Acts 13:9-42

⁹Saul, also called Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and looked straight at him.

¹⁰“You are full of deception and all kinds of evil, you son of the devil, you enemy of all that is right! Will you never give up perverting the Lord's true ways?

¹¹Look, the Lord's hand is on you and you will become blind. You will not see the sun for some time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell on him, and he had to find someone who could lead him by the hand.

¹²When the governor saw what happened he trusted in God, amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

¹³Then Paul and those with him sailed from Paphos and went to Perga in Pamphylia, while John left them and went back to Jerusalem.

¹⁴They went through Perga and on to Antioch of Pisidia. On the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and were seated.

¹⁵After the readings from the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue leaders sent them a message saying, “Brothers, please share with the congregation any words of encouragement you may have.”

¹⁶Paul stood up, motioned with his hand to get their attention, and began speaking. “Men of Israel, and all of you who have reverence for God, listen to me.

¹⁷The God of the people of Israel chose our forefathers, and gave our people prosperity during their stay in the land of Egypt. Then with his mighty power he led them out of Egypt,

¹⁸and he patiently dealt with them in the desert for about forty years.

¹⁹After he had overthrown seven nations living in the land of Canaan, God divided their land among the Israelites and gave it to them to inherit. This took about four hundred and fifty years.

²⁰Then he provided them with judges as leaders until the time of the prophet Samuel.

²¹Then the people asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled for forty years.

²²Then God removed Saul, and made David their king. God approved of David, saying ‘I found David the son of Jesse to be a man according to my own heart; he will do everything I intend.’

²³Jesus is David's descendant; he is the Savior that God promised to bring to Israel.

²⁴Before Jesus came, John announced the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

²⁵As John was completing his mission, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not the one you're looking for. But after me one is coming whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie.’

²⁶My brothers, children of Abraham and those of you who have reverence for God: the message of this salvation has been sent to us!

²⁷The people living in Jerusalem and their leaders didn't recognize Jesus or understand the words spoken by the prophets that are read every Sabbath. In fact they fulfilled the prophetic words by condemning him!

²⁸Even though they couldn't find any evidence to sentence him to death, they still asked Pilate to have him killed.

²⁹After they had fulfilled everything predicted that they would do to him, they took him down from the cross and buried him in a tomb.

³⁰But God raised him from the dead,

³¹and he appeared over the course of many days to those who had followed him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people.

³²We are here to bring to you the good news of the promise that God made to our forefathers,

³³that he has now fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus from the dead. As it is written in Psalm 2: ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’

³⁴God raised him from the dead, never to die again, as he indicated by saying, ‘I will give you what is holy and trustworthy, as I promised to David.’

³⁵As another psalm says, ‘You will not allow your Holy One to see decay.’

³⁶But David died, after he had done what God wanted in his own time, and he was buried with his ancestors, and his body decayed.

³⁷The one God raised from the dead saw no decay.

³⁸My brothers, I want you to understand that we're telling you that through this man sins are forgiven.

³⁹Through him everyone who trusts in him is made morally right from all that is wrong—in a way that you could never be set right by the law of Moses.

⁴⁰Make sure that what the prophets said doesn't happen to you:

⁴¹‘You who are scornful, look in amazement, and die! For what I'm doing in your lifetime is something that you could never believe, even if someone told you!’”

⁴²As they were leaving, the people pleaded with them to tell them more the next Sabbath.