But the one who denies me before men will be denied before God's angels.

But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

So it is with the one who stores up riches for himself, but is not rich toward God."

Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than the birds!

And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you people of little faith!

"Get dressed for service and keep your lamps burning;

But if that slave should say to himself, 'My master is delayed in returning,' and he begins to beat the other slaves, both men and women, and to eat, drink, and get drunk,

then the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee, and will cut him in two, and assign him a place with the unfaithful.

That servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or do what his master asked will receive a severe beating.

I tell you, you will never get out of there until you have paid the very last cent!"

So he said to the worker who tended the vineyard, 'For three years now, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and each time I inspect it I find none. Cut it down! Why should it continue to deplete the soil?'

Then if it bears fruit next year, very well, but if not, you can cut it down.'"

Then he placed his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Thus Jesus asked, "What is the kingdom of God like? To what should I compare it?

Again he said, "To what should I compare the kingdom of God?

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves thrown out.

Then people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and take their places at the banquet table in the kingdom of God.

At that time, some Pharisees came up and said to Jesus, "Get away from here, because Herod wants to kill you."

He said also to the man who had invited him, "When you host a dinner or a banquet, don't invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors so you can be invited by them in return and get repaid.

When one of those at the meal with Jesus heard this, he said to him, "Blessed is everyone who will feast in the kingdom of God!"

Another said, 'I just got married, and I cannot come.'

"Salt is good, but if salt loses its flavor, how can its flavor be restored?

In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God's angels over one sinner who repents."

I will get up and go to my father and say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way from home his father saw him, and his heart went out to him; he ran and hugged his son and kissed him.

The slave replied, 'Your brother has returned, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he got his son back safe and sound.'

but he answered his father, 'Look! These many years I have worked like a slave for you, and I never disobeyed your commands. Yet you never gave me even a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends!

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."

But Jesus said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in men's eyes, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God's sight.

"The law and the prophets were in force until John; since then, the good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is urged to enter it.

But at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus whose body was covered with sores,

But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus likewise bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish.

Won't the master instead say to him, 'Get my dinner ready, and make yourself ready to serve me while I eat and drink. Then you may eat and drink'?

Then one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.

Was no one found to turn back and give praise to God except this foreigner?"

Then he said to the man, "Get up and go your way. Your faith has made you well."

Now at one point the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, so he answered, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed,

nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst."

He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people.

For a while he refused, but later on he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people,

Won't God give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay long to help them?

The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers -- or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.'

The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!'

But Jesus called for the children, saying, "Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it."

Now a certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

When Jesus noticed this, he said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!

In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

He replied, "What is impossible for mere humans is possible for God."

Then Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, there is no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of God's kingdom

And those who were in front scolded him to get him to be quiet, but he shouted even more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

And immediately he regained his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they too gave praise to God.

He was trying to get a look at Jesus, but being a short man he could not see over the crowd.

While the people were listening to these things, Jesus proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

And the king said to him, 'Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you will have authority over ten cities.'

Then they brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt, and had Jesus get on it.

As he approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen:

They will demolish you -- you and your children within your walls -- and they will not leave within you one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God."

Thus they asked him, "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly, and show no partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

So he said to them, "Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

In fact, they can no longer die, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, since they are sons of the resurrection.

But even Moses revealed that the dead are raised in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live before him."

So also you, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.

For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."

For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."

When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, exhausted from grief.

So he said to them, "Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you will not fall into temptation!"

Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come out to get him, "Have you come out with swords and clubs like you would against an outlaw?

But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God."

So they all said, "Are you the Son of God, then?" He answered them, "You say that I am."

The people also stood there watching, but the rulers ridiculed him, saying, "He saved others. Let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one!"

But the other rebuked him, saying, "Don't you fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he praised God and said, "Certainly this man was innocent!"

Now there was a man named Joseph who was a member of the council, a good and righteous man.

(He had not consented to their plan and action.) He was from the Judean town of Arimathea, and was looking forward to the kingdom of God.

Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and placed it in a tomb cut out of the rock, where no one had yet been buried.

But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. He bent down and saw only the strips of linen cloth; then he went home, wondering what had happened.

He said to them, "What things?" "The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene," they replied, "a man who, with his powerful deeds and words, proved to be a prophet before God and all the people;

So they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem. They found the eleven and those with them gathered together

and were continually in the temple courts blessing God.