until the day he was taken up to heaven, after he had given orders by the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

So when they had gathered together, they began to ask him, "Lord, is this the time when you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?"

After he had said this, while they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud hid him from their sight.

When they had entered Jerusalem, they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. Peter and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James were there.

"Brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled that the Holy Spirit foretold through David concerning Judas -- who became the guide for those who arrested Jesus --

Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

So then, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne,

and they began selling their property and possessions and distributing the proceeds to everyone, as anyone had need.

and they recognized him as the man who used to sit and ask for donations at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with astonishment and amazement at what had happened to him.

When Peter saw this, he declared to the people, "Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Why do you stare at us as if we had made this man walk by our own power or piety?

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate after he had decided to release him.

But many of those who had listened to the message believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and discovered that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized these men had been with Jesus.

And because they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say against this.

But when they had ordered them to go outside the council, they began to confer with one another,

After threatening them further, they released them, for they could not find how to punish them on account of the people, because they were all praising God for what had happened.

For the man, on whom this miraculous sign of healing had been performed, was over forty years old.

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

to do as much as your power and your plan had decided beforehand would happen.

When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God courageously.

and placing them at the apostles' feet. The proceeds were distributed to each, as anyone had need.

After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, but she did not know what had happened.

When they had brought them, they stood them before the council, and the high priest questioned them,

and they summoned the apostles and had them beaten. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them.

So they left the council rejoicing because they had been considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.

He did not give any of it to him for an inheritance, not even a foot of ground, yet God promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, even though Abraham as yet had no child.

and their bones were later moved to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a certain sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

"But as the time drew near for God to fulfill the promise he had declared to Abraham, the people increased greatly in number in Egypt,

and when he had been abandoned, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.

"After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush.

This same Moses they had rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and judge?' God sent as both ruler and deliverer through the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

Our ancestors had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as God who spoke to Moses ordered him to make it according to the design he had seen.

When they had driven him out of the city, they began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Then he fell to his knees and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" When he had said this, he died.

Now those who had been forced to scatter went around proclaiming the good news of the word.

Now in that city was a man named Simon, who had been practicing magic and amazing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great.

And they paid close attention to him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic.

Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.

(For the Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)

So after Peter and John had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, proclaiming the good news to many Samaritan villages as they went.

So he got up and went. There he met an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship,

All who heard him were amazed and were saying, "Is this not the man who in Jerusalem was ravaging those who call on this name, and who had come here to bring them as prisoners to the chief priests?"

Now after some days had passed, the Jews plotted together to kill him,

But Barnabas took Saul, brought him to the apostles, and related to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.

He found there a man named Aeneas who had been confined to a mattress for eight years because he was paralyzed.

At that time she became sick and died. When they had washed her body, they placed it in an upstairs room.

When the angel who had spoken to him departed, Cornelius called two of his personal servants and a devout soldier from among those who served him,

and when he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

Now while Peter was puzzling over what the vision he had seen could signify, the men sent by Cornelius had learned where Simon's house was and approached the gate.

The following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting anxiously for them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

not by all the people, but by us, the witnesses God had already chosen, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were greatly astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles,

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God.

He informed us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter,

Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the message to no one but Jews.

He had James, the brother of John, executed with a sword.

When he had seized him, he put him in prison, handing him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him. Herod planned to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

After they had passed the first and second guards, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went outside and walked down one narrow street, when at once the angel left him.

When Peter realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many people had gathered together and were praying.

He motioned to them with his hand to be quiet and then related how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. He said, "Tell James and the brothers these things," and then he left and went to another place.

At daybreak there was great consternation among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.

When Herod had searched for him and did not find him, he questioned the guards and commanded that they be led away to execution. Then Herod went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.

So Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem when they had completed their mission, bringing along with them John Mark.

Then, after they had fasted and prayed and placed their hands on them, they sent them off.

When they arrived in Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. (Now they also had John as their assistant.)

When they had crossed over the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus,

Then when the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, because he was greatly astounded at the teaching about the Lord.

After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave his people their land as an inheritance.

Before Jesus arrived, John had proclaimed a baptism for repentance to all the people of Israel.

When they had accomplished everything that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb.

and for many days he appeared to those who had accompanied him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These are now his witnesses to the people.

For David, after he had served God's purpose in his own generation, died, was buried with his ancestors, and experienced decay,

When the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and were persuading them to continue in the grace of God.

When the Gentiles heard this, they began to rejoice and praise the word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed for eternal life believed.

In Lystra sat a man who could not use his feet, lame from birth, who had never walked.

This man was listening to Paul as he was speaking. When Paul stared intently at him and saw he had faith to be healed,

So when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!"

But after the disciples had surrounded him, he got up and went back into the city. On the next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.

After they had proclaimed the good news in that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch.

When they had appointed elders for them in the various churches, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the protection of the Lord in whom they had believed.

and when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.

From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.

When they arrived and gathered the church together, they reported all the things God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles.

When Paul and Barnabas had a major argument and debate with them, the church appointed Paul and Barnabas and some others from among them to go up to meet with the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this point of disagreement.

When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all the things God had done with them.

But some from the religious party of the Pharisees who had believed stood up and said, "It is necessary to circumcise the Gentiles and to order them to observe the law of Moses."

After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that some time ago God chose me to preach to the Gentiles so they would hear the message of the gospel and believe.

The whole group kept quiet and listened to Barnabas and Paul while they explained all the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

For Moses has had those who proclaim him in every town from ancient times, because he is read aloud in the synagogues every Sabbath."

After they had spent some time there, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them.

but Paul insisted that they should not take along this one who had left them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work.

They had a sharp disagreement, so that they parted company. Barnabas took along Mark and sailed away to Cyprus,

As they went through the towns, they passed on the decrees that had been decided on by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the Gentile believers to obey.

After Paul saw the vision, we attempted immediately to go over to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate to the side of the river, where we thought there would be a place of prayer, and we sat down and began to speak to the women who had assembled there.

Now as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit that enabled her to foretell the future by supernatural means. She brought her owners a great profit by fortune-telling.

When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, "These men are throwing our city into confusion. They are Jews

After they had beaten them severely, they threw them into prison and commanded the jailer to guard them securely.

When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, because he assumed the prisoners had escaped.

The jailer brought them into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced greatly that he had come to believe in God, together with his entire household.