have handed them down to us, I too, most excellent Theophilus, because I have carefully investigated them all from the start, have felt impressed to write them out in order for you

Now they were both upright in the sight of God, walking without reproach in all the Lord's commands and requirements.

while all the throng of people were praying outside at the hour of the incense burning.

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

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

For he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must drink no wine nor strong drink, and so he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his birth.

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

He will go before Him in the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the upright, to make ready for the Lord a people perfectly prepared."

Now you will keep silent and be unable to talk until the day when this takes place, because you did not believe what I told you, for it will be fulfilled at the proper time."

Listen! You will become pregnant and bear a son, and you must 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 the house of Jacob forever; His reign will have no end."

Then the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and so your child will be called holy, the Son of God.

Blessed is she who has believed, for what is promised to her by the Lord will be fulfilled."

for He has smiled upon His slave in her lowly station, for from this day all ages will count me happy!

Then he asked for a writing-tablet, and wrote, "His name is John." And they were all astonished.

And all the neighbors were overwhelmed with awe, and all over the hill country of Judea these things were being talked,

and all who heard them kept them in their hearts, and said, "What then is this child to be?" for the hand of the Lord was with him.

deliverance from our foes and from the hands of all who hate us,

in holiness and uprightness In His own presence all our days.

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to make ready His ways,

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

Now in those days an edict was issued by the Emperor Augustus that a census of the whole world should be taken.

This, the first census, was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

While they were there, the time came for her to give birth,

But the angel said to them: "Stop being afraid, for now I bring you good tidings of great joy which is to be for all the people;

And this is proof for you: You will find a baby wrapped up and lying in a manger."

And all who heard it were astounded at what was told them by the shepherds,

but Mary continued to treasure it all up and to ponder it in her heart.

Then the shepherds went back continuing to give glory and praise to God for all that they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.

"Now, Master, you will let your slave go free in peace, as you have promised;

which you prepared before all peoples,

yea, a sword will pierce your heart -- so that the secret purposes of many hearts will be revealed."

She was very old; from girlhood she had lived seven years with a husband, and now had been a widow eighty years. She never left the temple, but continued to worship all day and all night with fastings and prayers.

Just at that time she came up and began to give thanks to God and to speak about the child to all who were expecting the deliverance of Jerusalem.

They supposed that He was somewhere in the caravan, and so they traveled a whole day before they began to make an anxious search for Him among His relatives and acquaintances.

So He went back to Nazareth with them and continued to obey them. But His mother continued to treasure up all these sayings in her heart.

And he went all over the Jordan valley, preaching a baptism conditioned on repentance to obtain the forgiveness of sins,

And all mankind must see the salvation of God.'"

Now while the people were on tiptoe in their expectations, and they were all arguing in their hearts about John whether he was himself the Christ,

John expressly answered them all, "I am baptizing you in water only, but there is coming the One who is stronger than I am, whose shoestrings I am not fit to untie. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire;

His winnowing-fork is in His hand, and He will clean out His threshing-floor, and store His wheat in His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with fire inextinguishable."

But Herod the governor, because he was repeatedly reproved by him for Herodias his brother's wife, and for all the wicked deeds that Herod had done,

added this on top of it all, that he put John in prison.

Now when all the people had been baptized, and when Jesus had been baptized and was still praying, heaven opened

Now Jesus Himself was about thirty years old when He began His work; He was the son, as was supposed, of Joseph, the son of Eli,

while He was being tempted by the devil. During that time He ate nothing, and so at the end of it He felt hungry.

Then he took Him up and in a second of time he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world.

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

So if you will worship before me just once, it shall all be yours."

for the Scripture says, 'He will give His angels directions about you, to protect you,'

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

Then Jesus in the power of the Spirit returned to Galilee, and news of Him spread all over the surrounding country.

Meanwhile He began to teach in their synagogues, and was continuously receiving praise from all.

So they all began to speak well of Him and to wonder at the gracious words that fell from His lips, and yet they continued to say, "Is He not Joseph's son?"

He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote this proverb to me, 'Doctor, cure yourself! Do the things here in your hometown that we hear you did in Capernaum.'"

But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the heaven was closed for three years and a half, and there was a great famine over all the land,

Then all the people in the synagogue, on hearing these things, were filled with fury,

Amazement then seized them all and they continued to talk it over among themselves, and to say, "What does this message mean? For with authority and power He gives orders to foul spirits, and they come out."

As the sun was setting, all who had friends sick with various diseases brought them to Him. Then He continued to lay His hands upon them one by one and cured them.

Simon answered, "We have toiled all night and caught nothing, but since you tell me to do so, I will set the nets again."

For at the haul of fish that they had made, bewildering amazement had seized him and all his men,

as well as James and John, Zebedee's sons, who were Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Stop being afraid; from now on you will be catching men."

Now while He was in one of the towns, a man covered with leprosy saw Jesus and fell on his face and begged Him, saying, "Lord, if you choose to, you can cure me."

Then at once he got up before them all, picked up the pallet on which he had been lying, and went off home, giving praise to God.

Then an overwhelming wonder seized them all and they began to give praise to God. They were filled with awe and continued to say, "We have seen unthinkable wonders today!"

But Jesus answered them, "Not well but sick people have to send for the doctor.

But Jesus said to them, "You cannot make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?

But a time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; at that time they will fast."

Then He told them a short story: "No one tears a piece from a new coat and puts it on an old one; or if he does, he will tear the new one too, and the patch from the new coat will not match the old one.

So no one puts fresh wine into old wine bottles; or, if he does, the fresh wine will burst the bottles, the wine will run out, and the bottles will be ruined.

Then He glanced around at them all and said to him, "Put out your hand." And he did so, and his hand was at once completely restored.

Now it was in those days that He went up on the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.

Then He came down with them and took His stand on a level place, where there was a great throng of His disciples and a vast crowd of people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and the seacoast district of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear Him and to be cured of their diseases.

So all the people were trying to touch Him, because power continued to go forth from Him and to cure them all.

Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be completely satisfied! Blessed are you who are weeping now, for you will laugh!

Burst into joy on that day and leap for ecstasy, for your reward will be rich in heaven; for this is the way your forefathers used to treat the prophets.

A curse on you who live in luxury now, for you will be hungry. A curse on you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

A curse on you when everyone speaks well of you, for this is the way their forefathers used to treat the false prophets.

But you must practice loving your enemies, doing good to them, and lending to them, despairing of nothing; so that your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

Then stop criticizing others, and you will never be criticized; stop condemning others, and you will never be condemned.

Practice forgiving others, and you will be forgiven. Practice giving to others, and they will give to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, people will pour into your lap. For the measure you use with others they in turn will use with you."

Then He told them a story: "Can one blind man lead another? Will they not both fall into the ditch?

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

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

Everyone who comes to me and continues to listen to my words and practices their teachings, I will show you whom he is like.

He is like a man who was building a house, who dug deep, and laid its foundation upon the rock; and when a flood came, the torrent burst upon that house but it could not shake it, because it was well built.

When He had finished all these sayings in the hearing of the people, He went into Capernaum.

Then the messengers returned to the house and found the slave well.

So awe seized them all, and they began to praise God, saying, "A great prophet has appeared among us!" and, "God has visited His people!"

This story about Him spread all over Judea and all the surrounding country.

Now John's disciples told him about all these things.

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

"I tell you, of all men born of women there is not one greater than John; and yet the one who is of least importance in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

And all the people, even the tax-collectors, when they heard him, vindicated the righteous requirements of God by submitting to John's baptism,

But wisdom is vindicated by all who are truly wise."

Since they could not pay him, he graciously canceled the debts for both of them. Now which one of them will love him more?"

You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume.

So take care how you listen, for whoever gets more will have more given to him, and whoever does not get more will have even what he thinks he has taken away from him."

Then all the inhabitants of the country around Gerasa asked Him to go away from them, because they were terribly frightened. So He got into a boat and went back.