Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible






Then they asked Him, "Who are you anyway?" Jesus answered them, "Why do I even talk to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to condemn in you, but He who sent me is truthful, and I am telling the world only what I have learned from Him." They did not understand that He was speaking to them about the Father. read more.
So Jesus said to them, "When you lift the Son of Man (on the cross), you will know that I am the Christ, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but that I say exactly what my Father has instructed me to say. Yes, He who sent me is ever with me; I am not alone, because I always practice what pleases Him."


Then He answered them, "My Father is still working, and so am I." It was on account of this that the Jews tried all the harder to put Him to death, because He not only persisted in breaking the Sabbath, but also kept on saying that God was His Father, and so was making Himself equal to God. So Jesus answered them: "I most solemnly say to you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, except as He sees the Father doing it, for whatever the Father is in the habit of doing the Son also persists in doing. read more.
For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything that He Himself is doing, and He will show Him greater deeds than these, so that you will keep on wondering.

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread that gives life. Whoever comes to me will never get hungry, and whoever believes in me will never get thirsty. But I have told you that, although you have seen me, yet you do not believe in me. All that my Father gives to me will come to me, and I will never, no, never reject anyone who comes to me, read more.
because I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me.

Jesus answered, "It was neither for his own sin nor for that of his parents, but to show what God could do in his case. We must continue to do the works of Him who sent me while it is daylight. Night is coming when no one can do any work.

Jesus answered him, "If anyone really loves me, he will observe my teaching, and my Father will love him, and both of us will come in face-to-face fellowship with him; yes, we will make our special dwelling place with him. Whoever does not really love me does not observe my teaching; and yet the teaching which you are listening to is not mine but comes from the Father who has sent me. "I have told you this while I am still staying with you. read more.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to represent me, will teach you everything Himself, and cause you to remember everything that I have told you. I now leave you the blessing of peace, I give you the blessing of my own peace. I myself do not give it in the way the world gives it. Stop letting your hearts be troubled or timid. You have heard me say that I am going away and coming back to you; if you really loved me, you would rejoice over my telling you that I am going to the Father, because my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe in me. "I shall not talk much more with you, for the evil ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in common with me, but he is coming that the world may know that I love the Father and am doing what the Father has ordered me to do. Get up and let us go away."

When Jesus had said all these things, He lifted His eyes to heaven and said: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that He may glorify you, just as you have given Him authority over all mankind to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him. Now eternal life means knowing you as the only true God and knowing Jesus your messenger as Christ. read more.
I have glorified you down here upon the earth by completing the work which you have given me to do.

for the blood of bulls and goats is unable to take away sins. So, when Christ was coming into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not wish, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings you never took delight. read more.
Then I said, 'See, I have come, just as the Scripture writes about me in the book, O God, to do your will.'" Although at first He said, "You never wished or took delight in sacrifices and offerings, burnt-offerings and sin-offerings" -- all of which are repeatedly offered in accordance with the law -- He afterward said, "See, I have come to do your will." He is taking away the first to let the second take its place. It is by this will of God that we are consecrated through the offering of Jesus' body once for all.


When they heard this, with one united prayer to God they said: "O Lord, you are the Maker of heaven, earth, and sea, and everything that is in them, and the One who spoke thus through the Holy Spirit by the lips of our forefather David, your servant: 'Why did the heathen rage, and the peoples make vain designs? The kings of the earth took their stand. The rulers met against the Lord, and too, against His Christ.' read more.
"For in this city they actually met against your holy Servant Jesus, whom you had consecrated -- Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the heathen and the peoples of Israel,

Now Saul, as he was still breathing threats of murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that if he found any men or women belonging to The Way he might bring them in chains to Jerusalem. As he traveled on he finally approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. read more.
He dropped to the ground; then he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" He asked, "Who are you, sir?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

"I am the real vine, and my Father is the cultivator. He cuts away any branch on me that stops bearing fruit, and He repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more. You are already pruned because of the teaching that I have given you. read more.
You must remain in union with me and I will remain in union with you. Just as no branch by itself can bear fruit unless it remains united to the vine, so you cannot unless you remain in union with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in union with me and I in union with him will bear abundant fruit, because you cannot do anything cut off from union with me. If anyone does not remain in union with me, he is thrown away as a mere branch and is dried up; then it is picked up and thrown into the fire and burned up. If you remain in union with me and my words remain in you, you may ask whatever you please and you shall have it. By your continuously bearing abundant fruit and in this way proving yourselves to be real disciples of mine, my Father is glorified. I have loved you just as the Father has loved me. You must remain in my love. If you continue to keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in His love. "I have told you these things, that the joy which I have had may remain in you and that your joy may be complete. This is my command to you, to keep on loving one another as I have loved you. No one can show greater love than this, the giving of his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you keep on doing what I command you to do. I no longer call you slaves, because the slave does not know what his master is doing; I now call you friends, because I have told you everything that I have learned from my Father. You have not chosen me; I have chosen you, and appointed you to go and bear fruit, that your fruit may remain too, so that the Father may grant you, as bearers of my name, whatever you ask Him for. "What I command you to do is, to keep on loving one another. If the world continues to hate you, remember that it has first hated me. If you belonged to the world, the world would love what is its own. But it is because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, that the world hates you. Remember what I once told you: No slave is greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you too. If they have observed my teaching, they will observe yours too. They will do all this to you on account of me, because they do not know Him who has sent me. "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. But now the fact is, they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever continues to hate me continues to hate my Father too. If I had not done things among them that no one else has ever done, they would not be guilty of sin. But now the fact is, they have seen and even hated both my Father and me. But this is so that the saying written in their law may be fulfilled, 'They hated me without a cause.'

The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him. This is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He persisted in doing such things on the Sabbath. Then He answered them, "My Father is still working, and so am I." read more.
It was on account of this that the Jews tried all the harder to put Him to death, because He not only persisted in breaking the Sabbath, but also kept on saying that God was His Father, and so was making Himself equal to God.

But on my way, just before I reached Damascus, suddenly about noon a blaze of light from heaven flashed around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?' I answered, 'Who are you, Sir?' He said to me, 'I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.'


Then He answered them, "My Father is still working, and so am I." It was on account of this that the Jews tried all the harder to put Him to death, because He not only persisted in breaking the Sabbath, but also kept on saying that God was His Father, and so was making Himself equal to God. So Jesus answered them: "I most solemnly say to you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, except as He sees the Father doing it, for whatever the Father is in the habit of doing the Son also persists in doing.

and I give to them eternal life, and they shall never get lost, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My father who gave them to me is stronger than all, and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. The Father and I are one."


Then He answered them, "My Father is still working, and so am I." It was on account of this that the Jews tried all the harder to put Him to death, because He not only persisted in breaking the Sabbath, but also kept on saying that God was His Father, and so was making Himself equal to God. So Jesus answered them: "I most solemnly say to you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, except as He sees the Father doing it, for whatever the Father is in the habit of doing the Son also persists in doing.

and I give to them eternal life, and they shall never get lost, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My father who gave them to me is stronger than all, and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. The Father and I are one."


Now there was a man there with one hand withered. And, to get a charge against Him, they asked Him, "Is it right to cure people on the sabbath?" But He said to them, "What man is there among you, if he has only one sheep and it falls into a ditch on the sabbath, will not lay hold on it and lift it out? And how much more a man is worth than a sheep! So it is right to do good on the sabbath." read more.
Then He said to the man, "Hold out your hand." And he held it out, and it was cured so that it became like the other.

One Sabbath He was teaching in one of the synagogues, and there was a woman there who for eighteen years had had a disease caused by a spirit. She was bent double and could not straighten herself up at all. As soon as Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your disease!" read more.
Then He laid His hands on her, and at once she straightened herself up and burst into praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured her on the Sabbath, answered the crowd, "There are six days on which people must work; so come on these and be cured, but not on the Sabbath." Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not everyone of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey and lead him out of the stable to water him? And so was it not right for this woman, a descendant of Abraham, whom Satan has for eighteen years kept bound, to be freed from this bond on the Sabbath?" Even while He was saying this, His opponents were blushing with shame, but all the people were rejoicing over all the glorious things that were being done by Him.

The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him. This is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He persisted in doing such things on the Sabbath. Then He answered them, "My Father is still working, and so am I." read more.
It was on account of this that the Jews tried all the harder to put Him to death, because He not only persisted in breaking the Sabbath, but also kept on saying that God was His Father, and so was making Himself equal to God.

Just in front of Him was a man who was suffering from dropsy. He answered the experts in the law and the Pharisees by asking, "Is it right to cure people on the Sabbath or not?" But they made no answer. So He took hold of the man and cured him and sent him away. read more.
Then He said to them, "Which of you, if his son or ox falls into a well, will not at once pull him out on the Sabbath?"

Jesus answered them, "I have done just one deed, and yet you are all dumbfounded! Then Moses gave you the rite of circumcision -- not that it had its origin with Moses but with your earlier forefathers -- and you circumcise a male child even on the Sabbath. Well, if a male child undergoes circumcision on the Sabbath, to keep the law of Moses from being broken, are you angry with me for making a man perfectly well on the Sabbath? read more.
Stop judging superficially; you must judge fairly."


Jesus answered him, "I have spoken publicly to the world; I have always taught in the synagogues and in the temple where all the Jews are in the habit of meeting, and I have not spoken anything in secret.

Then again they went into Jerusalem. And while Jesus was walking about in the temple, the high priests, scribes, and elders came up to Him and said to Him, "What sort of authority have you for doing as you do? Or, who gave you the authority to do as you do?" Jesus said to them, "Let me ask you just one question, and if you answer me, I will tell you what sort of authority I have for doing as I do. read more.
Was John's baptism from heaven or from men? Answer me." Then they argued with one another in this way, "If we say, 'It was from heaven,' He will say, 'Then why did you not believe him?' On the other hand, can we say, 'It was from men'?" For they were afraid of the people, because everybody thought that John was really a prophet. So they said to Jesus, "We do not know." Jesus also said to them, "Nor am I going to tell you what sort of authority I have for doing as I do."

While He was teaching in the temple, He answered them and said, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, said: 'The Lord has said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand Until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet."' David himself called him Lord, so how can He be his son?" Most of the people liked to hear Him. read more.
And in His teaching He continued to say: "Beware of the scribes who like to go about in long robes, to be saluted with honor in public places, to be seated in the front seats in the synagogues, to occupy the places of honor at banquets -- men who eat up widows' houses and to cover it up make long prayers. They will get a much heavier sentence!" Then He sat down in front of the collection-box and was watching the people as they dropped their money into it. And many rich people were dropping in large sums. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two little copper coins, which make scarcely a cent. And He called His disciples to Him and said, "I solemnly say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all these others who have been putting money into the collection-box. For all of them put in out of their surplus, but she in her want put in all she had, yes, all she had to live on."

Day after day I used to be with you teaching in the temple, and you never laid hands on me. But this is so to fulfill the Scriptures."

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple court, and said to him, "See! You are now well. Stop sinning or something worse may befall you." The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him. This is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He persisted in doing such things on the Sabbath. read more.
Then He answered them, "My Father is still working, and so am I."

Now when the feast was already half over, Jesus went up to the temple and began to teach. The Jews were dumbfounded and said, "How can this uneducated man know the Scriptures?" Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not my own, but it comes from Him who sent me. read more.
If anyone is willing to keep on doing God's will, he will know whether my teaching comes from God, or merely expresses my own ideas. Whoever utters merely his own ideas is seeking his own honor, but whoever seeks the honor of him who sent him is sincere, and there is no dishonesty in him. Did not Moses give you the law? And yet not one of you is keeping that law. If so, why are you trying to kill me?" The crowd answered, "You are certainly under the power of a demon! Who is trying to kill you?" Jesus answered them, "I have done just one deed, and yet you are all dumbfounded! Then Moses gave you the rite of circumcision -- not that it had its origin with Moses but with your earlier forefathers -- and you circumcise a male child even on the Sabbath. Well, if a male child undergoes circumcision on the Sabbath, to keep the law of Moses from being broken, are you angry with me for making a man perfectly well on the Sabbath? Stop judging superficially; you must judge fairly." Then some of the people of Jerusalem said, "Is not this the man they are trying to kill? Just look! He is talking in public, and yet they do not say a word to Him! It cannot be that the authorities have really learned that He is the Christ, can it? But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, however, no one will know where He is from." So Jesus, as He was teaching in the temple, cried out, "Yes, you do know me and you do know where I come from, and I have not come on my own authority, but the One who has sent me exists as the Real One, whom you do not know.

and Jesus was walking in Solomon's portico. So the Jews surrounded Him and kept asking Him, "How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are really the Christ, tell us so plainly." Jesus answered them, "I have already told you so, but you do not believe me. The works which I am doing on my Father's authority are my credentials, read more.
but still you do not believe in me, for you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them and they follow me, and I give to them eternal life, and they shall never get lost, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My father who gave them to me is stronger than all, and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. The Father and I are one." The Jews again picked up stones to stone Him. Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good deeds from my Father. For which of them are you going to stone me?" The Jews retorted, "It is not for a good deed but for blasphemy we are going to stone you; namely, because you, although a mere man, claim to be God." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods"'? If men to whom God's message came are called gods -- and the Scriptures cannot be made null and void -- do you now say to me whom my Father has set apart to it and sent into the world, 'You are a blasphemer,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? If I am not doing the things that my Father is doing, do not believe me. But if I am doing so, even if you will not believe me, believe the deeds, that you may come to know and continue to know that the Father is in union with me and I am in union with the Father."



Then they asked Him, "Who are you anyway?" Jesus answered them, "Why do I even talk to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to condemn in you, but He who sent me is truthful, and I am telling the world only what I have learned from Him." They did not understand that He was speaking to them about the Father. read more.
So Jesus said to them, "When you lift the Son of Man (on the cross), you will know that I am the Christ, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but that I say exactly what my Father has instructed me to say. Yes, He who sent me is ever with me; I am not alone, because I always practice what pleases Him."


Then He answered them, "My Father is still working, and so am I." It was on account of this that the Jews tried all the harder to put Him to death, because He not only persisted in breaking the Sabbath, but also kept on saying that God was His Father, and so was making Himself equal to God. So Jesus answered them: "I most solemnly say to you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, except as He sees the Father doing it, for whatever the Father is in the habit of doing the Son also persists in doing. read more.
For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything that He Himself is doing, and He will show Him greater deeds than these, so that you will keep on wondering.

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread that gives life. Whoever comes to me will never get hungry, and whoever believes in me will never get thirsty. But I have told you that, although you have seen me, yet you do not believe in me. All that my Father gives to me will come to me, and I will never, no, never reject anyone who comes to me, read more.
because I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me.

Jesus answered, "It was neither for his own sin nor for that of his parents, but to show what God could do in his case. We must continue to do the works of Him who sent me while it is daylight. Night is coming when no one can do any work.

Jesus answered him, "If anyone really loves me, he will observe my teaching, and my Father will love him, and both of us will come in face-to-face fellowship with him; yes, we will make our special dwelling place with him. Whoever does not really love me does not observe my teaching; and yet the teaching which you are listening to is not mine but comes from the Father who has sent me. "I have told you this while I am still staying with you. read more.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to represent me, will teach you everything Himself, and cause you to remember everything that I have told you. I now leave you the blessing of peace, I give you the blessing of my own peace. I myself do not give it in the way the world gives it. Stop letting your hearts be troubled or timid. You have heard me say that I am going away and coming back to you; if you really loved me, you would rejoice over my telling you that I am going to the Father, because my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe in me. "I shall not talk much more with you, for the evil ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in common with me, but he is coming that the world may know that I love the Father and am doing what the Father has ordered me to do. Get up and let us go away."

When Jesus had said all these things, He lifted His eyes to heaven and said: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that He may glorify you, just as you have given Him authority over all mankind to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him. Now eternal life means knowing you as the only true God and knowing Jesus your messenger as Christ. read more.
I have glorified you down here upon the earth by completing the work which you have given me to do.

for the blood of bulls and goats is unable to take away sins. So, when Christ was coming into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not wish, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings you never took delight. read more.
Then I said, 'See, I have come, just as the Scripture writes about me in the book, O God, to do your will.'" Although at first He said, "You never wished or took delight in sacrifices and offerings, burnt-offerings and sin-offerings" -- all of which are repeatedly offered in accordance with the law -- He afterward said, "See, I have come to do your will." He is taking away the first to let the second take its place. It is by this will of God that we are consecrated through the offering of Jesus' body once for all.