Lessons                                                                       Bread of Life                                                               27 June 2020

Jeremiah 28:5–9

         ₅Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord, ₆and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. ₇Yet hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. ₈The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. ₉As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”

Romans 7:1–13

         ₁Or do you not know, brothers—

for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? ₂Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. ₃Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

         ₄Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. ₅For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ₆But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

         ₇What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ₈But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. ₉I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ₁₀The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. ₁₁For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ₁₂So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

         ₁₃Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

Matthew 10:34–42

         ₃₄[Jesus said:] “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ₃₅For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ₃₆And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. ₃₇Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ₃₈And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ₃₉Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

         ₄₀“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. ₄₁The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. ₄₂And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”