Read the Gospels in 40 Days

10 After this the Lord chose seventy other men. He sent them ahead of him, two by two. He sent them to every town and village that he was going to visit.

² He said to them, `The harvest is much, but there are not many people to gather it. So talk to the Lord of this harvest and ask him to send out people to his harvest.

³ Go on your way now. I am sending you out among people. You will be like sheep among bad animals.

⁴ Do not take money, or a bag, or shoes. And do not stop to talk with anyone on the road.

⁵ When you go into a house, first say, "May God give peace to this family."

⁶ If a man of peace is there, your blessing will stay with him. If not, your blessing will come back to you.

⁷ Stay in that house. Eat and drink what the people give you. The one who works should have his pay for it. Do not move from one house to another house.

⁸ `When you go into a town and they take you in, eat what is put before you.

⁹ Heal the sick people in the town. Tell the people, "The kingdom of God has come to you."

¹⁰ But when you go into a town and they do not take you in, then go out into the streets of the town.

¹¹ Say to the people, "We wipe off even the dust of the town that is on our feet. This will be a sign to you. But remember this, the kingdom of God has come."

¹² I tell you this. On the day when people are judged, they will be punished more than the people in the city of Sodom.

¹³ `Chorazin, you will have trouble! Bethsaida, you will have trouble! If the big works I did in you had been done in the cities of Tyre and Sidon, the people there would have stopped doing bad things long ago. They would wear the clothes people wear to show they are sad, and would sit in ashes.

¹⁴ But on the day when people are judged you will be punished more than the people in the cities of Tyre and Sidon.

¹⁵ Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the sky? No, you will go down to the place of the dead.

¹⁶ `Anyone who listens to you listens to me. Anyone who does not believe you does not believe me. Anyone who does not believe me does not believe the one who sent me.'

¹⁷ The seventy men Jesus had sent out came back very happy. They said, `Lord, even the bad spirits obey us when we talk to them in your name!'

¹⁸ Jesus said to them, `I saw Satan fall from the sky like lightning.

¹⁹ I have given you power over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will hurt you.

²⁰ Do not be glad that the bad spirits obey you. But be glad that your names are written in the book in heaven.'

²¹ At that same time the Holy Spirit made Jesus very happy. Jesus said, `Father, you are Lord of heaven and earth. I thank you because you have hidden these things from people who are wise and know many things. But you have shown them to people who are like children. Yes, Father. That was the way you wanted it.

²² My Father has given everything to me. No one knows who the Son is but the Father. No one knows who the Father is but the Son and those to whom the Son wants to show him.'

²³ Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said to them alone, `God is blessing the eyes of people who see what you see!

²⁴ I tell you this. Many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you see. But they did not see them. They wanted to hear the things you hear. But they did not hear them.'

²⁵ A man who taught God's law stood up and asked Jesus a question to try him out. `Teacher,' he said. `What must I do so that I will live for ever?'

²⁶ Jesus said to him, `What does the law say? What do you read there?'

²⁷ The man answered, `You must love the Lord your God with all your heart. Love him with all your soul. Love him with all your power, and love him with all your mind. And you must love your neighbour as you love yourself.'

²⁸ Jesus said, `That is the right answer. Do that and you will live for ever.'

²⁹ But the man wanted to prove that he was all right. So he said to Jesus, `Who is my neighbour?'

³⁰ Jesus answered, `A man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. Bad men caught him on the road. They took his clothes and beat him. Then they went away and left him half dead.

³¹ A priest happened to be going down that road. He saw the man but he passed by on the other side of the road.

³² `A man who worked in the temple came along to that place also. He saw the man but he passed by on the other side.

³³ `A man from the country of Samaria was going on that road also, and came to the place. He saw the man and wanted to share in his troubles.

³⁴ He went to him and tied up the sores he had from the beating. He washed them with oil and wine. Then he lifted the man up and set him on his own animal to ride. He took him to the house for strangers. And he cared for him.

³⁵ `The next day he gave two pieces of money to the man who was in charge of the house for strangers. He said, "Take care of this man. If it costs you more than this, I will pay you when I come back.'' '

³⁶ Jesus said to the teacher of the law, `What do you think? Which of these three was a neighbour to the man who was caught by the bad men?'

³⁷ He said, `The man who was kind to him.' Jesus said, `Go and do as he did.'

³⁸ Jesus and his disciples went on their way. They came to a town. A woman named Martha took him into her home.

³⁹ She had a sister named Mary. Mary sat near the feet of Jesus and she listened to what he said.

⁴⁰ But Martha was very busy doing many things for Jesus. She came to Jesus and said, `Lord, my sister has left me to do all the work. Do you not care? Tell her to come and help me.'

⁴¹ The Lord answered her, `Martha, Martha, you are worrying. You are troubled about many things.

⁴² Only one thing is needed. What Mary has chosen is good. And it will not be taken away from her.'

11 One day Jesus was in a place talking with God. When he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, `Lord, teach us to talk with God as John taught his disciples.'

² Jesus said, `When you talk with God, say, "Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come.

³ Give us our food day by day.

⁴ Forgive us for the wrong things we have done. We forgive everyone who has done wrong to us. Do not lead us to be tested." '

⁵ Jesus said to them, `Maybe one of you has a friend. You go to him in the middle of the night and say to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread.

⁶ A friend has come to my house. He has been on the road. I have no food to give him to eat."

⁷ `Maybe the friend in the house answers you and says, "Do not trouble me. The door is locked. And my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything."

⁸ I tell you this. Maybe he will not give him anything because he is his friend. But he will get up and give him what he needs because he keeps on asking for it.

⁹ `And I tell you, ask and you will get what you ask for. Look and you will find what you look for. Knock and the door will be opened for you.

¹⁰ Everyone who asks will get. The one who looks will find. And the one who knocks will have the door opened for him.

¹¹ Which of you fathers will give your son a snake if he asks for a fish?

¹² Will you give him a scorpion [an insect with a sting] if he asks for an egg?

¹³ You are wrong and yet you know how to give good things to your children. Much more, the Father in heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.'

¹⁴ Jesus was driving a bad spirit out of a man who could not talk. When the spirit left him, the man could talk. The people were surprised.

¹⁵ But some of them said, `This man drives out bad spirits by the help of Beelzebub, the chief of bad spirits.'

¹⁶ Other people wanted to test Jesus. They asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

¹⁷ But Jesus knew what they were thinking. So he said, `If one part of any country fights against the other part of the country, that country is spoiled. And if one part of any family fights against the other part of the family, it cannot stand.

¹⁸ If Satan fights against himself, how will his kingdom stand? You say I drive out bad spirits by the help of Beelzebub.

¹⁹ If I drive out bad spirits by the help of Beelzebub, by whose help do your own people drive them out? Your own people will judge you for this!

²⁰ But if I drive out bad spirits by the help of God, then know this, God's kingdom is here with you now.

²¹ `A strong man has something in his hand to fight. He guards his place. He will not lose his things.

²² But when a stronger man comes, he catches the man who guards his house. He will take away what is in the man's hand. And he will take his things and give them to his friends.

²³ `Anyone who is not with me is against me. Anyone who does not work with me, works against me.'

²⁴ `When a bad spirit has gone out of a man, he goes through dry places. He looks for a place to rest, but he does not find any. Then he says, "I will go back to my house from where I came."

²⁵ `When he comes back, he finds it clean and all fixed up.

²⁶ Then he goes and brings seven other spirits who are worse than he is. They go in and live there. Now the man is worse than he was at first.'

²⁷ As he said this, a woman among the people called out, `Happy is your mother who gave birth to you, and fed you as a baby.'

²⁸ But Jesus said, `Happy are those who hear God's word and obey it!'

²⁹ More and more people were coming. He started to talk. He said, `People today are bad. They want a sign. No sign will be given them but the sign of Jonah the prophet of God.

³⁰ Jonah was a sign to the men in the city of Nineveh. In the same way the Son of Man will be a sign to the people today.

³¹ When the people are judged, the Queen from the South will stand up and speak against men who live today. She came a long way to hear the wise words of Solomon. The one who is here is greater than Solomon.

³² When people are judged, the men of Nineveh will stand up and speak against the people of today. They stopped their wrong ways when Jonah told them God's word. And the one who is here is greater than Jonah.'

³³ `No person lights a lamp and hides it in a hole or puts it under a basket. But he puts it on a place for a lamp. Then people who come in can see the light.

³⁴ Your body gets its light through your eyes. When you have good eyes, all your body has light. But when your eyes are bad, your body is in darkness.

³⁵ So be sure that it is not dark in you where it should be light.

³⁶ If no part of your body is dark, it will all be light. It will be like a lamp that shines to give you light.'

³⁷ While Jesus was saying these things, a Pharisee asked him to come to eat at his house. So Jesus went in and sat at the table.

³⁸ The Pharisee saw that Jesus did not wash his hands before he ate. He was surprised.

³⁹ The Lord said to him, `You Pharisees wash the outside of a cup and a dish clean. But inside you are full of greed and wrong ways.

⁴⁰ You are fools! Did not God make the outside and inside also?

⁴¹ Do good, and do it from your heart. Then everything is clean for you.

⁴² `You Pharisees will have trouble! You give to God a tenth part of small garden plants. But you do not judge in the right way. And you do not love God. You should do these things and the other things too.

⁴³ `You Pharisees will have trouble! In the meeting houses you want to sit in the front seats. And in the market you want people to greet you.

⁴⁴ You will have trouble! You are not true to yourselves! You are like graves that are not marked. Men walk over them and do not know it.'

⁴⁵ Then one of the men who taught God's law said to Jesus, `Teacher, when you say these things, you talk against us too.'

⁴⁶ Jesus said, `You men will have trouble also! You put heavy loads on people's backs. But you yourselves will not put up one finger to help carry the loads.

⁴⁷ You will have trouble! You build places to bury the prophets of God that your fathers killed.

⁴⁸ In this way you show you agree to the things your fathers did. They killed the prophets, and you build places to bury them.

⁴⁹ That is why God, who is wise, said, "I will send prophets and messengers to them. They will kill some of them. And they will trouble some of them."

⁵⁰ So the people who are living now will be punished for all the blood of the prophets of God that is on the ground since the world was made.

⁵¹ I mean all the blood from the time of Abel to the time of Zechariah. (He was killed between the holy table and the temple.) Yes, I tell you. The people who are living now will be punished for all of it.

⁵² `You teachers of God's law will have trouble! You have taken away the key of the door where people can go in and know what is true. You yourselves did not go in, and you stopped those who were going in.'

⁵³ When Jesus left the house, the scribes and Pharisees began to be very angry with him. They asked him questions about many things.

⁵⁴ They wanted him to say something that was wrong so they could make trouble for him.

12 Many thousands of people had gathered. They stepped on each other. Jesus began to talk to the disciples. He said, `Take care. Do not let the yeast of the Pharisees spoil you. They are not true to themselves.

² Everything that is covered up will be seen. Everything that is hidden will be known.

³ What you have said in the dark will be heard in the light. What you have said in secret with the door shut will be told from the tops of the houses.'

⁴ `You are my friends. I tell you, do not fear people who can kill your bodies. After that they cannot do anything more to you.

⁵ I will tell you whom you must fear. Fear the one who, after he has killed, has the power to throw into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for a tiny sum of money? Yet God does not forget about one of them.

⁷ Even the number of hairs on your head is known. So do not fear. You are worth more than many sparrows.'

⁸ `And I tell you. If anyone tells people that he knows me, the Son of Man will also tell the angels of God that he knows him.

⁹ But if anyone tells people he does not know me, the Son of Man will also tell the angels of God that he does not know that person.

¹⁰ `Everyone who says anything against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But anyone who says wrong things against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

¹¹ `When men take you to the meeting houses and to the rulers and to the courts, do not be troubled about what you will answer or say.

¹² The Holy Spirit will teach you at the right time what you must say.'

¹³ One of the people in the crowd said, `Teacher, tell my brother to divide with me the things my father left when he died.'

¹⁴ Jesus said, `Man, who made me a judge over you or gave me power to divide your things?'

¹⁵ Then he said to the people, `Take care. Do not be greedy in any way to get more and more things. Even if a man has much more than he needs, it cannot give him life.'

¹⁶ Then he told them a story. He said, `A rich man had a farm. The things that grew on it were many.

¹⁷ He said to himself, "What will I do? I have no place to keep all the food I have grown."

¹⁸ So he said, "This is what I will do. I will break down my storehouses and build bigger ones. I will keep in them all the food and everything I have.

¹⁹ Then I will say to myself, `Man, you have much in your storehouses for many years. Rest now. Eat, drink, and have a good time.' "

²⁰ But God said to him, "You are a fool! Tonight you will die. Then who will have all the things you have kept for yourself?"

²¹ So anyone who keeps things for himself is not rich in the way God wants him to be rich.'

²² Jesus said to his disciples, `So I tell you this. Do not be troubled about what you will eat to keep alive. Do not be troubled about clothes to wear on your body.

²³ Life itself is worth more than food, and the body is worth more than clothes.

²⁴ `Think of the birds. They do not plant, cut, or keep any food. Yet God feeds them. You are worth much more than the birds!

²⁵ `Can any of you live any longer by troubling yourself about these things?

²⁶ If you cannot do a small thing like that, why do you trouble yourself about the other things?

²⁷ `Think about the flowers. See how they grow. They do not work or make cloth. I tell you, King Solomon was a great man. But he was not dressed as fine as one of these flowers.

²⁸ God dresses the grass in the fields so it looks nice. It is in the field one day and the next day it is burned. If God dresses the grass like that, he cares much more that you have clothes to wear. You do not believe in God very much!

²⁹ `Do not keep asking, "What shall we eat?" and, "What shall we drink?" Do not be troubled about that.

³⁰ All the people who are not Jews work for these things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need them.

³¹ But work for God's kingdom. Then you will have all these things also.'

³² `Do not fear, little family. Your Father wants to give the kingdom to you.

³³ Sell what you have and give it to poor people. Make for yourselves money bags that will not wear out. Keep the things you like in heaven. They will not be lost there. People cannot go in and steal them, and insects cannot spoil them.

³⁴ The place where you keep the things you like is where your heart will be also.'

³⁵ `Be dressed and have your lamps lit.

³⁶ Be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from a wedding. They are ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks.

³⁷ Happy the servants who are ready when the master comes! The servants who are ready when the master comes will be made happy. I tell you the truth. The master will get ready to serve them. He will set them at the table and will come and serve them.

³⁸ He may come in the middle of the night or when it is nearly morning. But if they are watching for the master, they will be happy.

³⁹ `And remember this. If the owner of a house knew at what time a man would come to steal, he would not let the man break into his house.

⁴⁰ So then, be ready. The Son of Man will come at a time when you are not looking for him.'

⁴¹ Peter said, `Lord, are you telling this story for us or for all the people?'

⁴² The Lord said, `Who is like a wise servant who can be trusted? His master will put him in charge of his other servants. He gives them food to eat at the right time.

⁴³ His master will bless that servant if he is doing this when he comes!

⁴⁴ I tell you the truth. His master will put him in charge of all that he has

⁴⁵ But perhaps that servant says to himself, "My master will not come just now." Then he begins to beat the other servants. He begins to eat and drink until he is drunk.

⁴⁶ If he does that, his master will come on a day when he is not looking for him. He will not know the time when his master is coming. His master will punish him very much and put him away with those he cannot trust.

⁴⁷ `A servant knew what his master wanted. But he was not ready. He did not do what his master wanted him to do. So he will be beaten much.

⁴⁸ But if a servant did not know and did something bad, he will be beaten only a little. To whom much has been given, from him much will be asked. When people give much to anyone, they will ask more from him.

⁴⁹ `I came to start a fire on the earth. I wish the fire were already burning!

⁵⁰ I will be going through a big trouble, and I feel like a prisoner until it is all over.

⁵¹ Do you think that I came to bring peace on the earth? I tell you, "No". I came to take away peace.

⁵² From now, if there are five in a family, they will be against each other. Three of them will be against the other two. And two of them will be against the other three.

⁵³ A father will be against his son, and the son will be against his father. The mother will be against her daughter, and the daughter will be against her mother. A man's mother will be against his wife, and his wife will be against his mother.'

⁵⁴ Jesus also said to the people, `When you see a cloud coming up in the west, you say right away, "Rain is coming." And it comes.

⁵⁵ When the wind is blowing from the south, you say, "It will be very hot." And it is.

⁵⁶ You are not true to yourselves! You know the meaning of these signs in the earth and sky. But you do not know the meaning of the signs about the time in which we are living.'

⁵⁷ `Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?

⁵⁸ If someone wants to take you to court, make an agreement with him quickly on the way. If you do not, he will take you to the judge. The judge will give you to the guard, and the guard will put you in prison.

⁵⁹ I tell you, you will not get out of prison until you have paid up every piece of money.'