John 13:31–18:1
31When Judas had left, Jesus said, “Now, the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once. 33Children, I will be with you [only] a little longer. You will seek me, and now I tell you just as I told the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34I give you a new commandment: that you love one another! Just as I have loved you, love also one another. 35This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another.”
36Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but later you shall follow {me}.”
37Peter asked, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you!”
38Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen, I tell you; before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!”
1“Do not let your heart be troubled. Have faith in God! Have also faith in me! 2In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. 3If I go and prepare a place for you, I will return and receive you to myself, so that where I am, you may be there also. 4You know where I am going, and you know the way.”
5Thomas asked him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going! How can we know the way?”
6Jesus replied to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. 7If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him, and you have seen him.”
8Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us!”
9Jesus answered, “I have been with you for such a long time, and still, do you not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words that I tell you, I do not speak from myself, but the Father who lives in me accomplishes his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me; or else believe on account of the works themselves. 12Amen, amen, I tell you; whoever believes in me will also accomplish the works that I accomplish and will do [even] greater works than these, because I am going to my Father. 13Whatever you will ask in my Name is what I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If you will ask anything in my Name, I will accomplish it. 15If you love me, keep my commandments!
16I will pray to the Father and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive him because it does not see him and does not know him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave you orphans! I will come to you! 19In a short time, the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live! 20In that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, that person is someone who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love and reveal myself to such a person.”
22Judas (not Iscariot) asked him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23Jesus answered him, “The one who loves me will keep my word; my Father will love and we shall come to him and make a home in him. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. The word which you hear is not mine, but it belongs to the Father who sent me. 25I have said these things to you while still living with you. 26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit which the Father will send in my Name, will teach you all things and remind you of all that I said to you.
27Peace I leave with you! My peace I give to you! I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled and do not let it be afraid. 28You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away, and I [shall] return to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I said ‘I am going to my Father;’ for the Father is greater than I. 29Now, I have told you before it happens so that, when it happens, you may believe. 30I will not speak with you much longer because the prince of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me. 31But so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father has commanded me. Arise, let us be on our way!”
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit. 3You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you, unless you remain in me. 5I am the vine, you [are] the branches! Whoever remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing. 6Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown out as a branch and is withered. Such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned! 7If you remain in me and if my words remain in you, you may ask whatever you desire and it will be done for you.
8In this is my Father glorified: that you bear much fruit; and [this is how] you will be my disciples. 9Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you! Remain in my love! 10If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11I have told you these things so that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be complete.
12This is my commandment: that you love one another, even as I have loved you. 13No one has a greater love than this: that someone would lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you. 15I no longer call you servants because the servant does not know what his lord is doing. Instead, I have called you friends, because everything that I heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, so that you should go and bear fruit, and so that your fruit should remain. And so, whatever you will ask of the Father in my Name, he will give it to you.
17I command these things to you, so that you may love one another.
18If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19If you were of the world, the world would love its own! But you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, and so the world hates you. 20Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21But they will do all these things to you on account of my Name, because they do not know the one who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin! 23Whoever hates me also hates my Father. 24If I had not accomplished among them the works which no one else had done [before], they would not have had sin. But now, they have seen [those things] and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25But this has happened so that the word which was written in their law may be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without reason.’
26When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me. 27You also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”
1“I have told you these things, so that you would not be caused to stumble. 2They will expel you from the synagogues! Yes, the time is coming when whoever kills you will think that he is offering {divine} service to God! 3They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. 4But I have told you these things, so that when the time arrives, you may remember that I told you about them. I did not tell you these things from the beginning because I was with you. 5But now, I am going to him who sent me, and none of you is asking me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6But because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. 7Yet, I tell you the truth; it is to your advantage that I go away because if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment; 9about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to my Father and you will not see me any more; 11about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.
12I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. 13However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth because he will not speak from himself, but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will tell you of things that are yet to come. 14He will glorify me by taking from what is mine, and he will declare it to you. 15Everything the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take of [what is] mine and will declare it to you. 16In a little while, you will no longer see me, and then after a little while you will see me <because I go to the Father>.”
17At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he is saying to us, ‘In a little while, you will no longer see me, and then after a little while you will see me’ and, ‘because I go to the Father?’” 18And so they kept asking, “What is this that he says, ‘A little while?’ We do not understand what he is saying!”
19Now, Jesus perceived that they wanted to ask him [about these things], and he said to them, “Are you discussing among yourselves concerning this, that I said, ‘In a little while, you will no longer see me, and then after a little while you will see me?’ 20Amen, amen, I tell you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy! 21When a woman gives birth, she has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she does not remember the anguish any more because of the joy that a human being is born into the world. 22Therefore, you now have sorrow, but I will see you again; and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you!
23In that day you will ask me no [more] questions. Amen, amen, I tell you; whatever you may ask of the Father in my Name, he will give it to you. 24Until now, you have asked nothing in my Name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete! 25I have told you these things in figures of speech. But the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. 26In that day, you will ask in my Name. And I do not tell you that I will pray to the Father for you, 27because the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and believed that I came forth from God. 28I came out from the Father, and I have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and return to the Father.”
29His disciples said to him, “Behold, now you speak plainly, not in figures of speech. 30Now we know that you know all things and we do not need for anyone to ask questions from you. By this we believe that you came forth from God.”
31Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32Behold, the time is coming, yes, and it has now come, when you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will desert me. Yet, I am not alone, because the Father is with me. 33I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have distress, but rejoice! I have overcome the world.”
1Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come! Glorify your Son, so that your Son may also glorify you. 2Even as you gave him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
3This is eternal life: that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ.
4I have glorified you on the earth! I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do! 5Now, Father, glorify me with yourself with the glory I had with you before the world existed. 6I have revealed your Name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me; they have kept your word. 7Now, they have known that all things you have given me are from you. 8The words you have given me, I have given to them. They have received them and they have known for certain that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them; I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11I am no longer in the world, but these are [still] in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your Name which you have given me, so that they may be one, even as we are [one]. 12While I was with them in the world, I protected them in your Name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, so that they may have my joy made full in themselves. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15I do not pray that you would take them from the world, but that you would protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them in your truth; your word is truth!f 18As you sent me into the world, I too have sent them into the world. 19I sanctify myself for their sake, so that they too may be sanctified in truth. 20I do not pray only for these, but also for those who [will] believe in me through their word, 21so that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you. May they be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. 22The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, so that they may be one even as we are one; 23I in them, and you in me. May they be perfected into one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and [that you have] loved them, even as you have loved me. 24Father, I desire that those whom you have given me would be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I knew you; and these have known that you have sent me. 26I have made your Name known to them, and I will [continue to] make it known; so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
1After speaking these words, Jesus went out with his disciples over the brook [called] Kidron. A garden was there and he and his disciples entered.
You will hear this Gospel read at The Good Shepherd Orthodox Church during Holy Week, on Great and Holy Thursday. It is followed by the Gospel reading from John 18:1-29.
Details
The Good Shepherd Orthodox Church, located in Clayton, Melbourne, is a living witness to the power of the Gospel and the fullness of the Christian Faith in modern, secular Australia.
About us. We are a vibrant Australian Christian community under the direction of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand & the Philippines, which is under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. The Church of Antioch is the continuation of the Christian community founded in Antioch by the Apostles Peter (who served as its first bishop) and Paul. The Patriarchate of Antioch is the oldest of the ancient Patriarchates constituting the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ.
All services are in the English language and the Service of Holy Thursday is held in the Main Chapel of the Religious Centre at Monash University, Clayton Campus, conveniently located in the centre of Melbourne’s residential population.
Parking in the University car parks is free after 7:00 pm, but please take note of all signs regarding Loading Zones, No Standing and Disabled Parking, these restrictions apply and are enforced.