beginning when he was baptized by John until the day he was taken up from us. Therefore, someone like this must become a witness with us to his resurrection."

Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying.

And tongues, like flames of fire that were divided, appeared to them and rested on each one of them.

Brothers, I would like to speak very plainly about the patriarch David [Note: A patriarch was the ruling father of the family]. He died and was buried and his grave can be seen today.

"And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance like your leaders.

Moses said:

The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He will say to you.

"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you. Any person who will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.'

They had the apostles brought before them and demanded of them, "By what power or authority have men like you done this?"

When it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And even after the sale, was the money not yours to do as you pleased about it? How could you think of doing a thing like this? You have not defrauded men but God."

And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

But God spoke like this: 'His descendants will be foreigners in a foreign land, and they will enslave them and mistreat [them] four hundred years,

Are you going to kill me like you did that Egyptian yesterday?'

“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers.

"In the desert our forefathers had the tent of the testimony, like the model Moses had seen, as God who spoke to him ordered him to make it.

stubborn people, whose hearts and ears like the uncircumcised, are always averse to the holy spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye.

With a loud shriek they shut their ears and rushed at him like one man.

And the crowds attended like one man to what was said by Philip, listening to him and watching the miracles he performed.

Simon answered, do you pray to the Lord for me, that nothing like what you mention may befall me.

The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:

At once something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.

He became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while lunch was being prepared he was overcome by a "trance" [i.e., a semi-conscious, vision-like state]

And he saw heaven opened and an object something like a large sheet coming down, being let down to the earth by its four corners,

And after this was done three times, the huge sheet-like container was lifted back up into the sky.

Peter, however, lifted him up, saying as he did so: "Stand up, I am only a man like yourself."

"Who can keep these people [i.e., Cornelius' household] from being immersed in water now that they have received the Holy Spirit just like we [apostles] have?" [See 2:4].

saying, as I was at prayers in Joppa, I saw something like a great sheet, tied at the four corners, which descended from heaven, and came just to me.

"And while I was speaking, [the power of] the Holy Spirit descended on them [i.e., Cornelius' Gentile household] just like [it fell] on us [Jewish apostles] at the beginning [i.e., the day of Pentecost, See chapter 2].

Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?

For a period of about forty years, He fed them, like a nurse, in the Desert.

and the multitudes having seen what Paul did, did lift up their voice, in the speech of Lycaonia, saying, 'The gods, having become like men, did come down unto us;'

And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:

Even with words like these they had difficulty in preventing the thronging crowd from offering sacrifices to them.

God, who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like he did to us.

But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in like manner as they.

who, a charge like this receiving, thrust them into the inner prison, and, their feet, made he fast in the stocks.

He took them up to his house and put food before them, overjoyed like all his household at having believed in God.

Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also came across him. Some said, "Whatever does the fellow mean with his scraps of learning'?" Others said, "He looks like a herald of foreign deities" (this was because he preached 'Jesus' and 'the Resurrection').

You are telling us some very unusual things and we would like to know what they mean."

Being God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.

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 these are merely questions of words and persons and your own Law, you can attend to them for yourselves. I decline to adjudicate upon matters like that."

And when Paul had put his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they had the power of talking in tongues, and acting like prophets.

Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.

And now you have seen and heard, not only here in Ephesus, but throughout almost all of [the province of] Asia, that this Paul has been convincing people, [even] to the point of turning many away [from idol worship]. [He is] saying that hand-made gods [like we make] are not real [gods at all].

So the city was filled with confusion. They rushed like one man into the amphitheatre, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were travelling with Paul.

Then Paul would have liked to go in and address the people, but the disciples would not let him do so.

And when they had come, he said to them, You yourselves have seen what my life has been like all the time from the day when I first came into Asia,

In every way I’ve shown you that by laboring like this, it is necessary to help the weak and to keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus, for He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

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

[But] Paul answered, "What are you trying to do [by your] crying and breaking my heart [like this]? [Do you not know that] I am ready, not only to be chained up, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus?"

So, here is what we would like you to do: We have four men who have made a vow [i.e., a special promise to God].

"I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I was carefully trained at the feet of Gamaliel in the Law of our forefathers, and, like all of you to-day, was zealous for God.

"And it happened that when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the Temple, I fell into a trance [i.e., a semi-conscious vision-like state].

They had listened to him until he said that, but then they shouted, "Kill him and get him out of the world! A creature like that ought not to be allowed to live!"

the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, directing that he be examined with the scourge, so he could discover the reason they were shouting against him like this.

The commander then wrote a letter like this:

I was at a loss as to how to investigate such matters, and I asked him if he would like to go to Jerusalem and be tried on these charges there.

Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear the man myself.”

“Tomorrow you will hear him,” he replied.

Paul replied, "I wish to God that, whether it would take a little or a lot, not only you, but all those who hear me today, might become [Christians] like me, except [not] with these chains."

Paul exhorted them, Saying to them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage is like to be with injury and much damage, not only to the lading and the ship, but also to our lives.

But not long afterward a wind like a hurricane, called the northeaster, rushed down from it.

Therefore keep up your courage, men, for I believe God that it will be like this--according to {the} way it was told to me.

But we would like to hear from you what you think, for concerning this sect it is known to us that it is spoken against everywhere."

Brothers, I would like you to understand that I have often purposed to come to you (though up till now I have been prevented) so as to have some results among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

In like manner also, even the males, leaving the natural use of the female, flamed out in their eager desire one for another, males with males, the indecency, effecting, - and, the necessary recompence of their error, within themselves, duly receiving; -

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

Now we know that God's judgment against those who act like this is based on truth.

But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.

But, if my falsehood redounds to the glory of God, by making his truthfulness more apparent, why am I like others, still condemned as a sinner?

Their throats are just like open graves, with their tongues they have spoken treachery; the poison of asps is under their lips.

For this reason, the promise [i.e., of being made right with God] comes through faith [in God], according to His unearned favor, so that it may be [given] with certainty to all of Abraham's descendants. The promise is given not only to those [who live] under the law [i.e., the Jews], but also to [all] those [who live] by faith, like Abraham. Abraham is the [spiritual] father of all of us [believers],

so that the promise should be made sure to all Abraham's true descendants; not merely to those who are righteous through the Law, but to those who are righteous through a faith like that of Abraham. Thus in the sight of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and makes reference to things that do not exist, as though they did, Abraham is the forefather of all of us. As it is written, "I have appointed you to be the forefather of many nations."

It is just like the way in which through one man sin came into the world, and death followed sin, and so death spread to all men, because all men sinned.

Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them also that sinned not, with like transgression as did Adam: which is the similitude of him that is to come.

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift overflowed to the many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.

And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification.

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we be graft in death like unto him: even so must we be in the resurrection.

in like manner consider your selves as dead to sin; but alive to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(I speak man-like because of the weakness of your flesh). For as ye presented your body-parts servile to uncleanness, and to lawlessness for lawlessness, so now present your body-parts servile to righteousness for sanctification.

For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.

What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin’s domain, and as a sin offering,

And, in like manner also, the Spirit doth help our weaknesses; for, what we may pray for, as it behoveth us, we have not known, but the Spirit himself doth make intercession for us with groanings unutterable,

For those which he knew before, he also ordained before, that they should be like fashioned unto the shape of his son, that he might be the first begotten son among many brethren.

What are we then to say to facts like these? If God is for us, who can be against us?

As the Scripture says: "For your sake we are being put to death the livelong day; we are treated like sheep to be slaughtered."

But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”

But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

Though the number of Israel’s sons
is like the sand of the sea,
only the remnant will be saved;

And, even as Isaiah hath before said, - If, the Lord of hosts, had not left us a seed, as Sodom, had we become, and, as Gomorrha, had we been made like.

But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: Do not say in your heart, “Who will go up to heaven?” that is, to bring Christ down

in like manner at this time there is also a remnant chosen by the divine favour;

And David says,

“Let their table (abundance) become a snare and a trap,
A stumbling block and a retribution to them.

For if their rejection [by God] meant that [the rest of] the world could be restored to favor [with God], what would [God's] receiving the Jews back into fellowship be, except like dead people coming back to life?

if then, some of the branches are broken off, and thou like a wild olive, were grafted in their place to partake of the root and sap of the olivestock;

So, look at God's kindness and severity. He was severe with those [Jews] who have fallen, but He is kind to you [Gentiles], if you continue to accept His kindness [i.e., by living for Him faithfully]. Otherwise, you too will be cut off [like the Jews were].

To prevent you from being self-conceited, brothers, I would like you to understand this secret: it is only a partial insensibility that has come over Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in.

And fashion not yourselves like unto this world: But be changed through the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what thing that good, that acceptable, and perfect will of God is.

Be of like affection one towards another. Be not high minded, but make yourselves equal to them of the lower sort. Be not wise in your own opinions.

But [Prov. 25:21-25 says], "Feed your enemy if he is hungry; give him something to drink if he is thirsty. For when you do this, it will be [like] heaping burning coals on his head." [i.e., it can cause him burning shame that can lead to his repentance and ultimate forgiveness].