You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors,<n id="1" /> saying to Abraham, &#8216;<b><i>And in your descendantsi>b><n id="2" /> <b><i>all the nationsi>b><n id="3" /> <b><i>of the earth will be blessedi>b>.&#8217;<n id="4" />

But God turned away from them and gave them over<n id="1" /> to worship the host<n id="2" /> of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: &#8216;<b><i>It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrificesi>b><n id="3" /> <b><i>forty years in the wilderness, was it,i>b><n id="4" /> <b><i>house of Israel?i>b>

Which of the prophets did your ancestors<n id="1" /> not persecute?<n id="2" /> They<n id="3" /> killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the Righteous One,<n id="4" /> whose betrayers and murderers you have now become!<n id="5" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now there were these prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch:<n id="1" /> Barnabas, Simeon called Niger,<n id="2" /> Lucius the Cyrenian,<n id="3" /> Manaen (a close friend of Herod<n id="4" /> the tetrarch<n id="5" /> from childhood<n id="6" />) and Saul.

After the reading from the law and the prophets,<n id="1" /> the leaders of the synagogue<n id="2" /> sent them a message,<n id="3" /> saying, &#8220;Brothers,<n id="4" /> if you have any message<n id="5" /> of exhortation<n id="6" /> for the people, speak it.&#8221;<n id="7" />

For the people who live in Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize<n id="1" /> him,<n id="2" /> and they fulfilled the sayings<n id="3" /> of the prophets that are read every Sabbath by condemning<n id="4" /> him.<n id="5" />

But I confess this to you, that I worship<n id="1" /> the God of our ancestors<n id="2" /> according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law<n id="3" /> and that is written in the prophets.

I have experienced<n id="1" /> help from God to this day, and so I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except<n id="2" /> what the prophets and Moses said<n id="3" /> was going to happen:

So they began to leave,<n id="1" /> unable to agree among themselves, after Paul made one last statement: &#8220;The Holy Spirit spoke rightly to your ancestors<n id="2" /> through the prophet Isaiah

<p class="bodytext">They set<n id="1" /> a day to meet with him,<n id="2" /> and they came to him where he was staying<n id="3" /> in even greater numbers.<n id="4" /> From morning until evening he explained things<n id="5" /> to them,<n id="6" /> testifying<n id="7" /> about the kingdom of God<n id="8" /> and trying to convince<n id="9" /> them about Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets.