God Speaks
Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers[a] in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God. 2 But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers[b] criticized him. 3 “You entered the home of Gentiles[c] and even ate with them!” they said.
4 Then Peter told them exactly what had happened. 5 “I was in the town of Joppa,” he said, “and while I was praying, I went into a trance and saw a vision. Something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky. And it came right down to me. 6 When I looked inside the sheet, I saw all sorts of tame and wild animals, reptiles, and birds. 7 And I heard a voice say, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.’
8 “‘No, Lord,’ I replied. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean.[d]’
9 “But the voice from heaven spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’ 10 This happened three times before the sheet and all it contained was pulled back up to heaven.
11 “Just then three men who had been sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying. 12 The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry that they were Gentiles. These six brothers here accompanied me, and we soon entered the home of the man who had sent for us. 13 He told us how an angel had appeared to him in his home and had told him, ‘Send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. 14 He will tell you how you and everyone in your household can be saved!’
15 “As I began to speak,” Peter continued, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning. 16 Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with[e] water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”
18 When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”
The Church in Antioch of Syria
19 Meanwhile, the believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen’s death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the word of God, but only to Jews. 20 However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene began preaching to the Gentiles[f] about the Lord Jesus. 21 The power of the Lord was with them, and a large number of these Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord.
22 When the church at Jerusalem heard what had happened, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw this evidence of God’s blessing, he was filled with joy, and he encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord. 24 Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. And many people were brought to the Lord.
25 Then Barnabas went on to Tarsus to look for Saul. 26 When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people. (It was at Antioch that the believers[g] were first called Christians.)
27 During this time some prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them named Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world. (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius.) 29 So the believers in Antioch decided to send relief to the brothers and sisters[h] in Judea, everyone giving as much as they could. 30 This they did, entrusting their gifts to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of the church in Jerusalem.
Footnotes
- 11:1 Greek brothers.
- 11:2 Greek those of the circumcision.
- 11:3 Greek of uncircumcised men.
- 11:8 Greek anything common or unclean.
- 11:16 Or in; also in 11:16b.
- 11:20 Greek the Hellenists (i.e., those who speak Greek); other manuscripts read the Greeks.
- 11:26 Greek disciples; also in 11:29.
- 11:29 Greek the brothers.
Source: New Living Translation: BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: After Peter had witnessed to the Gentiles and seen God save and empower them in chapter 10, he was called to give an account to the leaders in Jerusalem in chapter 11. Verses 1-3 show how upset the Jewish believers were with Peter for associating with Gentiles. In verses 4-17, Peter reported the events just as they had occurred. The leaders’ conclusion after hearing his report was recorded in verse 18, “We see that God has given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.” (NLT) Verses 19-30 relate how the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ spread among the Gentiles in Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. First, persecuted Jewish believers in Christ began telling their new neighbors the good news about Him, and then Barnabas was sent by the church in Jerusalem to investigate. When he saw what God was doing, he encouraged these new believers to stay true to the Lord while he went to Tarsus to recruit Saul. Together they returned to Antioch. There they preached and taught for a full year. During this time, a man named Agabus came and led by the Holy Spirit, prophesied that there would be a famine in the whole Roman Empire. The believers (now called Christians) took this to heart. They took up an offering with each person giving as much as they could and sent it via Barnabas and Saul to the elders of the church in Jerusalem.
Prayer: Glorious God who is gathering people into His Kingdom, please help Your designated leaders not to automatically criticize when they see people doing something unusual that they don’t understand. Help these leaders to ask politely for the facts and reasoning, listen carefully to the answers, and then do as You direct. Help us to be alert to ways we may be opposing You. May we be empowered by the grace of God to fearlessly take the Good News of Jesus Christ to people of other nations, languages, cultures, races, ideologies, and opinions whether near or far away. May the hand of the LORD be with us so that a great number will believe and turn to You, LORD. May godly people full of the Holy Spirit and faith, like Barnabas, partner with others newer in the faith, like Saul, and bring them along and minister with them. May we be so like Christ that people around us will call us “little Christs.” May we be so in tune with You, Holy Spirit, that You can use us to warn people of coming disasters, and we can prepare for them. May each of us determine how we can reach out to brothers and sisters in need according to our ability and Your provision. AMEN
Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, if He wants you to work on one of the suggestions below or something else more personal that He points out.)
- I will, when questioned about why I have obeyed God in an unexpected manner, give a clear and exact accounting as Peter did.
- I will share the good news of Jesus Christ with at least one of my neighbors.
- I will give what I can to people in need here or around the world, especially believers who are suffering from war, famine, natural disaster, pestilence, or persecution.
- I will honor God daily by obeying and trusting Him in seeking to make earthly life and eternity better for other people.
Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.