Acts 2:1-6:6

New Testament for Everyone

Here comes the power

2 When the day of Pentecost had finally arrived, they were all together in the same place. ² Suddenly there came from heaven a noise like the sound of a strong, blowing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ Then tongues, seemingly made of fire, appeared to them, moving apart and coming to rest on each one of them. ⁴ They were all filled with the holy spirit, and began to speak in other languages, as the spirit gave them the words to say.

New words for new news

⁵ There were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem at that time. ⁶ When they heard this noise they came together in a crowd. They were deeply puzzled, because every single one of them could hear them speaking in his or her own native language. ⁷ They were astonished and amazed.

“These men who are doing the speaking are all Galileans, aren’t they?” they said. ⁸ “So how is it that each of us can hear them in our own mother tongues? ⁹ There are Parthians here, and Medians, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judaea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya that belong to Cyrene; there are people from Rome, ¹¹ proselytes as well as Jews; there are Cretans and Arabs. We can hear them speaking about the powerful things God has done—in our own languages!”

¹² Everyone was astonished and perplexed.

“What does it all mean?” they were asking each other.

¹³ But some sneered.

“They’re full of new wine!” they said.

It’s all coming true at last!

¹⁴ Then Peter got up, with the eleven. He spoke to them in a loud voice.

“People of Judaea!” he began. “All of you staying here in Jerusalem! There’s something you have to know! Listen to what I’m saying! ¹⁵ These people aren’t drunk, as you imagine. It’s only nine o’clock in the morning! ¹⁶ No, this is what the prophet Joel was talking about, when he said,

David speaks of Jesus’ resurrection

²² “You people of Israel,” Peter continued, “listen to this. The man Jesus of Nazareth was marked out for you by God through the mighty works, signs and portents which God performed through him right here among you, as you all know. ²³ He was handed over in accordance with God’s determined purpose and foreknowledge—and you used people outside the law to nail him up and kill him.

²⁴ “But God raised him from the dead! Death had its painful grip on him; but God released him from it, because it wasn’t possible for him to be mastered by it. ²⁵ This, you see, is how David speaks of him:

²⁹ “My dear family, I can surely speak freely to you about the patriarch David. He died and was buried, and his tomb is here with us to this day. ³⁰ He was of course a prophet, and he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to set one of his own physical offspring on his throne. ³¹ He foresaw the Messiah’s resurrection, and spoke about him ‘not being left in Hades,’ and about his flesh ‘not seeing corruption.’ ³² This is the Jesus we’re talking about! God raised him from the dead, and all of us here are witnesses to the fact! ³³ Now he’s been exalted to God’s right hand; and what you see and hear is the result of the fact that he is pouring out the holy spirit, which had been promised, and which he has received from the father.

³⁴ “David, after all, did not ascend into the heavens. This is what he says:

³⁶ “So the whole house of Israel must know this for a fact: God has made him Lord and Messiah—this Jesus, the one you crucified.”

God’s rescue plan

³⁷ When they heard this, the people in the crowd were cut to the heart.

“Brothers,” they said to Peter and the other apostles, “what shall we do?”

³⁸ “Turn back!” replied Peter. “Be baptized—every single one of you—in the name of Jesus the Messiah, so that your sins can be forgiven, and you will receive the gift of the holy spirit. ³⁹ The promise is for you and for your children, and for everyone who is far away, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

⁴⁰ He carried on explaining things to them with many other words.

“Let God rescue you,” he was urging them, “from this wicked generation!”

⁴¹ Those who welcomed his word were baptized. About three thousand people were added to the community that day.

The new family

⁴² They all gave full attention to the teaching of the apostles and to the common life, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³ Great awe fell on everyone, and many remarkable deeds and signs were performed by the apostles.

⁴⁴ All of those who believed came together, and held everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold their possessions and belongings and divided them up to everyone in proportion to their various needs. ⁴⁶ Day by day they were all together attending the Temple. They broke bread in their various houses, and ate their food with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and standing in favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being rescued.

More than he bargained for

3 One day, Peter and John were going up to the Temple at three o’clock in the afternoon, the time for prayer. ² There was a man being carried in who had been lame since birth. People used to bring him every day to the Temple gate called “Beautiful,” so that he could ask for alms from folk on their way in to the Temple. ³ When he saw Peter and John going in to the Temple, he asked them to give him some money. ⁴ Peter, with John, looked hard at him.

“Look at us,” he said.

⁵ The man stared at them, expecting to get something from them.

⁶ “I haven’t got any silver or gold,” Peter said, “but I’ll give you what I have got. In the name of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk!”

⁷ He grabbed the man by his right hand and lifted him up. At once his feet and ankles became strong, ⁸ and he leaped to his feet and began to walk. He went in with them into the Temple, walking and jumping up and down and praising God. ⁹ All the people saw him walking and praising God, ¹⁰ and they recognized him as the man who had been sitting begging for alms by the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. They were filled with amazement and astonishment at what had happened to him.

An explanation is called for

¹¹ All the people ran together in astonishment towards Peter and John, and the man who was clinging onto them. They were in the part of the Temple known as Solomon’s Porch. ¹² Peter saw them all and began to speak.

“Fellow Israelites,” he said, “why are you amazed at this? Why are you staring at us as though it was our own power or piety that made this man walk? ¹³ ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob—the God of our ancestors’—he has glorified his child Jesus, the one you handed over and denied in the presence of Pilate, although he had decided to let him go. ¹⁴ But you denied the Holy One, the Just One, and requested instead to have a murderer given to you; ¹⁵ and so you killed the Prince of Life. But God raised him from the dead, and we are witnesses to the fact. ¹⁶ And it is his name, working through faith in his name, that has given strength to this man, whom you see and know. It is faith which comes through him that has given him this new complete wholeness in front of all of you.”

Restoration and refreshment

¹⁷ “Now, my dear family,” Peter continued, “I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did. ¹⁸ But this is how God has fulfilled what he promised through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. ¹⁹ So now repent, and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out, ²⁰ so that times of refreshment may come from the presence of the Lord, and so that he will send you Jesus, the one he chose and appointed to be his Messiah. ²¹ He must be received in heaven, you see, until the time which God spoke about through the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient days, the time when God will restore all things. ²² Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, one from among your own brothers; whatever he says to you, you must pay attention to him. ²³ And everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be cut off from the people.’ ²⁴ All the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors, told us about these days too. ²⁵ You are the children of the prophets, the children of the covenant which God established with your ancestors when he said to Abraham, ‘In your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ ²⁶ When God raised up his servant he sent him to you first, to bless you by turning each of you away from your wicked deeds.”

Resurrection plus the name of Jesus equals trouble

4 As they were speaking to the people, along came the priests, the chief of the Temple police, and the Sadducees. ² They were thoroughly annoyed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming that “the resurrection of the dead” had begun to happen in Jesus. ³ They seized them and put them under guard until the next day, since it was already evening. ⁴ But a large number of the people who had heard the message believed it, and the number of men grew to five thousand.

⁵ On the next day their rulers, the elders and the scribes gathered in Jerusalem, ⁶ along with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander and all the members of the high-priestly family. ⁷ They stood them in the midst.

“How did you do this?” they asked them. “What power did you use? What name did you invoke?”

⁸ Peter was filled with the holy spirit. “Rulers of the people and elders,” he said, ⁹ “if the question we’re being asked today is about a good deed done for a sick man, and whose power it was that rescued him, ¹⁰ let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man stands before you fit and well because of the name of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead. ¹¹ He is the stone which you builders rejected, but which has become the head cornerstone. ¹² Rescue won’t come from anybody else! There is no other name given under heaven and among humans by which we must be rescued.”

The clash of loyalties

¹³ When they saw how boldly Peter and John were speaking, and realized that they were untrained, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they recognized them as people who had been with Jesus. ¹⁴ And when they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply. ¹⁵ They ordered them to be put out of the assembly while they conferred among themselves.

¹⁶ “What can we do to these men?” they said. “This is a spectacular sign that has happened through them. All Jerusalem knows it, and we can’t deny it! ¹⁷ But we certainly don’t want it to spread any further among the people. So let’s threaten them with awful consequences if they speak any more in this name to anybody.”

¹⁸ So they called them in and gave them orders not to speak at all, or to teach, in the name of Jesus.

¹⁹ But Peter and John gave them this reply.

“You judge,” they said, “whether it’s right before God to listen to you rather than to God! ²⁰ As far as we’re concerned, we can’t stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

²¹ Then they threatened them some more, and let them go. They couldn’t find any way to punish them because of the people, since everyone was glorifying God for what had happened. ²² After all, the man to whom this sign of healing had happened was over forty years old.

Look upon their threats

²³ When they had been released, they went back to their own people, and told them everything that the chief priests and the elders had said. ²⁴ When they heard it, they all together lifted up their voices to God.

“Sovereign Master,” they said, “you made heaven and earth, and the sea, and everything in them. ²⁵ And you said through the holy spirit, by the mouth of our ancestor David, your servant,

²⁷ “It’s true: Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the nations and the peoples of Israel, gathered themselves together in this very city against your holy child Jesus, the one you anointed, ²⁸ to do whatever your hand and your plan had foreordained to take place. ²⁹ So now, Master, look on their threats; and grant that we, your servants, may speak your word with all boldness, ³⁰ while you stretch out your hand for healing, so that signs and wonders may come about through the name of your holy child Jesus.”

³¹ When they had prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken. They were all filled with the holy spirit, and they boldly spoke the word of God.

Signs of the new covenant

³² The company of those who believed had one heart and soul. Nobody said that they owned their property; instead, they had everything in common. ³³ The apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power, and great grace was upon all of them. ³⁴ For there was no needy person among them, since any who possessed lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sale, ³⁵ and placed it at the feet of the apostles, who then gave to each according to their need.

³⁶ Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, to whom the apostles gave the surname “Barnabas” (which means “son of encouragement”), ³⁷ sold some land which belonged to him, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Disaster

5 There was, however, a man named Ananias, married to a woman called Sapphira. He sold some property, ² and, with his wife’s knowledge, kept back part of the price. He brought the rest and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

³ “Ananias!” said Peter. “Why did the satan fill your heart, to make you tell a lie to the holy spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land? ⁴ While it was still yours, it belonged to you, didn’t it? And, when you sold it, it was still in your power! Why did you get such an idea in your heart? It isn’t humans that you’ve lied to: it’s God!”

⁵ When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. Everyone who heard about it was scared out of their wits. ⁶ The young men got up, took him away, wrapped up his body and buried him.

⁷ After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

⁸ Peter spoke to her.

“Tell me,” he said, “did you sell the land for this much?”

“Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.”

⁹ “So why,” Peter answered, “did you agree together to put the holy spirit to the test? Look: the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door—and they will carry you out too!”

¹⁰ At once she fell down at his feet and died. The young men were just coming in, and they found her dead, so they took her out and buried her beside her husband. ¹¹ Great fear came upon the whole gathering, and on all who heard about these things.

Healed by Peter’s shadow

¹² Many signs and wonders were performed by the apostles among the people. They were all together in Solomon’s Porch, ¹³ while none of the others dared join them, though the people spoke highly of them. ¹⁴ But more people, a crowd both of men and women, believed in the Lord, and were added to their number. ¹⁵ They used to bring the sick into the streets, and place them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on them as he went by. ¹⁶ Crowds gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing people who were sick, or infested with unclean spirits. All of them were cured.

The words of this life

¹⁷ Then the high priest got up, and all who were with him, namely the group called the Sadducees. They were filled with righteous indignation, ¹⁸ and seized the apostles and put them in the public jail. ¹⁹ But an angel of the Lord came in the night, opened the prison doors, and brought them out.

²⁰ “Go and take your stand in the Temple,” he said, “and speak all the words of this Life to the people.”

²¹ When they heard this, they went in at early morning and began to teach.

When the high priest arrived with his entourage, they called the official Assembly and all the elders of the children of Israel, and they sent to the prison to have the apostles brought in. ²² But when the attendants went, they didn’t find them in the prison. So they came and reported back.

²³ “We found the jail shut up with maximum security,” they said, “and the guards were standing in front of the doors. But when we opened up we found nobody inside.”

²⁴ When they heard these words, the commander of the Temple police and the chief priests were at a loss about them, with no idea what had happened. ²⁵ But then someone came with a message for them.

“Look!” he said. “The men you put in prison are standing in the Temple and teaching the people!”

²⁶ Then the commander went with his attendants and brought them. They didn’t use force, though, because they were afraid that the people might stone them.

Human inventions and divine instructions

²⁷ So they brought them and stood them in the Assembly. The high priest questioned them.

²⁸ “We gave you strict orders, didn’t we?” he demanded. “We told you not to teach in this Name, and look what you’re doing! You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you’re trying to bring this man’s blood on us!”

²⁹ “We must obey God, not human beings!” responded Peter and the apostles. ³⁰ “The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, after you had laid violent hands on him and hanged him on a tree. ³¹ God exalted him to his right hand as leader and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. ³² We are witnesses of these things, and so is the holy spirit, which God gave to those who obey him.”

³³ When they heard this, they were infuriated, and wanted to kill them. ³⁴ But then a Pharisee by the name of Gamaliel stood up in the Assembly. He was a law-teacher, highly respected by all the people. He ordered the men to be put outside for a short while.

³⁵ “Men of Israel,” he said to the gathering, “be careful what you do to these men. ³⁶ Before these times Theudas rose up, claiming to be someone special, and about four hundred men went off to join him. But he was killed, and all the people who had trusted him were dispersed. The movement came to nothing. ³⁷ After that, Judas the Galilean arose, in the days of the census, and drew a crowd after himself. But he was killed, and all those who trusted him were scattered. ³⁸ So my advice to you now is this. Leave off from these men; let them be. You see, if this plan or this work is of merely human origin, it will come to ruin. ³⁹ But if it’s from God—well, you won’t be able to stop them. You might even be found to be fighting against God!”

They were persuaded by him, ⁴⁰ and they called the apostles back in. They beat them and told them not to speak in the name of Jesus. Then they let them go. ⁴¹ They, however, went out from the presence of the Assembly celebrating, because they had been reckoned worthy to suffer disgrace for the Name. ⁴² And all day, in the Temple and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.

Problems of family living

6 Around that time, as the number of disciples increased, the “Hellenists” raised a dispute with the “Hebrews” because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. ² So the Twelve called the whole crowd of disciples together.

“Listen,” they said. “It wouldn’t be right for us to leave the word of God to wait on tables. ³ So, brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among yourselves who are well spoken of and filled with the spirit and wisdom. We will put them in charge of what needs to be done in this matter. ⁴ We will continue to pay attention to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

⁵ The whole gathering was pleased with what they said. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the holy spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolaus (a proselyte from Antioch). ⁶ They presented them before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.