Key Thought

Today's Prayer

Father, I am convicted of how easily I can trade my vibrant faith in you for a flawed and self-protecting "religiousness." Please call me away from any false motives, pretenses, and convictions so that I can serve you with an undivided heart. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

One of the teachers of the law said to Jesus, "Teacher, when you say these things about the Pharisees, you are criticizing our group too." Jesus answered, "It will be bad for you, you teachers of the law! You make strict rules that are very hard for people to obey. You try to force other people to obey those rules. But you yourselves don't even try to follow any of those rules. It will be bad for you, because you build tombs for the prophets. But these are the same prophets that your fathers killed! And now you show all people that you agree with what your fathers did. They killed the prophets, and you build tombs for the prophets! This is why the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send prophets and apostles to them. Some of my prophets and apostles will be killed by evil men. Others will be treated badly.' So you people that live now will be punished for the deaths of all the prophets that were killed since the beginning of the world. You will be punished for the killing of Abel. And you will be punished for the killing of Zechariah. Zechariah was killed between the altar and the temple. Yes, I tell you that you people that live now will be punished for them all. "It will be bad for you, you teachers of the law. You have taken away the key to learning about God. You yourselves would not learn, and you stopped others from learning, too." When Jesus was leaving, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees began to give him much trouble. They tried to make Jesus answer questions about many things. They were trying to find a way to catch Jesus saying something wrong.

Related Scripture Readings

I am a man who has told you the truth I heard from God. But you are trying to kill me. Abraham did nothing like that. So you are doing the things your own father did." But the Jews said, "We are not like children that never knew who their father was. God is our Father. He is the only Father we have." Jesus said to those Jews, "If God were really your Father, then you would love me. I came from God, and now I am here. I did not come by my own authority. God sent me. You don't understand these things I say. Why? Because you cannot accept my teaching. Your father is the devil. You belong to him. You want to do what he wants. The devil was a murderer from the beginning. He was always against the truth. There is no truth in him. He is like the lies he tells. Yes, the devil is a liar. He is the father of lies. I speak the truth. That is why you don't believe me. Can any of you prove that I am guilty of sin? If I tell the truth, then why don't you believe me? The person that belongs to God accepts what God says. But you don't accept what God says, because you don't belong to God."

The Word was already in the world. The world was made through him. But the world (people) did not know him. He came to the world that was his own. But his own people did not accept him. Some people did accept him. They believed in him. He gave something to those people who believed. He gave them the right to become children of God. These children were not born like little babies are born. They were not born from the wish or plan of a {mother and} father. These children were born from God.

Pilate saw that he could do nothing to make the people change. And he saw that the people were becoming upset. So Pilate took some water and washed his hands so that all the people could see. Then Pilate said, "I am not guilty of this man's death. You are the ones that are doing it!" All the people answered, "We will be responsible for his death. We accept for ourselves and for our children any punishment for his death."