For I am sure of this very thing, ¹  that the one ²  who began a good work in ³  you will perfect it ⁴  until the day of Christ Jesus.

Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another ¹  as good stewards of the varied grace of God.

So ¹  I began weeping bitterly ²  because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors ¹  do the same, don’t they?

And if you only greet your brothers, what more do you do? Even the Gentiles do the same, don’t they?

Then the disciples came ¹  to Jesus privately and said, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?”

And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, ¹  he will rejoice more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.

and placed it ¹  in his own new tomb that he had cut in the rock. ²  Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance ³  of the tomb and went away.

And as he sowed, some seed ¹  fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

Other seed fell among the thorns, ¹  and they grew up and choked it, ²  and it did not produce grain.

Then, ¹  after he went into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?”

Salt ¹  is good, but if it loses its saltiness, ²  how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

On ¹  the eighth day ²  they came to circumcise the child, and they wanted to name ³  him Zechariah after his father.

And ¹  if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ²  sinners ³  do the same.

Why then didn’t you put ¹  my money in the bank, ²  so that when I returned I could have collected it with interest?’

Then ¹  he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, ²  and placed it ³  in a tomb cut out of the rock, ⁴  where no one had yet been buried. ⁵ 

Then they took Jesus’ body and wrapped it, with the aromatic spices, ¹  in strips of linen cloth ²  according to Jewish burial customs. ³ 

In those days ¹  Peter stood up among the believers ²  (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty people) and said,

praising God and having the good will ¹  of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day ²  those who were being saved.

The kings of the earth stood together, ¹  and the rulers assembled together, against the Lord and against his ²  Christ.’ ³