Read the Gospels in 40 Days

The Devil Tempts Jesus

4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, ² where he was tempted by the Devil for forty days. He did not eat anything during those days. When they came to an end, he was hungry. ³ The Devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

⁴ Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”^[a]

⁵ The Devil led him up to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ The Devil told him, “I will give you all this power and the glory of these kingdoms, because it has been entrusted to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. ⁷ So, if you worship me, it will all be yours.”

⁸ Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”^[b]

⁹ The Devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here, ¹⁰ because it is written:

¹¹ And,

¹² Jesus answered him, “It says: ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’”^[d]

¹³ When the Devil had finished every temptation, he left him until an opportune time.

A Prophet in His Hometown

¹⁴ Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through all the surrounding area. ¹⁵ He was teaching in their synagogues and being honored by everyone.

¹⁶ He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As was his custom, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. ¹⁷ The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

²⁰ He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

²² They all spoke well of him and were impressed by the words of grace that came from his mouth. And they kept saying, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

²³ He told them, “Certainly you will quote this proverb to me, ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ Do here in your hometown everything we heard you did in Capernaum.” ²⁴ And he said, “Amen^[f] I tell you: No prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵ But truly I tell you: There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months, while a great famine came over all the land. ²⁶ Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸ All those who were in the synagogue were filled with rage when they heard these things. ²⁹ They got up and drove him out of the town. They led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But he passed through the middle of them and went on his way.

Jesus Drives Out a Demon

³¹ He went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. ³² They were amazed by his teaching, because his message had authority. ³³ In the synagogue there was a man who was possessed by the unclean spirit of a demon. He cried out with a loud voice, ³⁴ “Leave us alone! What do you have to do with us, Jesus the Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God!”

³⁵ Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” The demon threw him down in front of them and came out of him without harming him.

³⁶ They were all filled with awe and began to say to one another, “What is this message? With authority and power he commands unclean spirits, and they come out!” ³⁷ News about him spread to every place in the surrounding area.

Jesus Heals Many

³⁸ Jesus got up, left the synagogue, and went into Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever. They asked him to help her. ³⁹ He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them. ⁴⁰ As the sun was setting, they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases. He laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. ⁴¹ Demons also came out of many people, crying out, “You are the Son of God!” He rebuked them and did not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.

⁴² When it was day, he went out to a deserted place. The crowds were looking for him. They went up to him and were trying to prevent him from leaving them. ⁴³ But he told them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, because that is why I was sent.” ⁴⁴ And he continued to preach in the synagogues in the land of the Jews.^[g]

The Calling of the First Disciples

5 One time, while the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.^{[h] 2} He saw two boats there along the lakeshore. The fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. ³ Jesus got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the shore. He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat. ⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.”

⁵ Simon answered him, “Master, we worked hard all through the night and caught nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets.” ⁶ When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets were about to tear apart. ⁷ They signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, because I am a sinful man, Lord.” ⁹ For Peter and all those with him were amazed at the number of fish they had caught, ¹⁰ and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

Jesus said to Simon, “Have no fear. From now on you will be catching people.”

¹¹ After they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

Jesus Heals a Leper

¹² On another occasion, Jesus was in one of the towns, and there was a man full of leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

¹³ Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be made clean.”

Immediately the leprosy left him. ¹⁴ Jesus ordered him to tell no one, “But go, show yourself to the priest, and offer what Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony for them.” ¹⁵ The news about him spread even more, and large crowds gathered to listen and be healed of their sicknesses. ¹⁶ But Jesus often withdrew to deserted places and prayed.

Jesus Forgives Sins

¹⁷ On one of the days while Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was with him to heal. ¹⁸ Just then, men who were carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher tried to bring him in and lay him in front of Jesus. ¹⁹ Since they did not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him down through the tiles on his stretcher into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. ²⁰ When he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins have been forgiven.”

²¹ The experts in the law and the Pharisees began to think to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins except God alone?”

²² But Jesus knew their thoughts and answered them, “Why are you thinking this in your hearts? ²³ Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ²⁴ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . .” He said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your stretcher, and go home.”

²⁵ Immediately, he stood up in front of them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. ²⁶ They were all astonished and glorified God. They were also filled with reverence and said, “We have seen wonderful things today.”

The Calling of Levi (Matthew)

²⁷ After these things, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at the tax collector’s booth. He said to him, “Follow me.”

²⁸ Levi left everything, got up, and followed Jesus. ²⁹ Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house. There was a large crowd of tax collectors and others dining with them. ³⁰ The Pharisees and experts in the law grumbled against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

³¹ Jesus answered them, “The healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

A Question About Fasting

³³ They said to him, “Why do John’s disciples fast and pray often, and so do the Pharisees’ disciples, but yours go on eating and drinking?”

³⁴ Jesus said to them, “You cannot make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? ³⁵ But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then, in those days, they will fast.”

³⁶ He told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new garment, and the patch from the new garment will not match the old one. ³⁷ And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. ³⁸ Instead, new wine must be put into fresh wineskins so both are preserved. ³⁹ And no one wants new wine while drinking old wine, because he says, ‘The old is fine.’”

Lord of the Sabbath

6 When Jesus was going through the grain fields on a Sabbath day, his disciples were picking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. ² But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

³ Jesus answered them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry (he and his companions)? ⁴ He went into the house of God, took and ate the Bread of the Presence, which is lawful only for the priests to eat. He also gave some to his companions.” ⁵ Jesus also said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus Heals a Man With a Withered Hand

⁶ On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and taught. A man was there whose right hand was withered. ⁷ The experts in the law and the Pharisees were watching him closely, to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. They wanted to find a reason to accuse him. ⁸ But he always knew their thoughts. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Stand up and step forward.”^[i] He got up and stood there. ⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you something. Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” ¹⁰ He looked around at all of them and told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did, and his hand was restored. ¹¹ They were filled with rage and began discussing with one another what they could do to Jesus.

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve

¹² It happened in those days that Jesus went up on the mountain to pray, and he spent all night in prayer to God. ¹³ When it was day, he summoned his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also called apostles: ¹⁴ Simon, whom he also named Peter, and his brother Andrew; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; ¹⁵ Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, also Simon, who was called the Zealot; ¹⁶ Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Jesus Heals Many

¹⁷ He went down with them and stood on a level place with a large crowd of his disciples and a large number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, as well as from the coastal area of Tyre and Sidon. These people came to listen to him and to be healed of their diseases. ¹⁸ Those who were troubled by unclean spirits were also cured. ¹⁹ The whole crowd kept trying to touch him, because power was going out from him and healing them all.

Blessings and Woes

²⁰ He lifted up his eyes to his disciples and said:

²³ “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy because of this: Your reward is great in heaven! The fact is, their fathers constantly did the same things to the prophets.”

Love Your Enemies

²⁷ “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. ²⁸ Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone strikes you on one cheek, offer the other too. If someone takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes away your things, do not demand them back.

³¹ “Treat others just as you would want them to treat you. ³² If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? To be sure, even the sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even the sinners do the same thing. ³⁴ If you lend to those from whom you expect to be repaid, what credit is that to you? Even the sinners lend to sinners in order to be paid back in full. ³⁵ Instead, love your enemies, do good and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the unthankful and the evil. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Consider the Beam in Your Own Eye

³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. In fact, the measure with which you measure will be measured back to you.”

³⁹ He also told them a parable: “A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Won’t they both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰ A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. ⁴¹ Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? ⁴² Or how can you tell your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck in your eye,’ when you do not see the beam in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck in your brother’s eye.

Listen and Do

⁴³ “Certainly a good tree does not produce bad fruit, and a bad tree does not produce good fruit. ⁴⁴ In fact, each tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not gather figs from thorn bushes, and they do not gather grapes from a bramble bush. ⁴⁵ The good person brings what is good out of the good stored in his heart, and the evil person brings what is evil out of the evil within.^[j] To be sure, what his mouth speaks flows from the heart.

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and does them—I will show you what he is like: ⁴⁸ He is like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid a foundation on bedrock. When a flood came, the river beat against that house but could not shake it, because it was founded on bedrock.^{[k] 49} But the one who listened to my words and did not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river broke against it, it fell immediately, and that house was completely destroyed.”