Peter’s Report at Jerusalem
The apostles and brothers in Judea hear that Gentiles also have received the word of God, and when Peter comes up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers criticize him for visiting uncircumcised men and eating with them.
T1he apostles and brothers throughout Judea soon heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers took issue with him 3and said, “You visited uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
Peter begins from the beginning and recounts his prayer in Joppa, the vision of the descending sheet, the creatures he saw, his refusal to eat anything impure, and the heavenly voice telling him not to call unclean what God has made clean. He says the vision was repeated three times before everything was taken back into heaven.
4But Peter began and explained to them the whole sequence of events: 5“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision of something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came right down to me. 6I looked at it closely and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat.’ 8‘No, Lord,’ I said, ‘for nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9But the voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into heaven.
Peter then says that three men from Caesarea arrived at once, the Spirit told him to go with them without hesitation, and six brothers went with him into Cornelius's house. Cornelius told them of the angel's command to send for Peter, who would speak words by which his household would be saved.
11Just then three men sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12The Spirit told me to accompany them without hesitation. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s home. 13He told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14He will convey to you a message by which you and all your household will be saved.’
Peter says that as he began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as at the beginning, and he remembered the Lord's word about Spirit baptism. Since God gave them the same gift given to believers in Jesus, Peter asks who he was to stand in God's way, and the Jerusalem believers end by glorifying God for granting repentance unto life to Gentiles also.
15As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He had fallen upon us at the beginning. 16Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17So if God gave them the same gift He gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder the work of God?” 18When they heard this, they had no further objections, and they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”