Matthew 4

1 Then the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the bush, and the devil tested him there, trying to trick him.

2 Jesus was there for 40 days, and he didn’t eat anything, so he got very hungry.

3 At that time the devil came to him and said, “If you are the son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves of bread.”

4 But Jesus told him, “No. I will not do that. You know what God says. These words are in his book, ‘People don’t live just by eating bread, but they live by every word that God says.’”

5 Then the devil took him to God’s special city, called Jerusalem, and he took him up to the top of the big ceremony house there,

6 and the devil said, “If you are the son of God, jump off. You know, these words are in God’s book, too, ‘God will tell his angel messengers to look after you, and they will hold you up with their hands so you will not even hurt your foot on a stone.’”

7 Jesus said, “No. I will not do that. You see, God says this, too. These words are in his book, ‘Don’t do something stupid just to test God.’”

8 Then the devil took him up to the top of a very high mountain, and from there the devil showed Jesus all the people of the world, in all their countries, with all their great things.

9 And the devil said, “I will give you all of this, all of these people and all of these things, if you will get down on your knees and show respect to me.”

10 Jesus said, “No. I will not do that either. Satan, you go away. This what God says, and these words are in his book, ‘You have to show respect to God. He is the only one, so just do what he says.’”

11 Then the devil went away, and God’s angel messengers came and took care of Jesus.

12 After that Jesus heard that some soldiers grabbed John and put him in jail. So Jesus left Judea country and went back to Galilee country.

13 He went to the town called Nazareth, and then he left that town and went to live in the town called Capernaum. It was beside the big lake called Lake Galilee. It was in the country where the Zebulun tribe and the Naphtali tribe used to live.

14 This happened just like God said in his book, a long time ago. This is what God’s man, called Isaiah, wrote,

15 “It will happen in the land that belongs to the Zebulun tribe and the Naphtali tribe. That land is beside the sea, past the Jordan River, in Galilee, where there are a lot of people that are not Jews.

16 The people there don’t know much about God. It is like they are in darkness, but they will see a big bright light. They think they are going to die, but a light will start to shine for them.”

17 From then on Jesus began to tell everybody, “Listen. God is going to show everyone how they can be in his family. So you have to stop doing bad things. You have to turn around and live God’s way.”

18 One day Jesus walked along next to 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 was his brother, Andrew.

19 Jesus said, “Hey, you 2, I want you to come and follow me. I want you to stop catching fish. I’ll give you another job. You will catch people for me.”

20 And straight away they left their nets and followed him.

21 Then Jesus kept walking along next to the water, and he saw an old man called Zebedee and his 2 sons, James and John. They were getting their nets ready to catch fish. Like before, Jesus called out to James and John to stop their work and follow him.

22 They got up straight away. They left their father, and the boat, and they followed Jesus.

23 After that Jesus went through all of Galilee country. He taught people in the Jewish meeting houses, and he told them the good news about God’s family. And he made a lot of sick people better, people that had all kinds of sickness.

24 Then people started to tell others about Jesus, so that people as far away as Syria country heard about the things he did, and they all started to bring lots of sick people to Jesus. And Jesus made them all better, no matter what kind of sickness they had. Some of them used to fall down and shake a lot, and some of them couldn’t move their arms or legs, and some of them had bad spirits in them. But Jesus made them all better.

25 A big mob of people followed him everywhere he went. These people were from Galilee country, and from the country called Ten Towns, and from Jerusalem city, and from all over Judea country, and from the country east of the Jordan River.