The Dead Come Back to Life^(A)

²³ On that day some Sadducees, who say that people will never come back to life, came to Yeshua. They asked him, ²⁴ “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother should marry his widow and have children for his brother.’ ²⁵ There were seven brothers among us. The first married and died. Since he had no children, he left his widow to his brother. ²⁶ The second brother also died, as well as the third, and the rest of the seven brothers. ²⁷ At last the woman died. ²⁸ Now, when the dead come back to life, whose wife will she be? All seven brothers had been married to her.”

²⁹ Yeshua answered, “You’re mistaken because you don’t know the Scriptures or God’s power. ³⁰ When people come back to life, they don’t marry. Rather, they are like the angels in heaven. ³¹ Haven’t you read what God told you about the dead coming back to life? He said, ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ He’s not the God of the dead but of the living.”

³³ He amazed the crowds who heard his teaching.

Love God and Your Neighbor^(B)

³⁴ When the Pharisees heard that Yeshua had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in Moses’ Teachings, tested Yeshua by asking, ³⁶ “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in Moses’ Teachings?”

³⁷ Yeshua answered him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the greatest and most important commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All of Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.”

How Can David’s Son Be David’s Lord?^(C)

⁴¹ While the Pharisees were still gathered, Yeshua asked them, ⁴² “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

They answered him, “David’s.”

⁴³ He said to them, “Then how can David, guided by the Spirit, call him Lord? David says,

⁴⁵ If David calls him Lord, how can he be his son?”

⁴⁶ No one could answer him, and from that time on no one dared to ask him another question.

Jesus Cures a Man with a Skin Disease^(A)

¹² One day Yeshua was in a city where there was a man covered with a serious skin disease. When the man saw Yeshua, he bowed with his face to the ground. He begged Yeshua, “Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean.”^[a]

¹³ Yeshua reached out, touched him, and said, “I want to. So be clean!” Immediately, his skin disease went away.

¹⁴ Yeshua ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone. Instead, show yourself to the priest. Then offer the sacrifice as Moses commanded as proof to people that you are clean.”

¹⁵ The news about Yeshua spread even more. Large crowds gathered to hear him and have their diseases cured. ¹⁶ But he would go away to places where he could be alone for prayer.

Jesus Forgives Sins^(B)

¹⁷ One day when Yeshua was teaching, some Pharisees and experts in Moses’ Teachings were present. They had come from every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. Yeshua had the power of the Lord to heal.

¹⁸ Some men brought a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They tried to take him into the house and put him in front of Yeshua. ¹⁹ But they could not find a way to get him into the house because of the crowd. So they went up on the roof. They made an opening in the tiles and let the man down on his stretcher among the people. (They lowered him in front of Yeshua.)

²⁰ When Yeshua saw their faith, he said, “Sir, your sins are forgiven.” ²¹ The experts in Moses’ Teachings and the Pharisees thought, “Who is this man? He’s dishonoring God! Who besides God can forgive sins?”

²² Yeshua knew what they were thinking. So he said to them, “What are you thinking? ²³ Is it easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ²⁴ I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”

²⁵ The man immediately stood up in front of them and picked up the stretcher he had been lying on. Praising God, he went home.

²⁶ Everyone was amazed and praised God. They were filled with awe and said, “We’ve seen things today we can hardly believe!”

Jesus Chooses Levi [Matthew] to Be a Disciple^(C)

²⁷ After that, Yeshua left. He saw a tax collector named Levi sitting in a tax office. Yeshua said to him, “Follow me!” ²⁸ So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.

²⁹ Levi held a large reception at his home for Yeshua. A huge crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.

³⁰ The Pharisees and their experts in Moses’ Teachings complained to Yeshua’s disciples. They asked, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

³¹ Yeshua answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor; those who are sick do. ³² I’ve come to call sinners to change the way they think and act, not to call people who think they have God’s approval.”

Jesus Is Questioned about Fasting^(D)

³³ They said to him, “John’s disciples frequently fast and say prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. But your disciples eat and drink.”

³⁴ Yeshua asked them, “Can you force wedding guests to fast while the groom is still with them? ³⁵ The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them. At that time they will fast.”

³⁶ He also used these illustrations: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new coat to patch an old coat. Otherwise, the new cloth will tear the old. Besides, the patch from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ People don’t pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the new wine will make the skins burst. The wine will run out, and the skins will be ruined. ³⁸ Rather, new wine is to be poured into fresh skins.

³⁹ “No one who has been drinking old wine wants new wine. He says, ‘The old wine is better!’”

¹² When Peter saw this, he said to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed about this man? Why are you staring at us as though we have made him walk by our own power or godly life? ¹³ The God of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has glorified his servant Yeshua. You handed Yeshua over to Pilate. You rejected him in Pilate’s presence, even though Pilate had decided to let him go free. ¹⁴ You rejected the man who was holy and innocent. You asked to have a murderer given to you, ¹⁵ and you killed the source of life. But God brought him back to life, and we are witnesses to that.

²⁷ When they brought back the apostles, they made them stand in front of the council. The chief priest questioned them. ²⁸ He said, “We gave you strict orders not to mention Yeshua’s name when you teach. Yet, you’ve filled Jerusalem with your teachings. You want to take revenge on us for putting that man to death.”

²⁹ Peter and the other apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than people. ³⁰ You murdered Yeshua by hanging him on a cross. But the God of our ancestors brought him back to life. ³¹ God used his power to give Yeshua the highest position as leader and savior. He did this to lead the people of Israel to him, to change the way they think and act, and to forgive their sins. ³² We are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

¹⁷ “When the time that God had promised to Abraham had almost come, the number of our people in Egypt had grown very large. ¹⁸ Then a different king, who knew nothing about Joseph, began to rule in Egypt. ¹⁹ This king was shrewd in the way he took advantage of our people. He mistreated our ancestors. He made them abandon their newborn babies outdoors, where they would die.

²⁰ “At that time Moses was born, and he was a very beautiful child. His parents took care of him for three months. ²¹ When Moses was abandoned outdoors, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and raised him as her son. ²² So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a great man in what he said and did. ²³ When he was 40 years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. ²⁴ When he saw an Israelite man being treated unfairly by an Egyptian, he defended the Israelite. He took revenge by killing the Egyptian. ²⁵ Moses thought his own people would understand that God was going to use him to give them freedom. But they didn’t understand. ²⁶ The next day Moses saw two Israelites fighting, and he tried to make peace between them. He said to them, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you treating each other unfairly?’

²⁷ “But one of the men pushed Moses aside. He asked Moses, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ After he said that, Moses quickly left Egypt and lived in Midian as a foreigner. In Midian he fathered two sons.

³⁰ “Forty years later, a Messenger appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush in the desert of Mount Sinai. ³¹ Moses was surprised when he saw this. As he went closer to look at the bush, the voice of the Lord said to him, ³² ‘I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble and didn’t dare to look at the bush. ³³ The Lord told him, ‘Take off your sandals. The place where you’re standing is holy ground. ³⁴ I’ve seen how my people are mistreated in Egypt. I’ve heard their groaning and have come to rescue them. So now I’m sending you to Egypt.’

³⁵ “This is the Moses whom the Israelites rejected by saying, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge?’ This is the one God sent to free them and to rule them with the help of the Messenger who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ This is the man who led our ancestors out of Egypt. He is the person who did amazing things and worked miracles in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the desert for 40 years.

22 “Brothers and fathers, listen as I now present my case to you.”

² When the mob heard him speak to them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet. Then Paul continued, ³ “I’m a Jew. I was born and raised in the city of Tarsus in Cilicia and received my education from Gamaliel here in Jerusalem. My education was in the strict laws handed down by our ancestors. I was as devoted to God as all of you are today. ⁴ I persecuted people who followed the way of Christ: I tied up men and women and put them into prison until they were executed. ⁵ The chief priest and the entire council of our leaders can prove that I did this. In fact, they even gave me letters to take to the Jewish community in the city of Damascus. I was going there to tie up believers and bring them back to Jerusalem to punish them.

⁶ “But as I was on my way and approaching the city of Damascus about noon, a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around me. ⁷ I fell to the ground and heard a voice asking me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?’

⁸ “I answered, ‘Who are you, sir?’

“The person told me, ‘I’m Yeshua from Nazareth, the one you’re persecuting.’

⁹ “The men who were with me saw the light but didn’t understand what the person who was speaking to me said.

¹⁰ “Then I asked, ‘What do you want me to do, Lord?’

“The Lord told me, ‘Get up! Go into the city of Damascus, and you’ll be told everything I’ve arranged for you to do.’

¹¹ “I was blind because the light had been so bright. So the men who were with me led me into the city of Damascus.

¹² “A man named Ananias lived in Damascus. He was a devout person who followed Moses’ Teachings. All the Jews living in Damascus spoke highly of him. ¹³ He came to me, stood beside me, and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ At that moment my sight came back and I could see Ananias.

¹⁴ “Ananias said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the one who has God’s approval, and to hear him speak to you. ¹⁵ You will be his witness and will tell everyone what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ What are you waiting for now? Get up! Be baptized, and have your sins washed away as you call on his name.’

¹⁷ “After that, I returned to Jerusalem. While I was praying in the temple courtyard, I fell into a trance ¹⁸ and saw the Lord. He told me, ‘Hurry! Get out of Jerusalem immediately. The people here won’t accept your testimony about me.’

¹⁹ “I said, ‘Lord, people here know that I went from synagogue to synagogue to imprison and whip those who believe in you. ²⁰ When Stephen, who witnessed about you, was being killed, I was standing there. I approved of his death and guarded the coats of those who were murdering him.’

²¹ “But the Lord told me, ‘Go! I’ll send you on a mission. You’ll go far away to people who aren’t Jewish.’”

²² Up to that point the mob listened. Then they began to shout, “Kill him! The world doesn’t need a man like this. He shouldn’t have been allowed to live this long!”

¹¹ You can verify for yourself that I went to Jerusalem to worship no more than twelve days ago. ¹² No one found me having a discussion with anyone in the temple courtyard or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues throughout the city. ¹³ These people cannot even prove their accusations to you. ¹⁴ But I’ll admit to you that I’m a follower of the way of Christ, which they call a sect. This means that I serve our ancestors’ God and believe everything written in Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets. ¹⁵ I hope for the same thing my accusers do, that people with God’s approval and those without it will come back to life. ¹⁶ With this belief I always do my best to have a clear conscience in the sight of God and people.

²³ Faith led Moses’ parents to hide him for three months after he was born. They did this because they saw that Moses was a beautiful baby and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s order.

²⁴ When Moses grew up, faith led him to refuse to be known as a son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵ He chose to suffer with God’s people rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a little while. ²⁶ He thought that being insulted for Christ would be better than having the treasures of Egypt. He was looking ahead to his reward.