Luke 4 - Easy To Read Version

¹ Jesus returned from the Jordan River. He was full of the Holy Spirit. {\cf2\super [61]} The Spirit led Jesus into the desert.

² There the devil tempted Jesus for 40 days. Jesus ate nothing during that time. When those days were finished, Jesus was very hungry.

³ The devil said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, tell this rock to become bread.”

⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written \{in the Scriptures {\cf2\super [62]} \}:

⁵ Then the devil took Jesus and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

⁶ The devil said to Jesus, “I will make you king over all these places. You will have power over them and will get all the glory. It has all been given to me. I can give it to any person I want.

⁷ I will give it all to you, if you will only worship me.”

⁸ Jesus answered, “It is written \{in the Scriptures {\cf2\super [63]} \}:

⁹ Then the devil led Jesus to Jerusalem. The devil put Jesus on a very high place of the temple. {\cf2\super [64]} He said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, jump off!

¹⁰ It is written \{in the Scriptures {\cf2\super [65]} \}:

¹¹ It is also written:

¹² Jesus answered, “But it also says \{in the Scriptures {\cf2\super [66]} \}:

¹³ The devil finished tempting Jesus in every way and went away to wait until a better time.

¹⁴ Jesus went back to Galilee with the power of the Holy Spirit. {\cf2\super [67]} Stories about Jesus spread all over the area around Galilee.

¹⁵ Jesus began to teach in the synagogues. {\cf2\super [68]} All the people praised him.

¹⁶ Jesus traveled to Nazareth, the town where he grew up. On the Sabbath day {\cf2\super [69]} he went to the synagogue {\cf2\super [70]} like he always did. Jesus stood up to read.

¹⁷ The book of Isaiah the prophet {\cf2\super [71]} was given to him. Jesus opened the book and found the place where this is written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord (God) has come to me.\par God chose me to tell good news to people\par that are poor.\par God sent me to tell people who are\par prisoners that they are free,\par and to tell the blind people\par that they can see again.\par God sent me to free the weak people\par from their suffering\par

¹⁹ and to announce that the time has come\par for the Lord to show his kindness.”\par \i (Isaiah 61:1-2)\i0 \par

²⁰ Jesus closed the book. He gave the book back to the helper and sat down. Every person in the synagogue {\cf2\super [72]} watched Jesus closely.

²¹ Jesus began to speak to them. He said, “While you heard me reading these words just now, the words were coming true!”

²² All the people said good things about Jesus. They were amazed at the beautiful words Jesus spoke. The people said, “\{How can he speak like this?\} He is only Joseph’s son, isn’t he?”

²³ Jesus said to them, “I know that you will tell me the old saying: ‘Doctor, heal yourself.’ You want to say, ‘We heard about some things that you did in Capernaum. Do those same things here in your own home town!’”

²⁴ Then Jesus said, “I tell you the truth. A prophet {\cf2\super [73]} is not accepted in his own home town.

²⁵ What I say is true. During the time of Elijah {\cf2\super [74]} it did not rain in Israel for three and a half years. There was no food anywhere in the whole country. There were many widows {\cf2\super [75]} in Israel during that time.

²⁶ But Elijah was sent to none of those widows \{in Israel\}. Elijah was sent only to a widow in Zarephath, a town in Sidon.

²⁷ And there were many people with leprosy {\cf2\super [76]} living in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha. {\cf2\super [77]} But none of those people were healed; the only one was Naaman. And Naaman was from the country of Syria, \{not from Israel\}.”

²⁸ All the people in the synagogue {\cf2\super [78]} heard these things. They became very, very angry.

²⁹ The people got up and forced Jesus to go out of town. Their town was built on a hill. They brought Jesus to the edge of the hill. The people wanted to throw him off.

³⁰ But Jesus walked through the middle of them and went away.

³¹ Jesus went to Capernaum, a city in Galilee. On the Sabbath day {\cf2\super [79]} Jesus taught the people.

³² They were amazed at Jesus’ teaching, because he spoke with authority (power).

³³ In the synagogue {\cf2\super [80]} there was a man that had an evil spirit from the devil inside him. The man shouted with a loud voice,

³⁴ “Jesus of Nazareth! What do you want with us? Did you come here to destroy us? I know who you are—God’s Holy One!”

³⁵ But Jesus warned the evil spirit to stop. Jesus said, “Be quiet! Come out of the man!” The evil spirit threw the man down on the ground before all the people. Then the evil spirit left the man and did not hurt him.

³⁶ The people were amazed. They said to each other, “What does this mean? With authority and power he (Jesus) commands evil spirits and they come out.”

³⁷ And so the news about Jesus spread to every place in the whole area.

³⁸ Jesus left the synagogue. {\cf2\super [81]} He went to Simon’s {\cf2\super [82]} house. Simon’s mother-in-law was very sick. She had a high fever. They asked Jesus to do something to help her.

³⁹ Jesus stood very close to her and commanded the sickness to leave her. The sickness left her. Then she got up and began serving them.

⁴⁰ When the sun went down, the people brought their sick friends to Jesus. They had many different kinds of sickness. Jesus put his hands on each sick person and healed them.

⁴¹ Demons {\cf2\super [83]} came out of many people. The demons shouted, “You are the Son of God.” But Jesus gave a strong command for the demons not to speak, because they knew Jesus was the Christ. {\cf2\super [84]}

⁴² The next day Jesus went to a place to be alone. The people looked for Jesus. When the people found Jesus, they tried to stop him from leaving.

⁴³ But Jesus said to them, “I must tell the Good News about God’s kingdom to other towns, too. This is why I was sent.”

⁴⁴ Then Jesus told \{the Good News\} in the synagogues {\cf2\super [85]} in Judea.