Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Restoring the Twelve

¹⁵ Around that time Peter stood up in the middle of the gathering, which by this stage numbered about a hundred and twenty.

¹⁶ “My dear family,” he said, “the holy spirit spoke long ago, through the mouth of David, about Judas, who became a guide to the people who arrested Jesus. There it is in the Bible, and it had to come true. ¹⁷ He was counted along with us, and he had his own share in the work we’ve been given.”

²¹ “So this is what has to be done. There are plenty of people who have gone about with us all the time that our master Jesus was coming and going among us, ²² starting from John’s baptism until the day he was taken from us. Let one of them be chosen to be alongside us as a special witness of his resurrection.”

²³ So they chose two: Joseph who was called Barsabbas, with the surname Justus, and Matthias.

²⁴ “Lord,” they prayed, “you know the hearts of all people. Show us which one of these two you have chosen ²⁵ to receive this particular place of service and apostleship, from which Judas went away to go to his own place.”

²⁶ So they cast lots for them. The lot fell on Matthias, and he was enrolled along with the eleven apostles.

⁹ If we have received human witness, God’s witness is greater. This is the witness of God, the testimony he has borne to his son. ¹⁰ All those who believe in the son of God have the witness in themselves, but anyone who does not believe God has made a liar of him, because they have not believed in the witness which God bore concerning his son. ¹¹ This is the witness: God has given us the life of the age to come, and this life is in his son. ¹² Anyone who has the son has life. Anyone who does not have the son of God does not have life.

The true God

¹³ I am writing these things to you so that you may know that you, who believe in the name of the son of God, do indeed have the life of the age to come.

⁶ “I revealed your name to the people you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you; you gave them to me; and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything which you gave me comes from you. ⁸ I have given them the words you gave me, and they have received them. They have come to know, in truth, that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me.”

Jesus prays for his people

⁹ “I’m praying for them. I’m not praying for the world, but for the people you’ve given me. They belong to you. ¹⁰ All mine are yours; all yours are mine; and I’m glorified in them.

¹¹ “I’m not in the world any longer, but they’re still in the world; I’m coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name you’ve given to me, so that they may be one, just as we are one.

¹² “When I was with them, I kept them in your name, the name you’ve given me. I guarded them, and none of them has been destroyed (except the son of destruction; that’s what the Bible said would happen). ¹³ But now I’m coming to you. I’m speaking these things in the world, so that they can have my joy fulfilled in them.

¹⁴ “I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not from the world, just as I am not from the world. ¹⁵ I’m not asking that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They didn’t come from the world, just as I didn’t come from the world. ¹⁷ Set them apart for yourself in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And on their account I set myself apart for you, so that they, too, may be set apart for you in the truth.”