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!

You have no share or part in this movement, for your heart is not honest in the sight of God.

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?"

"Why, how can I," he answered, "unless someone explains it to me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.

"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.

He has had a vision and seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, to restore his sight."

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."

Something like scales immediately dropped from his eyes, and his sight was restored, and he got up and was baptized,

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,

And he directed that they should be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on there a few days.

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.

So a day was fixed and on it Herod, dressed in his robes of state, took his seat on his throne in the theater, and made them an address,

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!

The God of this people of Israel chose our forefathers, and made the people great during their stay in Egypt, and then with uplifted hand led them out of Egypt.

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.

In the streets of Lystra a man used to sit who had not the use of his feet. He had been lame from his birth, and had never been able to walk.

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.

" 'Afterward I will return, and rebuild David's fallen dwelling. I will rebuild its very ruins, and set it up again,

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."

But Paul selected Silas and set out, the brothers commending him to the Lord's favor.

On the Sabbath we went outside the gates, to the bank of the river where we supposed there was a praying place, and we sat down and talked with the women who gathered there.

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.'

When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We should like to hear you again on this subject."

But as they contradicted and abused him, he shook his clothes in protest, and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am not to blame for it! After this I will go to the heathen."

One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, "Do not be afraid! Go on speaking and do not give up,

"This fellow," they said, "is trying to induce people to worship God in ways that are against the law."

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.

They asked him to stay longer, but he would not consent.

he said to them, "Did you receive the holy Spirit when you became believers?" "No," they said to him, "we never even heard that there was a holy Spirit."

"John's baptism was a baptism in token of repentance," said Paul, "and he told the people to believe in him who was to follow him, that is, in Jesus."

After these events, Paul, under the Spirit's guidance, resolved to go to Jerusalem, and to revisit Macedonia and Greece on the way. "After I have gone there," he said, "I must see Rome also."

He got the workmen in that and similar trades together, and said to them, "Men, you know that this business is the source of our prosperity,

At last the recorder quieted the mob and said, "Men of Ephesus, who in the world does not know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, and of the image that fell down from the sky?

But Paul went downstairs, and threw himself upon him, and put his arms around him. "Do not be alarmed," he said, "he is still alive."

When they came, he said to them, "You know well enough how I lived among you all the time from the first day I set foot in Asia,

I showed you in every way that by hard work like that we must help those who are weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, for he said, 'It makes one happier to give than to be given to.' "

So we looked up the disciples there and stayed a week with them. Instructed by the Spirit, they warned Paul not to set foot in Jerusalem.

He came to see us and took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, "This is what the holy Spirit says: 'The Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt like this, and will hand him over to the heathen!' "

So as he would not yield, we gave up urging him, and said, "The Lord's will be done!"

They praised God when they heard it, and they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousand believers there are among the Jews, all of them zealous upholders of the Law.

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,

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.

"Brothers and fathers," he said, "listen to what I have to say in my defense."

When they heard him speak to them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet, and he said,

I answered, 'Who are you, sir?' 'I am Jesus of Nazareth,' he said, 'whom you are persecuting.'

Then I said, 'What am I to do, sir?' The Lord said to me, 'Get up and go into Damascus. There you will be told of all you are destined to do.'

came to see me, and standing by my side, said to me, 'Saul, my brother, regain your sight!' Then instantly I regained my sight and looked at him,

and he said, 'The God of our forefathers has appointed you to learn his will and to see his Righteous One and hear him speak,

And I said, 'Lord, they know that I used to go through one synagogue after another, and to imprison and flog those who believed in you,

But he said to me, 'Go! I will send you far away to the heathen.' "