Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹As Jesus was leaving the Temple grounds, his disciples pointed out to him the various Temple buildings.

²But he responded, “Do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth, they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”

³Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world? ”

⁴Jesus told them, “Don’t let anyone mislead you,

⁵for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many.

⁶And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately.

⁷Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world.

⁸But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.

⁹“Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers.

¹⁰And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other.

¹¹And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people.

¹²Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.

¹³But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

¹⁴And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.

¹⁵“The day is coming when you will see what Daniel the prophet spoke about — the sacrilegious object that causes desecration standing in the Holy Place.” (Reader, pay attention!)

¹⁶“Then those in Judea must flee to the hills.

¹⁷A person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack.

¹⁸A person out in the field must not return even to get a coat.

¹⁹How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days.

²⁰And pray that your flight will not be in winter or on the Sabbath.

²¹For there will be greater anguish than at any time since the world began. And it will never be so great again.

²²In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God’s chosen ones.

²³“Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There he is,’ don’t believe it.

²⁴For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.

²⁵See, I have warned you about this ahead of time.

²⁶“So if someone tells you, ‘Look, the Messiah is out in the desert,’ don’t bother to go and look. Or, ‘Look, he is hiding here,’ don’t believe it!

²⁷For as the lightning flashes in the east and shines to the west, so it will be when the Son of Man comes.

²⁸Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.

²⁹“Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

³⁰And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

³¹And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world — from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.

³²“Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near.

³³In the same way, when you see all these things, you can know his return is very near, right at the door.

³⁴I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these things take place.

³⁵Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.

³⁶“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.

³⁷“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.

³⁸In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat.

³⁹People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.

⁴⁰“Two men will be working together in the field; one will be taken, the other left.

⁴¹Two women will be grinding flour at the mill; one will be taken, the other left.

⁴²“So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming.

⁴³Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into.

⁴⁴You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.

⁴⁵“A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them.

⁴⁶If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward.

⁴⁷I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns.

⁴⁸But what if the servant is evil and thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’

⁴⁹and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk?

⁵⁰The master will return unannounced and unexpected,

⁵¹and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

¹The LORD said to Moses,

²“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. These are the LORD’s appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as official days for holy assembly.

³“You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the LORD’s Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live.

⁴“In addition to the Sabbath, these are the LORD’s appointed festivals, the official days for holy assembly that are to be celebrated at their proper times each year.

⁵“The LORD’s Passover begins at sundown on the fourteenth day of the first month.

⁶On the next day, the fifteenth day of the month, you must begin celebrating the Festival of Unleavened Bread. This festival to the LORD continues for seven days, and during that time the bread you eat must be made without yeast.

⁷On the first day of the festival, all the people must stop their ordinary work and observe an official day for holy assembly.

⁸For seven days you must present special gifts to the LORD. On the seventh day the people must again stop all their ordinary work to observe an official day for holy assembly.”

⁹Then the LORD said to Moses,

¹⁰“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you enter the land I am giving you and you harvest its first crops, bring the priest a bundle of grain from the first cutting of your grain harvest.

¹¹On the day after the Sabbath, the priest will lift it up before the LORD so it may be accepted on your behalf.

¹²On that same day you must sacrifice a one-year-old male lamb with no defects as a burnt offering to the LORD.

¹³With it you must present a grain offering consisting of four quarts of choice flour moistened with olive oil. It will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. You must also offer one quart of wine as a liquid offering.

¹⁴Do not eat any bread or roasted grain or fresh kernels on that day until you bring this offering to your God. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.

¹⁵“From the day after the Sabbath — the day you bring the bundle of grain to be lifted up as a special offering — count off seven full weeks.

¹⁶Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days later. Then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.

¹⁷From wherever you live, bring two loaves of bread to be lifted up before the LORD as a special offering. Make these loaves from four quarts of choice flour, and bake them with yeast. They will be an offering to the LORD from the first of your crops.

¹⁸Along with the bread, present seven one-year-old male lambs with no defects, one young bull, and two rams as burnt offerings to the LORD. These burnt offerings, together with the grain offerings and liquid offerings, will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

¹⁹Then you must offer one male goat as a sin offering and two one-year-old male lambs as a peace offering.

²⁰“The priest will lift up the two lambs as a special offering to the LORD, together with the loaves representing the first of your crops. These offerings, which are holy to the LORD, belong to the priests.

²¹That same day will be proclaimed an official day for holy assembly, a day on which you do no ordinary work. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.

²²“When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the LORD your God.”

²³The LORD said to Moses,

²⁴“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. On the first day of the appointed month in early autumn, you are to observe a day of complete rest. It will be an official day for holy assembly, a day commemorated with loud blasts of a trumpet.

²⁵You must do no ordinary work on that day. Instead, you are to present special gifts to the LORD.”

²⁶Then the LORD said to Moses,

²⁷“Be careful to celebrate the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of that same month — nine days after the Festival of Trumpets. You must observe it as an official day for holy assembly, a day to deny yourselves and present special gifts to the LORD.

²⁸Do no work during that entire day because it is the Day of Atonement, when offerings of purification are made for you, making you right with the LORD your God.

²⁹All who do not deny themselves that day will be cut off from God’s people.

³⁰And I will destroy anyone among you who does any work on that day.

³¹You must not do any work at all! This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.

³²This will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you, and on that day you must deny yourselves. This day of rest will begin at sundown on the ninth day of the month and extend until sundown on the tenth day.”

³³And the LORD said to Moses,

³⁴“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. Begin celebrating the Festival of Shelters on the fifteenth day of the appointed month — five days after the Day of Atonement. This festival to the LORD will last for seven days.

³⁵On the first day of the festival you must proclaim an official day for holy assembly, when you do no ordinary work.

³⁶For seven days you must present special gifts to the LORD. The eighth day is another holy day on which you present your special gifts to the LORD. This will be a solemn occasion, and no ordinary work may be done that day.

³⁷(“These are the LORD’s appointed festivals. Celebrate them each year as official days for holy assembly by presenting special gifts to the LORD — burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices, and liquid offerings — each on its proper day.

³⁸These festivals must be observed in addition to the LORD’s regular Sabbath days, and the offerings are in addition to your personal gifts, the offerings you give to fulfill your vows, and the voluntary offerings you present to the LORD.)

³⁹“Remember that this seven-day festival to the LORD — the Festival of Shelters — begins on the fifteenth day of the appointed month, after you have harvested all the produce of the land. The first day and the eighth day of the festival will be days of complete rest.

⁴⁰On the first day gather branches from magnificent trees — palm fronds, boughs from leafy trees, and willows that grow by the streams. Then celebrate with joy before the LORD your God for seven days.

⁴¹You must observe this festival to the LORD for seven days every year. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed in the appointed month from generation to generation.

⁴²For seven days you must live outside in little shelters. All native-born Israelites must live in shelters.

⁴³This will remind each new generation of Israelites that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I rescued them from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

⁴⁴So Moses gave the Israelites these instructions regarding the annual festivals of the LORD.

¹Are we beginning to praise ourselves again? Are we like others, who need to bring you letters of recommendation, or who ask you to write such letters on their behalf? Surely not!

²The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you.

³Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

⁴We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ.

⁵It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God.

⁶He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.

⁷The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away.

⁸Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life?

⁹If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God!

¹⁰In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way.

¹¹So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever!

¹²Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold.

¹³We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away.

¹⁴But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ.

¹⁵Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand.

¹⁶But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

¹⁷For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

¹⁸So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord — who is the Spirit — makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

¹Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals.

²And I saw a strong angel, who shouted with a loud voice: “Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?”

³But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it.

⁴Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it.

⁵But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, “Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth.

⁷He stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne.

⁸And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.

⁹And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

¹⁰And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God. And they will reign on the earth.”

¹¹Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders.

¹²And they sang in a mighty chorus: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered — to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.”

¹³And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: “Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.”

¹⁴And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.

¹This, too, I carefully explored: Even though the actions of godly and wise people are in God’s hands, no one knows whether God will show them favor.

²The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether righteous or wicked, good or bad, ceremonially clean or unclean, religious or irreligious. Good people receive the same treatment as sinners, and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don’t.

³It seems so wrong that everyone under the sun suffers the same fate. Already twisted by evil, people choose their own mad course, for they have no hope. There is nothing ahead but death anyway.

⁴There is hope only for the living. As they say, “It’s better to be a live dog than a dead lion!”

⁵The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered.

⁶Whatever they did in their lifetime — loving, hating, envying — is all long gone. They no longer play a part in anything here on earth.

⁷So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this!

⁸Wear fine clothes, with a splash of cologne!

⁹Live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun. The wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil.

¹⁰Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.

¹¹I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.

¹²People can never predict when hard times might come. Like fish in a net or birds in a trap, people are caught by sudden tragedy.

¹³Here is another bit of wisdom that has impressed me as I have watched the way our world works.

¹⁴There was a small town with only a few people, and a great king came with his army and besieged it.

¹⁵A poor, wise man knew how to save the town, and so it was rescued. But afterward no one thought to thank him.

¹⁶So even though wisdom is better than strength, those who are wise will be despised if they are poor. What they say will not be appreciated for long.

¹⁷Better to hear the quiet words of a wise person than the shouts of a foolish king.

¹⁸Better to have wisdom than weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much that is good.

¹Praise the LORD! Yes, give praise, O servants of the LORD. Praise the name of the LORD!

²Blessed be the name of the LORD now and forever.

³Everywhere — from east to west — praise the name of the LORD.

⁴For the LORD is high above the nations; his glory is higher than the heavens.

⁵Who can be compared with the LORD our God, who is enthroned on high?

⁶He stoops to look down on heaven and on earth.

⁷He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump.

⁸He sets them among princes, even the princes of his own people!

⁹He gives the childless woman a family, making her a happy mother. Praise the LORD!

¹Wine produces mockers; alcohol leads to brawls. Those led astray by drink cannot be wise.

²The king’s fury is like a lion’s roar; to rouse his anger is to risk your life.

³Avoiding a fight is a mark of honor; only fools insist on quarreling.

⁴Those too lazy to plow in the right season will have no food at the harvest.

⁵Though good advice lies deep within the heart, a person with understanding will draw it out.

⁶Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly reliable?

⁷The godly walk with integrity; blessed are their children who follow them.

⁸When a king sits in judgment, he weighs all the evidence, distinguishing the bad from the good.

⁹Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart; I am pure and free from sin”?

¹⁰False weights and unequal measures — the LORD detests double standards of every kind.

¹¹Even children are known by the way they act, whether their conduct is pure, and whether it is right.

¹²Ears to hear and eyes to see — both are gifts from the LORD.

¹³If you love sleep, you will end in poverty. Keep your eyes open, and there will be plenty to eat!

¹⁴The buyer haggles over the price, saying, “It’s worthless,” then brags about getting a bargain!

¹⁵Wise words are more valuable than much gold and many rubies.

¹⁶Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt. Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners.

¹⁷Stolen bread tastes sweet, but it turns to gravel in the mouth.

¹⁸Plans succeed through good counsel; don’t go to war without wise advice.

¹⁹A gossip goes around telling secrets, so don’t hang around with chatterers.

²⁰If you insult your father or mother, your light will be snuffed out in total darkness.

²¹An inheritance obtained too early in life is not a blessing in the end.

²²Don’t say, “I will get even for this wrong.” Wait for the LORD to handle the matter.

²³The LORD detests double standards; he is not pleased by dishonest scales.

²⁴The LORD directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?

²⁵Don’t trap yourself by making a rash promise to God and only later counting the cost.

²⁶A wise king scatters the wicked like wheat, then runs his threshing wheel over them.

²⁷The LORD’s light penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive.

²⁸Unfailing love and faithfulness protect the king; his throne is made secure through love.

²⁹The glory of the young is their strength; the gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old.

³⁰Physical punishment cleanses away evil; such discipline purifies the heart.

¹So Solomon finished building the Temple of the LORD, as well as the royal palace. He completed everything he had planned to do.

²Then the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had done before at Gibeon.

³The LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your petition. I have set this Temple apart to be holy — this place you have built where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart.

⁴“As for you, if you will follow me with integrity and godliness, as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations,

⁵then I will establish the throne of your dynasty over Israel forever. For I made this promise to your father, David: ‘One of your descendants will always sit on the throne of Israel.’

⁶“But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the commands and decrees I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods,

⁷then I will uproot Israel from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make Israel an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations.

⁸And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled and will gasp in horror. They will ask, ‘Why did the LORD do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?’

⁹“And the answer will be, ‘Because his people abandoned the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead and bowed down to them. That is why the LORD has brought all these disasters on them.’”

¹⁰It took Solomon twenty years to build the LORD’s Temple and his own royal palace. At the end of that time,

¹¹he gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre. (Hiram had previously provided all the cedar and cypress timber and gold that Solomon had requested.)

¹²But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the towns Solomon had given him, he was not at all pleased with them.

¹³“What kind of towns are these, my brother?” he asked. So Hiram called that area Cabul (which means “worthless”), as it is still known today.

¹⁴Nevertheless, Hiram paid Solomon 9,000 pounds of gold.

¹⁵This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the LORD’s Temple, the royal palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

¹⁶(Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer, killing the Canaanite population and burning it down. He gave the city to his daughter as a wedding gift when she married Solomon.

¹⁷So Solomon rebuilt the city of Gezer.) He also built up the towns of Lower Beth-horon,

¹⁸Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness within his land.

¹⁹He built towns as supply centers and constructed towns where his chariots and horses could be stationed. He built everything he desired in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout his entire realm.

²⁰There were still some people living in the land who were not Israelites, including Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

²¹These were descendants of the nations whom the people of Israel had not completely destroyed. So Solomon conscripted them as slaves, and they serve as forced laborers to this day.

²²But Solomon did not conscript any of the Israelites for forced labor. Instead, he assigned them to serve as fighting men, government officials, officers and captains in his army, commanders of his chariots, and charioteers.

²³Solomon appointed 550 of them to supervise the people working on his various projects.

²⁴Solomon moved his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter, from the City of David to the new palace he had built for her. Then he constructed the supporting terraces.

²⁵Three times each year Solomon presented burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD. He also burned incense to the LORD. And so he finished the work of building the Temple.

²⁶King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, a port near Elath in the land of Edom, along the shore of the Red Sea.

²⁷Hiram sent experienced crews of sailors to sail the ships with Solomon’s men.

²⁸They sailed to Ophir and brought back to Solomon some sixteen tons of gold.

¹This is the LORD’s message to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines of Gaza, before it was captured by the Egyptian army.

²This is what the LORD says: “A flood is coming from the north to overflow the land. It will destroy the land and everything in it — cities and people alike. People will scream in terror, and everyone in the land will wail.

³Hear the clatter of stallions’ hooves and the rumble of wheels as the chariots rush by. Terrified fathers run madly, without a backward glance at their helpless children.

⁴“The time has come for the Philistines to be destroyed, along with their allies from Tyre and Sidon. Yes, the LORD is destroying the remnant of the Philistines, those colonists from the island of Crete.

⁵Gaza will be humiliated, its head shaved bald; Ashkelon will lie silent. You remnant from the Mediterranean coast, how long will you cut yourselves in mourning?

⁶“Now, O sword of the LORD, when will you be at rest again? Go back into your sheath; rest and be still.

⁷“But how can it be still when the LORD has sent it on a mission? For the city of Ashkelon and the people living along the sea must be destroyed.”

¹In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach

²until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit.

³During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.

⁴Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before.

⁵John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

⁶So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”

⁷He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know.

⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere — in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

⁹After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.

¹⁰As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them.

¹¹“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”

¹²Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a distance of half a mile.

¹³When they arrived, they went to the upstairs room of the house where they were staying. Here are the names of those who were present: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon (the zealot), and Judas (son of James).

¹⁴They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.

¹⁵During this time, when about 120 believers were together in one place, Peter stood up and addressed them.

¹⁶“Brothers,” he said, “the Scriptures had to be fulfilled concerning Judas, who guided those who arrested Jesus. This was predicted long ago by the Holy Spirit, speaking through King David.

¹⁷Judas was one of us and shared in the ministry with us.”

¹⁸(Judas had bought a field with the money he received for his treachery. Falling headfirst there, his body split open, spilling out all his intestines.

¹⁹The news of his death spread to all the people of Jerusalem, and they gave the place the Aramaic name Akeldama, which means “Field of Blood.”)

²⁰Peter continued, “This was written in the book of Psalms, where it says, ‘Let his home become desolate, with no one living in it.’ It also says, ‘Let someone else take his position.’

²¹“So now we must choose a replacement for Judas from among the men who were with us the entire time we were traveling with the Lord Jesus —

²²from the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us. Whoever is chosen will join us as a witness of Jesus’ resurrection.”

²³So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias.

²⁴Then they all prayed, “O Lord, you know every heart. Show us which of these men you have chosen

²⁵as an apostle to replace Judas in this ministry, for he has deserted us and gone where he belongs.”

²⁶Then they cast lots, and Matthias was selected to become an apostle with the other eleven.