<t /><p class="bodytext">Now in those<n id="1" /> days, when the disciples were growing in number,<n id="2" /> a complaint arose on the part of the Greek-speaking Jews<n id="3" /> against the native Hebraic Jews,<n id="4" /> because their widows<n id="5" /> were being overlooked<n id="6" /> in the daily distribution of food.<n id="7" />

So he replied,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our forefather<n id="2" /> Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

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>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then an angel of the Lord<n id="1" /> said to Philip,<n id="2" /> &#8220;Get up and go south<n id="3" /> on the road that goes down from Jerusalem<n id="4" /> to Gaza.&#8221; (This is a desert<n id="5" /> road.)<n id="6" />

Now the passage of scripture the man<n id="1" /> was reading was this:p> <p class="otpoetry">&#8220;<b><i>He was led like a sheep to slaughter,i>b>p> <p class="otpoetry"><b><i>and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,i>b>p> <p class="otpoetry"><b><i>so he didi>b><n id="2" /> <i><b>not open his mouthb>.i>p>

Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any more, but<n id="1" /> went on his way rejoicing.<n id="2" />

Then the Lord told him, &#8220;Get up and go to the street called &#8216;Straight,&#8217;<n id="1" /> and at Judas&#8217; house look for a man from Tarsus named Saul. For he is praying,

But the Lord said to him, &#8220;Go, because this man is my chosen instrument<n id="1" /> to carry my name before Gentiles and kings and the people of Israel.<n id="2" />

All<n id="1" /> who heard him were amazed and were saying, &#8220;Is this not<n id="2" /> the man who in Jerusalem was ravaging<n id="3" /> those who call on this name, and who had come here to bring them as prisoners<n id="4" /> to the chief priests?&#8221;

But Barnabas took<n id="1" /> Saul,<n id="2" /> brought<n id="3" /> him to the apostles, and related to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, that<n id="4" /> the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly<n id="5" /> in the name of Jesus.

Because Lydda<n id="1" /> was near Joppa, when the disciples heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him and urged him, &#8220;Come to us without delay.&#8221;<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">Now while Peter was puzzling over<n id="1" /> what the vision he had seen could signify, the men sent by Cornelius had learned where Simon&#8217;s house was<n id="2" /> and approached<n id="3" /> the gate.

He informed us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, &#8216;Send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter,

and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch.<n id="1" /> So<n id="2" /> for a whole year Barnabas and Saul<n id="3" /> met with the church and taught a significant number of people.<n id="4" /> Now it was in Antioch<n id="5" /> that the disciples were first called Christians.<n id="6" />p>

One of them, named Agabus, got up<n id="1" /> and predicted<n id="2" /> by the Spirit that a severe<n id="3" /> famine<n id="4" /> was about to come over the whole inhabited world.<n id="5" /> (This<n id="6" /> took place during the reign of Claudius.)<n id="7" />

On that very night before Herod was going to bring him out for trial,<n id="1" /> Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, while<n id="2" /> guards in front of the door were keeping watch<n id="3" /> over the prison.

When she recognized Peter&#8217;s voice, she was so overjoyed she did not open the gate, but ran back in and told<n id="1" /> them<n id="2" /> that Peter was standing at the gate.

He motioned to them<n id="1" /> with his hand to be quiet and then related<n id="2" /> how the Lord had brought<n id="3" /> him out of the prison. He said, &#8220;Tell James and the brothers these things,&#8221; and then he left and went to another place.<n id="4" />p>

<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.

While they were serving<n id="1" /> the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, &#8220;Set apart<n id="2" /> for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.&#8221;