Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

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.”

Resurrection plus the name of Jesus equals trouble

4 As they were speaking to the people, along came the priests, the chief of the Temple police, and the Sadducees. ² They were thoroughly annoyed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming that “the resurrection of the dead” had begun to happen in Jesus. ³ They seized them and put them under guard until the next day, since it was already evening. ⁴ But a large number of the people who had heard the message believed it, and the number of men grew to five thousand.