Acts 11:13-30

13Then Cornelius told us what had happened to him. He had seen an angel who appeared in his house and said to him, “Send some men to Joppa to fetch a man who is called Simon Peter.

14He will come and speak to you. His message will tell you how God will save you and everyone else in your house.”

15When I started to speak to Cornelius and his family, the Holy Spirit came down on them. It happened in the same way that he first came down on us at the beginning.

16Then I remembered what the Lord Jesus had said to us: “John baptized people with water, but God will baptize you with his Holy Spirit.”

17So we see that God gave these Gentiles his gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the same gift that he gave to us Jews who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I could never try to stop God.’

18The Jewish believers heard what Peter said. They could not say anything more against him. Instead, they praised God and they said, ‘We now see that God has also let Gentiles have life with him. He will accept them if they stop doing bad things and turn to him.’

19After the Jewish leaders had killed Stephen, the believers had a lot of trouble. The believers left Jerusalem and they went to many different places. Some of them went away as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. They told God's message to people in these places. But they only told the message to Jews.

20Some of the believers were people who came from Cyprus and Cyrene. These men went to Antioch. There they told God's message to Gentiles, as well as to Jews. They told everyone the good news about the Lord Jesus.

21The Lord God helped these men with his power. Very many people believed their message and they trusted in the Lord Jesus.

22The believers in Jerusalem heard about what had happened in Antioch. So they decided to send Barnabas there.

23Barnabas arrived in Antioch. He saw how God had been kind to the people there and helped them. Barnabas was happy about this. So he said to the new believers, ‘Continue to trust the Lord Jesus completely.’

24Barnabas was a good man. The power of God's Holy Spirit was with him. He trusted God completely. Many people in Antioch believed in Jesus and joined the group of believers.

25Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul.

26When Barnabas found him, he brought him back to Antioch. For one whole year, Barnabas and Saul met together with the group of believers there. They taught very many of them about Jesus. Antioch was the first place where the believers were called Christians.

27During this time, some prophets travelled from Jerusalem to Antioch.

28One of these men was called Agabus. The Holy Spirit gave him a message from God. He stood up and he said to the people there, ‘Soon people will be very hungry all over the world because there will be no food.’ (That happened when Claudius ruled the Roman world.)

29The believers in Antioch wanted to help the other believers who lived in Judea. Each of them decided how much of their own money they could give.

30Then they gave the money to Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas and Saul took this gift to the leaders of the believers in Jerusalem.