9
"A second time the voice spoke from heaven. 'Do not say anything is not pure that God has made "clean," ' the voice said.
10
This happened three times. Then the sheet was pulled up into heaven.
11
"Just then three men stopped at the house where I was staying. They had been sent to me from Caesarea.
12
The Holy Spirit told me not to let anything keep me from going with them. These six brothers here went with me. We entered the man's house.
13
He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house. The angel said, 'Send to Joppa for Simon Peter.
14
He has a message to bring to you. You and your whole family will be saved through it.'
15
"As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them. He came just as he had come on us at the beginning.
16
Then I remembered the Lord's words. 'John baptized with water,' he had said. 'But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'
17
God gave them the same gift he gave those of us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. So who was I to think that I could oppose God?"
18
When they heard this, they didn't object anymore. They praised God. They said, "So then, God has allowed even those who aren't Jews to turn away from their sins and live."
Believers Are Called Christians for the First Time
19 Some believers had been scattered by the suffering that came to them after Stephen's death. They traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. But they told the message only to Jews.