If I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own followers drive them out? That is why they will be your judges!

But when a stronger man than he attacks and defeats him, the stronger man strips off that man's armor in which he trusted and then divides his plunder.

"Whenever an unclean spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through dry places looking for a place to rest but doesn't find any. So it says, "I will go back to my home that I left.'

Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all go in and settle there. And so the final condition of that person is worse than the first."

As Jesus was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and told him, "How blessed is the womb that gave birth to you and the breasts that nursed you!"

The queen of the south will stand up at the judgment and condemn the people living today, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But look, something greater than Solomon is here!

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment and condemn the people living today, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. But look, something greater than Jonah is here!"

"No one lights a lamp and puts it in a hiding place or under a basket, but on a lamp stand, so that those who enter may see its light.

Therefore, be careful that the light in you isn't darkness.

The Pharisee was surprised to see that he didn't first wash before the meal.

Jesus said, "How terrible it will be for you experts in the Law, too! You load people with burdens that are hard to carry, yet you don't even lift a finger to ease those burdens.

That is why the Wisdom of God said, "I will send them prophets and apostles. They will kill some of them and persecute others,'

so those living today will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that was shed since the foundation of the world,

Meanwhile, the people had gathered by the thousands and were trampling on one another. Jesus began to speak first to his disciples. "Watch out for the yeast that is, the hypocrisy of the Pharisees!

There is nothing covered up that won't be exposed and nothing secret that won't be made known.

"But I tell you, my friends, never be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can't do anything more.

Why, even all the hairs on your head have been counted! Stop being afraid. You are worth more than a bunch of sparrows."

because at that time the Holy Spirit will teach you what you are to say."

That's how it is with the person who stores up treasures for himself rather than with God."

Then Jesus told his disciples, "That's why I'm telling you to stop worrying about your life what you will eat or about your body what you will wear,

because life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.

Consider the crows. They don't plant or harvest, they don't even have a storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds!

So if you can't do a small thing like that, why worry about other things?

Consider how the lilies grow. They don't work or spin yarn, but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.

Now if that's the way God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and thrown into an oven tomorrow, how much more will he clothe you you who have little faith?

because it is the unbelievers who are concerned about all these things. Surely your Father knows that you need them!

"Sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor. Make yourselves wallets that don't wear out a dependable treasure in heaven, where no thief can get close and no moth can destroy anything.

How blessed is that servant whom his master finds doing this when he comes!

But if that servant says to himself, "My master is taking a long time to come back,' and begins to beat the other servants and to eat, drink, and get drunk,

the master of that servant will come on a day when he doesn't expect him and at an hour that he doesn't know. Then his master will punish him severely and assign him a place with unfaithful people.

That servant who knew what his master wanted but didn't prepare himself or do what was wanted will receive a severe beating.

But the servant who did things that deserved a beating without knowing it will receive a light beating. Much will be required from everyone to whom much has been given. But even more will be demanded from the one to whom much has been entrusted."

Do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? Not at all, I tell you, but rather division!

Then Jesus told the crowds, "When you see a cloud coming in from the west, you immediately say, "There's going to be a storm,' and that's what happens.

At that time, some people who were there told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

He asked them, "Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galileans because they suffered like this?

What about those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them? Do you think they were worse offenders than all the other people living in Jerusalem?

Then Jesus told them this parable: "A man had a fig tree that had been planted in his vineyard. He went to look for fruit on it but didn't find any.

A woman was there who had a spirit that had disabled her for eighteen years. She was hunched over and completely unable to stand up straight.

It is like a mustard seed that someone took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky nested in its branches."

It's like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."

He told them, "Keep on struggling to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you that many people will try to enter, but won't be able to do so.

In that place there will be crying and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves being driven away on the outside.

At that hour some Pharisees came and told Jesus, "Leave and get away from here, because Herod wants to kill you!"

He told them, "Go and tell that fox, "Listen! I am driving out demons and healing today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will finish my work.

"When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, don't sit down at the place of honor in case someone more important than you was invited by the host.

Then the master told the servant, "Go out into the streets and the lanes and make the people come in, so that my house may be full.

"Suppose one of you has 100 sheep and loses one of them. He leaves the 99 in the wilderness and looks for the one that is lost until he finds it, doesn't he?

In the same way, I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don't need to repent."

When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, "Rejoice with me, because I have found the coin that I lost!'

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

After he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need.

So he went out to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

"Then he came to his senses and said, "How many of my father's hired men have more food than they can eat, and here I am starving to death!

I know what I'll do so that people will welcome me into their homes when I'm dismissed from my job.'

The master praised the dishonest servant manager for being so clever, because worldly people are more clever than enlightened people in dealing with their own.

"I'm telling you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they will welcome you into eternal homes.

However, it is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for one stroke of a letter in the Law to be dropped.

"But Abraham said, "My child, remember that during your lifetime you received blessings, while Lazarus received hardships. But now he is being comforted here, while you suffer.

Besides all this, a wide chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross from this side to you cannot do so, nor can they cross from your side to us.'

because I have five brothers to warn them, so that they won't end up in this place of torture, too.'

Jesus told his disciples, "It is inevitable that temptations to sin will come, but how terrible it will be for the person through whom they come!

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 sin.

That's the way it is with you. When you have done everything you were ordered to do, say, "We are worthless servants. We have done only what we ought to have done.'"

But one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, came back and praised God with a loud voice.

He fell on his face at Jesus' feet and thanked him. Now that man was a Samaritan.

The day when the Son of Man is revealed will be like that.

"The person who is on the housetop that day must not come down to get his belongings out of his house. The person in the field, too, must not turn back to what's left behind.

I tell you, two will be seated on the same couch that night. The one will be taken, and the other will be left behind.

In that city there was also a widow who kept coming to him and saying, "Grant me justice against my adversary.'

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, "O God, I thank you that I'm not like other people thieves, dishonest people, adulterers, or even this tax collector.

"But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even look up to heaven. Instead, he continued to beat his chest and said, "O God, be merciful to me, the sinner that I am!'

I tell you, this man, rather than the other one, went down to his home justified, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the person who humbles himself will be exalted."

Now some people were even bringing their infants to Jesus to have him touch them. But when the disciples saw this, they sternly told the people not to do that.

Indeed, it's easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God."

Jesus replied, "The things that are impossible for people are possible for God."

They told him that Jesus from Nazareth was coming by.

a man named Zacchaeus appeared. He was a leading tax collector, and a rich one at that!

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus, who was going to pass that way.

As they were listening to this, Jesus went on to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and because the people thought that the kingdom of God would appear immediately.

The king told him, "I will judge you by your own words, you evil servant! You knew, did you, that I was a hard man, and that I withdraw what I didn't deposit and harvest what I didn't plant?

"Go into the village ahead of you," he said. "As you enter, you will find a colt tied up that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it along.

But if we say, "From humans,' all the people will stone us to death, because they are convinced that John was a prophet."

So they answered that they didn't know where it was from.

But when the farmers saw him, they talked it over among themselves and said, "This is the heir. Let's kill him so that the inheritance will be ours!'

He will come and destroy those farmers and give the vineyard to others." Those who heard him said, "That must never happen!"

But Jesus looked at them and asked, "What does this text mean: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone'?

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."

When the scribes and the high priests realized that Jesus had told this parable about them, they wanted to arrest him right then, but they were afraid of the crowd.

so they asked him, "Teacher, we know that you're right in what you say and teach, and that you don't favor any individual, but teach the way of God truthfully.

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

and asked him, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no child, the man should marry the widow and have children for his brother.

but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

Even Moses demonstrated in the story about the bush that the dead are raised, when he calls the Lord, "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'

Then he asked them, "How can people say that the Messiah is David's son?

He said, "I tell you with certainty, this destitute widow has dropped in more than all of them,

"As for these things that you see, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another that won't be knocked down."

Then they asked him, "Teacher, when will these things take place, and what will be the sign that these things are about to take place?"

He said, "Be careful that you are not deceived, because many will come in my name and say, "I AM' and, "The time has come.' Don't follow them.

because I will give you the ability to speak, along with wisdom, that none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.