The Temptation of Jesus

¹Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

²After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.

³The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴But Jesus answered, “It is written:‘Man shall not live on bread alone,but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵Then the devil took Him to the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple.

⁶“If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written:‘He will command His angels concerning You,and they will lift You up in their hands,so that You will not strike Your footagainst a stone.’”

⁷Jesus replied, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

⁹“All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will fall down and worship me.”

¹⁰“Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus told him. “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

¹¹Then the devil left Him, and angels came and ministered to Him.

Jesus Begins His Ministry

¹²When Jesus heard that John had been imprisoned, He withdrew to Galilee.

¹³Leaving Nazareth, He went and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,

¹⁴to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

¹⁵“Land of Zebulunand land of Naphtali,the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,Galilee of the Gentiles—

¹⁶the people living in darknesshave seen a great light;on those living in the land of the shadow of death,a light has dawned.”

¹⁷From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

The First Disciples

¹⁸As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

¹⁹“Come, follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

²⁰And at once they left their nets and followed Him.

²¹Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus called them,

²²and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed Him.

Jesus Heals the Multitudes

²³Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

²⁴News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering acute pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and He healed them.

²⁵Large crowds followed Him, having come from Galilee, the Decapolis,Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

Mary Anoints Jesus

¹Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.

²So they hosted a dinner for Jesus there. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with Him.

³Then Mary took about a pintof expensive perfume, made of pure nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

⁴But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was going to betray Him, asked,

⁵“Why wasn’t this perfume sold for three hundred denariiand the money given to the poor?”

⁶Judas did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money bag, he used to take from what was put into it.

⁷“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “She has kept this perfume in preparation for the day of My burial.

⁸The poor you will always have with you,but you will not always have Me.”

The Plot to Kill Lazarus

⁹Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews learned that Jesus was there. And they came not only because of Him, but also to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.

¹⁰So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well,

¹¹for on account of him many of the Jews were deserting them and believing in Jesus.

The Triumphal Entry

¹²The next day the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

¹³They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting:“Hosanna!”“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”“Blessed is the King of Israel!”

¹⁴Finding a young donkey, Jesus sat on it, as it is written:

¹⁵“Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion.See, your King is coming,seated on the colt of a donkey.”

¹⁶At first His disciples did not understand these things, but after Jesus was glorified they remembered what had been done to Him, and they realized that these very things had also been written about Him.

¹⁷Meanwhile, many people who had been with Jesus when He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify.

¹⁸That is also why the crowd went out to meet Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.

¹⁹Then the Pharisees said to one another, “You can see that this is doing you no good. Look how the whole world has gone after Him!”

Jesus Predicts His Death

²⁰Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast.

²¹They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and requested of him, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”

²²Philip relayed this appeal to Andrew, and both of them went and told Jesus.

²³But Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

²⁴Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

²⁵Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

²⁶If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, My servant will be as well. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

²⁷Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it is for this purpose that I have come to this hour.

²⁸Father, glorify Your name!”Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

²⁹The crowd standing there heard it and said that it had thundered. Others said that an angel had spoken to Him.

³⁰In response, Jesus said, “This voice was not for My benefit, but yours.

³¹Now judgment is upon this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out.

³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to Myself.”

³³He said this to indicate the kind of death He was going to die.

³⁴The crowd replied, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever. So how can You say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

³⁵Then Jesus told them, “For a little while longer, the Light will be among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

³⁶While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of light.”After Jesus had spoken these things, He went away and was hidden from them.

Belief and Unbelief

³⁷Although Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still did not believe in Him.

³⁸This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:“Lord, who has believed our message?And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

³⁹For this reason they were unable to believe. For again, Isaiah says:

⁴⁰“He has blinded their eyesand hardened their hearts,so that they cannot see with their eyes,and understand with their hearts,and turn,and I would heal them.”

⁴¹Isaiah said these things because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.

⁴²Nevertheless, many of the leaders believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.

⁴³For they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

⁴⁴Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in Me does not believe in Me alone, but in the One who sent Me.

⁴⁵And whoever sees Me sees the One who sent Me.

⁴⁶I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should remain in darkness.

⁴⁷As for anyone who hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

⁴⁸There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not receive My words: The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

⁴⁹I have not spoken on My own, but the Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it.

⁵⁰And I know that His command leads to eternal life. So I speak exactly what the Father has told Me to say.”

Jesus and Nicodemus

¹Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.

²He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.”

³Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

⁴“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

⁶Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

⁷Do not be amazed that I said, ‘Youmust be born again.’

⁸The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

⁹“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

¹⁰“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and you do not understand these things?

¹¹Truly, truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, and yet you people do not accept our testimony.

¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.

¹⁴Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

¹⁵that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.

¹⁶For God so loved the world that He gave His one and onlySon, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

¹⁷For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

¹⁸Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

¹⁹And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.

²⁰Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

²¹But whoever practices the truth comes into the Light, so that it may be seen clearly that what he has done has been accomplished in God.”

John’s Testimony about Jesus

²²After this, Jesus and His disciples went into the Judean countryside, where He spent some time with them and baptized.

²³Now John was also baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because the water was plentiful there, and people kept coming to be baptized.

²⁴(For John had not yet been thrown into prison.)

²⁵Then a dispute arose between John’s disciples and a certain Jewover the issue of ceremonial washing.

²⁶So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Look, Rabbi, the One who was with you beyond the Jordan, the One you testified about—He is baptizing, and everyone is going to Him.”

²⁷John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.

²⁸You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but am sent ahead of Him.’

²⁹The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom stands and listens for him, and is overjoyed to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.

³⁰He must increase; I must decrease.

³¹The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The One who comes from heaven is above all.

³²He testifies to what He has seen and heard, yet no one accepts His testimony.

³³Whoever accepts His testimony has certified that God is truthful.

³⁴For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

³⁵The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands.

³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.”

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

¹The heavens declare the glory of God;the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

²Day after day they pour forth speech;night after night they reveal knowledge.

³Without speech or language,without a sound to be heard,

⁴their voicehas gone out into all the earth,their words to the ends of the world.In the heavens He has pitcheda tent for the sun.

⁵Like a bridegroom emerging from his chamber,like a champion rejoicing to run his course,

⁶it rises at one end of the heavensand runs its circuit to the other;nothing is deprived of its warmth.

⁷The Law of the LORD is perfect,reviving the soul;the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy,making wise the simple.

⁸The precepts of the LORD are right,bringing joy to the heart;the commandments of the LORD are radiant,giving light to the eyes.

⁹The fear of the LORD is pure,enduring forever;the judgments of the LORD are true,being altogether righteous.

¹⁰They are more precious than gold,than much pure gold;they are sweeter than honey,than honey from the comb.

¹¹By them indeed Your servant is warned;in keeping them is great reward.

¹²Who can discern his own errors?Cleanse me from my hidden faults.

¹³Keep Your servant also from willful sins;may they not rule over me.Then I will be blamelessand cleansed of great transgression.

¹⁴May the words of my mouthand the meditation of my heartbe pleasing in Your sight,O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.