Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Isaiah Is Sent with a Message for the Lord’s People

6 In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne. The bottom of his robe filled the temple. ² Angels ^[a] were standing above him. Each had six wings: With two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. ³ They called to each other and said,

⁴ Their voices shook the foundations of the doorposts, and the temple filled with smoke.

⁵ So I said, “Oh, no!

⁶ Then one of the angels flew to me. In his hand was a burning coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs. ⁷ He touched my mouth with it and said, “This has touched your lips. Your guilt has been taken away, and your sin has been forgiven.”

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom will I send? Who will go for us?”

I said, “Here I am. Send me!”

A psalm by David.

¹² So, brothers and sisters, we have no obligation to live the way our corrupt nature wants us to live. ¹³ If you live by your corrupt nature, you are going to die. But if you use your spiritual nature to put to death the evil activities of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ Certainly, all who are guided by God’s Spirit are God’s children. ¹⁵ You haven’t received the spirit of slaves that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the spirit of God’s adopted children by which we call out, “Abba! ^[a] Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ If we are his children, we are also God’s heirs. If we share in Christ’s suffering in order to share his glory, we are heirs together with him.

A Conversation with Nicodemus

3 Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish council. ² He came to Jesus one night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that God has sent you as a teacher. No one can perform the miracles you perform unless God is with him.”

³ Jesus replied to Nicodemus, “I can guarantee this truth: No one can see God’s kingdom without being born from above.” ^[a]

⁴ Nicodemus asked him, “How can anyone be born when he’s an old man? He can’t go back inside his mother a second time to be born, can he?”

⁵ Jesus answered Nicodemus, “I can guarantee this truth: No one can enter God’s kingdom without being born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh and blood give birth to flesh and blood, but the Spirit gives birth to things that are spiritual. ⁷ Don’t be surprised when I tell you that all of you must be born from above. ⁸ The wind ^[b] blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it’s going. That’s the way it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus replied, “How can that be?”

¹⁰ Jesus told Nicodemus, “You’re a well-known teacher of Israel. Can’t you understand this? ¹¹ I can guarantee this truth: We know what we’re talking about, and we confirm what we’ve seen. Yet, you don’t accept our message. ¹² If you don’t believe me when I tell you about things on earth, how will you believe me when I tell you about things in heaven? ¹³ No one has gone to heaven except the Son of Man, who came from heaven.

¹⁴ “As Moses lifted up the snake ⌞on a pole⌟ in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. ¹⁵ Then everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”

¹⁶ God loved the world this way: He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life. ¹⁷ God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world.