| 1 News came to the apostles and the brothers and sisters in Judea that even foreigners had received the Word of God. | |
| 2 So, when Peter went up to Jerusalem, these Jewish believers began to argue with him, | |
| 3 “You went to the home of uncircumcised people and ate with them!” | |
| 4 So Peter began to give them the facts as they had happened, | |
| 5 “I was at prayer in the city of Joppa when, in a trance, I saw a vision. Something like a large sheet came down from the sky and drew near to me, landing on the ground by its four corners. | |
| 6 As I stared at it, I saw four-legged creatures of the earth, wild beasts and reptiles, and birds of the sky. | |
| 7 Then I heard a voice saying to me: ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat!’ | |
| 8 I replied, ‘Certainly not, Lord! No common or unclean creature has ever entered my mouth.’ | |
| 9 A second time the voice from the heavens spoke, “What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.” | |
| 10 This happened three times, and then it was all drawn up into the sky. | |
| 11 At that moment three men, who had been sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were staying. | |
| 12 The Spirit instructed me to go with them without hesitation; so these six brothers came along with me and we entered into the man’s house. | |
| 13 He told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and telling him: Send someone to Joppa and fetch Simon, also known as Peter. | |
| 14 He will bring you a message by which you and all your household will be saved.” | |
| 15 I had begun to address them when suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon them, just as it had come upon us at the beginning. | |
| 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ | |
| 17 If, then, God had given them the same gift that he had given us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to resist God?” | |
| 18 When they heard this they set their minds at rest and praised God saying, “Then God has granted life-giving repentance to the pagan nations as well.” | |
| 19 Those who had been scattered because of the persecution over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message, but only to the Jews. | |
| 20 But there were some natives of Cyprus and Cyrene among them who, on coming into Antioch, spoke also to the Greeks, giving them the good news of the Lord Jesus. | |
| 21 The hand of the Lord was with them so that a great number believed and turned to the Lord. | |
| 22 News of this reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. | |
| 23 When he arrived and saw the manifest signs of God’s favor, he rejoiced and urged them all to remain firmly faithful to the Lord; | |
| 24 for he himself was a good man filled with Holy Spirit and faith. Thus large crowds came to know the Lord. | |
| 25 Then Barnabas went off to Tarsus to look for Saul | |
| 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they had meetings with the Church and instructed many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. | |
| 27 At that time some prophets went down from Jerusalem to Antioch | |
| 28 and one of them, named Agabus, inspired by the Holy Spirit, foretold that a great famine would spread over the whole world. This actually happened in the days of the Emperor Claudius. | |
| 29 So the disciples decided, within their means, to set something aside and to send relief to the brothers and sisters who were living in Judea. | |
| 30 They did this and sent their donations to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. | |
