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1 Then Jesus said to them, “Listen carefully. Some of you will see a very special thing happen. God will show you that he is the Lord over everything and you will see his great power. You will see this thing happen before you die.”
Jesus talked to Moses and Elijah on a big hill
And you can read this story in Matthew 17:1-9 and in Luke 9:28-36
2 Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James and John to the top of a big hill, and while they were standing there, Jesus started to look really different.
3 His clothes were so white they were shining like the sun. Nobody could wash clothes to make them look so white.
4 Then Peter, James and John saw Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah, those men that lived a long time ago.
5-6 Straight away Peter called out, “Teacher, this is great and it is good for us to be here with you. We should put up 3 shade shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Peter, James and John were really frightened and that is why Peter called out like that.
7 Then a cloud covered them all, and God talked to them from the cloud and said, “This is my son. I love him very much. You have to listen to what he tells you.”
8 When the cloud had gone away, Peter, James and John looked around for those 2 old men, but they were gone. Only Jesus was standing there.
9 When Jesus, Peter, James and John were walking back down the hill, Jesus said to them, “I am God's special man from heaven and you must not tell anyone what you just saw. I will die and I will come back alive again. When that happens, you can tell people what you saw today.”
10 So Peter, James and John kept quiet and they did not tell anyone what they had seen up on the hill. But they did talk to each other about the words that Jesus said about him dying and coming back alive again. They did not understand that part.
11 And so they asked Jesus, “Why do our law teachers say that Elijah must come before God's special man can come?”
12-13 Jesus answered, “Those law teachers are right. Elijah did come to make everything right and people did bad things to him. I am God's special man from heaven, and they will do bad things to me too. They will not listen to me, they will turn against me, and they will give me a lot of pain. All this was written down in God's book a long time ago.”
Jesus sent a bad spirit out of a boy
And you can read this story in Matthew 17:14-21 and in Luke 9:37-43
14 When they got down the hill, they saw a big crowd of people standing around the other followers. Those followers were arguing with some Jewish lawmen.
15 When the crowd saw Jesus, they were surprised and happy, so they ran to welcome him.
16 Jesus said, “What are you arguing about?”
17 One of the men said, “Teacher, I have my son with me, and he has a bad spirit inside him that stops him from talking.
18 The bad spirit makes the boy take a fit whenever it wants to, so that the boy falls to the ground. Spit comes out of his mouth, he grinds his teeth together and his body goes hard like a stone. I asked your followers to make that bad spirit go out of the boy, but they can't do it.”
19 Jesus said, “O, you people! You just cannot believe, can you? How long do I have to stay here and do everything for you? Bring the boy here to me.”
20 The people took the boy to Jesus, and as soon as that bad spirit saw Jesus, it made the boy have the biggest fit. He fell to the ground and as he rolled around, a lot of spit came out of his mouth.
21 Jesus said to the boy's father, “How long has your boy been like this?”
The man said, “O, a long time, right from when he was a little boy.
22 Lots of times, the bad spirit makes him fall into the fire and into water. That bad spirit is trying to kill him. Please feel sorry for him and help us if you can.”
23 Jesus answered the man, “You said, ‘If you can’. Don't you know that God can do anything if you believe in him?”
24 The boy's father shouted out, “I do believe in God. But please help me believe in him more!”
25 Jesus saw that a lot of people were coming to watch. So he growled at the bad spirit and said, “Listen to me you bad spirit that stops people talking and listening. I am telling you to come out of this little boy right now, and you stay out of him. You are not allowed to go back into him.”
26 The bad spirit screamed as it came out of the boy, and made him take another big fit so that he fell down on the ground. The boy looked like he was dead, and a lot of people said, “Poor thing, he is finished.”
27 But Jesus held the boy's hand and helped him to stand up, and the boy's father took him home.
28 Then Jesus and his followers went into a house, and his followers asked him quietly, “Why couldn't we make that bad spirit go out of the boy?”
29 Jesus told them, “There is only one way to make that kind of bad spirit go out of a person. You have to pray and ask God to help you do it.”
Jesus told his followers that he was going to die
And you can read this story in Matthew 17:22-23 and in Luke 9:43-45
30 Later, Jesus and his followers quietly left that place and went across the country of Galilee. Jesus did not want everyone to know where they were going.
31 He wanted to have time alone with his followers so that he could teach them. He said, “I am God's special man from heaven, but somebody is going to turn against me and help my enemies to arrest me. They will kill me, but I will only be dead for 3 days, and then I will come alive again.”
32 His followers did not understand what he said, but they were too frightened to ask him about it.
Jesus' followers argued about who was the most important person in their group
And you can read this story in Matthew 18:1-5 and in Luke 9:46-48
33-34 While they walked along the road to Cap-per-ni-um (Capernaum), Jesus' followers argued with each other about which one of them was the most important person in their group. When they arrived and went into the house where they were going to stay, Jesus asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” His followers did not answer him. They were too shamed.
35 Jesus sat down and called his followers to come and listen to him. He said, “A real leader is a person that says to themselves, ‘I am not more important than anybody else.’ So if anyone wants to be a leader, that person has to think that they are not important. They have to work to help everyone else.”
36 Jesus found a little boy and put him in the middle of the group. He picked the boy up and said,
37 “When a person loves me and is kind and friendly to a little child, then that person is being kind and friendly to me. And if that person is kind and friendly to me, they are being kind and friendly to my father too. And he is the one who sent me.”
A man used Jesus' name to send bad spirits out of people
And you can read this story in Luke 9:49-50
38 John, one of the followers, said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to send bad spirits out of people. He is not one of our group and so we told him to stop.”
39 But Jesus said, “No! Don't stop him. If he uses my name to do good and powerful things for people, it means that he respects me. And if he respects me, he will not say bad things about me later on.
40 Anybody that is not against us, is really on our side.
41 And if anybody sees that you belong to me and gives you a drink of water, God will do something good for them and no-one can take that good thing away from them.”
Jesus told some stories about the right way to live
And you can read this story in Matthew 18:6-9 and in Luke 17:1-2
42 Jesus was still holding the child when he said, “Listen, there might be a young child that believes in me. If anyone makes that child turn away from God, I tell you, it would be better if a really heavy stone was tied to the person's neck. And then, that person was pushed into the sea. Drowning in the sea would be better than God punishing them for making that child turn away from God.
43-44 And if there is something that makes you go against God then you have to do something about it. If you want to do something bad with your hand, cut it off. It is better for you to live with God forever with only one hand, than to go to hell with 2 hands, where the fire never goes out.
45-46 In the same way, if you want to do something bad with your foot, cut it off. It is better for you to live with God forever with only one foot, than to go to hell with 2 feet.
47 And it is the same for your eye. If you are looking at something and it makes you do the wrong thing, dig your eye out. It is better for you to be in God's family with only one eye, than to go to hell with 2 eyes.
48 People that go to hell will feel like they are being eaten by worms that never die. And they will feel like their bodies are being burnt by a fire that never goes out.
49 You know how you put a little bit of salt on your food, well just like that, God sends little bits of trouble to people. And those troubles are like small fires.
50 And listen to this other story about salt. You know how you put salt on your food to make your food taste better? I tell you, if salt loses its salty taste, it is useless and you cannot make it good again. Think about this. You have to be like good salt for everybody. Yes, be like that salt so that you can all live quietly together.”