Jesus sends his 12 disciples to preach
1Jesus called his 12 disciples and He gave them the power to chase_evil_spirits_out of people and to heal the sick people. 2He sent them to tell people about God who is King and that He rules, and that they had to go and heal sick people. 3He told them not to take a staff with them, or food or a bag or any money or extra clothes. 4Jesus also said: ‘If people invite you to come and stay in their home, you must stay there until you go away from that town. 5If people do not welcome you, leave that town and clean the sand and dust from that town off your feet. Shake it off. That will be a warning to them that God will punish them.’
6The disciples went to all the towns and they told the people the Good_News and they healed people everywhere.
King Herod is worried about Jesus
7They told King Herod about all the things that had happened and he was worried because some people said that Jesus was John the Baptist who had started to live again. 8Some people said Jesus was Elijah and other people said Jesus was a prophet. They said He was one of the prophets who had lived long before and now lived again. 9But King Herod said: ‘No, I told them to cut off John the Baptist's head, but I don't know who this Man is.’ King Herod wanted to see Jesus.
Jesus gives food to more than 5 000 people
10When the apostles came back, they told Jesus everything that they had done. Then Jesus told them to go with Him to the town of Bethsaida so that they could be alone. 11But some other people heard where they were going and they also went there. Jesus welcomed them and He started to tell them about God who is King and that He rules. Jesus healed all the people who were sick. 12Late in the afternoon, Jesus' disciples came to Him and they said: ‘It is very late now and we are far from a town. Tell the people to go away to the farms and towns so they can buy food to eat and get a place to sleep.’ 13But Jesus said: ‘No, you must give them food to eat.’ The disciples said: ‘We have only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. We can not give food to all these people. We will have to go and buy food.’
14There were a lot of people. The men were about 5 000. Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Tell the people to sit together in groups of about 50 people in each group.’ 15The disciples did that and they told the people to sit. 16Then Jesus took the 5 loaves of bread and the 2 fish and He looked up to heaven. He praised God and thanked Him for the food. Then He broke the bread into pieces and He gave it to his disciples and they gave it to the people. 17Everyone had enough to eat. When all the people had finished eating, the disciples picked up 12 big baskets of bread and fish that the people had not eaten.
Who is Jesus?
18One day Jesus was alone. He was praying. His disciples came to Him and Jesus asked them: ‘What do the people say? Who am I?’ 19The disciples said to Jesus: ‘Some people say You are John the Baptist and some people say You are Elijah. Some people say You are one of the prophets who lived long ago and who has now started to live again.’
20Then Jesus asked them: ‘But you, what do you say? Who do you say I am?’ Peter answered Him and said: ‘You are the Christ that God has sent.’ 21Jesus said to his disciples that they must not tell other people that He was the Christ. 22He also said the family leaders, the chief_priests and teachers_of_the_Laws would do very bad things to Him, the Son of man. They would not accept Him, and they would kill Him, but on the 3rd day, God would raise Him and He would live again.
How people must follow Jesus
23Jesus said to all the people: ‘If someone wants to come with Me, then he must forget about himself. He must live like a person who knows that he will die on a cross. That is how he must follow Me every day. 24Because if you want to save yourself, then you will lose your life. But if you have to die because you love Me, then you will save your life. 25If you get everything in the world, but you lose your life, then you will have nothing. 26If someone does not want to know Me and he does not want to believe what I say, then I will not say that I, the Son of man, know him. I will not want to know him when I come with the holy angels, when I am King as my Father is King. 27I tell you this and it is sure: Some people who are standing here now will see that God is King. They will see it before they die.’
God says Jesus is his Son
28About 8 days after Jesus said that, He took Peter, John and James with Him. They went to a high mountain to pray. 29While Jesus was praying, his face changed and his clothes started to shine. They were very white. 30When they looked again, there were 2 men who were talking to Jesus. They were Moses and Elijah 31and they looked like kings. They talked about how Jesus would die in Jerusalem a few days later. 32Peter, John and James started to sleep and when they woke up later, they saw the glory of Jesus and the 2 men standing with Him. 33When Moses and Elijah started to go away from Jesus, Peter said to Jesus: ‘Lord, it is good that we are here. Can we put up 3 shelters, one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah?’
Peter said that because he did not know what to say. 34While Peter was speaking, a cloud came over them. They were in the cloud and the 3 disciples were afraid. 35The disciples heard God speaking from the cloud. He said: ‘This is my Son. I chose Him and you must do what He says.’
36When God had finished speaking, the 3 disciples saw only Jesus. The disciples did not speak about this for a long time. They did not tell the other disciples what they had seen.
Jesus heals a boy who has an evil_spirit in him
37The next day Jesus and the 3 disciples came down from the mountain and a lot of people came to Him. 38One man shouted and said: ‘Teacher, I beg You, please help my son. He is my only son. 39There is an evil_spirit that attacks my son and then he starts to shout. The evil_spirit makes him fall onto the ground, then there is foam that comes out of his mouth and he kicks and shakes. The spirit does not go away and he wants to kill my son. 40I have asked your disciples to chase_the_spirit_out, but they could not do it.’ 41Jesus said to them: ‘You people do not believe Me. How long must I stay with you? How long do I have to be patient with you? Bring the boy to Me.’
42When the boy came to Jesus, the devil made him fall onto the ground and he started to kick and shake. Jesus rebuked the evil_spirit and He chased_him_out of the boy. Jesus healed the boy and He gave him back to his father. 43All the people were amazed because God is so strong and can do everything.
Jesus says for the 2nd time that He will die and live again
All the people were amazed at what Jesus had done. But Jesus told his disciples: 44‘You must listen carefully to what I tell you. I am the Son of man. My God will give Me over to the people so that they can kill Me.’
45The disciples did not understand what Jesus said. God had not yet shown them what these words meant and they could not understand them. They were afraid to ask Jesus what these words meant.
Who is the most important?
46The disciples argued with each other about which one of them was the most important. 47Jesus knew what they were thinking. He took a child and He let the child stand with Him. 48Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If you welcome one of my children, you welcome Me. And if you welcome Me, then you welcome my Father who sent Me. The one who is the most humble is the most important to God.’
If someone is not against Jesus, then he helps Him
49John said to Jesus: ‘Teacher, we saw someone who used your name to chase_demons out of people. We tried to stop him because he is not here with us and with You.’ 50But Jesus told John: ‘Don't stop him, because if he is not against you, then he is helping you.’
The Samaritans do not listen to Jesus
51It was almost time for Jesus to go to heaven. He decided to go to Jerusalem. 52He sent people to a town in Samaria to get food and a place to sleep. 53But the people did not want Jesus to go to them because someone had told them that Jesus wanted to go to Jerusalem. 54James and John, 2 of Jesus' disciples, saw what happened and they asked Jesus: ‘Lord, may we pray that fire will come from heaven and burn these people?’ 55But Jesus looked at James and John and He rebuked them. 56Then Jesus and his disciples went to another town.
What it means to follow Jesus
57Jesus and his disciples were going to Jerusalem. A man came to Jesus and said to Him: ‘I will go with You to any place where You go.’ 58Jesus said to him: ‘Wild animals have their place to sleep and birds live in nests, but I, the Son of man, do not have a place that is my home.’
59Jesus said to another man: ‘Come with Me.’ But the man said: ‘Lord, I want to go with You, but I first have to wait until my father has died and I have buried him, then I will go with You.’ 60Jesus said to him: ‘It is more important to follow Me than to wait until your father has been buried. You must go and tell people about God who is King.’
61Then someone said to Jesus: ‘I will go with You, but I first want to go to my family to say goodbye to them.’ 62Jesus said to him: ‘A man who ploughs a field has to look in front of him. If he looks back all the time, he can not plough well. Someone like that is not good enough to work for God who is King.’