Bible Society of South Africa

Bible Reading Plan – Day 356

Bible text(s)

Jesus Predicts his Betrayal

21After Jesus had said this, he was deeply troubled and declared openly, “I am telling you the truth: one of you is going to betray me.”

22The disciples looked at one another, completely puzzled about whom he meant. 23One of the disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was sitting next to Jesus. 24Simon Peter motioned to him and said, “Ask him whom he is talking about.”

25So that disciple moved closer to Jesus' side and asked, “Who is it, Lord?”

26Jesus answered, “I will dip some bread in the sauce and give it to him; he is the man.” So he took a piece of bread, dipped it, and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered him. Jesus said to him, “Be quick about what you are doing!” 28None of the others at the table understood why Jesus said this to him. 29Since Judas was in charge of the money bag, some of the disciples thought that Jesus had told him to go and buy what they needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor.

30Judas accepted the bread and went out at once. It was night.

The New Commandment

31After Judas had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man's glory is revealed; now God's glory is revealed through him. 32And if God's glory is revealed through him, then God will reveal the glory of the Son of Man in himself, and he will do so at once. 33My children, I shall not be with you very much longer. You will look for me; but I tell you now what I told the Jewish authorities, ‘You cannot go where I am going.’ 34And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial

36“Where are you going, Lord?” Simon Peter asked him.

“You cannot follow me now where I am going,” answered Jesus; “but later you will follow me.”

37“Lord, why can't I follow you now?” asked Peter. “I am ready to die for you!”

38Jesus answered, “Are you really ready to die for me? I am telling you the truth: before the cock crows you will say three times that you do not know me.

Jesus the Way to the Father

1“Do not be worried and upset,” Jesus told them. “Believe in God and believe also in me. 2There are many rooms in my Father's house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so. 3And after I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to myself, so that you will be where I am. 4You know the way that leads to the place where I am going.”

5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; so how can we know the way to get there?”

6Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me. 7Now that you have known me,” he said to them, “you will know my Father also, and from now on you do know him and you have seen him.”

8Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father; that is all we need.”

9Jesus answered, “For a long time I have been with you all; yet you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Why, then, do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Do you not believe, Philip, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I have spoken to you,” Jesus said to his disciples, “do not come from me. The Father, who remains in me, does his own work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If not, believe because of the things I do. 12I am telling you the truth: those who believe in me will do what I do — yes, they will do even greater things, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father's glory will be shown through the Son. 14If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

15“If you love me, you will obey my commandments. 16I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you for ever. 17He is the Spirit who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.

18“When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you. 19In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me; and because I live, you also will live. 20When that day comes, you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me, just as I am in you.

21“Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. My Father will love those who love me; I too will love them and reveal myself to them.”

22Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “Lord, how can it be that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

23Jesus answered him, “Whoever loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and my Father and I will come to him and live with him. 24Whoever does not love me does not obey my teaching. And the teaching you have heard is not mine, but comes from the Father, who sent me.

25“I have told you this while I am still with you. 26The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you.

27“Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid. 28You heard me say to you, ‘I am leaving, but I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father; for he is greater than I. 29I have told you this now before it all happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe. 30I cannot talk with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me, 31but the world must know that I love the Father; that is why I do everything as he commands me.

“Come, let us go from this place.

Jesus the Real Vine

1“I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit. 3You have been made clean already by the teaching I have given you. 4Remain united to me, and I will remain united to you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it can do so only if it remains in the vine. In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5“I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me. 6Whoever does not remain in me is thrown out like a branch and dries up; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, where they are burnt. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it. 8My Father's glory is shown by your bearing much fruit; and in this way you become my disciples. 9I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

11“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. 13The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them. 14And you are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. 17This, then, is what I command you: love one another.

The World's Hatred

18“If the world hates you, just remember that it has hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, then the world would love you as its own. But I chose you from this world, and you do not belong to it; that is why the world hates you. 20Remember what I told you: ‘Slaves are not greater than their master.’ If people persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too. 21But they will do all this to you because you are mine; for they do not know the one who sent me. 22They would not have been guilty of sin if I had not come and spoken to them; as it is, they no longer have any excuse for their sin. 23Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24They would not have been guilty of sin if I had not done among them the things that no one else ever did; as it is, they have seen what I did, and they hate both me and my Father. 25This, however, was bound to happen so that what is written in their Law may come true: ‘They hated me for no reason at all.’

26“The Helper will come — the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God and who comes from the Father. I will send him to you from the Father, and he will speak about me. 27And you, too, will speak about me, because you have been with me from the very beginning.

1“I have told you this, so that you will not give up your faith. 2You will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time will come when anyone who kills you will think that by doing this he is serving God. 3People will do these things to you because they have not known either the Father or me. 4But I have told you this, so that when the time comes for them to do these things, you will remember that I told you.

The Work of the Holy Spirit

“I did not tell you these things at the beginning, for I was with you. 5But now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me where I am going. 6And now that I have told you, your hearts are full of sadness. 7But I am telling you the truth: it is better for you that I go away, because if I do not go, the Helper will not come to you. But if I do go away, then I will send him to you. 8And when he comes, he will prove to the people of the world that they are wrong about sin and about what is right and about God's judgement. 9They are wrong about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10they are wrong about what is right, because I am going to the Father and you will not see me any more; 11and they are wrong about judgement, because the ruler of this world has already been judged.

12“I have much more to tell you, but now it would be too much for you to bear. 13When, however, the Spirit comes, who reveals the truth about God, he will lead you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own authority, but he will speak of what he hears, and will tell you of things to come. 14He will give me glory, because he will take what I say and tell it to you. 15All that my Father has is mine; that is why I said that the Spirit will take what I give him and tell it to you.

Sadness and Gladness

16“In a little while you will not see me any more, and then a little while later you will see me.”

17Some of his disciples asked among themselves, “What does this mean? He tells us that in a little while we will not see him, and then a little while later we will see him; and he also says, ‘It is because I am going to the Father.’ 18What does this ‘a little while’ mean? We don't know what he is talking about!”

19Jesus knew that they wanted to question him, so he said to them, “I said, ‘In a little while you will not see me, and then a little while later you will see me.’ Is this what you are asking about among yourselves? 20I am telling you the truth: you will cry and weep, but the world will be glad; you will be sad, but your sadness will turn into gladness. 21When a woman is about to give birth, she is sad because her hour of suffering has come; but when the baby is born, she forgets her suffering, because she is happy that a baby has been born into the world. 22That is how it is with you: now you are sad, but I will see you again, and your hearts will be filled with gladness, the kind of gladness that no one can take away from you.

23“When that day comes, you will not ask me for anything. I am telling you the truth: the Father will give you whatever you ask him for in my name. 24Until now you have not asked for anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your happiness may be complete.

Victory over the World

25“I have used figures of speech to tell you these things. But the time will come when I will not use figures of speech, but will speak to you plainly about the Father. 26When that day comes, you will ask him in my name; and I do not say that I will ask him on your behalf, 27for the Father himself loves you. He loves you because you love me and have believed that I came from God. 28I did come from the Father, and I came into the world; and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

29Then his disciples said to him, “Now you are speaking plainly, without using figures of speech. 30We know now that you know everything; you do not need someone to ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

31Jesus answered them, “Do you believe now? 32The time is coming, and is already here, when all of you will be scattered, each of you to your own home, and I will be left all alone. But I am not really alone, because the Father is with me. 33I have told you this so that you will have peace by being united to me. The world will make you suffer. But be brave! I have defeated the world!”

John 13:21-16:33GNBOpen in Bible reader
Bible Society of South Africav.4.17.10
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