1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who is called Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen who was an intimate friend of the governor, and Saul.
2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them."
3 So after fasting and praying, they laid their hands upon them and let them go.
4 So, as they were sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from that port sailed away to Cyprus.
5 When they reached Salamis, they began to preach God's message in the Jewish synagogues. They had John with them as their assistant.
6 Then they went through the whole island as far as Paphos, and there they found a Jewish magician and false prophet whose name was Barjesus.
7 He was an intimate friend of the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor sent for Barnabas and Saul and in this way tried to hear God's message.
8 But Elymas the magician -- for this is the meaning of his name -- continued to oppose them by trying to keep the governor from accepting the faith.
9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, because he was full of the Holy Spirit, looked him straight in the eye
10 and said, "You expert in every form of deception and sleight-of-hand, 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!
11 Right now the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be so blind that you cannot see the sun for a time." And suddenly a dark mist fell upon him, and he kept groping about begging people to lead him by the hand.
12 The governor, because he saw what had occurred, was thunderstruck at the Lord's teaching, and so came to believe.
13 Then Paul and his party set sail from Paphos and crossed over to Perga in Pamphylia. Here John quit them and returned to Jerusalem,
14 but they went on from Perga and arrived at Antioch in Pisidia. On the sabbath they went to the synagogue and took seats.
15 After the reading of the law and the prophets, the leaders of the synagogue worship sent to them and said, "Brothers, if you have any message of encouragement for the people, you may speak."
16 Then Paul got up and motioned with his hand and said: "Fellow Israelites, and you who reverence God, listen!
17 The God of this people Israel chose our forefathers, and made this people important during their stay in Egypt, and then with an uplifted arm He led them out of it.
18 Then after He had fed them forty years in the desert,
19 He destroyed seven nations in Canaan
20 and gave them their land as an inheritance for about four hundred and fifty years. And after that He gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet.
21 Then they demanded a king, and for forty years God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin.
22 Then He deposed him and raised up for them David to be king, to whom He bore this testimony, 'I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all that my will requires.'
23 It is from this man's descendants that God, as He promised, has brought to Israel a Saviour in the person of Jesus,
24 as John, before His coming, had already preached baptism as an expression of repentance, for all the people of Israel.
25 As John was closing his career, he said, 'What do you take me to be? I am not the Christ; no, but He is coming after me, and I am not fit to untie the shoes on His feet.'
26 Brothers, descendants of the race of Abraham, and all among you who reverence God, it is to us that the message of this salvation has been sent.
27 For the people of Jerusalem and their leaders, because they were ignorant of Him, by condemning Him have actually fulfilled the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath,
28 and although they could not find Him guilty of a capital offense, they begged Pilate to have Him put to death.
29 When they had carried out everything that had been written in the Scriptures about Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.
30 But God raised Him from the dead,
31 and for many days He appeared to those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now witnesses for Him to the people.
32 So now we are bringing you the good news about the promise that was made to our forefathers,
33 that God has fulfilled it to us their children, by raising Jesus to life, just as the Scripture says in the Second Psalm, 'You are my Son, today I have become your Father.'
34 Now as a proof that He has raised Him from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken this, 'I will fulfill to you the holy promises made to David.'
35 Because in another psalm he says, 'You will not let your Holy One experience decay.'
36 For David, after having served God's purpose in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his forefathers, and so he did experience decay,
37 but He whom God raised to life did not experience it.
38 So, my brothers, you must understand that through Him the forgiveness of your sins is now proclaimed to you,
39 and that through union with Him every one of you who believes is given right standing with God and freed from every charge from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
40 So take care that what is said in the prophets does not come upon you:
41 'Look, you scoffers! Then wonder and vanish away, for I am doing a work in your times which you will not at all believe though one may tell you in detail.'"
42 As they were leaving the synagogue, the people kept begging that all this be repeated to them the next sabbath,
43 and after the congregation had broken up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism allied themselves with Paul and Barnabas, and they kept talking to them and urging them to continue to rely on the unmerited favor of God.
44 The next sabbath almost the whole town turned out to hear God's message.
45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were completely overcome by their jealousy and began to contradict the statements made by Paul, and even to abuse him.
46 Then Paul and Barnabas courageously spoke out, "God's message had to be spoken to you Jews first, but since you continue to thrust it from you and since you show yourselves unworthy to receive eternal life, now and here we turn to the heathen.
47 For here are the orders that the Lord has given us: 'I have made you a light to the heathen, To be the means of salvation to the very ends of the earth.'"
48 The heathen kept on listening and rejoicing and giving the glory to God's message, and all who had been destined to eternal life believed,
49 and so the message of the Lord spread all over the country.
50 But the Jews stirred up the devout women of high rank and the men of first rank in town, and so started a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.
51 But they shook off the dust from their feet as a protest against them, and went to Iconlure;
52 and the disciples continued to be full of joy and the Holy Spirit.