Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
3 Grace to you and peace from God our father and Messiah Jesus the Lord.
4 I always thank my God for you, for the grace of God that was given to you in Messiah Jesus. 5 You were enriched in him in everything, in every kind of speech and knowledge, 6 just as the messianic message was established among you, 7 so that you aren’t missing out on any spiritual gift as you wait eagerly for our Lord, Messiah Jesus, to be revealed. 8 He will establish you right through to the end, so that you are blameless on the day of our Lord, Messiah Jesus. 9 God is faithful! And it is through God that you have been called into the fellowship of his son, Messiah Jesus, our Lord.
24 “But in those days, after that suffering,
The sun will be dark as night
and the moon will not give its light;
25 the stars will fall from heaven
and the powers in heaven will shake.
26 “Then they will see ‘the son of man coming on clouds with great power and glory.’ 27 And then he will dispatch his messengers, and will gather in his chosen ones from the four winds, from the ends of earth to the ends of heaven.”
Watching for the son of man
28 “Learn this lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes soft and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 In the same way, when you see these things happen, you should know that it is near, right at the gates. 30 I’m telling you the truth: this generation won’t disappear until all of this has happened. 31 Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words won’t disappear.
32 “No one knows, though, the day or the hour. The angels in heaven don’t know it; nor does the son; only the father.
33 “Keep watch, stay awake. You don’t know when the moment will arrive. 34 It’s like a man who goes away from home: he leaves his house, giving each of his slaves authority for their own tasks; and he commands the doorkeeper to keep watch. 35 Keep watch, then, because you don’t know when the master of the house is going to come. It might be at evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning! 36 You don’t want him to come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 What I am telling you, I am telling everyone: keep watch!”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.