“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard from many people about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.

Looking intently at him, he became afraid and said, “What is it, lord?”

The angel told him, “Your prayers and your acts of charity have come up as a memorial offering before God.

“No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything common and ritually unclean!”

Get up, go downstairs, and accompany them with no doubts at all, because I have sent them.”

and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your acts of charity have been remembered in God’s sight.

Therefore I immediately sent for you, and you did the right thing in coming. So we are all present before God, to hear everything you have been commanded by the Lord.”

“Can anyone withhold water and prevent these people from being baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”

At daylight, there was a great commotion among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter.

As they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have called them to.”

After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any message of encouragement for the people, you can speak.”

After removing him, He raised up David as their king and testified about him: ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man loyal to Me, who will carry out all My will.’

For the residents of Jerusalem and their rulers, since they did not recognize Him or the voices of the prophets that are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled their words by condemning Him.

Though they found no grounds for the death penalty, they asked Pilate to have Him killed.

God has fulfilled this for us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second Psalm:

You are My Son;
today I have become Your Father.

For this is what the Lord has commanded us:

I have made you
a light for the Gentiles
to bring salvation
to the ends of the earth.”

When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the form of men!”

Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?

known from long ago.

Because we have heard that some without our authorization went out from us and troubled you with their words and unsettled your hearts,

we have unanimously decided to select men and send them to you along with our dearly loved Barnabas and Paul,

who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who will personally report the same things by word of mouth.

After some time had passed, Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit the brothers in every town where we have preached the message of the Lord and see how they’re doing.”

The jailer reported these words to Paul: “The magistrates have sent orders for you to be released. So come out now and go in peace.”

When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too,

For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in this city.”

and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

“No,” they told him, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

For you have brought these men here who are not temple robbers or blasphemers of our goddess.

So if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a case against anyone, the courts are in session, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another.

For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so he would not have to spend time in Asia, because he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, for the day of Pentecost.

I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.

You yourselves know that these hands have provided for my needs and for those who were with me.

When they heard it, they glorified God and said, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law.

But they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, by telling them not to circumcise their children or to walk in our customs.

Therefore do what we tell you: We have four men who have obligated themselves with a vow.

With regard to the Gentiles who have believed, we have written a letter containing our decision that they should keep themselves from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality.”

For you will be a witness for Him to all people of what you have seen and heard.

Paul looked intently at the Sanhedrin and said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience until this day.”

The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Have courage! For as you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”

These men went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have bound ourselves under a solemn curse that we won’t eat anything until we have killed Paul.

Then the commander took him by the hand, led him aside, and inquired privately, “What is it you have to report to me?”

“The Jews,” he said, “have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the Sanhedrin tomorrow, as though they are going to hold a somewhat more careful inquiry about him.

Don’t let them persuade you, because there are more than 40 of them arranging to ambush him, men who have bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink until they kill him. Now they are ready, waiting for a commitment from you.”

So the commander dismissed the young man and instructed him, “Don’t tell anyone that you have informed me about this.”

For we have found this man to be a plague, an agitator among all the Jews throughout the Roman world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes!

When the governor motioned to him to speak, Paul replied: “Because I know you have been a judge of this nation for many years, I am glad to offer my defense in what concerns me.

And I have a hope in God, which these men themselves also accept, that there is going to be a resurrection, both of the righteous and the unrighteous.

I always do my best to have a clear conscience toward God and men.

It is they who ought to be here before you to bring charges, if they have anything against me.

He ordered that the centurion keep Paul under guard, though he could have some freedom, and that he should not prevent any of his friends from serving him.

while Paul made the defense that, “Neither against the Jewish law, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I sinned at all.”

But Paul said: “I am standing at Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as even you can see very well.

If then I am doing wrong, or have done anything deserving of death, I do not refuse to die, but if there is nothing to what these men accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

After Festus conferred with his council, he replied, “You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you will go!”

I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him. Therefore, I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after this examination is over, I may have something to write.

But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and of what I will reveal to you.

To this very day, I have obtained help that comes from God, and I stand and testify to both small and great, saying nothing else than what the prophets and Moses said would take place—

Then Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

Since many were going without food, Paul stood up among them and said, “You men should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete and sustain this damage and loss.

When it was about daylight, Paul urged them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, having eaten nothing.

After three days he called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had gathered he said to them: “Brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.

Then they said to him, “We haven’t received any letters about you from Judea. None of the brothers has come and reported or spoken anything evil about you.

For the hearts of these people
have grown callous,
their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
understand with their heart,
and be converted,
and I would heal them.

We have received grace and apostleship through Him to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations, on behalf of His name,

Now I want you to know, brothers, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as among the rest of the Gentiles.

For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong.

So, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, instinctively do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law.

on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.

So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

What then? Are we any better? Not at all! For we have previously charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin,

All have turned away;
all alike have become useless.
There is no one who does what is good,
not even one.

and the path of peace they have not known.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

in God’s sight. As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations. He believed in God, who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.

Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath.

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have now received this reconciliation through Him.

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.

For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection.

But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the end is eternal life!

But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.

What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet.

You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

And not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

height or depth, or any other created thing
will have the power to separate us
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

that I have intense sorrow and continual anguish in my heart.

For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.

As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.

For He tells Moses:

I will show mercy
to whom I will show mercy,
and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion.

And just as Isaiah predicted:

If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have become like Sodom,
and we would have been made like Gomorrah.

What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith.

I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

Because they disregarded the righteousness from God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to God’s righteousness.

But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher?

But to Israel he says: All day long I have spread out My hands to a disobedient and defiant people.

Lord, they have killed Your prophets
and torn down Your altars.
I am the only one left,
and they are trying to take my life!

But what was God’s reply to him? I have left 7,000 men for Myself who have not bowed down to Baal.