Luke 4:1–6:26

The Temptation of Jesus

^1aJesus, full of the Holy Spirit, ^breturned from the Jordan and was led around ¹by the Spirit in the wilderness

²for ^aforty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.

³And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

⁴And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘^aMan shall not live on bread alone.’ ”

^5aAnd he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of ^1bthe world in a moment of time.

⁶And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and ¹its glory; ^afor it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

⁷“Therefore if You ¹worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”

⁸Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘^aYou shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’ ”

^9aAnd he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here;

¹⁰for it is written,

‘^aHe will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’

¹¹and,

‘^aOn their hands they will bear You up,

So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ ”

¹²And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘^aYou shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

¹³When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

Jesus’ Public Ministry

¹⁴And ^aJesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and ^bnews about Him spread through all the surrounding district.

¹⁵And He began ^ateaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

¹⁶And He came to ^aNazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, ^bHe entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and ^cstood up to read.

¹⁷And the ¹book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸“^aThe Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set free those who are oppressed,

^19aTo proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

²⁰And He ^aclosed the ¹book, gave it back to the attendant and ^bsat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.

²¹And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your ¹hearing.”

²²And all were ¹speaking well of Him, and wondering at the ²gracious words which ³were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “^aIs this not Joseph’s son?”

²³And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done ^aat Capernaum, do here in ^byour hometown as well.’ ”

²⁴And He said, “Truly I say to you, ^ano prophet is welcome in his hometown.

²⁵“But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel ^ain the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land;

²⁶and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but ^aonly to ¹Zarephath, in the land of ^bSidon, to a woman who was a widow.

²⁷“And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but ^aonly Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things;

²⁹and they got up and ^adrove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.

³⁰But ^apassing through their midst, He went His way.

³¹And ^aHe came down to ^bCapernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath;

³²and ^athey were amazed at His teaching, for ^bHis ¹message was with authority.

³³In the synagogue there was a man ¹possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice,

³⁴“Let us alone! ^1aWhat business do we have with each other, Jesus ²of ^bNazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

³⁵But Jesus ^arebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm.

³⁶And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another saying, “What is ¹this message? For ^awith authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.”

³⁷And ^athe report about Him was spreading into every locality in the surrounding district.

Many Are Healed

^38aThen He got up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s home. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ^bsuffering from a high fever, and they asked Him ¹to help her.

³⁹And standing over her, He ^arebuked the fever, and it left her; and she immediately got up and ¹waited on them.

^40aWhile ^bthe sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and ^claying His hands on each one of them, He was ^dhealing them.

⁴¹Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, “You are ^athe Son of God!” But ^brebuking them, He would ^cnot allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be ¹the Christ.

^42aWhen day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them.

⁴³But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, ^afor I was sent for this purpose.”

⁴⁴So He kept on preaching in the synagogues ^aof ¹Judea.

Chapter 5

The First Disciples

^1aNow it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by ^bthe lake of Gennesaret;

²and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.

³And ^aHe got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the ¹people from the boat.

⁴When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and ^alet down your nets for a catch.”

⁵Simon answered and said, “^aMaster, ^bwe worked hard all night and caught nothing, but ¹I will do as You say and let down the nets.”

⁶When they had done this, ^athey enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break;

⁷so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.

⁸But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ ¹feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

⁹For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken;

¹⁰and so also were ¹James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “^aDo not fear, from now on you will be ^bcatching men.”

¹¹When they had brought their boats to land, ^athey left everything and followed Him.

The Leper and the Paralytic

^12aWhile He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man ¹covered with leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

¹³And He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately the leprosy left him.

¹⁴And He ordered him to tell no one, “But go and ^ashow yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

¹⁵But ^athe news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.

¹⁶But Jesus Himself would often slip away ¹to the ²wilderness and ^apray.

¹⁷¹One day He was teaching; and ^athere were some Pharisees and ^bteachers of the law sitting there, who had ^ccome from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and ^dthe power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.

^18aAnd some men were carrying on a ¹bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him.

¹⁹But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on ^athe roof and let him down ^bthrough the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.

²⁰Seeing their faith, He said, “¹Friend, ^ayour sins are forgiven you.”

²¹The scribes and the Pharisees ^abegan to reason, saying, “^bWho is this man who speaks blasphemies? ^cWho can forgive sins, but God alone?”

²²But Jesus, ¹aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts?

²³“Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

²⁴“But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the ^aparalytic—“I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.”

²⁵Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home ^aglorifying God.

²⁶¹They were all struck with astonishment and began ^aglorifying God; and they were filled ^bwith fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

Call of Levi (Matthew)

^27aAfter that He went out and noticed a tax collector named ^1bLevi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.”

²⁸And he ^aleft everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him.

²⁹And ^aLevi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of ^btax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them.

^30aThe Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and ¹sinners?”

³¹And Jesus answered and said to them, “^aIt is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.

³²“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

³³And they said to Him, “^aThe disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, the disciples of the Pharisees also do ¹the same, but Yours eat and drink.”

³⁴And Jesus said to them, “You cannot make the ¹attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?

³⁵“^aBut the days will come; and when the bridegroom is…