They will not follow a stranger, but will run away from him; because they do not know a stranger's voice."

Many of them said: "He is possessed by a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?"

When the Jews gathered round him, and said: "How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us so frankly."

The Jews again brought stones to throw at him;

Upon this the Jews again sought to arrest him; but he escaped their hands.

Then Jesus again crossed the Jordan to the place where John used to baptize at first, and stayed there some time, during which many people came to see him.

And, when he had said this, he added: "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going that I may wake him."

And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may learn to believe in me. But let us go to him."

At this, Thomas, who was called 'The Twin,' said to his fellow-disciples: "Let us go too, so that we may die with him."

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat quietly at home.

Even now, I know that God will grant you whatever you ask him."

As soon as Mary heard that, she got up quickly, and went to meet him.

Jesus had not then come into the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she threw herself at his feet. "Master," she exclaimed, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died!"

"Where have you buried him?" he asked. "Come and see, Master," they answered.

"How he must have loved him!" the Jews exclaimed;

The dead man came out, wrapped hand and foot in a winding- sheet; his face, too, had been wrapped in a cloth. "Set him free," said Jesus, "and let him go."

In consequence of this, many of the Jews, who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did, learned to believe in him.

If we let him alone as we are doing, every one will believe in him; and the Romans will come and will take from us both our City and our Nationality."

The Chief Priests and the Pharisees had already issued orders that, if any one learned where Jesus was, he should give information, so that they might arrest him.

Because it was owing to him that many of the Jews had left them, and were becoming believers in Jesus.

And went out to meet him, shouting as they went: "'God save Him! Blessed is He who Comes in the name of the Lord'--The King of Israel!"

His disciples did not understand all this at first; but, when Jesus had been exalted, then they remembered that these things had been said of him in Scripture, and that they had done these things for him.

Meanwhile the people who were with him, when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, were telling what they had seen.

This, indeed, was why the crowd met him--because people had heard that he had given this sign of his mission.

So the Pharisees said to one another: "You see that you are gaining nothing! Why, all the world has run after him!"

If a man is ready to serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there my servant shall be also. If a man is ready to serve me, my Father will honor him.

The crowd of bystanders, who heard the sound, said that it was thundering. Others said: "An angel has been speaking to him."

But, though Jesus had given so many signs of his mission before their eyes, they still did not believe in him,

Isaiah said this, because he saw Christ's glory; and it was of him that he spoke.

But Jesus had proclaimed: "He who believes in me believes, not in me, but in him who sent me;

And he who sees me sees him who sent me.

Before the Passover Festival began, Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave the world and go to the Father. He had loved those who were his own in the world, and he loved them to the last.

He then poured some water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel which was tied round him.

For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said 'You are not all clean.'

In truth I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor yet a messenger than the man who sends him.

In truth I tell you, he who receives any one that I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me."

Being in this position, that disciple leant back on Jesus' shoulder, and asked him: "Who is it, Master?"

And it was then, after he had received it, that Satan took possession of him. So Jesus said to him: "Do at once what you are going to do."

When Judas had gone out, Jesus said: "Now the Son of Man has been exalted, and God has been exalted through him;

And God will exalt him with himself--yes, he will exalt him forthwith.

If you had recognized me, you would have known my Father also; for the future you will recognize him, indeed you have already seen him."

The world cannot receive this Spirit, because it does not see him or recognize him, but you recognize him, because he is always with you, and is within you.

It is he who has my commands and lays them to heart that loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him."

"Whoever loves me," Jesus answered, " will lay my Message to heart; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

I am the Vine, you are the branches. He that remains united to me, while I remain united to him--he bears fruit plentifully; for you can do nothing apart from me.

But they will do all this to you, because you believe in my Name, for they do not know him who sent me.

I did not tell you all this at first, because I was with you. But now I am to return to him who sent me; and yet not one of you asks me--'Where are you going?'

Yet I am only telling you the truth; it is for your good that I should go away. For otherwise the Helper will never come to you, but, if I leave you, I will send him to you.

Jesus saw that they were wanting to ask him a question, and said: "Are you trying to find out from one another what I meant by saying 'In a little while you will not see me; and then in a little while you will see me indeed'?

Even as thou gavest him power over all mankind, that he should give Immortal Life to all those whom thou has given him.

Jesus, aware of all that was coming upon him, went to meet them, and said to them: "For whom are you looking?"

At this, Simon Peter, who had a sword with him, drew it, and struck the High Priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.

So the soldiers of the garrison, with their Commanding Officer and the Jewish police, arrested Jesus and bound him,

And took him first of all to Annas. Annas was the father-in- law of Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year.

When Jesus said this, one of the police-officers, who was standing near, gave him a blow with his hand. "Do you answer the High Priest like that?" he exclaimed.

Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the High Priest.

Meanwhile Simon Peter was standing there, warming himself; so they said to him: "Are not you also one of his disciples?" Peter denied it. "No, I am not," he said.

One of the High Priest's servants, a relation of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, exclaimed: "Did not I myself see you with him in the garden?"

"If he had not been a criminal, we should not have given him up to you," they answered.

"Take him yourselves," said Pilate, "and try him by your own Law." "We have no power to put any one to death," the Jews replied- -

After that, Pilate went into the Government House again, and calling Jesus up, asked him: "Are you the King of the Jews?"

The soldiers made a crown with some thorns and put it on his head and threw a purple robe round him.

They kept coming up to him and saying: "Long live the King of the Jews!" and they gave him blow after blow with their hands.

Pilate again came outside, and said to the people: "Look! I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find nothing with which he can be charged."

When the Chief Priests and the police-officers saw him, they shouted: "Crucify him! Crucify him!" "Take him yourselves and crucify him," said Pilate. "For my part, I find nothing with which he can be charged."

But Jesus made no reply. So Pilate said to him: "Do you refuse to speak to me? Do not you know that I have power to release you, and have power to crucify you?"

This made Pilate anxious to release him; but the Jews shouted: "If you release that man, you are no friend of the Emperor! Any one who makes himself out to be a King is setting himself against the Emperor!"

At that the people shouted: "Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!" "What! shall I crucify your King?" exclaimed Pilate. "We have no King but the Emperor," replied the Chief Priests;

There they crucified him, and two others with him--one on each side, and Jesus between them.

But, on coming to him, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

And there is another passage which says--'They will look upon him whom they pierced.'

After this, Joseph of Ramah, a disciple of Jesus--but a secret one, owing to his fear of the Jews--begged Pilate's permission to remove the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him leave; so Joseph went and removed the body.

So she came running to Simon Peter, and to that other disciple who was Jesus' friend, and said to them: "They have taken away the Master out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him!"

Presently Simon Peter came following behind him, and went into the tomb; and he looked at the linen wrappings lying there,

"Why are you weeping?" asked the angels. "They have taken my Master away," she answered, "and I do not know where they have laid him."

"Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" he asked. Supposing him to be the gardener, Mary answered: "If it was you, Sir, who carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away myself."

"Do not hold me," Jesus said; "for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my Brothers, and tell them that I am ascending to him who is my Father and their Father, my God and their God."

So the rest of the disciples said to him: "We have seen the Master!" "Unless I see the marks of the nails in his hands," he exclaimed, "and put my finger into the marks, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

Upon this the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter: "It is the Master!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Master, he fastened his coat round him (for he had taken it off), and threw himself into the Sea.

And Jesus said to them: "Come and breakfast." Not one of the disciples ventured to ask him who he was, knowing that it was the Master.

The third time, Jesus said to him: "Simon, son of John, are you my friend?" Peter was hurt at his third question being 'Are you my friend?'; and exclaimed: "Master, you know everything! You can tell that I am your friend." "Feed my sheep," said Jesus.

Peter turned round, and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following--the one who at the supper leant back on the Master's shoulder, and asked him who it was that would betray him.

Seeing him, Peter said to Jesus: "Master, what about this man?"

No sooner had Jesus said this than he was caught up before their eyes, and a cloud received him from their sight.

And said: "Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking up into the heavens? This very Jesus, who has been taken from you into the heavens, will come in the very way in which you have seen him go into the heavens."

For he was one of our number and had his part allotted him in this work of ours."

Men of Israel, listen to what I am saying. Jesus of Nazareth, a man whose mission from God to you was proved by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God showed among you through him, as you know full well--

He, I say, in accordance with God's definite plan and with his previous knowledge, was betrayed, and you, by the hands of lawless men, nailed him to a cross and put him to death.

But God released him from the pangs of death and raised him to life, it being impossible for death to retain its hold upon him.

Indeed it was to him that David was referring when he said-- 'I have had the Lord ever before my eyes, For he stands at my right hand, that I should not be disquieted.

David, then, Prophet as he was, knowing that God 'had solemnly sworn to him to set one of his descendants upon his throne,' looked into the future,

So let the whole nation of Israel know beyond all doubt, that God has made him both Lord and Christ--this very Jesus whom you crucified."

Seeing Peter and John on the point of entering, he asked them to give him something.

Peter fixed his eyes on him, and so did John, and then Peter said: "Look at us."

Grasping the lame man by the right hand, Peter lifted him up. Instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong,

All the people saw him walking about and praising God;

And, when they recognized him as the man who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, they were utterly astonished and amazed at what had happened to him.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has done honor to his Servant Jesus--him whom you gave up and disowned before Pilate, when he had decided to set him free.

The very Guide to Life you put to death! But God raised him from the dead--and of that we are ourselves witnesses.