The Harmonized Gospel of JESUS CHRIST Part 10

 

Chapter 10

 

It was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem and it was winter and JESUS walked into the temple at Solomon’s porch, then the people surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the CHRIST tell us plainly.” JESUS answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name they bear witness of Me. You do not believe because you are not of My sheep as I said to you. ‘My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me.’ I give them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand, I and My Father are one.”

 

Then the Jews took up stones to stone Him; JESUS asked them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?”  They answered, “For a good work we do not stone You but for blasphemy, because You being a Man make Yourself GOD.” JESUS said, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? If He called them gods to whom the word of GOD came and the Scripture cannot be broken do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of GOD.’? If I do not do the works of My Father do not believe Me but if I do though you do not believe Me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me and I in Him.” So they sought again to seize Him yet He escaped out of their hand. So He went away beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first and stayed there. Then many came to Him and said, “John performed no sign but all the things that John spoke about this Man were true.” and many believed in Him.

 

JESUS went through the cities and villages teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “LORD are there few who are saved?” and He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate for many will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying, ‘LORD, LORD, open for us,’ He will answer you, ‘I do not know you where are you from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence and You taught in our streets.’ He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from.  Depart from Me all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of GOD and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west from the north and the south and sit down in the Kingdom of GOD. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first and there are first who will be last.”

 

On that very day some Pharisees came to Him saying, “Get out and depart from here for Herod wants to kill You.” He said to them, “Go tell that fox, ‘Look I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day I shall be perfected.’ Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow and the day following for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate and truly I say to you. You shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

 

It happened as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath that they watched Him closely. There was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. JESUS spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” But they kept silent. So He took him and healed him and let him go. Then He said, “Which of you having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” and they could not answer Him regarding these things.

 

So He told a parable to those who were invited when He noted how they chose the best places saying, “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast do not sit down in the best place in case one more honorable than you has been invited and he who invited you and him come and says to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. When you are invited sit down in the lowest place so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you ‘Friend go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you, for whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

 

Then He said to the one who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, or rich neighbors because they will invite you back and you are repaid. When you give a feast invite the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind. Then you will be blessed because they cannot repay you and you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

When one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the Kingdom of GOD!” Then JESUS said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come for all things are ready.’ they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground and I must go and see it, I ask you to have me excused.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen and I am going to test them, I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife so that I cannot come.’ So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ And the servant said, ‘Master it is done as you commanded and still there is room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’”

 

Great multitudes went with Him and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost whether he has enough to finish it; lest after he has laid the foundation he is not able to finish then all who see it begin to mock him saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? Or what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else while the other is still a great way off he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. Salt is good but if the salt has lost its flavor how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill and men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

 

When all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” So He spoke this parable, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it. When he has found it he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. When he comes home he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. Or what woman having ten silver coins if she loses one coin does not light a lamp sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it she calls her friends and neighbors together saying, ‘Rejoice with me for I have found the piece which I lost!’ Likewise I say to you there is much joy in the presence of the angels of GOD over one sinner who repents.”

 

Then He said: “A certain man had two sons, the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my inheritance.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. Not many days after the younger son gathered all together and journeyed to a far country and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. When he had spent all he had there was a severe famine in that land and he began to be in need. Then he went and got a job with a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate yet no one gave him anything. When he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, “Father I have sinned against heaven and before you and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’ He arose and went to his father when he was still a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ The father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ and they began to be merry. His older son was in the field as he came and drew near to the house he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what was going on and he said to him, ‘Your brother has come and because he has received him safe and sound your father has killed the fatted calf.’ Then the brother was angry and would not go in so his father came out and pleaded with him, he said to his father, ‘All these many years I have been serving you, I never transgressed your commandment at any time and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might have fun with my friends. As soon as this son of yours came who has devoured your livelihood with harlots you killed the fatted calf for him.’ The father said to him, ‘Son you are always with me and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad for your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found.’”

 

One time JESUS said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship for you can no longer be steward.’ Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig and I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do that when I am put out of the stewardship they may receive me into their houses.’ So the steward called every one of his master’s debtors to him and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ so he said to him, ‘Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then the steward said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ he said to him, ‘Take your bill and write eighty.’ Then the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. I say to you make friends for yourselves by unrighteous riches that when you fail they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is also unjust in much. If you have not been faithful in unrighteous riches who will commit to your trust Heavenly riches? If you have not been faithful in what is another man’s who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve GOD and riches.”

 

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things and they derided Him. JESUS said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men but GOD knows your hearts. What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of GOD. The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the Kingdom of GOD has been preached and everyone is pressing into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.

 

There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores who was laid at his gate desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table, moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried and being in torments in Hell he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame.’ Abraham said, ‘Son remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and likewise Lazarus bad things and now he is comforted and you are tormented. Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot nor can those from there pass to us.’ Then the rich man said, ‘Then I beg you father that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers that he may testify to them lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets let them hear them.’ He said, ‘No father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead they will repent.’ Abraham said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”

Then JESUS said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come but woe to him through whom they do come! It would be better for him if a millstone was hung around his neck, and he was thrown into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you rebuke him and if he repents forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day and seven times in a day returns to you saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”

 

The apostles said to JESUS, “Increase our faith.” So the LORD said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. Which of you having a servant plowing or tending sheep will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?  Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not, so likewise you when you have done all those things which you are commanded say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have only done what was our duty to do.’”