10
“The Holy Spirit Fell on All Who Were Listening to the Message”
1 Now there was a certain man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a Roman military officer+ who belonged to the division of soldiers known as the Italian Regiment.
2 He was devout and God-fearing, along with everyone else in his household, doing many generous and merciful things to help the Jewish poor+ and praying to God constantly.
3 He had a vision one day+ at about three in the afternoon+ in which he clearly saw+ an angel of God, who came in and said to him, “Cornelius!”
4 “What is it, sir?”+ Cornelius asked as he stared at the angel, overcome with terror.+
“ˢYour prayers and your acts of mercy toward the poor have ascended as a memorial offering before God,”
+ the angel
+ said to him.
5 “Now send some men to Joppa and have them bring back a man named Simon, who also goes by Peter.
6 This man is staying as a guest at the home of another Simon,+ a leatherworker, whose house is located beside the sea.”
7 As soon as the angel who had spoken to him was gone, Cornelius+ summoned two of his personal servants and a God-fearing+ soldier, one of his own right-hand men,
8 and, after explaining everything to them, sent them to Joppa.
9 The next day, as those whom Cornelius had sent+ were traveling and were to the city drawing nearer and nearer,+ Peter went up on the roof of the house to pray at about noon.+
10 He became hungry and desired something to eat, but while people+ were busy preparing the food, he fell into a trance.
11 He saw heaven+ opened and something coming down that looked like a large linen sheet,+ being lowered to the earth by its four corners.+
12 In the sheet+ were all kinds of ritually+ unclean beasts and rodents and snakes and frogs and lizards+ and wild birds.+
13 “Get up, Peter!” a voice told him. “Slaughter these creatures+ and eat.”
14 “Certainly not, Lord!” replied Peter. “I have never eaten anything common and unclean!”+
15 The voice spoke a second time and said to him, “The things that God pronounces+ acceptable for eating as clean+ ˢyou must not yourself consider barred from his sacred precincts and service as common.+”+
16 All this happened three times,+ and then suddenly the sheet was taken back up into heaven.+
17 “What in the world could this vision mean?” Peter wondered to himself.+ Just then, the men sent by Cornelius, having asked for directions to Simon’s house, showed up at the gate.
18 “Simon! Simon also known as Peter!” they were calling out. “Is there a guest here who goes by that name?+”
19 As Peter, meanwhile, continued pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Listen carefully. There are here+ looking for ˢyou three men.+
20 Now get up and go downstairs. ˢYou are to accompany them without even+ the least hesitation, for it is I+ who have sent them.”
21 At that, Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one+ ᵖyou are looking for. What brings the three+ of ᵖyou here?+”
22 The men+ replied, “Cornelius, a Roman officer,+ a righteous and God-fearing man, and highly respected by all the Jewish people, was instructed by a holy angel to send for ˢyou and have you come to his home so that+ he could hear what you have to say.+”
23 Inviting them in, therefore, Peter+ gave them a place to lodge for the night as his guests.
The next day, Peter
+ got ready and set out with the three visitors,
+ and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.
24 The following day they arrived in Caesarea. As for Cornelius, he was waiting anxiously for them and had called together his relatives and his close friends.
25 As Peter was about to enter the house,+ Cornelius met him and threw himself at his feet and began to worship him.
26 Peter, however, helped him up and said, “Stand up! I, too, am myself+ merely+ a man.”
27 As Peter+ continued talking with him, he went inside and came upon a gathering of many+ people.
28 He said to them, “All+ of ᵖyou know how out-of-the question+ it typically is+ for a Jewish person to associate with or enter the home+ of someone who belongs to a people other than our own.+ To me, however, God has made it very+ clear+ that I am to call no+ one common or unclean who belongs to the human race.+
29 That is why it was+ without any protest that I came when I was sent for. May I ask, therefore, why+ ᵖyou sent for me?”
30 “Three days ago+ about this time,+” Cornelius said, “I was observing the afternoon prayer+ in my house at three in the afternoon,+ when+ suddenly there appeared in front of me a man in shining clothing.+
31 ‘Cornelius,’ he said, ‘ˢyour prayer has been heard, and your acts of mercy toward the poor have been remembered by+ God.
32 Therefore, send some men to Joppa and have them bring back Simon, who also goes by Peter. This man is staying as a guest at the home of another Simon, a leatherworker, beside the sea.’
33 So I sent for ˢyou immediately, and ˢyou were kind enough to come.+ At the present moment, therefore, all of us are here in the very+ presence of God so that we may listen to everything the Lord has instructed ˢyou to tell us.+”
34 Peter, then, said some very weighty things:+ “I now realize truly and certainly+ that God judges all people by the same standard;+
35 indeed, in every nation the person who fears him and does what is righteous is in his sight pleasing and acceptable.+
36 The message he sent to the people+ of Israel, proclaiming the gospel of peace through Jesus the Messiah+, who+ is Lord over+ all+ mankind:+
37 ᵖYou yourselves know about the great event+ that took place throughout the whole Jewish territory,+ beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed,
38 with respect to Jesus from Nazareth,+ how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and power, who went from place to place doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God himself+ was with him.
39 And as for us, we are firsthand witnesses of everything he did both in the rural areas inhabited by+ the Jewish people and in Jerusalem, whom the authorities in that city+ also killed by+ having+ him ‘hanged on a tree.’+
40 This man God raised to life on the third day, and caused his glory to appear,+
41 not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
42 He commanded us to warn+ the people and bear solemn witness that he+ is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.
43 To this man all the prophets themselves+ bear witness, saying+ that all will receive through his name, who put their faith in him,+ forgiveness of sins.”
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all who were listening to the message.
45 The believers who belonged to the faction strict about Gentile circumcision,+ as many as had accompanied Peter, were shocked that the Holy Spirit had been poured out even+ on the Gentiles!
46 For they heard them speaking in tongues+ and exalting God.+
In response Peter said,
47 “Will anyone dare+ forbid these people from being baptized with water,+ who have received the Holy Spirit+ just as we ourselves did? Surely not!+”
48 At that, he told them that it was+ the name of Jesus in which they were to be baptized. Afterward Cornelius and the others with him+ asked Peter+ to stay with them for a few days.+