Acts 11:1-18
Peter Defends His Actions to the Jerusalem Church
11:1 Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God.
11:2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers took issue with him,
11:3 saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and shared a meal with them.”
11:4 But Peter began and explained it to them point by point, saying,
11:5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, an object something like a large sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came to me.
11:6 As I stared I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, reptiles, and wild birds.
11:7 I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; slaughter and eat!’
11:8 But I said, ‘Certainly not, Lord, for nothing defiled or ritually unclean has ever entered my mouth!’
11:9 But the voice replied a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not consider ritually unclean!’
11:10 This happened three times, and then everything was pulled up to heaven again.
11:11 At that very moment, three men sent to me from Caesarea approached the house where we were staying.
11:12 The Spirit told me to accompany them without hesitation. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house.
11:13 He informed us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter,
11:14 who will speak a message to you by which you and your entire household will be saved.’
11:15 Then as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us at the beginning.
11:16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, as he used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
11:17 Therefore if God gave them the same gift as he also gave us after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder God?”
11:18 When they heard this, they ceased their objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted the repentance that leads to life even to the Gentiles.”