Part 4

003:007 Then taking his hand Peter lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were strengthened.

003:008 Leaping up, he stood upright and began to walk, and went into the Temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God.

003:009 All the people saw him walking and praising God;

003:010 and recognizing him as the man who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple asking for alms, they were filled with awe and amazement at what had happened to him.

003:011 While he still clung to Peter and John, the people, awe-struck, ran up crowding round them in what was known as Solomon's Portico.

003:012 Peter, seeing this, spoke to the people. "Israelites," he said, "why do you wonder at this man? Or why gaze at us, as though by any power or piety of our own we had enabled him to walk?

003:013 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has conferred this honour on His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to let Him go.

003:014 Yes, you disowned the holy and righteous One, and asked as a favour the release of a murderer.

003:015 The Prince of Life you put to death; but God has raised Him from the dead, and we are witnesses as to that.

003:016 It is His name--faith in that name being the condition-- which has strengthened this man whom you behold and know; and the faith which He has given has made this man sound and strong again, as you can all see.

003:017 "And now, brethren, I know that it was in ignorance that you did it, as was the case with your rulers also.

003:018 But in this way God has fulfilled the declarations He made through all the Prophets, that His Christ would suffer.

003:019 Repent, therefore, and reform your lives, so that the record of your sins may be cancelled, and that there may come seasons of revival from the Lord,

003:020 and that He may send the Christ appointed beforehand for you--even Jesus.

003:021 Heaven must receive Him until those times of which God has spoken from the earliest ages through the lips of His holy Prophets-- the times of the reconstitution of all things.

003:022 Moses declared, "`The Lord your God will raise up a Prophet for you from among your brethren as He has raised me. In all that He says to you, you must listen to Him.

003:023 And every one, without exception, who refuses to listen to that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the People.'

003:024 Yes, and all the Prophets, from Samuel onwards--all who have spoken-- have also announced the coming of this present time.

003:025 "You are the heirs of the Prophets, and of the Covenant which God made with your forefathers when He said to Abraham, `And through your posterity all the families of the world shall be blessed.'

003:026 It is to you first that God, after raising His Servant from the grave, has sent Him to bless you, by causing every one of you to turn from your wickedness."

004:001 While they were saying this to the people, the Priests, the Commander of the Temple Guard, and the Sadducees came upon them,

004:002 highly incensed at their teaching the people and proclaiming in the case of Jesus the Resurrection from among the dead.

004:003 They arrested the two Apostles and lodged them in custody till the next day; for it was already evening.

004:004 But many of those who had listened to their preaching believed; and the number of the adult men had now grown to be about 5,000.

004:005 The next day a meeting was held in Jerusalem of their Rulers, Elders, and Scribes,

004:006 with Annas the High Priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and the other members of the high-priestly family.

004:007 So they made the Apostles stand in the centre, and demanded of them, "By what power or in what name have you done this?"

004:008 Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he replied, "Rulers and Elders of the people,