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The Acts of the Apostles 2

2 On the day when the Jews were celebrating the Pentecost festival, the believers were all together in one place in the city of Jerusalem. 2 Suddenly, they heard a noise coming from the sky that sounded like a wind blowing loudly. Everyone in the entire house where they were sitting heard the noise. 3 Then they saw what looked like burning flames. These flames separated from one another and came to rest on each of the believers. 4 Then the Holy Spirit empowered all of the believers. They began to speak in languages they had never learned. The Spirit was making it possible for them to do that fluently.

5 At that time many Jews were staying in Jerusalem to celebrate the Pentecost festival. They were Jewish people who sincerely worshiped God. They had come from many different countries around the world. 6 When they heard this loud noise, a large crowd of these Jews gathered at the place where the believers were. The people in the crowd were amazed because they were each hearing the believers speak in their own languages. 7 They were all completely amazed, and they said to each other, “Listen, all these people who are speaking have come from Galilee. So they cannot possibly know our languages! 8 But all of us hear them speaking our own native languages! 9 Some of us are people from the regions of Parthia and Media and Elam. Others of us are from the regions of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia. 10 There are some people here from the regions of Phrygia and Pamphylia, from the country of Egypt, and from the regions in Libya that are near the city of Cyrene. There are others of us who are here visiting Jerusalem from Rome. 11 They include native Jews as well as non-Jews who have chosen to believe and practice what Jews believe. And others of us are from the island of Crete and from the region of Arabia. And yet we can hear these people speaking in all our different languages about the mighty works that God has done!” 12 The people wondered about what was happening and did not know what to think about it. So they asked one another, “What is happening here?” 13 But some of them made fun of what they saw. They said, “These people are talking like this because they have drunk too much wine!”

14 In response, Peter stood up with all the other Representatives and spoke loudly to the crowd of people. He said, “You Jewish people and all of you others who live here in Jerusalem, listen to me and I will explain to you what is happening! 15 Some of you think that we are drunk, but we are not drunk. It is only nine o’clock in the morning, and people here never get drunk at this time of the day! 16 Instead, what has happened to us is the miraculous thing that the prophet Joel wrote about long ago. He wrote:

‘During the last days,’ God says, ‘I will give my Holy Spirit to all kinds of people. Your sons and daughters will tell people my messages. I will give visions to the young men, and I will give inspired dreams to the old men. 18 During those days I will give my Holy Spirit to my servants, both men and women, so they can tell people my messages. 19 I will cause things to happen in the sky that will make people marvel. I will cause things to happen on the earth that will show that great events are going to take place. Here on the earth there will be blood, fire, and smoke everywhere. 20 In the sky the sun will appear dark to people and the moon will appear red to them. Those things will happen before the momentous time when I, the Lord God, come to judge everyone. 21 But even though I am coming to judge and punish sin, I will save all those who repent and ask me to forgive their sins.’ ”

22 Peter continued speaking. He said, “You Israelites, listen to me! When Jesus from Nazareth lived among you, God proved to you that he had sent him by enabling him to do many amazing miracles. These showed that he was from God. You yourselves know that this is true. 23 Even though you knew that, you urged people who do not obey God’s law to take action to kill Jesus. They did that by nailing him to a cross. However, God had already planned for that to happen, and he knew what the results would be, so he allowed it. 24 Jesus died, but God caused him to become alive again and no longer dead, because it was not possible for him to stay dead.

25 Long ago King David wrote what the Messiah said:

‘I knew that you, Lord God, would always be there to protect me. You are right beside me, so I will not be afraid of those who want to harm me. 26 Because of that, I am happy, and I joyfully praise you, O God. And I am completely confident that you will cause me to become alive again after I die. 27 I am confident because I know that you will not make me remain in the place where the dead are. You will not even let my body waste away, because you have chosen me for a special purpose. 28 You have shown me how to live again. You will make me very happy because you will be with me forever.’ ”

29 Peter continued, “You who are Jews like me, I can tell you confidently that our ancient ruler, King David, died and that his subjects buried him. In fact, his body is still here now at the place where they buried him. 30 So we know that King David was not talking about himself in this psalm. Instead, he was a prophet, and he knew that God promised to him that one of his descendants would become king after him. 31 A long time ago, David knew what God would do. He said that God would cause Jesus the Messiah to live again after he died. God would not allow him to remain in a grave. God would not even let him be dead long enough for his body to begin to decompose.

32 After this man Jesus had died, God made him alive again. All of us who are standing here before you can testify to this. We all saw him alive after he had died. 33 So we are not babbling drunkenly. Instead, this is what has happened. God has greatly honored Jesus by causing Jesus to rule where God himself is, in heaven. Jesus has received the Holy Spirit from God his Father, just as God promised. And now Jesus has generously given us the Holy Spirit, and God has confirmed that gift by doing this miracle that you are witnessing. 34 We know that David was not speaking about himself, because David did not go up into heaven as Jesus did. Besides that, David himself said this about the Messiah:

‘The Lord God said to my Lord the Messiah, “I will honor you by giving you a position next to me 35 while I completely defeat your enemies.” ’ ”

36 Peter ended by saying, “So I want every Israelite to know definitely that God has made Jesus both Lord and Messiah, this same Jesus whom you had nailed to a cross and killed.”

37 When the people heard what Peter said, they knew they had done wrong. The people asked him and the other Representatives, “Can you men tell us what God wants us to do?”

38 Peter answered them, “Each of you should turn away from your sinful behavior. If you now believe in what Jesus, the Messiah, has done for you, we will baptize you, showing that God has forgiven your sins, and he will give you his Holy Spirit. 39 You will receive the Holy Spirit because God has promised to give him to you and to your children and to all others whom the God we worship leads to have faith in Jesus. That includes all those who live far away from here.” 40 Peter said many more things and spoke strongly to them. He told them, “Ask God to save you so that he will not punish you when he punishes these evil people who have rejected Jesus!”

41 So the people who believed Peter’s message received baptism. There were about 3,000 of them who joined the group of believers that day. 42 They continually obeyed what the Representatives taught. They met many times together with the other believers, and they ate a meal and prayed together every day.

43 Throughout Jerusalem people came to have a great awe for God, because the Representatives were doing many kinds of miraculous deeds. 44 All of those who believed in Jesus met regularly together. They also kept sharing what they had with one another. 45 From time to time some of them sold some of their land and some of the other things that they owned. They did this so that they could give some of the money they made to other believers. They gave those believers as much as they needed. 46 Every day they kept gathering to worship together in the temple courtyard, and then they would have meals together in their homes. They ate together happily and with genuine affection. 47 As they did so, they kept praising God, and the other people who lived in Jerusalem greatly respected them. As those things were happening, every day the Lord Jesus saved more people and those people joined with the other believers.

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