Acts 1

¹The first account I composed, O Theophilus, concerned everything Jesus began to do and to teach, ²until the day he was taken up, after he had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. ³To these men he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many indisputable evidences, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

⁴While sharing a meal with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, "which you heard from me; ⁵for while John baptized with water, you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

⁶So when they had gathered together, they asked him, "Lord, is it at this time that you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?"

⁷He said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or the appointed moments which the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the very ends of the earth."

⁹After he said these things, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰While they were gazing intently into the sky as he went, suddenly two men stood beside them in white clothing, ¹¹who said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you watched him go into heaven."

¹²Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. ¹³When they entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying: Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. ¹⁴All these were united in their persistent devotion to prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

¹⁵In those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers (a crowd of about one hundred and twenty people had gathered) and said, ¹⁶"Men, brothers, it was necessary for the Scripture to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus. ¹⁷For he was numbered among us and was assigned a share in this ministry."

¹⁸(Now this man acquired a field with the wages of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines spilled out. ¹⁹This became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own dialect 'Akeldama,' which means 'Field of Blood.')

²⁰"For it is written in the Book of Psalms: 'Let his homestead become deserted, and let there be no one living in it,' and, 'Let another take his office of oversight.' ²¹Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us— ²²beginning from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up from us—must become a witness with us of his resurrection."

²³And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. ²⁴Then they prayed and said, "You, Lord, Heart-knower of all, reveal which one of these two you have chosen ²⁵to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place." ²⁶And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.