Read the Gospels in 40 Days
Three disciples see how great Jesus is
17 Six days after that, Jesus asked Peter and the two brothers, James and John, to go with him. Jesus led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 Peter, James and John saw Jesus change in front of them. He became different to look at. His face was bright like the sun. His clothes became very white and they shone. 3 Then Moses and Elijah appeared in front of the three disciples.[a][b] They were talking with Jesus.
4 Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good that we are here. If you want, please let me build three huts. One hut will be for you. One hut will be for Moses and one hut will be for Elijah.’[c]
5 While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud appeared. It covered them all. A voice spoke from the cloud and it said, ‘This is my Son and I love him. He makes me very happy. Listen to him.’
6 The disciples heard the voice. They threw themselves down to the ground. They were very frightened. 7 But Jesus came to them and he touched them. ‘Stand up,’ he said. ‘Do not be afraid.’ 8 When they looked up, they could not see anyone else. Only Jesus was there with them.
9 While they were walking down the mountain, Jesus said to the three disciples, ‘You must not tell anyone now about the things that you have just seen. One day, the Son of Man will die and then he will become alive again. Then you can tell people about these things.’
10 Then the three disciples said to Jesus, ‘The teachers of God's Law say that God's prophet Elijah must return first, before the Messiah comes. Why do they say this?’
11 Jesus replied, ‘Yes, Elijah does come first. He gets everything ready. 12 But I tell you that Elijah has already come. People did not recognize him. They did to him all the things that they wanted to do. In the same way, they will also give me, the Son of Man, great pain.’ 13 Then the disciples understood that he was really talking about John the Baptist.
Jesus makes a boy well
14 Then Jesus, and the three disciples reached the place where the crowd was. A man came to Jesus. He went down on his knees in front of him. 15 He said to Jesus, ‘Please sir, be kind to my son. He cannot control his body. Sometimes he does not know what he is doing. Often he falls into the fire, or he falls into water. 16 I brought the boy to your disciples, but they could not make him well.’
17 Jesus replied, ‘You people today still do not believe in God. You have turned away from him. I have been with you for a long time and still you do not believe. It is difficult for me to be patient with you.’ Then Jesus said to the man, ‘Bring the boy here to me.’ 18 Jesus said to the bad spirit, ‘Stop!’ Then the bad spirit left the boy and immediately he became well again.
19 When the disciples were alone with Jesus, they asked him, ‘Why could we not make the bad spirit leave the boy?’
20 Jesus replied, ‘You could not do it because you do not trust God very much. I tell you this: You may believe in God only a little bit, like a very small seed. Even then, you could say to this mountain, “Go away from this place and move to that other place.” Then it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you to do.’[d] [21 Jesus then said, ‘This kind of spirit will not leave a person unless you pray and you do not eat for a time.’][e]
22 When Jesus and his disciples all met together in Galilee, he said, ‘Soon they will deliver the Son of Man to powerful people. 23 They will kill him. But three days after that, he will become alive again.’ When the disciples heard that, they were very sad.
24 After that, Jesus and his disciples arrived at Capernaum. Some men who received taxes for the temple went to talk to Peter. They asked him, ‘Does your teacher pay the tax for the temple?’[f]
25 Peter answered them, ‘Yes, my teacher does pay the tax.’
Then Peter returned to the house where Jesus was staying. Before Peter could say anything, Jesus spoke to him first. He said, ‘Here is a question for you to answer, Simon. Who are the people who must pay taxes and money to the kings in this world? Do the rulers take taxes from their own people? Or do they take taxes from other people?’
26 ‘They take the taxes from other people,’ Peter replied.
Jesus said to him, ‘This means that people from the ruler's own country do not need to pay anything.[g] 27 But we do not want to make these men who take the tax angry. So go to the lake and throw out a line to catch fish. Pull up the first fish that you catch on your line. Open the mouth of the fish and you will find a coin inside it. Take the coin and give it to those who receive taxes for the temple. This will be enough money for both my tax and yours.’
Who is important in God's kingdom?
18 Soon after this, the disciples came to Jesus and they asked him, ‘Who is the most important person in the kingdom of heaven?’
2 Jesus called a child to come to him. He made the child stand in the middle of them all. 3 He said, ‘I tell you this: You must change and become like little children. If not, you will never come into the kingdom of heaven. 4 This little child does not think that he is very important. You must also think as he does. Whoever does this will be the most important person in the kingdom of heaven. 5 If anyone accepts a child like this because of me, that person also accepts me.’
6 Jesus said, ‘A person who believes in me may not seem important. But you should never make that person do wrong things.[h] Do not do that! It would be better for you if someone tied a big stone round your neck. Then you would sink deep down into the sea and die. 7 Some things in this world will cause people to do wrong things. You can be sure that bad things will happen. But it will be very bad for the person who makes these things happen.
8 If your hand or your foot causes you to do wrong things, you should cut it off. You should throw it away. It is better to have only one hand or one foot and to have God's true life. It will be much worse to keep both your hands and both your feet and still do wrong things. Then God will throw you into hell, where the fire always burns. 9 If your eye causes you to do wrong things, then you should take it out. You should throw it away. It is better to have only one of your eyes and to have God's true life. It will be much worse if you keep both your eyes but then God throws you into hell. There the fire always burns.
10 Be careful! Do not think that any of these little people are not important. I tell you this. They have angels who watch over them. Those angels are always standing in front of my Father in heaven.[i]
11 [I, the Son of Man, came to look for those who are far away from God.][j]
12 Think about a man who has 100 sheep. He discovers that one of his sheep is not there with the others. What does he do? He leaves all his other sheep on the hills. He goes to look for the one lost sheep. 13 And I tell you this: If he finds that lost sheep, he will be very happy. All the other sheep are safe together. But they do not make him as happy as this one sheep does. 14 God, your Father in heaven, is like that shepherd. He does not want any of these little people to be lost, not even one of them.’[k]
A friend does wrong things against you
15 Jesus said, ‘If your Christian friend has done something wrong against you, you must go and speak to him. When you are alone with him, tell him what he has done that is wrong. He may agree with what you say. If he does, then you can call him your friend again.
16 But maybe he does not want to listen to you. Then take one or two other people with you to speak to him. They will then know what wrong things your friend has done. Remember what the Bible says: “There must be two or three people to say certainly that another person has done something wrong. Two or three people must agree what has happened.” 17 If your friend still will not agree that he has done something wrong, then go and tell the church leaders.[l] If he does not agree with the leaders, stop being his friend. He is like somebody who refuses to obey God.[m]
18 I tell you this: You will tell people here on earth what is right for them to do. And you will tell them what is not right for them to do. God in heaven will give you this authority. He will agree with what you say.
19 Two people may agree together to ask God for something. If they agree like that, then my Father in heaven will give them what they ask for.[n] 20 Two or more people may meet together because they believe in me. If they do that, I will be there with them.’
Jesus tells the people about the servant who did not forgive
21 Then Peter came to talk to Jesus. He asked, ‘Lord, if my friend does wrong things against me many times, how many times should I forgive him? Must I forgive him as many as seven times for the wrong things that he has done against me?’
22 Jesus replied, ‘I do not say only seven times. I say you should forgive him 77 times!’[o]
23 Jesus then said, ‘I will tell you a story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king wanted to check how much money his servants should give to him because of their debts. 24 So the king began to check. His men led a servant to him who had a big debt. He must pay back 10,000 gold coins to the king.[p]
25 The servant could not pay his big debt to the king. So the king said to his men, “Sell the servant and his wife and his children and all his things. Then I will keep the money to pay his debt.”
26 Then the servant went down on his knees in front of the king. He said to the king, “Please, please give me some more time, then I will pay you everything.” 27 The king felt sorry for his servant. He forgave him for all the debt and let him go free.
28 But then that same servant went away and he met another servant of the king. This other servant had to pay back a debt of 100 silver coins to the first servant. The first servant took hold of the neck of the other servant to hurt him. He said, “Give me the money that is mine.”
29 The other servant went down on his knees in front of the first servant. He said, “Please, please give me some more time, then I will give you the money.”
30 But the first servant would not agree. He put the other servant in prison until he could pay his debt to him. 31 The other servants of the king saw what had happened. They were very upset about it. So they went to see the king. They told him about everything that had happened.
32 When the king heard this, he told the first servant to come to him. “You are a very bad person,” the king said to the servant. “I forgave you the whole of your big debt to me. I did this because you asked me very strongly. 33 I was kind to you. You should have been kind to that other servant in the same way.” 34 The king was very angry with the first servant. He told his men to put him in prison. They punished the servant there very much, until he could pay all his debt to the king.’
35 Then Jesus finished the story and he said, ‘You must forgive your friends completely. If you do not agree to forgive them, then my Father in heaven will do like that king did. He will not forgive you.’
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