John 9-12

1Now as Jesus was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth,

2and His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him.

4While it is daytime, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work.

5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6When Jesus had said this, He spit on the ground, made some mud, and applied it to the man’s eyes.

7Then He told him, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing.

8At this, his neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging began to ask, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”

9Some claimed that he was, but others said, “No, he just looks like him.” But the man kept saying, “I am the one.”

10“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

11He answered, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and anointed my eyes, and He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight.”

12“Where is He?” they asked. “I do not know,” he answered.

13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.

14Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened his eyes was a Sabbath.

15So the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. The man answered, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.”

16Because of this, some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was division among them.

17So once again they asked the man who had been blind, “What do you say about Him, since it was your eyes He opened?” “He is a prophet,” the man replied.

18The Jews still did not believe that the man had been blind and had received his sight until they summoned his parents

19and asked, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he can now see?”

20His parents answered, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind.

21But how he can now see or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for himself.”

22His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already determined that anyone who confessed Jesus as the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.

23That was why his parents said, “He is old enough. Ask him.”

24So a second time they called for the man who had been blind and said, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.”

25He answered, “Whether He is a sinner I do not know. There is one thing I do know: I was blind, but now I see!”

26“What did He do to you?” they asked. “How did He open your eyes?”

27He replied, “I already told you, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”

28Then they heaped insults on him and said, “You are His disciple; we are disciples of Moses.

29We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this man is from.”

30“That is remarkable indeed!” the man said. “You do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes.

31We know that God does not listen to sinners, but He does listen to the one who worships Him and does His will.

32Never before has anyone heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.

33If this man were not from God, He could do no such thing.”

34They replied, “You were born in utter sin, and you are instructing us?” And they threw him out.

35When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, He found the man and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

36“Who is He, Sir?” he replied. “Tell me so that I may believe in Him.”

37“You have already seen Him,” Jesus answered. “He is the One speaking with you.”

38“Lord, I believe,” he said. And he worshiped Jesus.

39Then Jesus declared, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind.”

40Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard this, and they asked Him, “Are we blind too?”

41“If you were blind,” Jesus replied, “you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”

1“Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.

2But the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen for his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

4When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

5But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not recognize his voice.”

6Jesus spoke to them using this illustration, but they did not understand what He was telling them.

7So He said to them again, “Truly, truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

8All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

9I am the gate. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture.

10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.

11I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

12The hired hand is not the shepherd, and the sheep are not his own. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf pounces on them and scatters the flock.

13The man runs away because he is a hired servant and is unconcerned for the sheep.

14I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me,

15just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep.

16I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.

17The reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down My life in order to take it up again.

18No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.”

19Again there was division among the Jews because of Jesus’ message.

20Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and insane. Why would you listen to Him?”

21But others replied, “These are not the words of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

22At that time the Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter,

23and Jesus was walking in the temple courts in Solomon’s Colonnade.

24So the Jews gathered around Him and demanded, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

25“I already told you,” Jesus replied, “but you did not believe. The works I do in My Father’s name testify on My behalf.

26But because you are not My sheep, you refuse to believe.

27My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.

28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.

29My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.

30I and the Father are one.”

31At this, the Jews again picked up stones to stone Him.

32But Jesus responded, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?”

33“We are not stoning You for any good work,” said the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because You, who are a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

34Jesus replied, “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’?

35If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken—

36then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? How then can you accuse Me of blasphemy for stating that I am the Son of God?

37If I am not doing the works of My Father, then do not believe Me.

38But if I am doing them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works themselves, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father.”

39At this, they tried again to seize Him, but He escaped their grasp.

40Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had first been baptizing, and He stayed there.

41Many came to Him and said, “Although John never performed a sign, everything he said about this man was true.”

42And many in that place believed in Jesus.

1At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

2(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.)

3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”

4When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

5Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

6So on hearing that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two days,

7and then He said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

8“Rabbi,” they replied, “the Jews just tried to stone You, and You are going back there?”

9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world.

10But if anyone walks at night, he will stumble, because he has no light.”

11After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”

12His disciples replied, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will get better.”

13They thought that Jesus was talking about actual sleep, but He was speaking about the death of Lazarus.

14So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,

15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

16Then Thomas called Didymus said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

17When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already spent four days in the tomb.

18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, a little less than two miles away,

19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them in the loss of their brother.

20So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him, but Mary stayed at home.

21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.

22But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask of Him.”

23“Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.

24Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.

26And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27“Yes, Lord,” she answered, “I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

28After Martha had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside to tell her, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.”

29And when Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him.

30Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him.

31When the Jews who were in the house consoling Mary saw how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

32When Mary came to Jesus and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

34“Where have you put him?” He asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they answered.

35Jesus wept.

36Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

37But some of them asked, “Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?”

38Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

39“Take away the stone,” Jesus said. “Lord, by now he stinks,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man. “It has already been four days.”

40Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted His eyes upward and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.

42I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me.”

43After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

44The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth. “Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them.

45Therefore many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him.

46But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

47Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.

48If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

49But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all!

50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

51Caiaphas did not say this on his own. Instead, as high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation,

52and not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to gather them together into one.

53So from that day on they plotted to kill Him.

54As a result, Jesus no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but He withdrew to a town called Ephraim in an area near the wilderness. And He stayed there with the disciples.

55Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover.

56They kept looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple courts, “What do you think? Will He come to the feast at all?”

57But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where He was must report it, so that they could arrest Him.

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 pint of 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 denarii and 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.”

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.

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!”

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.

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 eyes and 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.”