Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

²At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.

³The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group

⁴and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.

⁵In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

⁶They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.

⁷When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

⁸Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.

¹⁰Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

¹²When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

¹³The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”

¹⁴Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going.

¹⁵You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one.

¹⁶But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me.

¹⁷In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.

¹⁸I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”

¹⁹Then they asked him, “Where is your father?” “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

²⁰He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

²¹Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”

²²This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”

²³But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

²⁴I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”

²⁵“Who are you?” they asked. “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied.

²⁶“I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”

²⁷They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.

²⁸So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.

²⁹The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”

³⁰Even as he spoke, many believed in him.

³¹To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

³³They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

³⁴Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

³⁵Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.

³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

³⁷I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word.

³⁸I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”

³⁹“Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did.

⁴⁰As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things.

⁴¹You are doing the works of your own father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me.

⁴³Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.

⁴⁴You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

⁴⁵Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!

⁴⁶Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?

⁴⁷Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

⁴⁸The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”

⁴⁹“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.

⁵⁰I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.

⁵¹Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”

⁵²At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death.

⁵³Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”

⁵⁴Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.

⁵⁵Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word.

⁵⁶Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

⁵⁷“You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

⁵⁸“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

⁵⁹At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

¹The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

²So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?”

³But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

⁴Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

⁵The LORD answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.

⁶I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

⁷And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

⁸The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.

⁹Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”

¹⁰So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.

¹¹As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.

¹²When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.

¹³So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.

¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”

¹⁵Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner.

¹⁶He said, “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the LORD, the LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”

¹This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.

²Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

³I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.

⁴My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.

⁵Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

⁶Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.

⁷For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

⁸Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!

⁹For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings.

¹⁰We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!

¹¹To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.

¹²We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;

¹³when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

¹⁴I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children.

¹⁵Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

¹⁶Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

¹⁷For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

¹⁸Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you.

¹⁹But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have.

²⁰For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

²¹What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?

¹Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”

²The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

³The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died.

⁴The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.

⁵Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: “You are just in these judgments, O Holy One, you who are and who were;

⁶for they have shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”

⁷And I heard the altar respond: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.”

⁸The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire.

⁹They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.

¹⁰The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in agony

¹¹and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

¹²The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.

¹³Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

¹⁴They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.

¹⁵“Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”

¹⁶Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

¹⁷The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!”

¹⁸Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.

¹⁹The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.

²⁰Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.

²¹From the sky huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, fell on people. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.

¹Then Job replied:

²“If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales!

³It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas— no wonder my words have been impetuous.

⁴The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors are marshaled against me.

⁵Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass, or an ox bellow when it has fodder?

⁶Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the sap of the mallow?

⁷I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill.

⁸“Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for,

⁹that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut off my life!

¹⁰Then I would still have this consolation— my joy in unrelenting pain— that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹“What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?

¹²Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze?

¹³Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?

¹⁴“Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow

¹⁶when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow,

¹⁷but that stop flowing in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.

¹⁸Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go off into the wasteland and perish.

¹⁹The caravans of Tema look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.

²⁰They are distressed, because they had been confident; they arrive there, only to be disappointed.

²¹Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid.

²²Have I ever said, ‘Give something on my behalf, pay a ransom for me from your wealth,

²³deliver me from the hand of the enemy, rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless’?

²⁴“Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong.

²⁵How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove?

²⁶Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat my desperate words as wind?

²⁷You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend.

²⁸“But now be so kind as to look at me. Would I lie to your face?

²⁹Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my integrity is at stake.

³⁰Is there any wickedness on my lips? Can my mouth not discern malice?

¹Praise the LORD, my soul. LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

²The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent

³and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind.

⁴He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants.

⁵He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.

⁶You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.

⁷But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;

⁸they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them.

⁹You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth.

¹⁰He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains.

¹¹They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

¹²The birds of the sky nest by the waters; they sing among the branches.

¹³He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.

¹⁴He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate— bringing forth food from the earth:

¹⁵wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts.

¹⁶The trees of the LORD are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.

¹⁷There the birds make their nests; the stork has its home in the junipers.

¹⁸The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.

¹⁹He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.

²⁰You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl.

²¹The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.

²²The sun rises, and they steal away; they return and lie down in their dens.

²³Then people go out to their work, to their labor until evening.

²⁴How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

²⁵There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number— living things both large and small.

²⁶There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

²⁷All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time.

²⁸When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.

²⁹When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.

³⁰When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.

³¹May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works—

³²he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

³³I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

³⁴May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD.

³⁵But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the LORD, my soul. Praise the LORD.

¹My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,

²you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth.

³So do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go—to the point of exhaustion— and give your neighbor no rest!

⁴Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids.

⁵Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!

⁷It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,

⁸yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

⁹How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—

¹¹and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

¹²A troublemaker and a villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth,

¹³who winks maliciously with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers,

¹⁴who plots evil with deceit in his heart— he always stirs up conflict.

¹⁵Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.

¹⁶There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him:

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil,

¹⁹a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

²⁰My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

²¹Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck.

²²When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.

²³For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life,

²⁴keeping you from your neighbor’s wife, from the smooth talk of a wayward woman.

²⁵Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.

²⁶For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, but another man’s wife preys on your very life.

²⁷Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?

²⁸Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?

²⁹So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.

³¹Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house.

³²But a man who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself.

³³Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.

¹Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

²At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.”

³So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.

⁴Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of military age—died in the wilderness on the way after leaving Egypt.

⁵All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness during the journey from Egypt had not.

⁶The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the LORD. For the LORD had sworn to them that they would not see the land he had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁷So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way.

⁸And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed.

⁹Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day.

¹⁰On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover.

¹¹The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain.

¹²The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.

¹³Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

¹⁴“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”

¹⁵The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

¹In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!”

²In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel.

³Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem.

⁴The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire.

⁵Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy.

⁶It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

¹When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

²Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

³They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

⁵Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

⁶When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.

⁷Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?

⁸Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?

⁹Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,

¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome

¹¹(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

¹²Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

¹³Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

¹⁴Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.

¹⁵These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!

¹⁶No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

¹⁷“ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

¹⁸Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

¹⁹I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.

²⁰The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.

²¹And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

²²“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

²³This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

²⁴But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

²⁵David said about him: “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

²⁶Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope,

²⁷because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay.

²⁸You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’

²⁹“Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.

³⁰But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.

³¹Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay.

³²God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.

³³Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

³⁴For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand

³⁵until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” ’

³⁶“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

³⁷When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

³⁸Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

³⁹The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

⁴⁰With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

⁴¹Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

⁴³Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common.

⁴⁵They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,

⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.