13
He told us how he had seen an angel right in his own house, real as his next-door neighbor, saying, 'Send to Joppa and get Simon, the one they call Peter.
14
He'll tell you something that will save your life - in fact, you and everyone you care for.'
15
"So I started in, talking. Before I'd spoken half a dozen sentences, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us the first time.
16
I remembered Jesus' words: 'John baptized with water; you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'
17
So I ask you: If God gave the same exact gift to them as to us when we believed in the Master Jesus Christ, how could I object to God?"
18
Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. "It's really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life!"
19
Those who had been scattered by the persecution triggered by Stephen's death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they were still only speaking and dealing with their fellow Jews.
20
Then some of the men from Cyprus and Cyrene who had come to Antioch started talking to Greeks, giving them the Message of the Master Jesus.
21
God was pleased with what they were doing and put his stamp of approval on it - quite a number of the Greeks believed and turned to the Master.
22
When the church in Jerusalem got wind of this, they sent Barnabas to Antioch to check on things.
23
As soon as he arrived, he saw that God was behind and in it all. He threw himself in with them, got behind them, urging them to stay with it the rest of their lives.