Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

11 The emissaries and the brothers throughout Y’hudah heard that the Goyim had received the word of God; ² but when Kefa went up to Yerushalayim, the members of the Circumcision faction criticized him, ³ saying, “You went into the homes of uncircumcised men and even ate with them!”

⁴ In reply, Kefa began explaining in detail what had actually happened: ⁵ “I was in the city of Yafo, praying; and in a trance I had a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being lowered by its four corners from heaven, and it came down to me. ⁶ I looked inside and saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, crawling creatures and wild birds. ⁷ Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Kefa, slaughter and eat!’ ⁸ I said, ‘No, sir! Absolutely not! Nothing unclean or treif has ever entered my mouth!’ ⁹ But the voice spoke again from heaven: ‘Stop treating as unclean what God has made clean.’ ¹⁰ This happened three times, and then everything was pulled back up into heaven.

¹¹ “At that very moment, three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where I was staying; ¹² and the Spirit told me to have no misgivings about going back with them. These six brothers also came with me, and we went into the man’s house. ¹³ He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Yafo and bring back Shim‘on, known as Kefa. ¹⁴ He has a message for you which will enable you and your whole household to be saved.’

¹⁵ “But I had hardly begun speaking when the Ruach HaKodesh fell on them, just as on us at the beginning! ¹⁶ And I remembered that the Lord had said, ‘Yochanan used to immerse people in water, but you will be immersed in the Ruach HaKodesh.’ ¹⁷ Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as he gave us after we had come to put our trust in the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who was I to stand in God’s way?”

¹⁸ On hearing these things, they stopped objecting and began to praise God, saying, “This means that God has enabled the Goyim as well to do t’shuvah and have life!”

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,^[a] for the old heaven and the old earth had passed away, and the sea was no longer there. ² Also I saw the holy city, New Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ I heard a loud voice from the throne say, “See! God’s Sh’khinah is with mankind, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and he himself, God-with-them, will be their God.^{[b] 4} He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be any death; and there will no longer be any mourning, crying or pain; because the old order has passed away.”

⁵ Then the One sitting on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new!” Also he said, “Write, ‘These words are true and trustworthy!’” ⁶ And he said to me, “It is done! I am the ‘A’ and the ‘Z,’ the Beginning and the End. To anyone who is thirsty I myself will give water free of charge from the Fountain of Life.

³¹ After Y’hudah had left, Yeshua said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. ³² If the Son has glorified God, God will himself glorify the Son, and will do so without delay. ³³ Little children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and, as I said to the Judeans, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ now I say it to you as well.

³⁴ “I am giving you a new command: that you keep on loving each other. In the same way that I have loved you, you are also to keep on loving each other. ³⁵ Everyone will know that you are my talmidim by the fact that you have love for each other.”