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The Acts of the Apostles 1

1 Dear Theophilus,

In the first book that I wrote for you, I told about many of Jesus’ actions and teachings. 2 I told you about those things up to the moment when God took Jesus up to heaven. Before Jesus went to heaven, he gave instructions to his chosen Representatives as the Holy Spirit guided him. 3 Even though the Romans executed Jesus on a cross, God made him alive again. Jesus then went to his Representatives and other disciples and proved to them in many convincing ways that he truly was alive again. He met with them at different times over a period of 40 days. He talked with them about how God would rule the lives of people everywhere.

4 One time while Jesus was with his disciples, he told them, “I want you to stay here in the city of Jerusalem and wait until God our Father sends his Spirit to you. As I told you, he promised that he would do that. 5 John baptized people in water, but within a few days God is going to baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”

6 One day when the Representatives were meeting together with Jesus, they asked him, “Lord, will you now become our king so that we Israelite people will have our own king once again?” 7 He replied to them, “You do not need to know when that will happen. God my Father alone has decided when he will make me king.” 8 But when the Holy Spirit comes to you, he will enable you to tell people about me powerfully. You will do this here in the city of Jerusalem. You will do it in the nearby regions of Judea and Samaria. But you will also do it all over the world. 9 After he said that, he started to rise up into heaven while they watched. But then a cloud blocked their view so that they could no longer see him.

10 While they were still staring toward the sky as Jesus was going up, suddenly two angels in human form stood beside them. Their clothes shone brightly. 11 One of the angels said, “You men who come from Galilee, you do not need to look up at the sky any longer! Someday this same Jesus, whom God took from you up into heaven, will come back to earth. He will return in the same way that you just now saw him go up to heaven.”

12 Then after the two angels left, the Representatives returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is a short distance from Jerusalem. 13 After they entered the city, they went into the upstairs room in the house where they were staying. Those who were there included Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew. They also included another man named James, who was the son of Alphaeus; Simon the Zealot; and Judas, who was the son of yet another man named James. 14 All these men prayed together regularly and frequently. Others who prayed with them included the women who had traveled with Jesus; Mary, who was Jesus’ mother; and his younger brothers.

15 Now about 120 people were meeting together at that place. At one of the meetings, Peter stood up among his fellow believers because he was going to say something important. He said, 16 “You who believe as I do, there are words that King David wrote in the Scriptures long ago that had to happen as he said they would. The Holy Spirit, who knew that Judas would show Jesus’ enemies where to find him and arrest him, inspired David to write those words. 17 But Jesus had chosen Judas, along with the rest of us, to represent him. So we need to find someone else to take his place.”

18 This is how Judas died. The Jewish leaders gave Judas money for betraying Jesus. He used that money to buy a field and he went to that field to kill himself because he felt so badly about what he had done to Jesus. He fell down onto that field from a high place and landed with such force that his abdomen burst open, and all his intestines spilled out. 19 The news about this spread widely among the people of Jerusalem. When they heard about it, they gave that field a new name. In their Aramaic language it was Akeldama, which means “Field of Blood.” They gave it that name because it was where someone had died.

20 Peter also said, “What happened to Judas is like what we read in the book of Psalms: ‘May his home become empty, with no one living in it.’ These other words in the Psalms also refer to him: ‘Let someone else take over his work as a leader.’ ”

21 “So we need to identify all the men who were with us during the whole time when the Lord Jesus was with us. 22 They need to have been with us from the time when John the Baptizer began his work until the day when Jesus left us and rose up to heaven. One such man must replace Judas and join us in telling people about Jesus and how God caused him to live again after he died.”

23 So the people who were meeting together suggested two men who could replace Judas. One man was Joseph the son of Sabbas, who also had the name Justus. The other man was Matthias.24-25 24-25Then they prayed: “Lord Jesus, Judas stopped representing you as he should have. He has now gone to the place where he deserves to be. You know what every person thinks privately. So please show us which of these two men you have chosen to take the place of Judas as your Representative.” 26 Then they cast lots to choose between the two of them. The lot indicated that Matthias was the one to replace Judas. So he became a Representative along with the 11 others.

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