What did Jesus say about Church?

¹ “And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis write: “He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars says these things: “I know your works, that you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

² Wake up and strengthen the things that remain, which you were about to throw away, for I have found no works of yours perfected before my God.

³ Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If therefore you won’t watch, I will come as a thief, and you won’t know what hour I will come upon you.

⁴ Nevertheless you have a few names in Sardis that didn’t defile their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

⁵ He who overcomes will be arrayed in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

⁶ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

¹ “To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write: “He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks among the seven golden lamp stands says these things:

² “I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can’t tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false.

³ You have perseverance and have endured for my name’s sake, and have not grown weary.

⁴ But I have this against you, that you left your first love.

⁵ Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your lamp stand out of its place, unless you repent.

⁶ But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of my God.

⁷ “To the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: “He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says these things:

⁸ “I know your works (behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut), that you have a little power, and kept my word, and didn’t deny my name.

⁹ Behold, I make some of the synagogue of Satan, of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but lie—behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.

¹⁰ Because you kept my command to endure, I also will keep you from the hour of testing which is to come on the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

¹¹ I am coming quickly! Hold firmly that which you have, so that no one takes your crown.

¹² He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will go out from there no more. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name.

¹³ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

¹⁴ “To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: “The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of God’s creation, says these things:

¹⁵ “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.

¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

¹⁷ Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing,’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;

¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

¹⁹ As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.

²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me.

²¹ He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

²² He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.”

²⁰ “Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word,

²¹ that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.

²² The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one,

²³ I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me.

²⁴ Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵ Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.

²⁶ I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

¹² “To the angel of the assembly in Pergamum write: “He who has the sharp two-edged sword says these things:

¹³ “I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and didn’t deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

¹⁴ But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

¹⁵ So also you likewise have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

¹⁶ Repent therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows but he who receives it.

¹⁸ “To the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write: “The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things:

¹⁹ “I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first.

²⁰ But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

²¹ I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

²² Behold, I will throw her and those who commit adultery with her into a bed of great oppression, unless they repent of her works.

²³ I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

²⁴ But to you I say, to the rest who are in Thyatira—as many as don’t have this teaching, who don’t know what some call ‘the deep things of Satan’—to you I say, I am not putting any other burden on you.

²⁵ Nevertheless, hold that which you have firmly until I come.

²⁶ He who overcomes, and he who keeps my works to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations.

²⁷ He will rule them with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots, as I also have received of my Father;

²⁸ and I will give him the morning star.

²⁹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

⁶ “I 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.

⁷ Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you,

⁸ for the words which you have given me I have given to them; and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me.

⁹ I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

¹⁰ All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

¹¹ I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.

¹² While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. I have kept those whom you have given me. None of them is lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

¹³ But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

¹⁴ I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

¹⁵ I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.

¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

¹⁷ Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.

¹⁹ For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

¹² He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them.

¹³ The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care for the sheep.

¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;

¹⁵ even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

¹⁶ I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

¹⁷ Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.

¹⁸ No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.”

³⁶ “What do you want me to do for you?”

[…]

Narration or other speakers' words are omitted to show Jesus' words. Read in context for the full passage.

³⁸ “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

³⁹ “You shall indeed drink the cup that I drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with;

⁴⁰ but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to give, but for whom it has been prepared.”

[…]

Narration or other speakers' words are omitted to show Jesus' words. Read in context for the full passage.

⁴² “You know that they who are recognized as rulers over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

⁴³ But it shall not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant.

⁴⁴ Whoever of you wants to become first among you shall be bondservant of all.

⁴⁵ For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

²¹ “What do you want?”

²² “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

²³ “You will indeed drink my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it is for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

[…]

Narration or other speakers' words are omitted to show Jesus' words. Read in context for the full passage.

²⁵ “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

²⁶ It shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.

²⁷ Whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant,

²⁸ even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

²⁵ “The kings of the nations lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’

²⁶ But not so with you. Rather, the one who is greater among you, let him become as the younger, and one who is governing, as one who serves.

²⁷ For who is greater, one who sits at the table, or one who serves? Isn’t it he who sits at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

²⁸ “But you are those who have continued with me in my trials.

²⁹ I confer on you a kingdom, even as my Father conferred on me,

³⁰ that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. You will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”