Acts 11

Peter’s Report at Jerusalem

¹The apostles and brothers throughout Judea soon heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. ²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers took issue with him ³and said, “You visited uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

⁴But Peter began and explained to them the whole sequence of events: ⁵“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision of something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came right down to me. ⁶I looked at it closely and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air. ⁷Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat.’

⁸‘No, Lord,’ I said, ‘for nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

⁹But the voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’

¹⁰This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into heaven.

¹¹Just then three men sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. ¹²The Spirit told me to accompany them without hesitation. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s home. ¹³He told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. ¹⁴He will convey to you a message by which you and all your household will be saved.’

¹⁵As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He had fallen upon us at the beginning. ¹⁶Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷So if God gave them the same gift He gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder the work of God?”

• ACTS 11:16[FULFILLS]The One coming after John would baptize with the Holy Spirit ← MT 3:11; MK 1:8; LK 3:16; JN 1:33

¹⁸When they heard this, they had no further objections, and they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”

The Church at Antioch

¹⁹Meanwhile those scattered by the persecution that began with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the message only to Jews. ²⁰But some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus. ²¹The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

²²When news of this reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ²³When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to abide in the Lord with all their hearts. ²⁴Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

²⁵Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, ²⁶and when he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. So for a full year they met together with the church and taught large numbers of people. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

²⁷In those days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. ²⁸One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted through the Spirit that a great famine would sweep across the whole world. (This happened under Claudius.) ²⁹So the disciples, each according to his ability, decided to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. ³⁰This they did, sending their gifts to the elders with Barnabas and Saul.

• ACTS 11:28[PROPHECY]Agabus stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar → Fulfilled