Book of Common Prayer

Telling the Gentiles about Jesus

³⁴ Peter took a deep breath and began.

“It’s become clear to me,” he said, “that God really does show no favoritism. ³⁵ No: in every race, people who fear him and do what is right are acceptable to him. ³⁶ He sent his word to the children of Israel, announcing peace through Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all! ³⁷ You know all about this, and how the word spread through all Judaea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John proclaimed.

³⁸ “God anointed this man, Jesus of Nazareth, with the holy spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were overpowered by the devil, since God was with him. ³⁹ We are witnesses of everything he did in the land of Judaea and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree; ⁴⁰ but God raised him on the third day, and allowed him to be seen, ⁴¹ not indeed by all the people, but by those of us whom God had appointed beforehand. We ate and drank with him after he had been raised from the dead. ⁴² And he commanded us to announce to the people, and to bear testimony, that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets give their witness: he is the one! Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his Name.”

⁴⁴ While Peter was still saying all this, the holy spirit fell on everyone who was listening to the word. ⁴⁵ The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astonished, because the gift of the holy spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles too. ⁴⁶ They heard them speaking with tongues and praising God.

Then Peter spoke up.

⁴⁷ “Nobody can deny these people water to be baptized, can they?” he said. “They have received the holy spirit, just like we did!” ⁴⁸ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus the Messiah.

Then they asked him to stay for a few days.

The preaching of John the Baptist

1 This is where the good news starts—the good news of Jesus the Messiah, God’s son.

² Isaiah the prophet put it like this (“Look! I am sending my messenger ahead of me; he will clear the way for you!”):

³ “A shout goes up in the desert: Make way for the Lord! Clear a straight path for him!”

⁴ John the Baptizer appeared in the desert. He was announcing a baptism of repentance, to forgive sins. ⁵ The whole of Judaea, and everyone who lived in Jerusalem, went out to him; they confessed their sins and were baptized by him in the river Jordan. ⁶ John wore camel-hair clothes, with a leather belt round his waist. He used to eat locusts and wild honey.

⁷ “Someone a lot stronger than me is coming close behind,” John used to tell them. “I don’t deserve to squat down and undo his sandals. ⁸ I’ve plunged you in the water; he’s going to plunge you in the holy spirit.”

Jesus’ baptism

⁹ This is how it happened. Around that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John in the river Jordan. ¹⁰ That very moment, as he was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens open, and the spirit coming down like a dove onto him. ¹¹ Then there came a voice out of the heavens: “You are my son! You are the one I love! You make me very glad.”

¹² All at once the spirit pushed him out into the desert. ¹³ He was in the desert forty days, and the satan tested him there. He was with the wild beasts, and angels waited on him.