Acts - Lesson 18

Last week Cornelius and his relatives and close friends were saved by the power of God after Peter preached. As we discussed last week this was contrary to the way the Church thought it was going to grow. Prior to God’s work with Cornelius’ group, the Church was made up of saved Jews. So it was a very Jewish Christianity and they were having intramural debates with regard to how they were to relate to the law.

Antinomianism is common today but it was not common in the Church when it was made up of saved Jews. However, it was a problem at certain times in the early Church as we see in some of Paul's epistles. The law is made up of moral commands and ritual commands and the challenge is to put down the ritual commands that had been fulfilled in Christ and (in the power of the Holy Spirit) to obey the moral law to please God our Father. This is in response to God rescuing us from the kingdom of darkness and moving us into His kingdom of light. It is not in order to earn the position we hold by grace. This principle was not worked out in the Church at the time we are reading. Peter was heading back to a large group of Christians in Jerusalem that would not understand what had happened.

Acts 11:1-11… Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” But Peter began and explained it to them in order: “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea.

Peter must have anticipated that he would have some opposition and would need to explain himself. Notice that God, through inspiration of the Scriptures, is telling you this story again. If God says something once then you are responsible for knowing what it says about God or about you but here God is repeating Himself. This will be the fourth time that we hear about God sending an angel to speak to Cornelius and the third time we will hear that God told Peter not to call someone common or unclean if God has called it clean.

Acts 11:12-18 … And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

The Circumcision Party recognizes this was a move of God. They couldn’t really argue about that because they knew that only God can bring repentance that leads to life. After hearing Peter, they rightly concluded that God was saving Gentiles. As I’ve said, this seems obvious to us who are (at least generally) saved Gentiles but this was a radical move of grace in the first century.

Ephesians 3:1-6 … For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

In Scripture, a mystery is something that was not understood but is now understood. The salvation of the Gentiles was not understood in other generations. This was a shock. Gentiles, who now sometimes say they live in a Christian nation, had no reason to think that they had any part in the grace that was poured out for Israel. Maybe you could hope, as the Gentile lady said to Jesus (Matthew 15:27 or Mark 7:28), to be a dog that gets crumbs from the table of the children but you couldn’t have any reason, before this mystery is revealed, to think you’d actually become a child or enter into the promises.

Ephesians 2:11-13 … Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

You were, 1) separated from Christ – you weren’t part of a people waiting for a promised messiah, 2) not part of Israel – your fathers were not chosen by God, 3) not part of the covenants of promise – you had no part in the promises and covenants that God had made with Israel, and 4) without hope and without God – you were surely dead in your trespasses and sins and waiting for judgment. But the blood of Jesus has brought you to look for a messiah, given you the patriarchs, given you a covenant of grace, and given you hope in God.

Galatians 3:7-8 … Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”

We are in a blessed position not because of our wisdom but rather because of the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. Paul says, “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25).”

Acts 11:19-26 …Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

As this early persecution drove the Christians out of Jerusalem they did not generally share the Gospel with anyone who was not a Jew. This underlines their very reasonable understanding of the promises and covenants of God with Israel. However, especially after Peter broke the ice, some Christians began to try sharing with Greeks who were not Jews. God blessed here in Antioch as He had earlier with Cornelius. This required a visit by Barnabas who soon recruited Paul to assist in the discipling of the Church in Antioch.

It isn’t clear if the term “Christian” was something the Church in Antioch came up with or if it was a name that they were called. The term is a New Testament term but it only occurs here (Acts 11:26) and in Acts 26:28 and in 1^st Peter 4:16.

We found out about Barnabas in Acts 4. He was a Jew, he was a Levite or from the tribe of the priests, he came from Cyprus so he was likely accustomed to Gentiles, he was generous, and he was such an encourager that the Apostles didn’t call him by his given name (Joseph). Barnabas was glad when he saw was God was doing in Antioch and that says a great deal about Barnabas. He truly was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith to respond as he did to Gentiles getting saved who were not even “God Fearers”. Not only that, but as an official representative sent by the Apostles, Barnabas realized that his gifting was not teaching and went and got Paul/Saul and had him minister for a year to build the level of discipleship in the city. Barnabas didn’t leave. Barnabas used his gifts to build the Church and recruited what he needed.

Acts 11:27-30 … Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

There are a couple of really unique aspects to this action taken by the Christians in Antioch. First of all, this was an outreach activity. We reached out to Gautier Mississippi when they were in need because of hurricane damage. We were not inventing something. It was an action with great precedent. Antioch was inventing, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, an appropriate action for other Christians in need. Secondly, they were demonstrating by their actions that they were Christians first in their minds. They were one race of mankind collecting money for another race of mankind but this wasn’t true in a spiritual sense. Almost immediately, they were Christians and one with the Christians in Jerusalem.

You need to be a Christian first and a citizen of the United States second. In God’s eyes, your identification with your brothers and sisters in Benin is more important that your identification with the political unit that is the United States. I think we all love our country but our first love must be God. 

The Anabaptists of the 1600s refused to acknowledge any allegiance to a political power. They were viewed as treasonous. They are the ancestors, for example, of the Amish. The Anabaptists argued that worldly governments had no authority over them. They wanted to be left alone.

We, as baptists, are not their descendants, we had other ancestors. The mainstream of the Reformation saw value in government. We follow those commands that tell us how to honor government. However, our first citizenship is with the household of God. If we don’t remember that then we’ll raise up a generation that is more prepared to die for their nation than to die for the Gospel.