Study Desk

They are like a man building a house. He digs deep and builds his house on rock. The floods come, and the water crashes against the house. But the flood cannot move the house, because it was built well.

When he heard about Jesus, he sent some older Jewish leaders to him. He wanted the men to ask Jesus to come and save the life of his servant.

The next day Jesus and his followers went to a town called Nain. A big crowd was traveling with them.

Then the boy sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

Everyone was filled with fear. They began praising God and said, "A great prophet is here with us!" and "God is taking care of his people."

John's followers told him about all these things. John called for two of his followers.

She stood at Jesus' feet, crying. Then she began to wash his feet with her tears. She dried his feet with her hair. She kissed his feet many times and rubbed them with the perfume.

When the Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to his house saw this, he thought to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know that the woman who is touching him is a sinner!"

Also with these women were Joanna, the wife of Chuza (the manager of Herod's property), Susanna, and many other women. These women used their own money to help Jesus and his apostles.

One day Jesus and his followers got into a boat. He said to them, "Come with me across the lake." And so they started across.

He said to his followers, "Where is your faith?" They were afraid and amazed. They said to each other, "What kind of man is this? He commands the wind and the water, and they obey him."

Jesus and his followers sailed on across the lake. They sailed to the area where the Gerasene people live, across from Galilee.

The demon inside the man had often seized him, and he had been put in jail with his hands and feet in chains. But he would always break the chains. The demon inside him would force him to go out to the places where no one lived. Jesus commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. When the man saw Jesus, he fell down before him, shouting loudly, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Please, don't punish me!"

Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" The man answered, "Legion." (He said his name was "Legion" because many demons had gone into him.)

People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man sitting there at the feet of Jesus. The man had clothes on and was in his right mind again; the demons were gone. This made the people afraid.

A man named Jairus came to him. He was a leader of the synagogue. He had only one daughter. She was twelve years old, and she was dying. So Jairus bowed down at the feet of Jesus and begged him to come to his house. While Jesus was going to Jairus' house, the people crowded all around him.

The woman came behind Jesus and touched the bottom of his coat. At that moment, her bleeding stopped.

Jesus called his twelve apostles together. He gave them power to heal sicknesses and power to force demons out of people.

When the apostles came back, they told Jesus what they had done on their trip. Then he took them away to a town called Bethsaida. There, he and his apostles could be alone together.

(There were about 5000 men there.) Jesus said to his followers, "Tell the people to sit in groups of about 50 people."