Repent, then, and turn to God, so that he will forgive your sins. If you do,

God has overlooked the times when people did not know him, but now he commands all of them everywhere to turn away from their evil ways.

To Jews and Gentiles alike I gave solemn warning that they should turn from their sins to God and believe in our Lord Jesus.

First in Damascus and in Jerusalem and then in the whole country of Israel and among the Gentiles, I preached that they must repent of their sins and turn to God and do the things that would show they had repented.

"Turn away from your sins," he said, "because the Kingdom of heaven is near!"

Do those things that will show that you have turned from your sins.

And don't think you can escape punishment by saying that Abraham is your ancestor. I tell you that God can take these rocks and make descendants for Abraham!

From that time Jesus began to preach his message: "Turn away from your sins, because the Kingdom of heaven is near!"

"Now, what do you think? There was once a man who had two sons. He went to the older one and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.'

Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. 'Yes, sir,' he answered, but he did not go.

For John the Baptist came to you showing you the right path to take, and you would not believe him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. Even when you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe him.

One day when many tax collectors and other outcasts came to listen to Jesus,

So Jesus told them this parable:

When you find it, you are so happy that you put it on your shoulders

In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine respectable people who do not need to repent.

When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, and says to them, 'I am so happy I found the coin I lost. Let us celebrate!'

Jesus went on to say, "There was once a man who had two sons.

After a few days the younger son sold his part of the property and left home with the money. He went to a country far away, where he wasted his money in reckless living.

So he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him out to his farm to take care of the pigs.

At last he came to his senses and said, 'All my father's hired workers have more than they can eat, and here I am about to starve!

I am no longer fit to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired workers." '

'Father,' the son said, 'I have sinned against God and against you. I am no longer fit to be called your son.'

Then go and get the prize calf and kill it, and let us celebrate with a feast!

"In the meantime the older son was out in the field. On his way back, when he came close to the house, he heard the music and dancing.

'Your brother has come back home,' the servant answered, 'and your father has killed the prize calf, because he got him back safe and sound.'

But he spoke back to his father, 'Look, all these years I have worked for you like a slave, and I have never disobeyed your orders. What have you given me? Not even a goat for me to have a feast with my friends!

'My son,' the father answered, 'you are always here with me, and everything I have is yours.

and in his name the message about repentance and the forgiveness of sins must be preached to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.

As they traveled down the road, they came to a place where there was some water, and the official said, "Here is some water. What is to keep me from being baptized?"

The official ordered the carriage to stop, and both Philip and the official went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

After she and the people of her house had been baptized, she invited us, "Come and stay in my house if you have decided that I am a true believer in the Lord." And she persuaded us to go.

They answered, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved---you and your family."

At that very hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; and he and all his family were baptized at once.

And now, why wait any longer? Get up and be baptized and have your sins washed away by praying to him.'

he saved us. It was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that he saved us, through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life by washing us.

which was a symbol pointing to baptism, which now saves you. It is not the washing off of bodily dirt, but the promise made to God from a good conscience. It saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

But when they believed Philip's message about the good news of the Kingdom of God and about Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

For the Holy Spirit had not yet come down on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay with them for a few days.

Paul said, "The baptism of John was for those who turned from their sins; and he told the people of Israel to believe in the one who was coming after him---that is, in Jesus."

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

For surely you know that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptized into union with his death.

Christ has been divided into groups! Was it Paul who died on the cross for you? Were you baptized as Paul's disciples?

No one can say, then, that you were baptized as my disciples.

Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the Good News, and to tell it without using the language of human wisdom, in order to make sure that Christ's death on the cross is not robbed of its power.

Instead, this is what the prophet Joel spoke about:

Yes, even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will proclaim my message.

When they arrived, they prayed for the believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who were listening to his message.

The Jewish believers who had come from Joppa with Peter were amazed that God had poured out his gift of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles also.

But once more God will send us his spirit. The wasteland will become fertile, and fields will produce rich crops.

"I will give water to the thirsty land and make streams flow on the dry ground. I will pour out my spirit on your children and my blessing on your descendants.

They will thrive like well-watered grass, like willows by streams of running water.

And I make a covenant with you: I have given you my power and my teachings to be yours forever, and from now on you are to obey me and teach your children and your descendants to obey me for all time to come."

I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you.

I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you.

I will pour out my spirit on the people of Israel and never again turn away from them. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken."

"Afterward I will pour out my Spirit on everyone: your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your old people will have dreams, and your young people will see visions.

At that time I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, both men and women.

"I will fill the descendants of David and the other people of Jerusalem with the spirit of mercy and the spirit of prayer. They will look at the one whom they stabbed to death, and they will mourn for him like those who mourn for an only child. They will mourn bitterly, like those who have lost their first-born son.