Acts 11

₁They told the apostles and other believers in the province of Judea that people who were not Jews had accepted the message of God. ₂And when Peter came back to Jerusalem, some Jewish believers started to argue with him. ₃They said: ‘You went to people who are uncircumcised and you have eaten with them.’ ₄Then Peter explained to them and told them what had happened. He said:

₅‘I was praying in the town of Joppa when I had a vision. It was like a dream. I saw a big cloth that came down to me from heaven. It looked as if someone was holding the 4 corners of the cloth. ₆When I looked inside the cloth, I saw animals with 4 legs that live on the earth, wild animals, reptiles and birds. ₇Then I heard someone saying to me: “Peter, get up, kill the animals and eat them.”

₈But I said: “No, Lord, I can not eat these animals. I have never eaten anything that is impure or anything which the laws of Moses say we may not eat.”

₉But the person talked to me again from heaven and he said: “God has made these animals pure. You must not say they are impure.”

₁₀This happened 3 times and then the cloth went up into heaven again. ₁₁And then, when I looked down, there were 3 men standing in front of the house where I was. Cornelius, from the city of Caesarea, had sent them to me. ₁₂The Holy_Spirit told me to go with them and not to be worried. These 6 believers here from the town of Joppa also went with me and we went into the house of Cornelius. ₁₃He told us that he had seen an angel standing in his house and the angel had said to him: “You must send someone to the town of Joppa and ask Simon to come here. His other name is Peter. ₁₄Simon will come and talk to you. He will bring you the message that will tell you how God can save you and everyone in your house.”

₁₅I started talking to them and while I was talking, the Holy_Spirit came into them, the same as when He first came into us. ₁₆Then I remembered the words of the Lord when He said: “John baptised you with water, but I will baptise you with the Holy_Spirit.” ₁₇Those Gentiles believed in Jesus and God gave them the Holy_Spirit just as He gave his Spirit to us who believed in Jesus. Yes, God did it and I could not stop God.’

₁₈When they told the Jewish believers these things, they were happy. They praised God and said: ‘God is so good. He also helped the Gentiles to turn their lives to God and live as He wants.’

₁₉After Stephen had died, the Jews oppressed the believers. The believers fled and went away from Judea. Some of them went to the land of Phoenicia, others went to the Island of Cyprus and others to Antioch. They told the message of Christ only to the Jews. ₂₀Some of these believers came from the Island of Cyprus and from the town of Cyrene, and went to Antioch. They also talked to the people who spoke the Greek language and told them the Good_News about the Lord Jesus. ₂₁The Lord helped them and a lot of people started to believe in the Lord and started to live as God wants. ₂₂They told the congregation in Jerusalem that people in Antioch had started to believe and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ₂₃When Barnabas came into Antioch and saw how good God was to them, he was very pleased and he asked them all to continue to serve Jesus and to obey Him in everything that they did and said. ₂₄Barnabas was a good man. He was full of the Holy_Spirit and he believed very strongly in the Lord Jesus. More and more people in that town started to believe in the Lord Jesus. ₂₅Then Barnabas went to the town of Tarsus to look for Saul. ₂₆When Barnabas found Saul, the 2 of them came back to the city of Antioch. They stayed there for one year, meeting with the believers in the congregation and teaching a lot of people about Jesus. In Antioch people gave a name to the believers. They named them Christians. It was the first time that people had named the believers Christians. ₂₇A few prophets then came from Jerusalem to Antioch. ₂₈One of the prophets was Agabus. He started to speak the words that the Holy_Spirit gave him and he told them that there would be a big famine all over the world. That happened in the time when Claudius ruled. ₂₉The believers decided that each of them would give money, as much as they could give, and send it to the believers in Judea. ₃₀They decided to give the money to Barnabas and Saul and asked them to give the money to the elders of the church in Jerusalem.