“How can I know this?” Zechariah asked the angel. “For I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.”

And consider your relative Elizabeth—even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless.

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s Messiah.

When He was 12 years old, they went up according to the custom of the festival.

As He began His ministry, Jesus was about 30 years old and was thought to be the

son of Joseph, son of Heli,

When the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to Him. As He laid His hands on each one of them, He would heal them.

Also, demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, “You are the Son of God!” But He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Messiah.

But the news about Him spread even more, and large crowds would come together to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.

He also told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, not only will he tear the new, but also the piece from the new garment will not match the old.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, it will spill, and the skins will be ruined.

And no one, after drinking old wine, wants new, because he says, ‘The old is better.’”

The scribes and Pharisees were watching Him closely, to see if He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a charge against Him.

When the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “This man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching Him—she’s a sinner!”

For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was guarded, bound by chains and shackles, he would snap the restraints and be driven by the demon into deserted places.

because he had an only daughter about 12 years old, and she was at death’s door.

While He was going, the crowds were nearly crushing Him.

Then an argument started among them about who would be the greatest of them.

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes!

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Make money-bags for yourselves that won’t grow old, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

But know this: If the homeowner had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.

He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noticed how they would choose the best places for themselves:

He also said to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, or your rich neighbors, because they might invite you back, and you would be repaid.

He longed to eat his fill from the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him any.

“There was a rich man who would dress in purple and fine linen, feasting lavishly every day.

He longed to be filled with what fell from the rich man’s table, but instead the dogs would come and lick his sores.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, turn Your wrath from me—a sinner!’

why didn’t you put my money in the bank? And when I returned, I would have collected it with interest!’

He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out!”

saying, “If you knew this day what would bring peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.

During the day, He was teaching in the temple complex, but in the evening He would go out and spend the night on what is called the Mount of Olives.

Then all the people would come early in the morning to hear Him in the temple complex.

He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day,

and repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.