Sixth Sunday of Easter

22Verse 22. Then Paul stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. 23Verse 23. For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you. 24Verse 24. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. 25Verse 25. Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26Verse 26. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands. 27Verse 27. God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. 28Verse 28. ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’ 29Verse 29. Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination. 30Verse 30. Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent. 31Verse 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.”

13Verse 13. Who can harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14Verse 14. But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be shaken.” 15Verse 15. But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect, 16Verse 16. keeping a clear conscience, so that those who slander you may be put to shame by your good behavior in Christ. 17Verse 17. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18Verse 18. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit, 19Verse 19. in whom He also went and preached to the spirits in prison 20Verse 20. who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water. 21Verse 21. And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also — not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God — through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22Verse 22. who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to Him.

15Verse 15. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16Verse 16. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever — 17Verse 17. the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you. 18Verse 18. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Verse 19. In a little while the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live. 20Verse 20. On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. 21Verse 21. Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”