And while they were gazing after Him into heaven, two men dressed in white suddenly stood beside them,

and said to them, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This very Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in just the way you have seen Him go up into heaven."

(This man bought a piece of land with the money which he took for his treachery, and he fell there face downward and his body broke in two, and all his intestines poured out.

"So one of these men who have been associated with us all the time the Lord Jesus came and went among us,

Then they nominated two men, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias.

And they prayed, saying, "Lord, you who know the hearts of all, show us which one of these two men you have chosen

They were perfectly astounded, and in bewilderment they continued to say, "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?

And thus they all continued to be astounded and bewildered, and continued to say to each other, "What can this mean?"

Then Peter stood with the Eleven around him, and raising his voice he addressed them, "Men of Judea and all you residents of Jerusalem, let me explain this to you, and give close attention to my words.

These men are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.

'It will occur in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all mankind. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will have visions. Your old men will have dreams.

Even on my slaves, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will become prophets.

The sun will turn to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.

"Fellow Israelites, listen to what I say. Jesus of Nazareth, as you yourselves well know, a man accredited to you by God through mighty deeds and wonders and wonder-works which God performed through Him right here among you,

this very Jesus, I say, after He was betrayed, in accordance with the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you had wicked men kill by nailing Him to a cross;

I mean Jesus whom God raised from the dead, to which fact we are all witnesses,

And so they continued to sell their property and goods and to distribute the money to all, as anyone had special need.

when a man crippled from his birth was being carried by, who used to be laid every day at what was called The Beautiful Gate of the temple, to beg from people on their way into the temple.

and recognized him as the very man who used to sit at The Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg, they were completely astounded and bewildered at what occurred to him.

When Peter saw this, he said to the people, "Fellow Israelites, why are you so surprised at this? Why do you keep staring at us, as though we had by our own power or piety made this man walk?

It is His name, that is, on condition of faith in His name, that has made strong again this man whom you see and recognize -- yes, faith inspired by Him has given this man the perfect health you all see.

But many of those who heard their message believed, and the number of the men grew to about five thousand.

They had the men stand before them and repeatedly inquired of them, "By what sort of power and authority have you done this?"

if it is for a good deed to a helpless man, or to learn how he was cured, that we are today being tried,

you and all the people of Israel must know that it is by the authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead -- yes, I repeat it, it is by His authority that this man stands here before you well.

There is no salvation by anyone else, for no one else in all the wide world has been appointed among men as our only medium by which to be saved."

They were surprised to see the courage shown by Peter and John and to find that they were uneducated men, and especially untrained in the schools, but they recognized the fact that they had been companions of Jesus,

and since they saw the man who had been cured standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply.

and repeated, "What shall we do with these men? For it is evident to everybody living in Jerusalem that an unmistakable wonder-work has been done by them; and we cannot deny it.

for the man on whom the wonderful cure had been performed was more than forty years old.

For none of them was in want, for as many of them as were owners of farms or houses proceeded to sell them, one by one, and continued to bring the money received for the things sold

sold the farm he had and brought the money and put it at the disposal of the apostles.

But a man named Ananias, in partnership with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,

and, with his wife's full knowledge of it, kept back for themselves a part of the money and brought only a part of it and put it at the disposal of the apostles.

And Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan so completely possessed your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and kept back for yourselves a part of the money received for the land?

As long as it was unsold, was it not yours, and when it was sold, was not the money at your disposal? How could you have the heart to do such a thing! You did not lie to men but to God!"

The younger men, however, got up, wrapped up his body, carried it out, and buried it.

Peter said to her, "How could both of you agree in such a way to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door; they will carry you out, too."

She instantly fell dead at his feet. When the young men came in, they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

but still a vast number of people, both men and women, who believed in the Lord, continued to join them,

So they obeyed, and about the break of day they went into the temple square and began to teach. The high priest and his party arrived and called a meeting of the council and the whole senate of the sons of Israel, and sent to the prison to have the men brought in.

But somebody came by and reported to them, "The men that you put in jail are standing right here in the temple square, teaching the people."

"Did we not positively forbid you to teach anymore on this authority, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and now want to bring on us the people's vengeance for this man's death!"

Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men.

But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, highly respected by all the people, got up in the council and gave orders to put the men out of the council a little while;

then he said to them: "Fellow Israelites, take care as to what you are about to do to these men.

For in the days gone by Theudas appeared, claiming that he was a man of importance, and a considerable number of men, about four hundred, espoused his cause, but he was slain and all his followers were dispersed and as a party annihilated.

So in the present case, I warn you, stay away from these men, let them alone. For, if this program or movement has its origin in men, it will go to pieces,

So, brothers, you must select from your number seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit, and of good practical sense, and we will assign them to this business,

This suggestion was approved by the whole body, and so they selected Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, Philip, Procorus, Nikanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, who was a convert to Judaism.

They presented these men to the apostles, and after they had prayed, they laid their hands upon them.

But members of the synagogue known as that of the Libyans, Cyreneans, and Alexandrians, and men from Cilicia and Asia, got to debating with Stephen,

So they instigated men to say, "We have heard him speaking abusive words against Moses and God."

Then they put up false witnesses who said, "This man never stops saying things against this holy place and against the law,

and were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had bought with a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

Moses was educated in all the culture of the Egyptians, and was a mighty man in speech and action.

Because he saw one of them being mistreated, he defended and avenged the man who was suffering ill-treatment by striking down the Egyptian.

But the man who was harming his brother pushed him aside, saying, 'Who made you our ruler and referee?

That very Moses whom they refused, saying, 'Who made you our ruler and referee?' was the man whom God sent to be both their ruler and deliverer, by the help of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush.

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

and dragged him out of the city and continued stoning him. The witnesses, in the meantime, laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation for him.

But Saul continued to harass the church, and by going from house to house and dragging off men and women he continued to put them into prison.

There was a man named Simon in the city, who had kept the Samaritan people thrilled by practicing magic there and by claiming to be a great man.

But when the people came to believe the good news proclaimed by Philip about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were constantly baptized.

So when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was conferred by the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money,

But Peter said to him, "Your money go to perdition with you for even dreaming you could buy the gift of God with money!

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

He has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, to restore his sight."

But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard many people tell of this man, especially the great sufferings he has brought on your people in Jerusalem.

But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name to the heathen and their kings, and to the descendants of Israel.

And all who heard him were astounded and said, "Is not this the man who harassed those who called upon this name in Jerusalem, and has come here expressly for the purpose of putting them in chains and taking them back to the high priests?"

There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years as a paralytic.

As Joppa was near Lydda, the disciples heard that Peter was there, and sent two men to him, begging him to come to them without delay.

Now at Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a colonel in what was known as the Italian regiment,

a religious man, too, who revered God with all his household, who was always liberal in his many deeds of charity to the people, and who had the habit of praying to God.

So now send men to Joppa and invite over a man named Simon, who is also called Peter.

The next day, while those men were traveling on and not far from the town, Peter went up on the housetop about noon to pray.

Now while Peter was still at a loss to know what the vision he had seen could mean, the men who had been sent by Cornelius had asked for the way to Simon's house and had stopped at the gate;

While Peter was meditating on the vision, the Spirit said to him, "There are two men looking for you.

So Peter went down and said to the men, "I am the man you are looking for. What is the purpose of your coming?"

They answered, "Cornelius, a colonel in the army, an upright man and one who reveres God, and a man of high reputation with the whole Jewish nation, was instructed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to listen to a message you would bring."

But Peter lifted him to his feet, saying, "Get up, I too am just a man myself."

and he said to him, "You know that it is against the law for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit one, but God has taught me not to call any man vulgar or ceremonially unclean;

Then Cornelius said, "Four days ago, about this hour, three o'clock in the afternoon, I was praying in my house, and all at once a man in dazzling clothing stood before me,

but in every nation the man who reveres God and practices doing right is acceptable to Him.

for having visited and eaten with men who were not Jews.

Just at that moment three men, who had been sent from Caesarea for me, stopped at the house where we were staying.

And the Spirit told me to go with them without any hesitation at all. These six brothers, too, went with me, and we all went into the man's house.

But there were some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who on reaching Antioch began to speak to the Greeks too, and proceeded to tell them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and faith. So a large number of people were united to the Lord.

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

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.

Then they demanded a king, and for forty years God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin.

Then He deposed him and raised up for them David to be king, to whom He bore this testimony, 'I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all that my will requires.'

It is from this man's descendants that God, as He promised, has brought to Israel a Saviour in the person of Jesus,

But the Jews stirred up the devout women of high rank and the men of first rank in town, and so started a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.

Now in the streets of Lystra a man used to sit who had no strength in his feet, who had been crippled from his birth, and had never walked.

and shouted, "Men, why are you doing this? We are merely men with natures like your own, who are telling you the good news, so that you may turn from these foolish things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain.

And God who knows men's hearts testifies for them by giving them the Holy Spirit, as He did us,