Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹² When Peter saw this, he said to the people, “My Jewish brothers, why are you surprised at this? You are looking at us as if it was our power that made this man walk. Do you think this was done because we are good? ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ Jesus was holy and good, but you said you did not want him. You told Pilate to give you a murderer^[a] instead of Jesus. ¹⁵ And so you killed the one who gives life! But God raised him from death. We are witnesses of this—we saw it with our own eyes.

¹⁶ “This crippled man was healed because we trusted in Jesus. It was Jesus’ power that made him well. You can see this man, and you know him. He was made completely well because of faith in Jesus. You all saw it happen!

¹⁷ “My brothers, I know that what you did to Jesus was done because you did not understand what you were doing. And your leaders did not understand any more than you did. ¹⁸ But God said these things would happen. Through the prophets he said that his Messiah would suffer and die. I have told you how God made this happen. ¹⁹ So you must change your hearts and lives. Come back to God, and he will forgive your sins.

To the director: With stringed instruments. A song of David.

We Are God’s Children

3 The Father has loved us so much! This shows how much he loved us: We are called children of God. And we really are his children. But the people in the world don’t understand that we are God’s children, because they have not known him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God. We have not yet been shown what we will be in the future. But we know that when Christ comes again, we will be like him. We will see him just as he is. ³ He is pure, and everyone who has this hope in him keeps themselves pure like Christ.

⁴ Anyone who sins breaks God’s law. Yes, sinning is the same as living against God’s law. ⁵ You know that Christ came to take away people’s sins. There is no sin in Christ. ⁶ So whoever lives in Christ does not continue to sin. If they continue to sin, they have never really understood Christ and have never known him.

⁷ Dear children, don’t let anyone lead you into the wrong way. Christ always did what was right. So to be good like Christ, you must do what is right.

Jesus Appears to His Followers^(A)

³⁶ While the two men were saying these things to the other followers, Jesus himself came and stood among them. He said to them, “Peace be with you.”

³⁷ This surprised the followers. They were afraid. They thought they were seeing a ghost. ³⁸ But Jesus said, “Why are you troubled? Why do you doubt what you see? ³⁹ Look at my hands and my feet. It’s really me. Touch me. You can see that I have a living body; a ghost does not have a body like this.”

⁴⁰ After Jesus told them this, he showed them his hands and his feet. ⁴¹ The followers were amazed and very, very happy to see that Jesus was alive. They still could not believe what they saw. He said to them, “Do you have any food here?” ⁴² They gave him a piece of cooked fish. ⁴³ While the followers watched, he took the fish and ate it.

⁴⁴ Jesus said to them, “Remember when I was with you before? I said that everything written about me must happen—everything written in the Law of Moses, the books of the prophets, and the Psalms.”

⁴⁵ Then Jesus helped the followers understand these Scriptures about him. ⁴⁶ Jesus said to them, “It is written that the Messiah would be killed and rise from death on the third day. ^47-48 You saw these things happen—you are witnesses. You must go and tell people that they must change and turn to God, which will bring them his forgiveness. You must start from Jerusalem and tell this message in my name to the people of all nations.