And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the leaders of Judah:
because out of you will come a leader
who will shepherd My people Israel.”

He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you find Him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship Him.”

He stayed there until Herod’s death, so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled: Out of Egypt I called My Son.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but the One who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove His sandals. He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

But John tried to stop Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and yet You come to me?”

And there came a voice from heaven:

This is My beloved Son.
I take delight in Him!

And he said to Him, “I will give You all these things if You will fall down and worship me.”

“Follow Me,” He told them, “and I will make you fish for people!”

“You are blessed when they insult and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me.

In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a log in your eye?

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.

On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’

Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’

Right away a man with a serious skin disease came up and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible agony!”

“Lord,” the centurion replied, “I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. But only say the word, and my servant will be cured.

For I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”

“Lord,” another of His disciples said, “first let me go bury my father.”

But Jesus told him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

But so you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He told the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”

As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” So he got up and followed Him.

As He was telling them these things, suddenly one of the leaders came and knelt down before Him, saying, “My daughter is near death, but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.”

“Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as serpents and as harmless as doves.

You will even be brought before governors and kings because of Me, to bear witness to them and to the nations.

You will be hated by everyone because of My name. But the one who endures to the end will be delivered.

“Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven.

But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven.

The person who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; the person who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.

Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it.

“The one who welcomes you welcomes Me, and the one who welcomes Me welcomes Him who sent Me.

And if anyone is not offended because of Me, he is blessed.”

This is the one it is written about:

Look, I am sending My messenger ahead of You;
he will prepare Your way before You.

All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him.

“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.

For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Here is My Servant whom I have chosen,
My beloved in whom My soul delights;
I will put My Spirit on Him,
and He will proclaim justice to the nations.

Anyone who is not with Me is against Me, and anyone who does not gather with Me scatters.

Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to my house that I came from.’ And returning, it finds the house vacant, swept, and put in order.

But He replied to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?”

And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!

For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven, that person is My brother and sister and mother.”

He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but store the wheat in my barn.’”

so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled:

I will open My mouth in parables;
I will declare things kept secret
from the foundation of the world.

And prompted by her mother, she answered, “Give me John the Baptist’s head here on a platter!”

“Bring them here to Me,” He said.

“Lord, if it’s You,” Peter answered Him, “command me to come to You on the water.”

But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple”—

These people honor Me with their lips,
but their heart is far from Me.

They worship Me in vain,
teaching as doctrines the commands of men.”

He replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted.

Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly tormented by a demon.”

But she came, knelt before Him, and said, “Lord, help me!”

Now Jesus summoned His disciples and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry; otherwise they might collapse on the way.”

And Jesus responded, “Simon son of Jonah, you are blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father in heaven.

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the forces of Hades will not overpower it.

But He turned and told Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns, but man’s.”

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will find it.

While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said:

This is My beloved Son.
I take delight in Him.
Listen to Him!

“Lord,” he said, “have mercy on my son, because he has seizures and suffers severely. He often falls into the fire and often into the water.

Jesus replied, “You unbelieving and rebellious generation! How long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.”

“But, so we won’t offend them, go to the sea, cast in a fishhook, and take the first fish that you catch. When you open its mouth you’ll find a coin. Take it and give it to them for Me and you.”

And whoever welcomes one child like this in My name welcomes Me.

“But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea!

“See that you don’t look down on one of these little ones, because I tell you that in heaven their angels continually view the face of My Father in heaven.

But if he won’t listen, take one or two more with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established.

Again, I assure you: If two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven.

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there among them.”

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

“At this, the slave fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything!’

“At this, his fellow slave fell down and began begging him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’

“Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.

So My heavenly Father will also do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart.”

Then Jesus said, “Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to Me, because the kingdom of heaven is made up of people like this.”

“Why do you ask Me about what is good?” He said to him. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

“If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

Jesus said to them, “I assure you: In the Messianic Age, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

And everyone who has left houses, brothers or sisters, father or mother, children, or fields because of My name will receive 100 times more and will inherit eternal life.

To those men he said, ‘You also go to my vineyard, and I’ll give you whatever is right.’ So off they went.

“‘Because no one hired us,’ they said to him.

“‘You also go to my vineyard,’ he told them.

“He replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I’m doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me on a denarius?

Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my business? Are you jealous because I’m generous?’

“What do you want?” He asked her.

“Promise,” she said to Him, “that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right and the other on Your left, in Your kingdom.”

He told them, “You will indeed drink My cup. But to sit at My right and left is not Mine to give; instead, it belongs to those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.”

Jesus stopped, called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

telling them, “Go into the village ahead of you. At once you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me.

And He said to them, “It is written, My house will be called a house of prayer. But you are making it a den of thieves!”

Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He went up to it and found nothing on it except leaves. And He said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” At once the fig tree withered.

Jesus answered them, “I will also ask you one question, and if you answer it for Me, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

“But what do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go, work in the vineyard today.’

Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.

Again, he sent out other slaves, and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: Look, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’