Chronological Plan

¹Now after this the Lord appointed seventy-two others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.

²And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

³Go; behold, I am sending you out like lambs in the midst of wolves.

⁴Carry no money belt, nobag, no sandals, and greet no one along the way.

⁵And whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’

⁶And if aman of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will return to you.

⁷Stay inthat house, eating and drinkingwhat they provide; for the laborer is deserving of his wages. Do not move from house to house.

⁸Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is served to you;

⁹and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

¹⁰But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say,

¹¹‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yetbe sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’

¹²I say to you, it will be more tolerable on that day for Sodom than for that city.

¹³“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that occurred in you had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

¹⁴But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you.

¹⁵And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades!

¹⁶“The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; but the one who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

¹⁷Now the seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!”

¹⁸And He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

¹⁹Behold, I have given you authority to walk on snakes and scorpions, and authority over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.

²⁰Nevertheless, do notrejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”

²¹At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “Ipraise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for doing so was well pleasing in Your sight.

²²All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son determines to reveal Him.”

²³Turning to the disciples, He said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see the things you see;

²⁴for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things that you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things that you hear, and did not hear them.”

²⁵And behold, a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶And He said to him, “What is written in the Law?How does it read to you?”

²⁷And he answered, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

²⁸And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

²⁹But wanting to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he encountered robbers, and they stripped him andbeat him, and went away leaving him half dead.

³¹And by coincidence a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

³²Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

³³But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,

³⁴and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

³⁵On the next day he took out twodenarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.’

³⁶Which of these three do you thinkproved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”

³⁷And he said, “The one who showed compassion to him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and dothe same.”

³⁸Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home.

³⁹And she had a sister called Mary, who was also seated at the Lord’s feet, and was listening to His word.

⁴⁰But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do the serving by myself? Then tell her to help me.”

⁴¹But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;

⁴²but only one thing is necessary; for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

¹It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, when He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”

²And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘ Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.

³Give us each day our daily bread.

⁴And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation.’ ”

⁵And He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves,

⁶because a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to serve him’;

⁷and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my childrenand I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’

⁸I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him anything just because he is his friend, yet because of hisshamelessness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

⁹“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.

¹¹Nowwhich one of you fathers will his son ask for afish, and instead of a fish, he will give him a snake?

¹²Or he will even ask for an egg, and his father will give him a scorpion?

¹³So if you, despite beingevil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more willyour heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

¹⁴And He was casting out a mute demon; when the demon had gone out, the man who was previously unable to speak talked, and the crowds were amazed.

¹⁵But some of them said, “He casts out the demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”

¹⁶Others, to test Him, were demanding of Him a sign from heaven.

¹⁷But He knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided againstitself falls.

¹⁸And if Satan also has been divided against himself, how will his kingdomstand? For you claim that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul.

¹⁹Yet if by Beelzebul I cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges.

²⁰But if I cast out the demons bythe finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

²¹Whena strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions aresecure.

²²But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, that man takes away his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder.

²³The one who is not with Me is against Me; and the one who does not gather with Me scatters.

²⁴“When the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it then says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’

²⁵And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order.

²⁶Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they come in and live there; and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first.”

²⁷While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that carried You, and the breasts at which You nursed!”

²⁸But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and follow it.”

²⁹Now as the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it demands asign, and so nosign will be given to it except thesign of Jonah.

³⁰For just as Jonah became asign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

³¹The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

³²The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

³³“No one lights a lamp and puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye isclear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it isbad, your body also is full of darkness.

³⁵So watch out that the light in you is not darkness.

³⁶Therefore if your whole body is full of light, without any dark part, it will be wholly illuminated, as when the lamp illuminates you with its light.”

³⁷Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee *asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in and reclined at the table.

³⁸When the Pharisee saw this, he was surprised that Jesus had not first ceremonially washed before the meal.

³⁹But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish; but your inside is full of greed and wickedness.

⁴⁰You foolish ones, did He who made the outside not make the inside also?

⁴¹But give that which is within as a charitable gift, andthen all things are clean for you.

⁴²“But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithes of mint, rue, and every kind of garden herb, and yet you ignore justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

⁴³Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the seat of honor in the synagogues and personal greetings in the marketplaces.

⁴⁴Woe to you! For you are likeunseen tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.”

⁴⁵One of the lawyers *said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too.”

⁴⁶But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you load people with burdens that are hard to bear,while you yourselves will not eventouch the burdens with one of your fingers.

⁴⁷Woe to you! For you build thetombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them.

⁴⁸So you are witnesses and you approve of the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build theirtombs.

⁴⁹For this reason also, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill, and some they willpersecute,

⁵⁰so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be chargedagainst this generation,

⁵¹from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be chargedagainst this generation.’

⁵²Woe to youlawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.”

⁵³When He left that place, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to interrogate Him about many subjects,

⁵⁴plotting against Him to catch Him in something He might say.

²²At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem;

²³it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple area, in the portico of Solomon.

²⁴The Jews then surrounded Him and began saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

²⁵Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me.

²⁶But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep.

²⁷My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

²⁸and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

²⁹My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

³⁰I and the Father areone.”

³¹The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.

³²Jesus replied to them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?”

³³The Jews answered Him, “We are not stoning You for a good work, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law: ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’?

³⁵If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be nullified),

³⁶are you saying of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

³⁷If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;

³⁸but if I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you mayknow and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”

³⁹Therefore they were seeking again to arrest Him, and He eluded their grasp.

⁴⁰And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He stayed there.

⁴¹Many came to Him and were saying, “While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true.”

⁴²And many believed in Him there.