Reflections on Acts 11

Acts 11 (Contemporary English Version)


1. The apostles and the followers in Judea heard that Gentiles had accepted God's message.
   
2. So when Peter came to Jerusalem, some of the Jewish followers started arguing with him. They wanted Gentile followers to be circumcised, and
   
3. they said, "You stayed in the homes of Gentiles, and you even ate with them!"
   
4. Then Peter told them exactly what had happened:
   
5. I was in the town of Joppa and was praying when I fell sound asleep and had a vision. I saw heaven open, and something like a huge sheet held by its four corners came down to me.
   
6. When I looked in it, I saw animals, wild beasts, snakes, and birds.
   
7. I heard a voice saying to me, "Peter, get up! Kill these and eat them."
   
8. But I said, "Lord, I can't do that! I've never taken a bite of anything that is unclean and not fit to eat."
   
9. The voice from heaven spoke to me again, "When God says that something can be used for food, don't say it isn't fit to eat."
   
10. This happened three times before it was all taken back into heaven.
    
11. Suddenly three men from Caesarea stood in front of the house where I was staying.
    
12. The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry. Then six of the Lord's followers went with me to the home of a man
    
13. who told us that an angel had appeared to him. The angel had ordered him to send to Joppa for someone named Simon Peter.
    
14. Then Peter would tell him how he and everyone in his house could be saved.
    
15. After I started speaking, the Holy Spirit was given to them, just as the Spirit had been given to us at the beginning.
    
16. I remembered that the Lord had said, "John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
    
17. God gave those Gentiles the same gift that he gave us when we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So how could I have gone against God?
    
18. When they heard Peter say this, they stopped arguing and started praising God. They said, "God has now let Gentiles turn to him, and he has given life to them!"
    
19. Some of the Lord's followers had been scattered because of the terrible trouble that started when Stephen was killed. They went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they told the message only to the Jews.
    
20. Some of the followers from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and started telling Gentiles the good news about the Lord Jesus.
    
21. The Lord's power was with them, and many people turned to the Lord and put their faith in him.
    
22. News of what was happening reached the church in Jerusalem. Then they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
    
23. When Barnabas got there and saw what God had been kind enough to do for them, he was very glad. So he begged them to remain faithful to the Lord with all their hearts.
    
24. Barnabas was a good man of great faith, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Many more people turned to the Lord.
    
25. Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul.
    
26. He found Saul and brought him to Antioch, where they met with the church for a whole year and taught many of its people. There in Antioch the Lord's followers were first called Christians.
    
27. During this time some prophets from Jerusalem came to Antioch.
    
28. One of them was Agabus. Then with the help of the Spirit, he told that there would be a terrible famine everywhere in the world. And it happened when Claudius was Emperor.
    
29. The followers in Antioch decided to send whatever help they could to the followers in Judea.
    
30. So they had Barnabas and Saul take their gifts to the church leaders in Jerusalem.

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Considerable transition for the early church is described in chapter 11. The church was spreading out in many directions in fulfillment of Jesus' commission to be His witnesses throughout the world and was challenging the traditions of these new believers. It should be noted that the spread of the church was happening at God's direction rather than following a plan made by the apostles. Had it been a plan of the apostles, the spread would undoubtedly have not moved into Gentile territory. In fact, 11:19 says that the initial spread of the gospel as a result of persecution in Jerusalem went only to Jews. But God's plan was taking the message also to Gentiles which posed a threat to the conscience of Jewish believers who were still sensitive to their traditions of not associating with Gentiles.

Peter's vision, in conjunction with Cornelius' vision, recorded in the previous chapter, prepared the way for this new direction of the church. When Peter went back up to Jerusalem after preaching to Cornelius and his family, the believers there who "stressed circumcision" argued with him about visiting the home of "uncircumcised men and (eating) with them!" But Peter first told them of his vision and how God had told him 'What God has made clean, you must not call common.' Then he told them what happened at Cornelius' home, how "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came down on them, just as on us at the beginning." In other words, the experience of the Gentiles in receiving Christ was no different than that of the Jews. Both had received the gift of the Holy Spirit which was evidence that they were true believers. As Paul pointed out in his letter to the Ephesians, " In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation--in Him when you believed--were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory." (Ephesians 1:13-14)

Peter's explanation stopped the arguments and the Jewish Christians glorified God saying, "So God has granted repentance resulting in life to even the Gentiles!" Thus, a schism in the church was avoided which would have greatly hindered or even stopped the church in being Christ's witnesses throughout the world. But, now the church was ready for what was to happen next - the wholesale spread of the gospel into Gentile territory. Immediately following the account of the decision in Jerusalem is an account of the gospel being taken to the city of Antioch, the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It was also a city of considerable immorality and ritual prostitution in its temple worship. A large number in that city believed the gospel message and "turned to the Lord." When this report reached Jerusalem the church there again sent someone to verify the report. On this occasion, they sent Barnabus. He quickly assessed that what was happening was the "grace of God," and he was glad.

Barnabus stayed on at Antioch to help the church there and, possibly because of the need for additional help, he went looking for Saul in Tarsus where he was staying. Saul returned to Antioch with Barnabus and they spent the next year building up the church there. In this process of strengthening the Antioch church, Saul and Barnabus developed as a missionary team and the foundation was laid for Antioch to be a lauching pad for the gospel to move out into vast new regions.