Study Desk

While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

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

Now look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind, unable to see the sun for a time!" Immediately mistiness and darkness came over him, and he went around seeking people to lead him by the hand.

After the reading from the law and the prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent them a message, saying, "Brothers, if you have any message of exhortation for the people, speak it."

For a period of about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.

Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years.

Before Jesus arrived, John had proclaimed a baptism for repentance to all the people of Israel.

For the people who live in Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize him, and they fulfilled the sayings of the prophets that are read every Sabbath by condemning him.

Though they found no basis for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed.

and for many days he appeared to those who had accompanied him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These are now his witnesses to the people.

For David, after he had served God's purpose in his own generation, died, was buried with his ancestors, and experienced decay,

‘ Look, you scoffers; be amazed and perish! For I am doing a work in your days, a work you would never believe, even if someone tells you .'"

For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have appointed you to be a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'"

When the Gentiles heard this, they began to rejoice and praise the word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed for eternal life believed.

So they stayed there for a considerable time, speaking out courageously for the Lord, who testified to the message of his grace, granting miraculous signs and wonders to be performed through their hands.

But after the disciples had surrounded him, he got up and went back into the city. On the next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.

When they had appointed elders for them in the various churches, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the protection of the Lord in whom they had believed.

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

When they arrived and gathered the church together, they reported all the things God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles.

Simeon has explained how God first concerned himself to select from among the Gentiles a people for his name.