Here’s a readers’ theatre setting of Acts 11: 1-18
(New Living Translation). It is set for
three voices.
Readers’
Theatre: Acts 11: 1-18
Narr: Soon the news reached the apostles and
other believers in
Judea
that the Gentiles had received the word of
God.
But
when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem,
the Jewish believers criticized
him.
‘You
entered the home of Gentiles
and even ate with
them! they said.
Then
Peter told them exactly what had happened.
Peter: I was in the town of
Joppa, and while I was praying,
I
went into a trance and saw a vision.
Something like a
large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky.
And it came right
down to me.
When I looked inside
the sheet,
I saw all sorts of
tame and wild animals, reptiles, and birds.
And I heard a voice
say,
Voice: Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.
Peter: No, Lord,’ I replied.
‘I
have never eaten anything
that
our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean.’
But
the voice from heaven spoke again:
Voice: Do not call something unclean if God has made
it clean.
Peter: This happened three times before the sheet
and
all it contained was pulled back up to heaven.
Just
then three men who had been sent from Caesarea
arrived
at the house where we were staying.
The
Holy Spirit told me to go with them
and
not to worry that they were Gentiles.
These
six brothers here accompanied me,
and
we soon entered the home of the man who had sent for us.
He
told us how an angel had appeared to him in his home
and
had told him,
Voice: Send messengers to Joppa,
and
summon a man named Simon Peter.
He
will tell you how you and everyone in your household can be saved!
Peter: As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on
them,
just
as he fell on us at the beginning.
Then
I thought of the Lord’s words when he said,
Voice: John baptized with water,
but
you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Peter: And since God gave these Gentiles the same
gift he gave us
when
we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who
was I to stand in God’s way?”
Narr: When the others heard this,
they
stopped objecting and began praising God.
They
said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles
the
privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”
