Acts 11

Williams^{(i) 1} Now the apostles and the brothers all over Judea heard that the heathen too had accepted God's message. ² So when Peter returned to Jerusalem, the champions of circumcision began to bring charges against him ³ for having visited and eaten with men who were not Jews. ⁴ Then Peter explained the whole matter to them from beginning to end. He said, ⁵ "I was praying in the town of Joppa, and while I was praying I fell in a trance and had a vision. I saw something like a great sheet coming down out of the sky, lowered by the four comers; and it came right down to me. ⁶ With fixed eyes I kept looking at it and saw all kinds of four-footed animals, wild beasts, reptiles, and wild birds. ⁷ And I heard a voice say to me, 'Get up, Peter, kill something and eat it!' ⁸ But I answered, 'Never by any means, sir, for nothing common or not ceremonially cleansed has ever passed my lips.' ⁹ Then the voice from heaven answered again, 'The things that God has cleansed you must not call unclean.' ¹⁰ This took place three times; then all at once the whole thing was drawn back into the sky. ¹¹ Just at that moment three men, who had been sent from Caesarea for me, stopped at the house where we were staying. ¹² And the Spirit told me to go with them without any hesitation at all. These six brothers, too, went with me, and we all went into the man's house. ¹³ Then he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say to him, 'Send to Joppa and invite Simon, who is called Peter, to come over; ¹⁴ he will tell you truths through which you and your whole household will be saved.' ¹⁵ When I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as He did upon us at the beginning, ¹⁶ and I remembered the saying of the Lord, 'John baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.' ¹⁷ So if God had given them the same gift that He gave us when we believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to try -- and how could I if I tried -- to thwart God?" ¹⁸ When they heard this, they had no answer to make, but gave God the glory, saying, "So God has given even the heathen the repentance that leads to life." ¹⁹ Now the fugitives from the persecution that started over Stephen went all the way to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, telling the message to none but Jews. ²⁰ But there were some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who on reaching Antioch began to speak to the Greeks too, and proceeded to tell them the good news about the Lord Jesus. ²¹ And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number of people believed and turned to the Lord. ²² Now the news about them came to the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and so they sent Barnabas all the way to Antioch. ²³ When he reached there and saw the spiritual blessing God had given them, he was delighted, and continuously encouraged them all with hearty purpose to continue to be devoted to the Lord; ²⁴ for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and faith. So a large number of people were united to the Lord. ²⁵ Then Barnabas went over to Tarsus to search out Saul, ²⁶ and after he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. Now for a whole year their meeting with the church lasted, and they taught large numbers of people. It was at Antioch too that the disciples first came to be known as "Christians." ²⁷ At that time some prophets from Jerusalem came down to Antioch, ²⁸ and one of them named Agabus got up and, through the Holy Spirit, foretold that there was going to be a great famine all over the world, which occurred in the reign of Claudius. ²⁹ So the disciples decided to send a contribution, each in proportion to his prosperity, to help the brothers who lived in Judea. ³⁰ And this they did and sent it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.