Once when they were with Him, they asked Him, "Master, is this the time at which you are about to restore the kingdom of Israel?"

When He had said this, and while they were looking at Him, He was carried up, and a cloud closing beneath Him hid Him from their sight.

who said, "Galilaeans, why stand looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into Heaven will come in just the same way as you have seen Him going into Heaven."

For Judas was reckoned as one of our number, and a share in this ministry was allotted to him."

Then they drew lots between them. The lot fell on Matthias, and a place among the eleven Apostles was voted to him.

"Listen, Israelites, to what I say. Jesus, the Nazarene, a man accredited to you from God by miracles and marvels and signs which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know, Him--

But God has raised Him to life, having terminated the throes of death, for in fact it was not possible for Him to be held fast by death.

For David says in reference to Him, "'I constantly fixed my eyes upon the Lord, because He is at my right hand in order that I may continue unshaken.

Being a Prophet, however, and knowing that God had solemnly sworn to him to seat a descendant of his upon his throne,

"Therefore let the whole House of Israel know beyond all doubt that God has made Him both LORD and CHRIST--this Jesus whom you crucified."

Peter fixing his eyes on him, as John did also, said, "Look at us."

Then taking his hand Peter lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were strengthened.

All the people saw him walking and praising God;

and recognizing him as the man who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple asking for alms, they were filled with awe and amazement at what had happened to him.

Peter, seeing this, spoke to the people. "Israelites," he said, "why do you wonder at this man? Or why gaze at us, as though by any power or piety of our own we had enabled him to walk?

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has conferred this honour on His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to let Him go.

The Prince of Life you put to death; but God has raised Him from the dead, and we are witnesses as to that.

Heaven must receive Him until those times of which God has spoken from the earliest ages through the lips of His holy Prophets--the times of the reconstitution of all things.

Moses declared, "'The Lord your God will raise up a Prophet for you from among your brethren as He has raised me. In all that He says to you, you must listen to Him.

It is to you first that God, after raising His Servant from the grave, has sent Him to bless you, by causing every one of you to turn from your wickedness."

God has exalted Him to His right hand as Chief Leader and as Saviour, to give Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.

And we--and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him--are witnesses as to these things."

Years ago Theudas appeared, professing to be a person of importance, and a body of men, some four hundred in number, joined him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed and annihilated.

After him, at the time of the Census, came Judas, the Galilaean, and was the leader in a revolt. He too perished, and all his followers were scattered.

Then they privately put forward men who declared, "We have heard him speak blasphemous things against Moses and against God."

In this way they excited the people, the Elders, and the Scribes. At length they came upon him, seized him with violence, and took him before the Sanhedrin.

For we have heard him say that Jesus, the Nazarene, will pull this place down to the ground and will change the customs which Moses handed down to us."

At once the eyes of all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin were fastened on him, and they saw his face looking just like the face of an angel.

Then the High Priest asked him, "Are these statements true?"

and said to him, "'Leave your country and your relatives, and go into whatever land I point out to you.'

"Thereupon he left Chaldaea and settled in Haran till after the death of his father, when God caused him to remove into this country where you now live.

But he gave him no inheritance in it, no, not a single square yard of ground. And yet He promised to bestow the land as a permanent possession on him and his posterity after him--and promised this at a time when Abraham was childless.

"Then He gave him the Covenant of circumcision, and under this Covenant he became the father of Isaac--whom he circumcised on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve Patriarchs.

"The Patriarchs were jealous of Joseph and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But God was with him

and delivered him from all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him governor over Egypt and all the royal household.

Then Joseph sent and invited his father Jacob and all his family, numbering seventy-five persons, to come to him,

At length he was cast out, but Pharaoh's daughter adopted him, and brought him up as her own son.

"And when he was just forty years old, it occurred to him to visit his brethren the descendants of Israel.

He supposed his brethren to be aware that by him God was sending them deliverance; this, however, they did not understand.

"But at the end of forty years there appeared to him in the Desert of Mount Sinai an angel in the middle of a flame of fire in a bush.

"The Moses whom they rejected, asking him, 'Who appointed you magistrate and judge?' --that same Moses we find God sending as a magistrate and a deliverer by the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

This is he who was among the Congregation in the Desert, together with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our forefathers, who received ever-living utterances to hand on to us.

"Our forefathers, however, would not submit to him, but spurned his authority and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

They said to Aaron, "'Make gods for us, to march in front of us; for as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'

"Our forefathers had the Tent of the Testimony in the Desert, built as He who spoke to Moses had instructed him to make it in imitation of the model which he had seen.

But it was Solomon who built a house for Him.

As they listened to these words, they became infuriated and gnashed their teeth at him.

dragged him out of the city, and stoned him, the witnesses throwing off their outer garments and giving them into the care of a young man called Saul.

A party of devout men, however, buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him.

Crowds of people, with one accord, gave attention to what they heard from him, listening, and witnessing the signs which he did.

To him people of all classes paid attention, declaring, "This man is the Power of God, known as the great Power."

"Why, how can I," replied the eunuch, "unless some one explains it to me?" And he earnestly invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

In His humiliation justice was denied Him. Who will make known His posterity? For He is destroyed from among men."

Then Philip began to speak, and, commencing with that same portion of Scripture, told him the Good News about Jesus.

So he stopped the chariot; and both of them--Philip and the eunuch--went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

But no sooner had they come up out of the water than the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again. With a glad heart he resumed his journey;

went to the High Priest and begged from him letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, in order that if he found any believers there, either men or women, he might bring them in chains to Jerusalem.

But on the journey, as he was getting near Damascus, suddenly there flashed round him a light from Heaven;

and falling to the ground he heard a voice which said to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"

Then he rose from the ground, but when he had opened his eyes, he could not see, and they led him by the arm and brought him to Damascus.

Now in Damascus there was a disciple of the name of Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, saying, "Ananias!" "I am here, Lord," he answered.

He has seen a man called Ananias come and lay his hands upon him so that he may recover his sight."

For I will let him know the great sufferings which he must pass through for My sake."

but information of their intention was given to him. They even watched the gates, day and night, in order to murder him;

but his disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a hamper.

So he came to Jerusalem and made several attempts to associate with the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, being in doubt as to whether he himself was a disciple.

Barnabas, however, came to his assistance. He brought Saul to the Apostles, and related to them how, on his journey, he had seen the Lord, and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had fearlessly taught in the name of Jesus.

But they kept trying to take his life. On learning this, the brethren brought him down to Caesarea, and then sent him by sea to Tarsus.

Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ cures you. Rise and make your own bed." He at once rose to his feet.

And all the people of Lud and Sharon saw him; and they turned to the Lord.

Lud, however, being near Jaffa, the disciples, who had heard that Peter was at Lud, sent two men to him with an urgent request that he would come across to them without delay.

So Peter rose and went with them. On his arrival they took him upstairs, and the widow women all came and stood by his side, weeping and showing him the underclothing and cloaks and garments of all kinds which Dorcas used to make while she was still with them.

Then, giving her his hand, he raised her to her feet and, calling to him God's people and the widows, he gave her back to them alive.

About three o'clock one afternoon he had a vision, and distinctly saw an angel of God enter his house, who called him by name, saying, "Cornelius!"

Looking steadily at him, and being much alarmed, he said, "What do you want, Sir?" "Your prayers and charities," he replied, "have gone up and have been recorded before God.

So when the angel who had been speaking to him was gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a God-fearing soldier who was in constant attendance on him,

and a voice came to him which said, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat."

And Peter was still earnestly thinking over the vision, when the Spirit said to him, "Three men are now inquiring for you.

Upon hearing this, Peter invited them in, and gave them a lodging. The next day he set out with them, some of the brethren from Jaffa going with him,

When Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him, and threw himself at his feet to do him homage.

But Peter lifted him up. "Stand up," he said; "I myself also am but a man."

So Peter went in and conversed with him, and found a large company assembled.

He said to them, "You know better than most that a Jew is strictly forbidden to associate with a Gentile or visit him; but God has taught me to call no one unholy or unclean.

but that in every nation those who fear Him and live good lives are acceptable to Him.

"And we are witnesses as to all that He did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. But they even put Him to death, by crucifixion.

That same Jesus God raised to life on the third day, and permitted Him to appear unmistakably,

not to all the people, but to witnesses--men previously chosen by God--namely, to us, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.

To Him all the Prophets bear witness, and testify that through His name all who believe in Him receive the forgiveness of their sins."

And he directed that they should be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they begged him to remain with them for a time.

and, when Peter returned to Jerusalem, the champions of circumcision found fault with him.

He succeeded, and brought him to Antioch; and for a whole year they attended the meetings of the Church, and taught a large number of people. And it was in Antioch that the disciples first received the name of 'Christians.'

He had him arrested and lodged in jail, handing him over to the care of sixteen soldiers; and intended after the Passover to bring him out again to the people.

Now when Herod was on the point of taking him out of prison, that very night Peter was asleep between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards were on duty outside the door.

Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the cell; and, striking Peter on the side, he woke him and said, "Rise quickly." Instantly the chains dropped off his wrists.

So Peter went out, following him, yet could not believe that what the angel was doing was real, but supposed that he saw a vision.

And passing through the first ward and the second, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. This opened to them of itself; and, going out, they passed on through one of the streets, and then suddenly the angel left him.

But he motioned with his hand for silence, and then described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. "Tell all this to James and the brethren," he added. Then he left them, and went to another place.

And when Herod had had him searched for and could not find him, after sharply questioning the guards he ordered them away to execution. He then went down from Judaea to Caesarea and remained there.

Now the people of Tyre and Sidon had incurred Herod's violent displeasure. So they sent a large deputation to wait on him; and having secured the good will of Blastus, his treasurer, they begged the king to be friendly with them again, because their country was dependent on his for its food supply.

Instantly an angel of the Lord struck him, because he had not given the glory to God, and being eaten up by worms, he died.