Acts 2:14-36

Contemporary English Version

Peter Speaks to the Crowd

¹⁴Peter stood with the eleven apostles and spoke in a loud and clear voice to the crowd:

Friends and everyone else living in Jerusalem, listen carefully to what I have to say! ¹⁵You are wrong to think that these people are drunk. After all, it is only nine o'clock in the morning. ¹⁶But this is what God told the prophet Joel to say,

¹⁷^(A) “When the last days come,
I will give my Spirit
    to everyone.
Your sons and daughters
    will prophesy.
Your young men
    will see visions,
and your old men
    will have dreams.
¹⁸In those days I will give
    my Spirit to my servants,
both men and women,
    and they will prophesy.

¹⁹“I will work miracles
    in the sky above
and wonders
    on the earth below.
There will be blood and fire
    and clouds of smoke.
²⁰The sun will turn dark,
and the moon
    will be as red as blood
before the great
and wonderful day
    of the Lord appears.
²¹Then the Lord
will save everyone
    who asks for his help.”

²²Now, listen to what I have to say about Jesus from Nazareth. God proved he sent Jesus to you by having him work miracles, wonders, and signs. All of you know this. ²³^(B) God had already planned and decided that Jesus would be handed over to you. So you took him and had evil men put him to death on a cross. ²⁴^(C) But God set him free from death and raised him to life. Death could not hold him in its power. ²⁵^(D) What David said are really the words of Jesus,

“I always see the Lord
    near me,
and I will not be afraid
    with him at my right side.
²⁶Because of this,
    my heart will be glad,
my words will be joyful,
    and I will live in hope.
²⁷The Lord won't leave me
    in the grave.
I am his holy one,
and he won't let
    my body decay.
²⁸He has shown me
    the path to life,
and he makes me glad
    by being near me.”

²⁹My friends, it is right for me to speak to you about our ancestor David. He died and was buried, and his tomb is still here. ³⁰^(E) But David was a prophet, and he knew that God had made a promise he would not break. He had told David someone from his own family would someday be king.

³¹David knew this would happen, and so he told us Christ would be raised to life. He said God would not leave him in the grave or let his body decay. ³²All of us can tell you that God has raised Jesus to life!

³³Jesus was taken up to sit at the right side^[a] of God, and he was given the Holy Spirit, just as the Father had promised. Jesus is also the one who has given the Spirit to us, and this is what you are now seeing and hearing.

³⁴^(F) David didn't go up to heaven. So he wasn't talking about himself when he said, “The Lord told my Lord to sit at his right side, ³⁵until he made my Lord's enemies into a footstool for him.” ³⁶Everyone in Israel should then know for certain that God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ, even though you put him to death on a cross.

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