The Birth of Jesus Christ

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.”

And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.

This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’

And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.

And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?

And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.

but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward

The Crucifixion

As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross.

and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.”

And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”

And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it.

And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour?

And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him.

Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none.

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.

And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.

so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation,

The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’

And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them.

And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow,

And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”

A third time he said to them, “Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.”

And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together,

He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,

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

Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

“We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.”

but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice,

who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed.

And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered.

and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’

And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed.

and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened.

For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them,

Paul in Ephesus

And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples.

And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.

And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.

I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment.

For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple, without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews from Asia—

Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council,

But I found that he had done nothing deserving death. And as he himself appealed to the emperor, I decided to go ahead and send him.

There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board.

So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms.

There we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to Rome.

Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”

and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation,

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—

If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,

And with them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you.

But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me—

But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;

The Founder of Salvation

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.

For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

Final Words

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

Judgment on False Teachers

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.

and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.

And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found.

The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

“The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!”

Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more;

and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more, and a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more, and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more,

And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.”

Judgment Before the Great White Throne

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,