up to the day when he was taken up to heaven after giving orders by the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

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.

Now those who had gathered together began to ask Jesus, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"

After saying this, Jesus was taken up while those who had gathered together were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

When they came into the city, these men went to the upstairs room where they had been staying: Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.

"Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the voice of David about Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus,

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,

When the crowd that had gathered heard this, they were pierced to the heart. They asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?"

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.

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.

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

They were greatly disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people and announcing that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead.

Now when the Jewish leaders saw the boldness of Peter and John and found out that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and realized that they had been with Jesus.

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,

since the man on whom this sign of healing had been performed was more than 40 years old.

After they were released, Peter and John went to their fellow believers and told them everything the high priests and the elders had said.

to carry out everything that your hand and will had predetermined to take place.

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.

since none of them needed anything, because everyone who had land or houses would sell them and bring the money received for the things sold

After an interval of about three hours, Ananias' wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

They had false witnesses stand up and say, "This man never stops saying things against this Holy Place and against the Law.

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.

They were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought at a high price from Hamor's descendants in Shechem.

"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.

Eventually, a different king who had not known Joseph became ruler of Egypt.

Because of this, Moses fled and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian. There he had two sons.

"After 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.

"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.

"At that time they even made a calf to be their idol, offered a sacrifice to it, and delighted in what they had made with their hands.

"Our ancestors had the Tent of Testimony in the wilderness constructed, just as the one who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.

Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, don't hold this sin against them!" After he had said this, he died.

Unclean spirits screamed with a loud voice as they came out of the many people they had possessed, and many paralyzed and lame people were healed.

They paid careful attention to him because he had thrilled them for a long time with his occult performances.

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

Before this, he had not come on any of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

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.

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.

After several days had gone by, the Jewish leaders plotted to murder Saul,

Barnabas, however, introduced Saul to the apostles, telling them how on the road Saul had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how courageously he had spoken in the name of Jesus in Damascus.

There he found a man named Aeneas who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years.

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.

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!"

When the angel who had spoken to him had gone, Cornelius summoned two of his household servants and a devout soldier, one of those who served him regularly.

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.

The next day, they arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called his relatives and close friends together.

As Peter talked with him, he went in and found that many people had gathered.

Then the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the gentiles, too,

Now the apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the gentiles had also accepted the word of God.

Then Peter began to explain to them point by point what had happened. He said,

"At that very moment three men arrived at the house where we were staying. They had been sent to me from Caesarea.

Then he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his home and saying, "Send messengers to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter.

Then I remembered what the Lord had said: "John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'

When he arrived, he rejoiced to see what the grace of God had done, and with hearty determination he kept encouraging all of them to remain faithful to the Lord,

He even had James, the brother of John, killed with a sword.

When Peter realized what had happened, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where a large number of people had gathered and were praying.

He motioned to them with his hand to be quiet, and then he told them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. He added, "Tell this to James and the brothers." Then he left and went somewhere else.

When morning came, there was a great commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.

Now Herod had been in a violent quarrel with the people of Tyre and Sidon. So they came to him as a group. After they had won over Blastus, who oversaw security for the king's sleeping quarters, they asked for a peace agreement because their country depended on the king's country for food.

When Barnabas and Saul had fulfilled their mission, they returned from Jerusalem, bringing with them John who was also called Mark.

After they had been sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went to Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus.

Arriving in Salamis, they began to preach God's word in the Jewish synagogues. They also had John to help them.

When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, because he was astonished at the Lord's teaching.

After he had put up with them for 40 years in the wilderness,

Before Jesus' appearance, John had already preached a baptism of repentance to all the people in Israel.

When they had finished doing everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and placed him in a tomb.

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

Now David, after he had served God's purpose in his own generation, died and was buried with his ancestors, and so he experienced decay.

Then Paul and Barnabas boldly declared, "We had to speak God's word to you first, but since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we are now going to turn to the gentiles.

When the gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. Meanwhile, all who had been destined to eternal life believed,

Now in Lystra there was a man sitting down who couldn't use his feet. He had been crippled from birth and had never walked.

He was listening to Paul as he spoke. Paul watched him closely, and when he saw that he had faith to be healed,

When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us!"

Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church, and with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been entrusted to the grace of God for the work they had completed.

When they arrived, they called the church together and told them everything that God had done with them and how he had opened a door so that gentiles would believe.

Paul and Barnabas had quite a dispute and argument with them. So Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to confer with the apostles and elders about this question.

When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported everything that God had done through them.

The whole crowd was silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul tell about all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the gentiles.

After Paul and Barnabas had finished speaking, James responded, "Brothers, listen to me:

After all, Moses has had people to proclaim him in every city for generations, and on every Sabbath his books are read aloud in the synagogues."

After staying there for some time, they were sent back with a greeting from the brothers to those who had sent them.

but Paul did not think it was right to take along the man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and who had not gone with them into the work.

while Paul chose Silas and left after the brothers had entrusted him to the grace of the Lord.

Paul wanted this man to go with him, so he took him and had him circumcised because of the Jews who lived in that region, since everyone knew that Timothy's father was a Greek.

Because they had been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the word in Asia, Paul and Timothy went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia.

During the night Paul had a vision. A man from Macedonia was standing there and pleading with him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!"

As soon as he had seen the vision, we immediately looked for a way to go to Macedonia, because we were convinced that God had called us to tell the people there the good news.

On the Sabbath day, we went out the city gate and walked along the river, where we thought there was a place of prayer. We sat down and began talking to the women who had gathered there.

Once, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of fortune-telling and who had brought her owners a great deal of money by predicting the future.

The crowd joined in the attack against them. Then the magistrates had Paul and Silas stripped of their clothes and ordered them beaten with rods.

When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he thought the prisoners had escaped.

But Paul told the guards, "The magistrates have had us beaten publicly without a trial and have thrown us into jail, even though we are Roman citizens. Now are they going to throw us out secretly? Certainly not! Have them come and escort us out."

He explained and showed them that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead: "This very Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Messiah."

but after they had gotten a bond from Jason and the others, they let them go.

But when the Jewish leaders in Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul also in Berea, they went there to upset and incite the crowds.

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 the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to visit them,