At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.)
So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”
When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
. . .
During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.
“Do not cling to Me,” Jesus said, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and tell My brothers, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’”
So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,” she said, “and we do not know where they have put Him!”
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,” she said, “and we do not know where they have put Him!”
Then Peter and the other disciple set out for the tomb.
The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
He bent down and looked in at the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
. . .
I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley.
Like a lily among the thorns is my darling among the maidens.
Like an apricot tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
He has brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me is love.
Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.
. . .
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
As she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. Then she kissed His feet and anointed them with the perfume.
A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that nothing concerning Daniel could be changed.
Look down from heaven and see, from Your holy and glorious habitation. Where are Your zeal and might? Your yearning and compassion for me are restrained.
In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Some time later there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool with five covered colonnades, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda.
On these walkways lay a great number of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed.
One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
. . .
in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.
After His suffering, He presented Himself to them with many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a span of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
And while they were gathered together, He commanded them: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss.
And while they were gathered together, He commanded them: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss.
‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.
In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.
The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
. . .
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”
“How do You know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
“Rabbi,” Nathanael answered, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
Jesus said to him, “Do you believe just because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.”
Then He declared, “Truly, truly, I tell you, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
It was now just before the Passover Feast, and Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the very end.
Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover.
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,
and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to Him, “They have no more wine.”
“Woman, why does this concern us?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”
. . .
But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent down to look into the tomb,
and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and the other at the feet.
“Woman, why are you weeping?” they asked. “Because they have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I do not know where they have put Him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there; but she did not recognize that it was Jesus.
“Woman, why are you weeping?” Jesus asked. “Whom are you seeking?” Thinking He was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried Him off, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.”
. . .
for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He shall never take wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations to be made. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me!”
When the eight days until His circumcision had passed, He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He had been conceived.
And when the time of purification according to the Law of Moses was complete, His parents brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord
(as it is written in the Law of the Lord: “Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord”),
and to offer the sacrifice specified in the Law of the Lord: “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
. . .
There was also a prophetess named Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, who was well along in years. She had been married for seven years,
and then was a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
Coming forward at that moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the Child to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were puzzling over this, suddenly two men in radiant apparel stood beside them.
As the women bowed their faces to the ground in terror, the two men asked them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you while He was still in Galilee:
‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’”
. . .
While they were puzzling over this, suddenly two men in radiant apparel stood beside them.
As the women bowed their faces to the ground in terror, the two men asked them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?
Soon afterward, Jesus traveled from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with Him,
as well as some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
Joanna the wife of Herod’s household manager Chuza, Susanna, and many others. These women were ministering to them out of their own means.
While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, He told them this parable:
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, where it was trampled, and the birds of the air devoured it.
. . .
Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were two days away, and the chief priests and scribes were looking for a covert way to arrest Jesus and kill Him.
“But not during the feast,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”
While Jesus was in Bethany reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke open the jar and poured it on Jesus’ head.
Some of those present, however, expressed their indignation to one another: “Why this waste of perfume?
It could have been sold for over three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her.
. . .
When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here! See the place where they put Him.
Then Jesus went up on the mountain and called for those He wanted, and they came to Him.
He appointed twelve of them, whom He designated as apostles, to accompany Him, to be sent out to preach,
and to have authority to drive out demons.
These are the twelve He appointed: Simon (whom He named Peter),
James son of Zebedee and his brother John (whom He named Boanerges, meaning “Sons of Thunder”),
. . .
When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.”
So he got up, took the Child and His mother by night, and withdrew to Egypt,
where he stayed until the death of Herod. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
When Herod saw that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was filled with rage. Sending orders, he put to death all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, according to the time he had learned from the Magi.
Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
. . .
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent out two disciples,
saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt beside her. Untie them and bring them to Me.
If anyone questions you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
“Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your King comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
. . .
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!
Then go quickly and tell His disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him.’ See, I have told you.”
And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and the holy city, which are described in this book.
Now to Him who is able to strengthen you by my gospel and by the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery concealed for ages past
but now revealed and made known through the writings of the prophets by the command of the eternal God, in order to lead all nations to the obedience that comes from faith—