While he was meeting with them, he ordered them, "Don't leave Jerusalem. Instead, wait for what the Father has promised, about which you heard me speak,

He answered them, "It isn't for you to know what times or periods the Father has fixed by his own authority.

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

While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, two men in white robes stood right beside them.

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

(Now this man bought a field with the money he got for his crime. Falling on his face, he burst open in the middle, and all his intestines gushed out.

"For in the Book of Psalms it is written, "Let his estate be desolate, and let no one live on it,' and, "Let someone else take over his office,'

So how is it that each one of us hears them speaking in his own native language:

All of them continued to be stunned and puzzled, and they kept asking one another, "What can this mean?"

"Men of Judea and everyone living in Jerusalem! You must understand something, so pay close attention to my words. These men are not drunk as you suppose, for it's only nine o'clock in the morning.

Rather, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on everyone. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

In those days I will even pour out my Spirit on my slaves, men and women alike, and they will prophesy.

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.

"It was this very Jesus whom God raised and we're all witnesses of that.

He has been exalted to the right hand of God, has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and has caused you to experience what you are seeing and hearing.

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

When the crowd that had gathered heard this, they were pierced to the heart. They asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?"

The believers continued to devote themselves to what the apostles were teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to times of prayer.

They made it their practice to sell their possessions and goods and to distribute the proceeds to anyone who was in need.

United in purpose, they went to the Temple every day, ate at each other's homes, and shared their food with glad and humble hearts.

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.

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!"

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.

While he was holding on to Peter and John, all the people came running to them in what was called "Solomon's Colonnade". They were dumbfounded.

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?

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.

This is how God fulfilled what he had predicted through the voice of all the prophets that his Messiah would suffer.

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

So they arrested them and placed them in custody until the next day, since it was already evening.

They made Peter and John stand in front of them and began asking, "By what power or by what name did you do this?"