Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 288
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IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
9:23-43
“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a
person believes.”
The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my
unbelief!”
When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked
the evil spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and
speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter
him again!”
Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through
the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and
helped him to his feet, and he stood up.
Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they
asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”
Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.”
Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, for he wanted to spend more time with his
disciples and teach them. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be
betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days
later he will rise from the dead.” They didn’t understand what he was saying, however, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.
After they arrived at Capernaum and settled in a house, Jesus asked his
disciples, “What were you discussing out on the road?” But they didn’t answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest.
He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever
wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.”
Then he put a little child among them. Taking the child in his arms, he
said to them, “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf
welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not only me but
also my Father who sent me.”
John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast
out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group.”
“Don’t stop him!” Jesus said. “No one who performs a miracle in my
name will soon be able to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us
is for us. If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the
Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will surely be rewarded.
“But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin,
it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone
hung around your neck. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better
to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable
