Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Peter speaks to the crowd

¹⁴ Peter was there with the other 11 apostles and he stood up with them. He began to speak to the crowd with a loud voice. He said, ‘You people who are Jews like us, listen carefully to me. All of you who live here in Jerusalem, you also listen to me. I will explain to you everything that is happening.

³⁶ So all you people of Israel must be sure to know this: It is this same Jesus that God has chosen to be the Messiah. God has made him to be our Lord. But you fixed him to a cross and you killed him.’

³⁷ The people heard what Peter said to them. They were very upset. So they said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Friends, tell us what we should do.’

³⁸ Peter said to them, ‘Each of you must stop doing wrong things. You must change how you live. If you believe in Jesus Christ, then we will baptize you. God will forgive you for the wrong things that you have done. Then you will receive the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to you. ³⁹ God has promised to do all this for you and your children. He has also promised this to people who live far away in other places. The Lord our God will do it for all the people that he has called to come to him.’

⁴⁰ Peter also told them many other things. He continued to speak strongly to them. He told them to be careful and he said, ‘People who are alive today do not do what is right. Save yourselves from the punishment that God will send on them.’

⁴¹ Many of the people who listened to Peter believed his message. So the apostles baptized those people. About three thousand people who now believed in Jesus joined the group that same day.

God saved me from death^[a]

¹⁷ God knows what each person has done, and he judges each one for those things. He is always fair when he decides about people. He is never kinder to one person than he is to another person. When you pray to God, you call him ‘Father’. So then, always respect him, while you live as strangers here in the world. ¹⁸ Your ancestors lived in a way that did not make them really happy. That is the way that you learned to live as well. But now God has saved you from that way of life. You know that he has bought you for himself. He did not buy you with things that do not continue for ever, like silver or gold. ¹⁹ Instead, he bought you with the very valuable blood of Christ, who died as a sacrifice for our sins.^[a] He died like a lamb that is completely good and has nothing wrong with it.^[b]

²⁰ Before the world began, God had already chosen Christ. But now, during these last days of the world, God has shown Christ to people. God did that so that he could help you. ²¹ Yes, it is because of Christ that you now believe in God. God raised Christ, so that he became alive again after his death. He did that to show everyone that Christ is great. That is why you believe in God. You trust him that he will do good things for you.

²² You have obeyed God's true message. As a result, you have become clean inside, and now you can really love other believers. So continue to love each other very well, with honest thoughts. ²³ You now have a new life! It is not like a human life that quickly comes to an end. It is a new life that will never spoil. You received it because you believed God's message. That message continues for ever and it does not change.

Jesus shows himself to two disciples

¹³ Later on that same day, two of Jesus' disciples were going to a village. The village was called Emmaus. It was about 11 kilometres from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ They were talking to each other about all the things that had happened. ¹⁵ While they were talking like this, Jesus himself came near to them. He started to walk along with them. ¹⁶ They saw him, but for some reason they did not recognize him. ¹⁷ Jesus asked them, ‘What are you talking about while you walk along the road?’

They stood still and they seemed sad. ¹⁸ One of them, called Cleopas, answered him, ‘Many things have happened in Jerusalem in the last few days. Are you the only visitor here that does not know about it?’ ¹⁹ Jesus asked them, ‘What things have happened?’

They replied, ‘The things that happened to Jesus who was from Nazareth. He was a prophet from God. He did many great things and he spoke powerful messages. God showed that his message was true. All the people believed him. ²⁰ Then the leaders of the priests and our rulers took hold of him. They gave him to the Roman ruler. They said that he had done bad things and that he ought to die. So they killed him by fixing him to a cross. ²¹ But before that we had hoped that he would save the people of Israel. We hoped that he would make us free again.

There are other things too. Today is the third day since Jesus died. ²² After all this happened, some women in our group surprised us. Early this morning, they went to the place where Joseph had put him. ²³ But they did not find his body there. So they returned to us and said, “Some angels appeared to us. They have told us that Jesus is alive.” ²⁴ So some people from our group went to the place where his body had been. They found everything just the same as the women had said. But they did not see Jesus.’

²⁵ Jesus then said to them, ‘How silly you are! You are very slow to believe everything that God's prophets said long ago. ²⁶ You should have known that the Messiah had to die. Only then would he return to heaven and show how great and powerful he is.’ ²⁷ Jesus then began to explain to them what Moses and all God's prophets had taught. He showed them what they wrote in the Bible about himself.

²⁸ Then they came near to the village that the disciples were going to. It seemed that Jesus would continue his journey. ²⁹ But they wanted him to stop there. They said to him, ‘Please stay in our home with us. It is getting late, and it will soon be night.’

So Jesus went into their house to stay with them. ³⁰ He sat down to eat with them. He took the bread and he thanked God for it. He broke it into pieces and he gave some to them. ³¹ Their eyes became clear and they recognized him. But then he disappeared, and they could no longer see him. ³² They said to each other, ‘When he talked to us, it was like a fire that was burning inside us. We felt it while we were walking along the road. We also felt it when he was explaining God's message in the Bible.’

³³ Immediately they got up and they returned to Jerusalem. There they found the 11 apostles and other people who were with them. ³⁴ The people there told the two disciples, ‘It is true! The Lord Jesus is alive again. He has appeared to Simon!’

³⁵ Then the two disciples spoke to the whole group. They told what had happened to them on the road to their village. They told how they recognized Jesus when he broke the bread into pieces in their home.