Acts 11

(1) Jews Realize that God’s Spirit is also for Non-Jews

The apostles and spiritual family all over Judea heard the news that the non-Jews had also received God’s message. When Peter went to Jerusalem, the circumcised Jews confronted him, saying,

“You went into an uncircumcised person’s house and ate with them!”

But Peter talked to them and explained the whole sequence of events, saying,

“So I was in Joppa [modern-day Jaffa] praying, and I went into this trance and saw a vision of a large sheet being lowered by its four corners from the sky. The sheet lowered right down to me, and it had all kinds of four-legged animals, reptiles, and birds in it. Then I heard a voice telling me to kill the animals and eat them. But I told it that I couldn’t do that, because I had never eaten anything that wasn’t holy or clean. Then the voice told me that I shouldn’t regard anything as unholy that God has cleaned.

“That happened three times!

“And then right at that moment, three guys showed up at the house I was staying at who had been sent there from Caesarea. The Spirit told me to go with them without overthinking it, so I brought these 6 fellow believers with me and went to the man’s house.

“When we got to the man’s house, he told us about how an angel had appeared at his house and told him to fetch someone named Simon/Peter from Joppa! The angel told him to bring me back to his house and said that I’d tell him something that would lead to the rescue of him and his household!

“As I started talking to his household, the Different Spirit came down on them in the same way He did with us at the beginning! That reminded me of how the Master used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you’ll be baptized with the Different Spirit!’

“So if God gave those non-Jews the same gift He gave us after we believed in Master Jesus the Chosen One, then who was I to stand in God’s way?”

When the Jews heard that, they quieted down and spoke highly of God, saying, 

“Well then I guess God has given the non-Jews the mind-change that leads to life.”

(19) Non-Jews in Antioch Follow Jesus

The people who had been scattered after Stephen’s martyrdom traveled as far as Phoenicia [coastal region north of Israel], Cyprus [Mediterranean island], and Antioch [city north of Israel]. They had only been sharing the message with Jews, but then some of them from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and told the non-Jews there about Master Jesus. The Master’s power was present, and a bunch of people who believed turned to the Master.

When the church in Jerusalem heard that news, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. Barnabas was a good man full of the Different Spirit and confidence in Jesus, so it made him happy to see how gracious God had been there. He was intentional to encourage the people in Antioch to stay attached to the Master, and tons of people were brought to the Master.

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus and brought Saul back to Antioch, where they spent an entire year with that church, teaching lots of people. It was there in Antioch that Jesus-followers were first called “Christians.”

(27) Antioch Church Sends Money to Jerusalem Church

During that period, some prophets from Jerusalem went to Antioch. One of them was named Agabus, and the Spirit compelled him to stand up and warn about a huge famine that would affect the entire region. (That happened during Claudius’s reign.) After hearing that warning, the Jesus-followers in Antioch decided to each send whatever contributions they could back to the spiritual family in Judea. So they sent it with Barnabas and Saul who delivered it to the elders.