So when they had come together, they asked Him, “Lord, are You restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”

After He had said this, He was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took Him out of their sight.

They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen Him going into heaven.”

“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.

For David says of Him:

I saw the Lord ever before me;
because He is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.

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

Peter, along with John, looked at him intently and said, “Look at us.”

Then, taking him by the right hand he raised him up, and at once his feet and ankles became strong.

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.

When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Or why do you stare at us, as though we had made him walk by our own power or godliness?

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.

By faith in His name, His name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Him has given him this perfect health in front of all of you.

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.

“In addition, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, have also announced these days.

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

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.

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

In obedience to this, they entered the temple complex at daybreak and began to teach.

When the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin—the full Senate of the sons of Israel—and sent orders to the jail to have them brought.

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

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

Not long ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about 400 men rallied to him. He was killed, and all his partisans were dispersed and came to nothing.

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.

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

They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; so they came, dragged him off, and took him to the Sanhedrin.

For we heard him say that Jesus, this Nazarene, will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”

And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

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.

He didn’t give him an inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, but He promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless.

Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the 12 patriarchs.

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

and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household.

and when he was left outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son.

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

“But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed him away, saying:

Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us?

After 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush.

“Then the Lord said to him:

Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

“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.

He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors. He received living oracles to give to us.

Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him, but pushed him away, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

They told Aaron:

Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.

“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.

But it was Solomon who built Him a house.

When they heard these things, they were enraged in their hearts and gnashed their teeth at him.

Then they screamed at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him.

They threw him out of the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Saul agreed with putting him to death.

On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.

Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him.

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!”

They were attentive to him because he had astounded them with his sorceries for a long time.

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

When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”

“How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

In His humiliation justice was denied Him.
Who will describe His generation?
For His life is taken from the earth.

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

Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.

When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer. But he went on his way rejoicing.

and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him.

Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the sound but seeing no one.

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.

There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Here I am, Lord!” he said.

“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.

In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and placing his hands on him so he can regain his sight.”

But the Lord said to him, “Go! For this man is My chosen instrument to take My name to Gentiles, kings, and the Israelites.

I will show him how much he must suffer for My name!”

So Ananias left and entered the house. Then he placed his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road you were traveling, has sent me so that you can regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

But all who heard him were astounded and said, “Isn’t this the man who, in Jerusalem, was destroying those who called on this name and then came here for the purpose of taking them as prisoners to the chief priests?”

After many days had passed, the Jews conspired to kill him,

but their plot became known to Saul. So they were watching the gates day and night intending to kill him,

but his disciples took him by night and lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the wall.

When he arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to associate with the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, since they did not believe he was a disciple.

Barnabas, however, took him and brought him to the apostles and explained to them how Saul had seen the Lord on the road and that He had talked to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus.

He conversed and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they attempted to kill him.

When the brothers found out, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

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

So all who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples heard that Peter was there and sent two men to him who begged him, “Don’t delay in coming with us.”

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.

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.

When the angel who spoke to him had gone, he called two of his household slaves and a devout soldier, who was one of those who attended him.

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 thinking about the vision, the Spirit told him, “Three men are here looking for 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.

When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, fell at his feet, and worshiped him.

But Peter helped him up and said, “Stand up! I myself am also a man.”

While talking with him, he went on in and found that many had come together there.

but in every nation the person who fears Him and does righteousness is acceptable to Him.

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.

We ourselves are witnesses of everything He did in both the Judean country and in Jerusalem, yet they killed Him by hanging Him on a tree.

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.

All the prophets testify about Him that through His name everyone who believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins.”