161 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came and, testing him, made a request to him to give them a sign from heaven. 2 But in answer he said to them, At nightfall you say, The weather will be good, for the sky is red. 3 And in the morning, The weather will be bad today, for the sky is red and angry. You are able to see the face of heaven, but not the signs of the times. 4 An evil and false generation is searching after a sign; and no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. And he went away from them.
5 And when the disciples came to the other side they had not taken thought to get bread. 6 And Jesus said to them, Take care to have nothing to do with the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. 7 And they were reasoning among themselves, saying, We took no bread. 8 And Jesus, seeing it, said, O you of little faith, why are you reasoning among yourselves, because you have no bread? 9 Do you still not see, or keep in mind the five cakes of bread of the five thousand, and the number of baskets you took up? 10 Or the seven cakes of bread of the four thousand, and the number of baskets you took up? 11 How is it that you do not see that I was not talking to you about bread, but about keeping away from the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? 12 Then they saw that it was not the leaven of bread which he had in mind, but the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
13 Now when Jesus had come into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he said, questioning his disciples, Who do men say that the Son of man is? 14 And they said, Some say, John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. 15 He says to them, But who do you say that I am? 16 And Simon Peter made answer and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus made answer and said to him, A blessing on you, Simon Bar-jonah: because this knowledge has not come to you from flesh and blood, but from my Father in heaven. 18 And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock will my church be based, and the doors of hell will not overcome it. 19 I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever is fixed by you on earth will be fixed in heaven: and whatever you make free on earth will be made free in heaven. 20 Then he gave orders to the disciples to give no man word that he was the Christ.
21 From that time Jesus went on to make clear to his disciples how he would have to go up to Jerusalem, and undergo much at the hands of those in authority and the chief priests and scribes, and be put to death, and the third day come again from the dead. 22 And Peter, protesting, said to him, Be it far from you, Lord; it is impossible that this will come about. 23 But he, turning to Peter, said, Get out of my way, Satan: you are a danger to me because your mind is not on the things of God, but on the things of men.
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him give up all, and take up his cross, and come after me. 25 Because whoever has a desire to keep his life safe will have it taken from him; but whoever gives up his life because of me, will have it given back to him. 26 For what profit has a man, if he gets all the world with the loss of his life? or what will a man give in exchange for his life? 27 For the Son of man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he will give to every man the reward of his works. 28 Truly I say to you, There are some of those here who will not have a taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
81 In those days again, when there was a great mass of people and they had no food, he made his disciples come to him and said to them, 2 I have pity for these people because they have been with me now three days, and have no food; 3 If I send them away to their houses with no food, they will be overcome by weariness on the way; and some of them have come from far. 4 And his disciples said in answer, How will it be possible to get enough bread for these men here in a waste place? 5 And he put the question, How much bread have you? And they said, Seven cakes. 6 And he made the people be seated on the earth: and he took the seven cakes and, having given praise, he gave the broken bread to his disciples to put before them; and they put it before the people. 7 And they had some small fishes; and blessing them he had them put before the people in the same way. 8 And they took the food, and had enough; and they took up seven baskets full of the broken bits. 9 And there were about four thousand people: and he sent them away.
10 And he got into the boat with his disciples straight away, and came into the country of Dalmanutha.
11 And the Pharisees came out and put questions to him, requesting from him a sign from heaven, testing him. 12 And he was very sad in spirit, and said, Why is this generation looking for a sign? truly, I say to you, No sign will be given to this generation. 13 And he went away from them, and again got into the boat and went across to the other side.
14 And they had taken no thought to get bread; and they had only one cake of bread with them in the boat. 15 And he said to them, Take care to be on the watch against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. 16 And they said to one another, We have no bread. 17 And Jesus, hearing it, said to them, Why are you reasoning among yourselves because you have no bread? do you still not see, and is it still not clear to you? are your hearts so hard? 18 Having eyes, do you not see? and having ears, have you no hearing? and have you no memory? 19 When I made a division of the five cakes of bread among the five thousand, what number of baskets full of broken bits did you take up? They said to him, Twelve. 20 And when the seven among the four thousand, what number of baskets full of broken bits did you take up? And they said to him, Seven. 21 And he said to them, Is it still not clear to you?
22 And they came to Beth-saida. And they took a blind man to him, requesting him to put his hands on him. 23 And he took the blind man by the hand, and went with him out of the town; and when he had put water from his mouth on his eyes, and put his hands on him, he said, Do you see anything? 24 And looking up, he said, I see men; I see them like trees, walking. 25 Then again he put his hands on his eyes; and looking hard, he was able to see, and saw all things clearly. 26 And he sent him away to his house, saying, Do not even go into the town.
27 And Jesus went out, with his disciples, into the little towns round Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he put a question to his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I am? 28 And they made answer, John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but others, One of the prophets. 29 And he said to them, But who do you say I am? Peter said in answer, You are the Christ. 30 And he put them under orders not to say this of him to anyone.
31 And teaching them, he said that the Son of man would have to undergo much, and be hated by those in authority, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be put to death, and after three days come back from the dead. 32 And he said this openly. And Peter took him, and was protesting. 33 But he, turning about, and seeing his disciples, said sharply to Peter, Get out of my way, Satan: for your mind is not on the things of God, but on the things of men. 34 And turning to the mass of people with his disciples, he said to them, If any man has the desire to come after me, let him give up all other desires, and take up his cross and come after me. 35 Whoever has a desire to keep his life, will have it taken from him; and whoever gives up his life because of me and the good news, will keep it. 36 What profit has a man if he gets all the world with the loss of his life? 37 And what would a man give in exchange for his life? 38 Whoever has a feeling of shame because of me and my words in this false and evil generation, the Son of man will have a feeling of shame because of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
18 And it came about that when he was in prayer, by himself, and the disciples were with him, he put a question to them, saying, Who do the people say I am? 19 And they, answering, said, John the Baptist; but others say Elijah; and others, that one of the old prophets has come back. 20 And he said, But who do you say that I am? And Peter, answering, said, The Christ of God.
21 But he gave them special orders, not to say this to any man; 22 Saying, The Son of man will undergo much and be put on one side by the rulers and the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and be put to death, and on the third day he will come back to life. 23 And he said to them all, If any man has a desire to come after me, let him give up all, and take up his cross every day, and come after me. 24 For whoever has a desire to keep his life will have it taken from him, but whoever gives up his life because of me, will keep it. 25 For what profit will a man have if he gets all the world, but undergoes loss or destruction himself? 26 For if any man has a feeling of shame because of me or of my words, the Son of man will have shame because of him when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 But truly I say to you, Some of those who are here now will have no taste of death till they see the kingdom of God.
(Read Luke 9:18-27)
It is an unspeakable comfort that our Lord Jesus is God's Anointed; this signifies that he was both appointed to be the Messiah, and qualified for it. Jesus discourses concerning his own sufferings and death. And so far must his disciples be from thinking how to prevent his sufferings, that they must prepare for their own. We often meet with crosses in the way of duty; and though we must not pull them upon our own heads, yet, when they are laid for us, we must take them up, and carry them after Christ. It is well or ill with us, according as it is well or ill with our souls. The body cannot be happy, if the soul be miserable in the other world; but the soul may be happy, though the body is greatly afflicted and oppressed in this world. We must never be ashamed of Christ and his gospel.
