33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
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The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
1 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher!
What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”
2
“Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be
left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
3
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James,
John and Andrew asked him privately,
4 “Tell us, when will these things happen?
And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”
5
Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you.
6 Many will come in my
name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.
7 When you hear of wars and
rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to
come.
8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be
earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus
had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is
the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our
God, the Lord is one.
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
31 The second is this: ‘Love
your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and
there is no other but him.
33 To love him with all your heart, with all your
understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is
more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far
from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more
questions.
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,
15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Chapter 4
1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:
2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Posted inJulie Taylor|Comments Off on Bible Sunday
35
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said,
“we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
36
“What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
37
They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
38
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink
or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
39
“We can,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I
am baptized with,
40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places
belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
41
When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and
John.
42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are
regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise
authority over them.
43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great
among you must be your servant,
44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of
all.
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give
his life as a ransom for many.”
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17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is[b] to enter the kingdom of God!
25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel
30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Posted inJulie Taylor|Comments Off on The Rich and the Kingdom of God
1 Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 “What did Moses command you?” he replied.
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”
5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied.
6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’
7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this.
1 He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.
12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them.
14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
38
‘Teacher,’ said John, ‘we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we
told him to stop, because he was not one of us.’
39
‘Do not stop him,’ Jesus said. ‘For no one who does a miracle in my name can in
the next moment say anything bad about me,
40 for whoever is not against us is for
us.
41 Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you
belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.
42
‘If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me – to stumble,
it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung round their neck and they
were thrown into the sea.
43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better
for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never
goes out.
45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to
enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
47 And if your eye
causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God
with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,
48 where
‘“the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.”
49
Everyone will be salted with fire.
50
‘Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have
salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.’
Posted inNick Mwandia|Comments Off on Stumbling Blocks
