2
“All of Them Were Filled with the Holy Spirit”
1 The time came for the Festival of Weeks. All of them were together in one place,
2 when suddenly there came from heaven a noise that sounded like a violent, rushing wind; it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 Then there appeared to them what looked like fiery tongues spreading out from one another, and one settled on each of them.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages+ as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were residing in Jerusalem devout Jews from every nation throughout the earth.
6 Well, when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and was so astonished that people didn’t know what to think, because it was his own language that each of them heard being spoken.
7 They were baffled and in awe, saying, “What in the world is happening? All these people who are speaking are from Galilee, aren’t they?
8 How is it that we, then, each hear them speaking in our own native languages?
9 Among us are Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, people from Judea and Cappadocia, people from Pontus and the province of Asia,
10 people from Phrygia and Pamphylia, people from Egypt and from the regions of Libya near the city of Cyrene, visitors from Rome,
11 Jews by birth and converts to Judaism, people from Crete and Arabia. Yet we hear these people declaring in our own languages the mighty acts of God!”
12 Everyone was amazed and at a complete loss, asking one another, “What is all this about?”
13 Others, however, were making fun of them, saying, “Looks like what they’ve had is a bit too much wine to drink!”
“God Has Made Jesus Both Lord and Messiah”
14 Then standing up together with the eleven other apostles, Peter spoke loudly and declared with clear and divinely-aided words to the crowd, “Fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem, all of you, listen carefully to what I am about to say! Know this and know it well:
15 Contrary to what some of ᵖyou think, these people are not drunk. It is, after all, only nine in the morning!
16 No, this is what was spoken about through the prophet Joel:
17 “ ‘It will come to pass,’
in the latter days, God says,
‘that I will pour out my Spirit on people of every kind;
ᵖyour sons and your daughters will prophesy,
and the young men among you will see visions,
and the old men among you will have dreams.
18 Yes, it is on my servants, both men and women,
that I will pour out my Spirit at that time,
and they will prophesy.
19 I will give warnings in the sky above,
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and thick smoke.
20 The sun will be darkened,
and the moon made red as blood,
before the arrival of the great and glorious Day of the LORD.
21 And it will come to pass that
everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.’+
22 “Men of Israel, listen carefully to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man whose divine appointment was publicly confirmed by God to ᵖyou through miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through him before ᵖyour very eyes, as you yourselves well know—
23 this man, who was handed over according to the very plan that God arranged and knew about beforehand, ᵖyou killed, by having him nailed to a cross at the hand of Gentiles not bound by the Torah.
24 Yet God raised him to life, freeing him from the anguish and throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held in death’s power.
25 David, after all, says this about him:
“ ‘I see the LORD in front of me continually;
because he is with me, I will not be shaken.
26 That is why my heart rejoices and my tongue sings for joy;
this mortal body of mine, too, will dwell in hope.
27 For you will not leave me in Sheol,
nor will you allow your Holy One to experience decay.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.’+
29 “Brothers, I must speak plainly to you about our noted ancestor, David. He died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
30 Therefore, since David was a prophet, and since he knew that it was with a ‘solemn oath’ that God had sworn to him that he would ‘place on his throne one of his own descendants,’+
31 foreseeing as he did what was going to happen, he spoke about the resurrection of the Messiah, namely, that he would most certainly ‘not be left in Sheol,’ and that his body would never ‘experience decay.’
32 This very man, Jesus, God has raised to life, a fact to which we all bear solemn witness.
33 Having been exalted, therefore, to the very right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you are seeing and hearing.
34 It wasn’t David, you see, who ascended into the heavens; rather, David himself said,
“ ‘The LORD said to my Sovereign,
“Continue sitting at my right hand,
35 until I make ˢyour enemies a footstool under your feet.” ’+
36 “Let the entire nation of Israel know without even the slightest doubt, therefore, that God has made Jesus both Lord and Messiah—the very man ᵖyou demanded be crucified!”
37 When the people heard this, they were pierced with conviction and remorse. “What should we do, brothers?” they asked Peter and the other apostles.
38 “Each of ᵖyou must repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins,” Peter said to them, “and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 For it is to ᵖyou, and to your children and to all who are far away, that the promise belongs, as many as the Lord our God may summon to himself.”
40 It was with many other words, too, that he bore solemn witness and kept pleading with them. “Be saved from this crooked generation!” he urged them.
“All the Believers Continued Together in Close Fellowship”
41 Those who accepted his message, therefore, on the one hand, were baptized—it was about three thousand people who were added to the number of believers that day—
42 and, on the other, were constantly gathering to listen to the apostles teach and to spend time together in fellowship, to share in the fellowship meals and the Lord’s supper together and to participate in the prayers.
43 Taking hold of everyone was a deep sense of awe and fear, and there were taking place through the apostles many wonders and miraculous signs.
44 All the believers continued together in close fellowship and shared whatever they had with one another
45 and would even sell their property and their possessions, dividing the money among everyone according to what each person needed.
46 Day after day gathering together in the temple courts, and meeting regularly in various homes for the fellowship meals, they would share in the food with joyful and generous hearts,
47 praising God and being looked upon favorably by all the people. The Lord, meanwhile, was day after day adding those who were being saved to their group.