Study Desk

When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, "Oh, Lord, please leave me—I'm such a sinful man."

His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed. Jesus replied to Simon, "Don't be afraid! From now on you'll be fishing for people!"

In one of the villages, Jesus met a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground, begging to be healed. "Lord," he said, "if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean."

But despite Jesus' instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases.

but they couldn't reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God.

Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector's booth. "Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him.

Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi's fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them.

One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples broke off heads of grain, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grain.

Jesus replied, "Haven't you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

He went into the house of God and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests can eat. He also gave some to his companions."

Then Jesus said to his critics, "I have a question for you. Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?"

He looked around at them one by one and then said to the man, "Hold out your hand." So the man held out his hand, and it was restored!

At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names:

When they came down from the mountain, the disciples stood with Jesus on a large, level area, surrounded by many of his followers and by the crowds. There were people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from as far north as the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon.

Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said, "God blesses you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.

When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some respected Jewish elders to ask him to come and heal his slave.

And when the officer's friends returned to his house, they found the slave completely healed.

Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him.

When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. "Don't cry!" he said.