Acts of Apostles - Chapter 11

¹ The apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that gentiles too had accepted the word of God,

² and when Peter came up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers protested to him

³ and said, 'So you have been visiting the uncircumcised and eating with them!'

⁴ Peter in reply gave them the details point by point,

⁵ 'One day, when I was in the town of Jaffa,' he began, 'I fell into a trance as I was praying and had a vision of something like a big sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners. This sheet came right down beside me.

⁶ I looked carefully into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of heaven.

⁷ Then I heard a voice that said to me, "Now, Peter, kill and eat!"

⁸ But I answered, "Certainly not, Lord; nothing profane or unclean has ever crossed my lips."

⁹ And a second time the voice spoke from heaven, "What God has made clean, you have no right to call profane."

¹⁰ This was repeated three times, before the whole of it was drawn up to heaven again.

¹¹ 'Just at that moment, three men stopped outside the house where we were staying; they had been sent from Caesarea to fetch me,

¹² and the Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going back with them. The six brothers here came with me as well, and we entered the man's house.

¹³ He told us he had seen an angel standing in his house who said, "Send to Jaffa and fetch Simon known as Peter;

¹⁴ he has a message for you that will save you and your entire household."

¹⁵ 'I had scarcely begun to speak when the Holy Spirit came down on them in the same way as it came on us at the beginning,

¹⁶ and I remembered that the Lord had said, "John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit."

¹⁷ I realised then that God was giving them the identical gift he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; and who was I to stand in God's way?'

¹⁸ This account satisfied them, and they gave glory to God, saying, 'God has clearly granted to the gentiles too the repentance that leads to life.'

¹⁹ Those who had scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, but they proclaimed the message only to Jews.

²⁰ Some of them, however, who came from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch where they started preaching also to the Greeks, proclaiming the good news of the Lord Jesus to them.

²¹ The Lord helped them, and a great number believed and were converted to the Lord.

²² The news of them came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas out to Antioch.

²³ There he was glad to see for himself that God had given grace, and he urged them all to remain faithful to the Lord with heartfelt devotion;

²⁴ for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and with faith. And a large number of people were won over to the Lord.

²⁵ Barnabas then left for Tarsus to look for Saul,

²⁶ and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. And it happened that they stayed together in that church a whole year, instructing a large number of people. It was at Antioch that the disciples were first called 'Christians'.

²⁷ While they were there some prophets came down to Antioch from Jerusalem,

²⁸ and one of them whose name was Agabus, seized by the Spirit, stood up and predicted that a severe and universal famine was going to happen. This in fact happened while Claudius was emperor.

²⁹ The disciples decided to send relief, each to contribute what he could afford, to the brothers living in Judaea.

³⁰ They did this and delivered their contributions to the elders through the agency of Barnabas and Saul.

Book of Acts of Apostles Chapters

• « Prev
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• 11
• 12
• 13
• 14
• 15
• 16
• 17
• 18
• 19
• 20
• 21
• 22
• 23
• 24
• 25
• 26
• 27
• 28
• Next »

Enjoy our RCIA class? Pay it Forward