Study Desk

Jesus replied, "Mother, my time hasn't yet come: You must not tell me what to do." Mary then said to the servants, "Do whatever Jesus tells you to do." At the feast there were six stone water jars that were used by the people for washing themselves in the way that their religion said they must. Each jar held about twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants to fill them to the top with water. Then after the jars had been filled, he said, "Now take some water and give it to the man in charge of the feast." The servants did as Jesus told them, and the man in charge drank some of the water that had now turned into wine. He did not know where the wine had come from, but the servants did. He called the bridegroom over and said, "The best wine is always served first. Then after the guests have had plenty, the other wine is served. But you have kept the best until last!" This was Jesus' first miracle, and he did it in the village of Cana in Galilee. There Jesus showed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. After this, he went with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples to the town of Capernaum, where they stayed for a few days. Not long before the Jewish festival of Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. There he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves in the temple. He also saw moneychangers sitting at their tables. So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins. Jesus said to the people who had been selling doves, "Get those doves out of here! Don't make my Father's house a marketplace." The disciples then remembered that the Scriptures say, "My love for your house burns in me like a fire." The Jewish leaders asked Jesus, "What miracle will you work to show us why you have done this?" "Destroy this temple," Jesus answered, "and in three days I will build it again!" The leaders replied, "It took forty-six years to build this temple. What makes you think you can rebuild it in three days?" But Jesus was talking about his body as a temple. And when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered what he had told them. Then they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus. In Jerusalem during Passover many people put their faith in Jesus, because they saw him work miracles.

God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die.

God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them!

Later, Jesus and his disciples went to Judea, where he stayed with them for a while and was baptizing people.

and on his way he came to the town of Sychar. It was near the field that Jacob had long ago given to his son Joseph.

Our ancestor Jacob dug this well for us, and his family and animals got water from it. Are you greater than Jacob?"

His disciples started asking each other, "Has someone brought him something to eat?"

And when the man heard that Jesus had come from Judea, he went and begged him to keep his son from dying.

The boy's father realized that at one o'clock the day before, Jesus had told him, "Your son will live!" So the man and everyone in his family put their faith in Jesus.

Right then the man was healed. He picked up his mat and started walking around. The day on which this happened was a Sabbath.

When the Jewish leaders saw the man carrying his mat, they said to him, "This is the Sabbath! No one is allowed to carry a mat on the Sabbath."

Now the leaders wanted to kill Jesus for two reasons. First, he had broken the law of the Sabbath. But even worse, he had said that God was his Father, which made him equal with God.

Jesus told the people: I tell you for certain that the Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing, and he does exactly what he sees the Father do.

The Father doesn't judge anyone, but he has made his Son the judge of everyone.

And he has given his Son the right to judge everyone, because he is the Son of Man.

John was a lamp that gave a lot of light, and you were glad to enjoy his light for a while.

The Father who sent me also speaks for me, but you have never heard his voice or seen him face to face.

You have not believed his message, because you refused to have faith in the one he sent.

It was almost time for the Jewish festival of Passover, and Jesus went up on a mountain with his disciples and sat down.

The ground was covered with grass, and Jesus told his disciples to have everyone sit down. About five thousand men were in the crowd.