THE HOLY SPIRIT

EXODUS 31:2-5
^{2　“Look, I have specifically chosen Bezalel son of Uri, grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
3　I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts. 4　He is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze.
5　He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft!}

NUMBERS 11:16-17
Moses Chooses Seventy Leaders

^{16　Then the Lord said to Moses, “Gather before me seventy men who are recognized as elders and leaders of Israel. Bring them to the Tabernacle* to stand there with you.
17　I will come down and talk to you there. I will take some of the Spirit that is upon you, and I will put the Spirit upon them also. They will bear the burden of the people along with you, so you will not have to carry it alone.}

EZEKIEL 2:1-4
Ezekiel’s Call and Commission
1“Stand up, son of man,” said the voice. “I want to speak with you.”

^{2　The Spirit came into me as he spoke, and he set me on my feet. I listened carefully to his words.
3　“Son of man,” he said, “I am sending you to the nation of Israel, a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have been rebelling against me to this very day.
4　They are a stubborn and hard-hearted people. But I am sending you to say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says!’}

1 JOHN 2:19
^{19　These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.}

EPHESIANS 1:3-7
^{3　All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
4　Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
5　God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
6　So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.*
7　He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.}

1PETER 1:3-5
^{3　All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation,
4　and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.
5　And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.}

JESUS CHRIST

1 CORINTHIANS 15
The Resurrection of Christ
15
Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters,^* of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it.
^{2　It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.*
3　I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.
4　He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.
5　He was seen by Peter* and then by the Twelve.
6　After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers* at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.
7　Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles.
8　Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.
9　For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church.
10　But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.
11　So it makes no difference whether I preach or they preach, for we all preach the same message you have already believed.}

The Resurrection of the Dead

^{12　But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead?
13　For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either.
14　And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.
15　And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. 16　And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised.
17　And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.
18　In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost!
19　And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
20　But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
21　So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man.
22　Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.
23　But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.
24　After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power.
25　For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet.
26　And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.
27　For the Scriptures say, “God has put all things under his authority.”* (Of course, when it says “all things are under his authority,” that does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.)
28　Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.
29　If the dead will not be raised, what point is there in people being baptized for those who are dead? Why do it unless the dead will someday rise again?
30　And why should we ourselves risk our lives hour by hour?
31　For I swear, dear brothers and sisters, that I face death daily. This is as certain as my pride in what Christ Jesus our Lord has done in you.
32　And what value was there in fighting wild beasts—those people of Ephesus*—if there will be no resurrection from the dead? And if there is no resurrection, “Let’s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!”*
33　Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.”
34　Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don’t know God at all.}

The Resurrection Body

<sup>35　But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?”
36　What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first.
37　And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting.
38　Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. 39　Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
40　There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies.
41　The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.
42　It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43　Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength.
44　They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.
45　The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.”* But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit.
46　What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later.
47　Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven.
48　Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man.
49　Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like* the heavenly man.
50　What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
51　But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed!
52　It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.
53　For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
54　Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die,* this Scripture will be fulfilled:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.*


55　 O death, where is your victory?
         0' death, where is your sting?*”

56　For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.
57　But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58　So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

　</sup>

OUT STRETCHED-ARMS

MATTHEW 15:32-37
^{32　Then Jesus called his disciples and told them, “I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, or they will faint along the way.”
33　The disciples replied, “Where would we get enough food here in the wilderness for such a huge crowd?”
34　Jesus asked, “How much bread do you have?”}They replied, “Seven loaves, and a few small fish.”
^{35　So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground.
36　Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, thanked God for them, and broke them into pieces. He gave them to the disciples, who distributed the food to the crowd.
37　They all ate as much as they wanted. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food.}

MATTHEW 20:29-34
^{29　As Jesus and the disciples left the town of Jericho, a large crowd followed behind. 30　Two blind men were sitting beside the road. When they heard that Jesus was coming that way, they began shouting, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”
31　“Be quiet!” the crowd yelled at them.}But they only shouted louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”
^{32　When Jesus heard them, he stopped and called, “What do you want me to do for you?”
33　“Lord,” they said, “we want to see!”
34　Jesus felt sorry for them and touched their eyes. Instantly they could see! Then they followed him.}

MARK 1:40-41
^{40　A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said.
41　Moved with compassion,* Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!”}

MARK 6:34³⁴Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

LUKE 7:11-15
^{11　Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him.
12　A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her.
13　When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said.
14　Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.”
15　Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.}

1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-7^{4　Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5　or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
 6　It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7　Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.}

1 PETER 2:21-23^{21　For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered* for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.
22　He never sinned,}nor ever deceived anyone.^{*
23　He did not retaliate when he was insulted,}
nor threaten revenge when he suffered.
He left his case in the hands of God,who always judges fairly.

1 PETER 3:8-9
^{8　Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters.* Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude.
9　Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will bless you for it.}