Matthew 21:18-46; Matthew 22; Matthew 23:1-38

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Matthew 21:18-46

18 Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry.
19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, "Let there be no fruit from you forever!" Immediately the fig tree withered away.
20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree immediately wither away?"
21 Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly I tell you, if you have faith, and don't doubt, you will not only do what is done to the fig tree, but even if you will tell this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it will be done.
22 All things, whatever you will ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."
23 When he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?"
24 Jesus answered them, "I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
25 The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?" They reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we will say, 'From heaven,' he will tell us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'
26 But if we will say, 'From men,' we fear the multitude, for all hold John as a prophet."
27 They answered Jesus, and said, "We don't know." He also said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
28 But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, 'Son, go work today in my vineyard.'
29 He answered, 'I will not,' but afterward he repented himself, and went.
30 He came to the second, and said likewise. He answered, 'I go, sir,' but he didn't go.
31 Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said to him, "The first." Jesus says to them, "Most assuredly I tell you, that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into the kingdom of God before you.
32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn't even repent afterward, that you might believe him.
33 "Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country.
34 When the season of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive his fruits.
35 The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another.
36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did to them in like manner.
37 But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, 'They will respect my son.'
38 But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and seize his inheritance.'
39 So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
40 When therefore the lord of the vineyard will come, what will he do to those farmers?"
41 They told him, "He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruits in their seasons."
42 Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?'
43 "Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation bringing forth its fruits.
44 He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whoever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust."
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke of them.
46 When they sought to lay hold on him, they feared the multitudes, because they took him for a prophet.
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Matthew 22

1 Jesus answered and spoke again in parables to them, saying,
2 "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son,
3 and sent forth his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast, but they would not come.
4 Again he sent forth other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, "Behold, I have made ready my dinner. My oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the marriage feast."'
5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise,
6 and the rest grabbed his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them.
7 But the king was angry, and he sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
8 Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding is ready, but they who were invited were not worthy.
9 Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the marriage feast.'
10 Those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. The wedding was filled with guests.
11 But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn't have on wedding-clothing,
12 and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here not having wedding-clothing?' He was speechless.
13 Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness; there is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.'
14 For many are called, but few chosen."
15 Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how they might entrap him in his talk.
16 They sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are honest, and teach the way of God in truth, no matter who you teach, for you aren't partial to anyone.
17 Tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"
18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, "Why do you test me, you hypocrites?
19 Show me the tax money." They brought to him a denarius.
20 He asked them, "Whose is this image and inscription?"
21 They said to him, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
22 When they heard it, they marveled, and left him, and went away.
23 On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him,
24 saying, "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies, having no children, his brother will marry his wife, and raise up seed for his brother.'
25 Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no seed left his wife to his brother.
26 In like manner the second also, and the third, to the seventh.
27 After them all, the woman died.
28 In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her."
29 But Jesus answered them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God's angels in heaven.
31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven't you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying,
32 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?' God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."
33 When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
34 But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, gathered themselves together.
35 One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him.
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?"
37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 A second likewise is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
42 saying, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "Of David."
43 He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying,
44 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, Until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?'
45 "If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?"
46 No one was able to answer him a word, neither dared any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
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Matthew 23:1-38

1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,
2 saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses' seat.
3 All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don't do their works; for they say, and don't do.
4 For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them
5 But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,
6 and love the chief place at feasts, the chief seats in the synagogues,
7 the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called 'Rabbi, Rabbi' by men.
8 But don't you be called 'Rabbi,' for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers.
9 Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.
10 Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ.
11 But he who is greatest among you will be your servant.
12 Whoever will exalt himself will be humbled, and whoever will humble himself will be exalted.
13 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
14 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don't enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter
15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of Gehenna as yourselves.
16 Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.'
17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
18 'Whoever will swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever will swear by the gift that is on it, he is a debtor.'
19 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift
20 He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it.
21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who is living in it
22 He who swears by the heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.
23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law - justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.
26 You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside of it may become clean also.
27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous,
30 and say, 'If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'
31 Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are sons of those who killed the prophets.
32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
33 You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?
34 Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them will you kill and crucify; and some of them will you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city;
35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
36 Most assuredly I tell you, all these things will come on this generation
37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!
38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate
The World English Bible is in the public domain.