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.
37 On the last day of the festival, the great final celebration, Jesus stood up and shouted out, “If anybody’s thirsty, they should come to me and have a drink! 38 Anyone who believes in me will have rivers of living water flowing out of their heart, just like the Bible says!”
39 He said this about the spirit, which people who believed in him were to receive. The spirit wasn’t available yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Where does the Messiah come from?
40 When they heard these words, some people in the crowd said, “This man really is ‘the Prophet’!”
41 “He’s the Messiah!” said some others.
But some of them replied, “The Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 42 Doesn’t the Bible say that the Messiah is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the city where David was?”
43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but nobody laid hands on him.
45 So the servants went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees.
“Why didn’t you get him?” they asked.
46 “No man ever spoke like this!” the servants replied.
47 “You don’t mean to say you’ve been taken in too?” answered the Pharisees. 48 “None of the rulers or the Pharisees have believed in him, have they? 49 But this rabble that doesn’t know the law—a curse on them!”
50 Nicodemus, who went to Jesus earlier, and who was one of their own number, spoke up.
51 “Our law doesn’t condemn a man, does it, unless first you hear his side of the story and find out what he’s doing?”
52 “Oh, so you’re from Galilee too, are you?” they answered him. “Check it out and see! No prophet ever rises up from Galilee!”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.