M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The lamb’s elite warriors

14 As I watched, there was the lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name, and the name of his father, written on their foreheads. ² I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty thunder, and the voice I heard was like harpists playing on their harps. ³ And they are singing a new song before the throne, and before the four creatures and the elders. Nobody can learn that song except for the hundred and forty-four thousand who have been redeemed from the earth. ⁴ These are the ones who have never polluted themselves with women; they are celibate. They follow the lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from the human race as first fruits for God and the lamb, ⁵ and no lie has been found in their mouths. They are without blemish.

A call for endurance

⁶ Then I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, carrying an eternal gospel to announce to those who live on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. ⁷ He spoke with a loud voice, and this is what he said: “Fear God! Give him glory! The time has come for his judgment! Worship the one who made heaven and earth and the sea and the springs of water!”

⁸ He was followed by another angel, and this is what he said: “Babylon the great has fallen! She has fallen! She is the one who made all the nations drink the wine of the anger that comes upon her fornication.”

⁹ They were followed by a third angel, who also spoke in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the monster and its image, or receives its mark on their forehead or their hand, ¹⁰ that person will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured neat into the cup of his anger, and they will be tortured in fire and sulfur before the holy angels and before the lamb. ¹¹ The smoke of their torture goes up forever and ever. Those who worship the monster and its image, and those who receive the mark of its name, will have no respite, day or night.”

¹² This demands patience from God’s holy people, who keep God’s commands and the faith of Jesus.

¹³ Then I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Write this: God’s blessing on the dead who from this time onward die in the Lord.”

“Yes,” says the spirit, “so that they may rest from their works, for the deeds they have done follow after them.”

Reaping the harvest

¹⁴ Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud one like a son of man. He had a gold crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. ¹⁵ And another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one who was sitting on the cloud, “It’s harvest time! Put in your sickle and reap: the harvest of the earth is ripe!” ¹⁶ So the one sitting on the cloud applied his sickle to the earth, and reaped the harvest of the earth.

¹⁷ Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven. He, too, had a sharp sickle. ¹⁸ Yet another angel came from the altar; he had authority over fire, and he spoke with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle. “Go to work with your sharp sickle,” he said, “and gather the clusters of fruit from the vine of the earth; the grapes are there in ripe bunches!” ¹⁹ So the angel went to work with his sickle on the earth, and gathered the fruit from the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of God’s anger. ²⁰ The winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for about two hundred miles.

Washing the disciples’ feet

13 It was before the festival of Passover. Jesus knew that his time had come, the time for him to leave this world and go to the father. He had always loved his own people in the world; now he loved them right through to the end.

² It was suppertime. The devil had already put the idea of betraying him into the heart of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. ³ Jesus knew that the father had given everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God. ⁴ So he got up from the supper-table, took off his clothes, and wrapped himself in a towel. ⁵ Then he poured water into a bowl, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel he was wrapped in.

⁶ He came to Simon Peter.

“Master,” said Peter, “what’s this? You, washing my feet?”

⁷ “You don’t understand yet what I’m doing,” replied Jesus, “but you’ll know afterwards.”

⁸ “I’m not going to have you washing my feet!” said Peter. “Never!”

“If I don’t wash you,” replied Jesus, “you don’t belong to me.”

⁹ “All right then, Master,” said Simon Peter, “but not only my feet—wash my hands and my head as well!”

¹⁰ “Someone who has washed,” said Jesus to him, “doesn’t need to wash again, except for their feet. They are clean all over. And you are clean—but not all of you.”

¹¹ Jesus knew, you see, who was going to betray him. That’s why he said, “You are not all clean.”

Like master, like servant

¹² So when he had washed their feet, he put on his clothes and sat down again.

“Do you know what I’ve done to you?” he asked. ¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher,’ and ‘Master,’ and you’re right. That’s what I am. ¹⁴ Well, then: if I, as your master and teacher, washed your feet just now, you should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I’ve given you a pattern, so that you can do things in the same way that I did to you.

¹⁶ “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he continued. “The slave isn’t greater than the master. People who are sent are not greater than the person who sends them. ¹⁷ If you know these things, God’s blessing on you if you do them.

¹⁸ “I’m not talking about all of you,” he went on. “I know the ones I have chosen. What the Bible says has to come true: ‘The person who ate my bread lifted up his heel against me.’ ¹⁹ I’m telling you this now, before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe that I am who I am. ²⁰ I’m telling you the solemn truth: anyone who welcomes someone I send, welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me.”

Judas goes out

²¹ After saying this, Jesus was troubled in spirit. He explained why.

“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “One of you will betray me.”

²² The disciples looked at each other in shock, wondering who he could be talking about. ²³ One of the disciples, the one Jesus specially loved, was reclining at table close beside him. ²⁴ Simon Peter motioned to him to ask who it was he was talking about. ²⁵ So, leaning back against Jesus’ chest, he asked him, “Who is it, Master?”

²⁶ “It’s the one I’m going to give this piece of bread to,” said Jesus, “when I’ve dipped it in the dish.”

So he dipped the piece of bread, and gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. ²⁷ After the bread, the satan entered into him.

“Do it quickly, won’t you?” said Jesus to him.

²⁸ None of the others at the table knew what he meant. ²⁹ Because Judas kept the common purse, some were thinking that he meant, “Buy what we need for the festival,” or that he was to give something to the poor.

³⁰ So when Judas had taken the bread, he went out at once. It was night.

Love one another

³¹ When Judas had gone out, Jesus began to speak.

“Now the son of man is glorified!” he said. “Now God is glorified in him! ³² And if God is glorified in him, God will glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. ³³ Children, I’m only with you a little longer. You will look for me, and, as I said to the Judaeans that where I was going they couldn’t come, so I’m saying the same to you now.

³⁴ “I’m giving you a new commandment, and it’s this: love one another! Just as I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ This is how everybody will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other.”

³⁶ Simon Peter spoke up.

“Master,” he said, “where are you going?”

“Where I’m going,” replied Jesus, “you can’t follow me just now. You will follow later, though.”

³⁷ “Master,” Peter replied, “why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you!”

³⁸ “Will you really lay down your life for me?” smiled Jesus. “I’m telling you the solemn truth: by the time the cock crows you will have disowned me three times.”