So those who were present asked him, "Master, is this the time when you are going to re-establish the kingdom for Israel?"

And while they were gazing after him into the sky, two men dressed in white suddenly stood beside them,

When they entered the city they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. There were Peter, John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James.

They were all devoting themselves with one mind to prayer, with the women and Mary, Jesus' mother, and his brothers.

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

On the day of the Harvest Festival, they were all meeting together,

when suddenly there came from the sky a sound like a violent blast of wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

and they were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to say in foreign languages whatever the Spirit prompted them to utter.

Now there were devout Jews from every part of the world living in Jerusalem.

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?"

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?"

So they welcomed his message and were baptized, and about three thousand people joined them that day.

Everyone felt a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

constantly praising God and respected by all the people. And every day the Lord added people who were saved to their number.

Peter and John were on their way up to the Temple for the three o'clock hour of prayer,

He looked at them, supposing that they were going to give him something.

and recognized him as the man who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, they were perfectly astonished and amazed at what had happened to him.

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?

Yet I know, brothers, that you did not know what you were doing, any more than your leaders did;

As they were talking in this way to the people, the high priests, the commander of the Temple, and the Sadducees came up to them,

greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and declaring that in the case of Jesus there had been a resurrection from the dead.

They were amazed to see how outspoken Peter and John were, and to find that they were uneducated men with no advantages. They recognized them as companions of Jesus,

But after further threats they let them go, as they could find no way to punish them, on account of the people, who were all giving honor to God for what had happened,

When they had prayed, the place where they were meeting shook, and they were all filled with the holy Spirit, and fearlessly uttered God's message.

and put them at the disposal of the apostles; then they were shared with everyone in proportion to his need.

And the whole church and all who heard this were appalled.

Even from the towns around Jerusalem crowds would come in bringing sick people and those who were troubled with foul spirits, and they were all cured.

When the commander of the Temple and the high priests heard this report, they were very much at a loss as to what would come of it.

Then the commander and his men went and brought them back, but without using violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

When they heard this, they were furious, and wanted to kill them.

For some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be a person of importance, and a group of men numbering some four hundred joined him. But he was killed and all his followers were dispersed and disappeared.

After him, at the time of the census, Judas of Galilee appeared, and raised a great following, but he too perished, and all his followers were scattered.

They were convinced by him, and they called the apostles in and had them flogged, and warned them not to speak about the name of Jesus, and then let them go.

In those days, as the number of the disciples was increasing, complaints were made by the Greek-speaking Jews against the native Jews that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.

and they were carried back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

At those words Moses fled, and went and lived for a time in Midian, and two sons were born to him there.

When they heard that, they were enraged and ground their teeth at him.

And Saul entirely approved of his being put to death. A great persecution of the church in Jerusalem broke out that day, and they were all scattered over Judea and Samaria except the apostles.

Those who were scattered went from place to place preaching the good news of the message.

When the people heard Philip and saw the signs that he showed they were all interested in what he had to say,

for with loud cries foul spirits came out of many who had been possessed by them, and many paralytics and lame people were cured.

When he reached Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they could not believe that he was really a disciple.

The next day, while they were still on their way, and were just getting near the town, Peter went up on the housetop about noon to pray.

He got very hungry, and wanted something to eat. While they were getting it ready, he fell into a trance,

about Jesus of Nazareth, and how God endowed him with the power of the holy Spirit, and he went about doing good and curing all who were in the power of the devil, because God was with him.

Before Peter had finished saying these words, the holy Spirit fell on all who were listening to his message.

The Jewish believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the holy Spirit had been showered upon the heathen too,

charging him with having visited and eaten with men who were not Jews.

Just at that moment three men, who had been sent from Caesarea to find me, reached the house where we were staying,

There were some men from Cyprus and Cyrene among them, however, who when they reached Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, and told them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

The Lord's hand was with them, and there were a great many who believed and turned to the Lord.

The night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter was asleep between two soldiers, and fastened with two chains, and watchmen were at the door, guarding the jail,

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."

When he realized his situation, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where a number of people were gathered, praying.

But Peter kept on knocking. And when they opened the door and saw him they were amazed.

There were at Antioch in the church there a number of prophets and teachers??arnabas, Symeon who was called Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the governor, and Saul.

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."

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.

When the heathen heard this they were delighted, and praised God's message, and all who were destined for eternal life believed,

But the people of the town were divided, some siding with the Jews and some with the apostles.

Some people came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers that unless they were circumcised as Moses prescribed, they could not be saved.

When they reached Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported how God had worked with them.

Then the apostles and elders with the whole church resolved to select representatives and send them with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch. They were Judas who was called Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers.

They were the bearers of this letter: "The apostles and the brothers who are elders send greeting to the brothers of heathen birth in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia.

and when they read it they were delighted with the encouragement it gave them.

Judas and Silas were themselves prophets, and gave the brothers much encouragement and strength by their words.

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.

Once as we were on our way to the praying place a slave-girl met us who had the gift of ventriloquism, and made her masters a great deal of money by her fortune-telling.

But when her masters saw that their hopes of profits were gone, they seized Paul and Silas, dragged them to the public square, to the authorities,

But about midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,

suddenly there was such an earthquake that the jail shook to its foundations; all the doors flew open, and everybody's chains were unfastened.

It woke up the jailer, and when he saw that the doors of the jail were open, he drew his sword and was just going to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

And right then in the night, he took them and washed their wounds, and he and all his household were baptized immediately.

Then he took them up to his house and offered them food, and he and all his household were very happy over their new faith in God.

The policemen delivered this message to the magistrates, and they were alarmed when they heard that they were Roman citizens,

The crowd and the magistrates were very much excited at hearing this,

The Jews there were more high-minded than those at Thessalonica, and received the message with great eagerness and studied the Scriptures every day, to find out whether it was true.

nor is he waited on by human hands as though he were in need of anything, for he himself gives all men life and breath and everything.

and as they practiced the same trade, he stayed with them, and they worked together, for they were tent-makers.

But Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, and so did all his household, and many of the people of Corinth heard Paul and believed and were baptized.

Before Paul could open his lips, Gallio said to the Jews, "If some misdemeanor or rascality were involved, Jews, you might reasonably expect me to listen to you.

"How then were you baptized?" he asked. "With John's baptism," they answered.

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus,

There were about twelve of them in all.

But as some of them were obstinate and refused to believe, finding fault with the Way before the people, he left them, and withdrew the disciples, and held daily discussions in the lecture-room of Tyrannus.

that people took to the sick handkerchiefs or aprons he had used, and they were cured of their diseases, and the evil spirits went out of them.

A Jewish high priest named Sceva had seven sons who were doing this.

Some of the religious authorities also, who were friends of his, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater.

Meanwhile the people were shouting, some one thing and some another, for the meeting was in confusion, and most of them had no idea why they had come together.

There were a great many lamps in the upstairs room where we met

They took the boy home alive, and were greatly comforted.

for they were especially saddened at his saying that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

The seven days were almost over when the Jews from Asia caught sight of him in the Temple, and stirred up all the crowd and seized him,

The whole city was thrown into confusion, and the people hurried together, and seized Paul and dragged him outside of the Temple, the gates of which were immediately shut.

They were trying to kill him when the news reached the colonel of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in a tumult.

Just as they were going to take him into the barracks, Paul said to the colonel, "May I say something to you?" "Do you know Greek?" the colonel asked.

as the high priest and the whole council will bear me witness. In fact, they gave me letters to the brothers in Damascus and I went there to bind those who were there and bring them back to Jerusalem to be punished.

The men who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.