15 “I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² Every branch which is part of me but fails to bear fruit, he cuts off; and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit. ³ Right now, because of the word which I have spoken to you, you are pruned. ⁴ Stay united with me, as I will with you — for just as the branch can’t put forth fruit by itself apart from the vine, so you can’t bear fruit apart from me.

⁵ “I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who stay united with me, and I with them, are the ones who bear much fruit; because apart from me you can’t do a thing. ⁶ Unless a person remains united with me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up. Such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire, where they are burned up.

⁷ “If you remain united with me, and my words with you, then ask whatever you want, and it will happen for you. ⁸ This is how my Father is glorified — in your bearing much fruit; this is how you will prove to be my talmidim.

⁹ “Just as my Father has loved me, I too have loved you; so stay in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will stay in my love — just as I have kept my Father’s commands and stay in his love. ¹¹ I have said this to you so that my joy may be in you, and your joy be complete.

⁵¹ “Stiffnecked people,^[a] with uncircumcised hearts and ears!^[b] You continually oppose the Ruach HaKodesh!^[c] You do the same things your fathers did! ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who told in advance about the coming of the Tzaddik, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers! — ⁵³ you! — who receive the Torah as having been delivered by angels — but do not keep it!”

⁵⁴ On hearing these things, they were cut to their hearts and ground their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But he, full of the Ruach HaKodesh, looked up to heaven and saw God’s Sh’khinah, with Yeshua standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ “Look!” he exclaimed, “I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”^[d]

⁵⁷ At this, they began yelling at the top of their voices, so that they wouldn’t have to hear him; and with one accord, they rushed at him, ⁵⁸ threw him outside the city and began stoning him. And the witnesses laid down their coats at the feet of a young man named Sha’ul.

⁵⁹ As they were stoning him, Stephen called out to God, “Lord Yeshua! Receive my spirit!” ⁶⁰ Then he kneeled down and shouted out, “Lord! Don’t hold this sin against them!” With that, he died;

8 and Sha’ul gave his approval to his murder.

Starting with that day, there arose intense persecution against the Messianic Community in Yerushalayim; all but the emissaries were scattered throughout the regions of Y’hudah and Shomron. ² Some godly men buried Stephen and mourned him deeply. ³ But Sha’ul set out to destroy the Messianic Community — entering house after house, he dragged off both men and women and handed them over to be put in prison. ⁴ However, those who were scattered announced the Good News of the Word wherever they went.

⁷ Therefore, as the Ruach HaKodesh says,

¹² Watch out, brothers, so that there will not be in any one of you an evil heart lacking trust, which could lead you to apostatize from the living God! ¹³ Instead, keep exhorting each other every day, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you will become hardened by the deceit of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become sharers in the Messiah, provided, however, that we hold firmly to the conviction we began with, right through until the goal is reached.

¹⁵ Now where it says,

¹⁶ who were the people who, after they heard, quarreled so bitterly? All those whom Moshe brought out of Egypt. ¹⁷ And with whom was God disgusted for forty years? Those who sinned — yes, they fell dead in the Wilderness! ¹⁸ And to whom was it that he swore that they would not enter his rest? Those who were disobedient. ¹⁹ So we see that they were unable to enter because of lack of trust.

4 Therefore, let us be terrified of the possibility that, even though the promise of entering his rest remains, any one of you might be judged to have fallen short of it; ² for Good News has also been proclaimed to us, just as it was to them. But the message they heard didn’t do them any good, because those who heard it did not combine it with trust. ³ For it is we who have trusted who enter the rest.

It is just as he said,

He swore this even though his works have been in existence since the founding of the universe. ⁴ For there is a place where it is said, concerning the seventh day,

⁵ And once more, our present text says,

⁶ Therefore, since it still remains for some to enter it, and those who received the Good News earlier did not enter, ⁷ he again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David, so long afterwards, in the text already given,

⁸ For if Y’hoshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later of another “day.”

⁹ So there remains a Shabbat-keeping for God’s people. ¹⁰ For the one who has entered God’s rest has also rested from his own works, as God did from his. ¹¹ Therefore, let us do our best to enter that rest; so that no one will fall short because of the same kind of disobedience.