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And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
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The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
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Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on.
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When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
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“Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
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Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?
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But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man,
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Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners
Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.
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While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
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When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
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On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
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Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter,
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but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”
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But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
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Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand
During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said,
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If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
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“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
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Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
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And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
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At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
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Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.
