After He had suffered, He also presented Himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking the magnificent acts of God in our own languages.”

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

“Men of Israel, listen to these words: This Jesus the Nazarene was a man pointed out to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through Him, just as you yourselves know.

Though He was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail Him to a cross and kill Him.

God raised Him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.

Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to seat one of his descendants on his throne.

“God has resurrected this Jesus. We are all witnesses of this.

Therefore, since He has been exalted to the right hand of God and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, He has poured out what you both see and hear.

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah!”

For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved.

And a man who was lame from birth was carried there and placed every day at the temple gate called Beautiful, so he could beg from those entering the temple complex.

So he turned to them, expecting to get something from them.

But Peter said, “I don’t have silver or gold, but what I have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”

So he jumped up, stood, and started to walk, and he entered the temple complex with them—walking, leaping, and praising God.

All the people saw him walking and praising God,

and they recognized that he was the one who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful Gate of the temple complex. So they were filled with awe and astonishment at what had happened to him.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.

You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this.

But what God predicted through the mouth of all the prophets—that His Messiah would suffer—He has fulfilled in this way.

Heaven must welcome Him until the times of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about by the mouth of His holy prophets from the beginning.

Moses said:

The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He will say to you.

And everyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from the people.

You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, And all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.

God raised up His Servant and sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”

If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man—by what means he was healed—

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 and whom God raised from the dead—by Him this man is standing here before you healthy.

But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide;

After threatening them further, they released them. They found no way to punish them, because the people were all giving glory to God over what had been done;

When they heard this, they all raised their voices to God and said, “Master, You are the One who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.

When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak God’s message with boldness.

Wasn’t it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn’t it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God!”

The young men got up, wrapped his body, carried him out, and buried him.

But when the temple police got there, they did not find them in the jail, so they returned and reported,

But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had murdered by hanging Him on a tree.

God exalted this man to His right hand as ruler and Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even be found fighting against God.” So they were persuaded by him.

Every day in the temple complex, and in various homes, they continued teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

Then the Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching about God to handle financial matters.

Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.

So the preaching about God flourished, the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.

Then they persuaded some men to say, “We heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God!”

“Brothers and fathers,” he said, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

and said to him:

Get out of your country
and away from your relatives,
and come to the land
that I will show you.

“Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land you now live in.

God spoke in this way:

His descendants would be strangers
in a foreign country,
and they would enslave
and oppress them 400 years.

I will judge the nation
that they will serve as slaves, God said.
After this, they will come out
and worship Me in this place.

“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him

“As the time was drawing near to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt

At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home three months,

He assumed his brothers would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.

I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. So Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.

“This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?—this one God sent as a ruler and a redeemer by means of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers.

Then God turned away and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

House of Israel, did you bring Me offerings and sacrifices
40 years in the wilderness?

No, you took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship.
So I will deport you beyond Babylon!

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

He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

But Stephen, filled by the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw God’s glory, with Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said,

“Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the message of good news.

They all paid attention to him, from the least of them to the greatest, and they said, “This man is called the Great Power of God!”

But when they believed Philip, as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.

When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had welcomed God’s message, they sent Peter and John to them.

But Peter told him, “May your silver be destroyed with you, because you thought the gift of God could be obtained with money!

You have no part or share in this matter, because your heart is not right before God.

An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road.)

So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem

So Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning from that Scripture.

[And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]

“But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Then Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus.

“Get up and go to the street called Straight,” the Lord said to him, “to the house of Judas, and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, since he is praying there.

At once something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.

Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: “He is the Son of God.”

Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed,” and immediately he got up.

In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. She was always doing good works and acts of charity.

So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they led him to the room upstairs. And all the widows approached him, weeping and showing him the robes and clothes that Dorcas had made while she was with them.

Then Peter sent them all out of the room. He knelt down, prayed, and turning toward the body said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up.

He was a devout man and feared God along with his whole household. He did many charitable deeds for the Jewish people and always prayed to God.

About three in the afternoon he distinctly saw in a vision an angel of God who came in and said to him, “Cornelius!”

Looking intently at him, he became afraid and said, “What is it, lord?”

The angel told him, “Your prayers and your acts of charity have come up as a memorial offering before God.

Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat!”

Again, a second time, a voice said to him, “What God has made clean, you must not call common.”

While Peter was deeply perplexed about what the vision he had seen might mean, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions to Simon’s house, stood at the gate.

Get up, go downstairs, and accompany them with no doubts at all, because I have sent them.”

They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who has a good reputation with the whole Jewish nation, was divinely directed by a holy angel to call you to his house and to hear a message from you.”

Peter then invited them in and gave them lodging.

The next day he got up and set out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went with him.

Peter said to them, “You know it’s forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner. But God has shown me that I must not call any person common or unclean.

and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your acts of charity have been remembered in God’s sight.

Therefore I immediately sent for you, and you did the right thing in coming. So we are all present before God, to hear everything you have been commanded by the Lord.”

Then Peter began to speak: “Now I really understand that God doesn’t show favoritism,

He sent the message to the Israelites, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all.

how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the Devil, because God was with Him.

God raised up this man on the third day and permitted Him to be seen,

not by all the people, but by us, witnesses appointed beforehand by God, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.

He commanded us to preach to the people and to solemnly testify that He is the One appointed by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead.