Afterward Jesus appeared again
to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.[a] It happened
this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus[b]), Nathanael
from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were
together. 3 “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and
they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but
that night they caught nothing.
4 Early
in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize
that it was Jesus.
5 He
called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,”
they answered.
6 He
said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”
When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number
of fish.
7 Then
the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon
Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him
(for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The
other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they
were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.[c]9 When
they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some
bread.
10 Jesus
said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 So
Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full
of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus
said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him,
“Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took
the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This
was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from
the dead.
Since,
then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things
above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds
on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is
now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears,
then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore,
whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity,
lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the
wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you
once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these:
anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do
not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its
practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in
knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew,
circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but
Christ is all, and is in all.
Hezekiah
was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem
twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 2 He
did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,
just as his father David had done.
3 In
the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the
temple of the Lord and repaired
them. 4 He brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled
them in the square on the east side 5 and said: “Listen to me,
Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove
all defilement from the sanctuary. 6 Our parents were
unfaithful; they did evil in the eyes of the Lord
our God and forsook him. They turned their faces away from the Lord’s dwelling place and turned their
backs on him. 7 They also shut the doors of the portico and put
out the lamps. They did not burn incense or present any burnt offerings at the
sanctuary to the God of Israel. 8 Therefore, the anger of the Lord has fallen on Judah and Jerusalem;
he has made them an object of dread and horror and scorn, as you can see with
your own eyes. 9 This is why our fathers have fallen by the
sword and why our sons and daughters and our wives are in captivity. 10 Now
I intend to make a covenant with the Lord,
the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger will turn away from us. 11 My
sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord
has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to
burn incense.”
12 Then
these Levites set to work:
from
the Kohathites,
Mahath
son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah;
from
the Merarites,
Kish
son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel;
from
the Gershonites,
Joah
son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah;
13 from
the descendants of Elizaphan,
Shimri
and Jeiel;
from
the descendants of Asaph,
Zechariah
and Mattaniah;
14 from
the descendants of Heman,
Jehiel
and Shimei;
from
the descendants of Jeduthun,
Shemaiah
and Uzziel.
15 When
they had assembled their fellow Levites and consecrated themselves, they went
in to purify the temple of the Lord,
as the king had ordered, following the word of the Lord. 16 The priests went into the sanctuary
of the Lord to purify it. They
brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s
temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the Lord. The Levites took it and carried it
out to the Kidron Valley. 17 They began the consecration on the
first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they reached
the portico of the Lord. For eight
more days they consecrated the temple of the Lord
itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.
18 Then
they went in to King Hezekiah and reported: “We have purified the entire temple
of the Lord, the altar of burnt
offering with all its utensils, and the table for setting out the consecrated
bread, with all its articles. 19 We have prepared and
consecrated all the articles that King Ahaz removed in his unfaithfulness while
he was king. They are now in front of the Lord’s
altar.”
20 Early
the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the city officials together and went up
to the temple of the Lord. 21 They
brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats as a sin
offering[a] for the
kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah. The king commanded the priests, the
descendants of Aaron, to offer these on the altar of the Lord. 22 So they
slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splashed it against
the altar; next they slaughtered the rams and splashed their blood against the
altar; then they slaughtered the lambs and splashed their blood against the
altar. 23 The goats for the sin offering were brought before
the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them. 24 The
priests then slaughtered the goats and presented their blood on the altar for a
sin offering to atone for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt
offering and the sin offering for all Israel.
25 He
stationed the Levites in the temple of the Lord
with cymbals, harps and lyres in the way prescribed by David and Gad the king’s
seer and Nathan the prophet; this was commanded by the Lord through his prophets. 26 So the Levites
stood ready with David’s instruments, and the priests with their trumpets.
27 Hezekiah
gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. As the offering
began, singing to the Lord began
also, accompanied by trumpets and the instruments of David king of Israel. 28 The
whole assembly bowed in worship, while the musicians played and the trumpets
sounded. All this continued until the sacrifice of the burnt offering was
completed.
29 When
the offerings were finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt down
and worshiped. 30 King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the
Levites to praise the Lord with
the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness
and bowed down and worshiped.
31 Then
Hezekiah said, “You have now dedicated yourselves to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices and
thank offerings to the temple of the Lord.”
So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts
were willing brought burnt offerings.
32 The
number of burnt offerings the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred
rams and two hundred male lambs—all of them for burnt offerings to the Lord. 33 The animals
consecrated as sacrifices amounted to six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep
and goats. 34 The priests, however, were too few to skin all
the burnt offerings; so their relatives the Levites helped them until the task
was finished and until other priests had been consecrated, for the Levites had
been more conscientious in consecrating themselves than the priests had been. 35 There
were burnt offerings in abundance, together with the fat of the fellowship
offerings and the drink offerings that accompanied the burnt offerings.
So
the service of the temple of the Lord
was reestablished. 36 Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at
what God had brought about for his people, because it was done so quickly.
30 Jesus performed many other signs in the
presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But
these are written that you may believe[b] that Jesus
is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his
name.
