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But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges!
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After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened.
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When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
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After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
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With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all
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Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
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Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!
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The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross.
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God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.
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We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
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But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
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So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.
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So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
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Stephen Seized
Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.
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Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”
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To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran.
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‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’
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“So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.
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He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child.
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God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.
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But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’
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“Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him
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“As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.
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Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.
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‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
