New Testament Plan

¹It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely.

²And there in front of Him was a man suffering from edema.

³And Jesus responded and said to the lawyers and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”

⁴But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away.

⁵And He said to them, “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”

⁶And they could offer no reply to this.

⁷Now He began telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them,

⁸“Whenever you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do nottake the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him,

⁹and the one who invited youboth will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then in disgrace you will proceed to occupy the last place.

¹⁰But whenever you are invited, go andtake the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who aredining at the table with you.

¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²Now He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “Whenever you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor wealthy neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you to a meal in return, and that will be yourrepayment.

¹³But whenever you give abanquet, invite people who are poor, who have disabilities, who are limping, and people who are blind;

¹⁴and you will be blessed, since theydo not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵Now when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

¹⁶But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many;

¹⁷and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is ready now.’

¹⁸And yet they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I purchased a field and I need to go out to look at it;please consider me excused.’

¹⁹And another one said, ‘I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out;please consider me excused.’

²⁰And another one said, ‘I took a woman as my wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’

²¹And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here those who are poor, those with disabilities, those who are blind, and those who are limping.’

²²And later the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’

²³And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and the hedges and press upon them to come in, so that my house will be filled.

²⁴For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my dinner.’ ”

²⁵Now large crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them,

²⁶“If anyone comes to Me and does nothate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

²⁷Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

²⁸For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?

²⁹Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who are watching it will begin to ridicule him,

³⁰saying, ‘This person began to build, and was not able to finish!’

³¹Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to face the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

³²Otherwise, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and requests terms of peace.

³³So then, none of you can be My disciple who does notgive up all his own possessions.

³⁴“Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?

³⁵It is useless either for the soil or the manure pile, so it is thrown out. The one who has ears to hear,let him hear.”

¹Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near Jesus to listen to Him.

²And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to complain, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

³And so He told them this parable, saying,

⁴“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the other ninety-nine in theopen pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?

⁵And when he has found it, he puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

⁶And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost!’

⁷I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.

⁸“Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

⁹And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the coin which I had lost!’

¹⁰In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

¹¹And He said, “A man had two sons.

¹²The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate thatis coming to me.’ And so he divided hiswealth between them.

¹³And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered his estate inwild living.

¹⁴Now when he hadspent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began doing without.

¹⁵So he went andhired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

¹⁶And he longed to have his fill of the carob pods that the pigs were eating, and no one was giving him anything.

¹⁷But when he came tohis senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired laborers have more than enough bread, but I am dying herefrom hunger!

¹⁸I will set out and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, andin your sight;

¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired laborers.” ’

²⁰So he set out and came tohis father. But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran andembraced him and kissed him.

²¹And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven andin your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²²But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, andput a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet;

²³and bring the fattened calf, slaughter it, and let’s eat and celebrate;

²⁴for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.

²⁵“Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.

²⁶And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be.

²⁷And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’

²⁸But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him.

²⁹But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have neverneglected a command of yours; and yet you never gave me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends;

³⁰but when this son of yours came, who has devoured yourwealth with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’

³¹And he said to him, ‘Son, youhave always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.

³²But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’ ”

¹Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager wasreported to him as squandering his possessions.

²And he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’

³And the manager said to himself, ‘What am I to do, since mymaster is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough todig; I am ashamed to beg.

⁴I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’

⁵And he summoned each one of hismaster’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

⁶And he said, ‘A hundredjugs of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’

⁷Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundredkors of wheat.’ He *said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

⁸And hismaster complimented the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their ownkind than the sons of light.

⁹And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of thewealth of unrighteousness, so that when itis all gone, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

¹⁰“The one who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and the one who is unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous in much.

¹¹Therefore if you have notbeen faithful in the use of unrighteouswealth, who will entrust the true wealth to you?

¹²And if you have notbeen faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?

¹³Noservant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God andwealth.”

¹⁴Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were ridiculing Him.

¹⁵And He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of people, but God knows your hearts; because that which is highly esteemed among people is detestable in the sight of God.

¹⁶“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John came; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

¹⁷But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for onestroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

¹⁸“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.

¹⁹“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, enjoying himself in splendor every day.

²⁰And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores,

²¹and longing to be fed from the scraps which fell from the rich man’s table; not only that, the dogs also were coming and licking his sores.

²²Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels toAbraham’s arms; and the rich man also died and was buried.

²³And in Hades he raised his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in hisarms.

²⁴And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’

²⁵But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.

²⁶Andbesides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set, so that those who want to go over from here to you will not be able, nor will any people cross over from there to us.’

²⁷And he said, ‘Then I request of you, father, that you send him to my father’s house—

²⁸for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not come to this place of torment as well.’

²⁹But Abraham *said, ‘They haveMoses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’

³⁰But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’

³¹But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”