Listener's Audio Bible Devotional Podcast

Then Jesus\' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, \'Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.\' \'Who are my mother and my brothers?\' he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, \'Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God\'s will is my brother and sister and mother.\'

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means \'sons of thunder\'), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice,

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, \'You are the Son of God.\' But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.

Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, \'Stand up in front of everyone.\' Then Jesus asked them, \'Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?\' But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, \'Stretch out your hand.\' He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, \'Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?\' He answered, \'Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.\' Then he said to them, \'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.\'

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: \'They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.\'

As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector\'s booth. \'Follow me,\' Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi\'s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: \'Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?\' On hearing this, Jesus said to them, \'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.\'

\'Why does this fellow talk like that? He\'s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?\' Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, \'Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, \'Your sins are forgiven,\' or to say, \'Get up, take your mat and walk\'? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.\' So he said to the man, \'I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.\' He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, \'We have never seen anything like this!\'

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, \'Son, your sins are forgiven.\'

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ\'s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, \'If you are willing, you can make me clean.\' Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. \'I am willing,\' he said. \'Be clean!\' Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: \'See that you don\'t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.\' Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon\'s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, \'What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!\' \'Be quiet!\' said Jesus sternly. \'Come out of him!\' The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, \'What is this? A new teaching--and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.\'

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. \'Come, follow me,\' Jesus said, \'and I will send you out to fish for people.\' At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.