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The Book of Acts
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BIBLE STUDY ACTS 11:1-30 REVIEW: Chapter 10 was the story about the conversion of the Roman Centurion Cornelius and his household. This was an extremely significant event in the life of the Christian church – for this is the first outreach activity to Gentiles. As the chapter makes clear, Peter (and other Jewish believers with him) also had to be “converted” by receiving a direct vision from God that no one should be called “profane or unclean” (vs. 28). In the end, as Peter is proclaiming the gospel message to Cornelius and his household, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to him – the final confirmation to Peter and his companions that God had chosen them to be a part of his people. Therefore, Peter ordered them to receive water baptism – as an acknowledgement of their full inclusion as a part of the Christian community. CHAPTER 11:1-18 “Peter’s Defense” “Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth. But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These sic brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.” As William Barclay in his Daily Study Bible commentary states, the importance that Luke attached to Cornelius’ conversion is shown by the amount of space he devoted to it. He twice relates the entire story in full! The emphasis of the story in this chapter, however, is slightly different than in chapter 10. Here the over-riding issue seems to be about the kind of relationships which believing Jews could have with believing Gentiles. Could Jewish Christians share meals with them? Where these new Gentile Christians of equal status with those who first believed? The fact that Cornelius and other Gentiles had “accepted the word of God” does not seem to be a problem with Peter’s critics – it was rather that Peter had shared table fellowship with these Gentiles. Luke Timothy Johnson in his commentary on the Gospel of Luke states: “The problem was a real one. For a Jew to eat without attending to ritual purity or to dietary regulations meant loss of identity, for the entire rationale for such regulations was the “holiness,” that is the separateness, of this people based on the commandments of God… Peter’s opponents imply that by being willing to eat with Gentiles, he has abandoned his own heritage as a Jew, and has also jeopardized the identity of the messianic community as the people of God.” Peter in defense recounts his entire vision point by point to show that what he did was in response to a direct revelation from God. As he explicitly says in verse 12; “The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.” Peter also makes another argument as well by pointing out that “these six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house.” These “six brothers” were probably members of the circumcision party – and Peter notes that they did not object about going to Cornelius. Also, we note that these six plus Peter made seven witnesses. As Barclay notes, in Egyptian law, which the Jews would know well, seven witnesses were necessary to completely prove a case. In Roman law, which they would also know well, seven seals were necessary to authenticate a really important document. The fact that seven Jewish Christians had gone to a Gentile home and witnessed their conversion showed that this was very significant. Finally, Peter reminds them that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was a gift – not something which anyone “earned”. By giving believing Gentiles the same gift that he had given to believing Jews, God thereby showed that they were completely equal to Jews in his sight. For believing Jews to act otherwise in their dealings with believing Gentiles, Peter sums up, would be for them to hinder God. The point is that we must not treat others differently if God treats us the same. If we are all equal in God’s sight, then we as his people must also relate with each other in the same way. Ethic, racial, and gender distinctions are abolished. CHAPTER 11:19-21 “The Founding of the Church at Antioch” “Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord.” The previous section highlighted the role of Peter in the church’s outreach to Gentiles. Now Luke returns to the narrative that was dropped back in 8:1-4 about the ministry of other various persons (whose names are unknown) who were scattered because of the persecution in Jerusalem that began after Stephen’s death. Most likely these other persons were all “Hellenist” Jewish Christians. At first they only reached out to other Hellenist Jews, but then some among them began to evangelize among Gentiles also. (The NRSV states that they also spoke to the “Hellenists” – but the alternative and probably correct translation is that they spoke to the Greeks (Gentiles) also.) This was a very significant development in the life of the early Church, and it is noteworthy that this activity apparently took place independently of any direction from the “mother Church” at Jerusalem. The men who did this were from Cyprus (the home of Barnabas – see Acts 4:36) and Cyrene (a province in North Africa – modern day Libya. This passage also introduces us to Antioch and the church that was founded there. Antioch, according to the Jewish historian Josephus, was the third largest city in the Roman Empire – only Rome itself and Alexandria of Egypt had more people. Antioch is located in Syria, and was a very cosmopolitan city. As we shall see later, the church founded in this city became the “headquarters” for outreach activity to Gentiles throughout the world – and it eventually eclipsed the Jerusalem church as the center of the Christian movement. CHAPTER 11:22-26 “The Ministry of Barnabas at Antioch” “News 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 rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great may people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christians.” This is Barnabas’ third appearance in the narrative of Acts – the first two being in Acts 4:36-37 and then later in Acts 9:27 where he becomes Saul’s sponsor when no one else in the church wanted to have anything to do with him. Barnabas was a natural choice for the Jerusalem church to send to Antioch. He was a native of Cyprus (Acts 4:36) and thus a countryman of some of those who were reaching out to the Gentiles. He was also by his disposition a “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36) who looked for the good in people rather than focusing on the negative. (Think about what it would have meant for the future of Christianity if the Jerusalem church had sent someone from the circumcism faction to Antioch - they would probably have complained about the outreach activity to Gentiles in the same way they had criticized Peter earlier and would have stirred up a storm of controversy which could have hampered the church’s expansion!) It was truly the grace of God that Barnabas was the person whom was sent! Barnabas is also significant here because he made the decision to go and recruit Saul to come to Antioch from Tarsus to help him in the ministry of teaching. Once again he becomes Saul’s mentor and patron. Finally, Luke tells us that it was in Antioch that disciples were first called “Christians.” This was a nickname given by outsiders to followers of Jesus – literally meaning “Christ-folk”. As William Barclay notes, the people of Antioch were famous for their talent in finding jesting nicknames. The term “Christian” was probably meant to be a “put-down”, but soon the followers of Jesus proudly adopted it as a description of who and what they were. CHAPTER 11:27-29 “Antioch Helps the Church at Jerusalem” “At that time prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine over all the world; and this took place during the reign of Claudius. The disciples determined that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers living in Judea; this they did, sending it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.” Prophets had two roles – to “forth-tell” and to “fore-tell”. Agabus (who is also mentioned later in Acts 21:10-11) is shown here as doing both. There were indeed many famines throughout the empire during the reign of Claudius (41 -54 C.E.), and the Jewish historian Josephus explicitly mentions a great famine in Judea during 46 C.E. The “forth-telling” part of Agabus’ prophecy was likely that the Christians in Antioch should not sit idly by while fellow Christians in Judea were starving. So it should be with us today – love demands that we love and care for each other, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. -------------------- George R. Karres, Pella Lutheran Church 418 W. Main Street Sidney, MT 59270
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