Yet many people, even some of the authorities, believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not admit it so they would not be thrown out of the synagogue.

If I hadn't done among them the actions that no one else did, they wouldn't have any sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.

This was to fulfill what he had said, "I did not lose a single one of those you gave me."

Then Jesus was led from Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters early in the morning. The Jews did not go into the headquarters, to avoid becoming unclean and unable to eat the Passover meal.

Jesus replied, "Are you asking this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about me?"

Returning to his headquarters, he asked Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus did not answer him.

So they told each other, "Let's not tear it. Instead, let's throw dice to see who gets it." This was to fulfill the Scripture that says, "They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they threw dice." So that is what the soldiers did.

Since it was the Preparation Day, the Jewish leaders did not want to leave the bodies on the crosses during the Sabbath, because that was a particularly important Sabbath. So they asked Pilate to have the men's legs broken and the bodies removed.

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

For they did not yet understand the Scripture that said that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

Jesus took the bread, gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.

This was now the third time that Jesus revealed himself to the disciples after he had been raised from the dead.

Of course, Jesus also did many other things, and I suppose that if every one of them were written down, the world couldn't contain the books that would be written.

In my first book, Theophilus, I wrote about everything Jesus did and taught from the beginning,

he looked ahead and spoke about the resurrection of the Messiah: "He was not abandoned to Hades, and his flesh did not experience decay.'

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

and you killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses to that.

They were greatly disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people and announcing that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead.

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

If we are being questioned today for a good deed done for someone who was sick or to learn how this man was healed,

you and all the people of Israel must understand that this man stands healthy before you because of the name of Jesus from Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead.

As long as it remained unsold, wasn't it your own? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? So how could you have thought of doing what you did? You didn't lie only to men, but also to God!"

So Peter asked her, "Tell me, did you sell the land for that price?" She answered, "Yes, that was the price."

She instantly fell down at Peter's feet and died. When the young men came in, they found her dead. So they carried her out and buried her next to her husband.

When the Temple police got there, they did not find them in the prison. They came back and reported,

It was this Moses who told the Israelis, "God will raise up a prophet for you from among your own brothers, just as he did me.'

So God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the heavenly bodies. As it is written in the book of the Prophets: "O house of Israel, you didn't offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices those 40 years in the wilderness, did you?

Which of the prophets did your ancestors fail to persecute? They killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.

When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch went on his way rejoicing and did not see Philip again.

He was a devout man who feared God, as did everyone in his home. He gave many gifts to the poor among the people and always prayed to God.

We are witnesses of everything Jesus did in the land of the Jews, including Jerusalem.

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

He also ordered us to preach to the people and to testify solemnly that this is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.

"No one can stop us from using water to baptize these people who have received the Holy Spirit in the same way that we did, can they?"

Then the angel told him, "Tuck in your shirt and put on your sandals!" He did this. Then the angel told him, "Put on your coat and follow me!"

Immediately the angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.

But God raised him from the dead,

he has fulfilled for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm, "You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.'

God raised him from the dead, never to experience decay, as he said, "I'll give you the holy promises made to David.'

However, the man whom God raised did not experience decay.

But some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds by persuasion. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, thinking he was dead.

God, who knows everyone's heart, showed them he approved by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us.

Both Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch to teach and proclaim the word of the Lord, as did many others.

but Paul did not think it was right to take along the man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and who had not gone with them into the work.

They went as far as Mysia and tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them,

After giving them a severe beating, they threw them in jail and ordered the jailer to keep them under tight security.

He explained and showed them that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead: "This very Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Messiah."

because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world with justice through a man whom he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."

When they heard about a resurrection of the dead, some began joking about it, while others said, "We will hear you again about this."

and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered him, "No, we haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."

because we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, and there is no good reason we can give to justify this commotion."

A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in a window, began to sink off into a deep sleep as Paul kept speaking longer and longer. Overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead.

I therefore declare to you today that I'm not responsible for the blood of any of you,

"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia but raised in this city and educated at the feet of Gamaliel in the strict ways of our ancestral Law. I am as zealous for God as all of you are today.

When Paul saw that some of them were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he shouted in the Council, "Brothers, I'm a Pharisee and a descendant of Pharisees. I'm on trial concerning the hope that the dead will be resurrected."

unless it is for the one thing I shouted as I stood among them: "It is for the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.'"

"I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, that I can defend myself today against all the accusations of the Jewish leaders,

Why is it thought incredible by all of you that God should raise the dead?

That is what I did in Jerusalem. I received authority from the high priests and locked many of the saints in prison. And when I cast my vote against them, they were put to death.

that the Messiah would suffer and be the first to rise from the dead and would bring light both to our people and to the gentiles."

Paul replied, "Whether quickly or not, I wish to God that not only you but everyone listening to me today would become what I am except for these chains!"

Right up to daybreak Paul kept urging all of them to eat something. He said, "Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, not eating anything.

They were expecting him to swell up or suddenly drop dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

and was declared by the resurrection from the dead to be the powerful Son of God according to the spirit of holiness Jesus the Messiah, our Lord.

Furthermore, because they did not think it worthwhile to keep knowing God fully, God delivered them to degraded minds to perform acts that should not be done.

whom God offered as a place where atonement by the Messiah's blood would occur through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because he had waited patiently to deal with sins committed in the past.

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the Law, but through the righteousness produced by faith.

As it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations." Abraham acted in faith when he stood in the presence of God, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that don't yet exist.

His faith did not weaken when he thought about his own body (which was already as good as dead now that he was about a hundred years old) or about Sarah's inability to have children,

nor did he doubt God's promise out of a lack of faith. Instead, his faith became stronger and he gave glory to God,

but also for us. Our faith will be regarded in the same way, if we believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

Nevertheless, death ruled from the time of Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the same way Adam did when he disobeyed. He is a foreshadowing of the one who would come.

Therefore, through baptism we were buried with him into his death so that, just as the Messiah was raised from the dead by the Father's glory, we too may live an entirely new life.

for we know that the Messiah, who was raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

In the same way, you too must continuously consider yourselves dead as far as sin is concerned, but living for God through the Messiah Jesus.

What benefit did you get from doing those things you are now ashamed of? For those things resulted in death.

In the same way, my brothers, through the Messiah's body you also died as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another person, the one who was raised from the dead, and may bear fruit for God.

But sin seized the opportunity provided by this commandment and produced in me all kinds of sinful desires, since apart from the Law, sin is dead.

Now, did something good bring me death? Of course not! But in order that sin might be recognized as being sin, it used something good to cause my death, so that through the rule, sin might become more exposed as being sinful than ever before.

For what the Law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did. By sending his own Son in the form of humanity, he condemned sin by being incarnate,

But if the Messiah is in you, your bodies are dead due to sin, but the spirit is alive due to righteousness.

And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then the one who raised the Messiah from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive by his Spirit who lives in you.

because the creation has become subject to futility, though not by anything it did. The one who subjected it did so in the certainty

The one who did not spare his own Son, but offered him as a sacrifice for all of us, surely will give us all things, along with his Son, won't he?

On the contrary, who are you mere man that you are to talk back to God? Can an object that was molded say to the one who molded it, "Why did you make me like this?"

But Israel, who pursued righteousness based on the Law, did not achieve the Law.

Why not? Because they did not pursue it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on achievements. They stumbled over the stone that causes people to stumble.

or "Who will go down into the depths?' (that is, to bring the Messiah back from the dead)."

If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

But I ask, "Didn't they hear?" Certainly they did! In fact, "Their voice has gone out into the whole world, and their words to the ends of the earth."

Again I ask, "Did Israel not understand?" Moses was the first to say, "I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that doesn't understand."

For if their rejection results in reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance bring but life from the dead?

For if God did not spare the natural branches, he certainly will not spare you, either.

For this reason the Messiah died and returned to life, so that he might become the Lord of both the dead and the living.

For even the Messiah did not please himself. Instead, as it is written, "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me."

Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who are in prison with me and are prominent among the apostles. They belonged to the Messiah before I did.

I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

For the Messiah did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with eloquent wisdom, so the cross of the Messiah won't be emptied of its power.

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe through the nonsense of our preaching.

For who makes you superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not receive it?