Acts 11:2–23

²When Peter went up to Jerusalem, those who stressed circumcision ^cargued with him, ^d3saying, “You visited uncircumcised men and ate with them!” ^e

⁴Peter began to explain to them in an orderly sequence, saying: ⁵“I ^fwas in the town of Joppa praying, and I saw, in a visionary state, an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners from heaven, and it came to me. ⁶When I looked closely and considered it, I saw the four-footed animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky. ⁷Then I also heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat!’

⁸“ ‘No, Lord!’ I said. ‘For nothing common or ritually unclean has ever entered my mouth!’ ⁹But a voice answered from heaven a second time, ‘What God has made ^•clean, you must not call common.’

¹⁰“Now this happened three times, and then everything was drawn up again into heaven. ¹¹At that very moment, three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were. ¹²Then the Spirit told me to accompany them with no doubts at all. These six brothers accompanied me, and we went into the man’s house. ^g13He reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send ^hto Joppa, and call for Simon, who is also named Peter. ¹⁴He will speak a message ⁱto you that you and all your household ^jwill be saved by.’

¹⁵“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came down on them, just as on us at the beginning. ^k16Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ^{l 17}Therefore, if God gave them the same gift that He also gave to us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, how could I possibly hinder God?” ^m

¹⁸When they heard this they became silent. Then they glorified God, saying, “So God has granted repentance resulting in life ⁿeven to the Gentiles!” ^o

The Church in Antioch

¹⁹Those who had been scattered as a result of the persecution that started because of Stephen made their way as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, ^pspeaking the message to no one except Jews. ²⁰But there were some of them, Cypriot and Cyrenian men, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Hellenists, ^qrproclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus. ^s21The Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. ^t22Then the report about them was heard by the church that was at Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to travel ^uas far as Antioch. ²³When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged all of them to remain true to the Lord with a firm resolve of the heart, ^v