Acts 11 (New American Standard Bible)

Acts 11

Peter Reports at Jerusalem

 ¹Now the apostles and ^(A)the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

 ²And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, ^(B)those who were circumcised took issue with him,

 ³saying, "^(C)You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them."

 ⁴But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them ^(D)in orderly sequence, saying,

 ⁵"^(E)I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw ^(F)a vision, an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky; and it came right down to me,

 ⁶and when I had fixed my gaze on it and was observing it I saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the ^[a]crawling creatures and the birds of the air.

 ⁷"I also heard a voice saying to me, 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat.'

 ⁸"But I said, 'By no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'

 ⁹"But a voice from heaven answered a second time, '^(G)What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.'

 ¹⁰"This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into the sky.

 ¹¹"And behold, at that moment three men appeared at the house in which we were staying, having been sent to me from ^(H)Caesarea.

 ¹²"^(I)The Spirit told me to go with them ^(J)without misgivings ^(K)These six brethren also went with me and we entered the man's house.

 ¹³"And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, 'Send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here;

 ¹⁴and he will speak ^(L)words to you by which you will be saved, you and ^(M)all your household.'

 ¹⁵"And as I began to speak, ^(N)the Holy Spirit fell upon them just ^(O)as He did upon us at the beginning.

 ¹⁶"And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, '^(P)John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'

 ¹⁷"Therefore if ^(Q)God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, ^(R)who was I that I could stand in God's way?"

 ¹⁸When they heard this, they quieted down and ^(S)glorified God, saying, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the ^(T)repentance that leads to life."

The Church at Antioch

 ^19(U)So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to ^(V)Phoenicia and ^(W)Cyprus and ^(X)Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone.

 ²⁰But there were some of them, men of ^(Y)Cyprus and ^(Z)Cyrene, who came to ^(AA)Antioch and began speaking to the ^[b](AB)Greeks also, ^(AC)preaching the Lord Jesus.

 ²¹And ^(AD)the hand of the Lord was with them, and ^(AE)a large number who believed turned to the Lord.

 ²²The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent ^(AF)Barnabas off to ^(AG)Antioch.

 ²³Then when he arrived and witnessed ^(AH)the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord;

 ²⁴for he was a good man, and ^(AI)full of the Holy Spirit and of faith And ^(AJ)considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.

 ²⁵And he left for ^(AK)Tarsus to look for Saul;

 ²⁶and when he had found him, he brought him to ^(AL)Antioch And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and ^(AM)the disciples were first called ^(AN)Christians in ^(AO)Antioch.

 ²⁷Now at this time ^(AP)some prophets came down from Jerusalem to ^(AQ)Antioch.

 ²⁸One of them named ^(AR)Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine ^(AS)all over the world And this took place in the reign of ^(AT)Claudius.

 ²⁹And in the proportion that any of ^(AU)the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of ^(AV)the brethren living in Judea.

 ^30(AW)And this they did, sending it in charge of ^(AX)Barnabas and Saul to the ^(AY)elders.