1 Peter Cross References - ISV

¹ GreetingsFrom: Peter, an apostle of Jesus, the Messiah.
To: The exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, ² the people chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctifying action of the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus, the Messiah, and to be sprinkled with his blood.
May grace and peace be yours in abundance!
³ Our Hope and Joy are in the MessiahBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah! Because of his great mercy he has granted us a new birth, resulting in an immortal hope through the resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, from the dead ⁴ and to an inheritance kept in heaven for you that can’t be destroyed, corrupted, or changed. ⁵ Through faith you are being protected by God’s power for a salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of this era. ⁶ You greatly rejoice in this, even though you have to suffer various kinds of trials for a little while, ⁷ so that your genuine faith, which is more valuable than gold that perishes when tested by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus, the Messiah, is revealed.
⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, ⁹ because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
¹⁰ Even the prophets, who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, carefully researched and investigated this salvation. ¹¹ They tried to find out what era or specific time the Spirit of the Messiah in them kept referring to when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you in regard to the things that have now been announced to you by those who brought you the good news through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things that even the angels desire to look into.
¹³ Be HolyTherefore, prepare your minds for action, keep a clear head, and set your hope completely on the grace to be given you when Jesus, the Messiah, is revealed. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not be shaped by the desires that used to influence you when you were ignorant. ¹⁵ Instead, be holy in every aspect of your life, just as the one who called you is holy. ¹⁶ For it is written, “You must be holy, because I am holy.”
¹⁷ If you call “Father” the one who judges everyone impartially according to what they have done, you must live in reverent fear as long as you are strangers in a strange land. ¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things like silver or gold that you have been ransomed from the worthless way of life handed down to you by your ancestors, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of the Messiah, like that of a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰ On the one hand, he was foreknown before the creation of the world, but on the other hand, he was revealed at the end of time for your sake. ²¹ Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.
²² Love One AnotherNow that you have obeyed the truth and have purified your souls to love your brothers sincerely, you must love one another intensely and with a pure heart. ²³ For you have been born again, not by a seed that perishes but by one that cannot perish—by the living and everlasting word of God. ²⁴ For “All human life is like grass, and all its glory is like a flower in the grass. The grass dries up and the flower drops off, ²⁵ but the word of the Lord lasts forever.”Now this word is the good news that was announced to you.

³³ Captivity among the Nations“I’ll scatter you among the nations and draw the sword after you so that your land becomes desolate and your towns become ruins.

²⁷ Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among the nations, and you’ll be fewer in number in the nations where the LORD your God will drive you.

⁶⁴ Scattering among the Nations“He’ll scatter you among the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you’ll serve other gods made of wood and stones, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.

²⁶ “I said, ‘I will scatter them, erasing their memory from the human race,

⁸ Then Haman told King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and divided among the people throughout the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different than all the other people, they don’t obey the king’s laws, and it’s not in the king’s best interest to leave them alone.

¹¹ You handed us over to be slaughtered like sheep and you scattered us among the nations.

⁸ I’ll leave a remnant among you—those who will escape the sword when I’ll have scattered you throughout the earth.

¹⁸ Jesus Calls Four Fishermen
While Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon (also called Peter) and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, because they were fishermen.

² These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

²² If those days hadn’t been limited, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be limited.

⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and say to him, “We have found the Anointed One!” (which is translated “Messiah”).
⁴² He led Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him intently and said, “You are Simon, John’s son. You will be called Cephas!” (which is translated “Peter”).

³⁵ Then the Jewish leaders asked one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we won’t be able to find him? Surely he’s not going to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he?

⁵² and not only for the nation, but that he would also gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.

¹⁵ Jesus Speaks with PeterWhen they had finished breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Peter told him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus told him, “Feed my lambs.”
¹⁶ Then he asked him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter told him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus told him, “Take care of my sheep.” ¹⁷ He asked him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was deeply hurt that he had asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” So he told him, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you!”
Jesus told him, “Feed my sheep.

⁵ Now devout Jews from every nation on earth were living in Jerusalem. ⁶ When that sound came, a crowd quickly gathered, startled because each one heard the disciples speaking in his own language. ⁷ Stunned and amazed, they asked, “All of these people who are speaking are Galileans, aren’t they? ⁸ So how is it that each one of us hears them speaking in his own native language: ⁹ Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the district of Libya near Cyrene, Jewish and proselyte visitors from Rome, ¹¹ Cretans, and Arabs, listening to them talk in our own languages about the great deeds of God?”

⁹ But some men who belonged to the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), as well as some Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and men from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and began to debate with Stephen.

⁴ Some Samaritans Become BelieversNow those who were scattered went from place to place preaching the word.

⁶ Paul Has a VisionBecause they had been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the word in Asia, Paul and Timothy went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia. ⁷ They went as far as Mysia and tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them,

² There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to visit them,

²³ After spending some time there, he departed and went from place to place through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

¹⁰ This went on for two years, so that all who lived in Asia, Jews and Greeks alike, heard the word of the Lord.

¹⁶ Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in Asia, as he was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost, if that was possible.
¹⁷ Paul Meets with the Ephesian EldersFrom Miletus he sent messengers to Ephesus to ask the elders of the church to meet with him. ¹⁸ When they came to him, he told them, “You know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day I set foot in Asia.

¹⁹ Final GreetingsThe churches in Asia greet you. Aquila and Prisca and the church in their house greet you warmly in union with the Lord.

⁸ How God Rescued PaulFor we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about the suffering we experienced in Asia. We were so crushed beyond our ability to endure that we even despaired of living.

² and all the brothers who are with me.
To: The churches in Galatia.

¹² At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise. You had no hope and were in the world without God.

¹⁹ That is why you are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

¹⁵ News about Paul’s HelpersYou know that everyone in Asia has abandoned me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

¹³ All these people died having faith. They did not receive the things that were promised, yet they saw them in the distant future and welcomed them, acknowledging that they were strangers and foreigners on earth.

¹ GreetingsFrom: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.
To: The twelve tribes in the Dispersion.
Greetings.

¹¹ Live as God’s ServantsDear friends, I urge you as aliens and exiles to keep on abstaining from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.

¹ GreetingsFrom: Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus, the Messiah.
To: Those who have received faith that is as valuable as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus the Messiah.

¹¹ saying, “Write on a scroll what you see, and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

⁶ because you are a holy people to the LORD your God. The LORD your God chose you to be his people, his treasured possession from all the peoples on the face of the earth.”

⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous person his thoughts. Let him return to the LORD, So he’ll have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he’ll pardon abundantly.

⁹ I’ll bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah they will inherit my mountains; my chosen people will inherit it, and my servants will live there.

²² They won’t build for others to inhabit; they won’t plant for others to eat— for like the lifetime of a tree, so will the lifetime of my people be, and my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands.

¹ Nebuchadnezzar’s Testimonial AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE KING
To the people of all nations and languages who live on earth.
Peace and prosperity to you!

²⁵ Darius Exonerates DanielAfterward, King Darius wrote to all peoples, nations, and languages who lived throughout his realm:
“May great prosperity be yours!

²⁴ because false messiahs and false prophets will appear and display great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

³¹ He’ll send out his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they’ll gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to another.”

²⁰ If the Lord had not shortened those days, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect whom he has chosen, he has shortened those days.

²² because false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens to deceive, if possible, the elect.

²⁷ He’ll send out his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”

⁷ Won’t God grant his chosen people justice when they cry out to him day and night? Is he slow to help them?

¹⁶ “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. I have appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. ¹⁷ I am giving you these commandments so that you may love one another.”
¹⁸ The World’s Hatred“If the world hates you, you should realize that it hated me before you. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as one of its own. But because you do not belong to the world and I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.

²³ After he was arrested according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified this very man and killed him using the hands of lawless men.

¹⁸ that have been known from long ago.’

³² “I’m now entrusting you to God and to the message of his grace, which is able to build you up and secure for you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.

⁵ Through him we received grace and a commission as an apostle to bring about faithful obedience among all the gentiles for the sake of his name.

⁷ To: Everyone in Rome, loved by God and called to be holy.
May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, be yours!

¹³ For if you live according to human nature, you are going to die, but if by the Spirit you continuously put to death the activities of the body, you will live.

²⁹ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that the Son might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those whom he predestined, he also called; and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

³³ Who will accuse God’s elect? It is God who justifies!

²³ Can’t he also reveal his glorious riches to the objects of his mercy that he has prepared ahead of time for glory— ²⁴ including us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but from the gentiles as well?

² God has not rejected his people whom he chose long ago. Do you not know what the Scripture says in the story about Elijah, when he pleads with God against Israel?

⁵ So it is at the present time: there is a remnant, chosen by grace. ⁶ But if this is by grace, then it is no longer on the basis of actions. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.
⁷ What, then, does this mean? It means that Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking, but the selected group obtained it while the rest were hardened.

²⁸ As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake, but as far as election is concerned, they are loved for the sake of their ancestors.

¹⁶ to be a minister of the Messiah Jesus to the gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering brought by gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁹ For your obedience has become known to everyone, and I am full of joy for you. But I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.

²⁶ but now has been made known through the prophets to all the gentiles, in keeping with the decree of the eternal God to bring them to the obedience that springs from faith—

³⁰ It is because of God that you are in union with the Messiah Jesus, who for us has become wisdom from God, as well as our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

¹¹ That is what some of you were! But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah and by the Spirit of our God.

⁵ and every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive in order to obey the Messiah.

¹⁴ May the grace of the Lord Jesus the Messiah, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you!

⁴ just as he chose us in the Messiah before the creation of the universe to be holy and blameless in his presence. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to himself through Jesus the Messiah, according to the pleasure of his will,

¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

¹³ At all times we are obligated to thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God chose you to be the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through faith in the truth.

¹⁰ For that reason, I endure everything for the sake of those who have been chosen so that they, too, may receive the salvation that is in the Messiah Jesus, along with eternal glory.

¹ GreetingsFrom: Paul, a servant of God, and also an apostle of Jesus the Messiah, to bring the faith to those chosen by God, along with full knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,

⁹ and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,

¹⁹ For after every commandment in the Law had been spoken to all the people by Moses, he took the blood of calves and goats, together with some water, scarlet wool, and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people, ²⁰ saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God ordained for you.” ²¹ In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and everything used in worship. ²² In fact, under the Law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of the blood there is no forgiveness.

²² let us continue to come near with sincere hearts in the full assurance that faith provides, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

²⁸ By faith he established the Passover and the sprinkling of blood to keep the destroyer of the firstborn from touching the people.

²⁴ to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better message than Abel’s.

²² Love One AnotherNow that you have obeyed the truth and have purified your souls to love your brothers sincerely, you must love one another intensely and with a pure heart.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people to be his very own and to proclaim the wonderful deeds of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

² May grace and peace be yours in abundance through full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord!

¹ Greetings from JohnFrom: The Elder
To: The chosen lady and her children, whom I genuinely love, and not only I but also all who know the truth,

¹³ The children of your chosen sister greet you.

² May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance!

⁶ The LORD passed in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and filled with gracious love and truth.

¹⁵ Then Solomon prayed: “Blessed is the LORD God of Israel, who made a commitment to my father David and then personally fulfilled what he had promised when he said:

¹⁰ Then David blessed the LORD in the presence of the entire assembly. David said, How blessed you are, LORD, the God of our ancestor Israel, from eternity to eternity! ¹¹ To you, LORD, belongs the greatness, and the valor, and the splendor, and the endurance, and the majesty because all that is in heaven and on earth is yours. To you belongs the kingdom, LORD, and you are exalted as head over all. ¹² Both wealth and honor proceed from you, and you are ruling over them all. You control power— you control who is made great, and how everyone becomes strong. ¹³ And so, our God, we are giving you thanks, and we are praising your wonderful name!

²⁰ Then David told the entire assembly, “Bless the LORD your God, please.” So the entire assembly blessed the LORD God of their ancestors, bowing their heads and falling in the LORD’s presence and before the king.

¹³ Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, from eternity to eternity. Amen and amen!

¹⁸ Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does awesome deeds. ¹⁹ And blessed be his glorious name forever, and may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen!

⁵ Indeed you, Lord, are kind and forgiving, overflowing with gracious love to everyone who calls on you.

¹⁵ But you, Lord, are a compassionate God, merciful and patient, with unending gracious love and faithfulness.

¹⁹ The Resurrection of the Dead“But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Those who live in the dust will wake up and shout for joy! For your dew is like the dew of dawn, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

² So he prayed to the LORD, “LORD, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my home country? That’s why I fled previously to Tarshish, because I knew you’re a compassionate God, slow to anger, overflowing with gracious love, and reluctant to send trouble.

¹³ who were born, not merely in a genetic sense, nor from lust, nor from man’s desire, but from the will of God.

³ Jesus replied to him, “Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
⁴ Nicodemus asked him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He can’t go back into his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?”
⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Don’t be astonished that I told you, ‘All of you must be born from above.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wants to. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. That’s the way it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

²⁵ He was sentenced to death because of our sins and raised to life to justify us.

⁴ endurance produces character, and character produces hope. ⁵ Now this hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

¹⁰ For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life!

¹⁵ But God’s free gift is not like Adam’s offense. For if many people died as the result of one man’s offense, how much more have God’s grace and the free gift given through the kindness of one man, Jesus the Messiah, been showered on many people! ¹⁶ Nor can the free gift be compared to what came through the man who sinned. For the sentence that followed one man’s offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift brought justification, even after many offenses. ¹⁷ For if, through one man, death ruled because of that man’s offense, how much more will those who receive such overflowing grace and the gift of righteousness rule in life because of one man, Jesus the Messiah!
¹⁸ Consequently, just as one offense resulted in condemnation for everyone, so one act of righteousness results in justification and life for everyone. ¹⁹ For just as through one man’s disobedience many people were made sinners, so also through one man’s obedience many people will be made righteous. ²⁰ Now the Law crept in so that the offense would increase. But where sin increased, grace increased even more, ²¹ so that, just as sin ruled by bringing death, so also grace might rule by bringing justification that results in eternal life through Jesus the Messiah, our Lord.

¹¹ And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then the one who raised the Messiah from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive by his Spirit who lives in you.

²⁴ For we were saved with this hope in mind. Now a hope that can be observed is not really hope, for who hopes for what can be seen?

¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in trouble, and persistent in prayer.

¹³ Now may God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace as you believe, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

¹³ Right now three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

²⁰ But at this moment the Messiah stands risen from the dead, the first one offered in the harvest of those who have died.

³ The God of All ComfortBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah! He is our merciful Father and the God of all comfort,

³ The Many Blessings of SalvationBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah! He has blessed us in the Messiah with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm,

⁷ In union with him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our offenses, according to the riches of God’s grace

¹⁷ I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the most glorious Father, would give you a wise spirit, along with revelation that comes through knowing the Messiah fully.

⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love for us

⁶ raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly realm in the Messiah Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might display the limitless riches of his grace that comes to us through his kindness in the Messiah Jesus. ⁸ For by such grace you have been saved through faith. This does not come from you; it is the gift of God ⁹ and not the result of actions, to put a stop to all boasting. ¹⁰ For we are God’s masterpiece, created in the Messiah Jesus to perform good actions that God prepared long ago to be our way of life.

²⁰ Now to the one who can do infinitely more than all we can ask or imagine according to the power that is working among us—

²³ However, you must remain firmly established and steadfast in the faith, without being moved from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

²⁷ to whom God wanted to make known the glorious riches of this secret among the gentiles—which is the Messiah in you, our glorious hope.

³ In the presence of our God and Father, we constantly remember how your faith is active, your love is hard at work, and your hope in our Lord Jesus the Messiah is enduring.

¹³ Comfort about Christians who Have DiedBut we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve like other people who have no hope.

¹⁴ and the grace of our Lord overflowed toward me, along with the faith and love that are in the Messiah Jesus.

¹³ as we wait for the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus the Messiah.

⁴ In grace our Savior God appeared, to make his love for mankind clear. ⁵ ‘Twas not for deeds that we had done, but by his steadfast love alone, he saved us through a second birth, renewed us by the Spirit’s work, ⁶ and poured him out upon us, too, through Jesus the Messiah our Savior true.

⁶ but the Messiah was faithful as the Son in charge of God’s household, and we are his household if we hold on to our courage and the hope in which we rejoice.

¹⁸ so that by these two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to prove false, we who have taken refuge in him might be encouraged to seize the hope set before us. ¹⁹ That hope, firm and secure like an anchor for our souls, reaches behind the curtain

¹⁸ In accordance with his will he made us his children by the word of truth, so that we might become the most important of his creatures.

²³ For you have been born again, not by a seed that perishes but by one that cannot perish—by the living and everlasting word of God.

² Like newborn babies, thirst for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in your salvation.

²¹ Baptism, which is symbolized by that water, now saves you also, not by removing dirt from the body, but by asking God for a clear conscience based on the resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah,

²⁹ Since you know that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered by God.

³ And everyone who has this hope based on him keeps himself pure, just as the Messiah is pure.

⁹ No one who has been born from God practices sin, because God’s seed abides in him. Indeed, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born from God.

⁷ God’s Love Lives in UsDear friends, let us continuously love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God.

¹ Faith Overcomes the WorldEveryone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born from God, and everyone who loves the parent also loves the child.

⁴ because everyone who is born from God has overcome the world. Our faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

¹⁸ We know that the person who has been born from God does not go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one cannot harm them.

¹⁹ How great is your goodness that you have reserved for those who fear you, that you have set in place for those who take refuge in you, in the presence of the children of men.

⁷ Grass withers and flowers fade away when the LORD’s breath blows on them; surely the people are like grass. ⁸ Grass withers and flowers fade away, when the LORD’s breath blows on them, but the word of our God will stand forever. “

¹² Lining each side of the river banks, all sorts of species of fruit trees will be growing. Their leaves will never wither and their fruit will never fail. They will bear fruit every month, because the water that nourishes them will be flowing from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves will contain substances that promote healing.”

³⁴ “Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who have been blessed by my Father! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,

¹⁸ You will help them understand and turn them from darkness to light and from Satan’s control to God, so that their sins will be forgiven and they will receive a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

¹⁷ Now if we are children, we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with the Messiah—if, in fact, we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

²⁵ Everyone who enters an athletic contest practices self-control in everything. They do it to win a wreath that withers away, but we run to win a prize that never fades.

⁵² in a moment, faster than an eye can blink, at the sound of the last trumpet. Indeed, that trumpet will sound, and then the dead will be raised never to decay, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For what is decaying must be clothed with what cannot decay, and what is dying must be clothed with what cannot die. ⁵⁴ Now, when what is decaying is clothed with what cannot decay, and what is dying is clothed with what cannot die, then the written word will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up by victory!”

¹⁸ For if the inheritance comes about through the Law, it no longer comes about through the promise. But it was through a promise that God so graciously gave it to Abraham.

¹¹ In the Messiah we were also chosen when we were predestined according to the purpose of the one who does everything that he wills to do,

¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until God redeems his own possession for his praise and glory.

¹⁸ Then, with the eyes of your hearts enlightened, you will know the confidence that is produced by God having called you, the rich glory that is his inheritance among the saints,

⁵ based on the hope laid up for you in heaven. Some time ago you heard about this hope through the word of truth, the gospel

¹² and might thank the Father, who has enabled us to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.

³ For you have died, and your life has been safely guarded by the Messiah in God. ⁴ When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you, too, will be revealed with him in glory.

⁸ The victor’s crown of righteousness is now waiting for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on the day that he comes, and not only to me but also to all who eagerly wait for his appearing.

¹⁵ The Messiah is the Mediator of a New CovenantThis is why the Messiah is the mediator of a new covenant; so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance promised them, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the offenses committed under the first covenant.

¹¹ For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass. The flower in it drops off, and its beauty is gone. That is how the rich person will fade away in his pursuits.

⁹ Do not pay others back evil for evil or insult for insult. Instead, keep blessing them, because you were called to inherit a blessing.

⁴ Then, when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the victor’s crown of glory that will never fade away.

²⁷ Nothing unclean, or anyone who does anything detestable, and no one who tells lies will ever enter it. Only those whose names are written in the lamb’s Book of Life will enter it.

⁹ He guards the steps of his faithful ones, while the wicked are made silent in darkness. He grants the request of the one who prays. He blesses the year of the righteous. Indeed it’s not by strength that a person prevails.

²⁵ “As for me, I know that my Vindicator is alive; And he, the Last One, will take his stand on the soil.

²³ A man’s steps are established by the LORD, and the LORD delights in his way. ²⁴ Though he stumbles, he will not fall down flat, for the LORD will hold up his hand.

²⁸ Indeed, the LORD loves justice, and he will not abandon his godly ones. They are kept safe forever, but the lawless will be chased away, and the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.

¹⁷ Yet the LORD’s gracious love remains throughout eternity for those who fear him and his righteous acts extend to their children’s children, ¹⁸ to those who keep his covenant and to those who remember to observe his precepts.

¹ A Song of Ascents
God is Secure Those who are trusting in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be overthrown. They remain forever. ² Just as mountains encircle Jerusalem, so the LORD encircles his people, from now to eternity.

⁸ guarding the paths of the just and protecting the way of his faithful ones.

¹⁷ But Israel will be saved by the LORD with everlasting salvation; you won’t be put to shame or disgraced ever again.”

⁶ “Lift up your eyes, you heavens and look to the earth beneath; and see who created these. Its inhabitants will die just like this; but my salvation will be forever, and my deliverance will never fail.

¹⁷ no weapon that is forged against you will be effective. This is the heritage of the LORD’s servants, and their righteousness from me,” says the LORD.

⁴⁰ I’ll make an everlasting covenant with them that I won’t turn away from doing good for them. I’ll put the fear of me in their hearts so they won’t turn away from me.

¹⁴ But whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never become thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become a well of water for him, springing up to eternal life.”

²⁴ “Truly, I tell all of you emphatically, whoever hears what I say and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has passed from death to life.

²⁸ I give them eternal life, they’ll never be lost, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ What my Father has given me is more important than anything, and no one can snatch it from the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

⁴⁸ The one who rejects me and doesn’t receive my words has something to judge him: The word that I’ve spoken will judge him on the last day,

¹¹ I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your Name, the Name that you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I protected them by the authority that you gave me. I guarded them, and not one of them became lost except the one who was destined for destruction, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

¹⁵ I’m not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.

³¹ Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s LoveWhat, then, can we say about all of this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² The one who did not spare his own Son, but offered him as a sacrifice for all of us, surely will give us all things, along with his Son, won’t he? ³³ Who will accuse God’s elect? It is God who justifies! ³⁴ Who is the one to condemn? It is the Messiah Jesus who is interceding on our behalf. He died, and more importantly, has been raised and is seated at the right hand of God.
³⁵ Who will separate us from the Messiah’s love? Can trouble, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or a violent death do this? ³⁶ As it is written, “For your sake we are being put to death all day long. We are thought of as sheep headed for slaughter.”
³⁷ In all these things we are triumphantly victorious due to the one who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor anything above, nor anything below, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is ours in union with the Messiah Jesus, our Lord.

²⁰ That’s right! They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you remain only because of faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid!

²⁴ It is not that we are trying to rule over your faith, but rather to work with you for your joy, because you have been standing firm in the faith.

²⁰ I no longer live, but the Messiah lives in me, and the life that I am now living in this body I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

⁸ For by such grace you have been saved through faith. This does not come from you; it is the gift of God

¹⁷ and that the Messiah would make his home in your hearts through faith. Then, having been rooted and grounded in love,

⁶ I am convinced of this, that the one who began a good action among you will bring it to completion by the Day of the Messiah Jesus.

³ In the presence of our God and Father, we constantly remember how your faith is active, your love is hard at work, and your hope in our Lord Jesus the Messiah is enduring. ⁴ Brothers whom God loves, we know that he has chosen you,

¹³ At all times we are obligated to thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God chose you to be the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through faith in the truth. ¹⁴ With this purpose in mind, he called you through our proclamation of the gospel so that you would obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.

¹⁴ to keep these commands stainlessly and blamelessly until the appearance of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. ¹⁵ At the right time, he will make him known. God is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

¹⁵ From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures that are able to give you the wisdom you need for salvation through faith in the Messiah Jesus.

¹² Then, instead of being lazy, you will imitate those who are inheriting the promises through faith and patience.

²⁸ so the Messiah was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. And he will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly wait for him.

¹³ Be HolyTherefore, prepare your minds for action, keep a clear head, and set your hope completely on the grace to be given you when Jesus, the Messiah, is revealed.

² Dear friends, we are now God’s children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when the Messiah is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.

¹ GreetingsFrom: Jude, a servant of Jesus the Messiah, and yet a brother of James.
To: Those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept safe by Jesus, the Messiah.

²⁴ Final PrayerNow to the one who is able to keep you from falling and to make you stand joyful and faultless in his glorious presence,

¹ Hannah’s Thanksgiving PsalmThen Hannah prayed: “My heart exults in the LORD; my strength is increased by the LORD. I will open my mouth to speak against my enemies, because I rejoice in your deliverance.

²⁷ If I were to say, ‘Let me forget my complaint,’ change the expression on my face, and look cheerful, ²⁸ then I still dread all of my suffering; I know you still won’t acquit me.

¹⁴ so I may declare everything for which you should be praised in the gates of the daughter of Zion, so I will rejoice in your deliverance.

¹⁹ A righteous person will have many troubles, but the LORD will deliver him from them all.

¹⁰ All my bones will say, “LORD, who is like you? Who delivers the weak from the one who is stronger than he, and the weak and the needy from the one who wants to rob him?”

²⁰ Insults broke my heart. I despaired and looked for sympathy; but there was none, for comforters, but I found none.

¹ Worship and Obedience Come! Let us sing joyfully to the LORD! Let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.

²⁸ I weep because of sorrow; fortify me according to your word.

⁷⁵ I know, LORD, that your decrees are just, and that you have rightfully humbled me.

² “Look! God—yes God—is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid. For the LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
³ You will draw water joyfully from the wells of salvation. And you will say at that time:

³ to provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, a mantle of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” “Then people will call them “Oaks of Righteousness”, “The Planting of the LORD”, in order to display his splendor.

¹⁰ Rejoicing in God’s Deliverance“I will heartily rejoice in the LORD, my soul will delight in my God; for he has wrapped me in garments of salvation; he has arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, just like a bridegroom, like a priest with a garland, and like a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

³² though he causes grief, his compassion abounds according to his gracious love. ³³ For he does not deliberately hurt or grieve human beings.

¹² Rejoice and be extremely glad, because your reward in heaven is great! That’s how they persecuted the prophets who came before you.”

²⁸ “Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest.

³⁷ Taking Peter and the two sons of Zebedee with him, he began to be grieved and troubled.

⁴⁷ My spirit exults in God, my Savior,

¹⁰ Then the angel told them, “Stop being afraid! Listen! I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.

²⁰ However, stop rejoicing because the spirits are submitting to you. Instead, rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

²² Now you are having pain. But I’ll see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

³³ I have told you this so that through me you may have peace. In the world you’ll have trouble, but be courageous—I’ve overcome the world!”

²² strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. “We must endure many hardships,” they said, “to get into the kingdom of God.”

² Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace by which we have been established, and we boast because of our hope in God’s glory.

¹¹ Not only that, but we also continue to boast about God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah, through whom we have now been reconciled.

² I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart,

⁹ For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display in last place, like men condemned to death. We have become a spectacle for the world, for angels, and for people to stare at. ¹⁰ We are fools for the Messiah’s sake, but you are wise in the Messiah. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored. ¹¹ We are hungry, thirsty, dressed in rags, brutally treated, and homeless, right up to the present. ¹² We wear ourselves out from working with our own hands. When insulted, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. ¹³ When slandered, we answer with kind words. Even now we have become the filth of the world, the scum of the universe.

⁷ But we have this treasure in clay jars to show that its extraordinary power comes from God and not from us. ⁸ In every way we’re troubled but not crushed, frustrated but not in despair, ⁹ persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We are always carrying around the death of Jesus in our bodies, so that the life of Jesus may be clearly shown in our bodies. ¹¹ While we are alive, we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be clearly shown in our mortal bodies.

¹⁷ This light, temporary nature of our suffering is producing for us an everlasting weight of glory, far beyond any comparison,

¹⁰ as sorrowful and yet always rejoicing, as poor and yet enriching many, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.

²³ Are they the Messiah’s servants? I am insane to talk like this, but I am a far better one! I have been involved in far greater efforts, far more imprisonments, countless beatings, and have faced death more than once. ²⁴ Five times I received from the Jews 40 lashes minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with a stick, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, and I drifted on the sea for a day and a night. ²⁶ I have traveled extensively and have been endangered from rivers, robbers, my own people, and gentiles. I’ve also been in danger in the city, in the open country, at sea, from false brothers, ²⁷ in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger, thirst, many periods of fasting, coldness, and nakedness.

⁹ but he has told me, “My grace is all you need, because my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most happily boast about my weaknesses, so that the Messiah’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why I take such pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for the Messiah’s sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

²⁶ For he has been longing for all of you and is troubled because you heard that he was sick.

³ For it is we who are the circumcision—we who worship in the Spirit of God and find our joy in the Messiah Jesus. We have not placed any confidence in the flesh,

⁴ Keep on rejoicing in the Lord at all times. I will say it again: Keep on rejoicing!

⁶ You became imitators of us and of the Lord. In spite of a great deal of suffering, you welcomed the word with the joy that the Holy Spirit produces.

³⁵ Women received their dead raised back to life. Other people were brutally tortured, but refused to be ransomed, so that they might gain a better resurrection. ³⁶ Still others endured taunts and floggings, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned to death, sawed in half, and killed with swords. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins. They were needy, oppressed, and mistreated. ³⁸ The world wasn’t worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and from caves to holes in the ground.

⁷ What you endure disciplines you: God is treating you as sons. Is there a son whom his father does not discipline? ⁸ Now if you are without any discipline, in which all sons share, then you are illegitimate and not God’s sons. ⁹ Furthermore, we had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. We should submit even more to the Father of our spirits and live, shouldn’t we? ¹⁰ For a short time they disciplined us as they thought best, but God does it for our good, so that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹ No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, for those who have been trained by it, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace.

² Responding Wisely to LifeConsider it pure joy, my brothers, when you are involved in various trials,

⁹ A brother of humble means should rejoice in his having been exalted,

⁹ Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom.

⁷ so that your genuine faith, which is more valuable than gold that perishes when tested by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus, the Messiah, is revealed.
⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,

⁷ Because everything will soon come to an end, be sensible and clear-headed, so you can pray.

¹² Suffering as a ChristianDear friends, do not be surprised by the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³ Instead, because you are participating in the sufferings of the Messiah, keep on rejoicing, so that you may be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.

¹⁰ After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you by the Messiah Jesus to his eternal glory, will restore you, establish you, strengthen you, and support you.

³⁰ “Therefore, the LORD God of Israel has declared, ‘I did, in fact, say that your family and your ancestor’s family would walk before me forever,’ but now the LORD declares, ‘Far be it from me! The one who honors me I’ll honor, and the one who despises me is to be treated with contempt.

¹⁰ Because he knows the road on which I travel, when he had tested me, I’ll come out like gold.

¹⁰ For you, God, tested us, to purify us like fine silver. ¹¹ You have led us into a trap and set burdens on our backs. ¹² You caused men to ride over us. You brought us through fire and water, but you led us to abundance.

¹³ Wisdom More Valuable than RichesHow joyful is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding, ¹⁴ because her profit is better than the profit of silver, and her yield than fine gold. ¹⁵ She is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire compares with her.

¹⁹ My fruit is better than gold, better than even refined gold, and my benefit surpasses the purest silver.

¹⁶ How much better than gaining gold is the acquisition of wisdom, the attainment of wisdom better than silver!

³ The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold— but the LORD assays hearts.

¹⁴ and that wealth is lost in troubled circumstances. Then a son is born, but there is nothing left for him.

¹⁰ Look, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have purified you in the furnace of affliction.

⁷ Therefore, this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “Look, I’m about to refine and test them. Because they’re my people, what else can I do?

³⁶ Therefore my heart wails for Moab like flutes and my heart wails for the men of Kir-heres like flutes. Therefore they’ll lose the abundance they produced.

⁹ And I will bring that surviving third through, testing them as if through fire, purifying them like silver, assaying them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

³ he will sit refining and purifying silver, purifying the descendants of Levi, refining them like gold and silver. Then they’ll bring a righteous offering to the LORD.

²⁸ Jesus told them, “I tell all of you with certainty, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne in the renewed creation, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, governing the twelve tribes of Israel.

²¹ “His master told him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy servant! Since you’ve been trustworthy with a small amount, I’ll put you in charge of a large amount. Come and share your master’s joy!’

²³ “His master told him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy servant! Since you’ve been trustworthy with a small amount, I’ll put you in charge of a large amount. Come and share your master’s joy!’

²⁰ But God told him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you. Now who will get the things you’ve accumulated?’ ²¹ That’s how it is with the person who stores up treasures for himself rather than with God.”

³³ “Sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor. Make yourselves wallets that don’t wear out—a dependable treasure in heaven, where no thief can get close and no moth can destroy anything.

⁴⁴ How can you believe when you accept each other’s praise and do not look for the praise that comes from the only God?

²⁶ If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there my servant will also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

²⁰ But Peter told him, “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God’s free gift with money!

⁷ eternal life to those who strive for glory, honor, and immortality by patiently doing good;

²⁹ No, a person is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, brought about by the Spirit, not by a written law. That person’s praise will come from God, not from people.

³ Not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

¹³ the workmanship of each person will become evident, for the day of judgment will show what it is, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s action.

⁵ Therefore, stop judging prematurely, before the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is now hidden in darkness and reveal the motives of our hearts. Then each person will receive his praise from God.

⁷ and to give us who are afflicted relief when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels ⁸ in blazing fire. He will take revenge on those who do not know God and on those who refuse to obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ Such people will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction by being separated from the Lord’s presence and from his glorious power ¹⁰ when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be regarded with wonder on that day by all who have believed—including you, because you believed our testimony.
¹¹ With this in mind, we always pray for you, asking that our God might make you worthy of his calling and that through his power he might help you accomplish every good desire and faithful action. ¹² That way the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by him, according to the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus, the Messiah.

³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴ But you must let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

¹² Trial and TemptationHow blessed is the man who endures temptation! When he has passed the test, he will receive the victor’s crown of life that God has promised to those who keep on loving him.

² Your riches are rotten, your clothes have been eaten by moths, ³ your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be used as evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasures in these last days.

⁵ Through faith you are being protected by God’s power for a salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of this era.

⁴ As you come to him, the living stone who was rejected by people but was chosen and precious in God’s sight,

⁷ Therefore he is precious to you who believe, but to those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,

¹² Suffering as a ChristianDear friends, do not be surprised by the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

⁴ Through these he has given us his precious and wonderful promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, seeing that you have escaped the corruption that is in the world caused by evil desires.

¹⁰ But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will disappear with a roaring sound, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be exposed.
¹¹ Since everything will be destroyed in this way, think of the kind of holy and godly people you ought to be ¹² as you look forward to and hasten the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved and the elements will melt with fire.

⁷ Look! He is coming in the clouds. Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him.So be it! Amen.

¹⁰ Don’t be afraid of what you are going to suffer. Look! The devil is going to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested. For ten days you will undergo suffering. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the victor’s crown of life.

¹⁰ Because you have obeyed my command to endure, I will keep you from the hour of testing that is coming to the whole world to test those living on the earth.

¹⁸ Therefore, I advise you to buy from me gold purified in fire so you may be rich, white clothes to wear so your shameful nakedness won’t show, and ointment to put on your eyes so you may see.

¹⁶ “How terrible, how terrible it is for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet and was adorned with gold, gems, and pearls, ¹⁷ because all this wealth has been destroyed in a single hour!”
Every ship’s captain, everyone who traveled by ship, sailors, and everyone who made a living from the sea stood far away.

⁷ Tell me, you whom I love, where do you graze your flock? Where do you make your flock lie down at noon? Why should I be considered a veiled woman beside the flocks of your companions?

⁹ The Young WomenWhat is so special about your beloved, most beautiful of women? What is so special about your beloved, that you charge us like this?

¹⁶ His mouth is sweetness, and all of him is desirable. This is my beloved, this is my friend, young women of Jerusalem!

¹⁷ Even though the fig tree does not blossom, and there are no grapes on the vines; even if the olive harvest fails, and the fields produce nothing edible; even if the flock is snatched from the sheepfold, and there is no herd in the stalls— ¹⁸ as for me, I will rejoice in the LORD. I will find my joy in the God who delivers me.

³⁷ The Cost of Discipleship
“The one who loves his father or mother more than me isn’t worthy of me, and the one who loves a son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me.

³⁵ because I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. ³⁶ I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you took care of me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
³⁷ “Then the righteous will say to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you something to eat, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or see you naked and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’
⁴⁰ The king will answer them, ‘I tell all of you with certainty, since you did it for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.’

⁴² Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, you would’ve loved me, because I came from God and am here. I haven’t come on my own accord, but he sent me.

¹⁵ The Promise of the Helper“If you love me, keep my commandments.

²¹ The person who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I, too, will love him and reveal myself to him.”

²⁴ The one who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The words that you’re hearing me say are not mine, but come from the Father who sent me.

²⁹ Jesus told him, “Is it because you’ve seen me that you have believed? How blessed are those who have never seen me and yet have believed!”

³⁴ He brought Paul and Silas upstairs into his house and set food before them. He was thrilled, as was his household, to believe in God.

¹⁷ For God’s kingdom does not consist of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy produced by the Holy Spirit.

²² If anyone doesn’t love the Lord, let him be condemned! May our Lord come!

²² who has placed his seal on us and has given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

¹⁸ because we do not look for things that can be seen but for things that cannot be seen. For things that can be seen are temporary, but things that cannot be seen are eternal.

⁷ For we live by faith, not by sight.

¹⁴ The love of the Messiah controls us, for we are convinced of this: that one person died for all people; therefore, all people have died. ¹⁵ He died for all people, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the one who died and rose for them.

¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

⁴ was snatched away to Paradise and heard things that cannot be expressed in words, things that no human being has a right even to mention.

⁶ for in union with the Messiah Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters. What matters is faith expressed through love.

¹³ You, too, have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed in the Messiah, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until God redeems his own possession for his praise and glory.

²⁴ May grace be with all who sincerely love the Lord Jesus, the Messiah!

²⁵ Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will continue to live and be with all of you, so you will mature in the faith and know joy in it.

¹ The Meaning of FaithNow faith is the assurance that what we hope for will come about and the certainty that what we cannot see exists.

²⁷ By faith he left Egypt, without being afraid of the king’s anger, and he persevered because he saw the one who is invisible.

⁶ You greatly rejoice in this, even though you have to suffer various kinds of trials for a little while,

¹⁹ We love because God first loved us. ²⁰ Whoever says, “I love God,” but hates his brother is a liar. The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love the God whom he has not seen.

²² But now that you have been freed from sin and have become God’s slaves, the benefit you reap is sanctification, and the result is eternal life.

²¹ Therefore, rid yourselves of everything impure and every expression of wickedness, and with a gentle spirit welcome the word planted in you that can save your souls.

¹⁰ The scepter will never depart from Judah, nor a ruler’s staff from between his feet, until the One comes, who owns them both, and to him will belong the allegiance of nations.

⁴ if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure,

⁴⁴ “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor its sovereignty left in the hands of another people. It will shatter and crush all of these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.

³ “So I turned my attention to the Lord God, seeking him in prayer and supplication, accompanied with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

⁷ I will shake all nations, and the One desired by all nations will come. Then I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

¹² Then tell him, ‘This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “Here is the man whose name is The Branch. He will branch out from where he is and will rebuild the Temple of the LORD.

¹⁷ I tell all of you with certainty, many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see but did not see them, and to hear the things you hear but did not hear them.”

²⁴ The Son of Man is going away, just as it has been written about him. How terrible it will be for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for him if he had never been born.”

²⁴ Because I tell you, many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you see but didn’t see them, and to hear the things you hear but didn’t hear them.”

²⁵ Then Jesus told them, “O, how foolish you are! How slow you are to believe everything the prophets said! ²⁶ The Messiah had to suffer these things and then enter his glory, didn’t he?” ²⁷ Then, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them all the passages of Scripture about himself.

⁴⁴ Then he told them, “These are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms had to be fulfilled.”

³⁹ You examine the Scriptures carefully because you suppose that in them you have eternal life. Yet they testify about me.

⁵² They answered him, “You aren’t from Galilee, too, are you? Search and see that no prophet comes from Galilee.”

²² In fact, Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you. ²³ Any person who will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’
²⁴ “Indeed, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who followed him, also announced these days.

⁵² Which of the prophets did your ancestors fail to persecute? They killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.

⁴³ All the prophets testify to this: everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

²⁷ For the people who live in Jerusalem and their leaders, not knowing who Jesus was, condemned him and so fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. ²⁸ Although they found no reason to sentence him to death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. ²⁹ When they had finished doing everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and placed him in a tomb.

¹¹ These people were more receptive than those in Thessalonica. They were very willing to receive the message, and every day they carefully examined the Scriptures to see if those things were so.

²³ So they set a day to meet with Paul and came out in large numbers to see him where he was staying.
From morning until evening, he continued to explain the kingdom of God to them, trying to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets.

⁴⁰ since God had planned something better for us, so that they would not be perfected without us.

¹¹ They tried to find out what era or specific time the Spirit of the Messiah in them kept referring to when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.

¹⁹ Therefore we regard the message of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp that is shining in a gloomy place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. ²⁰ First of all, you must understand this: No prophecy in Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, ²¹ because no prophecy ever originated through a human decision. Instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁵ “I’ll place hostility between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He’ll strike you on the head, and you’ll strike him on the heel.”

¹ To the Director: To the tune of “Doe of the Dawn”.
A Davidic Psalm.
God Delivers His Suffering Servant My God! My God! Why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far from delivering me— from my groaning words? ² My God, I cry out to you throughout the day, but you do not answer; and throughout the night, but I have no rest. ³ You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. ⁴ Our ancestors trusted in you; they trusted and you delivered them. ⁵ They cried out to you and escaped; they trusted in you and were not put to shame. ⁶ But as for me, I am only a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by people. ⁷ Everyone who sees me mocks me; they gape at me with open mouths and shake their heads at me. ⁸ They say, “Commit yourself to the LORD; perhaps the LORD will deliver him, perhaps he will cause him to escape, since he delights in him.” ⁹ Yet, you are the one who took me from the womb, and kept me safe on my mother’s breasts. ¹⁰ I was dependent on you from birth; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. ¹¹ Do not be so distant from me, for trouble is at hand; indeed, there is no deliverer. ¹² Many bulls have surrounded me; the vicious bulls of Bashan have encircled me. ¹³ Their mouths are opened wide toward me, like roaring and attacking lions. ¹⁴ I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, melting within me. ¹⁵ My strength is dried up like broken pottery; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, and you have brought me down to the dust of death. ¹⁶ For dogs have surrounded me; a gang of those who practice of evil has encircled me. They gouged my hands and my feet. ¹⁷ I can count all my bones. They look at me; they stare at me. ¹⁸ They divide my clothing among themselves; they cast lots for my clothing! ¹⁹ But as for you, LORD, do not be far away from me; My Strength, come quickly to help me. ²⁰ Deliver me from the sword; my precious life from the power of the dog. ²¹ Deliver me from the mouth of the lion, from the horns of the wild oxen. You have answered me. ²² I will declare your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation, I will praise you, saying, ²³ “All who fear the LORD, praise him! All the seed of Jacob, glorify him! All the seed of Israel, fear him! ²⁴ For he does not despise nor detest the afflicted person; he does not hide his face from him, but he hears him when he cries out to him.” ²⁵ My praise in the great congregation is because of you; I will pay my vows before those who fear you. ²⁶ The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise him, “May you live forever!” ²⁷ All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD; all the families of the nations will bow in submission to the LORD. ²⁸ Indeed, the kingdom belongs to the LORD; he rules over the nations. ²⁹ All the prosperous people will eat and bow down in submission. All those who are about to go down to the grave will bow down in submission, along with the one who can no longer keep himself alive. ³⁰ Our descendants will serve him, and that generation will be told about the Lord. ³¹ They will come and declare his righteousness to a people yet to be born; indeed, he has accomplished it!

¹ To the Director: To the tune of “The Lilies”. Davidic.
When God Seems Distant Deliver me, God, because the waters are up to my neck. ² I am sinking in deep mire, and there is no solid ground. I have come into deep water, and the flood overwhelms me. ³ I am exhausted from calling for help. My throat is parched. My eyes are strained from looking for God. ⁴ Those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head. My persecutors are mighty, and they want to destroy me. Must I be forced to return what I did not steal? ⁵ God, you know my sins, and my guilt is not hidden from you. ⁶ Do not let those who look up to you be ashamed because of me, Lord God of the Heavenly Armies. Let not those who seek you be humiliated because of me, God of Israel. ⁷ I am being mocked because of you. Dishonor overwhelms me. ⁸ I am a stranger to my brothers, a foreigner to my mother’s sons. ⁹ Zeal for your house consumes me, and the mockeries of those who insult you fall on me. ¹⁰ I weep and fast, and I am mocked for it. ¹¹ When I dressed in sackcloth, I became an object of gossip among them. ¹² The prominent people mock me, composing drinking songs.
¹³ Seeking God for DeliveranceAs for me, LORD, may my prayer to you come at a favorable time. God, in the abundance of your gracious love, answer me with your sure deliverance. ¹⁴ Rescue me from the mud and do not let me sink. Rescue me from those who hate me, and from the deep waters. ¹⁵ Let neither the floodwaters overwhelm me nor let the deep swallow me up, nor the mouth of the well close over me. ¹⁶ Answer me, LORD, for your gracious love is good; Turn to me in keeping with your great compassion, ¹⁷ and do not ignore your servant, because I am in distress. Hurry to answer me! ¹⁸ Draw near and redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies. ¹⁹ Truly you know my reproach, shame, and disgrace. All my enemies are known to you. ²⁰ Insults broke my heart. I despaired and looked for sympathy; but there was none, for comforters, but I found none. ²¹ They put poison in my food, in my thirst they forced me to drink vinegar.

³⁰ Let me praise the name of God with a song that I may magnify him with thanksgiving. ³¹ That will please the LORD more than oxen and bulls with horns and hooves. ³² The afflicted will watch and rejoice. May you who seek God take courage. ³³ For the LORD listens to the needy and doesn’t despise those in bondage. ³⁴ Let the heavens and earth praise him, along with the sea and its swarming creatures. ³⁵ For God will deliver Zion and will rebuild the cities of Judah so they may live there and possess them. ³⁶ The descendants of his servants will inherit it, and those who cherish his name will live there.

¹ A song. A psalm by the descendants of Korah. According to Machalath Leannoth. An instruction by Heman the Ezrahite.
A Cry for Help LORD, God of my salvation, by day and by night I cry out before you. ² Let my prayer come before you; listen to my cry. ³ For my life is filled with troubles as I approach Sheol. ⁴ I am considered as one of those descending into the Pit, like a mighty man without strength, ⁵ released to remain with the dead, lying in a grave like a corpse, remembered no longer, and cut off from your power. ⁶ You have assigned me to the lowest part of the Pit, to the darkest depths. ⁷ Your anger lies heavily upon me; you pound me with all your waves. Interlude ⁸ You caused my acquaintances to shun me; you make me extremely abhorrent to them. Restrained, I am unable to go out. ⁹ My eyes languish on account of my affliction; all day long I call out to you, LORD, I spread out my hands to you. ¹⁰ Can you perform wonders for the dead? Can departed spirits stand up to praise you? Interlude ¹¹ Can your gracious love be declared in the grave or your faithfulness in Abaddon? ¹² Can your awesome deeds be known in darkness or your righteousness in the land of oblivion? ¹³ As for me, I cry out to you LORD, and in the morning my prayer greets you. ¹⁴ Why, LORD, have you rejected me? Why have you hidden your face from me? ¹⁵ Since my youth I have been oppressed and in danger of death. I bear your dread and am overwhelmed. ¹⁶ Your burning anger overwhelms me; your terrors destroy me. ¹⁷ Like waters, they engulf me all day long; they surround me on all sides. ¹⁸ You caused my friend and neighbor to shun me; and my acquaintances are confused.

¹ A Davidic psalm
A Priestly Ruler A declaration from the LORD to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” ² When the LORD extends your mighty scepter from Zion, rule in the midst of your enemies. ³ Your soldiers are willing volunteers on your day of battle; in majestic holiness, from the womb, from the dawn, the dew of your youth belongs to you. ⁴ The LORD took an oath and will never recant: “You are a priest forever, after the manner of Melchizedek.” ⁵ The Lord is at your right hand; he will utterly destroy kings in the time of his wrath. ⁶ He will execute judgment against the nations, filling graves with corpses. He will utterly destroy leaders far and wide.

⁶ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the growth of his government and peace there will be no end. He will rule over his kingdom, sitting on the throne of David, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies will accomplish this.

⁶ he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Israel and bring back those of Jacob I have preserved. I’ll also make you as a light to the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.

¹³ The Suffering Servant“Look! My servant will prosper, and he will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high. ¹⁴ Just as many were astonished at you— so was he marred in his appearance, more than any human, and his form beyond that of human semblance—

¹ “Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? ² For he grew up before him like a tender plant, and like a root out of a dry ground; he had no form and he had no majesty that we should look at him, and there is no attractiveness that we should desire him. ³ “He was despised and rejected by others, and a man of sorrows, intimately familiar with suffering; and like one from whom people hide their faces; and we despised him and did not value him. ⁴ “Surely he has borne our sufferings and carried our sorrows; yet we considered him stricken, and struck down by God, and afflicted. ⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities, and the punishment that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. ⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, each of us, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ⁷ He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he didn’t open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. ⁸ “From detention and judgment he was taken away— and who can even think about his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living, he was stricken for the transgression of my people. ⁹ Then they made his grave with the wicked, and with rich people in his death, although he had committed no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth.”
¹⁰ The Exaltation of the Servant“Yet the LORD was willing to crush him, and he made him suffer. Although you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring, and he will prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will triumph in his hand. ¹¹ Out of the suffering of his soul he will see light and find satisfaction. And through his knowledge his servant, the righteous one, will make many righteous, and he will bear their iniquities. ¹² Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong; because he poured out his life to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he carried the sins of many, and made intercession for their transgressions.”

³⁴ “As you were watching, a rock was quarried—but not with human hands—and it struck the iron and clay feet of the statue, breaking them to pieces. ³⁵ Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken in pieces together and became like chaff from a summer threshing floor that the breeze carries away without leaving a trace. Then the rock that struck the statue grew into a huge mountain and filled the entire earth.

¹³ The Vision of the Son of Man“I continued to observe the night vision—and look!—someone like the Son of Man was coming, accompanied by heavenly clouds. He approached the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. ¹⁴ To him dominion was bestowed, along with glory and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations, and languages are to serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion—it will never pass away—and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

²⁴ Seventy weeks have been decreed concerning your people and your holy city: to restrain transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for lawlessness, to establish everlasting righteousness, to conclude vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. ²⁵ So be informed and discern that seven weeks and 62 weeks will elapse from the issuance of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed Commander. The plaza and moat will be rebuilt, though in troubled times. ²⁶ Then after the 62 weeks, the anointed one will be cut down (but not for himself). Then the people of the Coming Commander will destroy both the city and the Sanctuary. Its ending will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war, with desolations having been decreed.

¹⁸ Once again this message from the LORD come to me: ¹⁹ “This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: ‘The fasts that occur in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months will be joyful and glad times for the house of Judah, replete with cheerful festivals. Therefore, love truth and peace.’”
²⁰ Future Visits by Nations to Jerusalem“This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: ‘In the future, people will come, including residents of many cities, ²¹ and they will travel from one place to another place and say, “Let’s go quickly to pray in the presence of the LORD and to inquire of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.’ And I will go, too.

⁷ “Arise, sword, against my shepherd, against the mighty one who is related to me,” declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies. “Strike the shepherd, the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn against the insignificant ones.

⁹ The LORD will be king over all the earth at that time. There will be one LORD, and his name the only one.

⁴¹ Isaiah said this when he saw his glory and spoke about him.

²² I’ve had help from God to this day, and so I stand here to testify to both the powerful and the lowly alike, stating only what the prophets and Moses said would happen— ²³ that the Messiah would suffer and be the first to rise from the dead and would bring light both to our people and to the gentiles.”

⁹ You, however, are not under the control of the human nature but under the control of the Spirit, since God’s Spirit lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of the Messiah, he does not belong to him.

⁶ Now because you are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to cry out, “Abba! Father!”

¹⁸ For the Messiah also suffered for sins once for all, an innocent person for the guilty, so that he could bring you to God. He was put to death in a mortal body but was brought to life by the Spirit, ¹⁹ in which he went and made a proclamation to those imprisoned spirits

²¹ because no prophecy ever originated through a human decision. Instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁰ I bowed down at his feet to worship him, but he told me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who rely on what Jesus is saying. Worship God, because what Jesus is saying is the spirit of prophecy!”

²⁰ The cherubim are to spread their wings upward, covering the Mercy Seat with their wings and facing each other. The faces of the cherubim is to be turned toward the Mercy Seat.

²³ Return to my correction! Look, I will pour out my spirit on you, and I will make my words known to you.

² The Spirit of the LORD will rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD. ³ His delight will be in the fear of the LORD. He won’t judge by what his eyes see, nor decide disputes by what his ears hear, ⁴ but with righteousness he will judge the needy, and decide with equity for earth’s poor. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and the wicked will be killed with the breath of his lips. ⁵ Righteousness will be the sash around his loins, and faithfulness the belt around his waist.”
⁶ A Transformed Ecology“The wolf will live with the lamb; the leopard will lie down with the young goat. The calf and the lion will graze together, and a little child will lead them.

¹⁵ until the Spirit from on high is poured upon us, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.”

³ For I’ll pour water upon thirsty ground and streams on parched land. So will I pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing upon your descendants. ⁴ They’ll spring up as among the green grass, like willows by flowing streams. ⁵ One will say, ‘I belong to the LORD,’ and another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will have written on his hand, ‘the LORD’s,’ and will adopt the name of Israel.”

¹ “Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

¹⁹ The King’s Dream is Revealed to DanielWhen the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision later that night, Daniel blessed the God of heaven

²² He reveals what is profoundly mysterious and knows what is in the darkness; with him dwells light.

²⁸ But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he is making known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the latter days.“While you were in bed, the dream and the visions that came to your head were as follows: ²⁹ Your majesty, when you were in bed, thoughts came to your mind about what would happen in the future, and the Revealer of Secrets has made known to you what will take place.

⁴⁷ The king told Daniel, “Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and the Revealer of Secrets, because you were able to reveal this mystery.”

¹³ The Duration of the Desolation“Then I heard one holy person speaking, and another holy person addressed the one who was speaking: ‘In the vision about the regular burnt offering, how much time elapses while the desecration terrifies and both the Holy Place and the Heavenly Army are trampled?’

²⁴ Seventy weeks have been decreed concerning your people and your holy city: to restrain transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for lawlessness, to establish everlasting righteousness, to conclude vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.

¹ Daniel’s VisionIn the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel (also known as Belteshazzar). The message was trustworthy and concerned a great conflict. He understood it and had insight concerning the vision.

⁵ The Vision of the Two Speakers“Then while I, Daniel, continued watching, suddenly two others stood there, one on this side of the river bank and one on the other side. ⁶ One asked the man dressed in linen clothes, who was standing above the waters of the river, ‘How long until the fulfillment of the wonders?’

⁹ “He answered, ‘Go on your way, Daniel, because these matters are wrapped up and sealed until the time of the end.

¹³ Now as for you, keep on going until the end—you’ll rest and then rise to receive your reward at the end of the age.’”

²⁸ The Day of the LORD“Then it will come about at a later time that I will pour out my Spirit on every person. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your elderly people will dream dreams, and your young people will see visions.

⁷ The LORD’s Purposes“Truly the Lord GOD will do nothing he has mentioned without revealing his purposes to his servants the prophets.

¹⁰ I will pour out on the house of David and on the residents of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and of supplications, and they will look to me—the one whom they pierced.’”
Mourning in JerusalemThen they will mourn for him, as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him, as for a firstborn son.

²⁵ Jesus Praises the Father and Invites the Disciples to Come to Him
At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from wise and intelligent people and have revealed them to infants.

²⁷ All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one fully knows the Son except the Father, and no one fully knows the Father except the Son and the person to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

¹⁷ Then Jesus told him, “How blessed you are, Simon son of Jonah, since flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, though my Father in heaven has.

¹⁵ Then he told them, “As you go into all the world, proclaim the gospel to everyone.

²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

⁶ So they left and went from village to village, spreading the good news and healing diseases everywhere.

¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you that there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”

²⁶ “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father— the Spirit of Truth, who comes from the Father—he will testify on my behalf.

⁷ However, I’m telling you the truth. It’s for your advantage that I’m going away, because if I don’t go away, the Helper won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he comes, he will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment— ⁹ of sin, because they don’t believe in me; ¹⁰ of righteousness, because I’m going to the Father and you will no longer see me; ¹¹ and of judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
¹² “I still have a lot to say to you, but you cannot bear it now. ¹³ Yet when the Spirit of Truth comes, he’ll guide you into all truth. He won’t speak on his own accord, but he’ll speak whatever he hears and will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ All that the Father has is mine. That is why I said, ‘He will take what is mine and declare it to you.’

² Suddenly, a sound like the roar of a mighty windstorm came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated, and one rested on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign languages as the Spirit gave them that ability.

¹⁷ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on everyone. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. ¹⁸ In those days I will even pour out my Spirit on my slaves, men and women alike, and they will prophesy.

³³ He has been exalted to the right hand of God, has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and has caused you to experience what you are seeing and hearing.

⁸ Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, told them, “Rulers and elders of the people!

³¹ When they had prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak messages from God boldly.

²⁵ After they had given their testimony and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, continuing to proclaim the good news in many Samaritan villages.

⁴⁴ Gentiles Receive the Holy SpiritWhile Peter was still making this statement, the Holy Spirit fell on all the people who were listening to his message.

¹⁰ As soon as he had seen the vision, we immediately looked for a way to go to Macedonia, because we were convinced that God had called us to tell the people there the good news.

¹⁵ That is why I am so eager to proclaim the gospel to you who live in Rome, too.

¹⁷ For in the gospel God’s righteousness is being revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The righteous will live by faith.”

¹⁵ And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are those who bring the good news!”

¹⁹ by the power of signs and wonders, and by the power of God’s Spirit, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of the Messiah from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum.

¹⁰ But God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God.

⁶ with purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness; with the Holy Spirit, genuine love,

¹² For I did not receive it from a man, nor was I taught it, but it was revealed to me by Jesus the Messiah.

¹⁶ to reveal his Son to me so that I might proclaim him among the gentiles, I did not confer with another human being at any time,

¹⁰ He did this so that now, through the church, the wisdom of God in all its variety might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realm

⁵ for the gospel we brought did not come to you in words only, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction. Indeed, you know what kind of people we proved to be while we were with you, acting on your behalf.
⁶ You became imitators of us and of the Lord. In spite of a great deal of suffering, you welcomed the word with the joy that the Holy Spirit produces.

⁹ Brothers, you remember our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not become a burden to any of you while we proclaimed the gospel of God to you.

⁴ while God added his testimony through signs, wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

² because we have had the good news told to us as well as to them. But the message they heard did not help them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened to it.

³⁹ All these people won approval for their faith but they did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ since God had planned something better for us, so that they would not be perfected without us.

²⁵ but the word of the Lord lasts forever.”Now this word is the good news that was announced to you.

¹¹ The Vision of the Song of the LambThen I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels, the living creatures, and the elders surrounding the throne. They numbered 10,000’s times 10,000 and thousands times thousands.

¹¹ “‘This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it hurriedly—it’s the LORD’s Passover.

⁴⁶ After Ahab had left, the hand of the LORD came upon Elijah, and he tucked his mantle into his belt and outran Ahab in a race to the city gate of Jezreel.

²⁹ At this he told Gehazi, “Get ready to run! Take my staff in your hand, and get on the road. Don’t greet anyone you meet. If anyone greets you, don’t respond. Just go lay my staff on the youngster’s face.”

³ Stand up like a man! I’ll ask you some questions, and you give me some answers!”

⁷ “Stand up like a man! I’ll ask you some questions, and you give me some answers!

⁵ Righteousness will be the sash around his loins, and faithfulness the belt around his waist.”

¹⁷ The LORD’s Assurance to Jeremiah“As for you, get ready! Stand up and tell them everything that I’ve commanded you. Don’t be frightened as you face them, or I’ll frighten you right in front of them.

³⁵ The Watchful Servants
“You must keep your belts fastened and your lamps burning.

⁸ Of course not. Instead, he would say to him, ‘Get dinner ready for me, and put on your apron and wait on me until I eat and drink. Then you can eat and drink.’

³⁰ The day when the Son of Man is revealed will be like that.

³⁴ Be Alert“Constantly be on your guard so that your hearts will not be loaded down with self-indulgence, drunkenness, and the worries of this life, or that day will take you by surprise ³⁵ like a trap, because it will come on everyone who lives on the face of the earth.

¹³ Let’s behave decently, as people who live in the light of day. No wild parties, drunkenness, sexual immorality, promiscuity, quarreling, or jealousy!

⁴ For everything that was written long ago was written to instruct us, so that we might have hope through the endurance and encouragement that the Scriptures give us.
⁵ Now may God, the source of endurance and encouragement, allow you to live in harmony with each other as you follow the Messiah Jesus, ⁶ so that with one mind and one voice you might glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.
⁷ Therefore, accept one another, just as the Messiah accepted you, for the glory of God. ⁸ For I tell you that the Messiah became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth in order to confirm the promises given to our ancestors, ⁹ so that the gentiles may glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “That is why I will praise you among the gentiles; I will sing praises to your name.”
¹⁰ Again he says, “Rejoice, you gentiles, with his people!”
¹¹ And again, “Praise the Lord, all you gentiles! Let all the nations praise him.”
¹² And again, Isaiah says, “There will be a Root from Jesse. He will rise up to rule the gentiles, and the gentiles will hope in him.”
¹³ Now may God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace as you believe, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

⁷ Therefore, you don’t lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus the Messiah to be revealed.

¹⁴ Stand firm, therefore, having fastened the belt of truth around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

⁶ Therefore, let’s not fall asleep like others do, but let’s stay awake and be sober. ⁷ For people who go to sleep, go to sleep at night; and people who get drunk, get drunk at night. ⁸ But since we belong to the day, let’s be sober. We must put on the breastplate of faith and love, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

⁷ and to give us who are afflicted relief when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels

⁵ But you must be clear-headed about everything. Endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist. Devote yourself completely to your ministry.

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. ¹² It trains us to renounce ungodly living and worldly passions so that we might live sensible, honest, and godly lives in the present age ¹³ as we wait for the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus the Messiah.

¹⁹ That hope, firm and secure like an anchor for our souls, reaches behind the curtain

³⁵ So don’t lose your confidence, since it holds a great reward for you.

³ Our Hope and Joy are in the MessiahBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah! Because of his great mercy he has granted us a new birth, resulting in an immortal hope through the resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, from the dead ⁴ and to an inheritance kept in heaven for you that can’t be destroyed, corrupted, or changed. ⁵ Through faith you are being protected by God’s power for a salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of this era. ⁶ You greatly rejoice in this, even though you have to suffer various kinds of trials for a little while, ⁷ so that your genuine faith, which is more valuable than gold that perishes when tested by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus, the Messiah, is revealed.
⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, ⁹ because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

¹⁵ Instead, exalt the Messiah” as Lord in your lives. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you to explain the hope you have.

⁸ Be clear-minded and alert. Your opponent, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

³⁰ Though God has overlooked those times of ignorance, he now commands everyone everywhere to repent,

⁴ Therefore, through baptism we were buried with him into his death so that, just as the Messiah was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too may live an entirely new life.

² Do not be conformed to this world, but continuously be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may be able to determine what God’s will is—what is proper, pleasing, and perfect.

² that you once practiced as you lived according to the ways of this present world and according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now active in those who are disobedient.

¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. ¹⁹ Since they have lost all sense of shame, they have abandoned themselves to sensuality and practice every kind of sexual perversion without restraint. ²⁰ However, that is not the way you came to know the Messiah. ²¹ Surely you have listened to him and have been taught by him, since truth is in Jesus. ²² Regarding your former way of life, you were taught to strip off your old nature, which is being ruined by its deceptive desires,

⁶ Living in the LightDo not let anyone deceive you with meaningless words, for it is because of these things that God becomes angry with those who disobey.

⁵ So put to death your worldly impulses: sexual sin, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). ⁶ It is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. ⁷ You used to behave like them as you lived among them.

⁵ not with passion and lust like the gentiles who do not know God.

³ After all, we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, and misled. We were slaves to many kinds of lusts and pleasures, spending our days in malice and jealousy. We were despised, and we hated one another. ⁴ In grace our Savior God appeared, to make his love for mankind clear. ⁵ ‘Twas not for deeds that we had done, but by his steadfast love alone, he saved us through a second birth, renewed us by the Spirit’s work,

² so that he can live the rest of his mortal life guided, not by human desires, but by the will of God. ³ For you spent enough time in the past doing what the gentiles like to do, living in sensuality, sinful desires, drunkenness, wild celebrations, drinking parties, and detestable idolatry.

³ They kept on calling to each other: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”

⁴⁸ So be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

⁷⁴ deliverance from our enemies’ grip so that we could serve him without fear ⁷⁵ and be holy and righteous before him all of our days.

²⁸ And we know that for those who love God, that is, for those who are called according to his purpose, all things are working together for good.

²⁴ including us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but from the gentiles as well?

¹ Cleanse Yourselves in HolinessSince we have these promises, dear friends, let’s cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit by becoming mature in our holy fear of God.

¹ So be imitators of God, as his dear children. ² Live lovingly, just as the Messiah also loved us and gave himself for us as an offering and sacrifice, a fragrant aroma to God.

²⁷ Standing Firm in One SpiritThe only thing that matters is that you continue to live as good citizens in a manner worthy of the gospel of the Messiah. Then, whether I come to see you or whether I stay away, I may hear all about you—that you are standing firm in one spirit, struggling with one mind for the faith of the gospel,

¹⁵ so that you may be blameless and innocent, God’s children without any faults among a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world ¹⁶ as you hold firmly to the word of life. Then I will be proud when the Messiah returns that I did not run in vain or work hard in vain.

¹⁴ I keep pursuing the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly call in the Messiah Jesus.

²⁰ Our citizenship, however, is in heaven, and it is from there that we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.

¹² We comforted and encouraged you, urging you to live in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

³ For it is God’s will that you be sanctified: You must abstain from sexual immorality. ⁴ Each of you must know how to control his own body in a holy and honorable manner, ⁵ not with passion and lust like the gentiles who do not know God. ⁶ Furthermore, you must never take advantage of or exploit a brother in this regard, because the Lord avenges all these things, just as we already told you and warned you. ⁷ For God did not call us to be impure, but to be holy.

¹² Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but be an example for other believers in your speech, behavior, love, faithfulness, and purity.

⁹ He saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our own accomplishments, but according to his own purpose and the grace that was given to us in the Messiah Jesus before time began.

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. ¹² It trains us to renounce ungodly living and worldly passions so that we might live sensible, honest, and godly lives in the present age ¹³ as we wait for the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus the Messiah. ¹⁴ He gave himself for us to set us free from every wrong and to cleanse us so that we could be his special people who are enthusiastic about doing good deeds.

⁸ This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have put their faith in God may devote themselves to good actions. These things are good and helpful to other people.

¹⁴ Our own people should also learn to make good deeds a priority when urgent needs arise, so they won’t be unproductive.

¹⁴ Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

⁵ Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for God has said, “I will never leave you or abandon you.”

¹³ Live WiselyWho among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his noble conduct that his actions are done humbly and wisely.

¹² Continue to live such upright lives among the gentiles that, when they slander you as practicers of evil, they may see your good actions and glorify God when he visits them.

¹⁶ But do this gently and respectfully, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak evil of your good conduct in the Messiah will be ashamed of slandering you.

³ We are Called to Holy LivingHis divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the full knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. ⁴ Through these he has given us his precious and wonderful promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, seeing that you have escaped the corruption that is in the world caused by evil desires. ⁵ For this very reason, you must make every effort to supplement your faith with moral character, your moral character with knowledge, ⁶ your knowledge with self-control, your self-control with endurance, your endurance with godliness, ⁷ your godliness with brotherly kindness, and your brotherly kindness with love. ⁸ For if you possess these qualities, and if they continue to increase among you, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in attaining a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. ⁹ For the person who lacks these qualities is blind and shortsighted, and has forgotten the cleansing that he has received from his past sins.
¹⁰ So then, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election certain, for if you keep on doing this you will never fail.

¹¹ Since everything will be destroyed in this way, think of the kind of holy and godly people you ought to be ¹² as you look forward to and hasten the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved and the elements will melt with fire. ¹³ But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
¹⁴ So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to have the Lord find you at peace and without spot or fault.

⁷ The Letter to the Church in Philadelphia“To the messenger of the church in Philadelphia, write: ‘The one who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens a door that no one can shut, and who shuts a door that no one can open, ‘says this:

⁸ Each of the four living creatures had six wings and were full of eyes inside and out. Without stopping day or night they were saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is coming.”

¹⁰ They cried out in a loud voice, “Holy and true Sovereign, how long will it be before you judge and take revenge on those living on the earth who shed our blood?”

⁴⁴ because I, the LORD, am your God. Set yourselves apart and be holy, because I am holy. You are not to defile yourselves with any of the swarming creatures that swarm the earth.

² “Tell the entire assembly of Israel that they are to be holy, since I, the LORD your God, am holy.

⁷ Therefore, separate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.

³ Seven Questions to Ponder“Will a couple walk in unity without having met?

⁹ “I’m 130 years old,” Jacob replied. “My years have turned out to be few and unpleasant, but I haven’t yet reached the age my ancestors did during their travels on earth.”

¹⁷ For the LORD your God is the God of all gods, the LORD of all lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who does not show favoritism or take bribes.

¹⁵ For we are aliens and vagrants in your presence, as were all of our ancestors. Our days on the earth pass away like shadows, and we have no hope.

⁷ So let the fear of the LORD rest upon you, be on your guard, and act carefully, because with the LORD our God there is neither injustice, nor partiality, nor bribery.”

¹⁹ Who isn’t partial to princes? Who doesn’t give preference to the nobles over the poor? Nevertheless, all of them are his handiwork.

¹² Hear my prayer, LORD, pay attention to my cry, and do not ignore my tears. I am an alien in your presence, a stranger just like my ancestors were.

¹⁶ The wise person fears and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and overconfident.

¹⁴ Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into disaster.

¹⁹ God’s Desire for His People“I said, ‘How I wanted to treat you like children, and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of the nations.’ I said, ‘You will call me, my father, and won’t turn back from following me.’

⁹ Indeed, then I will return my people to a pure language so that they all may call upon the name of the LORD, serving him with a united will.

⁹ Therefore, this is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

⁷ Ask, Search, Knock
“Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸ Because everyone who keeps asking will receive, and the person who keeps searching will find, and the person who keeps knocking will have the door opened.
⁹ “There isn’t a person among you who would give his son a stone if he asked for bread, is there? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, he wouldn’t give him a snake, would he? ¹¹ So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who keep on asking him!

¹⁶ They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. They said, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere and that you teach the way of God truthfully. You don’t favor any individual, because you pay no attention to external appearance.

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak: “Now I understand that God shows no partiality. ³⁵ Indeed, whoever fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him in any nation.

¹⁰ But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who practices doing good, initially for Jews but also for Greeks as well, ¹¹ because God does not show partiality.

² May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, be yours!

⁶ Therefore, we are always confident, and we know that as long as we are at home in this body we are away from the Lord.

¹¹ See what great earnestness godly sorrow has produced in you! How ready you are to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how full of longing and enthusiasm, how eager to seek justice! In every way you have demonstrated that you are innocent in this matter.

⁶ Now those who were reputed to be important added nothing to my message. (What sort of people they were makes no difference to me, since God pays no attention to outward appearances.)

¹⁴ To Know the Messiah’s LoveThis is the reason I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah,

⁹ Masters, treat your slaves the same way. Do not threaten them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

¹² Blameless LivingAnd so, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only when I was with you but even more now that I am absent, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

²⁵ For the person who does what is wrong will be paid back for what he has done without favoritism.

¹ We Must Enter the RestTherefore, as long as the promise of entering his rest remains valid, let us be afraid! Otherwise, some of you will fail to reach it,

¹³ All these people died having faith. They did not receive the things that were promised, yet they saw them in the distant future and welcomed them, acknowledging that they were strangers and foreigners on earth. ¹⁴ For people who say such things make it clear that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking about what they had left behind, they would have had an opportunity to go back. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country, that is, a heavenly one. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them.

²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and worship God in reverence and fear in a way that pleases him.

⁶ In fact, people walk around as shadows. Surely, they busy themselves for nothing, heaping up possessions but not knowing who will get them.

⁷ No man can redeem the life of another, nor can he give to God a sufficient payment for him— ⁸ for it would cost too much to redeem his life, and the payments would go on forever—

¹⁰ Don’t trust in oppression or put false hope in stealing; if you become wealthy, do not set your heart on it.

¹¹ The Scorching Wind of JudgmentAt that time, it will be told this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert is coming toward my people, and it’s not for winnowing or cleansing.

¹⁴ Instead, they followed their rebellious hearts and the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”

¹⁹ LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in a time of difficulty, to you the nations will come, and from the ends of the earth they’ll say, “Surely our ancestors inherited deception, things that are worthless, and in which there is no profit.”

¹⁷ Rather, we will keep doing everything that we said we would by offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and by pouring out liquid offerings to her just as we, our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of bread, things went well for us, and we didn’t experience disaster.

¹⁸ I told their children in the wilderness, ‘You are not to follow the statutes of your ancestors, observe their ordinances, or be defiled by their idols.

⁴ A Warning to JudahThis is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Judah —and now for a fourth— I will not turn away; because they rejected the Law of the LORD and did not keep his statutes. Their own lies made them wander off, following along the same path their ancestors walked.

⁴ Don’t be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed: ‘This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “It’s time to turn from your evil lifestyles and from your evil actions,” ‘but they would neither listen nor pay attention to me,’” declares the LORD.’ ⁵ “Your ancestors—where are they? And the prophets—do they live forever? ⁶ But my words and my statutes that I gave as commands to my servants the prophets—did they not overwhelm your ancestors? And they returned to me: ‘The LORD of the Heavenly Armies acted toward us just as he planned to do—in keeping with our lifestyles and in keeping with our actions.’”

² “Why do your disciples disregard the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands when they eat.”
³ But he answered them, “Why do you also disregard the commandment of God because of your tradition?

⁵¹ “You stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. ⁵² Which of the prophets did your ancestors fail to persecute? They killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.

³⁴ But when they found out that he was a Jew, they all started to shout in unison for about two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
³⁵ When the city recorder had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who in the world doesn’t know that this city of Ephesus is the keeper of the temple of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell down from heaven?

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are worthless.”

²⁰ because you were bought for a price. Therefore, glorify God with your bodies.

²³ You were bought for a price. Stop becoming slaves of people.

⁴ He gave himself for our sins in order to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father.

¹⁷ The Old Life and the NewTherefore, I tell you and insist on in the Lord not to live any longer like the gentiles live, thinking worthless thoughts.

¹⁴ He gave himself for us to set us free from every wrong and to cleanse us so that we could be his special people who are enthusiastic about doing good deeds.

⁷ so that your genuine faith, which is more valuable than gold that perishes when tested by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus, the Messiah, is revealed.

³ For you spent enough time in the past doing what the gentiles like to do, living in sensuality, sinful desires, drunkenness, wild celebrations, drinking parties, and detestable idolatry.

⁵ Your lamb is to be a year old male without blemish. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

⁷ He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he didn’t open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

²⁸ That’s the way it is with the Son of Man. He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many people.”

²⁸ because this is my blood of the new covenant that is being poured out for many people for the forgiveness of sins.

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

³⁶ As he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

³² This was the passage of Scripture he was reading: “Like a sheep he was led away to be slaughtered, and like a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. ³³ In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his descendants? For his life is taken away from the earth.”
³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet talking about? Himself? Or someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began to speak, and, starting from this Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

²⁸ Pay attention to yourselves and to the entire flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to be shepherds of God’s church, which he acquired with his own blood.

⁷ Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of dough, since you are to be free from yeast. For the Messiah, our Passover, has been sacrificed. ⁸ So let’s keep celebrating the festival, neither with old yeast nor with yeast that is evil and wicked, but with yeast-free bread that is both sincere and true.

¹⁴ through whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

¹² Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he went into the Most Holy Place once for all and secured our eternal redemption. ¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are unclean purifies them physically, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead actions so that we may serve the living God!

²² “He never sinned, and he never told a lie.” ²³ When he was insulted, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he did not threaten. It was his habit to commit the matter to the one who judges fairly. ²⁴ “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the tree, so that we might die to those sins and live righteously. “By his wounds you have been healed.”

¹⁸ For the Messiah also suffered for sins once for all, an innocent person for the guilty, so that he could bring you to God. He was put to death in a mortal body but was brought to life by the Spirit,

⁷ But if we keep living in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

² It is he who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world’s.

⁵ and from Jesus the Messiah, the witness, the faithful one, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood

⁶ The Vision of the Lamb Taking the ScrollThen I saw a lamb standing in the middle of the throne, the four living creatures, and the elders. He looked like he had been slaughtered. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth.

⁹ They sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because you were slaughtered. With your blood you purchased people for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation.

¹⁴ I told him, “Sir, you know.”
Then he told me, “These are the people who are coming out of the terrible suffering. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.

¹ The Vision of the New Song on Mount ZionThen I looked, and there was the lamb, standing on Mount Zion! With him were 144,000 people who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

²³ From eternity I was appointed, from the beginning, from before there was land.

² The Ruler from Bethlehem“As for you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah, even though you remain least among the clans of Judah, nevertheless, the one who rules in Israel for me will emerge from you. His existence has been from antiquity, even from eternity.

²⁵ You are the descendants of the prophets and the heirs of the covenant that God made with your ancestors when he told Abraham, ‘Through your descendant all the families of the earth will be blessed.’ ²⁶ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning every one of you from your evil ways.”

²⁵ whom God offered as a place where atonement by the Messiah’s blood would occur through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because he had waited patiently to deal with sins committed in the past.

²⁵ Final DoxologyNow to the one who is able to strengthen you with my gospel and the message that I preach about Jesus, the Messiah, by revealing the secret that was kept hidden from long ago ²⁶ but now has been made known through the prophets to all the gentiles, in keeping with the decree of the eternal God to bring them to the obedience that springs from faith—

⁴ But when the appropriate time had come, God sent his Son, born by a woman, born under the Law,

⁴ just as he chose us in the Messiah before the creation of the universe to be holy and blameless in his presence. In love

¹⁰ to usher in the fullness of the times and to bring together in the Messiah all things in heaven and on earth.

⁹ and help everyone see how this secret that has been at work was hidden for ages by God, who created all things.

¹¹ in keeping with the eternal purpose that God carried out through the Messiah Jesus our Lord,

²⁶ This secret was hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints,

⁹ He saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our own accomplishments, but according to his own purpose and the grace that was given to us in the Messiah Jesus before time began. ¹⁰ Now, however, that grace has been revealed through the coming of our Savior the Messiah Jesus, who has destroyed death and through the gospel has brought life and release from death into full view.

² which is based on the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began. ³ At the right time he revealed his message through the proclamation that was entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.

² has in these last days spoken to us by a Son whom he appointed to be the heir of everything and through whom he also made the universe.

²⁶ Then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the creation of the world. But now, at the end of the ages, he has appeared once for all to remove sin by his sacrifice.

² This life was revealed to us, and we have seen it and testify about it. We declare to you this eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.

⁵ You know that the Messiah was revealed to take away sins, and there is not any sin in him.

⁸ The person who practices sin belongs to the evil one, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason that the Son of God was revealed was to destroy what the devil has been doing.

⁹ This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent his unique Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

⁸ All those who had become settled down and at home, living on the earth, will worship it, everyone whose name had not been written in the Book of Life belonging to the lamb that had been slaughtered since the foundation of the world.

⁵ Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for once again I will praise him, since his presence saves me.

³ Do not look to nobles, nor to mere human beings who cannot save. ⁴ When they stop breathing, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans evaporate! ⁵ Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,

⁷ Blessed is the person who trusts in the LORD, making the LORD his trust.

¹⁸ Then Jesus approached them and told them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

³⁴ The one whom God sent speaks the words of God, because God does not give the Spirit in limited measure to him.

²² The Father judges no one, but has given all authority to judge to the Son, ²³ so that everyone may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
²⁴ “Truly, I tell all of you emphatically, whoever hears what I say and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has passed from death to life.

⁴⁴ Judgment by Jesus’ WordThen Jesus said loudly, “The one who believes in me does not believe in me only, but also in the one who sent me.

³¹ The New CommandmentAfter Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “The Son of Man is now glorified, and God has been glorified by him. ³² If God has been glorified by him, God himself also will glorify the Son of Man, and he will do so quickly.

¹ Jesus the Way to the Father “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.

⁶ Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

¹ Jesus Prays for Himself, His Disciples, and His Future FollowersAfter Jesus had said this, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son may glorify you.

²⁴ But God raised him up and put an end to suffering of death, since it was impossible for him to be held by it,

³² “It was this very Jesus whom God raised—and we’re all witnesses of that. ³³ He has been exalted to the right hand of God, has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and has caused you to experience what you are seeing and hearing.

¹³ The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of our ancestors—has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you betrayed and rejected in the presence of Pilate, even though he had decided to let him go.

¹⁵ and you killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses to that.

¹⁰ you and all the people of Israel must understand that this man stands healthy before you because of the name of Jesus from Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead.

²⁴ but also for us. Our faith will be regarded in the same way, if we believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

⁹ If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

¹² so that we who had already fixed our hope on the Messiah might live for his praise and glory. ¹³ You, too, have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed in the Messiah, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

¹⁵ Paul’s Prayer for the EphesiansTherefore, because I have heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

²⁰ which he brought about in the Messiah when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realm. ²¹ He is far above every ruler, authority, power, dominion, and every name that can be named, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. ²² God has put everything under the Messiah’s feet and has made him the head of everything for the good of the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills everything in every way.

⁹ Now lifted up by God to heaven, a name above all others given, this matchless name possessing. ¹⁰ And so, when Jesus’ name is called, the knees of everyone should fall, wherever they’re residing. ¹¹ Then every tongue in one accord, will say that Jesus the Messiah is Lord, while God the Father praising.

¹ GreetingsFrom: Paul, an apostle of the Messiah Jesus, by the command of God our Savior and the Messiah Jesus, our hope.

⁹ But we do see someone who was made a little lower than the angels. He is Jesus, who is crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might experience death for everyone.

¹ The Peril of ImmaturityTherefore, leaving behind the elementary teachings about the Messiah, let us continue to be carried along to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead actions, faith toward God,

²⁵ Therefore, because he always lives to intercede for them, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him.

²² who has gone to heaven and is at the right hand of God, where angels, authorities, and powers have been made subject to him.

³⁴ I’m giving you a new commandment…to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵ This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

³ You are already clean because of what I’ve spoken to you.

¹⁷ I am giving you these commandments so that you may love one another.”

¹⁷ “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.

¹⁹ It is for their sakes that I sanctify myself, so that they, too, may be sanctified by the truth.

⁷ So the word of God continued to spread, and the number of disciples in Jerusalem continued to grow rapidly. Even a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

⁹ He made no distinction between them and us, because of their faith-cleansed hearts.

⁸ but wrath and fury for those who in their selfish pride refuse to believe the truth and practice wickedness instead.

¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thank God that, though you were once slaves of sin, you became obedient from your hearts to that form of teaching with which you were entrusted!

⁹ Your love must be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be devoted to each other with mutual affection. Excel at showing respect for each other.

¹ Believers are Approved by GodYou foolish Galatians! Who put you under a spell? Was not Jesus the Messiah clearly portrayed before your very eyes as having been crucified?

⁵ Through the Spirit by faith we confidently await the fulfillment of our righteous hope,

⁷ You were running the race beautifully. Who cut in on you and stopped you from obeying the truth?

³ Do your best to maintain the unity of the Spirit by means of the bond of peace.

⁹ And this is my prayer, that your love will keep on growing more and more with full knowledge and insight,

¹² May the Lord greatly increase your love for each other and for all people, just as we love you.

⁸ Therefore, whoever rejects this instruction is not rejecting human authority but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
⁹ Now you do not need anyone to write to you about brotherly love, since you have been taught by God to love each other.

³ Endurance in AfflictionBrothers, at all times we are obligated to thank God for you. It is right to do this because your faith is growing all the time and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.

³ A Warning against False TeachersWhen I was on my way to Macedonia, I urged you to stay in Ephesus so that you could instruct certain people to stop teaching false doctrine

⁵ The goal of this instruction is love that flows from a pure heart, from a clear conscience, and from a sincere faith.

² older women like mothers, and younger women like sisters, with absolute purity.

¹⁴ With the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us, protect the good treasure that has been entrusted to you.

¹⁰ For God is not so unjust as to forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have ministered to the saints and continue to minister to them.

¹⁴ how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead actions so that we may serve the living God!

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

¹ Concluding WordsLet brotherly love continue.

¹⁵ Suppose a brother or sister does not have any clothes or daily food ¹⁶ and one of you tells them, “Go in peace! Stay warm and eat heartily.” If you do not provide for their bodily needs, what good does it do?

⁸ Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

¹⁷ Honor everyone. Keep on loving the community of believers, fearing God, and honoring the king.

¹ Wives and HusbandsIn a similar way, you wives must submit yourselves to your husbands so that, even if some of them refuse to obey the word, they may be won over without a word through your conduct as wives

⁸ When You are WrongedFinally, all of you must live in harmony, be sympathetic, love as brothers, and be compassionate and humble.

⁸ Above all, continue to love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.

¹⁷ For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who refuse to obey the gospel of God?

⁷ your godliness with brotherly kindness, and your brotherly kindness with love.

¹¹ Love One AnotherThis is the message that you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another. The person who does not love remains spiritually dead. ¹⁵ Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life present in him. ¹⁶ This is how we have come to know love: the Messiah gave his life for us. We, too, ought to give our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷ Whoever has earthly possessions and notices a brother in need and yet withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God be present in him? ¹⁸ Little children, we must stop expressing love merely by our words and manner of speech; we must love also in action and in truth. ¹⁹ This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and how we will be able to keep ourselves strong in his presence.

²³ And this is his commandment: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus the Messiah, and to love one another as he commanded us.

¹² No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

²⁰ Whoever says, “I love God,” but hates his brother is a liar. The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love the God whom he has not seen.

⁴ However, I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.

²⁸ Let the prophet who has a dream relate the dream, but let whoever receives my message speak my message truthfully. What does straw have in common with wheat?” declares the LORD.

³ Look! I’m rebuking your descendants because of you, and I’ll spread waste on your faces, the waste of your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it.

³⁵ Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.”

³ Through him all things were made, and apart from him nothing was made that has been made.

³ Jesus replied to him, “Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

⁶³ It’s the Spirit who gives life; the flesh accomplishes nothing. The words that I’ve spoken to you are spirit and life.

²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that looked like mortal human beings, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

¹² For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow, as it judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart.

³ Our Hope and Joy are in the MessiahBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah! Because of his great mercy he has granted us a new birth, resulting in an immortal hope through the resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, from the dead

²⁶ while their inhabitants, lacking strength, stand dismayed and confused. They were like vegetation out in the fields, and like green herbs— just as grass that grows on a housetop dries out before it can grow.

² Indeed, they soon will wither like grass, and like green herbs they will fade away.

⁵ You will sweep them away while they are asleep— by morning they are like growing grass.

⁷ Though the wicked sprout like grass; and all who practice iniquity flourish, it is they who will be eternally destroyed.

⁴ Withered like grass, my heart is overwhelmed, and I have even forgotten to eat my food.

¹⁵ A person’s life is like grass— it blossoms like wild flowers,

⁶ May they become like a tuft of grass on a roof top, that withers before it takes root—

⁶ The Word of God Endures ForeverA voice says, “Cry out!” So I asked, “What am I to cry out?” “All humanity is grass, and all its loyalty is like the flowers of the field.

¹⁰ and a rich person in his having been humbled, because he will fade away like a wild flower. ¹¹ For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass. The flower in it drops off, and its beauty is gone. That is how the rich person will fade away in his pursuits.

¹⁴ You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

¹⁷ And the world and its desires are fading away, but the person who does God’s will remains forever.

¹² But you, LORD, are enthroned forever; You are remembered throughout all generations.

²⁶ They will perish, but you will remain; and they all will become worn out, like a garment. You will change them like clothing, and they will pass away.

⁸⁹ Lamed
Pay Attention to God’s WordYour word is forever, LORD; it is firmly established in heaven.

⁸ Grass withers and flowers fade away, when the LORD’s breath blows on them, but the word of our God will stand forever. “

¹⁸ because I tell all of you with certainty that until heaven and earth disappear, not one letter or one stroke of a letter will disappear from the Law until everything has been accomplished.

¹⁷ However, it is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for one stroke of a letter in the Law to be dropped.

¹ The Word and CreationIn the beginning, the Word existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

¹⁴ The Word Becomes HumanThe Word became flesh and lived among us. We gazed on his glory, the kind of glory that belongs to the Father’s unique Son, who is full of grace and truth.

²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe through the nonsense of our preaching. ²² Jews ask for signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach the Messiah crucified. He is a stumbling block to Jews and nonsense to gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, the Messiah is God’s power and God’s wisdom.

² For while I was with you I resolved to know nothing except Jesus the Messiah, and him crucified.

¹ The Resurrection of the MessiahNow I’m making known to you, brothers, the gospel that I proclaimed to you, which you accepted, on which you have taken your stand, ² and by which you are also being saved if you hold firmly to the message I proclaimed to you—unless, of course, your faith was worthless.
³ For I passed on to you the most important points that I received: The Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ he was buried, he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures—and is still alive!—

¹⁷ He came and proclaimed peace for you who were far away and for you who were near.

⁸ To me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given so that I might proclaim to the gentiles the immeasurable wealth of the Messiah

³ At the right time he revealed his message through the proclamation that was entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.

¹² It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you in regard to the things that have now been announced to you by those who brought you the good news through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things that even the angels desire to look into.

¹⁹ Therefore we regard the message of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp that is shining in a gloomy place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

¹ Jesus, the Word of LifeWhat existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we observed and touched with our own hands—this is the Word of life!

³ What we have seen and heard we declare to you so that you, too, can have fellowship with us. Now this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus, the Messiah.