And I saw the holy city – the new Jerusalem – descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.

From that time Jesus began to preach this message: ¹  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and became anguished and distressed.

Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

He ¹  went into all the region around the Jordan River, ²  preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ³ 

Gazing at Jesus as he walked by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” ¹ 

angry ¹  because they were teaching the people and announcing ²  in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

So ¹  they seized ²  them and put them in jail ³  until the next day (for it was already evening).

But when they had ordered them to go outside the council, ¹  they began to confer with one another,

This is the one about whom it is written: ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, ¹  who will prepare your way before you.’ ² 

Now when Jesus heard this he went away from there privately in a boat to an isolated place. But when the crowd heard about it, ¹  they followed him on foot from the towns. ² 

And Jesus answered him, ¹  “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood ²  did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven!

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling down she asked him for a favor. ¹ 

People ¹  from the whole Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem ²  were going out to him, and he was baptizing them ³  in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.

And just as Jesus ¹  was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens ²  splitting apart and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ³ 

They discussed with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’

And the child kept growing ¹  and becoming strong ²  in spirit, and he was in the wilderness ³  until the day he was revealed ⁴  to Israel.

As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice ¹  of one shouting in the wilderness: ²  ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make ³  his paths straight.

This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, ¹  who will prepare your way before you.’ ² 

So they asked John, ¹  “Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, ²  nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”