"Being, therefore, God's offspring, we ought not to suppose that the God-head is like gold, or silver, or stone, graven by man's art and device!

who found favor in God's sight and asked for permission to build a [special] house for the God of Jacob's [descendants] to live in.

But he, full of the holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God's glory and Jesus standing at God's right hand.

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

And now I commend you to God [placing you in His protective, loving care] and [I commend you] to the word of His grace [the counsel and promises of His unmerited favor]. His grace is able to build you up and to give you the [rightful] inheritance among all those who are sanctified [that is, among those who are set apart for God’s purpose—all believers].

Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God; so that they may receive pardon for their sins, and a place among those who have become God's People, by faith in me.'

But Peter and John replied, "Judge whether it is right in God's sight to listen to you instead of listening to God.

Therefore, let all those who make up the household of Israel [i.e., God's people] know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ."

who must be received into heaven until [God's appointed] times when everything will be restored [to its intended purpose]. God had spoken about this through the proclamations of His holy prophets of long ago.

And when he desired to travel over into Achaia, he was encouraged [to do so] by the brothers, who wrote to the disciples [in Achaia and urged them] to welcome him. When he arrived [in Achaia] he was a great help to those who had become believers through the unearned favor of God. [Note: An alternate meaning is, "he was a great help, through God's unearned favor on him to those who had become believers"].

and the people shouted, "It is a god's voice, not a man's!"

It was at this [critical] time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God, and for three months he was nourished in his father’s house.

God's words were these--'Abraham's descendants shall live in a foreign country, where they will be enslaved and ill-treated for four hundred years.

When they had prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and continued courageously to speak God's message.

So with great power the apostles continued to give their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's favor rested richly on them all.

So God's message continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem continued to grow rapidly; a large number, even of priests, continued to surrender to the faith.

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

When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there.

Now, as Peter was going here and there among them all, he finally went down to God's people who lived at Lydda.

So at once I sent for you, and you have been kind enough to come. So now we are all here in God's presence to listen to anything that the Lord has commanded you to say."

Now the apostles and the brothers all over Judea heard that the heathen too had accepted God's message.

When they reached Salamis, they began to preach God's message in the Jewish synagogues. They had John with them as their assistant.

He was an intimate friend of the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor sent for Barnabas and Saul and in this way tried to hear God's message.

For David, after having served God's purpose in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his forefathers, and so he did experience decay,

The next sabbath almost the whole town turned out to hear God's message.

Then Paul and Barnabas courageously spoke out, "God's message had to be spoken to you Jews first, but since you continue to thrust it from you and since you show yourselves unworthy to receive eternal life, now and here we turn to the heathen.

The heathen kept on listening and rejoicing and giving the glory to God's message, and all who had been destined to eternal life believed,

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

Then they told God's message to him and to all the members of his household.

But when the Jews at Thessalonica learned that God's message had been proclaimed at Berea by Paul, they came there too to excite the masses and stir up a riot.

So for a year and a half he settled down among them and went on teaching God's message.

But as he bade them goodbye, he promised, "I will come back to you again, if it is God's will." Then he set sail from Ephesus.

But now I count as nothing the sacrifice of my life, if only I can finish my race and render the service entrusted to me by the Lord Jesus, of faithfully telling the good news of God's favor.

for I never shrank from telling you God's whole plan.

The people standing near him said, "Do you mean to insult God's high priest?"

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

That was what I did at Jerusalem; yes, I received authority from the high priests and shut behind the prison bars many of God's people. Yes, when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, and often in all the synagogues

"So you must understand that this message of God's salvation has been sent to the heathen; and they will listen to it!"

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home and explained God's way to him more accurately.

Pay attention to yourselves and to the entire flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to be shepherds of God's church, which he acquired with his own blood.

And when there had been much discussion, Peter got up and said to them, My brothers, you have knowledge that some time back it was God's pleasure that by my mouth the good news might be given to the Gentiles so that they might have faith.

And now I am here to be judged because of the hope given by God's word to our fathers;

And so, by God's help, I am here today, witnessing to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come about;