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John 3; John 4
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John 3
1
There was a Jewish leader named Nicodemus, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees.
2
One night he went to Jesus and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God. No one could perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him."
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Jesus answered, "I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again."
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"How can a grown man be born again?" Nicodemus asked. "He certainly cannot enter his mother's womb and be born a second time!"
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"I am telling you the truth," replied Jesus, "that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.
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A person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit.
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Do not be surprised because I tell you that you must all be born again.
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The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
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"How can this be?" asked Nicodemus.
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Jesus answered, "You are a great teacher in Israel, and you don't know this?
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I am telling you the truth: we speak of what we know and report what we have seen, yet none of you is willing to accept our message.
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You do not believe me when I tell you about the things of this world; how will you ever believe me, then, when I tell you about the things of heaven?
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And no one has ever gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from heaven."
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As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the desert, in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up,
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so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
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For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.
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For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior.
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Those who believe in the Son are not judged; but those who do not believe have already been judged, because they have not believed in God's only Son.
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This is how the judgment works: the light has come into the world, but people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil.
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Those who do evil things hate the light and will not come to the light, because they do not want their evil deeds to be shown up.
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But those who do what is true come to the light in order that the light may show that what they did was in obedience to God.
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After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the province of Judea, where he spent some time with them and baptized.
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John also was baptizing in Aenon, not far from Salim, because there was plenty of water in that place. People were going to him, and he was baptizing them
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(This was before John had been put in prison.)
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Some of John's disciples began arguing with a Jew about the matter of ritual washing.
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So they went to John and told him, "Teacher, you remember the man who was with you on the east side of the Jordan, the one you spoke about? Well, he is baptizing now, and everyone is going to him!"
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John answered, "No one can have anything unless God gives it.
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You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, "I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.'
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The bridegroom is the one to whom the bride belongs; but the bridegroom's friend, who stands by and listens, is glad when he hears the bridegroom's voice. This is how my own happiness is made complete.
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He must become more important while I become less important."
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He who comes from above is greater than all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly matters, but he who comes from heaven is above all.
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He tells what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his message.
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But whoever accepts his message confirms by this that God is truthful.
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The one whom God has sent speaks God's words, because God gives him the fullness of his Spirit.
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The Father loves his Son and has put everything in his power.
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Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not have life, but will remain under God's punishment.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
John 4
1
(The Pharisees heard that Jesus was winning and baptizing more disciples than John
2
Actually, Jesus himself did not baptize anyone; only his disciples did.)
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So when Jesus heard what was being said, he left Judea and went back to Galilee;
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on his way there he had to go through Samaria.
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In Samaria he came to a town named Sychar, which was not far from the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
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Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by the trip, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
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(A Samaritan woman came to draw some water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink of water.
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His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)
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The woman answered, "You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan - so how can you ask me for a drink?" (Jews will not use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans use.)
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Jesus answered, "If you only knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water."
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"Sir," the woman said, "you don't have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where would you get that life-giving water?
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It was our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well; he and his children and his flocks all drank from it. You don't claim to be greater than Jacob, do you?"
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Jesus answered, "Those who drink this water will get thirsty again,
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but those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring which will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life."
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"Sir," the woman said, "give me that water! Then I will never be thirsty again, nor will I have to come here to draw water."
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"Go and call your husband," Jesus told her, "and come back."
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"I don't have a husband," she answered. Jesus replied, "You are right when you say you don't have a husband.
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You have been married to five men, and the man you live with now is not really your husband. You have told me the truth."
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"I see you are a prophet, sir," the woman said.
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"My Samaritan ancestors worshiped God on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where we should worship God."
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Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem.
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You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship; but we Jews know whom we worship, because it is from the Jews that salvation comes.
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But the time is coming and is already here, when by the power of God's Spirit people will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship that he wants.
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God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is."
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The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah will come, and when he comes, he will tell us everything."
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Jesus answered, "I am he, I who am talking with you."
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At that moment Jesus' disciples returned, and they were greatly surprised to find him talking with a woman. But none of them said to her, "What do you want?" or asked him, "Why are you talking with her?"
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Then the woman left her water jar, went back to the town, and said to the people there,
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"Come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done. Could he be the Messiah?"
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So they left the town and went to Jesus.
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In the meantime the disciples were begging Jesus, "Teacher, have something to eat!"
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But he answered, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
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So the disciples started asking among themselves, "Could somebody have brought him food?"
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"My food," Jesus said to them, "is to obey the will of the one who sent me and to finish the work he gave me to do.
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You have a saying, "Four more months and then the harvest.' But I tell you, take a good look at the fields; the crops are now ripe and ready to be harvested!
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The one who reaps the harvest is being paid and gathers the crops for eternal life; so the one who plants and the one who reaps will be glad together.
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For the saying is true, "Someone plants, someone else reaps.'
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I have sent you to reap a harvest in a field where you did not work; others worked there, and you profit from their work."
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Many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus because the woman had said, "He told me everything I have ever done."
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So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days.
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Many more believed because of his message,
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and they told the woman, "We believe now, not because of what you said, but because we ourselves have heard him, and we know that he really is the Savior of the world."
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After spending two days there, Jesus left and went to Galilee.
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For he himself had said, "Prophets are not respected in their own country."
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When he arrived in Galilee, the people there welcomed him, because they had gone to the Passover Festival in Jerusalem and had seen everything that he had done during the festival.
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Then Jesus went back to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. A government official was there whose son was sick in Capernaum.
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When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to go to Capernaum and heal his son, who was about to die.
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Jesus said to him, "None of you will ever believe unless you see miracles and wonders."
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"Sir," replied the official, "come with me before my child dies."
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Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live!" The man believed Jesus' words and went.
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On his way home his servants met him with the news, "Your boy is going to live!"
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He asked them what time it was when his son got better, and they answered, "It was one o'clock yesterday afternoon when the fever left him."
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Then the father remembered that it was at that very hour when Jesus had told him, "Your son will live." So he and all his family believed.
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This was the second miracle that Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.