Study Desk

There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years.

And Peter stayed for several days in Joppa with a tanner named Simon.

Now send men to Joppa to call for a man named Simon who is called Peter.

As Peter continued to reflect on the vision, the Spirit told him, "Three men are here looking for you.

So Peter went down to the men and said, "Here am I, the one you are looking for. Why have you come?"

He said to them, "You know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.

So when I was invited, I came without objection. I ask, then, why have you sent for me?"

Therefore send to Joppa for Simon, who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, by the sea.'

So I sent for you immediately, and you were kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has instructed you to tell us."

For they heard them speaking in tongues and exalting God. Then Peter said,

So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay for a few days.

'No, Lord,' I said, 'for nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'

He told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter.

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul,

and when he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. So for a full year they met together with the church and taught large numbers of people. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was fervently praying to God for him.

They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city, which opened for them by itself. When they had gone outside and walked the length of one block, the angel suddenly left him.

Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod's grasp and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating."

Peter motioned with his hand for silence, and he described how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. "Send word to James and to the brothers," he said, and he left for another place.

After Herod had searched for him unsuccessfully, he examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent some time there.