Acts: The Church Unleashed

Acts 1:1-11

¹The first book I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Jesus began both to do and to teach,

²until the day in which he was received up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

³To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about God’s Kingdom.

⁴Being assembled together with them, he commanded them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me.

⁵For John indeed baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

⁶Therefore when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

⁷He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority.

⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

⁹When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

¹⁰While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing,

¹¹who also said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky, will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky.”