They were both upright in the sight of God, blamelessly observing all the Lord's commands and requirements.

Once when he was acting as priest before God, when his division was on duty,

and he will turn many of Israel's descendants to the Lord their God.

The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the very presence of God. I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,

And the angel went into the town and said to her, "Good morning, favored woman! The Lord be with you!"

And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have gained God's approval.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his forefather David,

The angel answered, "The holy Spirit will come over you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. For that reason your child will be called holy, and the Son of God.

For nothing is ever impossible for God."

My spirit exults in God my Savior.

He has satisfied the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty-handed.

And they were all amazed. Then his voice and the use of his tongue were immediately restored, and he blessed God aloud.

"Blessings on the Lord, the God of Israel, Because he has turned his attention to his people, and brought about their deliverance,

"Because the heart of our God is merciful, And so the day will dawn upon us from on high,

The angel said to them, "Do not be frightened, for I bring you good news of a great joy that is to be felt by all the people,

Suddenly there appeared with the angel a throng of the heavenly army, praising God, saying,

"Glory to God in heaven and on earth! Peace to the men he favors!"

And the shepherds went back glorifying God and praising him for all that they had heard and seen in fulfilment of what they had been told.

Symeon also took him in his arms and blessed God, and said,

She came up just at that time and gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were living in expectation of the liberation of Jerusalem.

And the child grew up and became strong and thoughtful, with God's blessing resting on him.

As Jesus grew older he gained in wisdom and won the approval of God and men.

in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, a message from God came to Zechariah's son John in the desert.

as the book of the sermons of the prophet Isaiah says, "Hark! Someone is shouting in the desert, Get the Lord's way ready! Make his paths straight.

And all mankind is to see how God can save!"

Then produce fruit that will be consistent with your professed repentance! And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our forefather,' for I tell you, God can produce descendants for Abraham right out of these stones!

But the axe is already lying at the roots of the trees. Any tree that fails to produce good fruit is going to be cut down and thrown into the fire."

So with many varied exhortations he would preach the good news to the people,

the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

And the devil said to him, "If you are God's son, tell this stone to turn into bread!"

Jesus answered, "The Scripture says, 'You must do homage before the Lord your God, and worship him alone.' "

And he took him to Jerusalem, and made him stand on the summit of the Temple, and said to him, "If you are God's son, throw yourself down from here,

Jesus answered, "We have been told, 'You shall not try the Lord your God.' "

"The spirit of the Lord is upon me, For he has consecrated me to preach the good news to the poor, He has sent me to announce to the prisoners their release and to the blind the recovery of their sight, To set the down-trodden at liberty,

and they got up and drove him out of the town and took him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, intending to throw him down from it.

"Ha! What do you want of us, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are! You are God's Holy One!"

Jesus reproved him and said, "Silence! Get out of him!" And the demon threw the man down in the midst of them, and came out of him, without doing him any harm.

When he got up and left the synagogue, he went to Simon's house. And Simon's mother-in-law was suffering with a severe attack of fever, and they asked him about her.

And he stood over her and reproved the fever and it left her, and she got up and waited on them.

And demons came out of many people, crying out, "You are the Son of God!" But he reproved them and forbade them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.

But he said to them, "I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also, for that is what I was sent to do."

Once as the crowd was pressing about him to hear God's message, he happened to be standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,

And he got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to push out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds of people from the boat.

Some men came up carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they tried to get him in and lay him before Jesus.

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 scribes and the Pharisees began to debate and say, "Who is this man who talks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?

But to let you know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"??urning to the man who was paralyzed he said to him??"I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!"

And he got up at once before them all, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, praising God.

They were all seized with astonishment, and praised God, and filled with awe they said, "We have seen something wonderful today!"

And he left everything and got up and followed him.

He used this figure also in speaking to them: "No one tears a piece from a new coat and sews it on an old one, or if he does, he will both tear the new one and the piece from the new one will not match the old one.

How he went into the house of God and took the Presentation Loaves, which it was against the Law for anyone but the priests to eat, and ate them with his companions?"

But he knew what they were thinking, and he said to the man with the withered hand, "Get up and stand in front." And he got up and stood there.

Jesus said to them, "I want to ask you, Is it allowable on the Sabbath to do people good or to do them harm? to save life or to destroy it?"

It was in those days that he went up on the mountain to pray, and passed the whole night in prayer to God.

Then he fixed his eyes on his disciples, and said, "Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours!

To the man that strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from the man who takes away your coat, do not keep back your shirt either.

And if you lend only to people from whom you expect to get something, what merit is there in that? Even godless people lend to godless people, meaning to get it back again in full.

Give, and they will give to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, they will pour into your lap. For the measure you use with others they in turn will use with you."

How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, just let me get that speck out of your eye,' when you cannot see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First get the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see to get out the speck in your brother's eye.

A good man, out of the good he has accumulated in his heart, produces good, and a bad man, out of what he has accumulated that is bad, produces what is bad. For his mouth says only what his heart is full of.

As he came up to the gate of the town, a dead man was being carried out; he was his mother's only son, and she was a widow. A crowd of the townspeople was with her.

And they were all overcome with awe, and they praised God, and said, "A great prophet has appeared among us!" and "God has not forgotten his people!"

And he answered them, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind are regaining their sight, the lame can walk, the lepers are being cured and the deaf can hear, the dead are being raised and good news is being preached to the poor.

"I tell you, among men born of women there is none greater than John; and yet those who are of little importance in the Kingdom of God are greater than he.

And all the people, even the tax-collectors, when they heard him, acknowledged the justice of God's demands, by accepting baptism from John,

but the Pharisees and experts in the Law thwarted God's purpose for themselves, by refusing to be baptized by him.

Now there was a woman in the town who was leading a sinful life, and when she learned that he was having dinner at the Pharisee's house, she got an alabaster flask of perfume,

Soon afterward he went about among the villages and towns preaching and telling the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Twelve went with him,

And some fell on good soil, and grew up and yielded a hundred fold!" As he said this he called out, "Let him who has ears to hear with, listen!"

And he said, "You are permitted to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God, but they are given to others in the form of figures, so that they may look and yet not see, and hear and yet not understand.

This is what the figure means. The seed is God's message.

But the seed in the good soil means those who listen to the message and keep it in good, true hearts, and yield unfailingly.

His mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not get near him, on account of the crowd.

He answered, "My mother and my brothers are those who listen to God's message and obey it!"

It happened one day that he got into a boat with his disciples, and said to them, "Let us cross to the other side of the lake."

When he saw Jesus he cried out and threw himself down before him, and said in a loud voice, "What do you want of me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you not to torture me!"

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.

Then all the people of the neighborhood of Gerasa asked him to go away from them, for they were terribly frightened. And he got into a boat and went back.

"Go back to your home, and tell all that God has done for you." And he went and told all over the town what Jesus had done for him.

But Jesus heard it and said to him, "Do not be afraid; just have faith, and she will get well."

When he got to the house, he let no one go in with him but Peter, John, and James, and the child's father and mother.

But he grasped her hand and called out, "Get up, my child!"

and he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to cure the sick.

And they set forth and went from village to village, telling the good news and curing people everywhere.

But the crowds learned of it and followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God, and he cured those who needed to be cured.

And he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "The Christ of God!"

What good does it do a man to gain the whole world and lose or forfeit himself?

I tell you, some of you who stand here will certainly live to see the Kingdom of God!"

Just as they were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, how good it is that we are here! Let us put up three huts, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah!" For he did not know what he was saying.

And they were all amazed at the power of God. While everybody was full of wonder at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples,

Jesus said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; you must go and spread the news of the Kingdom of God!"

Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plough, and then looks back, is fitted for the Kingdom of God."

and cure the sick there, and say to them, 'The Kingdom of God is close upon you!'

'The very dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off in protest. But understand this: the Kingdom of God is at hand!'

Then an expert in the Law got up to test him and said, "Master, what must I do to make sure of eternal life?"

He answered, " 'You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole strength, and your whole mind,' and 'your neighbor as you do yourself.' "

and he answers from inside, 'Do not bother me; the door is now fastened, and my children and I have gone to bed; I cannot get up and give you any.'