At that time, Peter got up among the brothers (there were about 120 people present) and said,

After all, David did not go up to heaven, but he said, "The Lord told my Lord, "Sit at my right hand,

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

However, Peter said, "I don't have any silver or gold, but I'll give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus the Messiah from Nazareth, walk!"

In fact, Moses said,

They said, "What should we do with these men? For it's obvious to everybody living in Jerusalem that an unmistakable sign has been done by them, and we cannot deny it.

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

When they heard this, they all raised their voices to God and said, "Master, you made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.

You said by the Holy Spirit through the voice of our ancestor, your servant David, "Why do the unbelievers rage, and the people devise useless plots?

He said, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in his name, didn't we? Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to bring this man's blood on us!"

So the Twelve called the whole group of disciples together and said, "It is not desirable for us to neglect messages from God in order to wait on tables.

"But I will punish the nation they serve,' said God, "and afterwards they will leave and worship me in this place.'

The next day, he presented himself to some of them while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them. He said, "Men, you are brothers. Why should you be hurting another?'

"But the man who was harming his neighbor pushed Moses away and said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us?

When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and when he approached the bush to look at it, the voice of the Lord said,

He said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

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.

The crowds, hearing his message and seeing the signs that he was doing, paid close attention to what was said by Philip.

and said, "Give me this power too, so that when I lay my hands on someone, he will receive the Holy Spirit."

Simon answered, "Both of you pray to the Lord for me that none of the things you have said will happen to me."

As they were going along the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, "Look, there's some water. What keeps me from being baptized?"

The voice said, "I'm Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up, go into the city, and you will be told what you are to do."

So Ananias left and went to that house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were traveling, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

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?"

Peter made them all go outside. After kneeling down, he prayed, turned to the body, and said, "Tabitha, get up!" She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.

But Peter said, "Absolutely not, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean!"

So Peter went to the men and said, "I'm the man you're looking for. Why are you here?"

and said, "Cornelius, your prayer has been heard. God has remembered your gifts to the poor,

because they heard them speaking in foreign languages and praising God. Then Peter said,

They said, "You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them!"

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

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

Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on his side, woke him up, and said, "Get up quickly!" His chains fell from his wrists.

Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I'm sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod and from everything the Jewish people were expecting!"

The other people told her, "You're out of your mind!" But she kept insisting that it was so. Then they said, "It's his angel."

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set Barnabas and Saul apart for me to do the work for which I called them."

and said, "You're full of every form of deception and trickery, you son of the Devil, you enemy of all that is right! You'll never stop perverting the straight ways of the Lord, will you?

Then Paul and his men set sail from Paphos and arrived in Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them and went back to Jerusalem.

Then Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and said:

When John was finishing his work, he said, "Who do you think I am? I'm not the Messiah. No, but he is coming after me, and I'm not worthy to untie the sandals on his feet.'

God raised him from the dead, never to experience decay, as he said, "I'll give you the holy promises made to David.'

So be careful that what the prophets said doesn't happen to you:

he said in a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet!" Then the man jumped up and began to walk.

strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. "We must endure many hardships," they said, "to get into the kingdom of God."

But some believers from the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The gentiles must be circumcised and ordered to keep the Law of Moses."

Greetings. We have heard that some men, coming from us without instructions from us, have said things to trouble you and have unsettled you.

Then Judas and Silas, who were also prophets, said a lot to encourage and strengthen the brothers.

A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a dealer in purple goods, was listening to us. She was a worshiper of God, and the Lord opened her heart to listen carefully to what was being said by Paul.

They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are stirring up a lot of trouble in our city. They are Jews

Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some asked, "What is this blabbermouth trying to say?" while others said, "He seems to be preaching about foreign gods." This was because Paul was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

So Paul stood up in front of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in every way.

For we live, move, and exist because of him, as some of your own poets have said: ""Since we are his children, too.'

When they heard about a resurrection of the dead, some began joking about it, while others said, "We will hear you again about this."

They said, "This man is persuading people to worship God in ways that are contrary to the Law."

After staying there for quite a while longer, Paul said goodbye to the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. He had his hair cut in Cenchrea, since he was under a vow.

As he told them goodbye, he said, "I will come back to you again if it is God's will." Then he set sail from Ephesus.

Then Paul said, "John baptized when they repented, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus."

He called a meeting of these men and others who were engaged in similar trades and said, "Men, you well know that we get a good income from this business.

When the city recorder had quieted the crowd, he said, "Men of Ephesus, who in the world doesn't know that this city of Ephesus is the keeper of the temple of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell down from heaven?

When the uproar was over, Paul sent for the disciples and encouraged them. Then he said goodbye to them and left to go to Macedonia.

and stayed there for three months. When he was about to sail for Syria, a plot was initiated against him by the Jews, so he decided to go back through Macedonia.

But Paul went down, bent over him, took him into his arms, and said, "Stop being alarmed, because he's still alive."

Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in Asia, as he was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost, if that was possible.

In every way I showed you that by working hard like this we should help the weak and remember the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

When Paul had said this, he knelt down and prayed with all of them.

They were especially sorrowful because of what he had said that they would never see his face again. Then they took him to the ship.

and said goodbye to each other. Then we reboarded the ship, and they went back home.

He came to us, took Paul's belt, and tied his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, "The Holy Spirit says, "This is how the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will tie up the man who owns this belt. Then they will hand him over to the gentiles.'"

came to me. He stood beside me and said, "Brother Saul, receive your sight!' At that moment I could see him.

"Then he said, "The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear his own voice,

"I said, "Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I kept imprisoning and beating those who believe in you.

So the tribune went and asked Paul, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes," he said.

Paul said, "But I was born a citizen." Immediately those who were about to examine him stepped back, and the tribune was afraid when he found out that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had tied him up.

Paul looked straight at the Council and said, "Brothers, with a clear conscience I have done my duty before God up to this very day."

After he said that, an angry quarrel broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided,

That night the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Have courage! For just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, you must testify in Rome, too."

They went to the high priests and elders and said, "We have taken a solemn oath not to taste any food before we have killed Paul.

Then Paul called one of the centurions and said, "Take this young man to the tribune, because he has something to tell him."

So the centurion took him, brought him to the tribune, and said, "The prisoner Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to tell you."

he said, "I will hear your case when your accusers arrive." Then he ordered Paul to be kept in custody in Herod's palace.

As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became afraid and said, "For the present you may go. When I get a chance, I will send for you again."

"Therefore," he said, "have your authorities come down with me and present their charges against him there, if there is anything wrong with the man."

Paul said in his defense, "I have done nothing wrong against the Law of the Jews, or of the Temple, or of the emperor."

But Paul said, "I am standing before the emperor's judgment seat where I ought to be tried. I haven't done anything wrong to the Jewish leaders, as you know very well.

Since they were staying there for several days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king. He said, "There is a man here who was left in prison by Felix.

Agrippa told Festus, "I would like to hear the man." "Tomorrow," he said, "you will hear him."

Then Festus said, "King Agrippa and all you men who are present with us! You see this man about whom the whole Jewish nation petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.

I've had help from God to this day, and so I stand here to testify to both the powerful and the lowly alike, stating only what the prophets and Moses said would happen

But Paul said, "I'm not out of my mind, Your Excellency Festus. I'm reporting what is absolutely true.

When it was decided that we should sail to Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were transferred to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the emperor's division.

After boarding a ship from Adramyttium that was about to sail to the ports on the coast of Asia, we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, went with us.

But the centurion was persuaded by the pilot and the owner of the ship and not by what Paul said.

The ship's crew pulled it up on deck and used ropes to brace the ship. Fearing that they would hit the large sandbank near Libya, they lowered the sail and drifted along.

After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood among his shipmates and said, "Men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete. You would have avoided this hardship and damage.

and said, "Stop being afraid, Paul! You must stand before the emperor. Indeed, God has given to you the lives of everyone who is sailing with you.'

Right up to daybreak Paul kept urging all of them to eat something. He said, "Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, not eating anything.

After he said this, he took some bread, thanked God in front of everyone, broke it, and began to eat.

They were expecting him to swell up or suddenly drop dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

The islanders honored us in many ways, and when we were about to sail again, they supplied us with everything we needed.

From morning until evening, he continued to explain the kingdom of God to them, trying to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets. Some of them were convinced by what he said, but others wouldn't believe.