Read the Gospels in 40 Days
John the Baptist Prepares the Way for Jesus(A)
1 This is[a] the beginning of the gospel of Jesus the Messiah,[b] the Son of God.[c] 2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
“See! I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way.[d]
3 He is a voice calling out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way for the Lord![e]
Make his paths straight!’”[f]
4 John was baptizing in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism about repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 People from[g] the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were flocking to him, being baptized by him while they confessed their sins. 6 Now John was dressed in camel’s hair with[h] a leather belt around his waist. He ate grasshoppers[i] and wild honey. 7 He kept proclaiming, “The one who is coming after me is stronger than I am, and I am not worthy to bend down and untie his sandal straps. 8 I baptized you with[j] water, but it is he who will baptize you with[k] the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus is Baptized(B)
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens split open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 Then a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love. I am pleased with you!”
Jesus is Tempted by Satan(C)
12 At once the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by Satan. He was among wild animals, and angels were ministering to him.
Jesus Begins His Ministry in Galilee(D)
14 Now after John had been arrested, Jesus went to Galilee and proclaimed the gospel about the kingdom[l] of God. 15 He said, “The time is now! The kingdom of God is near! Repent, and keep believing the gospel!”
Jesus Calls His First Disciples(E)
16 While Jesus[m] was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They were throwing a net into the sea because they were fishermen. 17 Jesus told them, “Follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of people!” 18 So immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 Going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat repairing their nets. 20 He immediately called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
Jesus Heals a Man with an Unclean Spirit(F)
21 Then they went to Capernaum. As soon as it was the Sabbaths, Jesus[n] went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people[o] were utterly amazed at his teaching, because he was teaching them like one with authority, and not like their scribes. 23 All of a sudden,[p] there was a man in their synagogue who had an unclean spirit! He screamed, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25 But Jesus rebuked him. “Be quiet,” he ordered, “and come out of him!” 26 At this, the unclean spirit shook the man,[q] cried out with a loud voice, and came out of him.
27 All the people were so stunned that they kept saying to each other, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He tells even the unclean spirits what to do, and they obey him!” 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
Jesus Heals Many People(G)
29 After they left the synagogue, they went directly to the house of Simon and Andrew, along with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was lying in bed, sick with a fever, so they promptly told Jesus[r] about her. 31 He went up to her, took her by the hand, and helped her up. The fever left her, and she began serving them. 32 When evening came, after the sun had set, people[s] started bringing to him everyone who was sick or possessed by demons. 33 In fact, the whole city gathered at the door. 34 He healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons. However, he wouldn’t allow the demons to speak because they knew who he was.
Jesus Goes on a Preaching Tour(H)
35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus[t] got up and went to a deserted place and prayed there. 36 Simon and his companions searched frantically for him. 37 When they found him, they told him, “Everyone’s looking for you.”
38 “Let’s go to the neighboring town,” he replied, “so I can preach there, too, because that’s why I came.” 39 So he went throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
Jesus Cleanses a Leper(I)
40 Then a leper[u] came to Jesus[v] and began pleading with him. He fell on his knees and told him, “If you want to, you can make me clean.”
41 Moved with compassion, Jesus[w] reached out his hand, touched him, and told him, “I do want to. Be made clean!” 42 Instantly the leprosy left him, and he was clean.
43 Then Jesus[x] sternly warned him and encouraged him to go at once. 44 He told the man, “Be sure that you don’t tell anyone. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest, and then offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded as proof to the authorities.”[y] 45 But when the man[z] left, he began to proclaim it freely. He spread the news so widely that Jesus[aa] could no longer enter a town openly, but had to stay out in deserted places. Still, people[ab] kept coming to him from everywhere.
Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man(J)
2 Several days later, Jesus[ac] returned to Capernaum and it was reported that he was at home. 2 Such a large crowd gathered that there wasn’t room for them, even in front of the door. Jesus[ad] was speaking his message to them 3 when some people[ae] came and brought him a paralyzed man being carried by four men. 4 Since they couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof over the place where he was. They dug through it and let down the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, he told the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some scribes were sitting there, arguing among themselves,[af] 7 “Why does this man talk this way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 At once, Jesus knew in his spirit what they were saying to themselves. “Why are you arguing about such things among yourselves?”[ag] he asked them. 9 “Which is easier: to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’? 10 But I want you to know[ah] that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” Then he told the paralyzed man, 11 “I say to you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!” 12 So the man[ai] got up, immediately picked up his mat, and went out in front of all of them.
As a result, all of the people were amazed and began to glorify God as they kept on saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Jesus Calls Matthew(K)
13 Jesus[aj] went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd kept coming to him, and he kept teaching them. 14 As he was walking along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector’s desk. Jesus[ak] told him, “Follow me!” So Levi[al] got up and followed him.
15 Later, he was having dinner at Levi’s[am] house. Many tax collectors and sinners were also eating with Jesus and his disciples, because there were many who were following him. 16 When the scribes and the Pharisees saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat and drink[an] with tax collectors and sinners?”
17 When Jesus heard that, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a physician, but sick ones do. I did not come to call righteous people, but sinners.”
A Question about Fasting(L)
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees would fast regularly. Some people[ao] came and asked Jesus,[ap] “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”
19 Jesus replied, “The wedding guests[aq] can’t fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they can’t fast. 20 But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.”
The Unshrunk Cloth(M)
21 “No one patches an old garment with a piece of unshrunk cloth. If he does, the patch pulls away from it—the new from the old—and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will make the skins burst, and both the wine and the skins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured[ar] into fresh wineskins.”
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath(N)
23 Jesus[as] happened to be going through the grain fields on a Sabbath.[at] As they made their way, his disciples began picking the heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees asked him, “Look! Why are they doing what is not lawful on Sabbath days?”[au]
25 He asked them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 How was it that he went into the House of God during the lifetime[av] of Abiathar the high priest and ate the Bread of the Presence, which was not lawful for anyone but the priests to eat, and gave some of it to his companions?”
27 Then he told them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Jesus Heals a Man with a Paralyzed Hand(O)
3 Jesus[aw] went into the synagogue again, and a man with a paralyzed hand was there. 2 The people[ax] watched Jesus[ay] closely to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath,[az] intending to accuse him of doing something wrong. 3 He told the man with the paralyzed hand, “Come forward.”[ba] 4 Then he asked them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do evil on Sabbath days,[bb] to save a life or to destroy it?” But they remained silent.
5 Jesus[bc] looked around at them in anger, deeply hurt because of their hard hearts. Then he told the man, “Hold out your hand.” The man[bd] held it out, and his hand was restored to health. 6 Immediately the Pharisees and Herodians[be] went out and began to plot how to kill him.
Jesus Encounters a Large Crowd
7 So Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea. A large crowd from Galilee, Judea, 8 Jerusalem, Idumea, from across the Jordan, and from the region around Tyre and Sidon followed him. They came to him because they kept hearing about everything he was doing. 9 Jesus[bf] told his disciples to have a boat ready for him so that the crowd wouldn’t crush him, 10 because he had healed so many people that everyone who had diseases kept crowding up against him in order to touch him. 11 Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they would fall down in front of him and scream, “You are the Son of God!” 12 But he sternly ordered them again and again not to tell people who he was.
Jesus Appoints Twelve Apostles(P)
13 Then Jesus[bg] went up on a hillside and called to himself those whom he had decided on, and they approached him. 14 He appointed the Twelve,[bh] whom he called apostles, to accompany him, to be sent out to preach, 15 and to have the authority to drive out demons. 16 He appointed the Twelve:[bi] Simon (whom he named Peter), 17 Zebedee’s sons James and his brother John (whom he named Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus,[bj] Simon the Cananaean,[bk] 19 and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
Jesus is Accused of Working with Beelzebul(Q)
20 Then he went home. Such a large crowd gathered again that Jesus and his disciples[bl] couldn’t even eat. 21 When his family heard about it, they went to restrain him, because they kept saying, “He’s out of his mind!”
22 The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem kept repeating, “He has Beelzebul,” and, “He drives out demons by the ruler of demons.”
23 So Jesus[bm] called them together and began to speak to them in parables. “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a household is divided against itself, that household won’t stand. 26 So if Satan rebels against himself and is divided, he cannot stand. Indeed, his end has come. 27 No one can go into a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions without first tying up the strong man. Then he can ransack his house. 28 I tell all of you[bn] with certainty, people will be forgiven their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter.[bo] 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never be forgiven, but is guilty of eternal sin.” 30 …because they had been saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
The True Family of Jesus(R)
31 Then his mother and his brothers arrived. Milling around outside, they sent for him, continuously summoning him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him. They told him, “Look! Your mother and your brothers[bp] are outside asking for you.”
33 He answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 Then looking at the people sitting around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.