't have anyone to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I'm trying to get there, someone else steps into the pool ahead of me."

8 Jesus told the man, "Get up, pick up your cot, and walk."

9 The man immediately became well, picked up his cot, and walked. That happened on a day of worship.

10 So the Jews told the man who had been healed, "This is a day of worship. You're not allowed to carry your cot today."

11 The man replied, "The man who made me well told me to pick up my cot and walk."

12 The Jews asked him, "Who is the man who told you to pick it up and walk?"

13 But the man who had been healed didn't know who Jesus was. (Jesus had withdrawn from the crowd.)

14 Later, Jesus met the man in the temple courtyard and told him, "You're well now. Stop sinning so that something worse doesn't happen to you."

15 The man went back to the Jews and told them that Jesus was the man who had made him well.

16 The Jews began to persecute Jesus because he kept healing people on the day of worship.

17 Jesus replied to them, "My Father is working right now, and so am I."

18 His reply made the Jews more intent on killing him. Not only did he break the laws about the day of worship, but also he made himself equal to God when he said repeatedly that God was his Father.

19 Jesus said to the Jews, "I can guarantee this truth: The Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing. Indeed, the Son does exactly what the Father does.

20 The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. The Father will show him even greater things to do than these things so that you will be amazed.

21 In the same way that the Father brings back the dead and gives them life, the Son gives life to anyone he chooses.

22 "The Father doesn't judge anyone. He has entrusted judgment entirely to the Son

23 so that everyone will honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever doesn't honor the Son doesn't honor the Father who sent him.

24 I can guarantee this truth: Those who listen to what I say and believe in the one who sent me will have eternal life. They won't be judged because they have already passed from death to life.

25 "I can guarantee this truth: A time is coming (and is now here) when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who respond to it will live.

26 The Father is the source of life, and he has enabled the Son to be the source of life too.

27 "He has also given the Son authority to pass judgment because he is the Son of Man.

28 Don't be surprised at what I've just said. A time is coming when all the dead will hear his voice,

29 and they will come out of their tombs. Those who have done good will come back to life and live. But those who have done evil will come back to life and will be judged.

30 I can't do anything on my own. As I listen [to the Father], I make my judgments. My judgments are right because I don't try to do what I want but what the one who sent me wants.

31 "If I testify on my own behalf, what I say isn't true.

32 Someone else testifies on my behalf, and I know that what he says about me is true.

33 You sent people to John [the Baptizer], and he testified to the truth.

34 But I don't depend on human testimony. I'm telling you this to save you.

35 John was a lamp that gave off brilliant light. For a time you enjoyed the pleasure of his light.

36 But I have something that testifies more favorably on my behalf than John's testimony. The tasks that the Father gave me to carry out, these tasks which I perform, testify on my behalf. They prove that the Father has sent me.

37 The Father who sent me testifies on my behalf. You have never heard his voice, and you have never seen his form.

38 So you don't have the Father's message within you, because you don't believe in the person he has sent.

39 You study the Scriptures in detail because you think you have the source of eternal life in them. These Scriptures testify on my behalf.

40 Yet, you don't want to come to me to get [eternal] life.

41 "I don't accept praise from humans.

42 But I know what kind of people you are. You don't have any love for God.

43 I have come with the authority my Father has given me, but you don't accept me. If someone else comes with his own authority, you will accept him.

44 How can you believe when you accept each other's praise and don't look for the praise that comes from the only God?

45 "Don't think that I will accuse you in the presence of the Father. Moses, the one you trust, is already accusing you.

46 If you really believed Moses, you would believe me. Moses wrote about me.

47 If you don't believe what Moses wrote, how will you ever believe what I say?"

John 6

1 Jesus later crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or the Sea of Tiberias).

2 A large crowd followed him because they saw the miracles that he performed for the sick.

3 Jesus went up a mountain and sat with his disciples.

4 The time for the Jewish Passover festival was near.

5 As Jesus saw a large crowd coming to him, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?"

6 Jesus asked this question to test him. He already knew what he was going to do.

7 Philip answered, "We would need about a year's wages to buy enough bread for each of them to have a piece."

8 One of Jesus' disciples, Andrew, who was Simon Peter's brother, told him,

9 "A boy who has five loaves of barley bread and two small fish is here. But they won't go very far for so many people."

10 Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." The people had plenty of grass to sit on. (There were about 5,000 men in the crowd.)

11 Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to the people who were sitting there. He did the same thing with the fish. All the people ate as much as they wanted.

12 When the people were full, Jesus told his disciples, "Gather the leftover pieces so that nothing will be wasted."

13 The disciples gathered the leftover pieces of bread and filled twelve baskets.

14 When the people saw the miracle Jesus performed, they said, "This man is certainly the prophet who is to come into the world."

15 Jesus realized that the people intended to take him by force and make him king. So he returned to the mountain by himself.

16 When evening came, his disciples went to the sea.

17 They got into a boat and started to cross the sea to the city of Capernaum. By this time it was dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

18 A strong wind started to blow and stir up the sea.

19 After they had rowed three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they became terrified.

20 Jesus told them, "It's me. Don't be afraid!"

21 So they were willing to help Jesus into the boat. Immediately, the boat reached the shore where they were going.

22 On the next day the people were still on the other side of the sea. They noticed that only one boat was there and that Jesus had not stepped into that boat with his disciples. The disciples had gone away without him.

23 Other boats from Tiberias arrived near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord gave thanks.

24 When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into these boats and went to the city of Capernaum to look for Jesus.

25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

26 Jesus replied to them, "I can guarantee this truth: You're not looking for me because you saw miracles. You are looking for me because you ate as much of those loaves as you wanted.

27 Don't work for food that spoils. Instead, work for the food that lasts into eternal life. This is the food the Son of Man will give you. After all, the Father has placed his seal of approval on him."

28 The people asked Jesus, "What does God want us to do?"

29 Jesus replied to them, "God wants to do something for you so that you believe in the one whom he has sent."

30 The people asked him, "What miracle are you going to perform so that we can see it and believe in you? What are you going to do?

31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the desert. Scripture says, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

32 Jesus said to them, "I can guarantee this truth: Moses didn't give you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

33 God's bread is the man who comes from heaven and gives life to the world."

34 They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread all the time."

35 Jesus told them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never become hungry, and whoever believes in me will never become thirsty.

36 I've told you that you have seen me. However, you don't believe in me.

37 Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me. I will never turn away anyone who comes to me.

38 I haven't come from heaven to do what I want to do. I've come to do what the one who sent me wants me to do.

39 The one who sent me doesn't want me to lose any of those he gave me. He wants me to bring them back to life on the last day.

40 My Father wants all those who see the Son and believe in him to have eternal life. He wants me to bring them back to life on the last day."

41 The Jews began to criticize Jesus for saying, "I am the bread that came from heaven."

42 They asked, "Isn't this man Jesus, Joseph's son? Don't we know his father and mother? How can he say now, 'I came from heaven'?"

43 Jesus responded, "Stop criticizing me!

44 People cannot come to me unless the Father who sent me brings them to me. I will bring these people back to life on the last day.

45 The prophets wrote, 'God will teach everyone.' Those who do what they have learned from the Father come to me.

46 I'm saying that no one has seen the Father. Only the one who is from God has seen the Father.

47 I can guarantee this truth: Every believer has eternal life.

48 "I am the bread of life.

49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert and died.

50 This is the bread that comes from heaven so that whoever eats it won't die.

51 I am the living bread that came from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. The bread I will give to bring life to the world is my flesh."

52 The Jews began to quarrel with each other. They said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

53 Jesus told them, "I can guarantee this truth: If you don't eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don't have the source of life in you.

54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will bring them back to life on the last day.

55 My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them.

57 The Father who has life sent me, and I live because of the Father. So those who feed on me will live because of me.

58 This is the bread that came from heaven. It is not like the bread your ancestors ate. They eventually died. Those who eat this bread will live forever."

59 Jesus said this while he was teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum.

60 When many of Jesus' disciples heard him, they said, "What he says is hard to accept. Who wants to listen to him anymore?"

61 Jesus was aware that his disciples were criticizing his message. So Jesus asked them, "Did what I say make you lose faith?

62 What if you see the Son of Man go where he was before?

63 Life is spiritual. Your physical existence doesn't contribute to that life. The words that I have spoken to you are spiritual. They are life.

64 But some of you don't believe." Jesus knew from the beginning those who wouldn't believe and the one who would betray him.

65 So he added, "That is why I told you that people cannot come to me unless the Father provides the way."

66 Jesus' speech made many of his disciples go back to the lives they had led before they followed Jesus.

67 So Jesus asked the twelve apostles, "Do you want to leave me too?"

68 Simon Peter answered Jesus, "Lord, to what person could we go? Your words give eternal life.

69 Besides, we believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

70 Jesus replied, "I chose all twelve of you. Yet, one of you is a devil."

71 Jesus meant Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. Judas, who was one of the twelve apostles, would later betray Jesus.