Bible Reading for March 20 – Acts 11:1-18

We Presbyterians are famously fond of doing things the same old way. But what happens when God might be calling us to make a change? How can we know what is the right thing to do?

That was the situation that faced the church in Jerusalem. Since the time of Abraham, Jewish people had been following God’s instructions to circumcise all their male children (Genesis 17:10). And for many years, their rabbis had taught them that they shouldn’t have anything to do with Gentiles, those who didn’t bear the sign of the covenant (Acts 11:2-3, see also John 18:28). The Jews who had come to faith in Jesus as their Messiah didn’t see any reason why their customs had to change.

But by the end of this passage, after hearing how the uncircumcised Gentiles in Cornelius’ house had come to faith in Christ, they accepted them as believers. Why did they do this?

In the first place, they couldn’t deny that God was in fact reaching out to the Gentiles. Peter explained how both he and Cornelius had visions from God (11:5,13), making it clear that Peter should not consider the Gentiles unclean but should go and preach to them. Peter also told about how the messengers from Cornelius just happened to show up at exactly the time that he was having his vision (11:11). Peter then pointed to the work of the Holy Spirit, Who directed him to go to Cornelius’ house, and Who then fell on the new believers just as He had filled the disciples on Pentecost (11:12, 15). And we still need to be sensitive to how God is at work in our world, sometimes moving His Church in new directions.

But we also need to look to the Word of God as the “supreme and final authority on all matters on which it speaks” (EPC Essentials of our Faith). Peter did the same thing in verse 16 as He appealed to the teaching of Jesus, who said that believers would indeed be “baptized with the Holy Spirit.” And so, measuring his experience according to the Word of Christ, Peter was sure that God had given the gift of salvation even to Gentiles who had not been circumcised (11:17).

For that’s what we need to keep in mind. It’s not our traditions or customs that save anyone, no matter how tried and true they may be. No, the early Christians understood that it was God Who grants “repentance that leads to life” to all who come to believe in Him (11:18). So we must never place any of our worship practices or evangelistic methods or even our confessional statements above the clear Word of God. And we must never limit God’s work in the present to the way He has done things in the past.

Acts 11:1-18 (ESV)

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.
2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying,
3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order:
5 “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.
6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air.
7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’
8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’
10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven.
11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea.
12 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.
13 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;
14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’
15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.
16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
17 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?”
18 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.”