After he had suffered, he had shown himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during a period of 40 days and telling them about the kingdom of God.

At that time, Peter got up among the brothers (there were about 120 people present) and said,

(Now this man bought a field with the money he got for his crime. Falling on his face, he burst open in the middle, and all his intestines gushed out.

Cretans, and Arabs, listening to them talk in our own languages about the great deeds of God?"

"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on everyone. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

"Fellow Israelis, listen to these words: Jesus from Nazareth was a man authenticated to you by God through miracles, wonders, and signs that God performed through him among you, as you yourselves know.

After he was arrested according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified this very man and killed him using the hands of lawless men.

But God raised him up and put an end to suffering of death, since it was impossible for him to be held by it,

Therefore, since he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him with an oath to put one of his descendants on his throne,

"It was this very Jesus whom God raised and we're all witnesses of that.

He has been exalted to the right hand of God, has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and has caused you to experience what you are seeing and hearing.

"Therefore, let all the people of Israel understand beyond a doubt that God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah!"

For this promise belongs to you and your children, as well as to all those who are distant, whom the Lord our God may call to himself."

They were praising God and enjoying the good will of all the people. Every day the Lord was adding to their number those who were being saved.

Now a man who had been crippled from birth was being carried in. Every day people would lay him at what was called the Beautiful Gate so that he could beg from those who were going into the Temple.

So the man watched them closely, expecting to get something from them.

and he sprang to his feet, stood up, and began to walk. Then he went with them into the Temple, walking, jumping, and praising God.

When all the people saw him walking and praising God,

they knew that he was the man who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you betrayed and rejected in the presence of Pilate, even though he had decided to let him go.

and you killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses to that.

This is how God fulfilled what he had predicted through the voice of all the prophets that his Messiah would suffer.

He must remain in heaven until the time of universal restitution, which God announced long ago through the voice of his holy prophets.

"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you. Any person who will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.'

You are the descendants of the prophets and the heirs of the covenant that God made with your ancestors when he told Abraham, "Through your descendant all the families of the earth will be blessed.'

When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning every one of you from your evil ways."

If we are being questioned today for a good deed done for someone who was sick or to learn how this man was healed,

you and all the people of Israel must understand that this man stands healthy before you because of the name of Jesus from Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead.

But Peter and John answered them, "You must decide whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God,

So they threatened Peter and John even more and then let them go. They couldn't find any way to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened,

When they heard this, they all raised their voices to God and said, "Master, you made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.

When they had prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak messages from God boldly.

Peter asked, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart so that you should lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back some of the money you got for the land?

As long as it remained unsold, wasn't it your own? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? So how could you have thought of doing what you did? You didn't lie only to men, but also to God!"

The young men got up, wrapped him up, carried him outside, and buried him.

When the Temple police got there, they did not find them in the prison. They came back and reported,

But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men!

The God of our ancestors raised Jesus to life after you killed him by hanging him on a tree.

God has exalted to his right hand this very man as our Leader and Savior in order to extend repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.

We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who keep on obeying him."

After that man, at the time of the census, Judas the Galilean appeared and got people to follow him. He, too, died, and all his followers were scattered.

However, if it's from God, you won't be able to stop them, and you may even discover that you are fighting against God!"

So the Twelve called the whole group of disciples together and said, "It is not desirable for us to neglect messages from God in order to wait on tables.

Therefore, brothers, appoint seven men among you who have a good reputation, who are full of the Spirit and wisdom, and we'll put them in charge of this work.

So the word of God continued to spread, and the number of disciples in Jerusalem continued to grow rapidly. Even a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

So they secretly got some men to say, "We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God."

"The glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. God told him, "Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land I'll show you.'

So he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. Then after the death of his father, God had him move to this country where you now live.

God gave him no property here, not even a foot of land, yet he promised to give it to him and to his descendants after him as a permanent possession, even though he had no child.

"This is what God promised: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and its people would enslave them and oppress them for 400 years.

"But I will punish the nation they serve,' said God, "and afterwards they will leave and worship me in this place.'

Later, God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. Later, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Then Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered the twelve patriarchs.

"Joseph's brothers became jealous of him and sold Joseph as a slave in Egypt. However, God was with him

"Now as the time approached for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people's population increased a great deal in Egypt.

"At this time Moses was born. He was beautiful in the sight of God, and for three months he was cared for in his father's house.

He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was using him to rescue them, but they didn't understand.

"I am the God of your ancestors the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses became terrified and didn't dare to look.

"This same Moses whom they rejected by saying, "Who made you ruler and judge?' was the man whom God sent to be both their ruler and deliverer with the help of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush.

It was this Moses who told the Israelis, "God will raise up a prophet for you from among your own brothers, just as he did me.'

So God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the heavenly bodies. As it is written in the book of the Prophets: "O house of Israel, you didn't offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices those 40 years in the wilderness, did you?

You even took along the tent of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, and the images you made in order to worship them. So I will take you into exile as far as Babylon.'

Our ancestors brought it here with Joshua when they replaced the nations that God drove out in front of our ancestors, and it was here until the time of David.

He found favor with God and asked to design a dwelling for the house of Jacob,

But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

He said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

Everyone from the least to the greatest paid close attention to him, saying, "This is what we call the great power of God!"

But when Philip proclaimed the good news about the kingdom of God and about the name of Jesus the Messiah, men and women believed and were baptized.

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

But Peter told him, "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God's free gift with money!

You have no part or share in what we're saying, because your heart isn't right with God.

After they had given their testimony and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, continuing to proclaim the good news in many Samaritan villages.

Now an angel of the Lord told Philip, "Get up and go south on the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a deserted road."

So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, who was a member of the court of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He was in charge of all her treasures and had come up to Jerusalem to worship.

The man replied, "How can I unless someone guides me?" So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him.

Then Philip began to speak, and, starting from this Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

But Philip found himself at Azotus. As he was passing through that region, he kept proclaiming the good news in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

The voice said, "I'm Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up, go into the city, and you will be told what you are to do."

When Saul got up off the ground, he couldn't see anything, even though his eyes were open. So his companions took him by the hand and led him into Damascus.

The Lord told him, "Get up, go to the street called Straight, and in the home of Judas look for a man from Tarsus named Saul. At this very moment he's praying.

He got up and was baptized, and after eating some food, he felt strong again. For several days he stayed with the disciples in Damascus.

He immediately started to preach about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "This is the Son of God."

Peter told him, "Aeneas, Jesus the Messiah is healing you. Get up and put away your mat!" At once he got up,

In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was known for her good actions and acts of charity that she was always doing.

At that time, she got sick and died. After they had washed her, they laid her in an upstairs room.

So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him upstairs. All the widows gathered around Peter, crying and showing him all the shirts and coats Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

Peter made them all go outside. After kneeling down, he prayed, turned to the body, and said, "Tabitha, get up!" She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.

He extended his hand and helped her get up. Then he called the saints, including the widows, and gave her back to them alive.

He was a devout man who feared God, as did everyone in his home. He gave many gifts to the poor among the people and always prayed to God.

One day, about three in the afternoon, he had a vision and clearly saw an angel of God coming to him and saying to him, "Cornelius!"

The angel answered him, "Your prayers and your gifts to the poor have arisen as a reminder to God. Send men now to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter.

Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter! Kill something and eat it."

Again the voice came to him a second time, "You must stop calling unclean what God has made clean."

While Peter was still at a loss to know what the vision he had seen could mean, the men sent by Cornelius asked for Simon's house and went to the gate.

Get up, go downstairs, and don't hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."

The men replied, "Cornelius, a centurion and an upright and God-fearing man who is respected by the whole Jewish nation, was instructed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his home to hear what you have to say."

So Peter welcomed them as his guests. The next day, he got up and went with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along with him.

But Peter made him get up, saying, "Stand up! I, too, am only a man."

He told them, "You understand how wrong it is for a Jew to associate or visit with unbelievers. But God has shown me that I should stop calling anyone common or unclean,

and said, "Cornelius, your prayer has been heard. God has remembered your gifts to the poor,

So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. All of us are here now in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has ordered you to say."