Mark 3

²The Pharisees were watching Jesus closely — looking for a reason to accuse Him. Would He heal the man on the Sabbath?

³Jesus looked at the man and said: 'Stand up and come here where everyone can see you.'

⁴Jesus asked the Pharisees: 'Tell Me — is it right to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil? To save a life or to destroy it?' They said nothing.

⁵Jesus looked around at them. He was angry — and deeply sad — because their hearts were so hard. Then He said to the man: 'Stretch out your hand.' The man stretched it out, and it was completely healed — just like the other hand!

⁶The Pharisees left and immediately started plotting with Herod's supporters — people they normally hated — about how to get rid of Jesus.

⁷Jesus moved away from there with His disciples to the lake. A huge crowd from Galilee followed, and people came from Judaea too.

⁸People came from Jerusalem, from Idumaea, from across the Jordan River, and from the coastal towns of Tyre and Sidon — all because they had heard what amazing things Jesus was doing.

⁹Jesus asked His disciples to have a small boat ready for Him, so that the crowds wouldn't press in and crush Him.

¹⁰He had healed so many people that everyone who was sick pushed forward just to touch Him. They believed that touching Jesus would make them well.

¹¹When evil spirits saw Jesus, they fell down before Him and cried out: 'You are the Son of God!'

¹²But Jesus firmly told the evil spirits not to tell people who He was.

¹³Then Jesus went up a mountain and called to Him the people He had chosen. And they came to Him.

¹⁴He chose twelve people — twelve apostles. Their job had two parts: first, to be with Jesus; second, to go out and preach.

¹⁵He also gave them power to heal sicknesses and to cast out evil spirits.

¹⁶Simon was the first one He named. Jesus gave him a new name: Peter, which means Rock.

¹⁷Then came James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Jesus nicknamed them Boanerges — which means 'Sons of Thunder'!

¹⁸The others were: Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, another James (son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot.

¹⁹The last was Judas Iscariot — who would later betray Jesus. Then they went back inside a house.

²⁰The crowd gathered around them again — so many people that Jesus and His disciples could not even stop to eat.

²¹When Jesus' own family heard about all this, they came to take Him away, saying: 'He has lost His mind!'

²²Religious teachers who had come all the way from Jerusalem said: 'He has Beelzebub in Him! He uses the prince of devils to cast out devils!'

²³Jesus called them over and said: 'Think about it — if Satan is fighting himself, how can he stand?'

²⁴Jesus continued: 'If a kingdom fights against itself, it will fall apart.'

²⁵Jesus said: 'If a family is divided against itself, it will not be able to hold together.'

²⁶Jesus finished His argument: 'And if Satan fights against himself, he is divided and his power is over.'

²⁷Then Jesus said: 'You can't rob a strong man's house without first tying the strong man up. But once he's tied, you can take everything.'

²⁸Jesus said: 'I tell you the truth — God will forgive every kind of sin. Every wrong thing, every bad word against God — these can all be forgiven.'

²⁹But then Jesus said there is one thing that cannot be forgiven: choosing to call the Holy Spirit's work evil and refusing to ever turn back to God. This wasn't about making a mistake — it was about completely hardening your heart against God's Spirit and calling His clearly good work 'evil.'

³⁰Jesus said this because the scribes had called His work — which came from the Holy Spirit — the work of an evil spirit.

³¹Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. They stood outside the house and sent a message in, asking for Jesus.

³²The crowd sitting around Jesus told Him: 'Your mother and brothers are outside looking for You.'

³³Jesus answered them: 'Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?'

³⁴Jesus looked around at all the people sitting with Him — and said with joy: 'Look! Here are my mother and my brothers!'

³⁵Then Jesus said: 'Anyone who does what God wants — that person is my brother, my sister, and my mother.' That means you are in Jesus' family when you follow God.