Acts 11:2–23

²And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, ^1athose who were circumcised took issue with him,

³saying, “^aYou ¹went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

⁴But Peter began speaking ¹and proceeded to explain to them ^ain orderly sequence, saying,

⁵“^aI was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw ^ba vision, an ¹object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from ²the sky; and it came right down to me,

⁶and when I had fixed my gaze on it and was observing it ¹I saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the ²crawling creatures and the birds of the ³air.

⁷“I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; ¹kill and eat.’

⁸“But I said, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing ¹unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

⁹“But a voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘^aWhat God has cleansed, no longer ¹consider unholy.’

¹⁰“This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into ¹the sky.

¹¹“And behold, at that moment three men appeared at the house in which we were staying, having been sent to me from ^aCaesarea.

¹²“^aThe Spirit told me to go with them ^1bwithout misgivings. ^cThese six brethren also went with me and we entered the man’s house.

¹³“And he reported to us how he had seen the angel ¹standing in his house, and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here;

¹⁴and he will speak ^awords to you by which you will be saved, you and ^ball your household.’

¹⁵“And as I began to speak, ^athe Holy Spirit fell upon them just ^bas He did upon us at the beginning.

¹⁶“And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘^aJohn baptized with water, but you will be baptized ¹with the Holy Spirit.’

¹⁷“Therefore if ^aGod gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, ^bwho was I that I could ¹stand in God’s way?”

¹⁸When they heard this, they ¹quieted down and ^aglorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the ^brepentance that leads to life.”

The Church at Antioch

^19aSo then those who were scattered because of the ¹persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way ²to ^bPhoenicia and ^cCyprus and ^dAntioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone.

²⁰But there were some of them, men of ^aCyprus and ^bCyrene, who came to ^cAntioch and began speaking to the ^1dGreeks also, ^2epreaching the Lord Jesus.

²¹And ^athe hand of the Lord was with them, and ^ba large number who believed turned to the Lord.

²²The ¹news about them ²reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent ^aBarnabas off ³to ^bAntioch.

²³Then when he arrived and ¹witnessed ^athe grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with ²resolute heart to remain true to the Lord;