New Testament in a Year
Jesus sends out the 12 apostles
9 Jesus asked his 12 apostles to come to him. He gave them power and authority. They could make sick people well. They could also send bad spirits out of people. 2 Then he sent them out to tell people about the kingdom of God. He told them that they should also make sick people well again. 3 He said to them, ‘Do not take anything for your journey. Do not take a stick, or a bag, or food. Do not take any money. Do not take extra clothes.[a] 4 In each town, continue to stay at the first house that you go into. Stay there until you leave that town. 5 In some towns, the people will not accept you. You should leave that place. Clean that town's dirt from your feet. Then it will be clear that they have done something wrong.’
6 Then the apostles started out. They went to visit all the villages. In every place they told people the good news about Jesus and they made sick people well.
A ruler hears about Jesus
7 People told the ruler, Herod, about all the things that were happening.[b] His mind was confused because people were saying lots of different things about Jesus. Some people were saying, ‘John the Baptist died but now he has become alive again.’ 8 Other people were saying, ‘It is Elijah that has come back.’ Some other people were saying, ‘This is one of God's prophets who lived a long time ago. Now he has become alive again.’[c]
9 Herod said, ‘I sent a soldier to cut off John's head.[d] So who is this man? I hear many things about him.’ After that, Herod was trying to meet Jesus.
Jesus feeds 5,000 men and their families
10 The 12 apostles that Jesus had sent out returned. They told him what they had done. Then he took them away from the crowd, so that he could be alone with them. They went to a town called Bethsaida. 11 But the crowds found out about this. So they went to find Jesus. When he saw the crowds coming, he welcomed them. He taught them about the kingdom of God. Some sick people were there and he made them well again.
12 When it was nearly evening, the 12 apostles came to Jesus. ‘There are no houses in this place,’ they said. ‘Send the crowd away now. Tell them to go to the villages and farms near here. Then they can get food to eat and they can find a place to sleep.’
13 Jesus said to them, ‘You should give them some food to eat.’
But the disciples said, ‘We have only five loaves of bread and two fish. Do you want us to go and buy food for all these people?’ 14 There were about 5,000 men in the crowd.
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Tell the people that they should sit down on the ground in groups. There should be about 50 people in each group.’
15 So they did this. When the people had sat down, 16 Jesus took the five loaves of bread and the two fish. Then he looked up towards heaven and he thanked God for the food. He broke the bread into pieces. He gave the pieces of bread to the disciples, and they gave the bread to the crowd. 17 Everybody ate and they all had enough food. They were not hungry any more. Then the disciples picked up the bits of food that people had not eaten. They filled 12 baskets with all the little bits of food.[e]
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