Acts 13:16-41

¹⁶Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said,

“Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: ¹⁷The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. ¹⁸For a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness. ¹⁹When He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance—all of which took about 450 years. ²⁰After these things He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. ²¹Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. ²²After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.’ ²³From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, ²⁴after John had proclaimed, before His coming, a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. ²⁵And while John was completing his course, he kept saying, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold, One is coming after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’

²⁶“Brothers, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. ²⁷For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the declarations of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. ²⁸And though they found no grounds for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. ²⁹When they had carried out everything that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. ³⁰But God raised Him from the dead; ³¹and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. ³²And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, ³³that God has fulfilled this promise to those of us who are the descendants by raising Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son; today I have fathered You.’ ³⁴As for the fact that He raised Him from the dead, never again to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you the holy and faithful mercies of David.’ ³⁵Therefore, He also says in another Psalm: ‘You will not allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.’ ³⁶For David, after he had served God’s purpose in his own generation, fell asleep, and was buried among his fathers and underwent decay; ³⁷but He whom God raised did not undergo decay. ³⁸Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, ³⁹and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. ⁴⁰Therefore, see that the thing spoken of in the Prophets does not come upon you:

41‘Look, you scoffers, and be astonished, and perish;

For I am accomplishing a work in your days,

A work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you.’ ”