Study Desk

But Peter said, "Certainly not, Lord, for I have never eaten anything defiled and ritually unclean!"

While Peter was still thinking seriously about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Look! Three men are looking for you.

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

The following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting anxiously for them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

He said to them, "You know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile, yet God has shown me that I should call no person defiled or ritually unclean.

Therefore when you sent for me, I came without any objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?"

Therefore I sent for you at once, and you were kind enough to come. So now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to say to us."

for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said,

"No one can withhold the water for these people to be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?"

So he gave orders to have them baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay for several days.

But I said, ‘Certainly not, Lord, for nothing defiled or ritually unclean has ever entered my mouth!'

Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to look for Saul,

and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught a significant number of people. Now it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

When he had seized him, he put him in prison, handing him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him. Herod planned to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

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

On that very night before Herod was going to bring him out for trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison.

After they had passed the first and second guards, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went outside and walked down one narrow street, when at once the angel left him.

When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from everything the Jewish people were expecting to happen."

When Herod had searched for him and did not find him, he questioned the guards and commanded that they be led away to execution. Then Herod went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.

Now Herod was having an angry quarrel with the people of Tyre and Sidon. So they joined together and presented themselves before him. And after convincing Blastus, the king's personal assistant, to help them, they asked for peace, because their country's food supply was provided by the king's country.