Peter said to him, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you!"

If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him."

the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.

The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him."

Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him.

"I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me -- and I in him -- bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing.

But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I am going away. For if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.

Jesus could see that they wanted to ask him about these things, so he said to them, "Are you asking each other about this -- that I said, 'In a little while you will not see me; again after a little while, you will see me'?

just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.

(Now Judas, the one who betrayed him, knew the place too, because Jesus had met there many times with his disciples.)

Then Jesus, because he knew everything that was going to happen to him, came and asked them, "Who are you looking for?"

They replied, "Jesus the Nazarene." He told them, "I am he." (Now Judas, the one who betrayed him, was standing there with them.)

Then the squad of soldiers with their commanding officer and the officers of the Jewish leaders arrested Jesus and tied him up.

They brought him first to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.

When Jesus had said this, one of the high priest's officers who stood nearby struck him on the face and said, "Is that the way you answer the high priest?"

Then Annas sent him, still tied up, to Caiaphas the high priest.

Meanwhile Simon Peter was standing in the courtyard warming himself. They said to him, "You aren't one of his disciples too, are you?" Peter denied it: "I am not!"

One of the high priest's slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, "Did I not see you in the orchard with him?"

They replied, "If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you."

Pilate told them, "Take him yourselves and pass judgment on him according to your own law!" The Jewish leaders replied, "We cannot legally put anyone to death."

So Pilate went back into the governor's residence, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"

Pilate asked, "What is truth?" When he had said this he went back outside to the Jewish leaders and announced, "I find no basis for an accusation against him.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged severely.

The soldiers braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they clothed him in a purple robe.

They came up to him again and again and said, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him repeatedly in the face.

Again Pilate went out and said to the Jewish leaders, "Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no reason for an accusation against him."

When the chief priests and their officers saw him, they shouted out, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Pilate said, "You take him and crucify him! Certainly I find no reason for an accusation against him!"

and he went back into the governor's residence and said to Jesus, "Where do you come from?" But Jesus gave him no answer.

From this point on, Pilate tried to release him. But the Jewish leaders shouted out, "If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar! Everyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar!"

Then they shouted out, "Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!" Pilate asked, "Shall I crucify your king?" The high priests replied, "We have no king except Caesar!"

There they crucified him along with two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus (but secretly, because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission, so he went and took the body away.

So she went running to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

Then Simon Peter, who had been following him, arrived and went right into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen cloth lying there,

They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" Mary replied, "They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!"

Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?" Because she thought he was the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him."

Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Aramaic, "Rabboni" (which means Teacher).

The other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he replied, "Unless I see the wounds from the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the wounds from the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe it!"

Thomas replied to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people who have not seen and yet have believed."

"Come, have breakfast," Jesus said. But none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord.

Then when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these do?" He replied, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." Jesus told him, "Feed my lambs."

Jesus said a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He replied, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." Jesus told him, "Shepherd my sheep."

Jesus said a third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that Jesus asked him a third time, "Do you love me?" and said, "Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you." Jesus replied, "Feed my sheep.

So when Peter saw him, he asked Jesus, "Lord, what about him?"

Jesus replied, "If I want him to live until I come back, what concern is that of yours? You follow me!"

So the saying circulated among the brothers and sisters that this disciple was not going to die. But Jesus did not say to him that he was not going to die, but rather, "If I want him to live until I come back, what concern is that of yours?"

So when they had gathered together, they began to ask him, "Lord, is this the time when you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?"

After he had said this, while they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud hid him from their sight.

and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven."

"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed among you through him, just as you yourselves know --

this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles.

But God raised him up, having released him from the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held in its power.

For David says about him, 'I saw the Lord always in front of me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken.

So then, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne,

Peter looked directly at him (as did John) and said, "Look at us!"

Then Peter took hold of him by the right hand and raised him up, and at once the man's feet and ankles were made strong.

All the people saw him walking and praising God,

and they recognized him as the man who used to sit and ask for donations at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with astonishment and amazement at what had happened to him.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate after he had decided to release him.

And on the basis of faith in Jesus' name, his very name has made this man -- whom you see and know -- strong. The faith that is through Jesus has given him this complete health in the presence of you all.

Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must obey him in everything he tells you.

And all the prophets, from Samuel and those who followed him, have spoken about and announced these days.

God raised up his servant and sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each one of you from your iniquities."

sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and placed it at the apostles' feet.

So the young men came, wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him.

Now the high priest rose up, and all those with him (that is, the religious party of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy.

When they heard this, they entered the temple courts at daybreak and began teaching. Now when the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they summoned the Sanhedrin -- that is, the whole high council of the Israelites -- and sent to the jail to have the apostles brought before them.

The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, whom you seized and killed by hanging him on a tree.

God exalted him to his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

And we are witnesses of these events, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."

For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and nothing came of it.

After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census, and incited people to follow him in revolt. He too was killed, and all who followed him were scattered.

They incited the people, the elders, and the experts in the law; then they approached Stephen, seized him, and brought him before the council.

For we have heard him saying that Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us."

and said to him, 'Go out from your country and from your relatives, and come to the land I will show you.'

Then he went out from the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God made him move to this country where you now live.

He did not give any of it to him for an inheritance, not even a foot of ground, yet God promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, even though Abraham as yet had no child.

Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him when he was eight days old, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

The patriarchs, because they were jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. But God was with him,

and rescued him from all his troubles, and granted him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

and when he had been abandoned, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.

He thought his own people would understand that God was delivering them through him, but they did not understand.

"After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush.

But the Lord said to him, 'Take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

This same Moses they had rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and judge?' God sent as both ruler and deliverer through the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

This is the man who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors, and he received living oracles to give to you.

Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him, but pushed him aside and turned back to Egypt in their hearts,

saying to Aaron, 'Make us gods who will go in front of us, for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt -- we do not know what has happened to him!'

Our ancestors had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as God who spoke to Moses ordered him to make it according to the design he had seen.

But Solomon built a house for him.

When they heard these things, they became furious and ground their teeth at him.

But they covered their ears, shouting out with a loud voice, and rushed at him with one intent.

When they had driven him out of the city, they began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.

All the people, from the least to the greatest, paid close attention to him, saying, "This man is the power of God that is called 'Great.'"

And they paid close attention to him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic.

But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could acquire God's gift with money!

So Philip ran up to it and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. He asked him, "Do you understand what you're reading?"

The man replied, "How in the world can I, unless someone guides me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.