The Harmonized Gospel Of JESUS CHRIST Part 3

 Chapter 3

 

The day after JESUS returned from His temptations John saw Him coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of GOD who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me for He was before me.’ I did not know Him only that He should be revealed to Israel, for this reason I was sent baptizing with water. I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and He remained upon JESUS. I did not know Him but GOD who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘On whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and testify that JESUS is the Son of GOD.”

 

The following day John stood with two of his disciples and looking at JESUS as He walked he said, “See the Lamb of GOD!” John’s disciples heard him speak and they followed JESUS. Then JESUS turned and seeing them following said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is translated Teacher), “where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They went and saw where He was staying and remained with Him that day now it was about 4 in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him was Andrew, the first thing he did was to find his brother Simon and say to him, “We have found the Messiah.” (which is translated the CHRIST) and he brought Simon to JESUS.

 

When JESUS looked at Simon He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated A Stone or Peter). The following day JESUS wanted to go to Galilee and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” Philip was from Bethsaida the city of Andrew and Peter. Then Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, JESUS of Nazareth the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” JESUS saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said to him, “An Israelite indeed in whom is no deceit!” Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” JESUS answered, “Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree I saw you.” Nathanael said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of GOD! You are the King of Israel!” JESUS said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truthfully I tell you from now on you will see Heaven open and the angels of GOD ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

 

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of JESUS was there, JESUS and His disciples were also invited to the wedding.

When the wedding ran out of wine the mother of JESUS said to Him, “They have no wine.” JESUS said to her, “Woman what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother ignoring Him said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you do it.” There were six water pots of stone according to the manner of purification of the Jews containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. JESUS said to them, “Fill the water pots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim, then He said to them, “Draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” They did so and when the master of the feast had tasted the water it was wine, and he did not know where it came from; but the servants who had drawn the water knew; the master of the feast called the bridegroom and he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine and when the guests have well drunk then the inferior but you have kept the good wine until now!” This beginning of signs JESUS did in Cana of Galilee which manifested His glory and His disciples believed in Him. After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples but they only stayed there a few days.

 

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and JESUS went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” So the Jews said to Him, “What sign do You show to us since You do these things?” JESUS answered them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple and will You raise it up in three days?” They did not know He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore when He had risen from the dead His disciples remembered that He had said this to them and they believed the Scripture and the word which JESUS had said. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the miracles which He did.  JESUS did not commit Himself to them because He knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of Him for He knew what was in man.

 

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to JESUS by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from GOD for no one can do these signs that You do unless GOD is with him.” JESUS said to him, “Honestly I tell you the truth unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of GOD.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” JESUS answered, “I tell you the truth unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of GOD. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus asked, “How can these things be?” JESUS answered, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things? Truthfully I say to you We speak what We know and testify what We have seen and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to Heaven but He who came down from Heaven that is the Son of Man who is in Heaven.  As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. GOD so loves the world that He gives His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. GOD did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of GOD. This is the condemnation: The light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds are exposed. He who lives by the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in GOD.”

 

After those days JESUS and His disciples went into the land of Judea and there He remained with them and baptized, He did not baptize but His disciples did. John was baptizing in Aenon near Salim because there was much water there and people came and were baptized for John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. So they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan of whom you have testified, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him!” John answered, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear witness that I said, ‘I am not the CHRIST,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. For this joy of mine to be fulfilled He must increase and I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all and he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from Heaven is above all and what He has seen and heard that He testifies and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that GOD is true. For He whom GOD has sent speaks the words of GOD, for GOD does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life and he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life for the wrath of GOD abides on him.”

 

When the LORD knew that the Pharisees had heard that He made and baptized more disciples than John, though JESUS Himself did not baptize but His disciples, He left Judea and went again to Galilee. He needed to go through Samaria so He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph and Jacob’s well was there. JESUS was weary from His journey so He sat by the well, it was about noon and His disciples had gone into the city to buy food. A woman of Samaria came to draw water and JESUS said to her, “Give Me a drink.”, then the woman said to Him, “How is it that You being a Jew ask a drink from me a Samaritan woman?” for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. JESUS answered her, “If you knew the gift of GOD and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself as well as his sons and his livestock?” JESUS said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never thirst. For the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw.” JESUS said to her, “Go call your husband and come here.” The woman said, “I have no husband.” JESUS said to her, “You have told the truth when you say, ‘I have no husband.’ for you have had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” JESUS said to her, “Woman believe Me the hour is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. The hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. GOD is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming and when He comes He will tell us all things.” JESUS said to her, “I am He.” At this point His disciples came and they marveled that He talked with a woman yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or “Why are You talking with her?” The woman then left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men, “Come see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the CHRIST?” So they went out of the city and came to Him at the well.

 

In the meantime His disciples urged Him saying, “Rabbi eat.” He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” Then the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” JESUS said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? I say to you lift up your eyes and look at the fields for they are already white for harvest! He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labors.”

 

Many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans had come to Him they urged Him to stay with them and He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of His word, then they said to the woman, “We believe not because of what you said for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the CHRIST, the Savior of the world.” After the two days He left there and went to Galilee.

 

When He came to Galilee the Galileans received Him having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast for they had gone to the feast.  JESUS came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum, when he heard that JESUS had come out of Judea into Galilee he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son for he was at the point of death. JESUS said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders you will by no means believe.” The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!” JESUS said to him, “Go your way your son lives.” So the man believed the word that JESUS spoke to him and he went his way. As he was returning home the next day his servants met him and told him saying, “Your son lives!” Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better and they said to him, “Yesterday at 1 in the afternoon the fever left him.” So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which JESUS said to him, “Your son lives.” Then he believed and his whole household. This is the second sign JESUS did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

 

So He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. As His custom was He went into a synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah and when He had opened the book He found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of The LORD is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Then He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. Then He said to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” So all bore witness of Him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. They said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “You will surely tell Me this proverb, ‘Physician heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum do here in Your country.’” Then He said, “I tell you the truth, truly no prophet is accepted in his own country. For I tell you truthfully many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heaven was shut up three years and six months and there was a great famine throughout all the land yet to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon. Many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet and none of them was cleansed except Naaman, the Syrian.” So all those in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust Him out of the city and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built that they might throw Him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them He went His way.

 

When JESUS heard that John had been put in prison He departed and leaving Nazareth He came and dwelt in Capernaum which is by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying: “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: the people who sat in darkness have seen a great Light and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned.” From that time JESUS began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”, and they were astonished at His teaching for His word was with authority. 

 

On the same day JESUS went out of the house and sat by the sea and great multitudes were gathered to Him so that He got into a boat and sat and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then He spoke many things to them in parables saying: “A sower went out to sow and as he sowed some seed fell by the wayside and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places where they did not have much earth and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth and when the sun was up they were scorched and because they had no root they withered away. Some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up and choked them. Others fell on good ground and yielded a crop some a hundredfold some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear let him hear!”

 

JESUS told them another parable, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; while men slept his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. When the grain had sprouted and produced a crop then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ He said, ‘No for when you gather up the tares you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them then gather the wheat into my barn.’”

 

He told them another parable, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field which indeed is the least of all the seeds, yet when it is grown it is greater than all herbs and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

 

Again He spoke to them, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which a woman put in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.

 

The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

 

Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls who when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it.

 

Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind which when it was full they drew to shore and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels and threw the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age the angels will come forth and separate the wicked from among the just and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

 

All these things JESUS spoke to the multitude in parables and He only spoke to them in parables that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, “I will open My mouth in parables, I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.”

 

When He had stopped speaking He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” When they had done this they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. Then they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it he fell down at JESUS’ knees saying, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O LORD!” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee who were partners with Simon. JESUS said to Simon, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” So when they had brought their boats to land they left everything and followed Him.

 

Later the disciples came and said to JESUS, “Why do You speak to the people in parables?” He answered, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but it has not been given to them. Whoever has to him more will be given and he will have abundance; whoever does not have even what he has will be taken away from him. So I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand. In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled which says, ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand and seeing you will see and not perceive for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them.’ Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear for truthfully I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. So hear the parable of the sower, the sower sows the Word, when anyone hears the Word of the Kingdom and does not understand it then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart, this is he who received seed by the wayside. He who received the seed on stony places is he who hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself but endures only for a while. When tribulation or persecution arises because of the Word immediately he stumbles. He who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the Word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word and he becomes unfruitful. He who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the Word and understands it who indeed bears fruit and produces some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

 

Then the disciples said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” JESUS answered them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the Kingdom, the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the angels. As the tares are gathered and burned in the fire so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels and they will gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear let him hear!

 

JESUS said to them, “Have you understood all these things?” They said to Him, “Yes LORD.” Then He said to them, “Therefore every teacher instructed concerning the Kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.” When JESUS was in public He only spoke to the people in parables but when He was alone with the disciples He explained all things to them.

 

One Sabbath in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon and he cried out with a loud voice saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, JESUS of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are, the Holy One of GOD!” But JESUS rebuked him saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” and when the demon had thrown him in their midst it came out of him and did not hurt him. Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.” This report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region. They were astonished at His teaching for His word was with authority.

 

He left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house, Simon’s wife’s mother was sick with a high fever and they asked Him to heal her. Standing over her He took her hand and rebuked the fever and it left her, immediately she arose and served them. When the sun was setting all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them. Demons came out of many crying out and saying, “You are the CHRIST, the Son of GOD!” He rebuked them not allowing them to speak for they knew that He was the CHRIST; that it might fulfill what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.” When it was day He departed and went into a deserted place and the crowd sought Him and came to Him and tried to keep Him from leaving them but He said to them, “I must preach the Kingdom of GOD to the other cities also because for this purpose I have been sent.”

 

He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee the gospel of the Kingdom and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics and paralytics and He healed them. Great multitudes followed Him from Galilee and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

 

It happened when He was in a certain city that a man who was full of leprosy saw JESUS and he fell on his face and implored Him saying, “LORD, if You are willing You can make me clean.” Then JESUS put out His hand and touched him saying, “I am willing, be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him and JESUS charged him to tell no one saying, “Go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as a testimony to them just as Moses commanded.” However the report went around concerning Him all the more and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. So He often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

 

It happened on a certain day as He was teaching that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting with the multitudes who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem and the power of the LORD was present to heal them. Then four men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed whom they sought to bring in and lay before JESUS. When they could not find any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the room before JESUS. When JESUS saw their faith He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but GOD alone?” When JESUS perceived their thoughts He said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’? So that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins,” He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you arise take up your bed and go to your house.” Immediately he rose up before them took up what he had been lying on and departed to his own house glorifying GOD and they were all amazed and they glorified GOD and were filled with fear saying, “We have seen strange things today!”

 

After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office and He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he rose up, and leaving all followed Him. Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. There were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them and the scribes and the Pharisees complained to His disciples saying, “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” JESUS answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?” He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? Yet the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” Then He spoke a parable to them, “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one otherwise the new has a tear and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. No one puts new wine into old wineskins or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and it will be spilled and the wineskins will be ruined. New wine must be put into new wineskins and both are preserved. No one having drunk old wine immediately desires new for he says, ‘The old is better.’”

 

After this there was a feast of the Jews and JESUS went up to Jerusalem. There is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay many sick people blind, lame or paralyzed waiting for the moving of the water. For sometimes an angel went down into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first; after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. A certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When JESUS saw him lying there and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He asked him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up but while I am coming another steps down before me.” JESUS said to him, “Rise take up your bed and walk.” Immediately the man was made well took up his bed and walked and that day was the Sabbath. The Jews said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.” He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’” Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, “Take up your bed and walk?” The one who was healed did not know who it was for JESUS had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. Afterward JESUS found him in the temple and said to him, “See you have been made well. Sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you.” The man departed and told the Jews that it was JESUS who had made him well. For this reason the Jews persecuted JESUS and sought to kill Him because He had done these things on the Sabbath.

 

JESUS told them, “My Father has been working until now and I have been working.” Then the Jews sought all the more to kill Him because He not only broke the Sabbath but also said that GOD was His Father making Himself equal with GOD. Then JESUS said to them, “With all honesty I tell you the truth the Son can do nothing of Himself but only what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does and He will show Him greater works than these that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them even so the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one but has committed all judgment to the Son that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly I say to you he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but has passed from death into life. Truthfully I say to you the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of GOD and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself and has given Him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. I can of Myself do nothing as I hear I judge and My judgment is righteous because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. If I bear witness of Myself My witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of Me and I know that His witness of Me is true. You have sent to John and he has borne witness to the truth. Yet I do not receive testimony from man but I say these things that you may be saved. He was the burning and shining lamp and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish, the very works that I do bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. The Father Himself who sent Me has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. You do not have His word abiding in you because whom He sent you do not believe. You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and they testify of Me but you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. I do not receive honor from men. Because I know you, that you do not have the love of GOD in you. I have come in My Father’s name and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name him you will receive. How can you believe you who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes only from GOD? Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father there is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses you would believe Me for he wrote about Me. Since you do not believe his writings how will you believe My words?”

 

It happened on the second Sabbath that JESUS went through the grain fields and His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them rubbing them in their hands. The Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” JESUS said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him, how he went into the house of GOD in the days of Abiathar the high priest and ate the showbread which is not lawful to eat except for the priests and gave some to those who were with him?” Then He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, therefore the Son of Man is LORD of the Sabbath.”

 

When He had departed from there to Galilee He went into their synagogue. There was a man who had a withered hand and they asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” that they might accuse Him. He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath will not lay hold of it and pull it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep? So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Yet they kept silent and when He had looked around at them with anger being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” and he stretched it out and his hand was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him how they might destroy Him.

 

JESUS withdrew with His disciples to the sea, there a great multitude from Galilee followed Him and from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan and those from Tyre and Sidon, when they heard how many things He was doing they came to Him. So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude lest they should crush Him. Because He healed many so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him. Unclean spirits whenever they saw Him fell down before Him and cried out saying, “You are the Son of GOD.” He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him and He will declare justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break and smoking flax He will not quench till He sends forth justice to victory and in His name Gentiles will trust.”