As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the desert, in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up,

When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me."

The crowd answered, "Our Law tells us that the Messiah will live forever. How, then, can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?"

There they crucified him; and they also crucified two other men, one on each side, with Jesus between them.

Jesus again gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

the graves broke open, and many of God's people who had died were raised to life.

When the army officer and the soldiers with him who were watching Jesus saw the earthquake and everything else that happened, they were terrified and said, "He really was the Son of God!"

Many of them believed his message and were baptized, and about three thousand people were added to the group that day.

But many who heard the message believed; and the number grew to about five thousand.

as to his divine holiness, he was shown with great power to be the Son of God by being raised from death.

who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and persecuted us. How displeasing they are to God! How hostile they are to everyone!

They even tried to stop us from preaching to the Gentiles the message that would bring them salvation. In this way they have brought to completion all the sins they have always committed. And now God's anger has at last come down on them!

So Jesus answered them, "I tell you the truth: the Son can do nothing on his own; he does only what he sees his Father doing. What the Father does, the Son also does.

"I can do nothing on my own authority; I judge only as God tells me, so my judgment is right, because I am not trying to do what I want, but only what he who sent me wants.

because I have come down from heaven to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

I know that you always listen to me, but I say this for the sake of the people here, so that they will believe that you sent me."

This is true, because I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has commanded me what I must say and speak.

And I know that his command brings eternal life. What I say, then, is what the Father has told me to say."

Moses said to the people, "This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it is not by my own choice that I have done them.

But if the LORD does something unheard of, and the earth opens up and swallows them with all they own, so that they go down alive to the world of the dead, you will know that these men have rejected the LORD."

The message given to our ancestors by the angels was shown to be true, and those who did not follow it or obey it received the punishment they deserved.

How, then, shall we escape if we pay no attention to such a great salvation? The Lord himself first announced this salvation, and those who heard him proved to us that it is true.

I am telling you the truth: we speak of what we know and report what we have seen, yet none of you is willing to accept our message.