New Testament Plan

¹But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

²At dawn he went to the temple again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them.

³Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center.

⁴“Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery.

⁵In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”

⁶They asked this to trap him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse him. Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger.

⁷When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.”

⁸Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground.

⁹When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center.

¹⁰When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹“No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”

¹²Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

¹³So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

¹⁴“Even if I testify about myself,” Jesus replied, “My testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going.

¹⁵You judge by human standards. I judge no one.

¹⁶And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

¹⁷Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.

¹⁸I am the one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”

¹⁹Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?” “You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”

²⁰He spoke these words by the treasury, while teaching in the temple. But no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

²¹Then he said to them again, “I’m going away; you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.”

²²So the Jews said again, “He won’t kill himself, will he, since he says, ‘Where I’m going, you cannot come’ ?”

²³“You are from below,” he told them, “I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

²⁴Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

²⁵“Who are you?” they questioned. “Exactly what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them.

²⁶“I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him — these things I tell the world.”

²⁷They did not know he was speaking to them about the Father.

²⁸So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own. But just as the Father taught me, I say these things.

²⁹The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”

³⁰As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

³¹Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples.

³²You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

³³“We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”

³⁴Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

³⁵A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever.

³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.

³⁷I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you.

³⁸I speak what I have seen in the presence of the Father; so then, you do what you have heard from your father.”

³⁹“Our father is Abraham,” they replied. “If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did.

⁴⁰But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.

⁴¹You’re doing what your father does.” “We weren’t born of sexual immorality,” they said. “We have one Father — God.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on my own, but he sent me.

⁴³Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word.

⁴⁴You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

⁴⁵Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

⁴⁶Who among you can convict me of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?

⁴⁷The one who is from God listens to God’s words. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not from God.”

⁴⁸The Jews responded to him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon?”

⁴⁹“I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered. “On the contrary, I honor my Father and you dishonor me.

⁵⁰I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and judges.

⁵¹Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

⁵²Then the Jews said, “Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’

⁵³Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?”

⁵⁴“If I glorify myself,” Jesus answered, “my glory is nothing. My Father — about whom you say, ‘He is our God’ — he is the one who glorifies me.

⁵⁵You do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word.

⁵⁶Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”

⁵⁷The Jews replied, “You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?”

⁵⁸Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”

⁵⁹So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple.

¹As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth.

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

³“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him.

⁴We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.

⁵As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

⁶After he said these things he spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes.

⁷“Go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he left, washed, and came back seeing.

⁸His neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar said, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit begging?”

⁹Some said, “He’s the one.” Others were saying, “No, but he looks like him.” He kept saying, “I’m the one.”

¹⁰So they asked him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”

¹¹He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So when I went and washed I received my sight.”

¹²“Where is he?” they asked. “I don’t know,” he said.

¹³They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees.

¹⁴The day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes was a Sabbath.

¹⁵Then the Pharisees asked him again how he received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” he told them. “I washed and I can see.”

¹⁶Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was a division among them.

¹⁷Again they asked the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?” “He’s a prophet,” he said.

¹⁸The Jews did not believe this about him — that he was blind and received sight — until they summoned the parents of the one who had received his sight.

¹⁹They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”

²⁰“We know this is our son and that he was born blind,” his parents answered.

²¹“But we don’t know how he now sees, and we don’t know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he’s of age. He will speak for himself.”

²²His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews, since the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him as the Messiah, he would be banned from the synagogue.

²³This is why his parents said, “He’s of age; ask him.”

²⁴So a second time they summoned the man who had been blind and told him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”

²⁵He answered, “Whether or not he’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!”

²⁶Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

²⁷“I already told you,” he said, “and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?”

²⁸They ridiculed him: “You’re that man’s disciple, but we’re Moses’s disciples.

²⁹We know that God has spoken to Moses. But this man — we don’t know where he’s from.”

³⁰“This is an amazing thing!” the man told them. “You don’t know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes.

³¹We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he listens to him.

³²Throughout history no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born blind.

³³If this man were not from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

³⁴“You were born entirely in sin,” they replied, “and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out.

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

³⁶“Who is he, Sir, that I may believe in him?” he asked.

³⁷Jesus answered, “You have seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

³⁸“I believe, Lord!” he said, and he worshiped him.

³⁹Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.”

⁴⁰Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and asked him, “We aren’t blind too, are we?”

⁴¹“If you were blind,” Jesus told them, “you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

¹“Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber.

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

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

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

⁵They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.”

⁶Jesus gave them this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

⁷Jesus said again, “Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

⁸All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.

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

¹⁰A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

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

¹²The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them.

¹³This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep.

¹⁴“I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me,

¹⁵just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

¹⁶But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd.

¹⁷This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.

¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

¹⁹Again the Jews were divided because of these words.

²⁰Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and he’s crazy. Why do you listen to him?”

²¹Others were saying, “These aren’t the words of someone who is demon-possessed. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

²²Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter.

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

²⁴The Jews surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

²⁵“I did tell you and you don’t believe,” Jesus answered them. “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify about me.

²⁶But you don’t believe because you are not of my sheep.

²⁷My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.

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

²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

³⁰I and the Father are one.”

³¹Again the Jews picked up rocks to stone him.

³²Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these works are you stoning me?”

³³“We aren’t stoning you for a good work,” the Jews answered, “but for blasphemy, because you — being a man — make yourself God.”

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, I said, you are gods?

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

³⁶do you say, ‘You are blaspheming’ to the one the Father set apart and sent into the world, because I said: I am the Son of God?

³⁷If I am not doing my Father’s works, don’t believe me.

³⁸But if I am doing them and you don’t believe me, believe the works. This way you will know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father.”

³⁹Then they were trying again to seize him, but he eluded their grasp.

⁴⁰So he departed again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there.

⁴¹Many came to him and said, “John never did a sign, but everything John said about this man was true.”

⁴²And many believed in him there.