How you must pray
(Also in Matthew 6:5-15; 7:7-12)
1One day Jesus was praying. When He finished praying, one of his disciples said to Him: ‘Lord, teach us how we must pray, like John the Baptist also taught his disciples.’ 2Jesus said to them: ‘When you pray, you must say:
Father, we pray
that everyone will worship your holy Name
because you are God.
We pray that the time will come
when everyone will know that You are King.
3Give us today the food
that we need for this day.
4And forgive us everything
that we have done wrong against You,
as we forgive other people
who have done wrong against us.
And help us that nothing will happen
that will tempt us to sin.’
5Jesus also said: ‘If you have a good friend and you go to him in the middle of the night and you ask him: “My friend, can I please borrow 3 loaves of bread 6because another friend of mine has walked very far and he has come to me now? But I have no food that I can give him to eat.”
7What do you think your good friend will say to you? Will he say: “No, it is too late. Don't ask me now. I have already locked the door and my children are in bed with me. I can not get up to give you bread now.” Do you think he will say that? 8No, I tell you: He will get up immediately and give you the bread. He will get up and give you everything that you need, because he is your friend and because you came to him and asked him.
9You must continue to pray, then God will give you what you ask for. You must keep on looking, then God will give you what you are looking for. You must keep on knocking, then God will open that door for you. 10Every person who keeps on praying will get what he prays for. Every person who keeps on looking for the right things will find what he is looking for. If any person keeps on knocking, God will open the door for him. 11When a boy asks his father for a fish, his father will never give him a snake. 12And when a boy asks his father for an egg, his father will never give him a scorpion. 13You are bad people, but you know that you must give good things to your children. Your Father in heaven wants to give you something better. He wants to give the Holy_Spirit to people who ask Him.’
Some people say Beelzebul helps Jesus
(Also in Matthew 12:22-32; Mark 3:20-30)
14The devil made a man mute. He could not speak. Then Jesus chased_the_demon out of the man and when the demon went out, the man was well. He could speak again. All the people were amazed. 15But some people said: ‘It is Beelzebul, the leader of the demons, that helps Jesus to chase_out_demons.’
16Other people wanted to test Jesus. They wanted Jesus to show that He came from God and they asked Him to show them a miracle. 17Jesus knew what they were thinking and He said to them: ‘When the people of a land do not stand together, enemies will defeat them. They will break down all the houses, one after the other. 18If Satan fights against himself, then he will not be able to rule over anyone. You say it is Beelzebul that helps Me to chase_out_demons. 19And if Beelzebul helps Me chase_demons out of people, who then is helping your own followers that chase demons out of people? Your own followers show that you are wrong. 20It is the power of God that helps Me to chase_out_demons and this shows that God is the King who has started to rule over you.
21A strong man who has many weapons and guards at his house knows that a thief can not come and steal his things. 22But if a stronger man comes, if the stronger man defeats and kills him, then the stronger man will take all the weapons that the strong man thought would help to protect him. Then the stronger man will take everything that he got from the strong man and he will give it to other people. 23A person who is not with Me is against Me. If you do not help to bring people to God, then you are chasing them away from God.’
Bad people will become worse
24Jesus also said:
‘When an evil_spirit goes out of a person, he goes to places where there is no water and he looks for a place where he can live. If he does not find a place where he can live, he says: “I will go back to my first house, to the man in whom I lived before.” 25Then the evil_spirit goes back to that person and if he sees that man is like a house with no people, because it is clean and neat, 26then he takes 7 other spirits that are worse than himself and they all go with him and they go in and make their home in that person. Then that person will be worse than he was before.’
When is a person really happy?
27When Jesus said these things, a woman in the crowd of people said to Him: ‘God has blessed your mother a lot. She can be happy that You were born from her and that she gave You milk.’
28But Jesus said: ‘The people who are really happy are the people who listen to God's words and do what God wants.’
The sign of Jonah
(Also in Matthew 12:38-42; 16:1-4; Mark 8:11-12)
29Jesus said: ‘You want a sign because you are bad and you do not want to believe. You want to see it. God will not give you a sign. The only sign that you will get is the sign of the prophet Jonah. 30Jonah was a sign for the people of the city of Nineveh and so will I, the Son of man, be a sign for you. 31On the day when God judges everyone, the Queen_of_the_South will live again and she will accuse you and say you are guilty and that God must punish you. She came very far from her land to listen to the wisdom of King Solomon. And I tell you: There is Someone here who is more important than King Solomon, and that Someone is I. 32On the day when God judges everyone, the people of the city of Nineveh will live again and they will be with the people who live now. When Jonah preached to them, the people of Nineveh turned their lives to God and they started to live as He wanted. When God judges everyone, the people of Nineveh will say that you are guilty and that God must punish you. And I tell you: There is Someone here who is much more important than Jonah and that is I.’
The light of the world
(Also in Matthew 5:14-16; Mark 4:21-23; Luke 8:16-18)
33Jesus said:
‘When you light a lamp, you do not put it away in the store room or under a bowl. No, you put a lamp on the table to give light to everyone who comes into the house. 34Your eyes are like a lamp that gives light to you. If your eyes can see what is good and you see when people suffer and you help them, then you have light in your life. But if your eyes do not see what God wants you to see, then there is no light in you.
35That is why you must make sure that there is always light in you and it is not dark. 36If your life is full of light, then you will be like the light of a lamp that shines and gives light in the world around you and to other people.’
Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and the teachers_of_the_Laws
(Also in Matthew 23:1-36; Mark 12:38-40)
37While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited Him to his house to eat with him. When Jesus came into his house, He immediately went to the table and He sat down. 38The Pharisee saw it and he was surprised because Jesus did not wash his hands first before He went to sit down at the table. 39The Lord saw that the Pharisee was surprised and He said to him: ‘You Pharisees, you wash the outside of your cups and plates, the parts that people can see, but on the inside you are bad and you just want to get more money and other things. 40You are fools. God made the outside, but He also made the inside, the part that He can see. 41You must give some of the food that is in your cups and plates to poor people. If you do that, you will show that you are clean, on the inside and the outside.
42Pharisees, you will suffer, because you give a 10th of everything that you get, also of all your spices, but you don't love God and you don't do good things to other people. You must love God and also do good things to other people and not stop giving 10ths.
43Pharisees, you will suffer, because you want to sit at the places where important people sit in the synagogues and you want everyone to greet you at the market places in town where people come together. 44You will suffer, because you are like graves that do not have a memorial stone. The people do not know that there is a grave and they walk over the grave and they do not know that they have become impure.’
45One of the teachers_of_the_Laws said to Jesus: ‘Teacher, You have said very bad and harsh things about the Pharisees and about us.’ 46Jesus said: ‘Teachers_of_the_Laws, you will also suffer, because you tell people to do things that are very difficult. You tell them to obey all the laws that you have made, but you do not help them to do it. 47You will suffer, because you make beautiful tombs for the prophets, but it was your fathers and forefathers who killed those prophets. 48Your forefathers killed the prophets and you built tombs for the prophets. That shows that you think the same as your forefathers. You agree with them and say that what they did was right.
49You did what God said in the Old_Testament. He said: “I will send prophets and apostles to you. But you will murder some of them and you will do bad things to the other prophets.” 50God will punish the people who live now for all the prophets who have been killed since the beginning of the world. 51Abel was the first prophet who was murdered and Zechariah was the last prophet. They murdered Zechariah between the altar and the temple. Yes, God will punish you for all those murders.
52You, teachers_of_the_Laws, you will really suffer because you have the keys. You can open the doors so that people can go in and learn about God. But you do not go in through that door and you stop other people who want to go in to listen to God.’
53From that night, the teachers_of_the_Laws and Pharisees were enemies of Jesus. When Jesus went out of the house, they asked Him a lot of questions. 54They wanted Him to say something wrong.
