I wrote the former account, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach

He told them, "You are not permitted to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.

"Brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled that the Holy Spirit foretold through David concerning Judas -- who became the guide for those who arrested Jesus --

This became known to all who lived in Jerusalem, so that in their own language they called that field Hakeldama, that is, "Field of Blood.")

And how is it that each one of us hears them in our own native language?

And in the last days it will be,' God says, 'that I will pour out my Spirit on all people, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed among you through him, just as you yourselves know --

For David says about him, 'I saw the Lord always in front of me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken.

"Brothers, I can speak confidently to you about our forefather David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

So then, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne,

David by foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his body experience decay.

Therefore let all the house of Israel know beyond a doubt that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ."

So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added.

But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a man who was a murderer be released to you.

And on the basis of faith in Jesus' name, his very name has made this man -- whom you see and know -- strong. The faith that is through Jesus has given him this complete health in the presence of you all.

But the things God foretold long ago through all the prophets -- that his Christ would suffer -- he has fulfilled in this way.

Therefore repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out,

so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and so that he may send the Messiah appointed for you -- that is, Jesus.

Every person who does not obey that prophet will be destroyed and thus removed from the people.'

You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, 'And in your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed.'

let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands before you healthy.

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, that has become the cornerstone.

When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and discovered that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized these men had been with Jesus.

saying, "What should we do with these men? For it is plain to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable miraculous sign has come about through them, and we cannot deny it.

When they heard this, they raised their voices to God with one mind and said, "Master of all, you who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them,

The group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but everything was held in common.

sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and placed it at the apostles' feet.

Peter said to her, "Tell me, were the two of you paid this amount for the land?" Sapphira said, "Yes, that much."

Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets, and put them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow would fall on some of them.

Now the high priest rose up, and all those with him (that is, the religious party of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy.

When they heard this, they entered the temple courts at daybreak and began teaching. Now when the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they summoned the Sanhedrin -- that is, the whole high council of the Israelites -- and sent to the jail to have the apostles brought before them.

And every day both in the temple courts and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus was the Christ.

For we have heard him saying that Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us."

So when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there the first time.

and their bones were later moved to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a certain sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful to God. For three months he was brought up in his father's house,

He thought his own people would understand that God was delivering them through him, but they did not understand.

At that time they made an idol in the form of a calf, brought a sacrifice to the idol, and began rejoicing in the works of their hands.

But God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: 'It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, was it, house of Israel?

Our ancestors received possession of it and brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors, until the time of David.

He found favor with God and asked that he could find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.

And Saul agreed completely with killing. Now on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.

So there was great joy in that city.

Now in that city was a man named Simon, who had been practicing magic and amazing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great.

All the people, from the least to the greatest, paid close attention to him, saying, "This man is the power of God that is called 'Great.'"

Even Simon himself believed, and after he was baptized, he stayed close to Philip constantly, and when he saw the signs and great miracles that were occurring, he was amazed.

Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.

These two went down and prayed for them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit.

Now Simon, when he saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, offered them money,

saying, "Give me this power too, so that everyone I place my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit."

Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that he may perhaps forgive you for the intent of your heart.

For I see that you are bitterly envious and in bondage to sin."

But Simon replied, "You pray to the Lord for me so that nothing of what you have said may happen to me."

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a desert road.)

and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, either men or women, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and place his hands on him so that he may see again."

So Ananias departed and entered the house, placed his hands on Saul and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came here, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

But Saul became more and more capable, and was causing consternation among the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

but Saul learned of their plot against him. They were also watching the city gates day and night so that they could kill him.

When he arrived in Jerusalem, he attempted to associate with the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, because they did not believe that he was a disciple.

But Barnabas took Saul, brought him to the apostles, and related to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.

At that time she became sick and died. When they had washed her body, they placed it in an upstairs room.

Because Lydda was near Joppa, when the disciples heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him and urged him, "Come to us without delay."

He said to them, "You know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile, yet God has shown me that I should call no person defiled or ritually unclean.

Then Peter started speaking: "I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism in dealing with people,

you know what happened throughout Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John announced:

with respect to Jesus from Nazareth, that God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him.

He commanded us to preach to the people and to warn them that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.

About him all the prophets testify, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were greatly astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles,

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God.

At that very moment, three men sent to me from Caesarea approached the house where we were staying.

When they heard this, they ceased their objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted the repentance that leads to life even to the Gentiles."

Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the message to no one but Jews.

and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught a significant number of people. Now it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

At that time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

One of them, named Agabus, got up and predicted by the Spirit that a severe famine was about to come over the whole inhabited world. (This took place during the reign of Claudius.)

About that time King Herod laid hands on some from the church to harm them.

When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too. (This took place during the feast of Unleavened Bread.)

On that very night before Herod was going to bring him out for trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison.

Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening through the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from everything the Jewish people were expecting to happen."

When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she did not open the gate, but ran back in and told them that Peter was standing at the gate.

But they said to her, "You've lost your mind!" But she kept insisting that it was Peter, and they kept saying, "It is his angel!"

When Herod had searched for him and did not find him, he questioned the guards and commanded that they be led away to execution. Then Herod went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.

But the magician Elymas (for that is the way his name is translated) opposed them, trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

For the people who live in Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize him, and they fulfilled the sayings of the prophets that are read every Sabbath by condemning him.

When they had accomplished everything that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb.

that this promise God has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second psalm, 'You are my Son; today I have fathered you.'

But regarding the fact that he has raised Jesus from the dead, never again to be in a state of decay, God has spoken in this way: 'I will give you the holy and trustworthy promises made to David.'

Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through this one forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you,

Watch out, then, that what is spoken about by the prophets does not happen to you:

The same thing happened in Iconium when Paul and Barnabas went into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a large group of both Jews and Greeks believed.

"Men, why are you doing these things? We too are men, with human natures just like you! We are proclaiming the good news to you, so that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them.

After they had proclaimed the good news in that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch.

When they arrived and gathered the church together, they reported all the things God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles.

After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that some time ago God chose me to preach to the Gentiles so they would hear the message of the gospel and believe.

So now why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?

On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they are."

so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, namely, all the Gentiles I have called to be my own,' says the Lord, who makes these things