4th Sunday of Pascha

Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense.

¹²“Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests, ¹³at noon, O king, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me. ¹⁴When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵“I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will reveal to you; ¹⁷delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, ¹⁸to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

¹⁹“Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, ²⁰but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches. ³In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water; ⁴for an angel went down at certain times into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. ⁵A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”

⁷The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”

⁸Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”

⁹Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked. Now that day was a Sabbath. ¹⁰So the Jews said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the mat.”

¹¹He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹²Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your mat and walk’?”

¹³But he who was healed didn’t know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a crowd being in the place.

¹⁴Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you are made well. Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”

¹⁵The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.