MENU

New Testament Reading - Peter Explains His Actions

¹Soon the news reached the apostles and other brothers in Judea that Gentiles also were being converted! ²But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers argued with him.

³“You fellowshiped with Gentiles and even ate with them,” they accused.

⁴Then Peter told them the whole story. ⁵“One day in Joppa,” he said, “while I was praying, I saw a vision—a huge sheet, let down by its four corners from the sky. ⁶Inside the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds which we are not to eat.^{a 7}And I heard a voice say, ‘Kill and eat whatever you wish.’

⁸“‘Never, Lord,’ I replied. ‘For I have never yet eaten anything forbidden by our Jewish laws!’

⁹“But the voice came again, ‘Don’t say it isn’t right when God declares it is!’

¹⁰“This happened three times before the sheet and all it contained disappeared into heaven. ¹¹Just then three men who had come to take me with them to Caesarea arrived at the house where I was staying! ¹²The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry about their being Gentiles! These six brothers here accompanied me, and we soon arrived at the home of the man who had sent the messengers. ¹³He told us how an angel had appeared to him and told him to send messengers to Joppa to find Simon Peter! ¹⁴‘He will tell you how you and all your household can be saved!’ the angel had told him.

¹⁵“Well, I began telling them the Good News, but just as I was getting started with my sermon, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning! ¹⁶Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘Yes, John baptized with^b water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷And since it was God who gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to argue?”

¹⁸When the others heard this, all their objections were answered and they began praising God! “Yes,” they said, “God has given to the Gentiles, too, the privilege of turning to him and receiving eternal life!”

1. Implied
2. Or “baptized in.”