8. “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9. “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’
10. This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
11. “Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying.
12. The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house.
13. He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter.
14. He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’
15. “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning.
16. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
17. So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”
18. When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
19. Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews.
20. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.