Read the Gospels in 40 Days

Jesus Accuses the Leaders

23 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his followers. Jesus said, ² “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees have the authority to tell you what the law of Moses says. ³ So you should obey and follow whatever they tell you. But their lives are not good examples for you to follow. They tell you to do things, but they don’t do the things themselves. ⁴ They make strict rules and try to force people to obey them. But they themselves will not try to follow any of those rules.

⁵ “The reason they do good things is so other people will see them. They make the boxes^[a] of Scriptures that they wear bigger and bigger. And they make their special prayer clothes very long so that people will notice them. ⁶ Those Pharisees and teachers of the law love to have the most important seats at the feasts. And they love to have the most important seats in the synagogues. ⁷ They love people to show respect to them in the marketplaces. And they love to have people call them ‘Teacher.’

⁸ “But you must not be called ‘Teacher.’ You are all brothers and sisters together. You have only one Teacher. ⁹ And don’t call any person on earth ‘Father.’ You have one Father. He is in heaven. ¹⁰ And you should not be called ‘Master.’ You have only one Master, the Christ. ¹¹ He who serves you as a servant is the greatest among you. ¹² Whoever makes himself great will be made humble. Whoever makes himself humble will be made great.

¹³ “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You close the door for people to enter the kingdom of heaven. You yourselves don’t enter, and you stop others who are trying to enter. ¹⁴ [How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites. You take away widows’ houses, and you make long prayers so that people can see you. So you will have a worse punishment.]^[b]

¹⁵ “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You travel across land and sea to find one person who will follow your ways. When you find that person, you make him more fit for hell than you are.

¹⁶ “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You guide the people, but you are blind. You say, ‘If anyone swears by the Temple when he makes a promise, that means nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold that is in the Temple, then he must keep that promise.’ ¹⁷ You are blind fools! Which is greater: the gold or the Temple? The Temple makes that gold holy. ¹⁸ And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar when he makes a promise, that means nothing. But if he swears by the gift on the altar, then he must keep his promise.’ ¹⁹ You are blind! Which is greater: the gift or the altar? The altar makes the gift holy. ²⁰ The person who swears by the altar is really using the altar and also everything on the altar. ²¹ And the person who uses the Temple to make a promise is really using the Temple and also everything in the Temple. ²² The person who uses heaven to make a promise is also using God’s throne and the One who sits on that throne.

²³ “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You give to God one-tenth of everything you earn—even your mint, dill, and cummin.^[c] But you don’t obey the really important teachings of the law—being fair, showing mercy, and being loyal. These are the things you should do, as well as those other things. ²⁴ You guide the people, but you are blind! You are like a person who picks a fly out of his drink and then swallows a camel!^[d]

²⁵ “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You wash the outside of your cups and dishes. But inside they are full of things that you got by cheating others and pleasing only yourselves. ²⁶ Pharisees, you are blind! First make the inside of the cup clean and good. Then the outside of the cup can be truly clean.

²⁷ “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! You are like tombs that are painted white. Outside, those tombs look fine. But inside, they are full of the bones of dead people, and all kinds of unclean things are there. ²⁸ It is the same with you. People look at you and think you are good. But on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and evil.

²⁹ “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets. You show honor to the graves of people who lived good lives. ³⁰ And you say, ‘If we had lived during the time of our fathers, we would not have helped them kill the prophets.’ ³¹ But you give proof that you are children of those people who murdered the prophets. ³² And you will complete the sin that your fathers started!

³³ “You are snakes! A family of poisonous snakes! You will not escape God. You will all be judged guilty and be sent to hell! ³⁴ So I tell you this: I am sending to you prophets and wise men and teachers. You will kill some of these people. You will nail some of them to crosses. You will beat some of them in your synagogues. You will chase them from town to town. ³⁵ So you will be guilty for the death of all the good people who have been killed on earth. You will be guilty for the murder of that good man Abel. And you will be guilty for the murder of Zechariah^[e] son of Berakiah. He was murdered when he was between the Temple and the altar. ³⁶ I tell you the truth. All of these things will happen to you people who are living now.

Jesus Feels Sorry for Jerusalem

³⁷ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and kill with stones those men God sent to you. Many times I wanted to help your people! I wanted to gather them together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you did not let me. ³⁸ Now your home will be left completely empty. ³⁹ I tell you, you will not see me again until that time when you will say, ‘God bless the One who comes in the name of the Lord.’”^[f]

The Temple Will Be Destroyed

24 Jesus left the Temple and was walking away. But his followers came to show him the Temple’s buildings. ² Jesus asked, “Do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth. Every stone will be thrown down to the ground. Not one stone will be left on another.”

³ Later, Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. His followers came to be alone with him. They said, “Tell us when these things will happen. And what will happen to show us that it is time for you to come again and for the world to end?”

⁴ Jesus answered: “Be careful that no one fools you. ⁵ Many people will come in my name. They will say, ‘I am the Christ.’ And they will fool many people. ⁶ You will hear about wars and stories of wars that are coming. But don’t be afraid. These things must happen before the end comes. ⁷ Nations will fight against other nations. Kingdoms will fight against other kingdoms. There will be times when there is no food for people to eat. And there will be earthquakes in different places. ⁸ These things are like the first pains when something new is about to be born.

⁹ “Then men will arrest you and hand you over to be hurt and kill you. They will hate you because you believe in me. ¹⁰ At that time, many who believe will lose their faith. They will turn against each other and hate each other. ¹¹ Many false prophets will come and cause many people to believe false things. ¹² There will be more and more evil in the world. So most people will stop showing their love for each other. ¹³ But the person who continues to be strong until the end will be saved. ¹⁴ The Good News about God’s kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation. Then the end will come.

¹⁵ “Daniel the prophet spoke about ‘the horrible thing that destroys.’^[g] You will see this terrible thing standing in the holy place.” (You who read this should understand what it means.) ¹⁶ “At that time, the people in Judea should run away to the mountains. ¹⁷ If a person is on the roof^[h] of his house, he must not go down to get anything out of his house. ¹⁸ If a person is in the field, he must not go back to get his coat. ¹⁹ At that time, it will be hard for women who are pregnant or have nursing babies! ²⁰ Pray that it will not be winter or a Sabbath day when these things happen and you have to run away. ²¹ This is because at that time there will be much trouble. There will be more trouble than has ever happened since the beginning of the world. And nothing as bad as that will ever happen again. ²² God has decided to make that terrible time short. If that time were not made short, then no one would go on living. But God will make that time short to help the people he has chosen. ²³ At that time, someone might say to you, ‘Look, there is the Christ!’ Or another person might say, ‘There he is!’ But don’t believe them. ²⁴ False Christs and false prophets will come and perform great things and miracles. They will do these things to the people God has chosen. They will fool them, if that is possible. ²⁵ Now I have warned you about this before it happens.

²⁶ “If people tell you, ‘The Christ is in the desert’—don’t go there. If they say, ‘The Christ is in the inner room’—don’t believe it. ²⁷ When the Son of Man comes, he will be seen by everyone. It will be like lightning flashing in the sky that can be seen everywhere. ²⁸ Wherever there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.

²⁹ “Soon after the trouble of those days, this will happen:

³⁰ “At that time, there will be something in the sky that shows the Son of Man is coming. All the peoples of the world will cry. They will see the Son of Man coming on clouds in the sky. He will come with great power and glory. ³¹ He will use a loud trumpet to send his angels all around the earth. They will gather his chosen people from every part of the world.

³² “The fig tree teaches us a lesson: When its branches become green and soft, and new leaves begin to grow, then you know that summer is near. ³³ So also, when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to come. ³⁴ I tell you the truth. All these things will happen while the people of this time are still living! ³⁵ The whole world, earth and sky, will be destroyed, but the words I have said will never be destroyed!

When Will Jesus Come Again?

³⁶ “No one knows when that day or time will be. Even the Son^[i] and the angels in heaven don’t know. Only the Father knows. ³⁷ When the Son of Man comes, it will be the same as what happened during Noah’s time. ³⁸ In those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking. They were marrying and giving their children to be married. They were still doing those things until the day Noah entered the boat. ³⁹ They knew nothing about what was happening. But then the flood came, and all those people were destroyed. It will be the same when the Son of Man comes. ⁴⁰ Two men will be working together in the field. One man will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding grain with a hand mill.^[j] One woman will be taken and the other will be left.

⁴² “So always be ready. You don’t know the day your Lord will come. ⁴³ Remember this: If the owner of the house knew what time a thief was coming, then the owner would be ready for him. The owner would watch and not let the thief enter his house. ⁴⁴ So you also must be ready. The Son of Man will come at a time you don’t expect him.

⁴⁵ “Who is the wise and trusted servant? The master trusts one servant to give the other servants their food at the right time. ⁴⁶ When the master comes and finds the servant doing his work, the servant will be very happy. ⁴⁷ I tell you the truth. The master will choose that servant to take care of everything the master owns. ⁴⁸ But what will happen if the servant is evil and thinks his master will not come back soon? ⁴⁹ Then that servant will begin to beat the other servants. He will feast and get drunk with others like him. ⁵⁰ And the master will come when the servant is not ready and is not expecting him. ⁵¹ Then the master will punish that servant. He will send him away to be among the hypocrites. There people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.