After his sufferings he had shown them that he was alive by a number of proofs, revealing himself to them for forty days and discussing the affairs of God's Realm.

Judas did enter our number, he did get his allotted share of this our ministry.

With the money paid him for his crime he purchased an estate; but swelling up he burst in two, and all his bowels poured out ??19 a fact which became known to all the residents in Jerusalem, so that the estate got the name, in their language, of Akeldamach or The Ground of Blood.

Cretans and Arabians, we hear these men talking of the triumphs of God in our own languages!"

No, this is what was predicted by the prophet Joel ??17 In the last days, saith God, then will I pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams:

Men of Israel, listen to my words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man accredited to you by God through miracles, wonders, and signs which God performed by him among you (as you yourselves know),

this Jesus, betrayed in the predestined course of God's deliberate purpose, you got wicked men to nail to the cross and murder;

but God raised him by checking the pangs of death. Death could not hold him.

(He was a prophet; he knew God had sworn an oath to him that he would seat one of his descendants on his throne;

This Jesus God raised, as we can all bear witness.

Uplifted then by God's right hand, and receiving from the Father the long-promised holy Spirit, he has poured on us what you now see and hear.)

So let all the house of Israel understand beyond a doubt that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this very Jesus whom you have crucified."

For the promise is meant for you and for your children and for all who are far off, for anyone whom the Lord our God may call to himself."

praising God and looked on with favour by all the people. Meantime the Lord added the saved daily to their number.

when a man lame from birth was carried past, who used to be laid every day at what was called the 'Beautiful Gate' of the temple, to ask alms from those who entered the temple.

The man attended, expecting to get something from them.

But Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but I will give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, [get up and] walk!"

he leapt to his feet, started to walk, and accompanied them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God.

When all the people saw him walking and praising God,

and when they recognized this was the very man who used to sit and beg at the Gate Beautiful, they were lost in awe and amazement at what had happened to him.

The God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified Jesus his servant, whom you delivered up and repudiated before Pilate. Pilate had decided to release him,

and you killed the pioneer of Life. But God raised him from the dead, as we can bear witness.

Now I know, brothers, that you acted in ignorance, like your rulers ??18 though this was how God fulfilled what he had announced beforehand by the lips of all the prophets, namely the sufferings of his Christ.

who must be kept in heaven till the period of the great Restoration. Ages ago God spoke of this by the lips of his holy prophets;

for Moses said, The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brotherhood, as he raised me: you must listen to whatever he may tell you.

Now you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers when he said to Abraham, all families on earth shall be blessed in your offspring.

It was for you first that God raised up his Servant, and sent him to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."

if we are being cross-examined to-day upon a benefit rendered to a cripple, upon how this man got better,

you and the people of Israel must all understand that he stands before you strong and well, thanks to the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead.

But Peter and John replied, "Decide for yourselves whether it is right before God to obey you rather than God.

Then they threatened them still further and let them go; on account of the people they found themselves unable to find any means of punishing them, for everybody was glorifying God over what had happened

and on hearing this the entire company raised their cry to God, "O Sovereign Lord, thou art he who made heaven, earth, and sea, and all that in them is,

At their prayer the place of meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the holy Spirit, speaking God's word fearlessly;

When it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And even after the sale, was the money not yours to do as you pleased about it? How could you think of doing a thing like this? You have not defrauded men but God."

But as the attendants did not find them when they got to the prison, they came back to report,

Peter and the apostles answered, "One must obey God rather than men.

The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you murdered by hanging him on a gibbet.

God lifted him up to his right hand as our pioneer and saviour, in order to grant repentance and remission of sins to Israel.

To these facts we bear witness, with the holy Spirit which God has given to those who obey him."

But a Pharisee in the Sanhedrin called Gamaliel, a doctor of the Law who was highly respected by all the people, got up and ordered the apostles to be removed for a few moments.

After him Judas the Galilean started up at the time of the census, and got people to desert to him; but he perished too, and all his followers were scattered.

whereas, if it really springs from God, you will be unable to put them down. You may even find yourselves fighting God!"

So the twelve summoned the main body of the disciples and said: "It is not desirable that we should drop preaching the word of God and attend to meals.

Brothers, look out seven of your own number, men of good reputation who are full of the Spirit and of wisdom. We will appoint them to this duty,

And the word of God spread; the number of the disciples in Jerusalem greatly increased, and a host of priests became obedient to the faith.

They then instigated people to say, "We have heard him talking blasphemy against Moses and God."

"Listen, brothers and fathers," said Stephen. "The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was still in Mesopotamia, before ever he stayed in Haran,

Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and stayed in Haran. From Haran God shifted him, after his father's death, to this land which you now inhabit.

What God said was this: 'His offspring will sojourn in a foreign land, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.

But,' said God, 'I will pass sentence on the nation that has made them slaves, and then they will get away to worship me in this Place.'

God also gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, whom he circumcised on the eighth day, Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

Out of jealousy the patriarchs sold Joseph into Egypt; but God was with him,

As the time approached for the promise God had made to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

(He thought his brothers would understand God was going to bring them deliverance by means of him, but they did not understand.)

'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.' Moses was so terrified that he did not dare to look at the bush.

The Moses they refused, when they said, 'Who made you ruler and umpire?' ??that was the very man whom God sent to rule and to redeem them, by aid of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush.

(This was the Moses who told the sons of Israel, 'God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brotherhood, as he raised me.')

So God turned from them, abandoning them to the worship of the starry Host ??as it is written in the book of the prophets, Did you offer me victims and sacrifices during the forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?

No, it was the tent of Moloch and the star-symbol of Rephan your god that you carried, figures that you manufactured for worship. So now I will transport you beyond Babylon!

It was passed on and borne in by our fathers as with Joshua they took possession of the territory of the nations whom God drove out before our fathers. So it remained down to the days of David.

He found favour with God and asked permission to devise a dwelling for the God of Jacob.

Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Just One. And here you have betrayed him, murdered him! ??53 you who got the Law that angels transmitted, and have not obeyed it!"

He, full of the holy Spirit, gazed up at heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God's right hand.

"Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of man standing at God's right hand!"

and all sorts and conditions of people attached themselves to him, declaring he was that Power of God which is known as 'the Great Power.'

But when they believed Philip, who preached the gospel of the Reign of God and the name of Jesus, they had themselves baptized, both men and women;

When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they despatched Peter and John,

Peter said to him, "Death to you and your money, for dreaming you could buy the gift of God!

You come in for no share or lot in this religion. Your heart is all wrong in the sight of God.

So repent of this wickedness of yours, and ask God whether you cannot be forgiven for your heart's purpose.

but an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go south, along the road from Jerusalem to Gaza" (the desert-route).

So he got up and went on his way. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a high official of Candace the queen of the Ethiopians (he was her chief treasurer), who had come to Jerusalem for worship

he asked. "Why, how can I possibly understand it," said the eunuch, "unless some one puts me on the right track?" And he begged Philip to get up and sit beside him.

By humbling himself he had his doom removed. Who can tell his family? For his life is cut off from the earth.

Get up and go into the city. There you will be told what you have to do."

Saul got up from the ground, but though his eyes were open he could see nothing; so they took his hand and led him to Damascus.

In a moment something like scales fell from his eyes, he regained his sight, got up and was baptized.

He lost no time in preaching throughout the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God ??21 to the amazement of all his hearers, who said, "Is this not the man who in Jerusalem harried those who invoke this Name, the man who came here for the express purpose of carrying them all in chains to the high priests?"

He got to Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, unable to believe he was really a disciple.

Barnabas, however, got hold of him and brought him to the apostles. To them he related how he had seen the Lord upon the road, how He had spoken to him, and how he had spoken freely in the name of Jesus at Damascus.

"Aeneas," said Peter, "Jesus the Christ cures you! Get up and make your bed!" He got up at once.

At Joppa there was a disciple called Tabitha (which may be translated Dorcas, or 'Gazelle'), a woman whose life was full of good actions and of charitable practices.

So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him up to the room, where all the widows stood beside him crying as they showed him the garments and dresses that Dorcas used to make when she was with them.

a religious man, who reverenced God with all his household, who was liberal in his alms to the People, and who constantly prayed to God.

About three o'clock in the afternoon he distinctly saw in a vision an angel of God entering and saying to him, "Cornelius."

He stared at the angel in terror, saying, "What is it?" He replied, "Your prayers and your alms have risen before God as a sacrifice to be remembered.

A second time the voice came back to him, "What God has cleansed, you must not regard as common."

Come, get up and go down, and have no hesitation about accompanying them, for it is I who have sent them."

They said, "Cornelius, a captain, a good man who reverences God and enjoys a good reputation among the whole Jewish nation, was instructed by a holy angel to send for you to his house and to listen to what you had to say."

but Peter raised him, saying, "Get up, I am only a man myself."

To them Peter said, "You know yourselves it is illegal for a Jew to join or accost anyone belonging to another nation; but God has shown me that I must not call any man common or unclean,

saying, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, your alms are remembered by God.

So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Well now, here we are all present before God to listen to what the Lord has commanded you to say."

Then Peter opened his lips and said, "I see quite plainly that God has no favourites,

but that he who reverences Him and lives a good life in any nation is welcomed by Him.

you know how it spread over the whole of Judaea, starting from Galilee after the baptism preached by John ??38 how God consecrated Jesus of Nazaret with the holy Spirit and power, and how he went about doing good and curing all who were harassed by the devil; for God was with him.

but God raised him on the third day, and allowed him to be seen

not by all the People but by witnesses whom God had previously selected, by us who ate and drank with him after his resurrection from the dead,

when he enjoined us to preach to the People, testifying that this was he whom God has appointed to be judge of the living and of the dead.

Now the Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were amazed that the gift of the holy Spirit had actually been poured out on the Gentiles ??46 for they heard them speak with 'tongues' and magnify God. At this Peter asked,