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Acts 11:1-18
Acts 11:1–18 NKJV
Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!”
But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, saying: “I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came to me. When I observed it intently and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘Not so, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth.’ But the voice answered me again from heaven, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common.’ Now this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven. At that very moment, three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea. Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, ‘Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.’ And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”
When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”
We have often heard the statement of some madman who commits a heinous act that God made Him do whatever he did. Of this we are most skeptical as we should be. God would never command or condone such a thing. But what do we do when God actually does what seems outlandish? As we will see this morning, Peter had to defend what seemed the most outlandish thing that God could do, that God would incorporate Gentile dogs into the people of Israel. Yet this is what the Scripture says was done. Let us now look further into this passage from Acts 11:1-18.
It took a lot of convincing on the Lord’s part to get Peter to come into the house of the Gentile Cornelius in the first place. While Peter was praying on the roof of Simon the Tanner’s house, he had a very strange vision of numerous unclean animals with the Lord commanding Peter for the hungry Peter to slay and eat. He was already at the house of a Jew who worked in an unclean profession in the sense that he slew animals and tanned their hides. He either slew the animals himself of purchased them from a butcher.. But these were clean animals. Perhaps the smell of the meat from these animals being cooked for lunch could be smelled on the rooftop.. But the idea of slaying and eating unclean animals was simply nauseating to an observant Jew. Three times he had to be told as seems to be the habit with Peter. He was then told to go with three servants of Cornelius to their masters house. The Centurion, Cornelius was a God-fearer which means he was still a Gentile and had not been circumcised. The idea of a Gentile submitting to circumcision was as disgusting to them as a Jew entering into a Gentile house or eating food that was not kosher. How could God reconcile this? He did.
We also remember that Peter presented the gospel to those of Cornelius’ household and that many were converted. The Holy Spirit fell on these Gentiles just like He had fallen on the Jews and proselytes at Pentecost. But instead of Peter calling for these believers to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses which would have been the normal means of bringing Gentiles into the household of Israel, they were baptized instead. Even the idea of bringing them in through circumcision would have been scandalous enough for the Jews as it would take several generations for even their descendants to be incorporated into Israel. But Peter would even have a more difficult task. He would have to explain this to the Christians back at Jerusalem who were all at this time either Jews or proselytes who had submitted to circumcision.
Word of t had happened at Cornelius’ house spread rapidly and arrived in Jerusalem before Peter did. Among the members of the Jerusalem church was an especially zealous group of Jewish believers who demanded strict observance to the Law of Moses. When this circumcision party saw Peter, they immediately accused Peter saying that he had come into a Gentile house with uncircumcised men and ate with them. To them, this was an outrage, and their stance threatened the unity of the church. As we have noted throughout our study on Acts, the unity of the church was threatened by two things. One was external persecution and the threats of persecution. First Peter, John , and a formerly lame man had been arrested. This did not shake the church. In fact, it had unified the brethren. The same happened when the Apostles were arrested and beaten in chapter 5. But these, upon threat and release came back to the church rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. Later, James would be beheaded and Peter arrested who was miraculously delivered from the same fate. We can see the many sufferings of Paul which did not deter either Paul or the advancement of the Gospel.
The greater threat to unity came from within the church itself. We saw the perfidy of Ananias and Sapphira in their fraudulently claiming to have donated everything while they had only given part. This was a threat in that there are those who probably knew the sales price of the land as well as the among they gave. This hypocrisy had to be dealt with quickly by the Lord with severe punishment. But with this, the threat to the moral purity and cohesiveness of the church was adverted. Another threat was the dispute over the distribution of charity for the widows of the church which had favored the Aramaic speaking Jews at the expense of the Greek-speaking ones. The church appointed seven deacons, all of whom had Greek names to bring oversight and equity. The unity of the church was thus preserved.
The opening of the Gospel to the Gentiles presented a far more dangerous threat to the church. The church had managed to unite the differences between the Aramaic speakers and the Greek speakers. But these were both Jews. They bridged the gap with the Samaritans, Peter himself observing the revival. As these were half Jews, they did find acceptance, even though at one time Samaritans were hated. God had worked through the Holy Spirit upon the Samaritans which no one could deny. We then saw the God-fearing Ethiopian eunuch who because he was a eunuch could not be circumcised. But he returned to Ethiopia, and little was heard of this in Jerusalem as Philip was sent to Azotus and did not return to Jerusalem.
But the acceptance of Gentiles seemed a bridge too far for the circumcision party. This party would trouble the church throughout the book of Acts. Even the Jerusalem council which was convened to address the status of Gentiles in the church did not fully heal this rift as we saw later when Paul came to Jerusalem immediately prior to his arrest. He was told that there were Jewish believers who were zealous for the law and needed to be calmed. They suggested Paul pay for men taking Jewish vows to show that Paul was an observant Jew. This, of course, did not work. It also seems ironic that the church at Jerusalem seems to have done little or nothing to stand up for their brother Paul after his arrest.
How did Peter answer the circumcision party? All knew that Peter had been an observant Jew as well as a Christian. Peter was not the type to act our of character. He related how he had had the vision and that the Lord had sent Peter to Cornelius. It had taken a lot of convincing. The Jews and proselytes had experienced what had happened on the Day of Pentecost. They know the undeniably reality of the baptism of the Spirit. they saw the signs and wonders which had been performed. Then Peter told them that the Holy Spirit had fallen upon upon these Gentiles the same way it had on them. Peter could not deny that they had truly experienced the Baptism of the Spirit with signs following.
Peter goes back and repeats what Jesus had himself said at the beginning of Acts that John the Baptist had baptised with water and that they would be baptised in the Holy Spirit in a few days. We should notice that the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit before they were baptised in water. We should also notice that instead of asking for knives to circumcise the Gentiles who had received the Spirit but rather water for baptism. Water baptism should be understood as an outward sign of inward Christian transformation. Baptism does not save but rather testifies that one has been saved.
The church heard Peter’s testimony as well as the six other witnesses which had gone with Peter and had to conclude that this was indeed the Lord’s work, that the Lord had granted Gentiles repentance unto life also. Even the circumcision party had to admit this. But there is often a rift between accepting something mentally and acceptance of the heart. In their hearts they could not fully accept the irrefutable evidence of the event any more than some the Jews at the beginning of Acts having been presented with many infallible proofs of the resurrection failed to accept Jesus, although many did. They had to accept the Gentiles being in the church to some extent, but they were also seeking limitations. Some thought they would also have to undergo circumcision and keep the law of Moses to be saved. Others would accept some sort of Gibeonite status for these Gentiles. the Jews would rule the kingdom but would need someone to rule over. they would need choppers of wood and haulers of water. But unless they went all the way and submit to circumcision and the Law, they would always be of inferior status. Both of these ideas would pop up and need to be addressed.
What does this passage say to us today? We know what the Lord desires for His church, that it be in one accord, even as it was on the day of Pentecost. Yet Christianity has been shattered into numerous sects, each claiming to be the true church. The members of one sect might accept an inferior Christian status for other sects and totally reject others. Some sects have actually gone to war against other sects. “Christians” have burnt other Christians as heretics or drowned, or persecuted. How does this glorify God?
These sects have also become more or less corrupt which also damages the testimony of the Church. The tow things which the Apostles had to deal with in the church are still attacking us today. We must realize that Satan desires to destroy the church’s witness. And the church as a whole is all to willing to co-operate. We should instead co-operate in the proclaiming the faith and strive for the unity of the Spirit. We should realize that the circumcision party in the early church still had received the Holy Spirit and were part of the Church even though they were quite wrong in some of their views, In spite of the wishes of the circumcision party, the Holy Spirit fell upon Gentile believers, proving that God had approved these believers in spite of what the circumcision party thought was the way God should act. we need to return the message of Pentecost Sunday that the message of the Gospel was to be carried by servants and masters, men and women, Jew and Gentile to those who were near as well as those who were afar off (Gentiles), as many as the Lord God should call. We should remember that all who will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, a promise grounded in the Old Testament. The message was first proclaimed in Jerusalem, then Judaea and Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. This is our mission as well.
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