ARKCODEX
John
Ch. 10–12
The Parable of the Shepherd
1Jesus said, “I am telling you the truth: the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.
2The man who goes in through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him; the sheep hear his voice as he calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out.
4When he has brought them out, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.
5They will not follow someone else; instead, they will run away from such a person, because they do not know his voice.”
6Jesus told them this parable, but they did not understand what he meant.
Jesus the Good Shepherd
7So Jesus said again, “I am telling you the truth: I am the gate for the sheep.
8All others who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
9I am the gate. Those who come in by me will be saved; they will come in and go out and find pasture.
10The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life—life in all its fullness.
11“I am the good shepherd, who is willing to die for the sheep.
12When the hired man, who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away; so the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them.
13The hired man runs away because he is only a hired man and does not care about the sheep.
14-15I am the good shepherd. As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and they know me. And I am willing to die for them.
16There are other sheep which belong to me that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them, too; they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
17“The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life, in order that I may receive it back again.
18No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded me to do.”
19Again there was a division among the people because of these words.
20Many of them were saying, “He has a demon! He is crazy! Why do you listen to him?”
21But others were saying, “A man with a demon could not talk like this! How could a demon give sight to blind people?”
Jesus Is Rejected
22It was winter, and the Festival of the Dedication of the Temple was being celebrated in Jerusalem.
23Jesus was walking in Solomon's Porch in the Temple,
24when the people gathered around him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? Tell us the plain truth: are you the Messiah?”
25Jesus answered, “I have already told you, but you would not believe me. The deeds I do by my Father's authority speak on my behalf;
26but you will not believe, for you are not my sheep.
27My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
28I give them eternal life, and they shall never die. No one can snatch them away from me.
29What my Father has given me is greater than everything, and no one can snatch them away from the Father's care.
30The Father and I are one.”
31Then the people again picked up stones to throw at him.
32Jesus said to them, “I have done many good deeds in your presence which the Father gave me to do; for which one of these do you want to stone me?”
33They answered, “We do not want to stone you because of any good deeds, but because of your blasphemy! You are only a man, but you are trying to make yourself God!”
34Jesus answered, “It is written in your own Law that God said, ‘You are gods.’
35We know that what the scripture says is true forever; and God called those people gods, the people to whom his message was given.
36As for me, the Father chose me and sent me into the world. How, then, can you say that I blaspheme because I said that I am the Son of God?
37Do not believe me, then, if I am not doing the things my Father wants me to do.
38But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, you should at least believe my deeds, in order that you may know once and for all that the Father is in me and that I am in the Father.”
39Once more they tried to seize Jesus, but he slipped out of their hands.
40Jesus then went back again across the Jordan River to the place where John had been baptizing, and he stayed there.
41Many people came to him. “John performed no miracles,” they said, “but everything he said about this man was true.”
42And many people there believed in him.
John 11
The Death of Lazarus
1A man named Lazarus, who lived in Bethany, became sick. Bethany was the town where Mary and her sister Martha lived.
2(This Mary was the one who poured the perfume on the Lord's feet and wiped them with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.)
3The sisters sent Jesus a message: “Lord, your dear friend is sick.”
4When Jesus heard it, he said, “The final result of this sickness will not be the death of Lazarus; this has happened in order to bring glory to God, and it will be the means by which the Son of God will receive glory.”
5Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6Yet when he received the news that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days.
7Then he said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8“Teacher,” the disciples answered, “just a short time ago the people there wanted to stone you; and are you planning to go back?”
9Jesus said, “A day has twelve hours, doesn't it? So those who walk in broad daylight do not stumble, for they see the light of this world.
10But if they walk during the night they stumble, because they have no light.”
11Jesus said this and then added, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I will go and wake him up.”
12The disciples answered, “If he is asleep, Lord, he will get well.”
13Jesus meant that Lazarus had died, but they thought he meant natural sleep.
14So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
15but for your sake I am glad that I was not with him, so that you will believe. Let us go to him.”
16Thomas (called the Twin) said to his fellow disciples, “Let us all go along with the Teacher, so that we may die with him!”
Jesus the Resurrection and the Life
17When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had been buried four days before.
18Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem,
19and many Judeans had come to see Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother's death.
20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house.
21Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, Lord, my brother would not have died!
22But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask him for.”
23“Your brother will rise to life,” Jesus told her.
24“I know,” she replied, “that he will rise to life on the last day.”
25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die;
26and those who live and believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27“Yes, Lord!” she answered. “I do believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
Jesus Weeps
28After Martha said this, she went back and called her sister Mary privately. “The Teacher is here,” she told her, “and is asking for you.”
29When Mary heard this, she got up and hurried out to meet him.
30(Jesus had not yet arrived in the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.)
31The people who were in the house with Mary comforting her followed her when they saw her get up and hurry out. They thought that she was going to the grave to weep there.
32Mary arrived where Jesus was, and as soon as she saw him, she fell at his feet. “Lord,” she said, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died!”
33Jesus saw her weeping, and he saw how the people with her were weeping also; his heart was touched, and he was deeply moved.
34“Where have you buried him?” he asked them. “Come and see, Lord,” they answered.
35Jesus wept.
36“See how much he loved him!” the people said.
37But some of them said, “He gave sight to the blind man, didn't he? Could he not have kept Lazarus from dying?”
Lazarus Is Brought to Life
38Deeply moved once more, Jesus went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone placed at the entrance.
39“Take the stone away!” Jesus ordered. Martha, the dead man's sister, answered, “There will be a bad smell, Lord. He has been buried four days!”
40Jesus said to her, “Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believed?”
41They took the stone away. Jesus looked up and said, “I thank you, Father, that you listen to me.
42I know that you always listen to me, but I say this for the sake of the people here, so that they will believe that you sent me.”
43After he had said this, he called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44He came out, his hands and feet wrapped in grave cloths, and with a cloth around his face. “Untie him,” Jesus told them, “and let him go.”
The Plot against Jesus
45Many of the people who had come to visit Mary saw what Jesus did, and they believed in him.
46But some of them returned to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47So the Pharisees and the chief priests met with the Council and said, “What shall we do? Look at all the miracles this man is performing!
48If we let him go on in this way, everyone will believe in him, and the Roman authorities will take action and destroy our Temple and our nation!”
49One of them, named Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, said, “What fools you are!
50Don't you realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people, instead of having the whole nation destroyed?”
51Actually, he did not say this of his own accord; rather, as he was High Priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus was going to die for the Jewish people,
52and not only for them, but also to bring together into one body all the scattered people of God.
53From that day on the Jewish authorities made plans to kill Jesus.
54So Jesus did not travel openly in Judea, but left and went to a place near the desert, to a town named Ephraim, where he stayed with the disciples.
55The time for the Passover Festival was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to perform the ritual of purification before the festival.
56They were looking for Jesus, and as they gathered in the Temple, they asked one another, “What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?”
57The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where Jesus was, he must report it, so that they could arrest him.
John 12
Jesus Is Anointed at Bethany
1Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, the man he had raised from death.
2They prepared a dinner for him there, which Martha helped serve; Lazarus was one of those who were sitting at the table with Jesus.
3Then Mary took a whole pint of a very expensive perfume made of pure nard, poured it on Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The sweet smell of the perfume filled the whole house.
4One of Jesus' disciples, Judas Iscariot—the one who was going to betray him—said,
5“Why wasn't this perfume sold for three hundred silver coins and the money given to the poor?”
6He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. He carried the money bag and would help himself from it.
7But Jesus said, “Leave her alone! Let her keep what she has for the day of my burial.
8You will always have poor people with you, but you will not always have me.”
The Plot against Lazarus
9A large number of people heard that Jesus was in Bethany, so they went there, not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from death.
10So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus too,
11because on his account many Jews were rejecting them and believing in Jesus.
The Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem
12The next day the large crowd that had come to the Passover Festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
13So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Praise God! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! God bless the King of Israel!”
14Jesus found a donkey and rode on it, just as the scripture says,
15“Do not be afraid, city of Zion! Here comes your king, riding on a young donkey.”
16His disciples did not understand this at the time; but when Jesus had been raised to glory, they remembered that the scripture said this about him and that they had done this for him.
17The people who had been with Jesus when he called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from death had reported what had happened.
18That was why the crowd met him—because they heard that he had performed this miracle.
19The Pharisees then said to one another, “You see, we are not succeeding at all! Look, the whole world is following him!”
Some Greeks Seek Jesus
20Some Greeks were among those who had gone to Jerusalem to worship during the festival.
21They went to Philip (he was from Bethsaida in Galilee) and said, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”
22Philip went and told Andrew, and the two of them went and told Jesus.
23Jesus answered them, “The hour has now come for the Son of Man to receive great glory.
24I am telling you the truth: a grain of wheat remains no more than a single grain unless it is dropped into the ground and dies. If it does die, then it produces many grains.
25Those who love their own life will lose it; those who hate their own life in this world will keep it for life eternal.
26Whoever wants to serve me must follow me, so that my servant will be with me where I am. And my Father will honor anyone who serves me.
Jesus Speaks about His Death
27“Now my heart is troubled—and what shall I say? Shall I say, ‘Father, do not let this hour come upon me’? But that is why I came—so that I might go through this hour of suffering.
28Father, bring glory to your name!” Then a voice spoke from heaven, “I have brought glory to it, and I will do so again.”
29The crowd standing there heard the voice, and some of them said it was thunder, while others said, “An angel spoke to him!”
30But Jesus said to them, “It was not for my sake that this voice spoke, but for yours.
31Now is the time for this world to be judged; now the ruler of this world will be overthrown.
32When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me.”
33(In saying this he indicated the kind of death he was going to suffer.)
34The crowd answered, “Our Law tells us that the Messiah will live forever. How, then, can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”
35Jesus answered, “The light will be among you a little longer. Continue on your way while you have the light, so that the darkness will not come upon you; for the one who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.
The Unbelief of the People
36Believe in the light, then, while you have it, so that you will be the people of the light.” After Jesus said this, he went off and hid himself from them.
37Even though he had performed all these miracles in their presence, they did not believe in him,
38so that what the prophet Isaiah had said might come true: “Lord, who believed the message we told? To whom did the Lord reveal his power?”
39And so they were not able to believe, because Isaiah also said,
40“God has blinded their eyes and closed their minds, so that their eyes would not see, and their minds would not understand, and they would not turn to me, says God, for me to heal them.”
41Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him.
42Even then, many Jewish authorities believed in Jesus; but because of the Pharisees they did not talk about it openly, so as not to be expelled from the synagogue.
43They loved human approval rather than the approval of God.
Judgment by Jesus' Words
44Jesus said in a loud voice, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in him who sent me.
45Whoever sees me sees also him who sent me.
46I have come into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.
47If people hear my message and do not obey it, I will not judge them. I came, not to judge the world, but to save it.
48Those who reject me and do not accept my message have one who will judge them. The words I have spoken will be their judge on the last day!
49This is true, because I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has commanded me what I must say and speak.
50And I know that his command brings eternal life. What I say, then, is what the Father has told me to say.”
Proverbs
Ch. 6
More Warnings
1My child, have you promised to be responsible for someone else's debts?
2Have you been caught by your own words, trapped by your own promises?
3Well then, my child, you are in that person's power, but this is how to get out of it: hurry to him, and beg him to release you.
4Don't let yourself go to sleep or even stop to rest.
5Get out of the trap like a bird or a deer escaping from a hunter.
6Lazy people should learn a lesson from the way ants live.
7They have no leader, chief, or ruler,
8but they store up their food during the summer, getting ready for winter.
9How long is the lazy man going to lie around? When is he ever going to get up?
10“I'll just take a short nap,” he says; “I'll fold my hands and rest a while.”
11But while he sleeps, poverty will attack him like an armed robber.