John 1:19-51

19The Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask John, ‘Who are you?’

20John did not refuse to answer. He said, ‘I am not the Messiah.’

21So they asked him, ‘So who are you? Are you Elijah?’ John said, ‘No, I am not.’ They asked, ‘Are you the Prophet?’ John answered, ‘No.’

22Then they said, ‘Tell us who you are. We must say something to the people who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’

23He said, ‘I am the voice of somebody shouting in the wilderness: “The Lord will come soon. Make a straight path for him to follow.” That is what the prophet Isaiah said a long time ago.’

24The men who came to ask these questions were Pharisees.

25They said to John, ‘You say that you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet. So why do you baptize people?’

26John replied, ‘I baptize people with water. But there is someone here among you that you do not know.

27He is the one who comes after me. I am not good enough even to undo his shoes for him.’

28All these things happened at a place east from the Jordan River. It was a village called Bethany. John was baptizing people there.

29The next day, John saw Jesus, who was coming towards him. John said, ‘Look! Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of people in the world.

30This is the man that I told you about. I told you, “He comes after me, but he is greater than I am. He was already there before I was born.”

31I did not know him. But I had to show Israel's people who he was. That is why I am baptizing people with water.’

32Then John told them, ‘I saw God's Spirit come down from heaven. He came down like a dove and he stayed on Jesus.

33I would not have known who Jesus was. But God had sent me to baptize people with water. And God told me, “You will see the Spirit come down. He will stay on someone. That is the person who will baptize people with my Holy Spirit.”

34Now I have seen this. So I can tell you that this is God's Son.’

35John was standing there again the next day, with two of his disciples.

36He saw Jesus, who was walking past them. John said, ‘Look! Here is the Lamb of God.’

37When the two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.

38Then Jesus turned round. He saw that they were following him. He asked them, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi (which means “Teacher”), where are you staying?’

39Jesus replied, ‘Come with me and you will see.’ So they went with him. They saw where he was staying. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. And they stayed with him that day.

40Andrew was one of the two disciples who had followed Jesus. They had heard what John had said about Jesus. Andrew was Simon Peter's brother.

41The first thing that Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon. Andrew said to Simon, ‘We have found the Messiah.’ (‘Messiah’ and ‘Christ’ mean the same.)

42Then he brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at Simon and he said, ‘You are Simon, John's son. Your name will be Cephas.’ This name is the same as Peter, which means ‘rock’.

43The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He met Philip, and Jesus said to Philip, ‘Follow me.’

44Philip, like Andrew and Peter, came from the town of Bethsaida.

45Philip went to find Nathanael. He told Nathanael, ‘We have found the man that Moses wrote about in the book of God's Law. The prophets also wrote about him. He is Jesus, who is Joseph's son, from Nazareth.’

46Nathanael said, ‘I did not think that anything good could come from Nazareth!’ Philip replied, ‘Come and see.’

47Jesus saw Nathanael, who was coming towards him. Jesus said, ‘Here is a completely honest man. That is what a person from Israel should really be like.’

48Nathanael asked, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you before Philip asked you to come. I saw you when you were under the fig tree.’

49Nathanael said, ‘Teacher, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.’

50Jesus said to him, ‘I told you that I saw you under the fig tree. Now you believe me because I told you that. But you will see much greater things than that.’

51And Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you this: You will see heaven open. You will see God's angels. They will be going up and they will be coming down on the Son of Man.’