and for many days he appeared to those who had accompanied him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These are now his witnesses to the people.

but the one whom God raised up did not experience decay.

and by this one everyone who believes is justified from everything from which the law of Moses could not justify you.

When the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and were persuading them to continue in the grace of God.

When the Gentiles heard this, they began to rejoice and praise the word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed for eternal life believed.

But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

So they stayed there for a considerable time, speaking out courageously for the Lord, who testified to the message of his grace, granting miraculous signs and wonders to be performed through their hands.

In Lystra sat a man who could not use his feet, lame from birth, who had never walked.

"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.

When they had appointed elders for them in the various churches, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the protection of the Lord in whom they had believed.

But some from the religious party of the Pharisees who had believed stood up and said, "It is necessary to circumcise the Gentiles and to order them to observe the law of Moses."

And God, who knows the heart, has testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,

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

"Therefore I conclude that we should not cause extra difficulty for those among the Gentiles who are turning to God,

For Moses has had those who proclaim him in every town from ancient times, because he is read aloud in the synagogues every Sabbath."

who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas who will tell you these things themselves in person.

Both Judas and Silas, who were prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with a long speech.

After they had spent some time there, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them.

but Paul insisted that they should not take along this one who had left them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work.

He also came to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple named Timothy was there, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but whose father was a Greek.

Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was Greek.

On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate to the side of the river, where we thought there would be a place of prayer, and we sat down and began to speak to the women who had assembled there.

Now as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit that enabled her to foretell the future by supernatural means. She brought her owners a great profit by fortune-telling.

She followed behind Paul and us and kept crying out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation."

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him, along with all those who were in his house.

When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, screaming, "These people who have stirred up trouble throughout the world have come here too,

They caused confusion among the crowd and the city officials who heard these things.

Those who accompanied Paul escorted him as far as Athens, and after receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.

So he was addressing the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles in the synagogue, and in the marketplace every day those who happened to be there.

(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there used to spend their time in nothing else than telling or listening to something new.)

The God who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands,

because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom he designated, having provided proof to everyone by raising him from the dead."

But some people joined him and believed. Among them were Dionysius, who was a member of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to depart from Rome. Paul approached them,

Then Paul left the synagogue and went to the house of a person named Titius Justus, a Gentile who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

Crispus, the president of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians who heard about it believed and were baptized.

When Apollos wanted to cross over to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he assisted greatly those who had believed by grace,

Paul said, "John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus."

This went on for two years, so that all who lived in the province of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.

But some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were possessed by evil spirits, saying, "I sternly warn you by Jesus whom Paul preaches."

But the evil spirit replied to them, "I know about Jesus and I am acquainted with Paul, but who are you?"

Then the man who was possessed by the evil spirit jumped on them and beat them all into submission. He prevailed against them so that they fled from that house naked and wounded.

This became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; fear came over them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was praised.

Many of those who had believed came forward, confessing and making their deeds known.

Large numbers of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them up in the presence of everyone. When the value of the books was added up, it was found to total fifty thousand silver coins.

For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought a great deal of business to the craftsmen.

There is danger not only that this business of ours will come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be regarded as nothing, and she whom all the province of Asia and the world worship will suffer the loss of her greatness."

The city was filled with the uproar, and the crowd rushed to the theater together, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, the Macedonians who were Paul's traveling companions.

Even some of the provincial authorities who were his friends sent a message to him, urging him not to venture into the theater.

After the city secretary quieted the crowd, he said, "Men of Ephesus, what person is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the keeper of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image that fell from heaven?

For you have brought these men here who are neither temple robbers nor blasphemers of our goddess.

If then Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against someone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls; let them bring charges against one another there.

A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, was sinking into a deep sleep while Paul continued to speak for a long time. Fast asleep, he fell down from the third story and was picked up dead.

"And now I know that none of you among whom I went around proclaiming the kingdom will see me again.

And now I entrust you to God and to the message of his grace. This message is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

You yourselves know that these hands of mine provided for my needs and the needs of those who were with me.

On the next day we left and came to Caesarea, and entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.

(He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.)

Some of the disciples from Caesarea came along with us too, and brought us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, a disciple from the earliest times, with whom we were to stay.

When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all ardent observers of the law.

So do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow;

But regarding the Gentiles who have believed, we have written a letter, having decided that they should avoid meat that has been sacrificed to idols and blood and what has been strangled and sexual immorality."

When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from the province of Asia who had seen him in the temple area stirred up the whole crowd and seized him,

shouting, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this sanctuary! Furthermore he has brought Greeks into the inner courts of the temple and made this holy place ritually unclean!"

Then the commanding officer came up and arrested him and ordered him to be tied up with two chains; he then asked who he was and what he had done.

Then you're not that Egyptian who started a rebellion and led the four thousand men of the 'Assassins' into the wilderness some time ago?"

I answered, 'Who are you, Lord?' He said to me, 'I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.'

Those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

Since I could not see because of the brilliance of that light, I came to Damascus led by the hand of those who were with me.

A man named Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who live there,

I replied, 'Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat those in the various synagogues who believed in you.

And when the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing nearby, approving, and guarding the cloaks of those who were killing him.'

When they had stretched him out for the lash, Paul said to the centurion standing nearby, "Is it legal for you to lash a man who is a Roman citizen without a proper trial?"

Then those who were about to interrogate him stayed away from him, and the commanding officer was frightened when he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had had him tied up.

There were more than forty of them who formed this conspiracy.

For we have found this man to be a troublemaker, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

But there are some Jews from the province of Asia who should be here before you and bring charges, if they have anything against me.

Then Felix, who understood the facts concerning the Way more accurately, adjourned their hearing, saying, "When Lysias the commanding officer comes down, I will decide your case."

Some days later, when Felix arrived with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.

When he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many serious charges that they were not able to prove.

Rather they had several points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a man named Jesus who was dead, whom Paul claimed to be alive.

Then Festus said, "King Agrippa, and all you who are present here with us, you see this man about whom the entire Jewish populace petitioned me both in Jerusalem and here, shouting loudly that he ought not to live any longer.

So I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And the Lord replied, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you

to open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

Paul replied, "I pray to God that whether in a short or a long time not only you but also all those who are listening to me today could become such as I am, except for these chains."

For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve came to me

and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul! You must stand before Caesar, and God has graciously granted you the safety of all who are sailing with you.'

But the centurion, wanting to save Paul's life, prevented them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land,

Now in the region around that place were fields belonging to the chief official of the island, named Publius, who welcomed us and entertained us hospitably as guests for three days.

After this had happened, many of the people on the island who were sick also came and were healed.

When we entered Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him.

Paul lived there two whole years in his own rented quarters and welcomed all who came to him,