Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;

you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”

Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed.

Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great;

who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship,

“In humiliation His judgment was taken away;
Who will relate His generation?
For His life is removed from the earth.”

The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?”

And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,

The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.

and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.”

So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

and he took food and was strengthened.Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus,

All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, “Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?”

But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

Now as Peter was traveling through all those regions, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.

There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed.

And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.

About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!”

Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter;

When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants,

Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate;

and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there.

And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.

Therefore send to Joppa and invite Simon, who is also called Peter, to come to you; he is staying at the house of Simon the tanner by the sea.’

but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.

You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.

And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.

Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.

All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.

“Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?”

Now the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him,

And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here;

Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone.

But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.

And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.

Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them.

And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.

And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark.

Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him,

and said, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?

Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.” And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.

Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said,“Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen:

After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.’

“Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent.

For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him.

and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people.

but He whom God raised did not undergo decay.

and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.

Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.

But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren.

Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands.

At Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked.

This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well,

and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”

And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us;

So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,’

Says the Lord, who makes these things known from long ago.

Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles,

For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

and they sent this letter by them, “The apostles and the brethren who are elders, to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles, greetings.

“Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls,

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

“Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth.

After they had spent time there, they were sent away from the brethren in peace to those who had sent them out.

But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.

Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek,

and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium.

Paul wanted this man to go with him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem, for them to observe.

And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled.

It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling.

Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.”

And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.

But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.”

explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”

When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also;

They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things.

Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.

So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;

because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace,

Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”

This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.”

And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”

And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.