¹Dear Theophilus: In my first book I wrote about all the things that Jesus did and taught from the time he began his work

²until the day he was taken up to heaven. Before he was taken up, he gave instructions by the power of the Holy Spirit to the men he had chosen as his apostles.

³For forty days after his death he appeared to them many times in ways that proved beyond doubt that he was alive. They saw him, and he talked with them about the Kingdom of God.

⁴And when they came together, he gave them this order: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my Father promised.

⁵John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus Is Taken Up to Heaven

⁶When the apostles met together with Jesus, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time give the Kingdom back to Israel?”

⁷Jesus said to them, “The times and occasions are set by my Father's own authority, and it is not for you to know when they will be.

⁸But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

⁹After saying this, he was taken up to heaven as they watched him, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

¹⁰They still had their eyes fixed on the sky as he went away, when two men dressed in white suddenly stood beside them

¹¹and said, “Galileans, why are you standing there looking up at the sky? This Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way that you saw him go to heaven.”

Judas' Successor

¹²Then the apostles went back to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is about half a mile away from the city.

¹³They entered the city and went up to the room where they were staying: Peter, John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Patriot, and Judas son of James.

¹⁴They gathered frequently to pray as a group, together with the women and with Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.

¹⁵A few days later there was a meeting of the believers, about a hundred and twenty in all, and Peter stood up to speak.

¹⁶“My friends,” he said, “the scripture had to come true in which the Holy Spirit, speaking through David, made a prediction about Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus.

¹⁷Judas was a member of our group, for he had been chosen to have a part in our work.”

¹⁸(With the money that Judas got for his evil act he bought a field, where he fell to his death; he burst open and all his insides spilled out.

¹⁹All the people living in Jerusalem heard about it, and so in their own language they call that field Akeldama, which means “Field of Blood.”)

²⁰“For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘May his house become empty; may no one live in it.’ It is also written, ‘May someone else take his place of service.’

^21-22“So then, someone must join us as a witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. He must be one of the men who were in our group during the whole time that the Lord Jesus traveled about with us, beginning from the time John preached his message of baptism until the day Jesus was taken up from us to heaven.”

²³So they proposed two men: Joseph, who was called Barsabbas (also known as Justus), and Matthias.

²⁴Then they prayed, “Lord, you know the thoughts of everyone, so show us which of these two you have chosen

²⁵to serve as an apostle in the place of Judas, who left to go to the place where he belongs.”

²⁶Then they drew lots to choose between the two men, and the one chosen was Matthias, who was added to the group of eleven apostles.

¹From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus and an apostle chosen and called by God to preach his Good News.

²The Good News was promised long ago by God through his prophets, as written in the Holy Scriptures.

³It is about his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: as to his humanity, he was born a descendant of David;

⁴as to his divine holiness, he was shown with great power to be the Son of God by being raised from death.

⁵Through him God gave me the privilege of being an apostle for the sake of Christ, in order to lead people of all nations to believe and obey.

⁶This also includes you who are in Rome, whom God has called to belong to Jesus Christ.

⁷And so I write to all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his own people: May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because the whole world is hearing about your faith.

⁹God is my witness that what I say is true—the God whom I serve with all my heart by preaching the Good News about his Son. God knows that I remember you

¹⁰every time I pray. I ask that God in his good will may at last make it possible for me to visit you now.

¹¹For I want very much to see you, in order to share a spiritual blessing with you to make you strong.

¹²What I mean is that both you and I will be helped at the same time, you by my faith and I by yours.

¹³You must remember, my friends, that many times I have planned to visit you, but something has always kept me from doing so. I want to win converts among you also, as I have among other Gentiles.

¹⁴For I have an obligation to all peoples, to the civilized and to the savage, to the educated and to the ignorant.

¹⁵So then, I am eager to preach the Good News to you also who live in Rome.

The Power of the Gospel

¹⁶I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God's power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles.

¹⁷For the gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the scripture says, “The person who is put right with God through faith shall live.”

Human Guilt

¹⁸God's anger is revealed from heaven against all the sin and evil of the people whose evil ways prevent the truth from being known.

¹⁹God punishes them, because what can be known about God is plain to them, for God himself made it plain.

²⁰Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. So those people have no excuse at all!

²¹They know God, but they do not give him the honor that belongs to him, nor do they thank him. Instead, their thoughts have become complete nonsense, and their empty minds are filled with darkness.

²²They say they are wise, but they are fools;

²³instead of worshiping the immortal God, they worship images made to look like mortals or birds or animals or reptiles.

²⁴And so God has given those people over to do the filthy things their hearts desire, and they do shameful things with each other.

²⁵They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever! Amen.

²⁶Because they do this, God has given them over to shameful passions. Even the women pervert the natural use of their sex by unnatural acts.

²⁷In the same way the men give up natural sexual relations with women and burn with passion for each other. Men do shameful things with each other, and as a result they bring upon themselves the punishment they deserve for their wrongdoing.

²⁸Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do.

²⁹They are filled with all kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice; they are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, deceit, and malice. They gossip

³⁰and speak evil of one another; they are hateful to God, insolent, proud, and boastful; they think of more ways to do evil; they disobey their parents;

³¹they have no conscience; they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or pity for others.

³²They know that God's law says that people who live in this way deserve death. Yet, not only do they continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do them.

²⁴A hypocrite hides hate behind flattering words.

²⁵They may sound fine, but don't believe him, because his heart is filled to the brim with hate.

²⁶He may disguise his hatred, but everyone will see the evil things he does.