Cornelius Sends for Peter

¹At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was called the Italian Regiment.

²He and all his household were devout and God-fearing. He gave generously to the people and prayed to God regularly.

³One day at about the ninth hour,he had a clear vision of an angel of God who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”

⁴Cornelius stared at him in fear and asked, “What is it, Lord?”The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have ascended as a memorial offering before God.

⁵Now send men to Joppa to call for a man named Simon who is called Peter.

⁶He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”

⁷When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among his attendants.

⁸He explained what had happened and sent them to Joppa.

Peter’s Vision

⁹The next day at about the sixth hour,as the men were approaching the city on their journey, Peter went up on the roof to pray.

¹⁰He became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.

¹¹He saw heaven open and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.

¹²It contained all kinds of four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, as well as birds of the air.

¹³Then a voice said to him: “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!”

¹⁴“No, Lord!” Peter answered. “I have never eaten anything impureor unclean.”

¹⁵The voice spoke to him a second time: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

¹⁶This happened three times, and all at once the sheet was taken back up into heaven.

Peter Called to Caesarea

¹⁷While Peter was puzzling over the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house and approached the gate.

¹⁸They called out to ask if Simon called Peter was staying there.

¹⁹As Peter continued to reflect on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you.

²⁰So get up! Go downstairs and accompany them without hesitation, because I have sent them.”

²¹So Peter went down to the menand said, “Here am I, the one you are looking for. Why have you come?”

²²“Cornelius the centurion has sent us,” they said. “He is a righteous and God-fearing man with a good reputation among the whole Jewish nation. A holy angel instructed him to request your presence in his home so he could hear a message from you.”

²³So Peter invited them in as his guests. And the next day he got ready and went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa.

Peter Visits Cornelius

²⁴The following day he arrived in Caesarea, where Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

²⁵As Peter was about to enter, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet to worship him.

²⁶But Peter helped him up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.”

²⁷As Peter talked with him, he went inside and found many people gathered together.

²⁸He said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.

²⁹So when I was invited, I came without objection. I ask, then, why have you sent for me?”

³⁰Cornelius answered: “Four days ago I was in my house praying at this, the ninth hour.Suddenly a man in radiant clothing stood before me

³¹and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been remembered before God.

³²Therefore send to Joppa for Simon, who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, by the sea.’

³³So I sent for you immediately, and you were kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has instructed you to tell us.”

Good News for the Gentiles

³⁴Then Peter began to speak: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism,

³⁵but welcomes those from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.

³⁶He has sent this message to the people of Israel, proclaiming the gospel of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

³⁷You yourselves know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee with the baptism that John proclaimed:

³⁸how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him.

³⁹We are witnesses of all that He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. And although they put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree,

⁴⁰God raised Him up on the third day and caused Him to be seen—

⁴¹not by all the people, but by the witnesses God had chosen beforehand, by us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.

⁴²And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the One appointed by God to judge the living and the dead.

⁴³All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”

The Gentiles Receive the Holy Spirit

⁴⁴While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard his message.

⁴⁵All the circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.

⁴⁶For they heard them speaking in tongues and exalting God.Then Peter said,

⁴⁷“Can anyone withhold the water to baptize these people? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have!”

⁴⁸So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay for a few days.

Peter’s Report at Jerusalem

¹The apostles and brothers throughout Judea soon heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believerstook issue with him

³and said, “You visited uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

⁴But Peter began and explained to them the whole sequence of events:

⁵“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision of something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came right down to me.

⁶I looked at it closely and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air.

⁷Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat.’

⁸‘No, Lord,’ I said, ‘for nothing impureor unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

⁹But the voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’

¹⁰This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into heaven.

¹¹Just then three men sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying.

¹²The Spirit told me to accompany them without hesitation. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s home.

¹³He told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter.

¹⁴He will convey to you a message by which you and all your household will be saved.’

¹⁵As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He had fallen upon us at the beginning.

¹⁶Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

¹⁷So if God gave them the same gift He gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder the work of God?”

¹⁸When they heard this, they had no further objections, and they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”

The Church at Antioch

¹⁹Meanwhile those scattered by the persecution that began with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the message only to Jews.

²⁰But some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeksas well, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus.

²¹The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

²²When news of this reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

²³When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to abide in the Lord with all their hearts.

²⁴Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

²⁵Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul,

²⁶and when he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. So for a full year they met together with the church and taught large numbers of people. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

²⁷In those days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

²⁸One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted through the Spirit that a great famine would sweep across the whole world.(This happened under Claudius.)

²⁹So the disciples, each according to his ability, decided to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.

³⁰This they did, sending their gifts to the elders with Barnabas and Saul.

Warnings from Israel’s Past

¹I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea.

²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

³They all ate the same spiritual food

⁴and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

⁶These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

⁷Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”

⁸We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.

⁹We should not test Christ,as some of them did, and were killed by snakes.

¹⁰And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.

¹¹Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

¹²So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall.

¹³No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it.

Flee from Idolatry

¹⁴Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

¹⁵I speak to reasonable people; judge for yourselves what I say.

¹⁶Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?

¹⁷Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf.

¹⁸Consider the people of Israel: Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar?

¹⁹Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?

²⁰No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.

²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.

²²Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

All to God’s Glory

²³“Everything is permissible,”but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is edifying.

²⁴No one should seek his own good, but the good of others.

²⁵Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience,

²⁶for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

²⁷If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat anything set before you without raising questions of conscience.

²⁸But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience—

²⁹the other one’s conscience, I mean, not your own. For why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience?

³⁰If I partake in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

³¹So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

³²Do not become a stumbling block, whether to Jews or Greeks or the church of God—

³³as I also try to please everyone in all I do. For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, that they may be saved.

Praise the LORD from the Heavens

¹Hallelujah!Praise the LORD from the heavens;praise Him in the highest places.

²Praise Him, all His angels;praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.

³Praise Him, O sun and moon;praise Him, all you shining stars.

⁴Praise Him, O highest heavens,and you waters above the skies.

⁵Let them praise the name of the LORD,for He gave the command and they were created.

⁶He established them forever and ever;He issued a decree that will never pass away.

⁷Praise the LORD from the earth,all great sea creatures and ocean depths,

⁸lightning and hail, snow and clouds,powerful wind fulfilling His word,

⁹mountains and all hills,fruit trees and all cedars,

¹⁰wild animals and all cattle,crawling creatures and flying birds,

¹¹kings of the earth and all peoples,princes and all rulers of the earth,

¹²young men and maidens,old and young together.

¹³Let them praise the name of the LORD,for His name alone is exalted;His splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

¹⁴He has raised up a horn for His people,the praise of all His saints,of Israel, a people near to Him.Hallelujah!