Read the Gospels in 40 Days

1 Here are the names of the people in the family line from which Jesus Christ came. He came from David's family. He came from Abraham's family.

^2-16 esus' family line: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez (his mother was Tamar), Zezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz (his mother was Rahab), Obed (his mother was Ruth), Jesse, David the king, Solomon (whose mother was Uriah's wife), Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jeconiah and his brothers (at the time the people of Israel were carried away to Babylon), Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim, Eliud, Eleazor, Matthan, Jacob and Joseph who was the husband of Mary. Mary was the mother of Jesus, who is called the Christ.

¹⁷ There were fourteen families from Abraham to David. There were fourteen families from David to the time the people were taken to Babylon. And there were fourteen families after that until Christ was born.

¹⁸ This is the way Jesus Christ was born. Mary, his mother, was promised to Joseph to be his wife. But before they were married, she found out that she was going to have a baby. It was by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁹ Joseph, the man she was to marry, was a good man. He did not want her to be made ashamed. So he planned to leave her without telling people about it.

²⁰ While he was thinking about this, he had a dream. An angel of the Lord came to him. He said, `Joseph, David's son, do not fear to take Mary to be your wife. Her baby is by the Holy Spirit.

²¹ She will have a baby son. Name him Jesus, because he will save his people from the wrong things they have done.'

²² All of this had been told long before by the Lord through his prophet. It came true.

²³ The prophet said, `A young woman who has not slept with a man is going to have a baby son. His name will be Emmanuel. That means "God is with us." '

²⁴ Joseph woke up and did what the angel of the Lord told him to do. He took Mary to be his wife.

²⁵ But he did not make love with her until her first son had been born. He named him Jesus.

2 Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem, in the country of Judea. Herod was the king. After Jesus was born, wise men came from the east to Jerusalem.

² They asked, `Where is the child who has been born to be King of the Jews? We saw his star rising and we have come to worship him.'

³ When King Herod heard this, he was very troubled. All the people in Jerusalem were troubled also.

⁴ He called all the chief priests and the scribes of the Jews for a meeting. He asked them, `Where is the Christ to be born?'

⁵ They told him, `In Bethlehem in Judea. That is what the prophet, the man of God long ago, wrote:

⁶ "Bethlehem in the country of Judah, you are not the least among the leaders in Judah. A leader will come from you who will rule over my people Israel." '

⁷ Then Herod called the wise men to talk with them secretly. He found out from them what time they saw the star.

⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem. He said, `Go and ask everywhere until you find the child. When you have found him, come and tell me, so that I myself may go and worship him.'

⁹ After they heard what the king said, they went away. And the star, which they had seen rising, went in front of them. It stopped above the place where the child was.

¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were very glad.

¹¹ They went into the house, and there they saw the child and Mary his mother. They kneeled down and worshipped him. Then they opened their bags and gave him gifts. These gifts were gold, and frankincense and myrrh.

¹² In a dream they were told not to go back to Herod. So they went home by a different road.

¹³ After the wise men had gone, Joseph had a dream. An angel of the Lord came to him and said, `Get up. Take the child and his mother, and go quickly to the country of Egypt. Stay there till I tell you, because Herod will try to find the child and kill him.'

¹⁴ Joseph woke up. He took the child and his mother in the night and went to Egypt.

¹⁵ He stayed there until Herod died. What the Lord told through his prophet long ago, came true. He said `I called my son out of Egypt.'

¹⁶ Herod saw that the wise men had fooled him. He was very angry. He sent men to kill all the baby boys in the town of Bethlehem and around it. They killed all the boys who were two years old or less. Herod remembered what the wise men had told him about the time they first saw the star.

¹⁷ So what the prophet Jeremiah said, came true.

¹⁸ He said, `A voice could be heard in the town of Ramah. Rachel was crying for her children. She would not let anyone comfort her because her children were dead.'

¹⁹ Herod died. Then Joseph had a dream. An angel of the Lord came to him in Egypt.

²⁰ The angel said, `Get up. Take the child and his mother and go to the country of Israel. The men who wanted to kill the child are dead.'

²¹ Joseph woke up. He took the child and his mother and went to the country of Israel.

²² But he heard that Archelaus was king of Judea in his father Herod's place. So he was afraid to go there. In a dream he was told what to do. He went to the country of Galilee.

²³ He went and made his home in the town of Nazareth. The prophets of God long ago had said, `He shall be called a man from Nazareth.' What they said came true.

3 After some years had passed, John the Baptizer came and told God's word in the desert of Judea.

² He said, `Stop doing wrong things and turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven is almost here.'

³ This is the man that Isaiah the prophet of God spoke about long ago. He said, `A man is calling in the wilderness, "Make the way ready for the Lord. Make the road straight for him." '

⁴ John wore clothes made of camel's hair and a leather belt. He ate locusts and wild honey.

⁵ People went to him from Jerusalem, from all of Judea, and from all the country near the Jordan River.

⁶ He baptised them in the Jordan River when they said how sorry they were for the wrong things they had done.

⁷ Many of the Pharisee group and the Sadducee group came to him to be baptised. But when he saw them, he said to them, `You family of snakes! Who told you to run away from God's anger that is coming?

⁸ Stop your wrong ways to show that you have turned back to God.

⁹ Do not think you can say to your-selves, "Abraham is our father." I tell you, God can make children for Abraham from these stones.

¹⁰ The axe is ready to cut down the trees. Every tree that does not have good fruit is cut down and thrown into a fire.

¹¹ `I baptise you with water when you stop your wrong ways. But another person is coming after me. He is greater than I am. I am not good enough to take off his shoes. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

¹² He has a cleaning fan in his hand and will fan his grain very clean. He will put the grain into his storehouse. But he will burn the chaff in the fire that never dies.'

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River. He came to John to be baptised by him.

¹⁴ John tried to stop him. He said, `I need to be baptised by you. Why do you come to me to be baptised?'

¹⁵ But Jesus answered, `Please do it now. In this way we shall do all that is right.' Then John let him be baptised.

¹⁶ After Jesus was baptised, he came up out of the water right away. The sky opened. He saw the Spirit of God coming down on him like a dove.

¹⁷ A voice from the sky said, `This is my dear Son. I am very pleased with him.'