And once when he ate with them, he instructed them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised. "You have heard me speak of it," he said,

He said to them, "It is not for you to know times and dates which the Father has fixed by his own authority,

As he said this, he was caught up before their eyes and a cloud took him up from their sight.

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

It was at that time that Peter got up among the brothers??here were about a hundred and twenty persons present??nd said,

They were perfectly amazed and said in their astonishment, "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?

And they were all amazed and bewildered and said to one another, "What can this mean?"

But others said derisively, "They have had too much new wine!"

Then Peter stood up with the eleven around him, and raising his voice addressed them. "Men of Judea," he said, "and all you residents of Jerusalem, let me explain this to you, and pay attention to what I say.

"For David did not go up to heaven, but he said, 'The Lord said to my lord, Sit at my right hand,

When they heard this, they were stung to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

Peter said to them, "You must repent, and every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, in order to have your sins forgiven; then you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit,

He said much more besides in giving his testimony, and urged them to save themselves from that crooked age.

Peter fixed his eyes on him, as John did also, and said to him, "Look at us!"

But Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but I will give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!"

When Peter saw this, he said to the people. "Men of Israel, why are you so surprised at this? Why do you stare so at us, as though it were some power or some piety of ours that had made him able to walk?

Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, as he raised me up. You must listen to everything that he tells you.

You are the descendants of the prophets and the heirs of the agreement that God made with your forefathers when he said to Abraham, 'Through your posterity all the families of the earth will be blessed.'

But many of those who had heard what they said believed it, and their number grew to be about five thousand.

Then Peter, filled with the holy Spirit, said to them, "Leaders of the people and members of the council,

They said, "What are we to do with these men? For it is plain to everyone in Jerusalem that an extraordinary wonder has been done by them. We cannot deny that.

After being released, the apostles went back to their friends, and told them what the high priests and members of the council had said to them.

When they heard it, with one impulse they all raised their voices to God and said, "Master, it was you who made heaven, earth, and sea, and everything that is in them,

and who said through the holy Spirit by the lips of our forefather David, your slave, " 'Why did the heathen rage, And the peoples form vain designs?

And Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan taken such possession of your heart that you should lie to the holy Spirit, by appropriating part of the price of your land?

Peter said to her, "Tell me, did you sell the land for such and such a sum?" "Yes," she said, "that was it."

Peter said to her, "How could you two agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? There at the door are the footsteps of the men who buried your husband, and they will carry you out also."

But an angel of the Lord opened the jail doors in the night and let them out, and said to them,

"We strictly forbade you," he said, "to teach on this authority, and here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and propose to hold us responsible for this man's death!"

and then said, "Men of Israel, take care what you propose to do with these men.

So the Twelve called in the whole body of disciples and said to them, "It is not desirable that we should give up preaching the word of God to keep accounts.

Then they brought forward false witnesses, who said, "This man is constantly saying things against this holy place and against the Law,

The high priest said, "Is this statement true?"

and he said to him, 'Leave your country and your relatives and come to the country that I will show you.'

This was what God said: 'His descendants will be strangers, living in a foreign land, and they will be enslaved and misused for four hundred years,

and I will sentence the nation that has enslaved them,' God said, 'and afterward they will leave that country and worship me on this spot.'

The next day, he came across two of them fighting and tried to pacify them. He said to them, 'You are brothers. Why should you injure each other?'

When Moses saw it he wondered at the sight, and when he went up to see what it was, the voice of the Lord said,

Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off your shoes, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

This was the Moses who said to the descendants of Israel, 'God will make a prophet rise from among your brothers to teach you, just as he made me rise.'

for they said to Aaron, 'Make us gods to march in front of us, for as for this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!'

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

Everyone there, high and low, made much of him, and said, "He must be what is known as the Great Power of God!"

But Peter said to him, "Go to destruction with your money, for thinking you could buy God's gift with it!

Simon answered, "You must pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things you have said may happen to me!"

But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go south, by the road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza." (The town is now deserted.)

Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and stay by that car."

Philip ran up and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and he said to him, "Do you understand what you are reading?"

"Tell me, of whom is the prophet speaking?" said the eunuch to Philip, "Of himself, or of someone else?"

As they went on along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Here is some water! What is there to prevent my being baptized?"

"Who are you, sir?" he asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," said the voice.

There was at Damascus a disciple named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias!" And he answered, "Yes, Lord!"

The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called the Straight Street, and ask at the house of Judas for a man named Saul, from Tarsus, for he is there praying.

The Lord said to him, "Go! This man is the means I have chosen for carrying my name among the heathen and their kings, and among the descendants of Israel.

Ananias set out and went to the house, and there he laid his hands upon Saul, and said to him, "Saul, my brother, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your journey, so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit."

Everyone was astonished, and said, "Is not he the man who made such havoc of the people in Jerusalem who call upon that name, and who came here especially for the purpose of arresting such persons and taking them before the high priests?"

Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ cures you! Get up, and make your bed!" And he got up immediately.

But Peter put them all out of the room. Then he knelt down and prayed, and then turning to the body he said, "Tabitha, stand up!" She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.

He stared at him in terror, and said, "What is it, sir?" "Your prayers and charities," the angel answered, "have gone up and been remembered before God.

But Peter said, "Never, sir! For I have never eaten anything that was not ceremonially cleansed."

As Peter was pondering over his vision, the Spirit said to him, "There are two men looking for you.

Then Peter went down to see the men, and said to them, "I am the man you are asking for. What is the reason for your coming?"

But Peter lifted him to his feet, and said, "Get up! I am only human myself."

and he said to them, "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 anyone vulgar or unclean.

and said, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your charities have been recalled to mind by God.

Then Peter began and said, "Now I really understand that God shows no partiality,

for they heard them speaking in foreign languages and declaring the greatness of God. Then Peter said,

Then Peter explained the matter to them from beginning to end. He said,

But I said, 'Never, sir! For nothing that was not ceremonially cleansed has ever passed my lips.'

When they heard this, they made no further objection, but they gave honor to God, and said, "Then God has given even the heathen repentance and the hope of life!"

when an angel of the Lord stood at his side, and a light shone in the room, and striking Peter on the side, he woke him, and said to him, "Get up quickly!" The chains dropped from his hands,

and the angel said to him, "Put on your belt and your sandals!" And he did so. Then he said to him, "Put on your coat and follow me!"

Then Peter came to himself, and he said, "Now I am certain that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from the power of Herod and all that the Jewish people were expecting."

But they said to her, "You are crazy!" But she insisted that it was so. Then they said, "Then it is his guardian angel!"

He motioned to them to be quiet, and then related to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. "Tell all this to James and the brothers," he said. Then he left them and went somewhere else.

As they were engaged in worshiping the Lord and in fasting, the holy Spirit said, "Set Barnabas and Saul apart for me, for the work to which I have called them."

and said, "You monster of underhandedness and cunning! You son of the devil! You enemy of all that is right! Will you never stop trying to make the Lord's straight paths crooked?

Then Paul got up, and motioning with his hand, said, "Men of Israel, and you who reverence God, listen!

Toward the end of his career, John said, 'What do you suppose that I am? I am not he! No! Someone is coming after me, the shoes on whose feet I am not fit to untie!'

When they had carried out everything that had been said about him in the Scriptures, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb.

Now as evidence that he has raised him from the dead, never again to return to decay, he said this: 'I will fulfil to you my sacred promises to David.'

Take care, therefore, that what is said in the prophets does not prove true of you:

As they were going out, the people begged to have all this said to them again on the following Sabbath,

But when the Jews saw the crowd, they were very jealous, and they contradicted what Paul said and abused him.

Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out plainly, and said, "God's message had to be told to you first, but since you thrust it off and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the heathen.

said to him loudly, "Stand on your feet!" And he sprang up and began to walk.

But some members of the Pharisees' party who had become believers got up and said that such converts ought to be circumcised and told to obey the Law of Moses.

After a long discussion, Peter got up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God chose that of you all I should be the one from whose lips the heathen should hear the message of the good news and believe it.

Some time after, Paul said to Barnabas, "Come, let us go back and revisit the brothers in each of the towns where we made the Lord's message known, to see how they are doing."

When she and her household were baptized, she appealed to us, and said, "If you are really convinced that I am a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house." And she insisted upon our coming.

She did this for a number of days, until Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit in her, "In the name of Jesus Christ I order you to come out of her!" And it came out instantly.

and brought them before the chief magistrates. "These men," they said, "are Jews, and they are making a great disturbance in our town.

He led them out of the jail and said to them, "Gentlemen, what must I do to be saved?"

"Believe in the Lord Jesus," they said, "and you and your household will be saved!"

But Paul said to them, "They had us beaten in public without giving us a trial, and put us in jail, although we are Roman citizens! And now are they going to dismiss us secretly? By no means! Have them come here themselves and take us out!"

explaining them and showing that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "Jesus," he said, "of whom I am telling you, is the Christ!"

Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some of them said, "What is this rag-picker trying to make out?" Others said, "He seems to be preaching some foreign deities." This was because he was telling the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.

So they took him and brought him to the council of the Areopagus and said, "May we know just what this new teaching of yours is?

Then Paul stood up in the middle of the council and said, "Men of Athens, from every point of view I see that you are extremely religious.

For it is through union with him that we live and move and exist, as some of your poets have said, " 'For we are also his offspring.'