M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Two witnesses
11 Then a measuring rod like a staff was given to me. “Get up,” said a voice, “and measure God’s temple, and the altar, and those who are worshiping in it. 2 But omit the outer court of the temple. Don’t measure it. It is given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. 3 I will give my two witnesses the task of prophesying, clothed in sackcloth, for those one thousand two hundred and sixty days. 4 These two are the two olive trees, the two lampstands, which stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. So if anyone wants to harm them, that is how such a person must be killed. 6 These two have authority to shut up the sky, so that it will not rain during the days of their prophecy. They have authority over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with any plague, as often as they see fit. 7 When they have completed their testimony, the monster that comes up from the Abyss will make war on them, and will defeat and kill them. 8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. 9 Their bodies will be seen by the peoples, tribes, languages and nations for three and a half days. They will not allow their bodies to be buried in a tomb. 10 The inhabitants of the earth will celebrate over them, and make merry, and send presents to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who live on earth.”
11 After the three and a half days the spirit of life from God came in to them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on all who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven. “Come up here!” it said. And they went up to heaven on a cloud, with their enemies looking on. 13 At that moment there was a huge earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell, and seven thousand of the people were killed by the earthquake. The rest were very much afraid, and glorified the God of heaven.
14 The second Woe has passed. The third Woe is coming very soon.
The song of triumph
15 The seventh angel blew his trumpet, and loud voices were heard from heaven. “Now the kingdom of the world has passed to our Lord and his Messiah,” said the voices, “and he will reign forever and ever.” 16 The twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones in God’s presence fell on their faces and worshiped God.
17 This is what they said:
“Almighty Lord God, we give you our thanks,
Who Is and Who Was,
because you have taken your power, your great power,
and begun to reign.
18 The nations were raging; your anger came down
and with it the time for judging the dead
to give the reward to your servants the prophets,
the holy ones, too, and the small and the great—
all those who fear your name.
It is time to destroy the destroyers of the earth.”
19 God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared inside his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, thunderclaps, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
The good shepherd
10 “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” said Jesus. “Anyone who doesn’t come into the sheepfold by the gate, but gets in by some other way, is a thief and a brigand. 2 But the one who comes in through the gate is the sheep’s own shepherd. 3 The doorkeeper will open up for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all that belong to him, he goes on ahead of them. The sheep follow him, because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; instead, they will run away from him, because they don’t know the stranger’s voice.”
6 Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what it was he was saying to them.
7 So he spoke to them again.
“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “I am the gate of the sheep. 8 All the people who came before me were thieves and brigands, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the gate. If anyone comes in by me, they will be safe, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief only comes to steal, and kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—yes, and have it full to overflowing.”
The shepherd and the sheep
11 “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus continued. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 But supposing there’s a hired servant, who isn’t himself the shepherd, and who doesn’t himself own the sheep. He will see the wolf coming, and leave the sheep, and run away. Then the wolf will snatch the sheep and scatter them. 13 He’ll run away because he’s only a hired servant, and doesn’t care about the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep, and my own know me— 15 just as the father knows me and I know the father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep, too, which don’t belong to this sheepfold. I must bring them, too, and they will hear my voice. Then there will be one flock, and one shepherd.
17 “That’s why the father loves me, because I lay down my life, so that I can take it again. 18 Nobody takes it from me; I lay it down of my own accord. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to receive it back again. This is the command I received from my father.”
The Messiah and the father
19 So there was again a division among the Judaeans because of what Jesus had said.
20 “He’s demon-possessed!” some were saying. “He’s raving mad! Why listen to him?”
21 “No,” said some others, “that’s not how demon-possessed people talk. Anyway, how could a demon open a blind man’s eyes?”
22 It was the Feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the Temple, in Solomon’s Porch. 24 The Judaeans surrounded him.
“How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense?” they asked. “If you are the Messiah, say so out loud!”
25 “I told you,” replied Jesus, “and you didn’t believe. The works which I’m doing in my father’s name give evidence about me. 26 But you don’t believe, because you don’t belong to my sheep.
27 “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them the life of the coming age. They will never, ever perish, and nobody can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and nobody can snatch them out of my father’s hand. 30 I and the father are one.”
Blasphemy!
31 So the Judaeans once more picked up stones to stone him.
32 “I’ve shown you many fine deeds from the father,” Jesus replied to them. “Which of these deeds are you stoning me for?”
33 “We’re not stoning you for good deeds,” replied the Judaeans, “but because of blasphemy! Here you are, a mere man, and you’re making yourself into God!”
34 “It’s written in your law, isn’t it,” replied Jesus to them, “ ‘I said, you are gods?’ 35 Well, if the law calls people ‘gods,’ people to whom God’s word came (and you can’t set the Bible aside), 36 how can you accuse someone of blasphemy when the father has placed him apart and sent him into the world, and he says, ‘I am the son of God’?
37 “If I’m not doing the works of my father, don’t believe me. 38 But if I am doing them, well—even if you don’t believe me, believe the works! That way you will know and grasp that the father is in me, and I am in the father.”
39 So again they tried to arrest him. But Jesus managed to get away from them.
40 He went off once more across the Jordan, to the place where John had been baptizing at the beginning, and he stayed there. 41 Several people came to him.
“John never did any signs,” they said, “but everything that John said about this man was true.”
42 And many believed in him there.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.