The Coming of the Kingdom

²⁰ When he was^(A) asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come,^(B) he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with something observable; ²¹ no one will say,^[a] ‘See here!’ or ‘There!’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”^[b]

²² Then he told the disciples, “The days are coming^(C) when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you won’t see it.^{(D) 23} They will say to you,^(E) ‘See there!’ or ‘See here!’ Don’t follow or run after them.^{(F) 24} For as the lightning flashes from horizon to horizon and lights up the sky, so the Son of Man will be in his day.^{(G) 25} But first it is necessary that he suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.^(H)

²⁶ “Just as it was in the days of Noah,^(I) so it will be in the days of the Son of Man: ²⁷ People went on eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage^(J) until the day Noah boarded the ark,^(K) and the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸ It will be the same as it was in the days of Lot:^(L) People went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. ²⁹ But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed^(M) them all. ³⁰ It^(N) will be like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed.^{(O) 31} On that day, a man on the housetop, whose belongings are in the house, must not come down to get them. Likewise the man who is in the field must not turn back. ³² Remember Lot’s wife!^{(P) 33} Whoever tries to make his life secure^[c][d] will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.^{(Q) 34} I tell you, on that night^(R) two will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. ³⁵ Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”^[e]

³⁷ “Where, Lord?” ^(S) they asked him.

He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there also the vultures^(T) will be gathered.”

God’s Real Tabernacle

⁴⁴ “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.^{(A) 45} Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them,^(B) until the days of David. ⁴⁶ He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God^[a] of Jacob.^{(C) 47} It was Solomon, rather, who built him a house,^{(D) 48} but the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says:^(E)

Resisting the Holy Spirit

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked^(G) people with uncircumcised hearts and ears!^(H) You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also. ⁵² Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?^(I) They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers^(J) you have now become. ⁵³ You received the law under the direction of angels^(K) and yet have not kept it.”

The First Christian Martyr

⁵⁴ When they heard these things, they were enraged^[c] and gnashed their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.^{(L) 56} He said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” ^(M)

⁵⁷ They yelled at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him. ⁵⁸ They dragged him out of the city and began to stone^(N) him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.^{(O) 59} While they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” ^{(P) 60} He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice,^(Q) “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And after saying this, he fell asleep.^(R)

¹⁴ The city wall had twelve foundations, and the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb were on the foundations.

¹⁵ The one who spoke with me had a golden measuring rod^(A) to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.^{(B) 16} The city is laid out in a square; its length and width are the same. He measured the city with the rod at 12,000 stadia.^[a] Its length, width, and height are equal. ¹⁷ Then he measured its wall, 144 cubits according to human measurement, which the angel used. ¹⁸ The building material of its wall was jasper, and the city was pure gold clear as glass. ¹⁹ The foundations of the city wall were adorned with every kind of jewel:^(C) the first foundation is jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. ²¹ The twelve gates are twelve pearls; each individual gate was made of a single pearl. The main street^[b] of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

²² I did not see a temple in it, because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³ The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb.^{(D) 24} The nations will walk by its light,^(E) and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.^{[c](F) 25} Its gates will never close by day because it will never be night there.^{(G) 26} They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.^{[d](H) 27} Nothing unclean will ever enter it,^(I) nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life.^(J)