Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Go therefore and instruct all the nations, immersing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.

Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,

and that repentance and remission of sins be preached in His name to all nations, beginning out of Jerusalem.

So Jesus said to them again, Peace to you. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

And there are different distributions of ministries, but the same Lord.

But the manifestation is given through the Spirit to each one for the profit of all:

to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit,

But the one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

Therefore He says: When He ascended on high, He led captive the captives, and gave gifts to men.

He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ,

And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.

Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

And Judas and Silas, themselves being prophets also, exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words.

And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he who leads souls is wise.

However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature; but not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.

Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ Jesus.

Then He said to them, Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure new and old things.

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues.

They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.

And they agreed with him, and when they had summoned the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always oppose the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they, who received the Law by the command of angels and did not keep it, killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One,

and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid aside their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And they stoned Stephen as he was invoking and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder toward the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

And he killed Jacob the brother of John with the sword.

Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to have died.

So I said, Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those believing on You.

And when the blood of Your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, consenting to his death, and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.

From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep;

forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the end.

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tried, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, oppressed;