Book of Common Prayer
Peter goes to Cornelius
17 When Peter came to himself, he was puzzled as to what the vision he had seen was all about. Then, suddenly, the men sent by Cornelius appeared, standing by the gate. They had been asking for Simon’s house, 18 inquiring if someone by the name of Simon called Peter was staying there. 19 Peter was still pondering the vision, when the spirit spoke to him.
“Look,” said the spirit. “There are three men searching for you. 20 It’s all right; get up, go down and go with them. Don’t be prejudiced; I have sent them.”
21 So Peter went down to the men.
“Here I am,” he said. “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?”
22 “There is a man called Cornelius,” they replied. “He is a centurion, and he is a righteous and God-fearing man. The whole people of the Jews will testify to him. A holy angel told him in a vision to send for you to come to his house, so that he can hear any words you may have to say.”
23 So he invited them in and put them up for the night.
In the morning he got up and went with them. Some of the believers from Joppa went with him. 24 They reached Caesarea the following day. Cornelius had summoned his relatives and close friends and was waiting for him.
25 When Peter came in, Cornelius went to meet him. He fell down at his feet and worshiped him.
26 “Get up!” said Peter, lifting him up. “I’m just a man, too.”
27 So they talked together, and Peter came in and found lots of people assembled.
28 “You must know,” he said to them, “that it is forbidden for a Jewish man to mix with or visit a Gentile. But God showed me that I should call nobody ‘common’ or ‘unclean.’ 29 So I came when I was asked, and raised no objections. Do tell me, then, the reason why you sent for me.”
30 “Four days ago,” answered Cornelius, “I was praying in my house at around this time, about three o’clock, and suddenly a man stood beside me in shining clothes. 31 ‘Cornelius,’ he said, ‘your prayer has been heard, and your almsgiving has been remembered by God. 32 So send someone to Joppa and call Simon, who is named Peter; he is staying in the house of Simon the tanner, beside the sea.’ 33 So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. So now we are all here, in God’s presence, to listen to everything which the Lord has told you to say.”
14 About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the Temple and began to teach. 15 The Judaeans were astonished.
“Where does this fellow get all his learning from?” they asked. “He’s never been trained!”
16 “My teaching isn’t my own,” replied Jesus. “It comes from the one who sent me! 17 If anyone wants to do what God wants, they will know whether this teaching is from God, or whether I’m just speaking on my own account. 18 Anyone who speaks on his own behalf is trying to establish his own reputation. But if what he’s interested in is the reputation of the one who sent him, then he is true, and there is no injustice in him.”
Moses and the Messiah
19 “Moses gave you the law, didn’t he?” Jesus continued. “But none of you obeys the law. Why are you wanting to kill me?”
20 The crowd responded to this.
“You must have a demon inside you!” they said. “Who is trying to kill you?”
21 “Look here,” replied Jesus. “I did one single thing, and you are all amazed. 22 Moses commanded you to practice circumcision (not that it starts with Moses, of course; it comes from the patriarchs), and you circumcise a man on the sabbath. 23 Well, then, if a man receives circumcision on the sabbath, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, how can you be angry with me if I make an entire man healthy on the sabbath? 24 Don’t judge by appearances! Judge with proper and right judgment!”
25 Some Jerusalem residents commented, “Isn’t this the man they’re trying to kill? 26 Look—he’s speaking quite openly, and nobody is saying anything to him. You don’t suppose our rulers really know he’s the Messiah, do you? 27 The thing is, we know where he comes from—but when the Messiah appears, nobody will know where he comes from.”
28 As Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he shouted out, “You know me! You know where I come from! I haven’t come on my own behalf—but the one who sent me is true, and you don’t know him! 29 I know him, because I come from him, and he sent me!”
30 So they tried to arrest him. But nobody laid hands on him, because his time had not yet come.
Rivers of living water
31 Many people from the crowd believed in Jesus.
“When the Messiah comes,” they were saying, “will he do more signs than this man has done?”
32 The Pharisees heard that the crowd was full of this rumor about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent servants to arrest him.
33 So Jesus said, “I’m just with you for a little while, and then I’m going to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me and you won’t find me, and you can’t come where I am.”
35 “Where does he think he’s going,” said the Judaeans to one another, “if we won’t be able to find him? He’s not going to go off abroad, among the Greeks, is he, and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean when he says, ‘You’ll look for me and you won’t find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you can’t come’?”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.