Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁹ There a vision appeared to Sha’ul at night. A man from Macedonia was standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” ¹⁰ As soon as he had seen the vision, we lost no time getting ready to leave for Macedonia; for we concluded that God had called us to proclaim the Good News to them.

¹¹ Sailing from Troas, we made a straight run to Samothrace; the next day we went to Neapolis; ¹² and from there, we went on to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that part of Macedonia. We spent a few days in this city; ¹³ then on Shabbat, we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we understood a minyan met. We sat down and began speaking to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴ One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in fine purple cloth. She was already a “God-fearer,” and the Lord opened up her heart to respond to what Sha’ul was saying. ¹⁵ After she and the members of her household had been immersed, she gave us this invitation: “If you consider me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay in my house.” And she insisted till we went.

¹⁰ He carried me off in the Spirit to the top of a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city, Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God.

²² I saw no Temple in the city, for Adonai, God of heaven’s armies, is its Temple, as is the Lamb. ²³ The city has no need for the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s Sh’khinah gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. ²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. ²⁵ Its gates will never close, they stay open all day because night will not exist there, ²⁶ and the honor and splendor of the nations will be brought into it. ²⁷ Nothing impure may enter it, nor anyone who does shameful things or lies; the only ones who may enter are those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

22 Next the angel showed me the river of the water of life, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. ² Between the main street and the river was the Tree of Life producing twelve kinds of fruit, a different kind every month; and the leaves of the tree were for healing the nations — ³ no longer will there be any curses. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him; ⁴ they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ Night will no longer exist, so they will need neither the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because Adonai, God, will shine upon them. And they will reign as kings forever and ever.

²³ Yeshua answered him, “If someone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴ Someone who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words — and the word you are hearing is not my own but that of the Father who sent me.

²⁵ “I have told you these things while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Counselor, the Ruach HaKodesh, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything; that is, he will remind you of everything I have said to you.

²⁷ “What I am leaving with you is shalom — I am giving you my shalom. I don’t give the way the world gives. Don’t let yourselves be upset or frightened. ²⁸ You heard me tell you, ‘I am leaving, and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would have been glad that I am going to the Father; because the Father is greater than I.

²⁹ “Also, I have said it to you now, before it happens; so that when it does happen, you will trust.

5 After this, there was a Judean festival; and Yeshua went up to Yerushalayim. ² In Yerushalayim, by the Sheep Gate, is a pool called in Aramaic, Beit-Zata, ³ in which lay a crowd of invalids — blind, lame, crippled. ^{4 [a] 5} One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. ⁶ Yeshua, seeing this man and knowing that he had been there a long time, said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” ⁷ The sick man answered, “I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I’m trying to get there, someone goes in ahead of me.” ⁸ Yeshua said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk!” ⁹ Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and walked.

Now that day was Shabbat,