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

They asked, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you saw him go up into heaven."

"Fellow Israelis, listen to these words: Jesus from Nazareth was a man authenticated to you by God through miracles, wonders, and signs that God performed through him among you, as you yourselves know.

After he was arrested according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified this very man and killed him using the hands of lawless men.

But God raised him up and put an end to suffering of death, since it was impossible for him to be held by it,

since David says about him, "I always keep my eyes on the Lord, for he is at my right hand so that I cannot be shaken.

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,

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.

When he saw that Peter and John were about to go into the Temple, he asked them to give him something.

Peter, along with John, looked him straight in the eye and said, "Look at us!"

Then Peter took hold of his right hand and began to help him up. Immediately his feet and ankles became strong,

When all the people saw him walking and praising God,

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.

When Peter saw this, he told the people: "Fellow Israelis, why are you wondering about this, and why are you staring at us as if by our own power or godliness we made him walk?

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.

It is his name that is, by faith in his name that has healed this man whom you see and know. Yes, the faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

Therefore, repent and turn to him to have your sins blotted out,

"Indeed, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who followed him, also announced these days.

When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning every one of you from your evil ways."

sold a field that belonged to him, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

The young men got up, wrapped him up, carried him outside, and buried him.

Then the high priest and all those from the sect of the Sadducees who were with him were filled with jealousy. So they went out,

After the apostles heard this, they went into the Temple at daybreak and began to teach. The high priest and those who were with him arrived, called the Council and all the elders of Israel together, and sent word to the prison to have the men brought in.

The God of our ancestors raised Jesus to life after you killed him 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 keep on obeying him."

For in the recent past Theudas appeared, claiming that he was important, and about 400 men joined him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed and disappeared.

After that man, at the time of the census, Judas the Galilean appeared and got people to follow him. He, too, died, and all his followers were scattered.

So they were convinced by him. After calling in the apostles and beating them, they again ordered them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus and let them go.

So they secretly got some men to say, "We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God."

They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes. Then they rushed at Stephen, grabbed him, and brought him before the Council.

For we have heard him say that this Jesus from Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us."

Then everyone who was seated in the Council glared at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

"The glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. God told him, "Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land I'll show you.'

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.

Later, God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. Later, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Then Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered the twelve patriarchs.

"Joseph's brothers became jealous of him and sold Joseph as a slave in Egypt. However, God was with him

and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler of Egypt and of his whole household.

Then Joseph invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him in Egypt 75 persons in all.

When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.

When he saw one of them being mistreated, he defended him and avenged the man who was being mistreated by killing the Egyptian.

He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was using him to rescue them, but they didn't understand.

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

Then the Lord told him, "Remove your sandals from your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground.

"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.

This Moses is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and to our ancestors. He received living truths to give to us,

but our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and wished to return to Egypt.

They told Aaron, "Make gods for us who will lead us. This Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt we don't know what happened to him!'

"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.

but it was Solomon who built a house for him.

While they were listening to these things, they became more and more furious and began to grind their teeth at him.

But they shouted out loud, stopped listening, and together they all rushed at him,

ran him outside of the city, and began to stone him to death. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Devout men buried Stephen as they mourned loudly for him.

Everyone from the least to the greatest paid close attention to him, saying, "This is what we call the great power of God!"

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

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

So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah out loud. Philip asked, "Do you understand what you're reading?"

The man replied, "How can I unless someone guides me?" So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him.

In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his descendants? For his life is taken away from the earth."

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

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

He asked him for letters to take with him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women belonging to the Way, he might bring them in chains to Jerusalem.

As Saul traveled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him.

He dropped to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me?"

When Saul got up off the ground, he couldn't see anything, even though his eyes were open. So his companions took him by the hand and led him into Damascus.

Now in Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called out to him in a vision, "Ananias!" He answered, "Here I am, Lord."

The Lord told him, "Get up, go to the street called Straight, and in the home of Judas look for a man from Tarsus named Saul. At this very moment he's praying.

He has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so he would see again."

But the Lord told him, "Go, because he's my chosen instrument to carry my name to unbelievers, to their kings, and to the descendants of Israel.

since I'm going to show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake."

Everyone who heard him was astonished and said, "This is the man who harassed those who were calling on Jesus' name in Jerusalem, isn't it? Didn't he come here to bring them in chains to the high priests?"

but their plot became known to him. They were even watching the gates day and night to murder him,

but his disciples took him one night and let him down through the city wall by lowering him in a basket.

When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they all were afraid of him because they wouldn't believe he was a disciple.

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.

He kept talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews, but they were bent on murdering him.

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

Peter told him, "Aeneas, Jesus the Messiah is healing you. Get up and put away your mat!" At once he got up,

and all the people 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 and begged him, "Come here quickly!"

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!"

The angel answered him, "Your prayers and your gifts to the poor have arisen as a reminder to God. Send men now to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter.

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.

Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter! Kill something and eat it."

Again the voice came to him a second time, "You must stop calling unclean what God has made clean."

Peter was still thinking about the vision when the Spirit told him, "Look! Three men are looking for you.

So Peter welcomed them as his guests. The next day, he got up and went with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along with him.

When Peter was about to enter, Cornelius met him, bowed down at his feet, and began to worship him.

But Peter made him get up, saying, "Stand up! I, too, am only a man."

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

Indeed, whoever fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him in any nation.

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, he went around doing good and healing everyone who was oppressed by the devil.

"They hung him on a tree and killed him, but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear

not to all the people, but to us who were chosen by God to be witnesses and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

So Peter ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus the Messiah. Then they asked him to stay there for several days.

But when Peter went up to Jerusalem, those who emphasized circumcision disagreed with him.

When he found him, he brought him to Antioch, and for a whole year they were guests of the church and taught many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

When he arrested Peter, Herod put him in prison and turned him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, planning to bring him out to the people after Passover season.