The angel said to him, "Fasten your belt and put on your sandals." Peter did so. Then the angel said to him, "Put on your cloak and follow me."

When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from everything the Jewish people were expecting to happen."

But they said to her, "You've lost your mind!" But she kept insisting that it was Peter, and they kept saying, "It is his angel!"

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.

While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

and said, "You who are full of all deceit and all wrongdoing, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness -- will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

So Paul stood up, gestured with his hand and said, "Men of Israel, and you Gentiles who fear God, listen:

But while John was completing his mission, he said repeatedly, 'What do you think I am? I am not he. But look, one is coming after me. I am not worthy to untie the sandals on his feet!'

he said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." And the man leaped up and began walking.

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.

Since we have heard that some have gone out from among us with no orders from us and have confused you, upsetting your minds by what they said,

After some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let's return and visit the brothers in every town where we proclaimed the word of the Lord to see how they are doing."

She continued to do this for many days. But Paul became greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And it came out of her at once.

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

But Paul said to the police officers, "They had us beaten in public without a proper trial -- even though we are Roman citizens -- and they threw us in prison. And now they want to send us away secretly? Absolutely not! They themselves must come and escort us out!"

Also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him, and some were asking, "What does this foolish babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods." (They said this because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.)

So Paul stood before the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects.

For in him we live and move about and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.'

Now when they heard about the resurrection from the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, "We will hear you again about this."

When they opposed him and reviled him, he protested by shaking out his clothes and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am guiltless! From now on I will go to the Gentiles!"

The Lord said to Paul by a vision in the night, "Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent,

But just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it were a matter of some crime or serious piece of villainy, I would have been justified in accepting the complaint of you Jews,

Paul, after staying many more days in Corinth, said farewell to the brothers and sailed away to Syria accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. He had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because he had made a vow.

but said farewell to them and added, "I will come back to you again if God wills." Then he set sail from Ephesus,

and said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They replied, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."

So Paul said, "Into what then were you baptized?" "Into John's baptism," they replied.

Paul said, "John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus."

Now after all these things had taken place, Paul resolved to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. He said, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome."

He gathered these together, along with the workmen in similar trades, and said, "Men, you know that our prosperity comes from this business.

After the city secretary quieted the crowd, he said, "Men of Ephesus, what person is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the keeper of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image that fell from heaven?

After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.

But Paul went down, threw himself on the young man, put his arms around him, and said, "Do not be distressed, for he is still alive!"

When they arrived, he said to them, "You yourselves know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I set foot in the province of Asia,

By all these things, I have shown you that by working in this way we must help the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

When he had said these things, he knelt down with them all and prayed.

especially saddened by what he had said, that they were not going to see him again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

we said farewell to one another. Then we went aboard the ship, and they returned to their own homes.

He came to us, took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it, and said, "The Holy Spirit says this: 'This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man whose belt this is, and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'"

Because he could not be persuaded, we said no more except, "The Lord's will be done."

When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all ardent observers of the law.

As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commanding officer, "May I say something to you?" The officer replied, "Do you know Greek?

(When they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic, they became even quieter.) Then Paul said,

I answered, 'Who are you, Lord?' He said to me, 'I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.'

So I asked, 'What should I do, Lord?' The Lord said to me, 'Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told about everything that you have been designated to do.'

came to me and stood beside me and said to me, 'Brother Saul, regain your sight!' And at that very moment I looked up and saw him.

Then he said, 'The God of our ancestors has already chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear a command from his mouth,

Then he said to me, 'Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'"

The crowd was listening to him until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, "Away with this man from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live!"

When they had stretched him out for the lash, Paul said to the centurion standing nearby, "Is it legal for you to lash a man who is a Roman citizen without a proper trial?"

Paul looked directly at the council and said, "Brothers, I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God to this day."

Then Paul said to him, "God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit there judging me according to the law, and in violation of the law you order me to be struck?"

Those standing near him said, "Do you dare insult God's high priest?"

When he said this, an argument began between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Have courage, for just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome."

They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, "We have bound ourselves with a solemn oath not to partake of anything until we have killed Paul.

Paul called one of the centurions and said, "Take this young man to the commanding officer, for he has something to report to him."

So the centurion took him and brought him to the commanding officer and said, "The prisoner Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you because he has something to tell you."

Then he summoned two of the centurions and said, "Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea along with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen by nine o'clock tonight,

he said, "I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive too." Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod's palace.

While Paul was discussing righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became frightened and said, "Go away for now, and when I have an opportunity, I will send for you."

"So," he said, "let your leaders go down there with me, and if this man has done anything wrong, they may bring charges against him."

Paul said in his defense, "I have committed no offense against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar."

Agrippa said to Festus, "I would also like to hear the man myself." "Tomorrow," he replied, "you will hear him."

Then Festus said, "King Agrippa, and all you who are present here with us, you see this man about whom the entire Jewish populace petitioned me both in Jerusalem and here, shouting loudly that he ought not to live any longer.

So Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak for yourself." Then Paul held out his hand and began his defense:

So I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And the Lord replied, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

I have experienced help from God to this day, and so I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except what the prophets and Moses said was going to happen:

Agrippa said to Paul, "In such a short time are you persuading me to become a Christian?"

and as they were leaving they said to one another, "This man is not doing anything deserving death or imprisonment."

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

But the centurion was more convinced by the captain and the ship's owner than by what Paul said.

Since many of them had no desire to eat, Paul stood up among them and said, "Men, you should have listened to me and not put out to sea from Crete, thus avoiding this damage and loss.

and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul! You must stand before Caesar, and God has graciously granted you the safety of all who are sailing with you.'

Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved."

After he said this, Paul took bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all, broke it, and began to eat.

When the local people saw the creature hanging from Paul's hand, they said to one another, "No doubt this man is a murderer! Although he has escaped from the sea, Justice herself has not allowed him to live!"

But they were expecting that he was going to swell up or suddenly drop dead. So after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

After three days Paul called the local Jewish leaders together. When they had assembled, he said to them, "Brothers, although I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, from Jerusalem I was handed over as a prisoner to the Romans.

They replied, "We have received no letters from Judea about you, nor have any of the brothers come from there and reported or said anything bad about you.

Some were convinced by what he said, but others refused to believe.

when he said, 'Go to this people and say, "You will keep on hearing, but will never understand, and you will keep on looking, but will never perceive.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, "Do not covet."

it was said to her, "The older will serve the younger,"

"And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"

Or do you not know that anyone who is united with a prostitute is one body with her? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."

and after he had given thanks he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

It is the same for you. If you do not speak clearly with your tongue, how will anyone know what is being said? For you will be speaking into the air.

Two or three prophets should speak and the others should evaluate what is said.

I had no relief in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-bye to them and set out for Macedonia.

For God, who said "Let light shine out of darkness," is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Christ.

And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, "I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

For if I have boasted to him about anything concerning you, I have not been embarrassed by you, but just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus about you has proved true as well.

But he said to me, "My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me.

I said before when I was present the second time and now, though absent, I say again to those who sinned previously and to all the rest, that if I come again, I will not spare anyone,

As we have said before, and now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell!

But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, "If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

A certain one of them, in fact, one of their own prophets, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons."

But to which of the angels has he ever said, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"?

"Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, 'Their hearts are always wandering and they have not known my ways.'