Read the Gospels in 40 Days
The preaching of John the Baptist
1 This is where the good news starts—the good news of Jesus the Messiah, God’s son.
2 Isaiah the prophet put it like this (“Look! I am sending my messenger ahead of me; he will clear the way for you!”):
3 “A shout goes up in the desert: Make way for the Lord! Clear a straight path for him!”
4 John the Baptizer appeared in the desert. He was announcing a baptism of repentance, to forgive sins. 5 The whole of Judaea, and everyone who lived in Jerusalem, went out to him; they confessed their sins and were baptized by him in the river Jordan. 6 John wore camel-hair clothes, with a leather belt round his waist. He used to eat locusts and wild honey.
7 “Someone a lot stronger than me is coming close behind,” John used to tell them. “I don’t deserve to squat down and undo his sandals. 8 I’ve plunged you in the water; he’s going to plunge you in the holy spirit.”
Jesus’ baptism
9 This is how it happened. Around that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John in the river Jordan. 10 That very moment, as he was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens open, and the spirit coming down like a dove onto him. 11 Then there came a voice out of the heavens: “You are my son! You are the one I love! You make me very glad.”
12 All at once the spirit pushed him out into the desert. 13 He was in the desert forty days, and the satan tested him there. He was with the wild beasts, and angels waited on him.
The calling of the disciples
14 After John’s arrest, Jesus came into Galilee, announcing God’s good news.
15 “The time is fulfilled!” he said; “God’s kingdom is arriving! Turn back, and believe the good news!”
16 As he went along beside the sea of Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They were fishermen, and were casting nets into the sea.
17 “Follow me!” said Jesus to them. “I’ll have you fishing for people!”
18 Straight away they left their nets and followed him. 19 He went on a bit, and saw James, Zebedee’s son, and John his brother. They were in the boat mending their nets, 20 and he called them then and there. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went off after him.
Exorcism and healings
21 They went to Capernaum. At once, on the sabbath, Jesus went into the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astonished at his teaching. He wasn’t like the legal teachers; he said things on his own authority.
23 All at once, in their synagogue, there was a man with an unclean spirit.
24 “What business have you got with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” he yelled. “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: you’re God’s Holy One!”
25 “Be quiet!” ordered Jesus. “And come out of him!”
26 The unclean spirit convulsed the man, gave a great shout, and came out of him. 27 Everyone was astonished.
“What’s this?” they started to say to each other. “New teaching—with real authority! He even tells the unclean spirits what to do, and they do it!”
28 Word about Jesus spread at once, all over the surrounding district of Galilee.
29 They came out of the synagogue, and went at once (with James and John) into Simon and Andrew’s house. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her right away. 31 He went in, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she waited on them.
32 When the sun went down and evening came, they brought to Jesus everyone who was ill, including the demon-possessed. 33 The whole town was gathered around the door. 34 Jesus healed many people suffering from all kinds of diseases, and cast out many demons. He didn’t allow the demons to speak, because they knew him.
The healing of a man with a skin disease
35 Very early—in the middle of the night, actually—Jesus got up and went out, off to a lonely place, and prayed. 36 Simon, and those with him, followed. 37 When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 “Let’s go off to the other towns around here,” Jesus replied, “so that I can tell the news to people there too. That’s why I came out.”
39 So he went into their synagogues, throughout the whole of Galilee, telling the news and casting out demons.
40 A man with a virulent skin disease came up to him. He knelt down and begged him, “If you want to, you can make me clean!”
41 Jesus was deeply moved. He reached out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do want to: be clean!” 42 The disease left him at once, and he was clean.
43 Jesus sent him away at once, with this stern warning: 44 “Mind you don’t say anything to anyone! Just go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering Moses commanded, to purify yourself and to give them a sign.”
45 But the man went out and began to spread the news far and wide. He did this so effectively that Jesus couldn’t any longer go publicly into a town. He stayed out in the open country, and people came to him from all around.
The healing of the paralytic
2 Jesus went back again to Capernaum, where, after a few days, word got round that he was at home. 2 A crowd gathered, so that people couldn’t even get near the door as he was telling them the message.
3 A party arrived: four people carrying a paralyzed man, bringing him to Jesus. 4 They couldn’t get through to him because of the crowd, so they opened up the roof above where he was. When they had dug through it, they used ropes to let down the stretcher on which the paralyzed man was lying.
5 Jesus saw their faith, and said to the paralyzed man, “Child, your sins are forgiven!”
6 “How dare the fellow speak like this?” grumbled some of the legal experts among themselves. 7 “It’s blasphemy! Who can forgive sins except God?”
8 Jesus knew at once, in his spirit, that thoughts like this were in the air. “Why do your hearts tell you to think that?” he asked. 9 “Answer me this,” he went on. “Is it easier to say to this cripple, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your stretcher, and walk’?
10 “You want to know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins?” He turned to the paralytic. 11 “I tell you,” he said, “Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.” 12 He got up, picked up the stretcher in a flash, and went out before them all.
Everyone was astonished, and they praised God. “We’ve never seen anything like this!” they said.
The calling of Levi
13 Once more Jesus went out beside the sea. All the crowd came to him, and he taught them.
14 As he went along he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the toll booth. “Follow me!” he said. And he got up and followed him.
15 That’s how Jesus came to be sitting at home with lots of tax-collectors and sinners. There they were, plenty of them, sitting with Jesus and his disciples; they had become his followers.
16 When the legal experts from the Pharisees saw him eating with tax-collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?”
17 When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “It’s sick people who need the doctor, not healthy ones. I came to call the bad people, not the good ones.”
Questions about fasting
18 John’s disciples, and the Pharisees’ disciples, were fasting. People came and said to Jesus, “Look here: John’s disciples are fasting, and so are the Pharisees’ disciples; why aren’t yours?”
19 “How can the wedding guests fast,” Jesus replied, “if the bridegroom is there with them? As long as they’ve got the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast.
20 “Mind you, the time is coming when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. They’ll fast then all right.
21 “No one sews unshrunk cloth onto an old cloak. If they do, the new patch will tear the old cloth, and they’ll end up with a worse hole. 22 Nor does anyone put new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine will burst the skins, and they’ll lose the wine and the skins together. New wine needs fresh skins.”
Teachings on the sabbath
23 One sabbath, Jesus was walking through the cornfields. His disciples made their way along, plucking corn as they went.
24 “Look here,” said the Pharisees to him, “why are they doing something illegal on the sabbath?”
25 “Haven’t you ever read what David did,” replied Jesus, “when he was in difficulties, and he and his men got hungry? 26 He went into God’s house (this was when Abiathar was high priest), and ate the ‘bread of the presence,’ which only the priests were allowed to eat—and he gave it to the people with him.
27 “The sabbath was made for humans,” he said, “not humans for the sabbath; 28 so the son of man is master even of the sabbath.”
Healing of the man with the withered hand
3 Once more Jesus went to the synagogue. There was a man there with a withered hand. 2 People were watching to see if Jesus would heal him on the sabbath, so that they could frame a charge against him.
3 “Stand up,” said Jesus to the man with the withered hand, “and come out here.” And he said to them, 4 “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath, or to do evil? To save life or to kill?” They stayed quiet.
5 He was deeply upset at their hard-heartedness, and looked round at them angrily. Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out—and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out right away and began to plot with the Herodians against Jesus, trying to find a way to destroy him.
The Twelve are appointed
7 Jesus went off towards the sea with his disciples, and a large crowd from Galilee followed him. A great company, too, from Judaea, 8 Jerusalem, Idumaea, Transjordan, and the region of Tyre and Sidon, heard what he was doing and came to him.
9 There was a real danger that he might be crushed by the crowd, so he told his disciples to get a boat ready for him. 10 He healed large numbers, and sick people were pushing towards him to touch him. 11 Whenever unclean spirits saw him, they fell down in front of him and yelled out, “You are the son of God!” 12 He gave them strict orders not to reveal his identity.
13 Jesus went up the mountain, and summoned the people he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve (naming them “apostles”) to be with him and to be sent out as heralds, 15 and to have authority to cast out demons. 16 In appointing the Twelve, he named Simon “Peter”; 17 James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John, he named “Boanerges,” which means “sons of thunder.” The others were 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananaean, 19 and Judas Iscariot (the one who handed him over).
Jesus and Beelzebul
20 He went into the house. A crowd gathered again, so that they couldn’t even have a meal. 21 When his family heard it, they came to restrain him. “He’s out of his mind,” they said.
22 Experts who had come from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! He casts out demons by the prince of demons!”
23 Jesus summoned them and spoke to them in pictures. “How can the Accuser cast out the Accuser? 24 If a kingdom splits into two factions, it can’t last; 25 if a household splits into two factions, it can’t last. 26 So if the Accuser revolts against himself and splits into two, he can’t last—his time is up! 27 But remember: no one can get into a strong man’s house and steal his property unless first they tie up the strong man; then they can plunder his house.
28 “I’m telling you the truth: people will be forgiven all sins, and all blasphemies of whatever sort. 29 But people who blaspheme the holy spirit will never find forgiveness. They will be guilty of an eternal sin.” 30 That was his response to their claim that he had an unclean spirit.
Jesus’ family
31 Jesus’ mother and brothers appeared. They waited outside the house, and sent in a message, asking for him.
32 “Look!” said the crowd sitting around Jesus. “Your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside! They’re searching for you!”
33 “Who is my mother?” replied Jesus. “Who are my brothers?”
34 He looked around him at the people sitting there in a ring. “Here is my mother!” he said. “Here are my brothers! 35 Anybody who does God’s will is my brother! And my sister! And my mother!”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.