Acts 26:18Plain English Versionand you will tell them the true message about me. It will be like you will open their eyes so that they can see things properly. They will come to God. Then Satan, the boss over the bad spirits, he will not control them with his power any more. It is like they are always in the dark now, but they will come into the light. They will believe in me, and they will stop believing lies. And then God will say they are not guilty of the bad things they did, and they will be God’s people.’ Jesus said that to me.” See the chapter |
And God says you have to tell everyone about me. Tell them that they have to turn away from the bad things they do and turn to God, so that he will say they are not guilty of the bad things they did. You have to start telling people that message here in Jerusalem, and then go on to other countries, until you tell it to the people in every country.
Then Jesus said, “I came to the world to judge people, and to split them into 2 mobs. One mob know that they don’t understand the true things about God. It’s like they are blind. But they let me help them understand those things, like I make them see. The other mob think they understand all about God. It’s like they think they can already see, so they don’t let me help them. But they don’t really understand, so it’s like they stay blind.”
Peter told them, “You have to turn around and follow Jesus. Then let us baptise you, to show that you turned away from the wrong things you are doing, and now you follow Jesus Christ. Then God will not do payback to you for those bad things. And he will give you the Holy Spirit to live in you, just like he promised. You see, God promised to give the Holy Spirit to everyone that he picks to be his own people. That promise is for you, and for your kids, and even for people in other countries a long way away.”
Paul kept on talking. He said, “Now I’m asking God to keep you safe, and to keep you believing the true message that God is very good to you and will save you. If you keep on believing that message, you will grow strong for God, and you will know that you are in God’s family, and God will give you the good life that he is keeping for his own people.
They said that people will hurt God’s special man, and kill him, but then God will make him alive again. They said that he will be the first person to come alive again after being dead, and that’s how he will show everyone that God can save them. He will be like a light for everyone, for both Jewish people, and for people that are not Jews.”
And he gave Jesus the best place in heaven, right next to God himself, on his right-hand side, the place where the most important person sits. And God made Jesus our leader, the one that can save us. God did that so that all the Israel people can turn back to him, and they can stop doing bad things, and then he will not punish them.
We joined up with Jesus Christ, God’s son, so we are part of God’s family now, and we will get some of the good things that God gives to his son. But people gave Jesus a lot of trouble, and they will give us a lot of trouble too, because we belong to him. Yes, we will get trouble, and we will get good things too.
But as for you, God joined you to Jesus Christ. You and us together, Jesus helps us to be wise, like God. And Jesus makes us to be God’s friends, so that he will tell us we are all right. And Jesus makes us God’s own special people too. Jesus died to pay for us and set us free from everything that is wrong.
But you are the people God picked out for himself. Together you work for him, like the men that looked after his ceremonies. You are his own family. God called you away from doing bad things, so you can do good things. It is like you used to live in the dark so that nobody could see you do bad things there, but now he called you away from that to live in his good light. So let’s tell everyone that God is really great and really good.