Book of Common Prayer
Faith and the future: the great crowd
32 What more can I say, then? I’ve run out of time to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets. 33 It was through faith that they overcame kingdoms, put justice into practice, received promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were strong where they had been weak, became powerful in battle, and sent foreign armies packing. 35 Women received their dead by resurrection; others were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might receive a better resurrection. 36 Others again experienced painful derision and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment; 37 they were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were put to the sword, they went about in sheepskins or goat-hides, they were destitute, they were persecuted, they were ill-treated— 38 the world didn’t deserve them!—and they wandered in deserts and mountains, in caves and holes in the ground.
39 All these people gained a reputation for their faith; but they didn’t receive the promise. 40 God was providing something better for us, so that they wouldn’t reach perfection without our doing so as well.
Looking to Jesus
12 What about us, then? We have such a great cloud of witnesses all around us! What we must do is this: we must put aside each heavy weight, and the sin which gets in the way so easily. We must run the race that lies in front of us, and we must run it patiently. 2 We must look ahead, to Jesus. He is the one who carved out the path for faith, and he’s the one who brought it to completion.
He knew that there was joy spread out and waiting for him. That’s why he endured the cross, making light of its shame, and has now taken his seat at the right hand of God’s throne.
New heaven, new earth
21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, from God, prepared like a bride dressed up for her husband. 3 I heard a loud voice from the throne, and this is what it said: “Look! God has come to dwell with humans! He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or weeping or pain anymore, since the first things have passed away.”
God and the lamb are there
22 I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God the Almighty is its temple, together with the lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the lamb. 24 The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never be shut by day, for there will be no night there. 26 They will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 27 Nothing that has not been made holy will ever come into it, nor will anyone who practices abomination or who tells lies, but only those who are written in the lamb’s book of life.
22 Then he showed me the river of the water of life. It was sparkling like crystal, and flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city. On either bank of the river was growing the tree of life. It produces twelve kinds of fruit, bearing this fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 Nothing accursed is there anymore. Rather, the throne of God and of the lamb are in the city, and his servants will worship him; 4 they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night, and they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them; and they will reign forever and ever.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.