Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

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,

Born of God

3 Look at the remarkable love the father has given us—that we should be called God’s children! That indeed is what we are. That’s why the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. ² Beloved ones, we are now, already, God’s children; it hasn’t yet been revealed what we are going to be. We know that when he is revealed we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him make themselves pure, just as he is pure.

⁴ Everyone who goes on sinning is breaking the law; sin, in fact, is lawlessness. ⁵ And you know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him. ⁶ Everyone who abides in him does not go on sinning. Everyone who goes on sinning has not seen him, or known him.

⁷ Children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The person who does righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Jesus’ promise and ascension

³⁶ As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said, “Peace be with you.” ³⁷ They were terrified and alarmed, and thought they were seeing a ghost.

³⁸ “Why are you so disturbed?” he said. “Why do these questionings come up in your hearts? ³⁹ Look at my hands and feet; it really is me, myself. Touch me and see! Ghosts don’t have flesh and bones like you can see I have.”

⁴⁰ With these words, he showed them his hands and feet.

⁴¹ While they were still in disbelief and amazement from sheer joy, he said to them, “Have you got something here to eat?” ⁴² They gave him a piece of baked fish, ⁴³ which he took and ate in front of them.

⁴⁴ Then he said to them, “This is what I was explaining to you when I was still with you. Everything written about me in the law of Moses, and in the prophets and the Psalms, had to be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the Bible.

⁴⁶ “This is what is written,” he said. “The Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷ and in his name repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, must be announced to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are the witnesses for all this.