Jesus says goodbye
1In the first book [1] I wrote for you, Theophilus, I told you about Jesus. I wrote about what he did and what he taught. 2I covered his entire ministry, clear up to the day he gave his apostles [2] their last instructions, which he got through the Holy Spirit. After that, he was lifted up into the sky and out of sight. 3But first, he proved he came back from the dead. He did this in a lot of ways. He spent 40 days on earth after his resurrection, before he ascended into the sky. During that time, he taught the apostles about God’s kingdom. 4Once, when he met with them, [3] he said, “Don’t leave Jerusalem until the Father delivers on the promise I made to you earlier. [4] 5John baptized people with water. But in a few days you’re going to get baptized with the Holy Spirit.”6When the apostles met with Jesus on the Mount of Olives, [5] they asked him, “Sir, is it time yet? Are you going to give the nation of Israel back to its people?”
7Jesus answered, “The Father’s in charge of what happens and when. You don’t need to worry yourself about it. 8You’re going to get the power to do incredible things once the Holy Spirit comes to you. After that happens, you’ll start telling my story to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria—to the whole world.”
9As soon as he was done saying that, he started to rise up into the air. He kept rising until a cloud finally carried him away. The people couldn’t see him anymore.
10They kept looking, though. As they searched the sky after he was gone, two men wearing white robes showed up and stood beside them. 11They said, “You people from Galilee, what do you think you’re doing? Why are you standing around looking at the sky? The way you saw Jesus go—carried up into heaven—is the way he’ll come back when he’s ready.”
12So the apostles left the Mount of Olives and went back to Jerusalem, just across the valley—about the distance Jews were allowed to walk on the Sabbath. [6]
Replacing Judas
13When they got to the city, they went back to the upstairs room where they had been staying. All 11 of the remaining disciples were there: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. [7] 14All of these men were doing just one thing in that room: praying. Joining them were the women who had followed Jesus, including his mother Mary. His brothers were there too.15During the days that followed, the group grew to about 120 souls. Peter stood up to talk to them. He said, 16“Friends, the Holy Spirit inspired King David to predict what happened to Judas. [8] That prophecy had to be fulfilled. 17Judas was a part of our ministry team.
18“He got a reward for turning Jesus in to the Jewish authorities. That reward money paid for a field. [9] But Judas died. He fell headfirst. His body tore open. And then he spilled his guts. [10] 19Everyone in Jerusalem heard about how he died. They started calling the land bought with his money ‘Field of Blood,’ which is Akeldama in Aramaic. [11]
20“The book of Psalms predicted this. ‘His home will be deserted. No one will live there anymore.’ [12] It also says, ‘Give someone else his job.’ [13] 21So now we have to give Judas’s job to another person. This replacement has to be someone who has been with us from the beginning. 22That’s from the time John baptized Jesus until the time Jesus ascended into the sky. This person needs to be someone who saw the resurrected Jesus.”
23The disciples nominated two candidates. One was Joseph, who had two nicknames: Barsabbas and Justus. The other was Matthias. 24The group prayed about the choice they had to make. They said, “Lord, you know what kind of men these are. You make the choice for us. 25Let us know who you want as an apostle to take over the ministry work left behind by Judas, who decided to follow his own path.” 26They put God in charge by using a method of random selection; they threw dice. [14] Matthias became the apostle who joined the other 11.
