“Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.
But the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen for his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not recognize his voice.”
. . .
And the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. Now in those days the word of the LORD was rare and visions were scarce.
And at that time Eli, whose eyesight had grown so dim that he could not see, was lying in his room.
Before the lamp of God had gone out, Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was located.
Then the LORD called to Samuel, and he answered, “Here I am.”
He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you have called me.” “I did not call,” Eli replied. “Go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.
. . .
Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.
If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him:
. . .
This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.”
At this, the Jews began to argue among themselves, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you.
Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
. . .
Nevertheless, God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from iniquity.”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off—to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose.
For this reason, even though I suffer as I do, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.
As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.
If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and hands, and said, “The Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and hand him over to the Gentiles.’”
I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the broken, and strengthen the weak; but the sleek and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with justice.’
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;
idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions,
. . .
“Why?” asked Pilate. “What evil has He done?” But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify Him!”
And wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed Him over to be crucified.
Then the soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called the whole company together.
They dressed Him in a purple robe, twisted together a crown of thorns, and set it on His head.
And they began to salute Him: “Hail, King of the Jews!”
. . .
This is what the LORD says: “As for the prophets who lead My people astray, who proclaim peace while they chew with their teeth, but declare war against one who puts nothing in their mouths:
When they arrived, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
So Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does.
The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. And to your amazement, He will show Him even greater works than these.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, “How long until the fulfillment of the vision of the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, and the surrender of the sanctuary and of the host to be trampled?”
Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
You who tremble at His word, hear the word of the LORD: “Your brothers who hate you and exclude you because of My name have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified that we may see your joy!’ But they will be put to shame.”
My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.
The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen for his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
Jesus answered them, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!”
He was speaking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. For although Judas was one of the Twelve, he was later to betray Jesus.
God “will repay each one according to his deeds.”
To those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life.
But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger.
If any of you has a grievance against another, how dare he go to law before the unrighteous instead of before the saints!
Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?
Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
So if you need to settle everyday matters, do you appoint as judges those of no standing in the church?
I say this to your shame. Is there really no one among you wise enough to arbitrate between his brothers?
. . .
When David saw the angel striking down the people, he said to the LORD, “Surely I, the shepherd, have sinned and acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please, let Your hand fall upon me and my father’s house.”
In those days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted through the Spirit that a great famine would sweep across the whole world. (This happened under Claudius.)
So the disciples, each according to his ability, decided to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.
This they did, sending their gifts to the elders with Barnabas and Saul.
Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
I will feed them in good pasture, and the lofty mountains of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in a good grazing land; they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My ordinances and keep and observe My statutes.
I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Early in the morning He went back into the temple courts. All the people came to Him, and He sat down to teach them.
The scribes and Pharisees, however, brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before them
and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do You say?”
. . .
For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (a gathering of about a hundred and twenty) and said,
“Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus.
He was one of our number and shared in this ministry.”
(Now with the reward for his wickedness Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong and burst open in the middle, and all his intestines spilled out.
This became known to all who lived in Jerusalem, so they called that field in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
. . .
In my vision in the night I continued to watch, and I saw One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence.
But Jesus answered them, “To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.”
Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
So Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does.
The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. And to your amazement, He will show Him even greater works than these.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wishes.
. . .
Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”
Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of many waters and the loud rumbling of thunder. And the sound I heard was like harpists strumming their harps.
And I heard a sound like the roar of a great multitude, like the rushing of many waters, and like a mighty rumbling of thunder, crying out: “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”
Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May a sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered and his right eye utterly blinded!”
Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the man who is My Companion, declares the LORD of Hosts. Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn My hand against the little ones.