Acts Chapter 3

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¹ Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer,the ninth hour . ² A certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask gifts for the needy of those who entered into the temple. ³ Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive gifts for the needy. ⁴ Peter, fastening his eyes on him, with John, said, “Look at us.” ⁵ He listened to them, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ But Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” ⁷ He took him by the right hand, and raised him up. Immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength. ⁸ Leaping up, he stood, and began to walk. He entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God. ⁹ All the people saw him walking and praising God. ¹⁰ They recognized him, that it was he who used to sit begging for gifts for the needy at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. ¹¹ As the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.

¹² When Peter saw it, he responded to the people, “You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk? ¹³ The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him. ¹⁴ But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵ and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses. ¹⁶ By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which is through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

¹⁷ “Now,brothers , I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers. ¹⁸ But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.

¹⁹ “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, ²⁰ and that hemay send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets. ²² For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in all things whatever he says to you. ²³ It will be, that every soul that will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ ²⁴ Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days. ²⁵ You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘In your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.’ ²⁶ God, having raised up his servant, Jesus, sent him to you first, to bless you, in turning away everyone of you from your wickedness.”

Acts Chapter 2

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¹ Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place. ² Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. ³ Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them. ⁴ They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak. ⁵ Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under the sky. ⁶ When this sound was heard, the multitude came together, and were bewildered, because everyone heard them speaking in his own language. ⁷ They were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Behold, aren’t all these who speak Galileans? ⁸ How do we hear, everyone in our own native language? ⁹ Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹ Cretans and Arabians: we hear them speaking in our languages the mighty works of God!” ¹² They were all amazed, and were perplexed, saying one to another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ Others, mocking, said, “They are filled with new wine.”

¹⁴ But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spoke out to them, “You men of Judea, and all you who dwell at Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words. ¹⁵ For these aren’t drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is onlythe third hour of the day . ¹⁶ But this is what has been spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷ ‘It will be in the last days, says God,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.

Your sons and your daughters will prophesy.

Your young men will see visions.

Your old men will dream dreams.

¹⁸ Yes, and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days,

I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy.

¹⁹ I will show wonders in the sky above,

and signs on the earth beneath;

blood, and fire, and billows of smoke.

²⁰ The sun will be turned into darkness,

and the moon into blood,

before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.

²¹ It will be, that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

²² “Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as you yourselves know, ²³ him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed; ²⁴ whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. ²⁵ For David says concerning him,

‘I saw the Lord always before my face,

For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.

²⁶ Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced.

Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope;

²⁷ because you will not leave my soul inHades ,

neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.

²⁸ You made known to me the ways of life.

You will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

²⁹ “Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. ³⁰ Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, ³¹ he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was his soul left inHades , nor did his flesh see decay. ³² This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses. ³³ Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear. ³⁴ For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself,

‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit by my right hand,

³⁵ until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”‘

³⁶ “Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

³⁷ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

³⁸ Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” ⁴⁰ With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”

⁴¹ Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls. ⁴² They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer. ⁴³ Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. ⁴⁴ All who believed were together, and had all things in common. ⁴⁵ They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need. ⁴⁶ Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, ⁴⁷ praising God, and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.

Acts Chapter 1

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¹ The first book I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, ² until the day in which he was received up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. ³ To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about God’s Kingdom. ⁴ Being assembled together with them, he commanded them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me. ⁵ For John indeed baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

⁶ Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

⁷ He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

⁹ When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. ¹⁰ While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing, ¹¹ who also said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky.”

¹² Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. ¹³ When they had come in, they went up into the upper room, where they were staying; that is Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. ¹⁴ All these with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer and supplication, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

¹⁵ In these days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (and the number of names was about one hundred twenty), and said, ¹⁶ “Brothers, it was necessary that this Scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was guide to those who took Jesus. ¹⁷ For he was numbered with us, and received his portion in this ministry. ¹⁸ Now this man obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness, and falling headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines gushed out. ¹⁹ It became known to everyone who lived in Jerusalem that in their language that field was called ‘Akeldama,’ that is, ‘The field of blood.’ ²⁰ For it is written in the book of Psalms,

‘Let his habitation be made desolate.

Let no one dwell therein;’

and,

‘Let another take his office.’

²¹ “Of the men therefore who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, ²² beginning from the baptism of John, to the day that he was received up from us, of these one must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

²³ They put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. ²⁴ They prayed, and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts ofall men, show which one of these two you have chosen ²⁵ to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place.” ²⁶ They drew lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.