Study Desk

You have no part at all in this matter; because in the eyes of God, your heart is crooked.

and immediately he began proclaiming in the synagogues that Yeshua is the Son of God.

He was a devout man, a "God-fearer," as was his whole household; he gave generously to help the Jewish poor and prayed regularly to God.

One afternoon around three o'clock he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, "Cornelius!"

The voice spoke to him a second time: "Stop treating as unclean what God has made clean."

They answered, "Cornelius. He's a Roman army officer, an upright man and a God-fearer, a man highly regarded by the whole Jewish nation; and he was told by a holy angel to have you come to his house and listen to what you have to say."

He said to them, "You are well aware that for a man who is a Jew to have close association with someone who belongs to another people, or to come and visit him, is something that just isn't done. But God has shown me not to call any person common or unclean;

and said, ‘God has heard your prayer and remembered your acts of charity.

So I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. Now all of us are here in the presence of God to hear everything the Lord has ordered you to say."

Then Kefa addressed them: "I now understand that God does not play favorites,

how God anointed Yeshua from Natzeret with the Ruach HaKodesh and with power; how Yeshua went about doing good and healing all the people oppressed by the Adversary, because God was with him.

but God raised him up on the third day and let him be seen,

not by all the people, but by witnesses God had previously chosen, that is, by us, who ate and drank with him after he had risen again from the dead.

"Then he commanded us to proclaim and attest to the Jewish people that this man has been appointed by God to judge the living and the dead.

on the Goyim, for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Kefa's response was,

The emissaries and the brothers throughout Y'hudah heard that the Goyim had received the word of God;

But the voice spoke again from heaven: ‘Stop treating as unclean what God has made clean.'

Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as he gave us after we had come to put our trust in the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who was I to stand in God's way?"

On hearing these things, they stopped objecting and began to praise God, saying, "This means that God has enabled the Goyim as well to do t'shuvah and have life!"

On arriving and seeing for himself the grace of God at work, he was glad; and he encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with their whole hearts;