Acts 11:17-24

¹⁷You know, we believed in our leader Jesus Christ and God gave us the Holy Spirit. And now those people that are not Jews, believe in Jesus too, and God gave them the Holy Spirit too, just like he gave him to us. So, you see, I couldn’t try to stop God, could I? No way.”

¹⁸The Jewish Christians heard Peter say that, and they stopped growling at him. They started to thank God and say he is really good. They said, “Now we understand it. God will let anyone come to him, even people that are not Jews, and after they turn away from doing bad and come to him, he will give them new life that never stops. God is so good.”

¹⁹Before this, at the time when some men killed Stephen, they wanted to kill the rest of the Christians too. So a lot of Christians ran away from Jerusalem, and went a long way, even to other countries. They told people in those places the message about Jesus, but they only told it to their own countrymen, the Jews. Some of those Christians went to Phoenicia country, and some to the island called Cyprus, and some to the town called Antioch.

²⁰But some of them, men that belonged to Cyprus and the town called Cyrene, they went to Antioch and didn’t just talk only to Jews. They talked to Greek people too, and told them the good news about our leader Jesus.

²¹God helped them tell his message, and a lot of people that were not Jews believed in Jesus and followed him.

²²The Christians in the church in Jerusalem heard about these things happening at Antioch, so they sent one of their men called Barnabas to Antioch.

²³He got there, and he saw everything that was happening, then he knew that God was very good to those people in Antioch, so he was very happy. He told those new Christians, “Stay strong for Jesus and keep following him all the time.”

²⁴Barnabas was a good man. The Holy Spirit controlled him and he really trusted God. He got lots more people there to follow Jesus.