In my first volume, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning

As he said this, he was caught up before their eyes and a cloud took him up from their sight.

and said to them, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into the sky? This very Jesus who has been caught up from you into heaven will come in just the way that you have seen him go up to heaven."

Then they went back to Jerusalem from the hill called the Olive-orchard, which is near Jerusalem, half a mile away.

from his baptism by John to the time when he was caught up from us, must join us as a witness to his resurrection."

when suddenly there came from the sky a sound like a violent blast of wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Now there were devout Jews from every part of the world living in Jerusalem.

of Phrygia, and Pamphylia, of Egypt and the district of Africa about Cyrene, visitors from Rome, Jews and proselytes,

He is Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, and to whose resurrection we are all witnesses.

So he has been exalted to God's right hand, and has received from his Father and poured over us the holy Spirit that had been promised, as you see and hear.

He said much more besides in giving his testimony, and urged them to save themselves from that crooked age.

when a man who had been lame from his birth was carried by. He used to be placed every day at what was known as the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, to beg from the people on their way into the Temple,

and killed the very source of life. But God raised him from the dead, as we can testify.

So repent and turn to God, to have your sins wiped out, and happier times will come from the presence of the Lord,

Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, as he raised me up. You must listen to everything that he tells you.

Anyone that will not listen to that prophet will be annihilated from among the people.'

Why, all the prophets from Samuel down, who have spoken, have also foretold these days.

It was to you that God first sent his servant after he had raised him from the dead, to bless you by making every one of you turn from his wickedness."

greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and declaring that in the case of Jesus there had been a resurrection from the dead.

you and the people of Israel must all know that it is through the power of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that he stands here before you well.

But to keep it from spreading farther among the people, let us warn them to say nothing to anyone else at all about this person."

and who said through the holy Spirit by the lips of our forefather David, your slave, " 'Why did the heathen rage, And the peoples form vain designs?

Even from the towns around Jerusalem crowds would come in bringing sick people and those who were troubled with foul spirits, and they were all cured.

So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this idea or movement is of human origin, it will come to naught,

but if it is from God, you will not be able to stop it. You may actually find yourselves fighting God!"

So they went out from before the council, glad that they had been thought worthy to bear disgrace for the sake of Jesus,

You, brothers, must pick out from your number seven men of good standing, who are wise and full of the Spirit, and we will put them in charge of this matter,

But members of the synagogue known as that of the Libyans, Cyreneans, and Alexandrians, and men from Cilicia and Asia undertook to debate with Stephen,

So he left the country of the Chaldeans and went to live in Haran, and from there after the death of his father, God caused him to move into this country where you now live.

and rescued him from all his troubles, and enabled him to win favor and to show wisdom when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he appointed him governor of Egypt and of his whole household.

and they were carried back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

This was the Moses who said to the descendants of Israel, 'God will make a prophet rise from among your brothers to teach you, just as he made me rise.'

Those who were scattered went from place to place preaching the good news of the message.

But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go south, by the road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza." (The town is now deserted.)

His sentence ended in his humiliation. Who will tell the story of his posterity? For his life is perished from the earth."

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

But on his journey, as he was approaching Damascus, a sudden light flashed around him from heaven,

When he got up from the ground and opened his eyes he could see nothing. They had to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus,

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

Something like scales immediately dropped from his eyes, and his sight was restored, and he got up and was baptized,

So Peter invited them in and entertained them. The next day he started off with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa,

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

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.

Then Peter explained the matter to them from beginning to end. He said,

Then the voice from heaven answered again, 'Do not call what God has cleansed unclean!'

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

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.

There were some men from Cyprus and Cyrene among them, however, who when they reached Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, and told them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

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

when an angel of the Lord stood at his side, and a light shone in the room, and striking Peter on the side, he woke him, and said to him, "Get up quickly!" The chains dropped from his hands,

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."

Being sent out in this way by the holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.

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

Paul and his companions sailed from Paphos and went to Perga in Pamphylia. There John left them and returned to Jerusalem,

but they went on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia. On the Sabbath they went to the synagogue there and took seats.

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

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.

But God raised him from the dead,

and for many days he appeared to those who had come up to Jerusalem with him from Galilee, and they are now witnesses for him to the people.

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.'

They shook off the dust from their feet in protest, and went to Iconium.

In the streets of Lystra a man used to sit who had not the use of his feet. He had been lame from his birth, and had never been able to walk.

The crowds, seeing what Paul had done, shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!"

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.

though he did not fail to give some evidence about himself, through his kindnesses to you, in sending you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, giving you food and happiness to your heart's content."

Even with these words they could hardly restrain the people from offering sacrifice to them.

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.

and from there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been commended to God's favor for the work which they had now finished.

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.

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.

Symeon has told how God first showed an interest in taking from among the heathen a people to bear his name.

who has been making this known from of old.'

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."

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.

So the churches became stronger and stronger in the faith, and their numbers increased from day to day.

Thus they crossed Phrygia and Galatia. The holy Spirit prevented them from delivering the message in Asia,

So we sailed from Troas, and ran a straight course to Samothrace, and next day to Neapolis.

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.

One of our hearers was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple goods, from the town of Thyatira. She was a believer in God, and the Lord touched her heart, and led her to accept Paul's teaching.

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!"

For all Athenians and all visitors there from abroad used to spend all their time telling or listening to something new.

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.

From one forefather he has created every nation of mankind, and made them live all over the face of the earth, fixing their appointed times and the limits of their lands,

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

since he has fixed a day on which he will justly judge the world through a man whom he has appointed, and whom he has guaranteed to all men by raising him from the dead."

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 Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,

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.

And he drove them away from the court.

He bade them goodbye, saying, "I will come back to you again if it is God's will." Then he sailed from Ephesus.

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

Some Jews who went from place to place casting out demons tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in the cases of people who had evil spirits in them, saying, "I command you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches!"

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?

He was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, Aristarchus and Secundus, from Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus, from Asia.

while we sailed from Philippi after the festival of Unleavened Bread, and joined them at Troas five days later. There we stayed a week.

and a young man named Eutychus, who was sitting at the window, became very drowsy as Paul's address grew longer and longer, and finally went fast asleep and fell from the third story to the ground, and was picked up for dead.

Sailing from there, we arrived off Chios on the following day. On the next we crossed to Samos, and on the next we reached Miletus.

From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.

When they came, he said to them, "You know well enough how I lived among you all the time from the first day I set foot in Asia,