Henry: Welcome To Immerse: The Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 43.
then Jesus went from village to village teaching the people, and he called
his 12 disciples together and began sending them out two by two, giving
them authority to cast out evil spirits.
He told them to take nothing for their journey except a walking stick.
No food, no traveler's bag, no money.
He allowed them to wear sandals, but not to take a change of clothes.
Wherever you go.
He said, stay in the same house until you leave town.
But if any place refuses to welcome you or listen to you, shake its dust from
your feet as you leave to show that you have abandoned those people to their fate.
So the disciples went out telling everyone they met to repent of their
sins and turn to God, and they cast out many demons and healed many sick people.
Anointing them with olive oil, Herod anus, the king soon heard about Jesus
because everyone was talking about him.
Some were saying this must be John the Baptist, raised from the dead.
That is why he can do such miracles.
Others said he's the prophet.
Elijah still.
Others said he's a prophet, like the other great prophets of the past.
When Herod heard about Jesus, he said, John, the man I beheaded
has come back from the dead.
For Herod had sent soldiers to arrest and imprison John as a favor to Herods.
She had been his brother, Phillip's wife, but Herod had married her.
John had been telling Herod, it is against God's law for you
to marry your brother's wife.
So Herod bore a grudge against John and wanted to kill him,
but without Herod's approval.
She was powerless.
For Herod respected John and knowing that he was a good and holy man.
He protected him.
Herod was greatly disturbed whenever he talked with John, but even
so, he liked to listen to him.
Herod's chance finally came on Herod's birthday.
He gave a party for his high government officials, army officers,
and the leading citizens of Galilee.
Then his daughter.
Also named Herods came in and performed a dance that greatly
pleased Herod and his guests.
Ask me for anything you like the king said to the girl, and I will give it to you.
He even vowed, I will give you whatever you ask, up to half my kingdom.
She went out and asked her mother, what should I ask for?
Her mother told her, ask for the head of John the Baptist.
So the girl hurried back to the king and told him, I want the head of
John the Baptist right now on a tray.
Then the king deeply regretted what he had said, but because of the
vows he had made in front of his guests, he couldn't refuse her.
So he immediately sent an executioner to the prison to cut
off John's head and bring it to him.
The soldier beheaded John in the prison, brought his head on
a tray and gave it to the girl.
Who took it to her mother.
When John's disciples heard what had happened, they came to get
his body and buried it in a tomb.
The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told
him all they had done and taught.
Then Jesus said, let's go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest a while.
He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and
his apostles didn't even have time to eat.
So they left by boat for a quiet place where they could be alone, but many people
recognized them and saw them leaving, and people from many towns ran ahead along
the shore and got there ahead of them.
Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had
compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
So he began teaching them many things.
Late in the afternoon, his disciples came to him and said, this is a remote
place and it's already getting late.
Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and
villages and buy something to eat.
But Jesus said, you feed them with what they asked.
We'd have to work for months to earn enough money to buy
food for all these people.
How much bread do you have?
He asked.
Go and find out.
They came back and reported, we have five loaves of bread and two fish.
Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups
on the green grass, so they sat down in groups of 50 or a hundred.
Jesus took the five loaves and two fish looked up toward heaven and blessed them.
Then breaking the loaves into pieces.
He kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people.
He also divided the fish for everyone to share.
They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward the disciples
picked up 12 baskets of leftover bread and fish, a total of 5,000
men, and their families were fed.
Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat
and head across the lake to Beth Sayada.
While he sent the people home after telling everyone goodbye, he went up
into the hills by himself to pray.
Late that night, the disciples were in their boat in the middle of the
lake, and Jesus was alone on land.
He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling
against the wind and waves.
About three o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water.
He intended to go past them, but when they saw him walking on the water, they cried
out in terror thinking he was a ghost.
They were all terrified when they saw him, but Jesus spoke to them at once.
Don't be afraid, he said.
Take courage.
I am here.
Then he climbed into the boat and the wind stopped.
They were totally amazed for, they still didn't understand the significance
of the miracle of the loaves.
Their hearts were too hard to take it in.
After they had crossed the lake, they landed at, they brought the
boat to shore and climbed out.
The people recognized Jesus at once and they ran throughout the whole
area, carrying sick people on mats to wherever they heard he was.
Wherever he went in villages, cities, or the countryside.
They brought the sick out to the marketplaces.
They begged him to let the sick touch at least the fringe of his robe and
all who touched him were healed.
One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived
from Jerusalem to see Jesus.
They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual
of hand washing before eating.
The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured
water over their cupped hands as required by their ancient traditions.
Similarly, they don't eat anything from the market until they
immerse their hands in water.
This is what one of many traditions they have clung to, such as their ceremonial
washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.
So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, why don't
your disciples follow our age-old tradition, they eat without first
performing the hand washing ceremony.
Jesus replied, you hypocrites.
Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you for he wrote, These
people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship is a farce for they teach manmade ideas as commands
from God for you, ignore God's law and substitute your own tradition.
Then he said, you skillfully sidestep God's law in order to
hold onto your own tradition.
For instance, Moses gave you this law from God.
Honor your father and mother, and anyone who speaks disrespectfully of
father or mother must be put to death.
But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, sorry, I can't
help you for, I have vowed to give to God what I would've given to you in this way.
You let them disregard their needy parents.
And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition, and this
is only one example among many others.
Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear all of you.
Listen, he said, and try to understand.
It's not what goes into your body that defiles you.
You are defiled by what comes from your heart.
Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his
disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used.
Don't you understand either?
He asked, can't you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you?
Food doesn't go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach
and then goes into the sewer.
By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable
in God's eyes, and then he added it is what comes from inside that
defiles you for from within out of a person's heart come evil thoughts,
sexual immorality, theft, murder.
Adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful, desires, envy,
slander, pride, and foolishness.
All these vile things come from within.
They are what defile you.
Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of tire.
He didn't want anyone to know which house he was staying in,
but he couldn't keep it a secret.
Right away.
A woman who had heard about him came and fell at his feet.
Her little girl was possessed by an evil spirit, and she begged
him to cast out the demon from her daughter since she was a gentile.
Born in Syrian Venetia, Jesus told her first, I should feed the
children my own family, the Jews.
It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.
She replied, that's true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to
eat the scraps from the children's plates.
Good answer.
He said, now go home for the demon has left your daughter.
And when she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly
in bed and the demon was gone.
Jesus left higher and went up to Sitan.
Before going back to the Sea of Galilee and the region of the 10 towns, a deaf
man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to
lay his hands on the man to heal him.
Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone.
He put his fingers into the man's ears, then spitting on his own fingers.
He touched the man's tongue, looking up to heaven.
He sighed and said, Which means be opened instantly.
The man could hear perfectly and his tongue was freed
so he could speak plainly.
Jesus told the crowd not to tell anyone, but the more he told them not to, the more
they spread the news, they were completely amazed and said again and again.
Everything he does is wonderful.
He even makes the death to hear and gives speech to those who cannot speak.
About this time, another large crowd had gathered and the
people ran out of food again.
Jesus called his disciples and told them, I feel sorry for these people.
They have been here with me for three days and they have nothing left to eat.
If I send them home hungry, they will faint along the way.
For some of them have come a long distance, his disciples replied, how
are we supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness?
Jesus asked, how much bread do you have?
Seven loaves.
They replied.
So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground.
Then he took the seven loaves, thanked God for them and broke them into pieces.
He gave them to his disciples who distributed the bread to the crowd.
A few small fish were found too, so Jesus also blessed these and told
the disciples to distribute them.
They ate as much as they wanted.
Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food.
There were about 4,000 men in the crowd that day, and Jesus sent
them home after they had eaten.
Immediately after this, he got into a boat with his disciples and
crossed over to the region of Almaha.
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started
to argue with him testing him.
They demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from
heaven to prove his authority.
When he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, why do these
people keep demanding a miraculous sign?
I tell you the truth.
I will not give this generation any such sign.
So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed
to the other side of the lake.
But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food.
They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat as
they were crossing the lake.
Jesus warned them, watch out.
Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.
At this, they began to argue with each other because they
hadn't brought any bread.
Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, why are you
arguing about having no bread?
Don't you know or understand even yet.
Are your hearts too hard to take it in?
You have eyes, can't you see?
You have ears, can't you hear?
Don't you remember anything at all?
When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of
leftovers did you pick up afterward?
12 they said.
And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets
of leftovers did you pick up?
Seven.
They said, don't you understand yet?
He asked them
when they arrived at Beth Sayda.
Some people brought a blind man to Jesus and they begged him
to touch the man and heal him.
Jesus took the blind man by the hand and let him out of the village.
Then spitting on the man's eyes, he laid his hands on him and
asked, can you see anything?
Now the man looked around.
Yes.
He said, I see people, but I can't see them very clearly.
They look like trees walking around.
Then Jesus placed his hands on the man's eyes again, and his eyes were opened.
His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly.
Jesus sent him away saying, don't go back into the village.
On your way home.
Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the
villages near Caesarea Philippi.
As they were walking along, he asked them, who do people say I am?
Well, they replied.
Some say John the Baptist.
Some say Elijah and others say You are one of the other prophets.
Then he asked them, but who do you say I am?
Peter replied, you are the Messiah.
But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
This concludes today's Immerse Reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.