April 27, 2026

1Now the apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God. 2So when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers confronted him, 3saying, “You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.” 4Peter began and explained it to them step by step, saying, 5“I was at prayer in the city of Joppa when in a trance I had a vision, something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came to me. 6Looking intently into it, I observed and saw the four-legged animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky. 7I also heard a voice say to me, ‘Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.’ 8But I said, ‘Certainly not, sir, because nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9But a second time a voice from heaven answered, ‘What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.’ 10This happened three times, and then everything was drawn up again into the sky. 11Just then three men appeared at the house where we were, who had been sent to me from Caesarea. 12The Spirit told me to accompany them without discriminating. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. 13He related to us how he had seen [the] angel standing in his house, saying, ‘Send someone to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter, 14who will speak words to you by which you and all your household will be saved.’ 15As I began to speak, the holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning, 16and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the holy Spirit.’ 17If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?” 18When they heard this, they stopped objecting and glorified God, saying, “God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.” The Church at Antioch.

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14I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me,

11I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. 13This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.”