Now send men to Joppa, for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter.

When the angel who had spoken to him was gone, Cornelius called two of his servants, and a devout soldier who was one of his personal attendants,

While Peter was still wondering what the vision he had had could mean, the men whom Cornelius had sent had asked the way to Simon's house and reached the door,

and they called out to ask if Simon who was called Peter was staying there.

They answered, "Cornelius, who is a captain, and an upright and God-fearing man, and who has a good reputation with the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house, and to listen to what you have to say."

So send to Joppa and invite Simon who is called Peter to come here. He is staying at the house of a tanner named Simon, close to the sea.'

but welcomes the man of any nation who reveres him and does what is right.

about Jesus of Nazareth, and how God endowed him with the power of the holy Spirit, and he went about doing good and curing all who were in the power of the devil, because God was with him.

not by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had designated beforehand, that is, by us, who ate and drank with him after he had risen from the dead.

He also directed us to announce to the people and bear solemn testimony that he is the one whom God has appointed to be the judge of the living and the dead.

Before Peter had finished saying these words, the holy Spirit fell on all who were listening to his message.

The Jewish believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the holy Spirit had been showered upon the heathen too,

charging him with having visited and eaten with men who were not Jews.

Just at that moment three men, who had been sent from Caesarea to find me, reached the house where we were staying,

Then he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, 'Send to Joppa for a man named Simon who is also called Peter,

So if God had given them the same gift that we received when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, to be able to interfere with God?"

There were some men from Cyprus and Cyrene among them, however, who when they reached Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, and told them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

The Lord's hand was with them, and there were a great many who believed and turned to the Lord.

The disciples determined to make up a contribution, each according to his ability, and send it to the brothers who lived in Judea,

About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church.

When he realized his situation, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where a number of people were gathered, praying.

When Barnabas and Saul had performed their mission to Jerusalem, they went back, taking John who was called Mark with them.

There were at Antioch in the church there a number of prophets and teachers??arnabas, Symeon who was called Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the governor, and Saul.

He was attached to the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. He sent for Barnabas and Saul and asked them to let him hear God's message.

But Saul, who was also called Paul, was filled with the holy Spirit, and looked at him

Then Paul got up, and motioning with his hand, said, "Men of Israel, and you who reverence God, listen!

Then he removed him and raised David up to be their king, bearing this testimony to him: 'I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my own heart, who will do all that I desire.'

Brothers! Descendants of the house of Abraham, and those others among you who reverence God! It is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.

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

but he whom God raised to life did not undergo it.

and that through union with him everyone who believes is cleared of every charge of which the Law of Moses could not clear you.

When the heathen heard this they were delighted, and praised God's message, and all who were destined for eternal life believed,

But the Jews who refused their message stirred up the heathen and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

They spent some time there, speaking fearlessly and relying upon the Lord, who bore witness to his gracious message by letting signs and wonders be done by them.

In the streets of Lystra a man used to sit who had not the use of his feet. He had been lame from his birth, and had never been able to walk.

and shouting, "Friends, why are you doing this? We are only human beings like you, and we bring you the good news that you should turn from these follies to a living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain.

They appointed elders for them in each church, and with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

But some members of the Pharisees' party who had become believers got up and said that such converts ought to be circumcised and told to obey the Law of Moses.

And God who knows men's hearts testified for them by giving them the holy Spirit just as he had done to us,

So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, And all the heathen who are called by my name, Says the Lord,

who has been making this known from of old.'

In my opinion, therefore, we ought not to put obstacles in the way of those of the heathen who are turning to God,

Then the apostles and elders with the whole church resolved to select representatives and send them with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch. They were Judas who was called Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers.

They were the bearers of this letter: "The apostles and the brothers who are elders send greeting to the brothers of heathen birth in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia.

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

After they had stayed some time, the brothers let them go, with a greeting to those who had sent them.

Now Barnabas wanted to take John who was called Mark with them.

But Paul did not approve of taking with them a man who had deserted them in Pamphylia instead of going on with them to their work.

and who was highly thought of by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium.

On the Sabbath we went outside the gates, to the bank of the river where we supposed there was a praying place, and we sat down and talked with the women who gathered there.

Once as we were on our way to the praying place a slave-girl met us who had the gift of ventriloquism, and made her masters a great deal of money by her fortune-telling.

explaining them and showing that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "Jesus," he said, "of whom I am telling you, is the Christ!"

As they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the town magistrates, shouting, "The men who have made trouble all over the world have come here too,

The men who went with Paul took him all the way to Athens, and came back with instructions for Silas and Timothy to rejoin him as soon as possible.

He had discussions at the synagogue with the Jews and those who worshiped with them, and every day in the public square with any whom he happened to find.

God who created the world and all that is in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples built by human hands,

since he has fixed a day on which he will justly judge the world through a man whom he has appointed, and whom he has guaranteed to all men by raising him from the dead."

There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,

As he wanted to cross to Greece, the brothers wrote to the disciples there, urging them to welcome him. On his arrival there he was of great service to those who through God's favor had become believers,

"John's baptism was a baptism in token of repentance," said Paul, "and he told the people to believe in him who was to follow him, that is, in Jesus."

This went on for two years, so that everyone who lived in Asia, Greeks as well as Jews, heard the Lord's message.

Some Jews who went from place to place casting out demons tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in the cases of people who had evil spirits in them, saying, "I command you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches!"

A Jewish high priest named Sceva had seven sons who were doing this.

But the evil spirit answered, "I know Jesus, and I know of Paul, but who are you?"

And the man in whom the evil spirit was sprang at them, and overpowered them all, with such violence that they ran out of the house tattered and bruised.

This came to be known to everyone who lived in Ephesus, Greeks as well as Jews, and great awe came over them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus came to be held in high honor.

Many who became believers would come and openly confess their former practices.

A number of people who had practiced magic brought out their books and burned them publicly. The value of these was estimated and found to be ten thousand dollars.

There is danger, therefore, not only that this business of ours will be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be neglected and the magnificence of her whom all Asia and the world worship will be a thing of the past!"

Some of the religious authorities also, who were friends of his, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater.

At last the recorder quieted the mob and said, "Men of Ephesus, who in the world does not know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, and of the image that fell down from the sky?

and a young man named Eutychus, who was sitting at the window, became very drowsy as Paul's address grew longer and longer, and finally went fast asleep and fell from the third story to the ground, and was picked up for dead.

Now I know perfectly well that none of you among whom I went about preaching the Kingdom of God will ever see my face again.

Now I commit you to the Lord, and to the message of his favor, which will build you up and give you a place among those whom God has consecrated.

I showed you in every way that by hard work like that we must help those who are weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, for he said, 'It makes one happier to give than to be given to.' "

The next day we left there and went on to Caesarea, where we went to the house of Philip the missionary, who was one of the Seven, and stayed with him.

He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy.

He came to see us and took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, "This is what the holy Spirit says: 'The Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt like this, and will hand him over to the heathen!' "

They have been told that you teach all Jews who live among the heathen to turn away from Moses, and that you tell them not to circumcise their children nor to observe the old customs.

So do what we tell you. We have four men here who are under a vow.

As for the heathen who have become believers, we have written them our decision that they must avoid anything that has been contaminated by idols, the tasting of blood, the meat of strangled animals, and immorality."

shouting, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everybody everywhere against our people and the Law and this place, and besides he has actually brought Greeks into the Temple and desecrated this sacred place."

Then the colonel came up and seized him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains, and then inquired who he was and what he had been doing.

"Are you not the Egyptian who some time ago raised the four thousand cut-throats and led them out into the desert?"

as the high priest and the whole council will bear me witness. In fact, they gave me letters to the brothers in Damascus and I went there to bind those who were there and bring them back to Jerusalem to be punished.

I answered, 'Who are you, sir?' 'I am Jesus of Nazareth,' he said, 'whom you are persecuting.'

The men who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

There a man named Ananias, a devout observer of the Law, highly respected by all the Jews who lived there,

And I said, 'Lord, they know that I used to go through one synagogue after another, and to imprison and flog those who believed in you,

and when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood by and approved it, and took charge of the clothes of the men who killed him.'

But when they had strapped him up, Paul said to the officer who was standing near, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen, and without giving him a trial?"

Then the men who had been going to examine him immediately left him, and the colonel himself was alarmed to find that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had had him bound.

At this the high priest Ananias ordered the people who were standing nearest to him to strike him on the mouth.

But the people who stood near him said, "Do you mean to insult God's high priest?"

to whom he wrote a letter to this effect:

who ought to be here before you and to present their charges if they have any to make against me.

Then Felix, who was somewhat well informed about the Way, adjourned the trial, saying to the Jews, "When Lysias, the colonel, comes down here, I will decide your case."

Some days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and sent for Paul and heard what he had to say about faith in Christ Jesus.

When he came, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him, and made a number of serious charges against him, which they could not substantiate.

and as they stayed there several days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king. "There is a man here," he said, "who was left in prison by Felix,