Study Desk

‘ I am the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob .' Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look more closely.

This same Moses they had rejected, saying, ‘ Who made you a ruler and judge? ' God sent as both ruler and deliverer through the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘ God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers .'

But God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘ It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, was it, house of Israel?

But you took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the god Rephan, the images you made to worship, but I will deport you beyond Babylon .'

Our ancestors had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as God who spoke to Moses ordered him to make it according to the design he had seen.

Our ancestors received possession of it and brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors, until the time of David.

He found favor with God and asked that he could find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently toward heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

"Look!" he said. "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

All the people, from the least to the greatest, paid close attention to him, saying, "This man is the power of God that is called ‘Great.'"

But when they believed Philip as he was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they began to be baptized, both men and women.

Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.

You have no share or part in this matter because your heart is not right before God!

And Saul agreed completely with killing him. Now on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul was trying to destroy the church; entering one house after another, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. Now those who had been forced to scatter went around proclaiming the good news of the word. Philip went down to the main city of Samaria and began proclaiming the Christ to them. The crowds were paying attention with one mind to what Philip said, as they heard and saw the miraculous signs he was performing. For unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, were coming out of many who were possessed, and many paralyzed and lame people were healed. So there was great joy in that city. Now in that city was a man named Simon, who had been practicing magic and amazing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great. All the people, from the least to the greatest, paid close attention to him, saying, "This man is the power of God that is called ‘Great.'" And they paid close attention to him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they began to be baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after he was baptized, he stayed close to Philip constantly, and when he saw the signs and great miracles that were occurring, he was amazed. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. These two went down and prayed for them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit. (For the Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then Peter and John placed their hands on the Samaritans, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now Simon, when he saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, offered them money, saying, "Give me this power too, so that everyone I place my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could acquire God's gift with money! You have no share or part in this matter because your heart is not right before God! Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that he may perhaps forgive you for the intent of your heart. For I see that you are bitterly envious and in bondage to sin." But Simon replied, "You pray to the Lord for me so that nothing of what you have said may happen to me." So after Peter and John had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, proclaiming the good news to many Samaritan villages as they went. Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a desert road.) So he got up and went. There he met an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home, sitting in his chariot, reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over and join this chariot." So Philip ran up to it and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. He asked him, "Do you understand what you're reading?" The man replied, "How in the world can I, unless someone guides me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture the man was reading was this: " He was led like a sheep to slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth . In humiliation justice was taken from him . Who can describe his posterity? For his life was taken away from the earth ." Then the eunuch said to Philip, "Please tell me, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or someone else?" So Philip started speaking, and beginning with this scripture proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. Now as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Look, there is water! What is to stop me from being baptized?"

and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "This man is the Son of God."

He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was all his household; he did many acts of charity for the people and prayed to God regularly.

About three o'clock one afternoon he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God who came in and said to him, "Cornelius."

Staring at him and becoming greatly afraid, Cornelius replied, "What is it, Lord?" The angel said to him, "Your prayers and your acts of charity have gone up as a memorial before God.

The voice spoke to him again, a second time, "What God has made clean, you must not consider ritually unclean!"