Again the voice came to him a second time, "You must stop calling unclean what God has made clean."

Peter was still thinking about the vision when the Spirit told him, "Look! Three men are looking for you.

So Peter welcomed them as his guests. The next day, he got up and went with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along with him.

When Peter was about to enter, Cornelius met him, bowed down at his feet, and began to worship him.

But Peter made him get up, saying, "Stand up! I, too, am only a man."

As Peter talked with him, he went in and found that many people had gathered.

Indeed, whoever fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him in any nation.

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, he went around doing good and healing everyone who was oppressed by the devil.

"They hung him on a tree and killed him, but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear

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.

So Peter ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus the Messiah. Then they asked him to stay there for several days.

But when Peter went up to Jerusalem, those who emphasized circumcision disagreed with him.

When he found him, he brought him to Antioch, and for a whole year they were guests of the church and taught many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

When he arrested Peter, Herod put him in prison and turned him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, planning to bring him out to the people after Passover season.

So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer to God for him was being offered by the assembly.

That very night, before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, and guards in front of the door were watching the prisoners.

Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on his side, woke him up, and said, "Get up quickly!" His chains fell from his wrists.

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!"

So Peter went out and began to follow him, not realizing that what was being done by the angel was real; he thought he was seeing a vision.

They passed the first guard, then the second, and came to the iron gate that led into the city. It opened by itself for them, and they went outside and proceeded one block when the angel suddenly left him.

Meanwhile, Peter kept on knocking and knocking. When they opened the gate, they saw him and were amazed.

He motioned to them with his hand to be quiet, and then he told them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. He added, "Tell this to James and the brothers." Then he left and went somewhere else.

Herod searched for him but didn't find him, so he questioned the guards and ordered them to be executed. Then he left Judea, went down to Caesarea, and stayed there for a while.

Now Herod had been in a violent quarrel with the people of Tyre and Sidon. So they came to him as a group. After they had won over Blastus, who oversaw security for the king's sleeping quarters, they asked for a peace agreement because their country depended on the king's country for food.

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 Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked him straight in the eye

The Lord is against you now, and you'll be blind and unable to see the sun for a while!" At that moment a dark mist came over him, and he went around looking for someone to lead him by the hand.

For the people who live in Jerusalem and their leaders, not knowing who Jesus was, condemned him and so fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath.

Although they found no reason to sentence him to death, they asked Pilate to have him executed.

When they had finished doing everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and placed him in a tomb.

But God raised him from the dead,

and for many days he appeared to those who had come with him to Jerusalem from Galilee. These are now his witnesses to the people.

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

"Therefore, brothers, you must understand that through him the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you,

and that everyone who believes in him is justified and freed from everything that kept you from being justified by the Law of Moses.

But when the Jewish leaders saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to object to the statements made by Paul and even to abuse him.

He was listening to Paul as he spoke. Paul watched him closely, and when he saw that he had faith to be healed,

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.

But the disciples formed a circle around him, and he got up and went back to town. The next day, he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

After all, Moses has had people to proclaim him in every city for generations, and on every Sabbath his books are read aloud in the synagogues."

while Paul chose Silas and left after the brothers had entrusted him to the grace of the Lord.

Paul wanted this man to go with him, so he took him and had him circumcised because of the Jews who lived in that region, since everyone knew that Timothy's father was a Greek.

During the night Paul had a vision. A man from Macedonia was standing there and pleading with him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!"

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and everyone in his home.

The men who escorted Paul took him all the way to Athens and, after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left.

Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some asked, "What is this blabbermouth trying to say?" while others said, "He seems to be preaching about foreign gods." This was because Paul was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

Then they took him, brought him before the Areopagus, and asked, "May we know what this new teaching of yours is?

so that they might look for God, somehow reach for him, and find him. Of course, he is never far from any one of us.

For we live, move, and exist because of him, as some of your own poets have said: ""Since we are his children, too.'

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."

Some men joined him and became believers. With them were Dionysius, who was a member of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and some others along with them.

But when they began to oppose him and insult him, he shook out his clothes in protest and told them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the gentiles."

While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jewish leaders gathered together, attacked Paul, and brought him before the judge's seat.

Then all of them took Sosthenes, the synagogue leader, and began beating him in front of the judge's seat. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.

They asked him to stay longer, but he refused.

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home and explained God's way to him more accurately.

When Apollos wanted to cross over to Achaia, the brothers wrote to the disciples there, urging them to welcome him. On his arrival he greatly helped those who, through God's grace, had believed.

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."

Then Paul said, "John baptized when they repented, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus."

He went into the synagogue and spoke there boldly for three months, holding discussions and persuading those who heard him about the kingdom of God.

But when some people became stubborn, refused to believe, and slandered the Way in front of the people, Paul left them, taking his disciples away with him, and held daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

Paul wanted to go into the crowd, but the disciples wouldn't let him.

Even some officials of the province of Asia who were his friends sent him a message urging him not to risk his life in the theater.

Some of the crowd concluded it was because of Alexander, since the Jews had pushed him to the front. So Alexander motioned for silence and tried to make a defense before the people.

and stayed there for three months. When he was about to sail for Syria, a plot was initiated against him by the Jews, so he decided to go back through Macedonia.

But Paul went down, bent over him, took him into his arms, and said, "Stop being alarmed, because he's still alive."

When he met us in Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene.

From Miletus he sent messengers to Ephesus to ask the elders of the church to meet with him.

When they came to him, he told them, "You know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day I set foot in Asia.

All of them cried and cried as they put their arms around Paul and kissed him affectionately.

They were especially sorrowful because of what he had said that they would never see his face again. Then they took him to the ship.

The next day, we left and came to Caesarea. We went to the home of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven, and stayed with him.

He came to us, took Paul's belt, and tied his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, "The Holy Spirit says, "This is how the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will tie up the man who owns this belt. Then they will hand him over to the gentiles.'"

When they heard about it, they praised God and told him, "You see, brother, how many tens of thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and all of them are zealous for the Law.

For they had earlier seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him and assumed that Paul had taken him into the Temple.

The whole city was in chaos. The people rushed together, grabbed Paul, dragged him out of the Temple, and at once the doors were sealed shut.

Then the tribune came up, grabbed Paul, and ordered him to be tied up with two chains. He then asked who Paul was and what he had done.

The crowd of people kept following him and shouting, "Kill him!"

The tribune gave him permission, and Paul, standing on the steps, motioned for the people to be silent. When everyone had quieted down, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language:

When they heard him speaking to them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet, and he continued:

came to me. He stood beside me and said, "Brother Saul, receive your sight!' At that moment I could see him.

Even when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I was standing there, approving it and guarding the coats of those who were killing him.'

Up to this point they listened to him, but then they began to shout, "Away with such a fellow from the earth! He's not fit to go on living!"

the tribune ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks and told the soldiers to beat and question him in order to find out why the people were yelling at him like this.

But when they had tied him up with the straps, Paul asked the centurion who was standing there, "Is it legal for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn't been condemned?"

When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and told him, "What are you doing? This man is a Roman citizen!"

Paul said, "But I was born a citizen." Immediately those who were about to examine him stepped back, and the tribune was afraid when he found out that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had tied him up.

The next day, since the tribune wanted to find out exactly what Paul was being accused of by the Jews, he released him and ordered the high priests and the entire Council to meet. Then he brought Paul down and had him stand before them.

Then the high priest Ananias ordered the men standing near him to strike him on the mouth.

At this Paul told him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! How can you sit there and judge me according to the Law, and yet in violation of the Law order me to be struck?"

The men standing near him asked, "Do you mean to insult God's high priest?"

There was a great deal of shouting until some of the scribes who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and argued forcefully, "We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"

The quarrel was becoming violent, and the tribune was afraid that they would tear Paul to pieces. So he ordered the soldiers to go down, take him away from them by force, and bring him into the barracks.

Now then, you and the Council must notify the tribune to bring him down to you on the pretext that you want to look into his case more carefully, but before he arrives we'll be ready to kill him."

Then Paul called one of the centurions and said, "Take this young man to the tribune, because he has something to tell him."

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

The tribune took him by the hand, stepped aside to be alone with him, and asked, "What have you got to tell me?"

Don't believe them, because more than 40 of them are planning to ambush him. They've taken an oath not to eat or drink before they've killed him. They are ready now, just waiting for your consent."

The tribune dismissed the young man and ordered him not to tell anyone that he had notified him.

Provide a mount for Paul to ride, and take him safely to Governor Felix."