One time Jesus was out praying, and when he finished, one of his followers said to him, "John taught his followers how to pray. Lord, teach us how to pray too."
Jesus said to the followers, "This is how you should pray: 'Father, we pray that your name will always be kept holy. We pray that your kingdom will come.
Then Jesus said to them, "Suppose one of you went to your friend's house very late at night and said to him, 'A friend of mine has come into town to visit me. But I have nothing for him to eat. Please give me three loaves of bread.'
Your friend inside the house answers, 'Go away! Don't bother me! The door is already locked. My children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you the bread now.'
I tell you, maybe friendship is not enough to make him get up to give you the bread. But he will surely get up to give you what you need if you continue to ask.
Even you who are bad know how to give good things to your children. So surely your heavenly Father knows how to give the Holy Spirit to the people who ask him."
But he knew what they were thinking. So he said to them, "Every kingdom that fights against itself will be destroyed. And a family that fights against itself will break apart.
But if I use Satan's power to force out demons, then what power do your people use when they force out demons? So your own people will prove that you are wrong.
But suppose a stronger man comes and defeats him. The stronger man will take away the weapons that the first man trusted to keep his house safe. Then the stronger man will do what he wants with the other man's things.
"When an evil spirit comes out of someone, it travels through dry places, looking for a place to rest. But it finds no place to rest. So it says, 'I will go back to the home I left.'
Then the evil spirit goes out and brings back seven other spirits more evil than itself. They all go and live there, and that person has even more trouble than before."
As Jesus was saying these things, a woman with the people there called out to him, "What a great blessing God gave your mother, because she gave birth to you and fed you!"
The crowd grew larger and larger. Jesus said, "The people who live today are evil. They ask for a miracle as a sign from God. But no miracle will be done to prove anything to them. The only sign will be the miracle that happened to Jonah.
"On the judgment day, you people who live now will be compared with the Queen of the South, and she will be a witness who shows how guilty you are. Why do I say this? Because she traveled from far, far away to listen to Solomon's wise teaching. And I tell you that someone greater than Solomon is right here, but you won't listen!
"On the judgment day, you people who live now will also be compared with the people from Nineveh, and they will be witnesses who show how guilty you are. I say this because when Jonah preached to those people, they changed their hearts and lives. And you are listening to someone greater than Jonah, but you refuse to change!
The only source of light for the body is the eye. When you look at people and want to help them, you are full of light. But when you look at people in a selfish way, you are full of darkness.
If you are full of light, and there is no part of you that is dark, then you will be all bright, as though you have the light of a lamp shining on you."
The Lord said to him, "The washing you Pharisees do is like cleaning only the outside of a cup or a dish. But what is inside you? You want only to cheat and hurt people.
"But it will be bad for you Pharisees! You give God a tenth of everything you have—even your mint, your rue, and every other little plant in your garden. But you forget to be fair to others and to love God. These are the things you should do. And you should also continue to do those other things.
"It will be bad for you Pharisees because you love to have the most important seats in the synagogues. And you love for people to show respect to you in the marketplaces.
Jesus answered, "It will be bad for you, you experts in the law! You make strict rules that are very hard for people to obey. You try to force others to obey your rules. But you yourselves don't even try to follow any of those rules.
This is why God in his wisdom said, 'I will send prophets and apostles to them. Some of my prophets and apostles will be killed by evil men. Others will be treated badly.'
You will be punished for the killing of Abel. And you will be punished for the killing of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the Temple. Yes, I tell you that you people will be punished for them all.
"It will be bad for you, you experts in the law! You have taken away the key to learning about God. You yourselves would not learn, and you stopped others from learning too."
When Jesus went out, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees began to give him much trouble. They tried to make him answer questions about many things.