Peter’s Sermon at Pentecost

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.¹ 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus,² delivered up according to the definite plan and ^sforeknowledge of God, ^tyou crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 ^uGod ^vraised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was ^wnot possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him,

29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both ^ydied and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had ^zsworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are ^awitnesses. 33 Being therefore ^bexalted ^cat the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the ^dpromise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both ^gLord and ^hChrist, 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, ⁱ“Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, ^j“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the ^kforgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the ^lgift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and ^mfor your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God ⁿcalls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this ^ocrooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were ^padded that day about three thousand souls.

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south¹ to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an ^tEthiopian, a ^ueunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the ^vSpirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, ^w“How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and ^ybeginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! ^zWhat prevents me from being baptized?”² 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord ^acarried Philip away, and the eunuch ^bsaw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Paul and Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia

13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any ^vword of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said:

“Men of Israel and you who ^wfear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel ^xchose our fathers and ^ymade the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and ^zwith uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with¹ them in the wilderness. 19 ^aAnd after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that ^bhe gave them judges until ^cSamuel the prophet. 21 Then ^dthey asked for a king, and ^eGod gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, ^fhe raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ^g‘I have found in David the son of Jesse ^ha man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 23 Of ⁱthis man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, ^jas he promised. 24 ^kBefore his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 ^lAnd as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’

26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. 27 ^mFor those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the ⁿprophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. 28 ^oAnd though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 And ^pwhen they had carried out all that was written of him, ^qthey took him down from the ^rtree and laid him in a tomb. 30 ^sBut God raised him from the dead, 31 ^tand for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. 32 And we bring you the ^ugood news that what God ^vpromised to the fathers, 33 this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,

34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, ^yno more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,

35 Therefore he says also in another psalm,

36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37 but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. 38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed² from everything from which you ^bcould not be freed by the law of Moses. 40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about:

42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to ^dJudaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews³ saw the crowds, they were filled with ^ejealousy and began to ^fcontradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. 46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken ^gfirst to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are ^hturning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,

48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and ^lglorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

Paul and Barnabas at Iconium

1 Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great ^pnumber of both ^qJews and Greeks believed.

The Philippian Jailer Converted

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were ^gpraying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great ^hearthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were ⁱopened, and everyone’s ^jbonds were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, ^ksupposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer¹ called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, ^l“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, ^m“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was ⁿbaptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had ^obelieved in God.

Paul Addresses the Areopagus

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the ^aunknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in ^btemples made by man,¹ 25 nor is he served by human hands, ^cas though he needed anything, since he himself ^dgives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made ^efrom one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having ^fdetermined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 ^gthat they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually ^hnot far from each one of us, 28 for

as even some of ⁱyour own poets have said,

29 Being then ^jGod’s offspring, we ought ^knot to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an ^limage formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The ^mtimes of ignorance God ⁿoverlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to ^orepent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness ^pby a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

32 Now when they heard of the ^qresurrection of the dead, some ^rmocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.