Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁹ In the night Paul had a vision: he saw a picture like a dream. He saw a man of Macedonia standing and calling to him, `Come over into Macedonia and help us.'

¹⁰ After Paul had seen the vision, we tried to leave for Macedonia right away. We believed that the Lord had called us to tell the people there the good news.

¹¹ So we left Troas in a boat and went straight across the water to the town of Samothrace. The next day we went to Neapolis.

¹² From there we went to Philippi. This was the big city of the district of Macedonia. It was a free city. We stayed there for some time.

¹³ On the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the river. We thought this was a place where people met to talk with God. So we sat down and talked to the women who had come there.

¹⁴ One woman named Lydia listened to us. She was from the city of Thyatira, and she sold red cloth. She worshipped God. He worked in her heart and she believed what Paul said.

¹⁵ She and all the people in her house were baptised. Then she begged us and said, `If you really feel that I believe in the Lord, come and stay at my house.' And she would not allow us to say no.

¹⁰ The angel took me away in the Spirit to a very big hill. He showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God.

²² I did not see any temple in the city. The Lord God, who has all power, and the Lamb, are its temple.

²³ The city does not need the sun or the moon to give light in it. The glory of God gives light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

²⁴ Those who are saved will walk in its light. The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

²⁵ The doors of the city will never be shut in the day time, and there will be no night.

²⁶ The glory and the honour of all nations will be brought into the city.

²⁷ Nothing that is not holy will ever go in. People who do wrong things and tell lies will never go in. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life will go in.

22 Then the angel showed me a river of the water which gives life. It was as clear as glass. It flows from the throne of God and the Lamb.

² It flows through the middle of the street of the city. On each side of the river is the tree which gives life. It has twelve kinds of fruit, and it bears its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree could heal the people of all nations.

³ Nothing that God hates will be in the city any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be there. And his servants will serve him.

⁴ They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

⁵ There will be no night there. They do not need the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun. The Lord God will give them light. They will rule for ever and ever.

²³ Jesus said to him, `If a person loves me, he will obey me. My Father also will love him. And we will come to him and will live with him.

²⁴ The person who does not love me does not obey me. The word which you hear is not my word. It is my Father's word. He is the one who sent me.

²⁵ `I have told you these things while I am still with you.

²⁶ But the Holy Spirit is the one who will help you. My Father will send him in my name. He will teach you everything that I have said to you. His Helper will remind you of all that I said.

²⁷ Peace is what I leave for you. I give you my own peace. People of the world also say, "Peace" to you. I do not say it as they say it. Do not let anything trouble your hearts. Do not fear.

²⁸ You heard me say, "I am going away and then I will come back to you." If you really loved me, then you would have been very glad that I am going to my Father. My Father is greater than I am.

²⁹ `I have told you this before it happens. Then when it does happen, you will believe.

5 After that, the Jews had a feast and Jesus went to Jerusalem.

² In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there is a wide water hole. The Jews called this water hole Bethesda. It had five places with roofs for people to stand under.

³ Many sick people were lying on these places. Some of them were blind. Some were lame. Some were very thin and stiff so that they could not move by themselves. All of them were waiting for the water to move.

⁴ An angel came down into the water at a certain time and made it move. The first person who stepped into the water when it moved was healed of any sickness that he had.

⁵ A man was there who had been sick for thirty eight years.

⁶ Jesus saw the man lying there. He knew that he had been sick for a long time. He said to him, `Do you want to be healed?'

⁷ The sick man said to him, `Sir, I have no man to put me into the water when it moves. While I am trying to get in, some other person comes and gets in before me.'

⁸ Jesus said, `Get up. Take up your bed and walk!'

⁹ The man was healed right away. He took up his bed and walked. This happened on the Sabbath day.