Acts 11:8-25

⁸But I replied, ‘Lord, you(sg) surely do not really want me to do that, because I have never eaten MTY meat from any animal that our laws say that we (exc) must not eat SYN!’

⁹God spoke from heaven to me a second time, ‘ I am God, so if I have made something acceptable to eat, do not say that it is not acceptable to eat!’

¹⁰Then after that happened three times, the sheet with all those animals and birds was pulled up into heaven again.”

¹¹“At that exact moment, three men who had been {whom Cornelius had} sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where I was staying.

¹²God's Spirit told me that I should be willing to go with them even though they were not Jews. These six Jewish believers from Joppa went with me to Caesarea, and then we (exc) went into that non-Jewish man's house.

¹³He told us that he had seen an angel standing in his house. The angel told him, ‘Tell some men to go to Joppa and bring back Simon whose other name is Peter.

¹⁴He will tell you (sg) how you and everyone MTY else in your house will be saved {how God will save you and everyone MTY else in your house}.’

¹⁵After I started to speak, the Holy Spirit suddenly came down on them, just like he had first MTY come on us during the Pentecost festival.

¹⁶Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John caused people to be baptized in water, but God will cause the Holy Spirit to enter you and change your lives.’

¹⁷God gave those non-Jews the same Holy Spirit that he had given to us (inc) after we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, ◄ I could not possibly tell God that he did wrong when he gave them the Holy Spirit!/how could I tell God that he did wrong when he gave them the Holy Spirit?► RHQ He was showing that he had received them!”

¹⁸After those Jewish believers heard what Peter said, they stopped criticizing him. Instead, they praised God, saying, “Then it is clear to us that God has also accepted the non-Jews so that they will have eternal life, if they turn from their sinful behavior and believe in Jesus!”

¹⁹After people had killed Stephen, many of the believers left Jerusalem and went to other places, because people were causing them to suffer there in Jerusalem. Some of them went to Phoenicia region, some went to Cyprus Island, and others went to Antioch city in Syria province. In those places they were continually telling people the message about Jesus, but they told only other Jewish people.

²⁰Some of the believers were men from Cyprus and from Cyrene city in north Africa. They went to Antioch, and although they told other Jews about the Lord Jesus, they also told non-Jewish people there.

²¹The Lord God MTY was powerfully enabling those believers to preach effectively. As a result, very many non-Jewish people believed their message and trusted in the Lord Jesus.

²²The group of believers in Jerusalem heard MTY people say that many people in Antioch were believing in Jesus. So the leaders of the congregation in Jerusalem asked Barnabas to go to Antioch.

²³When he got there, he realized that God had acted kindly toward the believers. So he was very happy, and he continually encouraged all of the believers to continue to trust completely in the Lord Jesus.

²⁴Barnabas was a good man whom the Holy Spirit completely controlled, one who trusted God completely. Because of what Barnabas did, many people there believed in the Lord Jesus.

²⁵Then Barnabas went to Tarsus in Cilicia province to try to find Saul.