The Upper Room Prayer Meeting

^12 (A)Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey.

¹³ And when they had entered, they went up ^(A)into the upper room where they were staying: ^(B)Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and ^(C)Simon the Zealot; and ^(D)Judas the son of James.

²³ And they proposed two: Joseph called ^(A)Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.

²⁶ And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

²² “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you ^(A)by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— ²³ Him, ^(B)being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, ^(C)you ^[a]have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; ^24 (D)whom God raised up, having ^[b]loosed the ^[c]pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. ²⁵ For David says concerning Him:

²⁹ “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you ^(G)of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. ³⁰ Therefore, being a prophet, ^(H)and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, ^[d]according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, ³¹ he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, ^(I)that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. ^32 (J)This Jesus God has raised up, ^(K)of which we are all witnesses. ³³ Therefore ^(L)being exalted ^[e]to ^(M)the right hand of God, and ^(N)having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He ^(O)poured out this which you now see and hear.

³⁴ “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:

³⁶ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

³⁷ Now when they heard this, ^(Q)they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

³⁸ Then Peter said to them, ^(R)“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the ^[f]remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is to you and ^(S)to your children, and ^(T)to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

A Vital Church Grows

⁴⁰ And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this ^[g]perverse generation.” ⁴¹ Then those who ^[h]gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

The Philosophers at Athens

¹⁶ Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, ^(A)his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was ^[a]given over to idols. ¹⁷ Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. ^18 [b]Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this ^[c]babbler want to say?”

Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them ^(B)Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹ And they took him and brought him to the ^[d]Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? ²⁰ For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” ²¹ For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

Addressing the Areopagus

²² Then Paul stood in the midst of the ^[e]Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; ²³ for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: ^24 (C)God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is ^(D)Lord of heaven and earth, ^(E)does not dwell in temples made with hands. ²⁵ Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He ^(F)gives to all life, breath, and all things. ²⁶ And He has made from one ^[f]blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and ^(G)the boundaries of their dwellings, ^27 (H)so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, ^(I)though He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸ for ^(J)in Him we live and move and have our being, ^(K)as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ ²⁹ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, ^(L)we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. ³⁰ Truly, ^(M)these times of ignorance God overlooked, but ^(N)now commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹ because He has appointed a day on which ^(O)He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by ^(P)raising Him from the dead.”

³² And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” ³³ So Paul departed from among them. ³⁴ However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Preach the Word

4 I ^(A)charge you ^[a]therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, ^(B)who will judge the living and the dead ^[b]at His appearing and His kingdom: