Acts 4:23-34

²³Peter and John left that meeting and went back to the other people that believed in Jesus. They told them everything that the big bosses of the Jewish ceremonies and the older leaders said.

²⁴They listened to Peter and John and then they all prayed to God together. They said to him, “God, you are the boss of everything. You made the sky, and the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.

²⁵The Holy Spirit talked to your man David, our grand-father of a long time ago, and the Holy Spirit told him to write this in God’s book. David wrote, ‘The people from different countries are really angry and they are talking about doing something stupid, something that will not work.

²⁶Their bosses and leaders are getting ready to fight. They want to get together to fight against God, and they want to fight against the man God picked to be his special person.’

²⁷And now that has happened. The message that David wrote has now come true. Those bosses called Herod and Pontius Pilate come from different countries. They, and some of their countrymen, they all met together in this city. And they met with Jewish people too. They tried to work out a way to get rid of Jesus, your special worker that you sent to us. But you, God, are the one with power, and you knew everything they were going to do, and you let them do it.

²⁹And now, God, you heard the bad things they reckon they will do to us. We are your workers. Please help us to not be frightened, and help us to keep telling everyone about Jesus.

³⁰Show everyone your great power. Make sick people better. Let us do powerful things with the power of Jesus, your special worker. Then everyone will know that we are telling them the true story.”

³¹After they finished praying God shook the house that they were meeting in, and the Holy Spirit went into them all and filled them. They started telling everyone God’s message about Jesus, and they weren’t frightened of anyone.

³²All those people that believed in Jesus felt the same way about their things. They shared everything. They never said, “Those things are mine, you can’t have them.” No, they reckoned everything belonged to everyone.

³³At the same time the close followers of Jesus talked in a powerful way and told everyone, “Our leader Jesus is alive again.” And God was good to his followers and gave them everything they needed.

³⁴All those Christians had everything they needed. Nobody was poor or hungry. You see, sometimes Christians that owned farm land or houses sold them and got some money, and gave it to the close followers of Jesus, and those close followers gave that money to anyone that needed it.