And the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to name him John.

This will bring gladness and delight to you, and many will rejoice over his birth.

For he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink no wine or strong drink, but he will be filled with the holy Spirit from his very birth,

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

He will go before him with the spirit and the power of Elijah, to reconcile fathers to their children, and to bring the disobedient back to the wisdom of upright men, to make a people perfectly ready for the Lord."

Now you will keep silent and be unable to speak until the day when this happens, because you have not believed what I have said, for it will all be fulfilled in due time."

You are to become a mother and you will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus.

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,

and he will reign over Jacob's house forever; his reign will have no end."

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.

Blessed is she who has believed, For what the Lord has promised her will be fulfilled!"

For he has noticed his slave in her humble station, For from this time all the ages will think me favored!

"And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, For you will go before the Lord to make his way ready,

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

And this will prove it to you: You will find a baby wrapped up and lying in a manger."

"Now, Master, you will let your slave go free In peace, as you promised,

And he gave them his blessing, and said to Mary, the child's mother, "This child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a portent that will be much debated??35 you yourself will be pierced to the heart??nd so the thoughts of many minds will be revealed."

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!

John said to them all, "I am only baptizing you in water, but someone is coming who is stronger than I am, whose shoes I am not fit to untie. He will baptize you in the holy Spirit and in fire.

He has his winnowing fork in his hand, to clean up his threshing-floor, and store his wheat in his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with inextinguishable fire."

And the devil said to him, "I will give you all this power and their splendor, for it has been turned over to me, and I can give it to anyone I please.

If you will do homage before me, it shall all be yours."

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

and, 'They will lift you up with their hands, so that you may never strike your foot against a stone.' "

He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to me: 'Doctor, cure yourself! Do the things here in your own country that we hear you did at Capernaum.'

Simon answered, "Master, we worked all night and caught nothing, but as you tell me to do it, I will put down the nets."

But other days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, in those days they will fast."

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.

And nobody puts new wine into old wine-skins, or if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and run out, and the skins will be spoiled.

"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied! "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh!

Be glad when that happens, and leap for joy, for you will be richly rewarded in heaven, for that is the way their forefathers treated the prophets.

"Alas for you who have plenty to eat now, for you will be hungry! "Alas for you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep!

But love your enemies, and help them and lend to them, never despairing, and you will be richly rewarded, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind even to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Do not judge others, and they will not judge you. Do not condemn them, and they will not condemn you. Excuse others and they will excuse you.

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."

And he used a figure saying, "Can one blind man lead another? Will they not both fall into a hole?

A pupil is not better than his teacher, but every pupil when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

If anyone comes to me and listens to this teaching of mine and acts upon it, I will show you whom he is like.

This is the man of whom the Scripture says, " 'Here I send my messenger on before you, He will prepare the road ahead of you!'

As they could not pay him, he canceled what they owed him. Now which of them will be more attached to him?"

"A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some of the seed fell by the path and was trodden on, and the wild birds ate it up.

So take care how you listen. For people who have will have more given to them, and from people who have nothing, even what they think they have will be taken away."

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

And where they will not welcome you, leave that town and shake off the very dust from your feet as a protest against them."

For whoever wants to preserve his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me will preserve it.

For if anyone is ashamed of me and my teaching the Son of Man will be ashamed of him, when he comes with all the glory of his Father and of the holy angels.

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

When the disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, "Master, will you have us order fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"

As they were going along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."

Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and wild birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head!"

If there is anyone there who loves peace, your blessing will rest upon him, but if there is not, it will come back to you.

I tell you, on that Day Sodom will fare better than that town!

But Tyre and Sidon will fare better than you at the Judgment!

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

Here I have given you the power to tread on snakes and scorpions, and to trample on all the power of the enemy. Nothing will hurt you at all.

Jesus said to him, "You are right. Do that, and you will live."

The next day he took out a dollar and gave it to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend I will refund to you on my way back.'

I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him some because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rouse himself and give him all he needs.

So I tell you, ask, and what you ask will be given you. Search, and you will find what you search for. Knock, and the door will open to you.

Which of you fathers, if his son asks him for a fish will give him a snake instead?

Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

So if you, bad as you are, know enough to give your children what is good, how much more surely will your Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him for it!"

When a foul spirit goes out of a man, it roams through deserts in search of rest, and when it finds none, it says, 'I will go back to my house that I left.'

As the crowds pressed a round him, he went on to say, "This is a wicked age! It demands a sign, and no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah.

For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be a sign to this age.

The queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation at the Judgment and will condemn them, for she came from the very ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and there is more than Solomon here!

Men of Nineveh will rise with this generation at the Judgment and will condemn it, for they repented at Jonah's preaching, and there is more than Jonah here.

If, therefore, your whole body is light with no darkness in it at all, it will all be as light as a lamp makes things for you by its light."

But give your inmost life as charity, and you will immediately find everything clean.

But he said, "Yes, alas for you experts in the Law too! For you load men with burdens they can hardly carry, and you will not touch them yourselves with a single finger.

This is why the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send prophets and apostles to them, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute'??50 so that this age may be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the creation of the world,

from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you! This age will be charged with it all!

For what you say in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you whisper in someone's ear, behind closed doors, will be proclaimed from the housetops.

I will show you whom to fear: fear him who, after killing you, has power to hurl you into the pit. Yes, fear him, I tell you.

I tell you, everyone who will acknowledge me before men, the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God,

but anyone who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God.

And anyone who speaks against the Son of Man will be forgiven for it, but no one who reviles the holy Spirit will be forgiven.

for at the very moment the holy Spirit will teach you what you ought to say."

Then he said, 'This is what I will do; I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and in them I will store all my grain and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have great wealth stored up for years to come. Now take your ease; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself." '

But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul will be demanded of you. Then who will have all you have prepared?'

And he said to his disciples, "Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about life, wondering what you will have to eat, or about your body, wondering what you will have to wear.

But if God so dresses the wild grass, which is alive today, and is thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more surely will he clothe you, who have so little faith?

But you must strive to find his kingdom, and you will have these other things besides.

Sell what belongs to you, and give away the money! Get yourselves purses that will never wear out, inexhaustible riches in heaven, where thieves cannot get near nor moths destroy.

For wherever your treasure is, your heart will be too.

Blessed are the slaves whom their master will find on the watch when he comes. I tell you, he will gird up his robe and make them take their places at table, and go around and wait on them.

And the Master said, "Who then will be the faithful, thoughtful manager, whom his master will put in charge of his household, to give the members of it their supplies at the proper time?

I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his property.

that slave's master will come back some day when he does not expect him, and at some time of which he does not know, and will cut him in two, and put him with the unbelievers.

The slave who knows his master's wishes, but does not get ready or act upon them, will be severely punished.

But one who does wrong without knowing them will be lightly punished. From anyone who has been given much, much will be required, and of the man to whom people have intrusted much, they will demand even more.

For from now on if there are five people in a house they will be divided three against two and two against three.

Father will be against son, and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

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

No, I tell you; unless you repent, you will all perish as they did!

No, I tell you; unless you repent, you will all perish as they did!"

perhaps it will bear fruit next year. But if it does not, you can have it cut down.' "

It is like a mustard seed that a man took and dropped in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the wild birds roosted on its branches."

"You must strain every nerve to get in through the narrow door, for I tell you many will try to get in, and will not succeed,