Paona 3, 1743

32Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth; Oh, sing praises to the Lord,Selah

33To Him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which were of old! Indeed, He sends out His voice, a mighty voice.

34Ascribe strength to God; His excellence is over Israel, And His strength is in the clouds.

51Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,

52and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.

53But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.

54And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?"

55But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.

56For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." And they went to another village.

57Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go."

58And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."

59Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."

60Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."

61And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house."

62But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

18You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, Even from the rebellious, That the LORD God might dwell there.

19Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!Selah

12After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country.

13And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.

14Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.

15And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

16He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

17And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;

18they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

19So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.

20And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

13For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

14These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly;

15but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

16And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.

15But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

16having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.

17For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

18For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

19by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,

20who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.

21There is also an antitype which now saves us--baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

22who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.

1The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

2until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,

3to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

4And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me;

5for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

6Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"

7And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.

8But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

9Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

10And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,

11who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."

12Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey.

13And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James.

14These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.