This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

Now after John had been arrested, Jesus went to Galilee and proclaimed the gospel about the kingdom of God.

While Jesus 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.

Jesus told them, "Follow me, and I'll make you fishers of people!"

Then they went to Capernaum. As soon as it was the Sabbaths, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.

"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!"

But Jesus rebuked him. "Be quiet," he ordered, "and come out of him!"

Now Simon's mother-in-law was lying in bed, sick with a fever, so they promptly told Jesus about her.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went to a deserted place and prayed there.

Then a leper came to Jesus and began pleading with him. He fell on his knees and told him, "If you want to, you can make me clean."

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand, touched him, and told him, "I do want to. Be made clean!"

Then Jesus sternly warned him and encouraged him to go at once.

But when the man left, he began to proclaim it freely. He spread the news so widely that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but had to stay out in deserted places. Still, people kept coming to him from everywhere.

Several days later, Jesus returned to Capernaum and it was reported that he was at home.

Such a large crowd gathered that there wasn't room for them, even in front of the door. Jesus was speaking his message to them

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.

When Jesus saw their faith, he told the paralyzed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

At once, Jesus knew in his spirit what they were saying to themselves. "Why are you arguing about such things among yourselves?" he asked them.

Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd kept coming to him, and he kept teaching them.

As he was walking along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector's desk. Jesus told him, "Follow me!" So Levi got up and followed him.

Later, he was having dinner at Levi's house. Many tax collectors and sinners were also eating with Jesus and his disciples, because there were many who were following him.

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."

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees would fast regularly. Some people came and asked Jesus, "Why do John's disciples and the Pharisees' disciples fast, but your disciples don't fast?"

Jesus replied, "The wedding guests can't fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they can't fast.

Jesus happened to be going through the grain fields on a Sabbath. As they made their way, his disciples began picking the heads of grain.

Jesus went into the synagogue again, and a man with a paralyzed hand was there.

The people watched Jesus closely to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, intending to accuse him of doing something wrong.

Jesus looked around at them in anger, deeply hurt because of their hard hearts. Then he told the man, "Hold out your hand." The man held it out, and his hand was restored to health.

So Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea. A large crowd from Galilee, Judea,

Jesus told his disciples to have a boat ready for him so that the crowd wouldn't crush him,

Then Jesus went up on a hillside and called to himself those whom he had decided on, and they approached him.

Then he went home. Such a large crowd gathered again that Jesus and his disciples couldn't even eat.

So Jesus called them together and began to speak to them in parables. "How can Satan drive out Satan?

Then Jesus began to teach again beside the sea. Such a large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while the entire crowd remained beside the sea on the shore.

Then Jesus told them, "A lamp isn't brought indoors to be put under a basket or under a bed, is it? It's to be put on a lamp stand, isn't it?

With many other parables like these, Jesus kept speaking his message to them according to their ability to understand.

But Jesus was in the back of the boat, asleep on a cushion. So they woke him up and asked him, "Teacher, don't you care that we're going to die?"

Just as Jesus stepped out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met him.

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell down in front of him,

screaming in a loud voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you in the name of God never to torment me!"

Jesus had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"

Then Jesus asked him, "What's your name?"

He told him, "My name is Legion, because there are many of us." He kept pleading with Jesus not to send them out of that region.

When they came to Jesus and saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there dressed and in his right mind, they were frightened.

So they began to beg Jesus to leave their territory.

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed kept begging him to let him go with him.

But Jesus wouldn't let him. Instead, he told him, "Go home to your family, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been to you."

So the man left and began proclaiming in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And everyone was utterly amazed.

When Jesus again had crossed to the other side in a boat, a large crowd gathered around him by the seashore.

Then a synagogue leader named Jairus arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet

So Jesus went with him. A huge crowd kept following him and jostling him.

Since she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his robe,

Immediately Jesus became aware that power had gone out of him. So he turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

But when Jesus heard what they said, he told the synagogue leader, "Stop being afraid! Just keep on believing."

Jesus allowed no one to go further with him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.

When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw mass confusion. People were crying and sobbing loudly.

But Jesus strictly ordered them not to let anyone know about this. He also told them to give her something to eat.

Jesus left that place and went back to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.

Jesus had been telling them, "A prophet is without honor only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own home."

King Herod heard about this, because Jesus' name had become well-known. He was saying, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead! That's why he is able to do these miracles."

The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught.

Jesus immediately had his disciples get into a boat and cross to Bethsaida ahead of him, while he sent the crowd away.

As soon as they got out of the boat, the people recognized Jesus.

The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus.

So the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders? Instead, they eat with unclean hands."

Jesus left that place and went to the territory of Tyre and Sidon. He went into a house, not wanting anyone to know he was there. However, it couldn't be kept a secret.

Then Jesus left the territory of Tyre and passed through Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the territory of the Decapolis.

Jesus took him away from the crowd to be alone with him. Putting his fingers into the man's ears, he touched the man's tongue with saliva.

Jesus ordered the people not to tell anyone, but the more he kept ordering them, the more they kept spreading the news.

At that time, after a large crowd again had gathered together with nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples and told them,

The Pharisees arrived and began arguing with Jesus. They tested him by demanding from him a sign from heaven.

Jesus had been warning them, "Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod!"

Knowing this, Jesus asked them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you don't have any bread? Don't you understand or perceive yet? Are your hearts hardened?

As they came to Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged him to touch him.

Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. He spit into his eyes, placed his hands on him, and asked him, "Do you see anything?"

Then Jesus placed his hands on the man's eyes again, and he saw clearly. His sight was restored, and he saw everything perfectly, even from a distance.

Then Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village or tell anyone in the village."

Then Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he was asking his disciples, "Who do people say I am?"

Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah!" Jesus sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind me, Satan, because you're not thinking God's thoughts, but human thoughts!"

Then Jesus called the crowd to himself along with his disciples and told them, "If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me continuously,

Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain to be alone with him. His appearance was changed in front of them,

Then Elijah appeared to them, accompanied by Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.

Then Peter told Jesus, "Rabbi, it's good that we're here! Let's set up three shelters one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

Suddenly, as they looked around, they saw no one with them but Jesus alone.

On their way down the mountain, Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

The whole crowd was very surprised to see Jesus and ran to welcome him.

Jesus told them, "You unbelieving generation! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him to me!"

So they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into convulsions. He fell on the ground and kept rolling around and foaming at the mouth.

Then Jesus asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" He said, "Since he was a child.

Jesus told him, ""If you are able?' Everything is possible for the person who believes!"

When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You spirit that won't let him talk or hear I command you to come out of him and never enter him again!"

But Jesus took his hand and helped him up, and he stood up.

When Jesus came home, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive the spirit out?"

Then they left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus didn't want anyone to find out about it,

Then they came to Capernaum. While Jesus was at home, he asked the disciples, "What were you arguing about on the road?"

John told Jesus, "Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name. We tried to stop him, because he wasn't a follower like us."

But Jesus said, "Don't stop him, because no one who works a miracle in my name can slander me soon afterwards.

Then Jesus left that place and went into the territory of Judea on the other side of the Jordan. Crowds gathered around him as usual, and he began to teach them again as was his custom.