He Touch Many Lives – John 3:1-5:15

3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: ² the same came unto him by night, and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that thou doest, except God be with him. ³ Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born ^[a]anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ⁴ Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? ⁵ Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born ^[b]anew. ^8 [c]The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. ⁹ Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? ¹⁰ Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou the teacher of Israel, and understandest not these things? ¹¹ Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. ¹² If I told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³ And no one hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man, ^[d]who is in heaven. ¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; ¹⁵ that whosoever ^[e]believeth may in him have eternal life.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him. ¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. ²⁰ For every one that ^[f]doeth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be ^[g]reproved. ²¹ But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, ^[h]that they have been wrought in God.

²² After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized. ²³ And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there ^[i]was much water there: and they came, and were baptized. ²⁴ For John was not yet cast into prison. ²⁵ There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purifying. ²⁶ And they came unto John, and said to him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou hast borne witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. ²⁷ John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven. ²⁸ Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but, that I am sent before him. ²⁹ He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, that standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is made full. ³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease.

³¹ He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is of the earth, and of the earth he speaketh: ^[j]he that cometh from heaven is above all. ³² What he hath seen and heard, of that he beareth witness; and no man receiveth his witness. ³³ He that hath received his witness hath set his seal to this, that God is true. ³⁴ For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for he giveth not the Spirit by measure. ³⁵ The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. ³⁶ He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that ^[k]obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

4 When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ² (although Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples), ³ he left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. ⁴ And he must needs pass through Samaria. ⁵ So he cometh to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph: ⁶ and Jacob’s ^[l]well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat ^[m]thus by the ^[n]well. It was about the sixth hour. ⁷ There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. ⁸ For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy food. ⁹ The Samaritan woman therefore saith unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman? ^[o](For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. ¹¹ The woman saith unto him, ^[p]Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: whence then hast thou that living water? ¹² Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his sons, and his cattle? ¹³ Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again: ¹⁴ but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life. ¹⁵ The woman saith unto him, ^[q]Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come all the way hither to draw. ¹⁶ Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. ¹⁷ The woman answered and said unto him, I have no husband. Jesus saith unto her, Thou saidst well, I have no husband: ¹⁸ for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: this hast thou said truly. ¹⁹ The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. ²¹ Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. ²² Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: ^[r]for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. ^24 [s]God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth. ²⁵ The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh (he that is called Christ): when he is come, he will declare unto us all things. ²⁶ Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

²⁷ And upon this came his disciples; and they marvelled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why speakest thou with her? ²⁸ So the woman left her waterpot, and went away into the city, and saith to the people, ²⁹ Come, see a man, who told me all things that ever I did: can this be the Christ? ³⁰ They went out of the city, and were coming to him. ³¹ In the mean while the disciples prayed him, saying, Rabbi, eat. ³² But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not. ³³ The disciples therefore said one to another, Hath any man brought him aught to eat? ³⁴ Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to accomplish his work. ³⁵ Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are ^[t]white already unto harvest. ³⁶ He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. ³⁷ For herein is the saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. ³⁸ I sent you to reap that whereon ye have not labored: others have labored, and ye are entered into their labor.

³⁹ And from that city many of the Samaritans believed on him because of the word of the woman, who testified, He told me all things that ever I did. ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came unto him, they besought him to abide with them: and he abode there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of his word; ⁴² and they said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy speaking: for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.

⁴³ And after the two days he went forth from thence into Galilee. ⁴⁴ For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honor in his own country. ⁴⁵ So when he came into Galilee, the Galilaeans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast: for they also went unto the feast.

⁴⁶ He came therefore again unto Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain ^[u]nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸ Jesus therefore said unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will in no wise believe. ⁴⁹ The ^[v]nobleman saith unto him, ^[w]Sir, come down ere my child die. ⁵⁰ Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. The man believed the word that Jesus spake unto him, and he went his way. ⁵¹ And as he was now going down, his ^[x]servants met him, saying, that his son lived. ⁵² So he inquired of them the hour when he began to amend. They said therefore unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. ⁵³ So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. ⁵⁴ This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judaea into Galilee.

5 After these things there was ^[y]a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew ^[z]Bethesda, having five porches. ³ In these lay a multitude of them that were sick, blind, halt, withered^[aa]. ⁵ And a certain man was there, who had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wouldest thou be made whole? ⁷ The sick man answered him, ^[ab]Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. ⁸ Jesus saith unto him, Arise, take up thy ^[ac]bed, and walk. ⁹ And straightway the man was made whole, and took up his ^[ad]bed and walked.

Now it was the sabbath on that day. ¹⁰ So the Jews said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for thee to take up thy ^[ae]bed. ¹¹ But he answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy ^[af]bed, and walk. ¹² They asked him, Who is the man that said unto thee, Take up thy ^[ag]bed, and walk? ¹³ But he that was healed knew not who it was; for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in the place. ¹⁴ Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee. ¹⁵ The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him whole.