A crowd of people from the towns around Jerusalem also came together, bringing the sick and those troubled by unclean spirits. They were all being healed.

“We found the jail locked securely and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”

So the twelve called the whole group of the disciples together and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to wait on tables.

They incited the people, the elders, and the experts in the law; then they approached Stephen, seized him, and brought him before the council.

All who were sitting in the council looked intently at Stephen and saw his face was like the face of an angel.

But God spoke as follows: ‘Your descendants will be foreigners in a foreign country, whose citizens will enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years.

But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ said God, ‘and after these things they will come out of there and worship me in this place.’

On their second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers again, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.

But the Lord said to him, ‘Take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

Now in that city was a man named Simon, who had been practicing magic and amazing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great.

Now Simon, when he saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, offered them money,

But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could acquire God’s gift with money!

So Philip started speaking, and beginning with this scripture proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him.

About noon the next day, while they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.

When he had seized him, he put him in prison, handing him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him. Herod planned to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening through the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

But the magician Elymas (for that is the way his name is translated) opposed them, trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

The same thing happened in Iconium when Paul and Barnabas went into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a large group of both Jews and Greeks believed.

But the population of the city was divided; some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.

From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.