-
Acts 11:19-30
/RSS FeedActs 11:19-30
19 Meanwhile those scattered by the persecution that began with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the message only to Jews.
20 But some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus.
21 The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
22 When news of this reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
23 When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to abide in the Lord with all their hearts.
24 Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul,
26 and when he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. So for a full year they met together with the church and taught large numbers of people. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.
27 In those days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
28 One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted through the Spirit that a great famine would sweep across the whole world. (This happened under Claudius.)
29 So the disciples, each according to his ability, decided to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.
30 This they did, sending their gifts to the elders with Barnabas and Saul. -
Acts 8:26-40
/RSS FeedActs 8:26-40
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south to the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official in charge of the entire treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship,
28 and on his return was sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah the prophet.
29 The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that chariot and stay by it.”
30 So Philip ran up and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
33 In His humiliation He was deprived of justice. Who can recount His descendants? For His life was removed from the earth.”
34 “Tell me,” said the eunuch, “who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”
35 Then Philip began with this very Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
36 As they traveled along the road and came to some water, the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is there to prevent me from being baptized?”
37
38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing.
40 But Philip appeared at Azotus and traveled through that region, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea. -
Acts 7:39-53
/RSS FeedActs 7:39-53
39 But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.
40 They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us! As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’
41 At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands.
42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You have taken along the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the wilderness. It was constructed exactly as God had directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.
45 And our fathers who received it brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations God drove out before them. It remained until the time of David,
46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.
47 But it was Solomon who built the house for Him.
48 However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:
49 ‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me, says the Lord, or where will My place of repose be?
50 Has not My hand made all these things?’
51 You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.
52 Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—
53 you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.” -
Acts 2:14-36
/RSS FeedActs 2:14-36
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, lifted up his voice, and addressed the crowd: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen carefully to my words.
15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It is only the third hour of the day!
16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on My menservants and maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious Day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
22 Men of Israel, listen to this message: Jesus of Nazareth was a man certified by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know.
23 He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.
24 But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in its clutches.
25 David says about Him: ‘I saw the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will dwell in hope,
27 because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence.’
29 Brothers, I can tell you with confidence that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that He would place one of his descendants on his throne.
31 Foreseeing this, David spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His body see decay.
32 God has raised this Jesus to life, to which we are all witnesses.
33 Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
34 For David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand
35 until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’
36 Therefore let all Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ!” -
Revelation 11:1-14
/RSS FeedRevelation 11:1-14
1 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers there.
2 But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months.
3 And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
4 These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.
5 If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed.
6 These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.
7 When the two witnesses have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will wage war with them, and will overpower and kill them.
8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified.
9 For three and a half days all peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will view their bodies and will not permit them to be laid in a tomb.
10 And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them, and will celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.
11 But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who saw them.
12 And the witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched them.
13 And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand were killed in the quake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is coming shortly. -
John 21:15-19
/RSS FeedJohn 21:15-19
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.” Jesus replied, “Feed My lambs.”
16 Jesus asked a second time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.” Jesus told him, “Shepherd My sheep.”
17 Jesus asked a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was deeply hurt that Jesus had asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?” “Lord, You know all things,” he replied. “You know I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.
18 Truly, truly, I tell you, when you were young, you dressed yourself and walked where you wanted; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”
19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And after He had said this, He told him, “Follow Me.” -
John 12:37-50
/RSS FeedJohn 12:37-50
37 Although Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still did not believe in Him.
38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 For this reason they were unable to believe. For again, Isaiah says:
40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”
41 Isaiah said these things because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.
42 Nevertheless, many of the leaders believed in Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.
43 For they loved praise from men more than praise from God.
44 Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in Me does not believe in Me alone, but in the One who sent Me.
45 And whoever sees Me sees the One who sent Me.
46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should remain in darkness.
47 As for anyone who hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
48 There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not receive My words: The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
49 I have not spoken on My own, but the Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it.
50 And I know that His command leads to eternal life. So I speak exactly what the Father has told Me to say.”
