Acts 11:16-28

¹⁶and I recalled the saying of the Master — ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

¹⁷Since then, God had given them the very same gift as he gave us when we became believers in Jesus Christ the Master — who was I that I could thwart God?”

¹⁸On hearing this statement, they said no more, but broke out into praise of God. “So even to the Gentiles,” they exclaimed, “God has granted the repentance which leads to life!”

¹⁹Now those who had been scattered in different directions, in consequence of the persecution that followed the death of Stephen, went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, telling the message — but only to Jews.

²⁰Some of them, however, who were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, on coming to Antioch, addressed themselves also to the Jews of foreign birth, telling them the good news about that Lord Jesus.

²¹The power of the Lord was with them, so that a great number who had learned to believe came over to the Lord's side.

²²The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

²³On coming there he saw to his great joy these tokens of the loving kindness of God, and encouraged them all to make up their minds to be faithful to the Lord —

²⁴For Barnabas was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith — and a large number of people took their stand on the Lord's side.

²⁵Afterward Barnabas left for Tarsus to look for Saul;

²⁶and, when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And so it came about that, for a whole year, they attended the meetings of the church there, and taught a large number of people; and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians.’

²⁷During this time, some prophets came to Antioch from Jerusalem.

²⁸One of them, named Agabus, came forward and, under the influence of the Spirit, foretold a great famine that was to spread over all the world — a famine which occurred in the reign of Claudius.