John 1

²Jesus was with God right from the very start. They have always been together.

³Jesus made everything! Every star, every tree, every creature — nothing that exists was made without Him.

⁴Jesus holds life inside Himself — real life. And that life shines like a light to help every person find their way.

⁵Jesus's light keeps shining, even in the darkest places. But the darkness could not put it out and did not understand it.

⁶God sent a special man to prepare the way for Jesus. His name was John.

⁷John came to tell people about Jesus — the Light — so that everyone who heard him could believe.

⁸John was not the Light himself. His job was to tell people about the true Light — Jesus.

⁹Jesus is the true Light — and He gives His light to every single person who is born into this world.

¹⁰Jesus came and lived in the very world He had made — but most people did not recognise Him or know who He was.

¹¹Jesus came to His own people — the people He had chosen and loved for so long — but they turned Him away.

¹²But everyone who welcomed Jesus and believed in Him — He gave them the amazing gift of becoming children of God!

¹³Being a child of God is not about your family name or where you were born. It comes from God Himself — He is the one who gives this new life.

¹⁴Jesus — God's living Word — became a real, human person and came to live with us. We could see God's own glory in Him. He was full of kindness and truth.

¹⁵John told everyone loudly: 'This is the one I was talking about! He came after me, but He is far greater than me — because He existed long before I was even born!'

¹⁶From Jesus's overflowing fullness, we have all received gifts — kindness upon kindness, blessing upon blessing.

¹⁷God gave Moses the law — rules to live by. But Jesus brought something better: grace and truth — His very own kindness and realness.

¹⁸No one has ever been able to see God directly. But Jesus — God's one and only Son, who is closest to the Father's heart — has shown us exactly what God is like.

¹⁹The religious leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites — temple workers — to go and ask John: 'Who are you, exactly?'

²⁰John was completely honest. He told them plainly: 'I am not the Christ — I am not the Messiah.'

²¹They kept asking him: 'Are you Elijah, the great prophet?' 'No,' said John. 'Are you THE Prophet we are waiting for?' 'No,' he answered again.

²²They pressed him again: 'Then who ARE you? We need an answer to take back to the people who sent us. What do you say about yourself?'

²³John answered them with words from the prophet Isaiah: 'I am a voice calling out in the desert: Get the path ready for the Lord!'

²⁴The men who had been sent to question John were Pharisees — strict religious teachers.

²⁵They challenged him: 'If you are not the Messiah, or Elijah, or the prophet — then why are you baptising people? What gives you the right?'

²⁶John replied: 'I baptise with water. But right now, someone is standing among you — and you do not even know who He is.'

²⁷John said: 'He is the one coming after me — and He is so much greater than I am that I am not even worthy to undo His sandals.'

²⁸All of this happened at a place called Bethabara, on the other side of the Jordan River, where John was baptising people.

²⁹The next day John saw Jesus walking toward him. He called out: 'Look! There is the Lamb of God — the one who takes away all the sin of the world!'

³⁰John said: 'This is the one I told you about — He comes after me in time, but He is far greater than me, because He existed long before I was born.'

³¹John said: 'I did not know who He was at first — but God sent me to baptise with water so that Jesus would be revealed to Israel.'

³²John told everyone what he had seen: 'I watched the Holy Spirit come down from heaven like a dove and rest on Jesus — and stay there.'

³³John said: 'I did not know who Jesus was until God told me: the one you see the Spirit rest on and stay on — that is the one who will baptise people with the Holy Spirit.'

³⁴John said: 'I saw it with my own eyes — and I tell everyone: Jesus is the Son of God.'

³⁵The next day, John was standing there again with two of his disciples — two people who were following him.

³⁶John looked up and saw Jesus walking by. He said again: 'Look! There is the Lamb of God!'

³⁷When the two disciples heard John say that, they left and began following Jesus.

³⁸Jesus turned around and saw them following. He asked them: 'What are you looking for?' They called Him 'Rabbi' — which means Teacher — and asked: 'Where are You staying?'

³⁹Jesus said simply: 'Come and see.' So they went with Him, saw where He was staying, and spent the whole rest of that day with Him.

⁴⁰One of the two men who had followed Jesus was Andrew — the brother of Simon Peter.

⁴¹Andrew ran straight to his brother Simon and told him: 'We have found the Messiah!' — which means the promised King, the Christ.

⁴²Andrew brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said: 'You are Simon, son of Jonah. But I am going to call you Cephas — which means Rock.'

⁴³The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said two words: 'Follow Me.'

⁴⁴Philip was from Bethsaida — the same town where Andrew and Peter lived.

⁴⁵Philip found his friend Nathanael and told him excitedly: 'We have found the one Moses and the prophets wrote about — Jesus, from Nazareth, the son of Joseph!'

⁴⁶Nathanael raised an eyebrow: 'Nazareth? Can anything good really come from there?' Philip just smiled and said: 'Come and see.'

⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael walking toward Him, He said: 'Here is a true Israelite — a man with nothing false or tricky about him!'

⁴⁸Nathanael was astonished: 'How do You know me?' Jesus answered: 'Before Philip even called you — when you were sitting under the fig tree — I saw you.'

⁴⁹Nathanael was overwhelmed. He said: 'Teacher — You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!'

⁵⁰Jesus smiled and said to him: 'You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You have not seen anything yet — even greater things are coming!'

⁵¹Then Jesus said solemnly: 'I tell you the truth — one day you will see heaven open wide, and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man.' Jesus was talking about Himself.