Study Desk

So I sent for you immediately, and it was very good of you to come. Now we are all here before God to hear everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us."

Peter began to speak: "I really understand now that to God every person is the same.

In every country God accepts anyone who worships him and does what is right.

You know the message that God has sent to the people of Israel is the Good News that peace has come through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lord of all people!

You know about Jesus from Nazareth, that God gave him the Holy Spirit and power. You know how Jesus went everywhere doing good and healing those who were ruled by the devil, because God was with him.

Yet, on the third day, God raised Jesus to life and caused him to be seen,

not by all the people, but only by the witnesses God had already chosen. And we are those witnesses who ate and drank with him after he was raised from the dead.

He told us to preach to the people and to tell them that he is the one whom God chose to be the judge of the living and the dead.

These believers heard them speaking in different languages and praising God. Then Peter said,

But the voice from heaven spoke again, ‘God has made these things clean, so don't call them unholy.'

Since God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, how could I stop the work of God?"

When the believers heard this, they stopped arguing. They praised God and said, "So God is allowing even other nations to turn to him and live."

Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and full of faith. When he reached Antioch and saw how God had blessed the people, he was glad. He encouraged all the believers in Antioch always to obey the Lord with all their hearts, and many people became followers of the Lord.

So Peter was kept in jail, but the church prayed earnestly to God for him.

They shouted, "This is the voice of a god, not a human!"

Because Herod did not give the glory to God, an angel of the Lord immediately caused him to become sick, and he was eaten by worms and died.

When they came to Salamis, they preached the Good News of God in the synagogues. John Mark was with them to help.

who always stayed close to Sergius Paulus, the governor and a smart man. He asked Barnabas and Saul to come to him, because he wanted to hear the message of God.

Paul stood up, raised his hand, and said, "You Israelites and you who worship God, please listen!

The God of the Israelites chose our ancestors. He made the people great during the time they lived in Egypt, and he brought them out of that country with great power.