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

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See! I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way.

He is a voice calling out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way for the Lord! Make his paths straight!'"

He kept proclaiming, "The one who is coming after me is stronger than I am, and I am not worthy to bend down and untie his sandal straps.

I baptized you with water, but it is he who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens split open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

He said, "The time is now! The kingdom of God is near! Repent, and keep believing the gospel!"

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!"

All the people were so stunned that they kept saying to each other, "What is this? A new teaching with authority! He tells even the unclean spirits what to do, and they obey him!"

He told the man, "Be sure that you don't tell anyone. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest, and then offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded as proof to the authorities."

"Why does this man talk this way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

"Which is easier: to say to the paralyzed man, "Your sins are forgiven,' or "Get up, pick up your mat, and walk'?

So the man got up, immediately picked up his mat, and went out in front of all of them. As a result, all of the people were amazed and began to glorify God as they kept on saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

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.

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.

"No one patches an old garment with a piece of unshrunk cloth. If he does, the patch pulls away from it the new from the old and a worse tear is made.

And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will make the skins burst, and both the wine and the skins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins."

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.

The Pharisees asked him, "Look! Why are they doing what is not lawful on Sabbath days?"

Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

Then he asked them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do evil on Sabbath days, to save a life or to destroy it?" But they remained silent.

Zebedee's sons James and his brother John (whom he named Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder),

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

And if a household is divided against itself, that household won't stand.

So if Satan rebels against himself and is divided, he cannot stand. Indeed, his end has come.

But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never be forgiven, but is guilty of eternal sin."

Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

As he was sowing, some seeds fell along the path, and birds came and ate them up.

Some people are like the seeds along the path, where the word is sown. When they hear it, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

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?

Nothing is hidden except for the purpose of having it revealed, and nothing is secret except for the purpose of having it come to light.

He was also saying, "The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seeds on the ground.

But when the grain is ripe, he immediately starts cutting with his sickle because the harvest time has come."

He was also saying, "How can we show what the kingdom of God is like, or what parable can we use to describe it?

Overcome with fear, they kept saying to one another, "Who is this man? Even the wind and the sea obey him!"

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

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.

So the demons begged him, "Send us among the pigs, so that we can go into them!"

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

and begged him urgently, saying, "My little daughter is dying. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may get well and live."

While he was still speaking, some people came from the synagogue leader's home and said, "Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher anymore?"

When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were utterly amazed. "Where did this man get all these things?" they asked. "What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What great miracles are being done by his hands!

This is the builder, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon, isn't it? His sisters are here with us, aren't they?" And they were offended by him.

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

If any place will not welcome you and the people refuse to listen to you, when you leave, shake its dust off your feet as a testimony against them."

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."

Others were saying, "He is Elijah." Still others were saying, "He is a prophet like one of the other prophets."

When it was quite late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and it's already late.

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

They noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them.

They don't eat anything from the marketplace unless they dip it in water. They also observe many other traditions, such as the proper washing of washing cups, jars, brass pots, and dinner tables.)

He told them, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me is worthless, because they teach human rules as doctrines.'

But you say, "If anyone tells his father or mother, "Whatever support you might have received from me is Corban,"' (that is, an offering to God)

because it's from within, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come, as well as sexual immorality, stealing, murder,

In fact, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him and came and fell down at his feet.

But he kept telling her, "First let the children be filled. It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the puppies."

Then he looked up to heaven, sighed, and told him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened!"

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

If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes with the holy angels in his Father's glory."

Then a cloud appeared and overshadowed them. A voice came out of the cloud and said, "This is my Son, whom I love. Keep on listening to him!"

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

He told them, "Elijah is indeed coming first and will restore all things. Why, then, is it written that the Son of Man must suffer a great deal and be treated shamefully?

But I tell you that Elijah has come, yet people treated him just as they pleased, as it is written about him."

As they approached the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and some scribes arguing with them.

The spirit has often thrown him into fire and into water to destroy him. But if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us!"

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

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."

Whoever is not against us is for us.

In that place, worms never die, and the fire is never put out.

In that place, worms never die, and the fire is never put out.

In that place, worms never die, and the fire is never put out.

Salt is good. But if salt loses its taste, how can you restore its flavor? Keep on having salt among yourselves, and live in peace with one another."

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.

Some Pharisees came to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"

I tell all of you with certainty, whoever doesn't receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."

Then after he had hugged the children, he tenderly blessed them as he laid his hands on them.

As Jesus was setting out again, a man ran up to him, knelt down in front of him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus asked him. "Nobody is good except for one God.

The disciples were startled by these words, but Jesus told them again, "Children, how hard it is for those who trust in their wealth to get into the kingdom of God!

It's easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God."

Jesus said, "I tell all of you with certainty, there is no one who has left his home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or fields because of me and the gospel

who will not receive a hundred times as much here in this world homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields, along with persecution as well as eternal life in the age to come.

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, went to Jesus and told him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask you."

They asked him, "Let us sit in your glory, one on your right and one on your left."

Jesus called his disciples and told them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers among the unbelievers lord it over them, and their superiors act like tyrants over them.

because even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many people."

Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus, his disciples, and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus (that is, the son of Timaeus) was sitting by the road.

and told them, "Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you go into it, you will find a colt tied up that no one has ever ridden. Untie it, and bring it along.

Those who went ahead and those who followed him were shouting, "Hosanna! How blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

How blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

The next day, as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus became hungry.

Then he began to teach them: "It is written, is it not, "My house is to be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you've turned it into a hideout for bandits!"

That is why I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.

But those farmers told one another, "This is the heir. Come on, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!'

This was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes'?"

They came and told him, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere. You don't favor any individual, because you pay no attention to external appearance. Rather, you teach the way of God truthfully. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or shouldn't we?"

So they brought one. Then he asked them, "Whose face and name are on this?" They told him, "Caesar's."

Then some Sadducees, who claim there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him,