• Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

  • 1 He entered a synagogue again; and a man was there whose hand was withered.
  • 2 And they were watching Him closely to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.
  • 3 He *said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!”
  • 4 And He *said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent.
  • 5 After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He *said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
  • 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might put Him to death.
  • 7 Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and a large multitude from Galilee followed, and also from Judea,
  • 8 and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard about everything that He was doing and came to Him.
  • 9 And He told His disciples to see that a boat would be ready for Him because of the masses, so that they would not crowd Him;
  • 10 for He had healed many, with the result that all those who had diseases pushed in around Him in order to touch Him.
  • 11 And whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!”
  • 12 And He strongly warned them not to reveal who He was.

  • The Twelve Are Chosen

  • 13 And He *went up on the mountain and *summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him.
  • 14 And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach,
  • 15 and to have authority to cast out the demons.
  • 16 And He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter),
  • 17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder”);
  • 18 and Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot;
  • 19 and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.
  • 20 And He *came home, and the crowd *gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal.
  • 21 And when His own people heard about this, they came out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”
  • 22 The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”
  • 23 And so He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan?
  • 24 And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
  • 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
  • 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished!
  • 27 But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
  • 28 “Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons and daughters of men, and whatever blasphemies they commit;
  • 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—
  • 30 because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
  • 31 Then His mother and His brothers *came, and while standing outside they sent word to Him, calling for Him.
  • 32 And a crowd was sitting around Him, and they *said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.”
  • 33 Answering them, He *said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?”
  • 34 And looking around at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!
  • 35 For whoever does the will of God, this is My brother, and sister, and mother.”