John 1

The Word Was There from the Start

1 In the beginning, before anything was even moving, the Word was already there, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was right there with God from the jump.

3 Everything that exists came through Him. There is nothing out here that was made without Him being involved.

4 In Him was life, real life, and that life was the light for people.

5 That light shines in the darkness, and no matter how dark it gets, the darkness cannot overpower it.

John Came to Point People to the Light

6 There was a man sent from God, his name was John.

7 He came as a witness, just to testify about the light, so people could believe through him.

8 He was not the light himself, he just came to point folks to it.

9 The true Light, the one that lights up every person, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and even though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.

11 He came to His own people, and they still did not receive Him.

12 But to everybody who did receive Him, who really believed in His name, He gave them the right to become children of God.

13 Not born off human effort, not by somebody’s decision, not by flesh, but born from God Himself.

The Word Became Flesh

14 And the Word became flesh, stepped into the world, and lived among us. We saw His glory, real glory, like the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 John testified about Him, saying, “This is the One I was talking about. He comes after me, but He ranks way above me, because He existed before me.”

16 From His fullness, we all received grace on top of grace.

17 The Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

18 Nobody has seen God at any time, but the one and only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, He is the One who made Him known.

John the Baptist Keeps It Real

19 This is the testimony of John, when the religious leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

20 He did not hold back, he kept it real, saying, “I am not the Christ.”

21 They asked him, “Then what, are you Elijah,” He said, “Nah.” “You the Prophet,” He said, “Nope.”

22 So they said, “Then who are you? We must give an answer to the ones who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

23 He said, “I am just a voice out here in the wilderness, telling people, ‘Make the path straight for the Lord,’ just like Isaiah said.”

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.

25 They asked him, “If you not the Christ, or Elijah, or the Prophet, why are you baptizing people?”

26 John answered, “I baptize with water, but there is One standing among you right now that you do not even recognize.

27 He is coming after me, but I am not even worthy to untie His sandals.”

28 All this went down in Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Behold the Lamb of God

29 The next day, John saw Jesus coming and said, “Look, that is the Lamb of God, the One who takes away the sin of the world!

30 That is who I was talking about when I said someone is coming after me who ranks above me, because He existed before me.

31 I did not even fully know Him at first, but I came baptizing so He would be revealed to Israel.”

32 John testified, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven like a dove and stay on Him.

33 I did not recognize Him at first, but the One who sent me to baptize told me, ‘Whoever you see the Spirit come down on and remain, that is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

34 And I have seen it, and I testify that this is the Son of God.”

First Disciples Start Following

35 The next day, John was standing with two of his guys,

36 and when he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

37 Those two heard him say that, and they started following Jesus.

38 Jesus turned around and saw them trailing Him and said, “What are you looking for?” They said, “Rabbi (which means Teacher), where are You staying?”

39 He said, “Come and see.” So they rolled with Him, saw where He was staying, and stayed with Him that day, it was about late afternoon.

40 One of them was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.

41 First thing Andrew did was find his brother Simon and tell him, “We found the Messiah” (which means Christ).

42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You Simon, son of John, but from now on you will be called Cephas” (which means Peter).

Jesus Calls More People

43 The next day, Jesus decided to head to Galilee, and He found Philip and told him, “Follow Me.”

44 Philip was from Bethsaida, same town as Andrew and Peter.

45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, and the prophets talked about too, Jesus from Nazareth, Joseph’s son.”

46 Nathanael said, “Nazareth, Anything good come from there,” Philip said, “Come see for yourself.”

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming and said, “Here is a real one, no fake in him.”

48 Nathanael said, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, when you were under that fig tree, I saw you.”

49 Nathanael said, “Rabbi, You the Son of God. You the King of Israel.”

50 Jesus answered, “You believe just because I said I saw you under that tree, You are about to see way bigger things than that.”

51 And He said, “For real, you are going to see heaven opened up, and angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man.”