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1 Now the apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.
2 Now when Peter had come up to Jerusalem, they who belonged to the circumcision group argued with him;
3 they said, “You associated with uncircumcised men and ate with them!”
4 But Peter started to explain the matter to them in detail; he said,
5 I was praying in the city of Joppa, and I saw in a trance a vision of a certain container coming down, like a large sheet let down from heaven by its four corners. It descended to me.
6 I gazed at it and thought about it. I saw the four- legged animals of the earth, and the wild beasts, and the creeping animals, and the birds of the sky.
7 Then I also heard a voice say to me, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat!”
8 But I said, “Not so, Lord; for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered into my mouth.”
9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, “What God has declared clean, do not call unclean.”
10 Now this happened three times, and then everything was taken back up into heaven again.
11 Behold, right away there were three men standing in front of the house where we were; they had been sent from Caesarea to me.
12 The Spirit commanded me to go with them, not making any distinction regarding them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered into the man’ s house.
13 Then he told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, “Send men to Joppa and summon Simon who is called Peter.
14 He will speak to you a message by which you will be saved— you and all your household.”
15 But as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them, just as also on us in the beginning.
16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, “John indeed baptized with water; but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.”
17 Then if God gave to them the same gift as he also gave to us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, that I could oppose God?”
18 When they heard these things, they said nothing in response, but they praised God, saying, “Then God has given repentance for life to the Gentiles also.”
19 Now indeed those who had been scattered by the persecution that arose over Stephen spread as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews.
20 But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and spoke also to the Greeks, proclaiming the gospel about the Lord Jesus.
21 The hand of the Lord was with them; and a great number, having believed, turned to the Lord.
22 Now the report about them came to the ears of the church that was in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas as far as Antioch.
23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he encouraged them all to remain with the Lord with all their heart.
24 For he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and many people were added to the Lord.
25 Barnabas then went out to Tarsus to look for Saul.
26 When he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it came about, that for an entire year they gathered together with the church and taught many people. Now the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
27 Now in these days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
28 One of them, Agabus by name, stood up and indicated by the Spirit that a great famine was about to occur over all the world. This happened in the days of Claudius.
29 So, the disciples, as anyone was able, decided that each of them would send help to the brothers who lived in Judea.
30 So they did this; they sent money to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.
The Acts of the Apostles