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| "Interview Between Jesus and Nicodemus" - by James Tissot |
FIRST
READING: Acts 4: 23 - 31
23
When they were released they went to their friends and reported what
the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
24
And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and
said, "Sovereign Lord, who didst make the heaven and the earth
and the sea and everything in them,
25
who by the mouth of our father David, thy servant, didst say by the
Holy Spirit, `Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain
things?
26
The kings of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were
gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed' --
27
for truly in this city there were gathered together against thy holy
servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
28
to do whatever thy hand and thy plan had predestined to take place.
29
And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to thy servants to
speak thy word with all boldness,
30
while thou stretchest out thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders are
performed through the name of thy holy servant Jesus."
31
And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered
together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and spoke the word of God with boldness.
PSALM: Psalms 2: 1 - 9
1
Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain?
2
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel
together, against the LORD and his anointed, saying,
3
"Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from
us."
4
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the LORD has them in derision.
5
Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his
fury, saying,
6
"I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill."
7 I
will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my
son, today I have begotten you.
8
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of
the earth your possession.
9
You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like
a potter's vessel."
GOSPEL: John 3: 1 - 8
1
Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicode'mus, a ruler of
the Jews.
2
This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know
that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs
that you do, unless God is with him."
3
Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
4
Nicode'mus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
5
Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born
of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit.
7
Do not marvel that I said to you, `You must be born anew.'
8
The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you
do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every
one who is born of the Spirit."
