1 One day Jesus was praying to God. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray to God too. Teach us just as John taught his disciples.”

2 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “When you pray, say these words:

5 Then Jesus told them this story.

A man went to his friend in the middle of the night to ask for some food. He said, “Please give me some food, 6 because a friend of mine has just arrived and I haven't got anything to give him. So do give me some.”

7 Then the owner of the house answered from inside his house. “Go away,” he said. “Don't make me get up because my house is locked and the children have gone to sleep. So I can't get up and give you any food.” 8 And even though his friend was still standing outside, he didn't get up.

His friend kept on calling until at last the owner of the house did get up, because his friend kept on calling out to him. He got up and gave him the food he needed.

9 Jesus told his disciples the story, and then he said to them, “Think about that man and ask God to give you what you need and he will give it to you. Look carefully and you will find what you are looking for. Knock on the door and God will open it for you. 10 When any of you ask him, God will give you what you need. And when any of you are looking for what you need, you will find it. And when any of you knock on the door, God will open it for you.

11 “But listen to this, you fathers of little children,” Jesus said. “If your son says to you, ‘Father, please give me a fish,’ will you give him a snake that he can't eat? Of course not! 12 And if your son says to you, ‘Father, please give me an egg,’ will you give him a scorpion? Of course you won't!

13 “You fathers know how to give your children everything good. You know even if you are bad parents. And of course God our Father knows, and he will give his Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

14 Some time later Jesus saw a man who was dumb. He couldn't speak because he had an evil spirit. Jesus made the spirit go out of him and then the man began to speak. Many people who were there were amazed when they heard him speaking.

15 But some people were saying to each other, “Satan, that one called Beelzebul, the boss of all the evil spirits - he is the one making Jesus strong. Really Satan is giving him power and so he is making the evil spirits come out of people.”

16 But other people were wanting to test Jesus. They said to him, “Do something powerful that people can't do, so that we will know that you have come from God.”

17 But Jesus knew their thoughts and he said to them, “Now listen. Satan can't help people to do anything good. If you make evil spirits come out of someone, Satan isn't making you strong. When a group of you begin to fight each other, some here and some on the other side, what happens? You are no longer one group; you are divided. 18 And when a group of evil spirits begin to fight each other, what happens? They are no longer one group; they are divided.

“You people have said about me, ‘Satan is making him strong so he can drive out evil spirits.’ But that is not right. 19 If I make evil spirits come out of people because Beelzebul is making me strong, then tell me, what do your disciples do? How do they make evil spirits come out of people? They know that Beelzebul doesn't make them strong. So they know that those words you are saying about me are all lies.

20 “No. God makes me strong, and I make evil spirits come out of people only by his Spirit. So when I drive out evil spirits with God's Spirit, you know that God is truly ruling here already.”

21 Then Jesus said to them, “Listen to this. When a strong man guards his house, his weapons are near him all the time. Then people can't steal his food and clothes and things. They are quite safe. 22 But when someone comes to his house who is stronger than he is, they will fight each other. The stronger man will fight better, and he will grab all the food and things from the owner of the house, and he will grab the weapons that had made him confident. And he will share them all with other people.”

23 And Jesus went on to say, “Any of you who don't work for me are making trouble for me. And any of you who don't bring people to me are chasing those people away.”

24 Then Jesus said, “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through dry places looking for a place to rest. If it can't find a good place, it says to itself, ‘I will go back now to where I was before.’

25 “So it goes back and sees the place all nice and clean. 26 Then it goes looking for some more spirits and brings seven of them back with it. But they are very bad spirits, even worse than the first one. They go in and live together in that man all the time. Then the man becomes much worse after the first spirit has gone back, because it has taken other spirits with it. At first he was in a bad way, but now he is much worse.”

27 After Jesus had said that, a woman who was in the crowd called out to him and said, “The woman who gave birth to you and nursed you must be very happy!”

28 Jesus said, “That is right, but people who hear God's word and obey him are much happier!”

29-30 The number of people listening to Jesus grew bigger, and they were crowding around him. He said to them, “You people are so wicked! You want to see all kinds of powerful things that people can't do, but you won't see any. I, the one who was born in this place, am like Jonah. Jonah was in that fish for three days but he came out alive. Then those people of Nineveh knew that God had sent Jonah to them. In the same way God will show you people that he has sent me to you, and nothing else.”

31 Then Jesus said to them, “On the last day God will judge people to see if they are good or bad. At that time the Queen of Sheba will stand up and blame you people living here today. Long ago she travelled from a country far away to hear King Solomon. Solomon spoke powerful words because he was a wise man and she listened to him. So she will accuse you all, because an even greater person is here with you today, but you won't listen to him.

32 “On the last day the people of Nineveh will also stand up to blame you all, because they changed their minds when they heard Jonah's words. Those people changed their minds, stopped doing wrong and obeyed God. Jonah spoke powerful words, but these words you are hearing today are even more powerful. But you won't listen!”

33 Then Jesus talked to the people about lamps. He said, “When we light a lamp inside the house we don't hide it. We don't put it under a tin, but we put it up high so that people can have a good light when they come inside. 34 If there is no light inside the house at night, you and I can't see. And if we haven't got any eyes we can't see. And if our eyes aren't good, then we are still in the dark. But if we have good eyes we can see a long way. 35 So you should watch yourselves so that you only look at good and not at evil. 36 Then when you look at what is good all the time, and not at what is evil, everything will go well for you all the time, just as if you are in a house filled with light.”

37 After Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee said to him, “Let us go to my house and eat.” So they went to the Pharisee's house and some other men went with them.

Jesus sat down to eat, but he didn't pour water over his hands first. 38 The Pharisee noticed that Jesus didn't wash his hands, but sat down to eat straight away, and he was surprised.

39 The Lord Jesus said to him, “You Pharisees wash your hands according to your law, but you don't clean your minds and hearts. You are greedy, and you take everything away from other people because your minds and hearts are evil. You are just like a stupid man who carefully washes his dishes on the outside and doesn't wash them inside.”

40 Then Jesus went on to say, “You foolish people. God made everything that we can see today, everything outside and inside too. 41 So this is what you should do to have good, clean minds. You should give things to poor people. You should be kind to them.

42 “Terrible things will happen to you Pharisees! You don't think about doing good to other people. And you don't think about God and you don't love him. But those little plants that you use to make your food tasty, you count them one by one so that you can give one of them to God and keep nine for yourselves. That is all right, but don't forget to do good to others and to love God.

43 “Terrible things will happen to you Pharisees! You are very proud. When you go to the synagogue you take the best places to sit in. And when you go among a crowd you really love it when they speak nice words to you.

44 “Yes indeed,” said Jesus. “Terrible things will happen to you! What kind of people are you? Let me tell you. You are like a place where they bury dead people. But that place is hidden, so when people go there they tread on it. They don't know that there are rotting bodies underneath. You really are just like that place, because other people don't know your evil minds that you keep hidden.”

45 Then a teacher of Moses' law spoke to Jesus and said, “Teacher, so you are saying to us, ‘You are bad people too.’ ”

46 Jesus answered, “Terrible things will happen to all of you too, because you tell people what they have to do, but you don't help them. You are like masters who give their workers heavy things to carry on their backs but they won't help them.

47 “Yes indeed,” Jesus said. “Terrible things will happen to you! Long ago your ancestors killed God's prophets. They killed them because they didn't want God's word. And now today you people have built beautiful little buildings on top of the places where the prophets are buried. 48 You built those beautiful buildings so that other people would think you love the prophets' words. But you don't. You are pleased that your ancestors killed God's prophets, because you too reject God's word. 49 That is why God, who knows everything, said, ‘I will send prophets and messengers to my people. But they will kill some of them and make trouble for others.’

50 “So God will blame you people of today. He will blame you and punish you because long ago your ancestors killed all his prophets. 51 First of all, long ago Cain killed his brother Abel. Then people kept on murdering God's prophets. They kept on and on until Zechariah's time. Zechariah was working in the temple in Jerusalem and they killed him right there near the altar and the holy place. I am telling you the truth. God will blame you and he will punish you, because your ancestors killed all his prophets.”

52 Then Jesus went on to say to them, “You teachers of Moses' law, terrible things will happen to you! Terrible things will happen, because people are wanting to know God's word today and you hide it from them. You don't want it and you won't tell other people. That is why terrible things will happen to you.”

53 Then Jesus left the Pharisee's house. And from that time on the teachers of Moses' law and the Pharisees spoke bad words about Jesus. And they kept on speaking bad words to him, asking him all kinds of questions. They kept on and on, 54 because they wanted to trick Jesus so that he would say something wrong. They wanted to blame him, but he didn't say anything wrong.