Jesus was lifted up to heaven. Now he is with God, at God’s right side. The Father has given the Holy Spirit to him, as he promised. So Jesus has now poured out that Spirit. This is what you see and hear.

No, God did it! He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is the God of all our fathers. He gave glory to Jesus, his special servant. But you handed him over to be killed. Pilate decided to let him go free. But you told Pilate you did not want him.

And what those prophets talked about is for you, their descendants. You have received the agreement that God made with your fathers. God said to your father Abraham, ‘Every nation on earth will be blessed through your descendants.’

You killed Jesus by nailing him to a cross. But God, the same God our fathers had, raised Jesus up from death.

“So Abraham left the country of Chaldea. He went to live in Haran. After his father died, God sent him to this place, where you live now.

Later, Joshua led our ancestors to capture the lands of the other nations. Our people went in and God made the other people go out. When our people went into this new land, they took with them this same tent. Our people received this tent from their fathers, and our people kept it until the time of David.

We are their descendants, and God has made this promise come true for us. God did this by raising Jesus from death. We also read about this in Psalm 2: ‘You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.’

So now, why are you putting a heavy burden around the necks of the non-Jewish followers of Jesus? Are you trying to make God angry? We and our fathers were not able to carry that burden.

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in the country of Cilicia. I grew up in this city. I was a student of Gamaliel, who carefully taught me everything about the law of our fathers. I was very serious about serving God, the same as all of you here today.

“Ananias told me, ‘The God of our fathers chose you long ago to know his plan. He chose you to see the Righteous One and to hear words from him.

“But I will tell you this: I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which these Jews say is not the right way, and I believe everything that is taught in the Law of Moses and all that is written in the books of the prophets.

Now I am on trial because I hope for the promise that God made to our fathers.