Then Peter began and said, "Now I really understand that God shows no partiality,

You know the story that has gone all over Judea, starting from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed,

We are witnesses of everything that he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. Yet they put him upon a cross and killed him.

not by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had designated beforehand, that is, by us, who ate and drank with him after he had risen from the dead.

He also directed us to announce to the people and bear solemn testimony that he is the one whom God has appointed to be the judge of the living and the dead.

It is of him that all the prophets bear witness that everyone that believes in him will have his sins forgiven in his name."

And he directed that they should be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on there a few days.

The apostles and brothers all over Judea heard that the heathen had also accepted God's message,

But I said, 'Never, sir! For nothing that was not ceremonially cleansed has ever passed my lips.'

Just at that moment three men, who had been sent from Caesarea to find me, reached the house where we were staying,

and he will tell you things that will save you and your whole household.'

So if God had given them the same gift that we received when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, to be able to interfere with God?"

The fugitives from the persecution that had broken out over Stephen went all the way to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they told the message to none but Jews.

and found him and brought him to Antioch. The result was that for a whole year they met with the church, and taught large numbers of people, and it was at Antioch that the disciples first came to be known as Christians.

About that time some prophets from Jerusalem came down to Antioch,

and one of them named Agabus got up and under the influence of the Spirit revealed the fact that there was going to be a great famine all over the world. This was the famine that occurred in the reign of Claudius.

About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church.

and when he saw that this gratified the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too, at the time of the festival of Unleavened Bread.

So he followed him out without knowing that what the angel was doing was real, for he thought he was having a vision.

They passed the first guard and then the second, and came to the iron gate that led into the city. It opened to them of itself, and they passed out and went along one street, when suddenly the angel left him.

Then Peter came to himself, and he said, "Now I am certain that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from the power of Herod and all that the Jewish people were expecting."

and when she recognized Peter's voice, in her joy she did not stop to open the door, but ran in and told them that Peter was standing outside.

But they said to her, "You are crazy!" But she insisted that it was so. Then they said, "Then it is his guardian angel!"

But Elymas the magician??or that is the meaning of his name??pposed them, and tried to keep the governor from accepting the faith.

and said, "You monster of underhandedness and cunning! You son of the devil! You enemy of all that is right! Will you never stop trying to make the Lord's straight paths crooked?

After that he gave them judges, down to the time of the prophet Samuel.

Then he removed him and raised David up to be their king, bearing this testimony to him: 'I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my own heart, who will do all that I desire.'

It is from his descendants that God has brought to Israel as he promised to do, a savior in Jesus,

Toward the end of his career, John said, 'What do you suppose that I am? I am not he! No! Someone is coming after me, the shoes on whose feet I am not fit to untie!'

Brothers! Descendants of the house of Abraham, and those others among you who reverence God! It is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.

and though they could find no ground for putting him to death, they demanded of Pilate that he be executed.

When they had carried out everything that had been said about him in the Scriptures, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb.

that God has fulfilled to us, their children, the promise that he made to our forefathers, by raising Jesus to life, just as the Scripture says in the second psalm, You are my Son! Today I have become your Father!'

Now as evidence that he has raised him from the dead, never again to return to decay, he said this: 'I will fulfil to you my sacred promises to David.'

You must understand therefore, my brothers, that through him the forgiveness of your sins is announced to you,

and that through union with him everyone who believes is cleared of every charge of which the Law of Moses could not clear you.

Take care, therefore, that what is said in the prophets does not prove true of you:

At Iconium in the same way, they went to the Jewish synagogue and spoke with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.

He was listening to Paul as he talked, when Paul looked at him and, seeing that he had faith that he would be cured,

The priest of the temple of Zeus that stood at the entrance to the town came with crowds of people to the gates, bringing bulls and garlands, meaning to offer sacrifice to them.

and shouting, "Friends, why are you doing this? We are only human beings like you, and we bring you the good news that you should turn from these follies to a living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain.

But some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and won the people over, and they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, thinking that he was dead.

They proclaimed the good news in that town and made a number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,

reassuring the disciples and encouraging them to stand by the faith and reminding them that we have to undergo many hardships to get into the Kingdom of God.

Some people came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers that unless they were circumcised as Moses prescribed, they could not be saved.

This created a disturbance and a serious discussion between Paul and Barnabas and them, and it was agreed that Paul and Barnabas and some others of their number should go up to Jerusalem to confer with the apostles and elders about this question.

But some members of the Pharisees' party who had become believers got up and said that such converts ought to be circumcised and told to obey the Law of Moses.

After a long discussion, Peter got up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God chose that of you all I should be the one from whose lips the heathen should hear the message of the good news and believe it.

Then why do you now try to test God, by putting on the necks of these disciples a yoke that neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear?

Why, we believe that it is by the mercy of the Lord Jesus that we are saved just as they are."

So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, And all the heathen who are called by my name, Says the Lord,

but we should write to them to avoid anything that has been contaminated by idols, immorality, the meat of strangled animals, and the tasting of blood.

As we have heard that some of our number, without any instructions from us, have disturbed you by their teaching and unsettled your minds,

that you avoid whatever has been sacrificed to idols, the tasting of blood and of the meat of animals that have been strangled, and immorality. Keep yourselves free from these things and you will get on well. Goodbye."

They differed so sharply about it that they separated, and Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus.

Paul wished to take this man on with him, and so on account of the Jews in that district he had him circumcised, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

As they traveled on from one town to another, they passed on to the brothers for their observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem.

As soon as he had this vision, we made efforts to get on to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to tell them the good news.

From there we went to Philippi, a Roman garrison town, and the principal place in that part of Macedonia. In this town we stayed for some days.

When she and her household were baptized, she appealed to us, and said, "If you are really convinced that I am a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house." And she insisted upon our coming.

But when her masters saw that their hopes of profits were gone, they seized Paul and Silas, dragged them to the public square, to the authorities,

suddenly there was such an earthquake that the jail shook to its foundations; all the doors flew open, and everybody's chains were unfastened.

It woke up the jailer, and when he saw that the doors of the jail were open, he drew his sword and was just going to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

The jailer reported this message to Paul, saying, "The magistrates have sent orders that you are to be released. So you can take your leave and go unmolested."

The policemen delivered this message to the magistrates, and they were alarmed when they heard that they were Roman citizens,

explaining them and showing that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "Jesus," he said, "of whom I am telling you, is the Christ!"

and Jason has taken them in. They all disobey the emperor's decrees, and claim that someone else called Jesus is king."

But when the Jews at Thessalonica found out that God's message had been delivered at Berea by Paul, they came there too, to excite and stir up the populace.

Then Paul stood up in the middle of the council and said, "Men of Athens, from every point of view I see that you are extremely religious.

For as I was going about and looking at the things you worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: 'To an Unknown God.' So it is what you already worship in ignorance that I am now telling you of.

God who created the world and all that is in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples built by human hands,

so that they might search for God, and perhaps grope for him and find him, though he is never far from any of us.

For it is through union with him that we live and move and exist, as some of your poets have said, " 'For we are also his offspring.'

So if we are God's children we ought not to imagine that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, wrought by human art and thought.

By the time Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was absorbed in preaching the message, emphatically assuring the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.

"This fellow," they said, "is trying to induce people to worship God in ways that are against the law."

for he vigorously refuted the Jews in public, and showed from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

It was while Apollos was in Corinth that Paul, after passing through the interior, reached Ephesus. Finding some disciples there,

he said to them, "Did you receive the holy Spirit when you became believers?" "No," they said to him, "we never even heard that there was a holy Spirit."

"John's baptism was a baptism in token of repentance," said Paul, "and he told the people to believe in him who was to follow him, that is, in Jesus."

This went on for two years, so that everyone who lived in Asia, Greeks as well as Jews, heard the Lord's message.

that people took to the sick handkerchiefs or aprons he had used, and they were cured of their diseases, and the evil spirits went out of them.

And the man in whom the evil spirit was sprang at them, and overpowered them all, with such violence that they ran out of the house tattered and bruised.

Just at that time a great commotion arose about the Way.

He got the workmen in that and similar trades together, and said to them, "Men, you know that this business is the source of our prosperity,

and you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but almost all over Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and drawn away numbers of people, telling them that gods made by human hands are not gods at all.

There is danger, therefore, not only that this business of ours will be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be neglected and the magnificence of her whom all Asia and the world worship will be a thing of the past!"

But when they saw that he was a Jew, a great shout went up from them all, and they cried for two hours, "Great Artemis of Ephesus!"

At last the recorder quieted the mob and said, "Men of Ephesus, who in the world does not know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, and of the image that fell down from the sky?

But if you require anything beyond that, it must be settled before the regular assembly.

For we are in danger of being charged with rioting in connection with today's events, though there is really nothing about this commotion that we will not be able to explain."

Then he went upstairs again, and broke the bread, and ate, and after a long talk with them that lasted until daylight, he went away.

We had already gone on board the ship and sailed for Assos, intending to take Paul on board there, for that was the arrangement he had made, as he intended to travel there by land.

For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to lose any time in Asia, for he was hurrying to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of the Harvest Festival.

and how I served the Lord most humbly and with tears, through all the trials that I encountered because of the plots of the Jews.

I never shrank from telling you anything that was for your good, nor from teaching you in public or at your houses,

except that in every town I visit, the holy Spirit warns me that imprisonment and persecution are awaiting me.

Now I know perfectly well that none of you among whom I went about preaching the Kingdom of God will ever see my face again.

Therefore I declare to you today that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,

I know that after I am gone savage wolves will get in among you and will not spare the flock,