Lessons                                                                       Bread of Life                                                               16 May 2020

Acts 17:16–31

₁₆Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. ₁₇So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. ₁₈Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. ₁₉And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ₂₀For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” ₂₁Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

₂₂So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. ₂₃For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ₂₄The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, ₂₅nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. ₂₆And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, ₂₇that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, ₂₈for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

₂₉Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. ₃₀The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ₃₁because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

1 Peter 3:13–22

₁₃Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? ₁₄But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, ₁₅but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; ₁₆yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. ₁₇For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

₁₈For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, ₁₉in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, ₂₀because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. ₂₁Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ₂₂who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

John 14:15–21

₁₅[Jesus said:] “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

₁₆And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, ₁₇even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

₁₈“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ₁₉Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ₂₀In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. ₂₁Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”