Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible



Now the apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter came up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party fell foul of him. "You went into the houses of the uncircumcised," they said, "and you ate with them!" read more.
Then Peter proceeded to put the facts before them. "I was in the town of Joppa at prayer," he said, "and in a trance I saw a vision ??a vessel coming down like a huge sheet lowered from heaven by the four corners. It came down to me, and when I looked steadily at it, I noted the quadrupeds of the earth, the wild beasts, the creeping things and the wild birds. Also I heard a voice saying to me, 'Rise, Peter, kill and eat.' I said, 'No, no, my Lord; nothing common or unclean has ever passed my lips.' But a voice answered me for the second time out of heaven, 'What God has cleansed, you must not regard as common.' This happened three times, and then the whole thing was drawn back into heaven. At that very moment three men reached the house where I was living, sent to me from Caesarea. The Spirit told me to have no hesitation in accompanying them; these six brothers went with me as well, and we entered the man's house. He related to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa for Simon who is surnamed Peter; he will tell you how you and all your household are to be saved.' Now just as I began to speak, the holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning; and I remembered the saying of the Lord, that 'John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the holy Spirit.' Well then, if God has given them exactly the same gift as he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I ??how could I try to thwart God?" On hearing this they desisted and glorified God, saying, "So God has actually allowed the Gentiles to repent and live!"

and a keen controversy sprang up; but Peter rose and said to them, "Brothers, you are well aware that from the earliest days God chose that of you all I should be the one by whom the Gentiles were to hear the word of the gospel and believe it. The God who reads the hearts of all attested this by giving them the holy Spirit just as he gave it to us; in cleansing their hearts by faith he made not the slightest distinction between us and them. read more.
Well now, why are you trying to impose a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we ourselves could bear? No, it is by the grace of the Lord Jesus that we believe and are saved, in the same way as they are."