M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

21 Jesus and his disciples came near to Jerusalem. They came to the village of Bethphage by the hill called the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two of his disciples ahead.

² He said to them, `Go into the village in front of you. As soon as you go in, you will find a donkey for riding, and her young one. They are tied there. Untie them and bring them to me.

³ If anyone says anything to you, tell him, "The Lord needs them. He will send them back soon." '

⁴ This happened, and what the prophet of God said long ago, came true.

⁵ He said, `Tell the people of Zion: See, your king is coming to you. He is not proud. He rides a donkey. It is a young animal.'

⁶ The disciples went and did what Jesus told them to do.

⁷ They brought the donkey and her young one. They put their coats on them. Then Jesus got on to ride.

⁸ Many people spread their coats on the road. Others cut leaves from the palm trees and put them on the road.

⁹ People in front of him and people behind him shouted, `Praise the Son of David! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise him in heaven!'

¹⁰ When Jesus came into Jerusalem, all the people there were very excited. They said, `Who is this?'

¹¹ The people who were with Jesus said, `This is Jesus from the town of Nazareth in Galilee. He is a prophet.'

¹² Jesus went into the temple of God. He drove out all the people who were buying and selling in the temple. He threw down the tables of the money changers. He pushed down the seats of those who sold doves.

¹³ He said to them, `The holy writings say, "My house shall be called a house where people talk with God." But you have made it a place for people who steal!'

¹⁴ Blind people came to Jesus in the temple. People who could not walk came to him. And he healed them.

¹⁵ The chief priests and the scribes saw the big works that Jesus did. They saw the children calling out in the temple, `God save the Son of David!' They were angry.

¹⁶ They asked Jesus, `Do you hear what they are saying?' Jesus answered, `Yes. Have you never read this? "You like the praise of children and babies." '

¹⁷ Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany. He stayed there for the night.

¹⁸ In the morning he went back to the city. On the way he was hungry.

¹⁹ Along the road he saw a fig tree. He went to the tree. There was no fruit on it, only leaves. He said to the tree, `No fruit will ever grow on you again!' Right away the tree died.

²⁰ The disciples saw it and were surprised. They said, `So soon the fig tree has died!'

²¹ Jesus said to them, `I tell you the truth. Believe God. Do not doubt him. Then you can do what I did to this fig tree. But that is not all. You can even say to this hill, "Go and jump into the sea" and it will be done.

²² When you ask God for anything, believe that you will have it. Then you will have it.'

²³ He came to the temple and went in and taught the people. The chief priests and the leaders of the people came to him. They asked, `What right have you to do these things? Who gave you the right to do them?'

²⁴ Jesus answered them, `I will ask you a question also. If you answer me, I will answer you. I will tell you what right I have to do these things.

²⁵ Who gave John the right to baptise people? Did God or did men?' So they talked it over together. They said, `If we say, "God gave John the right to do it," he will say to us, "Then why did you not believe him?"

²⁶ But if we say, "Men gave him the right to do it," we have the people to fear, because all the people say that John was a prophet.'

²⁷ So they answered Jesus, `We do not know.' Then Jesus said, `Neither will I tell you what right I have to do these things.'

²⁸ `What do you think about this? A man had two sons. He went to the first one and said, "Son, go and work today on my farm."

²⁹ The son said, "No, I will not go." But he changed his mind and went.

³⁰ The man went to the second son and said the same thing. The son answered, "Yes, sir, I will go." But he did not go.

³¹ Which of the two sons did what his father wanted him to do?' They said, `The first one.' Then Jesus said, `I tell you the truth. The tax collectors and women who commit adultery by selling their bodies, are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.

³² John came to you to tell you the right way. But you did not believe him. The tax collectors and women who commit adultery believed him. And even when you saw that, you did not change your minds and believe him.'

³³ `Listen to another story. A man planted a farm of vines for growing fruit called grapes. He put a fence of small trees around it. He dug a place to press the juice from the fruit. He built a high house from which men could watch over the farm. He let some men pay to use it. Then he went to a country far away.

³⁴ `When it was near the time to cut the fruit, he sent his servants to those men. He wanted to have some of the fruit.

³⁵ The men caught the servants. They beat one of them and killed another one of them. They threw stones at another one.

³⁶ Then the man sent other servants. There were more than the first time. The men did the same to them.

³⁷ `Last of all he sent his son to them. He said, "They will respect my son."

³⁸ When the men saw the son, they said to each other, "This is the one who will have everything when his father dies. Let us kill him and we will have it all."

³⁹ They caught him, dragged him off the farm, and killed him.

⁴⁰ When the owner of the farm comes, what will he do to those men?'

⁴¹ They answered, `He will kill those bad men, and will give the farm to other men who will give him the fruit when it is time.'

⁴² Jesus said, `Have you never read in the holy writings "The stone which the builders would not use is now the chief corner stone. The Lord did this. It looks wonderful to us"?

⁴³ `So I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you. It will be given to the people who do what they should do in it.

⁴⁴ If anyone falls on this stone, he will be broken to pieces. But if this stone falls on anyone, it will crush him.'

⁴⁵ The chief priests and the Pharisees heard the stories Jesus told, and they knew he was talking about them.

⁴⁶ They wanted to catch him, but they feared the people. The people thought Jesus was a prophet.

21 When we had said goodbye to them, we left them. We went straight across the water to the island of Cos. The next day we came to the island of Rhodes. Then we went to the city of Patara.

² There we found a boat going to the country of Phoenicia, so we went there.

³ When we saw the island of Cyprus, we went on the right side of it to Syria. We landed at Tyre because they unloaded the boat there.

⁴ We found some Christians and stayed for seven days. The Holy Spirit spoke through them to Paul, `Do not go on to Jerusalem.'

⁵ When the seven days had passed, we left and went on our way. All of the men, women, and children went with us out of the city. There by the sea we kneeled down and talked to God.

⁶ We said goodbye to each other. Then we got on the boat and they went back to their homes.

⁷ From Tyre we went to Ptolemais. There we greeted the Christian brothers and stayed with them one day.

⁸ The next day we left and came to Caesarea. We went into the house of Philip. He was a man who went out telling the good news. He was one of the seven helpers in the church.

⁹ He had four daughters who spoke words from God. They were not married.

¹⁰ While we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came from Judea.

¹¹ When he came to us, he took Paul's belt. He tied his own hands and feet with it. Then he said, `The Holy Spirit has told me that in the same way the leaders of the Jews in Jerusalem will tie the man who owns this belt. They will give him over to the people who are not Jews.'

¹² When we heard this, both we and the people there talked to Paul and begged him not to go to Jerusalem.

¹³ Then Paul answered, `Why are you crying and making me sad like this? I am ready to be tied and also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.'

¹⁴ So when we saw that he would not change his mind, we stopped begging him. We said, `May the Lord do what he wants to be done.'

¹⁵ After that, we took our things and went to Jerusalem.

¹⁶ Some of the Christians from Caesarea went with us. One of them was Mnason, a man born in Cyprus. He was one of the first Christian believers. We stayed in his house.

¹⁷ When we reached Jerusalem, the Christian brothers were glad to see us.

¹⁸ The next day Paul went with us to see James. All the church leaders were there.

¹⁹ First, Paul greeted them. Then he told them one by one the things God had done as he worked among the people who were not Jews.

²⁰ When they heard it, they praised the Lord. They said to Paul, `Brother, there are many thousands of Jews who believe. They all say we must obey the law of Moses.

²¹ They have heard that you teach all the Jews who live in other lands. They heard that you tell them not to obey Moses' law: that they need not circumcise their children like the Jews do; and they can leave the Jewish ways of living.

²² What should we do about it? Many people will gather together because they will surely hear that you have come.

²³ Now then, do the thing we tell you. We have four men who have made a promise.

²⁴ Take them with you. Make yourself clean with them, the way the law says to do. Pay the cost for having their hair cut. Then all the people will know that all the things they heard about you are not true. They will know that you live the way the law says you should live.

²⁵ We sent a letter to those who are not Jews and have believed. Here is what we told them they must not do. They must not touch things that have been given to idols. They must not taste blood. They must not eat the meat of animals that were killed by choking. And they must not take part in any kind of wrong sexual behaviour between men and women.'

²⁶ Then Paul took the men with him. The next day he made himself clean with them the way the law says to do. Then he went into the temple. He told the priests which day they would finish making themselves clean. On that day a sacrifice would be made for each one of them.

²⁷ The seven days were almost over. The Jewish leaders from Asia Minor saw Paul in the temple. They got all the people there excited. They caught hold of him.

²⁸ They shouted, `All you men of Israel, come and help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere not to respect our people. He says we need not obey the law or respect this temple. And what is more, he has brought Greek people into the temple. He has made this holy place unclean.'

²⁹ They said this because they had seen a man from Ephesus named Trophimus. He was in the city with Paul. And they thought that Paul had brought him into the temple.

³⁰ So all the people in the city were excited. They came running. They caught Paul and took him out of the temple by force. Then the doors were shut behind them.

³¹ They were trying to kill him. The officer in charge of the soldiers heard that all the people of Jerusalem were making trouble.

³² Right away he took some soldiers and officers with him and ran down to the people. When the people saw them they stopped beating Paul.

³³ Then the officer came up and took Paul. He had him tied with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done.

³⁴ Some of the crowd shouted one thing and some of them shouted something else. The captain could not find out what was true. The people were shouting too much. So he told his soldiers to take Paul into their army house.

³⁵ When Paul came to the steps, the soldiers carried him because the people were fighting to get him.

³⁶ They were all following, shouting, `Kill him!'

^37-38 ust as the soldiers were going to take Paul into their army house, he said to the officer, `May I tell you something?' `So, you speak the Greek language!' said the officer. `I thought you were the man from the country of Egypt who made trouble a while ago. I thought you were the one who led four thousand bad men into the desert.'

³⁹ Paul said, `I am a Jew. I was born in the city of Tarsus in Cilicia. I belong to a great city. Please let me talk to these people.'

⁴⁰ So the officer let him talk. Paul stood on the steps and put up his hand. Then all the people were very quiet. He talked to them in the Jews' language.