Read the Gospels in 40 Days
10 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him. He gave them power over bad spirits so they could drive them out of people. He gave them power to heal people who were sick or weak in any way.
2-4 he names of the twelve apostles are: Simon, whose other name was Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector, James, the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose other name was Thaddaeus, Simon, the freedom fighter, and Judas Iscariot, the one who gave Jesus over to people who hated him.
5 Jesus sent out these twelve. He said to them, `Do not go to the people who are not Jews. Do not go to any town of the Samaritan people.
6 But go to the people of Israel. They are like lost sheep.
7 As you go, tell people that the kingdom of heaven is here.
8 Heal sick people. Bring dead people to life. Heal people who have leprosy. Drive bad spirits out of people You got it free, so give it free to others
9 Do not take gold, silver, or brass money with you.
10 Do not take a bag with you, and do not take two shirts, shoes, or a walking stick. The one who does the work should be given his food.
11 When you come to any city or town, ask who there is able to have you. Then live there until you leave the town.
12 When you go into the house, greet the family with a blessing.
13 If the family is all right, let your blessing stay on it. If it is not all right, take your blessing away.
14 In some places people will not take you in, or listen to what you say. So when you leave that house or town, shake the dust off your feet.
15 I tell you the truth. On the day when people are judged, the people from that city will be punished harder than the people from the country of Sodom and Gomorrah.'
16 `I am sending you out amongst people. You will be like sheep amongst bad animals like wolves. So be wise like snakes, and harmless like doves.
17 But take care. Men will take you to their courts. They will beat you in their meeting houses.
18 They will bring you to rulers and kings for my sake. Then you will talk about me to them and to those who are not Jews.
19 When men take you to court, do not be troubled about what you will say. What you are to say will come to your mind at the right time.
20 It is not you who speak. But it is the Spirit of your Father who is speaking through you.
21 A brother will take his brother to be killed. A father will take his child. The children will talk against their father and mother, and have them killed.
22 Everyone will hate you because you are true to me. But the person who keeps on being true to me until the end, will be saved.
23 When they trouble you in one town, go to another. I tell you the truth. You will not go to all the towns in Israel before the Son of Man comes.
24 `The one who learns is not better than his teacher. And the servant is not better than his master.
25 The one who learns should want to be like his teacher. And the servant should want to be like his master. If they say the master belongs to the devil, they will say it all the more about those who work for him.'
26 `So do not be afraid of people. Everything that is hidden will be seen. Everything that is hidden will be known.
27 What I say to you in the dark, tell it in the light. What you hear in secret, shout to others from the tops of the houses.
28 Do not fear people who can kill the body. They cannot kill the spirit. But fear the one who can destroy both spirit and body in hell.
29 Are not two sparrows worth only a small amount of money? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father knowing about it.
30 Even the number of hairs on your head is known.
31 So do not fear. You are worth more than many sparrows.'
32 `If anyone tells people that he knows me, I will also tell the Father in heaven that I know him.
33 But anyone who tells people he does not know me, I will also tell my Father in heaven that I do not know him.'
34 `Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but war.
35 I came to take away peace between a man and his father. I came to take away peace between a daughter and her mother. I came to take away peace between a man's wife and his mother.
36 A man will have people in his own family who make trouble for him.
37 Anyone who loves his father or his mother more than he loves me, is not good enough for me. Anyone who loves his son or his daughter more than he loves me, is not good enough for me.
38 Anyone who is not willing to carry his cross and suffer with me, is not good enough for me.
39 Anyone who tries to keep his life, will lose it. Anyone who gives up his life for my sake, will find it.'
40 `Anyone who takes you in, takes me in. And anyone who takes me in, takes in the one who sent me.
41 Anyone who takes in a prophet because he is a prophet of God will get a prophet's reward.
42 And if any one as a disciple gives a drink of cold water to one of my children, he will not lose his reward. I tell you the truth.'
11 When Jesus finished telling his twelve disciples what to do, he left that place. He went to teach and tell God's word to people in the towns around there.
2 John was in prison. He heard what Christ was doing. So he sent two of his disciples to him.
3 He asked, `Are you the one who will come? Or shall we wait for another person?'
4 Jesus answered them, `Go and tell John what you hear and see.
5 Blind people see. Lame people walk. People with leprosy are healed. People who could not hear, can hear. Dead people are made alive. Poor people hear the good news.
6 Anyone who is not troubled in his heart about me, will be happy.'
7 When John's disciples went away, Jesus began to talk to people about John. He said, `What did you go out into the wilderness to see? Did you go out to see a tall grass moved by the wind?
8 What did you go out to see? A man wearing fine clothes? People who wear fine clothes live in kings' houses.
9 Why did you go out? To see a prophet of God? Yes, I tell you, and he is much more than a prophet.
10 He is the man the holy writings tell about. "See, I send my messenger ahead of you. He will make the way ready for you."
11 `I tell you the truth. No one has ever been born who is greater than John the Baptizer. And yet the smallest one in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12 From the time of John until now, people try hard to break into the kingdom of heaven. And strong people take hold of it.
13 All the prophets and the books of the law gave God's word until John came.
14 If you will believe it, this man is the Elijah who would come.
15 Everyone who has ears, listen.
16 `What shall I say that the people of today are like? They are like children who sit in the market. They call to the other children.
17 They say, "We played music for you, but you did not dance. We cried, but you did not cry."
18 John came. He does not eat or drink much. People say, "He has a bad spirit in him!"
19 The Son of Man came. He eats and drinks. People say, "This man eats and drinks too much! He is a friend with tax collectors and bad people!" But a man is proved to be wise by what he has done.'
20 Then Jesus began to talk about the towns where he had done most of his big works. He said hard things about the people, because they did not stop their wrong ways and turn back to God.
21 He said, `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 their wrong ways long ago. They would wear the clothes people wear to show they are sad. They would sit in ashes.
22 But I tell you, on the day when people are judged, you will be punished harder than the people from the cities of Tyre and Sidon.
23 Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the sky? No, you will go down to death. If the big things I did in you had been done in the city of Sodom, it would be standing now.
24 But I tell you, on the day when people are judged you will be punished harder than the people from Sodom.'
25 Then 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.
26 Yes, Father, that was the way you wanted it.'
27 He said, `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.
28 All you who work hard! All you who carry heavy loads! Come to me! I will give you rest.
29 Do what I tell you. Learn what I teach you. I am gentle. I am not proud. Then your hearts will rest.
30 What I tell you to do is easy. What I give you to carry is not heavy.'
12 About that time, Jesus was walking through the grain fields on a Sabbath day. His disciples were hungry. They began to pick some of the grain and to eat it.
2 The Pharisees saw them. They said to Jesus, `Look! Your disciples are doing what is not right on the Sabbath day.'
3 But Jesus said to them, `Have you not read what David did? He and his men who were with him were hungry.
4 He went into God's house. Some bread was there for God. David's men ate it. David did not have the right to eat it, nor the men who were with him. Only the priests have the right to eat it. But David took the bread and ate it. He also gave some of it to the men who were with him.
5 `Have you never read in the books of the law that the priests in the temple break the Sabbath law on the Sabbath day? They are not punished for it.
6 I tell you, there is someone here who is greater than the temple.
7 `You do not know what this means, "I want you to be kind; I do not want a sacrifice." If you knew, then you would not have said what they did was wrong. What they did was not wrong.
8 The Son of Man rules over the Sabbath day.'
9 Jesus left that place and went into the meeting house.
10 There was a man whose hand was thin and weak. The people asked Jesus, `Is it right to heal a man on the Sabbath day?' They wanted to find something wrong about Jesus.
11 Jesus said to them, `If one of you had a sheep and it fell into a hole on the Sabbath day, would you not take hold of it and pull it out?
12 A man is worth much more than a sheep. So it is right to do good things on the Sabbath day.'
13 Then he said to the man, `Hold out your hand.' The man held out his hand and it was made well like the other hand.
14 Then the Pharisees went out and planned together how to kill Jesus.
15 Jesus knew about their plan, so he went away from there. Many people followed him and he healed them all.
16 He told them not to tell where he was.
17 So what Isaiah the prophet of God said, came true.
18 He said, `This is my servant. I have chosen him. I love him. I am very pleased with him. I will put my Spirit on him. He will judge the people who are not Jews.
19 He will not fight or shout. No one will hear his voice in the streets.
20 He will not break a stick that is already bent. He will not put out a light that burns only a little. What is right will win, because he will make it win.
21 Those who are not Jews will believe in him.'
22 Then the people brought a man to Jesus. The man had a bad spirit in him. He was blind and could not talk. Jesus healed him. Then the man could talk and see.
23 All the people were surprised. They said, `Is he David's son?'
24 The Pharisees heard about it. They said, `This man drives out bad spirits by the help of Beelzebub, the chief of bad spirits.'
25 Jesus knew what they were thinking. He said to them, `If one part of any country fights against the other part of the country, that country is broken down. If one part of any city or family fights against the other part of it, it cannot stand.
26 If Satan drives out Satan, he fights against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
27 If I drive out bad spirits by Beelzebub, how do your own people drive them out? Let them judge you.
28 But if I drive out bad spirits by God's Spirit, then God's kingdom is here with you now.
29 `If anyone wants to go into a strong man's house and steal his things, he must first tie the strong man. Then he can steal his things.
30 `Anyone who is not with me, is against me. Anyone who does not work with me is working against me.
31 `That is why I tell you this. All wrong things that people do or say, will be forgiven. But people who say wrong things against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.
32 Anyone who says anything against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But anyone who says anything against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. He will not be forgiven in this world or in the next world.'
33 `Either make a tree good and its fruit good, or make a tree bad and its fruit bad. People know what kind of tree it is by the fruit on it.
34 You family of snakes! How can you say good things? You are wrong! The mouth will say what is in the heart.
35 A good man has stored up good things in his heart, so he will say good things. A bad man has stored up wrong things in his heart, so he will say wrong things.
36 I tell you this. On the day when people are judged, they will pay for every empty word they have said.
37 Because of your words, you will be called good. Or because of your words, you will be punished.'
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, `Teacher, we want you to show us a sign.'
39 But Jesus answered them, `The people today are bad. They have gone away from God. They want a sign. No sign will be given them but the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 Jonah was inside the big sea animal for three days and three nights. So the Son of Man will be in the ground for three days and three nights.
41 When people are judged, the men of the city of Nineveh will stand up and speak against the people of today. The people of Nineveh stopped their wrong ways when Jonah told them God's word. And the one who is here is greater than Jonah.
42 When people are judged, the Queen of the South will stand up and speak against the people of today. She came a long way to hear the wise talk of Solomon. And the one who is here is greater than Solomon.'
43 `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.
44 Then he says, "I will go back to my house from where I came." When he comes back, he finds it is empty, clean, and all fixed up.
45 Then he goes and brings seven other spirits with him. They are worse than he is. They go in and live there. Now the man is worse than he was at first. That is how it will be for the wrong people of today.'
46 While Jesus was still talking to the people, his mother and brothers stood outside. They wanted to talk to him.
47 Someone told him, `Your mother and your brothers are standing outside. They want to talk to you.'
48 But to the man who told him, he said, `Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?'
49 He pointed to his disciples and said, `These people are my mother and my brothers!
50 Anyone who obeys my Father in heaven is my brother, my sister, and my mother.'
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