Study Desk

So Peter was kept in jail, but the people of the church were praying earnestly to God for him.

"It isn't a man speaking, but a god!" they shouted.

At once the angel of the Lord struck Herod down, because he did not give honor to God. He was eaten by worms and died.

Meanwhile the word of God continued to spread and grow.

When they arrived at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues. They had John Mark with them to help in the work.

He was a friend of the governor of the island, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor called Barnabas and Saul before him because he wanted to hear the word of God.

Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and began to speak: "Fellow Israelites and all Gentiles here who worship God: hear me!

The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors and made the people a great nation during the time they lived as foreigners in Egypt. God brought them out of Egypt by his great power,

And when they asked for a king, God gave them Saul son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin, to be their king for forty years.

After removing him, God made David their king. This is what God said about him: ‘I have found that David son of Jesse is the kind of man I like, a man who will do all I want him to do.'

It was Jesus, a descendant of David, whom God made the Savior of the people of Israel, as he had promised.

"My fellow Israelites, descendants of Abraham, and all Gentiles here who worship God: it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent!

But God raised him from death,

And we are here to bring the Good News to you: what God promised our ancestors he would do, he has now done for us, who are their descendants, by raising Jesus to life. As it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.' <

And this is what God said about raising him from death, never to rot away in the grave: ‘I will give you the sacred and sure blessings that I promised to David.'

But this did not happen to the one whom God raised from death.

After the people had left the meeting, Paul and Barnabas were followed by many Jews and by many Gentiles who had been converted to Judaism. The apostles spoke to them and encouraged them to keep on living in the grace of God.

But Paul and Barnabas spoke out even more boldly: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we will leave you and go to the Gentiles.

But the Jews stirred up the leading men of the city and the Gentile women of high social standing who worshiped God. They started a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and threw them out of their region.

The priest of the god Zeus, whose temple stood just outside the town, brought bulls and flowers to the gate, for he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifice to the apostles.