Peter began to speak: "I now realize that it is true that God treats everyone on the same basis.

and he began to teach them:

Dear friends in Corinth! We have spoken frankly to you; we have opened our hearts wide.

For with his strong arguments he defeated the Jews in public debates by proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah.

But to this very day I have been helped by God, and so I stand here giving my witness to all, to small and great alike. What I say is the very same thing which the prophets and Moses said was going to happen:

that the Messiah must suffer and be the first one to rise from death, to announce the light of salvation to the Jews and to the Gentiles."

So they set a date with Paul, and a large number of them came that day to the place where Paul was staying. From morning till night he explained to them his message about the Kingdom of God, and he tried to convince them about Jesus by quoting from the Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets.

And Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets.

Then he said to them, "These are the very things I told you about while I was still with you: everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms had to come true."

and said to them, "This is what is written: the Messiah must suffer and must rise from death three days later,

times of spiritual strength will come from the Lord, and he will send Jesus, who is the Messiah he has already chosen for you.

He went straight to the synagogues and began to preach that Jesus was the Son of God.

But other believers, who were from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and proclaimed the message to Gentiles also, telling them the Good News about the Lord Jesus.

and explaining the Scriptures, and proving from them that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from death. "This Jesus whom I announce to you," Paul said, "is the Messiah."

Certain Epicurean and Stoic teachers also debated with him. Some of them asked, "What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?" Others answered, "He seems to be talking about foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching about Jesus and the resurrection.

Some Jews who traveled around and drove out evil spirits also tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus to do this. They said to the evil spirits, "I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches."

As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles;

For while I was with you, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially his death on the cross.

You certainly heard about him, and as his followers you were taught the truth that is in Jesus.

They tried to find out when the time would be and how it would come. This was the time to which Christ's Spirit in them was pointing, in predicting the sufferings that Christ would have to endure and the glory that would follow.

God revealed to these prophets that their work was not for their own benefit, but for yours, as they spoke about those things which you have now heard from the messengers who announced the Good News by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things which even the angels would like to understand.