The inhabitants of one will go to another and say, “Let’s go up at once to ask the favor of the Lord, to seek the Lord who rules over all. Indeed, I’ll go with you.”’

Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons the flock! May a sword fall on his arm and his right eye! May his arm wither completely away, and his right eye become completely blind!”

He ¹  sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and look carefully for the child. When you find him, inform me so that I can go and worship him as well.”

As he was saying these things, a ruler came, bowed low before him, and said, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.”

And I tell you that Elijah has already come. Yet they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wanted. In ¹  the same way, the Son of Man will suffer at their hands.”

But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief ¹  was coming, he would have been alert and would not have let his house be broken into.

Then ¹  he began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. ²  He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then ³  he leased it to tenant farmers ⁴  and went on a journey.

And now, ¹  because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, ²  you will be silent, unable to speak, ³  until the day these things take place.”

But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, ¹  when the sky ²  was shut up three and a half years, and ³  there was a great famine over all the land.

Jesus ¹  was going through the grain fields on ²  a Sabbath, ³  and his disciples picked some heads of wheat, ⁴  rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. ⁵ 

Then ¹  the Judeans ²  responded, ³  “Now we know you’re possessed by a demon! ⁴  Both Abraham and the prophets died, and yet ⁵  you say, ‘If anyone obeys ⁶  my teaching, ⁷  he will never experience ⁸  death.’ ⁹ 

But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the deeds, ¹  so that you may come to know ²  and understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

Remember what ¹  I told you, ‘A slave ²  is not greater than his master.’ ³  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed ⁴  my word, they will obey ⁵  yours too.

I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, ¹  but take courage ²  – I have conquered the world.” ³ 

because I have given them the words you have given me. They ¹  accepted ²  them ³  and really ⁴  understand ⁵  that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

When the chief priests and their officers saw him, they shouted out, “Crucify ¹  him! Crucify him!” ²  Pilate said, ³  “You take him and crucify him! ⁴  Certainly ⁵  I find no reason for an accusation ⁶  against him!”

To the same apostles ¹  also, after his suffering, ²  he presented himself alive with many convincing proofs. He was seen by them over a forty-day period ³  and spoke about matters concerning the kingdom of God.

and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here ¹  looking up into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven ²  will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven.”

saying, “What should we do with these men? For it is plain ¹  to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable miraculous sign ²  has come about through them, ³  and we cannot deny it.

“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, ¹  an object something like a large sheet descending, ²  being let down from heaven ³  by its four corners, and it came to me.