Wednesday, December 27

1For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.

2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

3But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.

4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

5'Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.

6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.

7Then I said, 'Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God.' '

8Previously saying, 'Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them' (which are offered according to the law),

9then He said, 'Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.' He takes away the first that He may establish the second.

10By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

12But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,

13from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

14For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

15But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,

16'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,'

17then He adds, 'Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.'

18Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

8And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.

9Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen.

10And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

11Then they secretly induced men to say, 'We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.'

12And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council.

13They also set up false witnesses who said, 'This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law;

14for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.'

15And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.

7:1Then the high priest said, 'Are these things so?'

2And he said, 'Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,

3and said to him, 'Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.'

4Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.

5And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him.

47But Solomon built Him a house.

48'However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:

49'Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the LORD, Or what is the place of My rest?

50Has My hand not made all these things?'

51' You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.

52Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,

53who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.'

54When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

55But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,

56and said, 'Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!'

57Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;

58and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'

60Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not charge them with this sin.' And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

22So Jesus answered and said to them, 'Have faith in God.

23For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

24Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

25'And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.

26But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.'

33'Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Jesus said to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.

34Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit.

35And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.

36Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.

37Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'

38But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.'

39So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.

40'Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?'

41They said to Him, 'He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.'

42Jesus said to them, 'Have you never read in the Scriptures: 'The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD's doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes'?'