Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
It’s all coming true at last!
14 Then Peter got up, with the eleven. He spoke to them in a loud voice.
“People of Judaea!” he began. “All of you staying here in Jerusalem! There’s something you have to know! Listen to what I’m saying!
David speaks of Jesus’ resurrection
22 “You people of Israel,” Peter continued, “listen to this. The man Jesus of Nazareth was marked out for you by God through the mighty works, signs and portents which God performed through him right here among you, as you all know. 23 He was handed over in accordance with God’s determined purpose and foreknowledge—and you used people outside the law to nail him up and kill him.
24 “But God raised him from the dead! Death had its painful grip on him; but God released him from it, because it wasn’t possible for him to be mastered by it. 25 This, you see, is how David speaks of him:
I set the Lord before me always;
because he is at my right hand, I won’t be shaken.
26 So my heart was happy, and my tongue rejoiced,
and my flesh, too, will rest in hope.
27 For you will not leave my soul in Hades,
nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption.
28 You showed me the path of life,
you filled me with gladness in your presence.
29 “My dear family, I can surely speak freely to you about the patriarch David. He died and was buried, and his tomb is here with us to this day. 30 He was of course a prophet, and he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to set one of his own physical offspring on his throne. 31 He foresaw the Messiah’s resurrection, and spoke about him ‘not being left in Hades,’ and about his flesh ‘not seeing corruption.’ 32 This is the Jesus we’re talking about! God raised him from the dead, and all of us here are witnesses to the fact!
3 May God be blessed, God the father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah! His mercy is abundant, and so he has become our father in a second birth into a living hope through the resurrection from the dead of Jesus the Messiah. 4 This has brought us into an incorruptible inheritance, which nothing can stain or diminish. At the moment it is kept safe for you in the heavens, 5 while you are being kept safe by God’s power, through faith, for a rescue that is all ready and waiting to be revealed in the final time.
6 That is why you celebrate! Yes, it may well be necessary that, for a while, you may have to suffer trials and tests of all sorts. 7 But this is so that the true value of your faith may be discovered. It is worth more than gold, which is tested by fire even though it can be destroyed. The result will be praise, glory and honor when Jesus the Messiah is revealed. 8 You love him, even though you’ve never seen him. And even though you don’t see him, you believe in him, and celebrate with a glorified joy that goes beyond anything words can say, 9 since you are receiving the proper goal of your faith, namely, the rescue of your lives.
Jesus and the disciples
19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Judaeans. Jesus came and stood in the middle of them.
“Peace be with you,” he said.
20 With these words, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the master.
21 “Peace be with you,” Jesus said to them again. “As the father has sent me, so I’m sending you.”
22 With that, he breathed on them.
“Receive the holy spirit,” he said. 23 “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained.”
Jesus and Thomas
24 One of the Twelve, Thomas (also known as Didymus), wasn’t with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples spoke to him.
“We’ve seen the master!” they said.
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands,” replied Thomas, “and put my finger into the nail-marks, and put my hand into his side—I’m not going to believe!”
26 A week later the disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut. Jesus came and stood in the middle of them.
“Peace be with you!” he said.
27 Then he addressed Thomas.
“Bring your finger here,” he said, “and inspect my hands. Bring your hand here and put it into my side. Don’t be faithless! Just believe!”
28 “My Lord,” replied Thomas, “and my God!”
29 “Is it because you’ve seen me that you believe?” replied Jesus. “God’s blessing on people who don’t see, and yet believe!”
30 Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which aren’t written in this book. 31 But these ones are written so that you may believe that the Messiah, the son of God, is none other than Jesus; and that, with this faith, you may have life in his name.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.