Acts 13:26-52

Easy-to-Read Version

²⁶ “My brothers, sons in the family of Abraham, and you other people who also worship the true God, listen! The news about this salvation has been sent to us. ²⁷ The Jews living in Jerusalem and their leaders did not realize that Jesus was the Savior. The words the prophets wrote about him were read every Sabbath day, but they did not understand. They condemned Jesus. When they did this, they made the words of the prophets come true. ²⁸ They could not find any real reason why Jesus should die, but they asked Pilate to kill him.

²⁹ “These Jews did all the bad things that the Scriptures said would happen to Jesus. Then they took Jesus down from the cross and put him in a tomb. ³⁰ But God raised him up from death! ³¹ After this, for many days, those who had gone with Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem saw him. They are now his witnesses to our people.

³² “We tell you the Good News about the promise God made to our ancestors. ³³ We are their descendants, and God has made this promise come true for us. God did this by raising Jesus from death. We also read about this in Psalm 2:

³⁴ God raised Jesus from death. Jesus will never go back to the grave and become dust. So God said,

³⁵ But in another Psalm it says,

³⁶ “David did God’s will during the time he lived. Then he died and was buried like all his ancestors. And his body did rot in the grave! ³⁷ But the one God raised from death did not rot in the grave. ^38-39 Brothers, understand what we are telling you. You can have forgiveness of your sins through this Jesus. The Law of Moses could not free you from your sins. But you can be made right with God if you believe in Jesus. ⁴⁰ So be careful! Don’t let what the prophets said happen to you:

⁴² As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people asked them to come again on the next Sabbath day and tell them more about these things. ⁴³ After the meeting, many of the people followed Paul and Barnabas, including many Jews and people who had changed their religion to be like Jews and worship the true God. Paul and Barnabas encouraged them to continue trusting in God’s grace.

⁴⁴ On the next Sabbath day, almost all the people in the city came together to hear the word of the Lord. ⁴⁵ When the Jews there saw all these people, they became very jealous. Shouting insults, they argued against everything Paul said. ⁴⁶ But Paul and Barnabas spoke very boldly. They said, “We had to tell God’s message to you Jews first, but you refuse to listen. You have made it clear that you are not worthy of having eternal life. So we will now go to those who are not Jews. ⁴⁷ This is what the Lord told us to do:

⁴⁸ When the non-Jewish people heard Paul say this, they were happy. They gave honor to the message of the Lord, and many of them believed it. These were the ones chosen to have eternal life.

⁴⁹ And so the message of the Lord was being told throughout the whole country. ⁵⁰ But the Jews there caused some of the important religious women and the leaders of the city to be angry and turn against Paul and Barnabas and throw them out of town. ⁵¹ So Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off their feet.^[a] Then they went to the city of Iconium. ⁵² But the Lord’s followers in Antioch were happy and filled with the Holy Spirit.