Jesus told them about sowing the seeds of God’s word in peoples hearts and how some people’s hearts are like rocks and the seeds won’t grow and some hearts don’t have water and the plant dries up and some hearts let in lots of other stuff that chokes the plant and some hearts listen and grow good fruit of love and happiness to the Lord God.
Then one day Jesus went into a ship with his helpers and as they were going across the lake, Jesus fell asleep. A big storm came and tall waves were filling up the ship with water. The helpers came and said, Master, we are going to die. Jesus told the wind, Stop! And the waves and wind and rain stopped. The helpers said, What kind of man is this that He tells the wind and storm what to do.
On the other side of the lake was a man who had lots of bad spirits living inside him for a long time. He lived in the graves and didn’t wear any clothes. When the man saw Jesus he fell down in front of Him and said, Jesus, Son of God most high, please don’t hurt me. Jesus made the bad spirits go out and they went into a herd of pigs and the pigs ran fast down a cliff into the sea and drowned.
A man called Jairus was a leader in the church house. He came to Jesus and bowed down and asked Jesus to come heal his little daughter who was dying. As they were going to the man’s house a lady who had been sick bleeding for 12 years came up behind Jesus to touch the bottom corner of His robe and the sickness disappeared. Jesus said, Who touched Me? Because he felt the healing go out of Him into her. Jesus looked at her and said, It’s Ok, the sickness is all gone. Your faith has made you better.
While he was talking to the lady, someone came and told the leader, Your daughter has died. Jesus told the man, Don’t be scared, just believe. She will be made well. When they got to the man’s house Jesus took Peter, James and John and the mom and dad and went in to see the little girl. The house was full of people crying real loud. Jesus said, Don’t cry, she’s not dead, just sleeping. The people laughed at Jesus because they knew that she was dead. Jesus put them all outside and took the little girls hand and said, Little maid, get up. And she got up right then from being dead. Jesus told them, Give her some food. The dad and mom were amazed. Jesus told them, Don’t tell anyone about this.
Jesus took his 12 special helpers off away into the desert but the people heard about it and went out to them. So Jesus told them lots of things about the kingdom of God and healed all their sicknesses. When the day was almost gone, the helpers came to Jesus and said, Send them all away to go get some dinner because there is nothing to eat here in the desert. Jesus told them, You give them some food. They said, but we just have five loafs and two fish, where could we get enough food for all these people to eat?
Jesus had the people all sit down in big groups of 50 and took the bread and fish and looked up to heaven and asked the Father to bless the food and then Jesus gave it to the helpers and they gave it to the people and it was turned into enough so that all the people ate until their tummies were full and they had 12 baskets of food left over.
Some of you here right now won’t die until you see the kingdom of God. Then after 8 more days passed Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a mountain to pray and Jesus turned very beautiful and shiny bright in front of their eyes and His clothes were shiny, shiny bright. Two men stood there talking with Jesus who were Moses and Elijah come down from heaven. Peter said, Let’s build you three tents to live in here. But a cloud came and made a shadow over them and a voice said from the cloud, This is My special loved Son, listen to Him.
The next day when they came down the mountain many people were there to meet Jesus. A man came and said, Master, please look at my child and help him because a bad spirit grabs him and hurts him. Your helpers couldn’t get it out of him. Jesus said, O ones twisted up with no faith, how long until you believe? Jesus threw out the bad spirit and healed the child and gave him to his dad. The people were all amazed at the strong, strong power of God. Jesus told them think a lot about this because days are coming when I won’t be here. But the helpers were wondering in their hearts which one of them was the greatest.
At one village the people didn’t make a place for Jesus and the helpers said, Should we call fire down from heaven and erase them? Jesus said, You don’t understand why I came to the world. I came to save people’s lives not kill them. Then in another village a man came and said to Jesus, I will come with you wherever you go. Jesus told him, The foxes have holes to live in and the birds have nests, but I don’t have anywhere to lay down My head.
After this Jesus picked 70 helpers and gave them His power and sent them out all over to tell people the good news about His kingdom and heal every sick one and throw out all the bad spirits from people. Bad trouble will come to the cities who don’t want it. The ones who hear you are hearing Me, and the ones who hate you re hating Me. You can even walk on snakes and spiders and they can’t hurt you. The worst bad one falls like lightning from heaven. But don’t be happy about all this power I give you, be happy that your names are written in heaven.
Jesus was very happy inside and said, I thank You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth that you hid this all from the smart ones and showed it to the little ones because that’s what seemed good to You. Jesus told them. My Father gave everything, all heaven and all earth, to Me. And no one knows who I am unless the Father shows it to him and no one knows who the Father is unless I show them. Many kings and leaders of the world wanted to see these things, but you see them.
Then a leader asked Jesus, What do I do to get eternal life? Jesus told him, What do you read in the special writings from God? The man told Jesus, To love God with all our heart and soul and strength and mind; And your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said, You said it right. The man asked, Who is my neighbor? Jesus told about a man who robbers had beat and left hurt beside the road. A temple leader was walking by and crossed to the other side and kept going and a leader of the country did the same thing, leaving the man lying there hurt by the road.
Then a man from another country that no one liked came by. He saw the man and went to help him and poured oil and wine on his cuts and bruises and took him to a hotel to rest. He paid for the hotel and left enough money for the man to be helped until he was well. Jesus asked them, Who did the right thing? They said, The man who helped. Jesus said, You go and do like that.
When Jesus got to a village, a woman whose name was Martha had Jesus to come stay at her house. Martha was real busy getting food ready for Jesus and his helpers but her sister Mary was just sitting at Jesus feet, listening to Him. Martha said, Don’t you care that my sister left me to do all the work? Jesus said, Martha, Martha, you are thinking too much about all the stuff. Only one thing is best and that’s what Mary is doing. It won’t be taken away from her.
Later, at another place, Jesus was praying and his helpers said, Lord, teach us to pray like John taught the ones following him to pray. Jesus said, When you pray, say, Our Father who is in heaven. You are Most Special. Bring Your kingdom here. Do what you want here like you do in heaven. Give us our food for today and forgive us our sins because we forgive the ones who do bad to us and who owe us stuff. Don’t lead us to be tested, but save us from all bad stuff.
Jesus told them, If you have a friend who comes to you in the night when you are sleeping and he wants food, you want to keep on sleeping but you get up and give food to him. Because he is your friend you will get up and give him as much as he needs. I tell you, Ask and it will be given to you. Look for what you want and you will find it. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Because everyone who asks will get what he asks for and the one who looks, will find what he is looking for; and the ones who knock will have the door opened to them.
Then there was a man who couldn’t talk. Jesus threw the bad spirit out of him and then the man could talk well. The leaders said, He throws out bad spirits by the worst of the bad spirits. Jesus said, If you split the kingdom, how can it stand up. It will fall apart. If the bad one is throwing himself out, he is ruining himself. But if I throw the bad ones out by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
When a strong man guards his house his stuff is safe, but when one who is stronger comes, he takes his stuff. Ones who are not with Me are against Me. If you don’t help Me bring people into My kingdom, you are chasing them away. Bad spirits leave people and then go wandering around and can’t find anyplace to rest to they go back where they were but take a bunch more bad spirits with them, so it is worse.