Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Controversy and vindication
11 The apostles, and the brothers and sisters with them in Judaea, heard that the Gentiles had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, those who wanted to emphasize circumcision took issue with him.
3 “Why did you do it?” they asked. “Why did you go in to visit uncircumcised men and eat with them?”
4 So Peter began to explain it all, step by step.
5 “I was in the town of Joppa,” he said, “and I was praying. I was in a trance, and I saw a vision: something like a great sail suspended by its four corners was let down from heaven, and came towards me. 6 I stared at it, then I began to look in, and I saw four-footed land animals, wild beasts, reptiles and birds of the air. 7 I heard a voice, saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter! Kill and eat!’ 8 ‘Certainly not, Lord,’ I replied. ‘Nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth!’ 9 Then the voice came from heaven a second time: ‘What God made clean, you must not regard as common.’ 10 All this happened three times, and then the whole lot was drawn back up into heaven.
11 “Just then, suddenly, three men appeared at the house where I was, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 The spirit told me to go with them, without raising scrupulous objections. These six brothers also came with me, and we went into the man’s house. 13 He told us that he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and fetch Simon called Peter, 14 who will speak to you words by which you and all your house will be saved.’ 15 As I began to speak, the holy spirit fell on them, just as the spirit did on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word which the Lord had spoken: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the holy spirit.’
17 “So, then,” Peter concluded, “if God gave them the same gift as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus the Messiah, who was I to stand in the way of God?”
18 When they heard this, they had nothing more to say. They praised God.
“Well, then,” they declared, “God has given the Gentiles, too, the repentance that leads to life!”
New heaven, new earth
21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, from God, prepared like a bride dressed up for her husband. 3 I heard a loud voice from the throne, and this is what it said: “Look! God has come to dwell with humans! He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or weeping or pain anymore, since the first things have passed away.”
5 The one who sat on the throne said, “Look, I am making all things new.” And he said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”
New Jerusalem
6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give water to the thirsty, water from the spring of the water of life.
Love one another
31 When Judas had gone out, Jesus began to speak.
“Now the son of man is glorified!” he said. “Now God is glorified in him! 32 And if God is glorified in him, God will glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Children, I’m only with you a little longer. You will look for me, and, as I said to the Judaeans that where I was going they couldn’t come, so I’m saying the same to you now.
34 “I’m giving you a new commandment, and it’s this: love one another! Just as I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 This is how everybody will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.