When they were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said, "Wake up! Take the child and his mother and make your escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave. For Herod is going to look for the child in order to make away with him."

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of snakes! Who warned you to escape from the wrath that is coming?

For I tell you, as long as heaven and earth endure, not one dotting of an i or crossing of a t will be dropped from the Law until it is all observed.

Be quick and come to terms with your opponent while you are on the way to court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison.

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go two miles with him.

And you, Capernaum! Are you to be exalted to the skies? You will go down among the dead! For if the wonders that have been done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have stood until today.

for the yoke I offer you is a kindly one, and the load I ask you to bear is light."

But he knew what they were thinking, and he said to them, "Any kingdom that is disunited is on the way to destruction, and any city or household that is disunited cannot last.

for John said to him, "It is not right for you to be living with her."

Then Peter came to him and said, "Master, how many times am I to forgive my brother when he wrongs me? Seven times over?"

He said to them, "It was on account of your perversity that Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, but it was not so at the beginning.

Then Peter spoke and said to him, "Here we have left all we had and followed you. What are we to have?"

Now I leave you to yourselves.

Then they will hand you over to persecution and they will put you to death, and you will be hated by all the heathen because you bear my name.

Then they will go away to everlasting punishment, and the upright to everlasting life."

On the first day of the festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Where do you wish us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover supper?"

The men who had seized Jesus took him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, at whose house the scribes and elders had gathered.

Pilate said to them, "Then what am I to do with Jesus, the so-called Christ?" They all said, "Have him crucified!"

And when they had finished making sport of him, they took off the cloak, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to be crucified.

and teach them to observe all the commands that I have given you. I will always be with you, to the very close of the age."

John said to Herod, "It is not right for you to be living with your brother's wife."

And she hurried back at once to the king and asked him for it, saying, "I want you right away to give me John the Baptist's head on a platter."

Then Jesus and his disciples went away to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he questioned his disciples and said to them, "Who do people say that I am?"

But he answered, "What has Moses commanded you to do?"

And Zebedee's two sons, James and John, came up to him and said, "Master, we want you to do for us whatever we ask."

It was now two days before the festival of the Passover and of Unleavened Bread. And the high priests and scribes were casting about for a way to arrest him by stealth and put him to death,

On the first day of the festival of Unleavened Bread, on which it was customary to kill the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples said to him, "Where do you wish us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover supper?"

They took Jesus away to the high priest, and all the high priests, elders, and scribes came together.

But go and say to his disciples and to Peter, 'He is going before you to Galilee; you will see him there, just as he told you.' "

Zechariah said to the angel, "How am I to know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in life."

Who am I, To have the mother of my Lord come to me?

So he would say to the crowds that came out there to be baptized by him, "You brood of snakes! Who warned you to fly from the wrath that is coming?

The crowds would ask him, "Then what ought we to do?"

Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Master, what ought we to do?"

And soldiers would ask him, "And what ought we to do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money or make false charges against people, but be satisfied with your pay."

for the Scripture says, 'He will give his angels orders about you, to protect you,'

When it was day, he left the house and made his way to a lonely spot, and crowds of people went in search of him, and overtook him and tried to keep him from leaving them.

And as they could find no way to get him in, on account of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his mat through the tiles, among the people in front of Jesus.

And the men went to him and said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for someone else?' "

For he was commanding the foul spirit to get out of the man. For it had often seized him, and though he had been fastened with chains and fetters, and was closely watched, he would snap his bonds and the demon would drive him away to the desert.

When the day began to decline, the Twelve came up and said to him, "Send the crowd away to the villages and farms around to find food and shelter, for we are in a lonely place here."

And a man in the crowd shouted, "Master, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child,

And you, Capernaum! Are you to be exalted to the skies? You will go down among the dead!

But he knew what they were thinking, and he said to them, "Any kingdom that is disunited is on the way to destruction, and one house falls after another.

For when you are going before the magistrate with your opponent, do your best on the way to get rid of him, or he may hurry you off to the judge and the judge hand you over to the constable and the constable throw you into prison.

But the Master answered, "You hypocrites! Does not every one of you untie his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath and lead him away to water him?

Now I leave you to yourselves. And I tell you, you will never see me again until you say, 'Blessed be he who comes in the Lord's name!' "

"When someone invites you to a wedding supper, do not take the best place, for someone more distinguished than you are may have been invited,

Not many days later, the younger son gathered up all he had, and went away to a distant country, and there he squandered his property by fast living.

It happened that, on his way to Jerusalem, he passed through Samaria and Galilee.

With these words he went on ahead of them, on his way to Jerusalem.

and they will throw you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not know when God visited you!"

but they could not find any way to do it, for all the people hung upon his words.

You will be betrayed even by your parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends and they will put some of you to death,

And the high priests and the scribes were casting about for a way to put him to death, for they were afraid of the people.

Then the Jews addressed him and said, "What sign have you to show us, for acting in this way?"

The woman said to him, "Give me this water, sir, so that I may never be thirsty, nor have to come all this way to draw water."

I have sent you to reap a harvest on which you have not worked. Other men have worked and you have profited by their work."

Now it was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the Sabbath, and it is against the Law for you to carry your mat."

Do not suppose that I will accuse you to the Father. Moses is your accuser??oses, on whom you have fixed your hopes!

So they asked the blind man again, "What have you to say about him, because he has made you able to see?" He said, "He is a prophet!"

Then the high priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and they said, "What are we to do about the fact that this man is showing so many signs?

Now my heart is troubled; what am I to say? Father, save me from this trial! And yet it was for this very purpose that I have come to this trial.

There are many rooms in my Father's house; if there were not, I would have told you, for I am going away to make ready a place for you.

You know the way to the place where I am going."

You are my friends if you do what I command you to do.

It was not you who chose me, it is I that have chosen you, and appointed you to go and bear fruit??ruit that shall be lasting, so that the Father may grant you whatever you ask him for as my followers.

"What I command you to do is to love one another.

But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me where I am going,

about uprightness, as shown by my going away to the Father, where you can no longer see me;

Then some of his disciples said to one another, "What does he mean when he tells us, 'In a little while you will not see me any longer, and a little while after, you will see me again,' and 'Because I am going away to the Father'?"

I do not ask you to take them away from the world, but to keep them from evil.

And Pilate went outside again and said to the Jews, "See! I will bring him out to you, to show you that I can find nothing to charge him with."

This made Pilate try to find a way to let him go, but the Jews shouted, "If you let him go, you are no friend of the emperor's! Anyone who calls himself a king utters treason against the emperor!"

At that they shouted, "Kill him! Kill him! Have him crucified!" Pilate said to them, "Am I to crucify your king?" The high priests answered, "We have no king but the emperor!"

He said to them, "It is not for you to know times and dates which the Father has fixed by his own authority,

As they were talking in this way to the people, the high priests, the commander of the Temple, and the Sadducees came up to them,

They said, "What are we to do with these men? For it is plain to everyone in Jerusalem that an extraordinary wonder has been done by them. We cannot deny that.

But after further threats they let them go, as they could find no way to punish them, on account of the people, who were all giving honor to God for what had happened,

This was the passage of Scripture that he was reading: "Like a sheep he was led away to be slaughtered, And just as a lamb is dumb before its shearer, He does not open his mouth.

while Philip found himself at Ashdod and went on telling the good news in all the towns all the way to Caesarea.

When the brothers found this out, they took him down to Caesarea, and sent him away to Tarsus.

While Peter was still wondering what the vision he had had could mean, the men whom Cornelius had sent had asked the way to Simon's house and reached the door,

They answered, "Cornelius, who is a captain, and an upright and God-fearing man, and who has a good reputation with the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house, and to listen to what you have to say."

So I sent for you immediately, and you have very kindly come. Now we are all here in God's presence, to hear everything that the Lord has instructed you to say."

So if God had given them the same gift that we received when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, to be able to interfere with God?"

The fugitives from the persecution that had broken out over Stephen went all the way to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they told the message to none but Jews.

The news about them came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas all the way to Antioch.

When they arrived there, they called the church together, and reported how God had worked with them, and how he had opened the way to faith for the heathen.

So we send Judas and Silas to you, to give you this same message by word of mouth.

Once as we were on our way to the praying place a slave-girl met us who had the gift of ventriloquism, and made her masters a great deal of money by her fortune-telling.

She did this for a number of days, until Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit in her, "In the name of Jesus Christ I order you to come out of her!" And it came out instantly.

The men who went with Paul took him all the way to Athens, and came back with instructions for Silas and Timothy to rejoin him as soon as possible.

I am here now on my way to Jerusalem, for the Spirit compels me to go there, though I do not know what will happen to me there,

Now I commit you to the Lord, and to the message of his favor, which will build you up and give you a place among those whom God has consecrated.

"I am a Jew," Paul answered, "from Tarsus, in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. I beg you to let me speak to the people."

Then I said, 'What am I to do, sir?' The Lord said to me, 'Get up and go into Damascus. There you will be told of all you are destined to do.'

and he said, 'The God of our forefathers has appointed you to learn his will and to see his Righteous One and hear him speak,

But he said to me, 'Go! I will send you far away to the heathen.' "

But when they had strapped him up, Paul said to the officer who was standing near, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen, and without giving him a trial?"