1 This story is good news. It is all about Jesus Christ, God’s son. The story starts like this.

2-3 A long time before Jesus was born, God told a man called Isaiah to write in God’s book about something God was going to do for Jesus. And it happened the way Isaiah wrote. He wrote this,

John talked to people out there in the bush. He said, “You mob have to be really sorry for the wrong way you are living. You have to turn right around and live God’s way.” He also told them, “If you do that, I will baptise you. That means, I will take you through a special washing ceremony. And God will not do payback for the bad things you did.”

A lot of people went out into the bush to listen to John. They came from the city called Jerusalem and from other towns in that country called Judea. Some people told John that they were sorry for the wrong things they did, so he baptised them in the Jordan River.

7 John told them, “A man will come to this country later. He is more important than me, and he is stronger than me. I’m not good enough to untie his shoes. I’m just nothing. 8 You see, I baptised you just with water, but this new man will put the Holy Spirit in you. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.”

9 At that time, Jesus was living in a town called Nazareth, in Galilee country. Then Jesus left his home, and he walked all the way south to a place on the Jordan River. John was baptising people there. 10 After he got to that place, Jesus went down into the water and John baptised him. As he came up out of the water, Jesus looked up, and he saw the sky split open, and he saw the Holy Spirit. It looked just like a pigeon, and it flew down to Jesus. 11 And God said to Jesus, “You are my son. I love you very much, and I’m very happy with you.”*Genesis 22:2; Psalm 2:7; Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:18; Mark 9:7

12 Straight away, the Holy Spirit sent Jesus out into the bush. 13 Jesus stayed out there for 40 days. And Satan went to him and tried to trick him. Satan is the boss over all the bad spirits. He tried to make Jesus do something bad. But Jesus didn’t do it. There were wild animals in that place, but angel messengers went and looked after Jesus.

14 One day, that country’s government boss was angry with John the Baptiser, so he sent some soldiers to grab John and put him in jail. After that, Jesus went back to Galilee country, and he told everyone God’s good news. 15 He said, “Now is the right time for God to take people into his family. You mob have to take notice and turn right around and live God’s way. You have to believe this good news.”*Matthew 3:2

16 One day, Jesus walked next to a big lake, called Lake Galilee, and he saw 2 men throwing a net into the water to catch fish. That was their job. One man was called Simon, and the other man was his young brother Andrew.

17 Jesus said, “I want you 2 to come with me. I want you to stop catching fish and start catching people for me.” 18 Straight away, Simon and Andrew dropped their nets and followed Jesus.

19 Jesus kept walking along next to the water, and he saw James and John getting their nets ready to catch fish. And their father Zebedee was with them too. 20 Like before, Jesus called out to James and John to stop their work and follow him. Straight away, they left their father and the other work-men in the boat, and they followed Jesus.

21 Jesus and his followers went to a town called Capernium. On Saturday they went to the Jewish meeting house, and Jesus taught God’s word to the people. You see, Saturday was their day to rest and show respect to God. 22 Jesus talked with clear and strong words, and the people listened to him, and they were really surprised. They knew that he was teaching God’s words really straight. The Jewish law teachers didn’t talk like that.*Matthew 7:28-29

23 Then, in the middle of the meeting, a man with a bad spirit in him called out, 24 “Leave us, Jesus from Nazareth. Why do you trouble us bad spirits? Are you going to finish us up? We know you. You are God’s special man.”

25 Jesus talked to the bad spirit strongly. He said, “Be quiet. Come out of him.”

26 The bad spirit knocked the man down and made him shake and scream out loud as it came out of him, and then it went away.

27 All the people were watching, and they were really surprised. They asked each other, “What’s going on? This man is teaching us something new, and he has so much power. He tells bad spirits to get out of people, and they do what he tells them to do. They just go away.”

28 Then all those people went out and told everyone about Jesus. Everyone in Galilee country heard that story about him.

29 After that, Jesus left the meeting house and went with Simon and Andrew to their house. James and John went with them. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was sick. She was lying in her bed, really hot and sweating a lot. They told Jesus, “She is very sick.” 31 So he held her hand and started to lift her up. Straight away, she got better. Then she got up, and she gave them some food to eat.

32 Late that afternoon, just after the sun went down, all the people from that town got all the sick people, and the people with bad spirits in them, and they brought them all to Simon’s house. 33 A big mob of people were there outside that house. 34 Jesus made lots of sick people better, and he forced lots of bad spirits to go out of people. The bad spirits knew that Jesus was God’s son, but Jesus wouldn’t let them tell everyone. He forced those bad spirits to be quiet.

35 The next day, Jesus got up very early, before the sun came up, and he walked out from the town to pray by himself. 36 Then Simon and the others went and looked everywhere for Jesus. 37 After they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.”

38 But Jesus said to them, “Come on, let’s go. I have to go to the other towns around here too, and tell everyone the good news. That’s the job I came to do.”

39 So Jesus went all around Galilee country, talking to people in their meeting houses, and telling them God’s story. And he forced bad spirits to go out of lots of people.*Matthew 4:23; 9:35

40 A man walked up to Jesus. He had a really bad skin sickness. He got down on his knees in front of Jesus to show him respect, and he kept on asking Jesus to make him better. That man said, “I know that if you want to, you can make me better.”

41 Jesus felt really sorry for the sick man, and said, “I do want to make you better.” Then Jesus touched him with his hand, and said, “You are better now.” 42 And straight away, that man was better.

43-44 Then Jesus told him strongly, “I don’t want you to tell anyone about this. But I want you to go to God’s ceremony house and show your skin to the leader of the Jewish ceremonies there, so that he can see that you are better. And you have to do the right ceremony that Moses gave us, to say thank you to God. When you do that ceremony, everyone will know that you are better.”*Leviticus 14:1-32

45 But the man didn’t do what Jesus said. He went away and told everyone, “Jesus made me better.” After people heard the man’s story they went to Jesus from everywhere. Lots of people went to him and stood around him. So he couldn’t go into the towns any more, because there were too many people. So he had to stay out in the bush. But people still came from everywhere and found him, even in the bush.