ActsChapter 11

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¹The apostles and the believers all over Judea soon heard the news. The Gentiles had also accepted God's word. ²So Peter went up to Jerusalem. There the believers who were circumcised argued with him. ³They said, "You went into the homes of men who are not circumcised. And you ate with them!" ⁴But Peter began at the beginning. He told them everything just as it happened. ⁵"I was praying in the city of Joppa. In a trance I saw a vision. Something like a large sheet was being let down from heaven by its four corners. It came right down to me. ⁶I looked at it closely. I saw animals with four feet, wild animals, reptiles, and birds. ⁷Then I heard a voice say to me, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.' ⁸I said, 'No, Lord! Nothing unholy or unclean has ever gone into my mouth.' ⁹But the voice spoke from heaven a second time. It said, 'Do not call anything unclean that God has made clean.' ¹⁰This happened three times. Then it was all pulled back up into heaven. ¹¹Right then three men came to the house where I was staying. They had been sent to me from Caesarea. ¹²The Spirit told me to go with them and not to doubt. These six believers went with me too. We went into the man's home. ¹³He told us he had seen an angel standing in his house. The angel said, 'Send to Joppa for Simon, who is called Peter. ¹⁴He will bring you a message. Through it, you and everyone in your house will be saved.' ¹⁵As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came down on them. He came just as he had come on us at the beginning. ¹⁶Then I remembered what the Lord had said. 'John baptized with water. But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' ¹⁷So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God's way?" ¹⁸When they heard this, they stopped arguing. They praised God. They said, "So God has let even the Gentiles turn back to him and live!" ¹⁹Meanwhile, some believers had been scattered by the attacks that began when Stephen was killed. They traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. They told the message only to Jews. ²⁰But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene. They went to Antioch and began speaking to Greeks too. They told them the good news about the Lord Jesus. ²¹The Lord's power was with them. A large number of people believed and turned to the Lord. ²²The church in Jerusalem heard about this. So they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ²³When he got there, he saw what God's grace had done. He was very glad. He encouraged them all to stay true to the Lord with all their hearts. ²⁴Barnabas was a good man. He was full of the Holy Spirit and faith. And a large number of people were brought to the Lord. ²⁵Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. ²⁶When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. So for a whole year they met with the church and taught large numbers of people. It was at Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. ²⁷In those days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. ²⁸One of them was named Agabus. He stood up and spoke through the Spirit. He said a great famine would spread over the whole world. (This happened while Claudius was emperor.) ²⁹The disciples decided to send help to the believers living in Judea. Each one would give as much as he could. ³⁰And they did it. They sent their gifts to the elders through Barnabas and Saul.