NIV Heart of Gold Holy Bible NIV Heart of Gold Holy Bible - Sampler | Page 2

Mark John the Baptist Prepares the Way 1 The be­gin­ning of the good news a ­ bout Jesus the Mes­si­ah,  a the Son of God,  b 2 as it is writ­ten in Isa­iah the proph­et: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”  c  — ​ 3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”  d 4 And so John the Bap­tist ap­peared in the wil­der­ness, preach­ing a bap­tism of re­ pen­tance for the for­give­ness of sins. 5 The whole Ju­de­an coun­try­side and all the peo­ ple of Je­ru­sa­lem went out to him. Con­fess­ ing ­their sins, they were bap­tized by him in the Jor­dan Riv­er. 6   John wore cloth­ing made of cam­el’s hair, with a leath­er belt around his ­waist, and he ate lo­custs and wild hon­ey. 7 And this was his mes­sage: “Af­ ter me ­comes the one more pow­er­ful than I, the s ­ traps of ­whose san­dals I am not wor­ thy to ­stoop down and un­tie. 8  I bap­tize you with  e wa­ter, but he will bap­tize you with  e the Holy Spir­it.” The Baptism and Testing of ­Jesus 9 At that time ­Jesus came from Naz­a­reth in Gal­i­lee and was bap­tized by John in the Jor­dan. 10 Just as ­Jesus was com­ing up out of the wa­ter, he saw heav­en be­ing torn open and the Spir­it de­scend­ing on him like a dove. 11 And a ­voice came from heav­en: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” 12 At once the Spir­it sent him out into the wil­der­ness, 13 and he was in the wil­der­ ness for­ty days, be­ing tempt­ed  f by Sa­tan. He was with the wild an­i m ­ als, and an­gels at­tend­ed him. Jesus Announces the Good News 14   Af­ter John was put in pris­on, ­Jesus went into Gal­i­lee, pro­claim­ing the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The king­dom of God has come near. Re­pent and be­lieve the good news!” Jesus Calls His First Disciples 16 As ­Jesus ­walked be­side the Sea of Gal­i­ lee, he saw Si­mon and his broth­er An­drew cast­ing a net into the lake, for they were fish­er­men. 17 “Come, fol­low me,” ­Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for peo­ple.” 18 At once they left ­their nets and fol­lowed him. 19 When he had gone a lit­tle far­ther, he saw ­James son of Zeb­e­dee and his broth­ er John in a boat, pre­par­ing t ­ heir nets. 20 With­out de­lay he c ­ alled them, and they left ­their fa­ther Zeb­e­dee in the boat with the ­hired men and fol­lowed him. Jesus Drives Out an Impure Spirit 21   They went to Ca­per­na­um, and when the Sab­bath came, ­Jesus went into the syn­a­gogue and be­gan to ­teach. 22 The peo­ ple were a ­ mazed at his teach­ing, be­cause he ­taught them as one who had au­thor­i­ty, not as the teach­ers of the law. 23 Just then a man in t ­ heir syn­a­gogue who was pos­sessed by an im­pure spir­it ­cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, ­Jesus of Naz­a­reth? Have you come to de­stroy us? I know who you are — ​the Holy One of God!” 25 “Be qui­et!” said ­Jesus stern­ly. “Come out of him!” 26 The im­pure spir­it s ­ hook the man vi­o l ­ ent­ly and came out of him with a shriek. 27 The peo­ple were all so ­amazed that they ­asked each oth­er, “What is this? A new teach­ing  — ​and with au­thor­i­ty! He even g ­ ives or­ders to im­pure spir­its and they obey him.” 28 News a ­ bout him s ­ pread quick­ly over the ­whole re­gion of Gal­i­lee. Jesus Heals Many 29 As soon as they left the syn­a­gogue, they went with J ­ ames and John to the home of Si­mon and An­drew. 30   Si­mon’s moth­er-in-law was in bed with a fe­ver, and they im­me­di­ate­ly told ­Jesus ­about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and ­helped her up. The fe­ver left her and she be­gan to wait on them. 32 That eve­ning af­ter sun­set the peo­ple brought to ­Jesus all the sick and de­mon- pos­sessed. 33 The ­whole town gath­ered at a  1 Or ­Jesus Christ. Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) both mean Anointed One.    b  1 Some manuscripts do not have the Son of God.    c  2 Mal. 3:1    d  3 Isaiah 40:3    e  8 Or in    f  13  The Greek for tempted can also mean tested.