I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me,

Jesus answered, "I have let you see many good things from the Father; which of them do you mean to stone me for?"

The Jews answered, "We are not stoning you for doing anything good, but for your impious talk, and because you, a mere man, make yourself out to be God."

If those to whom God's message was addressed were called gods??nd the Scripture cannot be set aside??36 do you mean to say to me whom the Father has consecrated and made his messenger to the world, 'You are blasphemous,' because I said, 'I am God's Son'?

When Jesus received it he said, "This sickness is not to end in death, but is for the honor of God, that through it the Son of God may be honored."

Even now I know that anything you ask God for, he will give you."

She said to him, "Yes, Master, I do indeed believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

Jesus said to her, "Have I not promised you that if you will believe in me you will see the glory of God?"

Now he was not self-moved in saying this, but as high priest for that year he was inspired to say that Jesus was to die for the nation??52 and not only for the nation but also for the purpose of uniting the scattered children of God.

got palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, "God bless him! God bless him who comes in the Lord's name! Blessings on the king of Israel!"

for they cared more for the approval of men than for the approval of God.

So at supper??he devil having by this time put the thought of betraying Jesus into the mind of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son??3 Jesus, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,

When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been honored, and God has been honored through him,

and God will through himself honor him; he will honor him immediately.

"Your minds must not be troubled; you must believe in God, and believe in me.

They will exclude you from their synagogues; why, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is doing religious service to God.

Now we know that you know everything and do not need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you have really come from God."

And eternal life means knowing you as the only true God, and knowing Jesus your messenger as Christ.

So Judas got out the garrison and some attendants from the high priests and Pharisees, and came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.

Then Simon Peter, who had a sword with him, drew it and struck at the high priest's slave and cut off his right ear. The slave's name was Malchus.

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

And the soldiers made a wreath out of thorns and put it on his head, and put a purple coat on him, and they marched up to him,

So Jesus came out, still wearing the wreath of thorns and the purple coat. And Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"

The Jews answered, "We have a law, and by our law he deserves death, for declaring himself to be a son of God."

And they both ran, and the other disciple ran faster than Peter and got to the tomb first.

Jesus said to her, "You must not cling to me, for I have not yet gone up to my Father, but go to my brothers and say to them that I am going up to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

Thomas answered him, "My Master and my God!"

But these have been recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and through believing you may have life as his followers.

Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing.

So Simon Peter got into the boat, and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them, and though there were so many, the net was not torn.

Jesus went and got the bread and gave it to them, and the fish also.

He said this to show the kind of death by which Peter was to honor God; and after he had said it he said to Peter, "Follow me!"

He had shown himself alive to them after he had suffered, in many convincing ways, appearing to them through forty days, and telling them about the Kingdom of God.

It was at that time that Peter got up among the brothers??here were about a hundred and twenty persons present??nd said,

Cretans and Arabs??e all hear them tell in our native tongues the mighty deeds of God."

" 'It will come about in the last days, God says, That I will pour out my Spirit upon all mankind; Your sons and daughters will become prophets, Your young men will have visions, And your old men will have dreams.

"Men of Israel, listen to what I say. Jesus of Nazareth, as you know, was a man whom God commended to you by the wonders, portents, and signs that God did right among you through him.

But you, by the fixed purpose and intention of God, handed him over to wicked men, and had him crucified.

But God set aside the pain of death and raised him up, for death could not control him.

But as he was a prophet, and knew that God had promised him with an oath that he would put one of his descendants upon his throne,

He is Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, and to whose resurrection we are all witnesses.

So he has been exalted to God's right hand, and has received from his Father and poured over us the holy Spirit that had been promised, as you see and hear.

"Therefore the whole nation of Israel must understand that God has declared this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ."

for the promise of it belongs to you and your children, as well as to all those far away whom the Lord our God calls to him."

constantly praising God and respected by all the people. And every day the Lord added people who were saved to their number.

when a man who had been lame from his birth was carried by. He used to be placed every day at what was known as the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, to beg from the people on their way into the Temple,

and he sprang to his feet and began to walk, and he went into the Temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God.

When all the people saw him walking about, praising God,

and recognized him as the man who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, they were perfectly astonished and amazed at what had happened to him.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has done this honor to his servant Jesus, whom you betrayed and disowned before Pilate, when he had decided to let him go.

and killed the very source of life. But God raised him from the dead, as we can testify.

it was in this way that God fulfilled what he by all the prophets foretold that his Christ must suffer.

So repent and turn to God, to have your sins wiped out, and happier times will come from the presence of the Lord,

Yet he must remain in heaven till the time for the universal reformation of which God told in ancient times by the lips of his holy prophets.

Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, as he raised me up. You must listen to everything that he tells you.

You are the descendants of the prophets and the heirs of the agreement that God made with your forefathers when he said to Abraham, 'Through your posterity all the families of the earth will be blessed.'

It was to you that God first sent his servant after he had raised him from the dead, to bless you by making every one of you turn from his wickedness."

you and the people of Israel must all know that it is through the power of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that he stands here before you well.

But Peter and John answered them, "You must decide whether it is right in the sight of God to obey you instead of him,

But after further threats they let them go, as they could find no way to punish them, on account of the people, who were all giving honor to God for what had happened,

When they heard it, with one impulse they all raised their voices to God and said, "Master, it was you who made heaven, earth, and sea, and everything that is in them,

When they had prayed, the place where they were meeting shook, and they were all filled with the holy Spirit, and fearlessly uttered God's message.

The apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power, and God's favor rested richly upon them.

As long as it was unsold was it not yours, and after it was sold was not the money under your control? How could you think of doing such a thing? You did not lie to men but to God!"

The younger men got up and wrapping his body up carried it out and buried it.

Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men.

The God of our forefathers raised Jesus to life when you had hung him on a cross and killed him.

God took him up to his right hand as our leader and savior, in order to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.

We and the holy Spirit which God has given to those who obey him are witnesses to these things."

But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law highly regarded by all the people, got up in the council and ordered the men to be removed for a while,

but if it is from God, you will not be able to stop it. You may actually find yourselves fighting God!"

and they did not for a single day stop teaching and preaching in the Temple and in private houses the good news of Jesus, the Christ.

So the Twelve called in the whole body of disciples and said to them, "It is not desirable that we should give up preaching the word of God to keep accounts.

You, brothers, must pick out from your number seven men of good standing, who are wise and full of the Spirit, and we will put them in charge of this matter,

So God's message continued to spread; the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a great many priests accepted the faith.

Stephen, greatly strengthened by God's favor, did remarkable signs and wonders among the people.

So they instigated people to say, "We have heard him use abusive language about Moses and about God."

He answered, "Brothers and fathers, listen. The glorious God appeared to our forefather Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

So he left the country of the Chaldeans and went to live in Haran, and from there after the death of his father, God caused him to move into this country where you now live.

This was what God said: 'His descendants will be strangers, living in a foreign land, and they will be enslaved and misused for four hundred years,

and I will sentence the nation that has enslaved them,' God said, 'and afterward they will leave that country and worship me on this spot.'

The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But God was with him,

As the time drew near for the fulfilment of the promise God had made to Abraham, the people became more and more numerous in Egypt,

He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was using him as the means of delivering them, but they did not.

'I am the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses was terrified and did not dare to look at it.

The Moses whom they had refused, saying to him, 'Who made you our ruler and judge?' God sent both to rule and to deliver them, with the help of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush.

This was the Moses who said to the descendants of Israel, 'God will make a prophet rise from among your brothers to teach you, just as he made me rise.'

So God turned his back on them and left them to worship the starry host, just as the Book of the Prophets says, " 'Was it victims and sacrifices that you offered to me, O house of Israel, Those forty years in the desert?

You offered me the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rompha, The images you had made to worship! So I will deport you beyond Babylon.'

This tent was handed down to our forefathers and they brought it here with them when under Joshua they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them, and it existed until the time of David.

He won the approval of God and begged to be allowed to provide a dwelling for the God of Jacob,

But he, full of the holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God's glory and Jesus standing at God's right hand.

And he said, "Look! I can see heaven open, and the Son of Man standing at God's right hand!"

Those who were scattered went from place to place preaching the good news of the message.

Everyone there, high and low, made much of him, and said, "He must be what is known as the Great Power of God!"

But when they believed Philip's message of the good news of the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, men and women alike accepted baptism.

When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there.

But Peter said to him, "Go to destruction with your money, for thinking you could buy God's gift with it!

You have no share or part in this movement, for your heart is not honest in the sight of God.

After they had given their testimony and delivered the Lord's message, they went back to Jerusalem, telling the good news in many Samaritan villages on the way.