Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
9 Then a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man from Macedonia was standing there, pleading with him, and saying, “Come across to Macedonia and help us!” 10 When he saw the vision, at once we set about finding a way to get across to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the good news to them.
Preaching and prison in Philippi
11 So we sailed away from Troas and made a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis. 12 From there we went on to Philippi, a Roman colony, the chief city of the district of Macedonia. We stayed in this city for some days.
13 On the sabbath day we went outside the gate to a place by a river where we reckoned there was a place of prayer, and there we sat down. Some women had gathered, and we spoke to them. 14 There was a woman called Lydia, a godfearer, who was a seller of purple from Thyatira. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying. 15 She was baptized, with all her household.
“If you have judged me faithful to the Lord,” she begged us, “please come and stay at my home.”
So she persuaded us.
10 Then he took me in the spirit up a great high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
God and the lamb are there
22 I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God the Almighty is its temple, together with the lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the lamb. 24 The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never be shut by day, for there will be no night there. 26 They will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 27 Nothing that has not been made holy will ever come into it, nor will anyone who practices abomination or who tells lies, but only those who are written in the lamb’s book of life.
22 Then he showed me the river of the water of life. It was sparkling like crystal, and flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city. On either bank of the river was growing the tree of life. It produces twelve kinds of fruit, bearing this fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 Nothing accursed is there anymore. Rather, the throne of God and of the lamb are in the city, and his servants will worship him; 4 they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night, and they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them; and they will reign forever and ever.
23 “If anyone loves me,” Jesus replied, “they will keep my word. My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who doesn’t love me won’t keep my word. And the word which you hear isn’t mine. It comes from the father, who sent me.
25 “I’ve said all this to you while I’m here with you. 26 But the helper, the holy spirit, the one the father will send in my name, he will teach you everything. He will bring back to your mind everything I’ve said to you.
27 “I’m leaving you peace. I’m giving you my own peace. I don’t give gifts in the way the world does. Don’t let your hearts be troubled; don’t be fearful. 28 You heard that I said to you, ‘I’m going away, and I’m coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be happy that I’m going to the father—because the father is greater than me. 29 And now I’ve told you before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may believe.
The healing of the disabled man
5 After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there is a pool which is called, in Hebrew, Bethesda. It has five porticoes, 3 where several sick people were lying. They were blind, lame and paralyzed.
5 There was a man who had been there, in the same sick state, for thirty-eight years. 6 Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been there a long time already.
“Do you want to get well?” he asked him.
7 “Well, sir,” the sick man replied, “I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the water gets stirred up. While I’m on my way there, someone else gets down before me.”
8 “Get up,” said Jesus, “pick up your mattress and walk!”
9 At once the man was healed. He picked up his mattress and walked.
God’s son breaks the sabbath!
The day all this happened was a sabbath.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.