Keep Asking, Seeking, Knocking^(A)

^9 (B)“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; ^(C)seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. ^11 (D)If a son asks for ^[a]bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, being evil, know how to give ^(E)good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

The Answered Prayer

^12 (A)“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. ^13 (B)And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be ^(C)glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ^[a]ask anything in My name, I will do it.

Jesus Promises Another Helper

^15 (D)“If you love Me, ^[b]keep My commandments. ¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and ^(E)He will give you another ^[c]Helper, that He may abide with you forever— ^17 (F)the Spirit of truth, ^(G)whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you ^(H)and will be in you. ^18 (I)I will not leave you orphans; ^(J)I will come to you.

Indwelling of the Father and the Son

¹⁹ “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but ^(K)you will see Me. ^(L)Because I live, you will live also. ²⁰ At that day you will know that ^(M)I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. ^21 (N)He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and ^[d]manifest Myself to him.”

^22 (O)Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”

²³ Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, ^(P)and We will come to him and make Our home with him. ²⁴ He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and ^(Q)the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.

The Gift of His Peace

²⁵ “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. ²⁶ But ^(R)the ^[e]Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will ^(S)send in My name, ^(T)He will teach you all things, and bring to your ^(U)remembrance all things that I said to you. ^27 (V)Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

³⁸ Then Peter said to them, ^(A)“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the ^[a]remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Sorcerer’s Sin

¹⁴ Now when the ^(A)apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, ¹⁵ who, when they had come down, prayed for them ^(B)that they might receive the Holy Spirit. ¹⁶ For ^(C)as yet He had fallen upon none of them. ^(D)They had only been baptized in ^(E)the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then ^(F)they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Paul at Ephesus

19 And it happened, while ^(A)Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through ^(B)the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples ² he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

So they said to him, ^(C)“We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”

³ And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?”

So they said, ^(D)“Into John’s baptism.”

⁴ Then Paul said, ^(E)“John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”

⁵ When they heard this, they were baptized ^(F)in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had ^(G)laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and ^(H)they spoke with tongues and prophesied.