Book of Common Prayer
12 Peter saw them all and began to speak.
“Fellow Israelites,” he said, “why are you amazed at this? Why are you staring at us as though it was our own power or piety that made this man walk? 13 ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob—the God of our ancestors’—he has glorified his child Jesus, the one you handed over and denied in the presence of Pilate, although he had decided to let him go. 14 But you denied the Holy One, the Just One, and requested instead to have a murderer given to you; 15 and so you killed the Prince of Life. But God raised him from the dead, and we are witnesses to the fact. 16 And it is his name, working through faith in his name, that has given strength to this man, whom you see and know. It is faith which comes through him that has given him this new complete wholeness in front of all of you.”
Restoration and refreshment
17 “Now, my dear family,” Peter continued, “I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did. 18 But this is how God has fulfilled what he promised through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. 19 So now repent, and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out, 20 so that times of refreshment may come from the presence of the Lord, and so that he will send you Jesus, the one he chose and appointed to be his Messiah. 21 He must be received in heaven, you see, until the time which God spoke about through the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient days, the time when God will restore all things. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, one from among your own brothers; whatever he says to you, you must pay attention to him. 23 And everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be cut off from the people.’ 24 All the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors, told us about these days too. 25 You are the children of the prophets, the children of the covenant which God established with your ancestors when he said to Abraham, ‘In your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ 26 When God raised up his servant he sent him to you first, to bless you by turning each of you away from your wicked deeds.”
The lamb and the spirit
29 The next day, John saw Jesus coming towards him.
“Look!” he said. “There’s God’s lamb! He’s the one who takes away the world’s sin! 30 He’s the one I was speaking about when I said, ‘There’s a man coming after me who ranks ahead of me, because he was before me!’ 31 I didn’t know who it would be, but this was the reason I came to baptize with water—so that he could be revealed to Israel.”
32 So John gave this evidence: “I saw the spirit coming down like a dove out of heaven and remaining on him. 33 I didn’t know who it would be; but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘When you see the spirit coming down and resting on someone, that’s the person who will baptize with the holy spirit.’ 34 Well, that’s what I saw, and I’ve given you my evidence: he is the son of God.”
The first disciples
35 The following day John was again standing there, with two of his disciples. 36 He saw Jesus walking by, and said, “Look! There goes God’s lamb!”
37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
38 Jesus turned and saw them following him.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Rabbi,” they said (the word means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come and see,” he replied.
So they came, and saw where he was staying, and stayed with him that day. It was late in the afternoon.
40 One of the two who heard what John said and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 The first person he found was his own brother Simon.
“We’ve found the Messiah!” he said (that means “the anointed one,” like our word “Christ”). 42 He brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him.
“So,” he said, “you’re Simon, John’s son, are you? We’d better call you Cephas!” (That means “the Rock,” like our word “Peter.”)
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.