Christ Church of Berkeley

1:12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children
of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of
God.
  *  *  *
  
3:1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.“
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again. “
4 “How can anyone be born when they are old?“ Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second
time into their mother’s womb to be born!“ 
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water
and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at
my saying, ‘You must be born again.‘ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you can-
not tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.“
9 “How can this be?“ Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,“ said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you,
we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our tes-
timony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak
of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of
Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that eve-
ryone who believes may have eternal life in him.“

   
17 “See, I will create
       new heavens and a new earth.
       The former things will not be remembered,
       nor will they come to mind.
   
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
       in what I will create,
       for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
       and its people a joy.
   
19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem
       and take delight in my people;
       the sound of weeping and of crying
       will be heard in it no more.
   
20 “Never again will there be in it
       infants who live but a few days,
       or older people who do not live out their years;
       those who die at a hundred
       will be thought mere youths;
       those who fail to reach a hundred
       will be considered accursed.
   
21 They will build houses and dwell in them;
       they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
   
22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
       or plant and others eat.
       For as the days of a tree,
       so will be the days of my people;
       my chosen ones will long enjoy
       the work of their hands.
   
23 They will not labor in vain,
       nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
       for they will be a people blessed by the LORD,
       they and their descendants with them.
   
24 Before they call I will answer;
       while they are still speaking I will hear.
   
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
       and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
       but dust will be the serpent’s food.
       They will neither harm nor destroy
       on all my holy mountain,“
       says the LORD.

52:13 See, my servant will act wisely;
       he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
   
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him —
       his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
       and his form marred beyond human likeness—
   
15 so he will sprinkle many nations,
       and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
       For what they were not told, they will see,
       and what they have not heard, they will understand.

53:1 Who has believed our message
       and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
   
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
       and like a root out of dry ground.
       He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
       nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
   
3 He was despised and rejected by others,
       a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
       Like one from whom people hide their faces
       he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
   
4 Surely he took up our pain
       and bore our suffering,
       yet we considered him punished by God,
       stricken by him, and afflicted.
   
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
       he was crushed for our iniquities;
       the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
       and by his wounds we are healed.
   
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
       each of us has turned to our own way;
       and the LORD has laid on him
       the iniquity of us all.
   
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
       yet he did not open his mouth;
       he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
       and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
       so he did not open his mouth.
   
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
       Yet who of his generation protested?
       For he was cut off from the land of the living;
       for the transgression of my people he was punished.
   
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
       and with the rich in his death,
       though he had done no violence,
       nor was any deceit in his mouth.
   
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
       and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
       he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
       and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
   
11 After he has suffered,
       he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
       by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
       and he will bear their iniquities.
   
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
       and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
       because he poured out his life unto death,
       and was numbered with the transgressors.
       For he bore the sin of many,
       and made intercession for the transgressors.

1 This is what the LORD says:
       “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce
       with which I sent her away?
       Or to which of my creditors
       did I sell you?
       Because of your sins you were sold;
       because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.
   
2 When I came, why was there no one?
       When I called, why was there no one to answer?
       Was my arm too short to deliver you?
       Do I lack the strength to rescue you?
       By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea,
       I turn rivers into a desert;
       their fish rot for lack of water
       and die of thirst.
   
3 I clothe the heavens with darkness
       and make sackcloth its covering.“
   
4 The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue,
       to know the word that sustains the weary.
       He wakens me morning by morning,
       wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.
   
5 The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears;
       I have not been rebellious,
       I have not turned away.
   
6 I offered my back to those who beat me,
       my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
       I did not hide my face
       from mocking and spitting.
   
7 Because the Sovereign LORD helps me,
       I will not be disgraced.
       Therefore have I set my face like flint,
       and I know I will not be put to shame.
   
8 He who vindicates me is near.
       Who then will bring charges against me?
       Let us face each other!
       Who are my accusers?
       Let them confront me!
   
9 It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me.
       Who will condemn me?
       They will all wear out like a garment;
       the moths will eat them up.
   
10 Who among you fears the LORD
       and obeys the word of his servant?
       Let those who walk in the dark,
       who have no light,
       trust in the name of the LORD
       and rely on their God.
   
11 But now, all you who light fires
       and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
       go, walk in the light of your fires
       and of the torches you have set ablaze.
       This is what you shall receive from my hand:
       You will lie down in torment.

   
1 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
       my chosen one in whom I delight;
       I will put my Spirit on him,
       and he will bring justice to the nations.
   
2 He will not shout or cry out,
       or raise his voice in the streets.
   
3 A bruised reed he will not break,
       and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
       In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
   
4 he will not falter or be discouraged
       till he establishes justice on earth.
       In his teaching the islands will put their hope.“
   
5 This is what God the LORD says—
       he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
       who spread out the earth with all that springs from it,
       who gives breath to its people,
       and life to those who walk on it:
   
6 “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;
       I will take hold of your hand.
       I will keep you and will make you
       to be a covenant for the people
       and a light for the Gentiles,
   
7 to open eyes that are blind,
       to free captives from prison
       and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
   
8 “I am the LORD; that is my name!
       I will not yield my glory to another
       or my praise to idols.
   
9 See, the former things have taken place,
       and new things I declare;
      before they spring into being
       I announce them to you.“
   
10 Sing to the LORD a new song,
       his praise from the ends of the earth,
       you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
       you islands, and all who live in them.
   
11 Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices;
       let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice.
       Let the people of Sela sing for joy;
       let them shout from the mountaintops.
   
12 Let them give glory to the LORD
       and proclaim his praise in the islands.
   
13 The LORD will march out like a champion,
       like a warrior he will stir up his zeal;
       with a shout he will raise the battle cry
       and will triumph over his enemies.

    16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?“ Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.“ They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.“ 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
    22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
    24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.‘ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.‘
    29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.“
    32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.“ 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?“ Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.“ They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.“ 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
  22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
  24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.‘ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.‘
  29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.“
  32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.“ 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

    1 Certain individuals came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.“ 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
    5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.“
    6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.“
    12 The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 13 When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,“ he said, “listen to me. 14 Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
    16 “ ‘After this I will return 
       and rebuild David’s fallen tent. 
       Its ruins I will rebuild, 
       and I will restore it,
    17 that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, 
       even all the Gentiles who bear my name, 
       says the Lord, who does these things’—
    18 things known from long ago.
    19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.“
    22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, who were leaders among the believers. 23 With them they sent the following letter: 
       The apostles and elders, your brothers, 
       To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia: Greetings.
    24 We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25 So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. 
       Farewell.
    30 So they were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31 The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. 32 Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. 33 -34 After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. 35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.

1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.“
  * * *
    8:26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.“ 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.“
    30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?“ Philip asked.
    31 “How can I,“ he said, “unless someone explains it to me?“ So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
    32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: 
       “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, 
       and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, 
       so he did not open his mouth.
    33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. 
       Who can speak of his descendants? 
       For his life was taken from the earth.“
    34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?“ 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
    36 -37 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?“ 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

   17 “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.  18 Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.‘ 19 He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
    20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his parents’ home.  21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.  22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
    23 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.  24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian.  25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.  26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?‘
    27 “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?  28 Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?‘  29 When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.
    30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.  31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say:  32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.‘ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
    33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.  34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.‘
    35 “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?‘ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.  36 He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.
    37 “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.‘  38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.
    39 “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.  40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!‘  41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made.  42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: “ ‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel? 43 You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.
    44 “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern   he had seen.  45 Having received the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David,  46 who enjoyed
God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.  47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
    48 “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:  49 “ ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? 50 Has not my hand made all these things?‘
    51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!  52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—  53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.