Scripture Readings

Friday, April 5, 1991

John 13:31-18:1 (Matins 1st Gospel)

31
So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him.
32
If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately.
33
Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you.
34
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35
By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
36
Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.”
37
Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.”
38
Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.
1
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
2
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
4
And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
5
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
7
If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
8
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
9
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
11
Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
12
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
13
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14
If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
15
If you love Me, keep My commandments.
16
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever –
17
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
18
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
19
A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.
20
At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
21
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
22
Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone 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
He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
25
These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.
26
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
27
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
28
You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.
29
And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.
30
I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.
31
But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.
1
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3
You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
8
By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
9
As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
10
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
12
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
14
You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
15
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
16
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
17
These things I command you, that you love one another.
18
If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.
19
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20
Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
21
But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.
22
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23
He who hates Me hates My Father also.
24
If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.
25
But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’
26
But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
27
And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
1
These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.
2
They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.
3
And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.
4
But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.
5
But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’
6
But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
7
Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
8
And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
9
of sin, because they do not believe in Me;
10
of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;
11
of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
12
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
14
He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
15
All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
16
A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.”
17
Then some of His disciples said among themselves, “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?”
18
They said therefore, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is saying.”
19
Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’?
20
Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
21
A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
22
Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
23
And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.
24
Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
25
These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.
26
In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you;
27
for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.
28
I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.”
29
His disciples said to Him, “See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech!
30
Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God.”
31
Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?
32
Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
33
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
1
Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,
2
as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.
3
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
4
I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.
5
And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
6
I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
7
Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.
8
For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
9
I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
10
And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.
11
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
12
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13
But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
14
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15
I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
16
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
18
As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
19
And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
20
I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
21
that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
22
And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
23
I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
24
Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
25
O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.
26
And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
1
When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered.