The apostles and the other believers a throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 When Peter went to Jerusalem, those who were in favour of circumcising Gentiles b criticised him, saying, 3 “You were a guest in the home of uncircumcised Gentiles, c and you even ate with them!” 4 So Peter gave them a complete account of what had happened from the very beginning:
5 “While I was praying in the city of Joppa, I had a vision. I saw something coming down that looked like a large sheet being lowered by its four corners from heaven, and it stopped next to me. 6 I looked closely inside and saw domesticated and wild animals, reptiles, and wild birds. 7 Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat!’ 8 But I said, ‘Certainly not, Lord! No ritually unclean or defiled food has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 The voice spoke again from heaven, ‘Do not consider anything unclean that God has declared clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and finally the whole thing was drawn back up into heaven. 11 At that very moment three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where I was staying. 12 The Spirit told me to go with them without hesitation. These six d fellow believers from Joppa accompanied me to Caesarea, and we all went into the house of Cornelius. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, ‘Send someone to Joppa for a man whose full name is Simon Peter. 14 He will speak words e to you by which you and all your family f will be saved.’ 15 And when I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came down on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 It is clear that God gave those Gentiles the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; who was I, then, to try to stop g God!”
18 When they heard this, they stopped their criticism and praised God, saying, “Then God has given to the Gentiles also the opportunity to repent and live!” h
a Luke mentions not just the apostles but also the rest of the Christians both in Jerusalem and scattered in the neighbouring area of Judea. It was the reaction of these Jewish Christians to the response of the Gentiles to the gospel that was very critical for the future of the church.
b Some versions translate this as ‘circumcised believers’. These would refer to the Jewish Christians.
c Centuries of Jewish practice made them critical of what Peter had been reported as doing, especially in eating with Gentiles. The Jewish Christians were still bound by the Jewish food laws and felt that unless the Gentile Christians were circumcised and observed the Jewish food laws themselves, there could be no fellowship with Gentile Christians.
d We are now told the number of believers who followed Peter to Cornelius’ house.
e It was only here that we are told that the angelic message promised to Cornelius was that he would hear a message explaining how he could be saved together with his household.
f Other translations have the word ‘household’ which refers not just to Cornelius’ family but also to the slaves and individuals employed by Cornelius in his home.
g Peter could not deny the Gentiles the invitation to be baptised because he recognised that God was saving the Gentiles on equal terms with the Jews. He gave them the same gift of the Holy Spirit. By divine action, rather than by human choice, the door to salvation was being opened to the Gentiles.
h The Gentiles are also called to turn from their sin to God and receive His promise of eternal life.
What happened to Peter when he returned to Jerusalem (vv. 2-4)?
Describe briefly his report to the believers there (vv. 5-17).
2. How did the believers react after they heard what Peter had to say (v. 18)?
3. In what way was the conversion of Cornelius significant in the growth of the early church?
19 Some of the believers i who were scattered by the persecution which took place when Stephen was killed went as far as Phoenicia, j Cyprus, k and Antioch, l telling the message to Jews only. 20 But other believers, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, m went to Antioch and proclaimed the message to Gentiles also, telling them the Good News about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s power was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
22 The news about this reached the church in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas n to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw how God had blessed the people, he was glad and urged them all to be faithful and true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24 Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and many people were brought to the Lord.
25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus o to look for Saul. 26 When he found him, he took him to Antioch, and for a whole year the two met with the people of the church and taught a large group. It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians. p
27 About that time some prophets q went from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, r stood up and by the power of the Spirit predicted that a severe famine s was about to come over all the earth. t (It came when Claudius was emperor.) 29 The disciples decided that each of them would send as much as he could to help their fellow believers who lived in Judea. 30 They did this, then, and sent the money to the church elders u by Barnabas and Saul. v
i These were the Hellenistic Jewish Christians.
j Phoenicia was a country stretching along the northeastern Mediterranean coast where modern Lebanon is now situated. Its important cities were Tyre and Sidon.
k Cyprus is an island in the northeastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. It was the home of Barnabas. See chap 13, note h for other details.
l Antioch was the third most important city in the Roman empire after Rome and Alexandria. This Antioch was located in Syria. Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch had large Jewish populations.
The first largely Gentile church was located here and it was from this church that Paul set off on his three missionary journeys.
m Cyrene was the capital of a district of Libya called Cyrenaica.
n In keeping with their policy of sending leaders to check on new ministries that came to their attention (Peter and John had earlier gone to Samaria to investigate Philip’s missionary service there [8:14ff]), the Jerusalem church now sent Barnabas to Antioch to look into what was happening there. In the wisdom of God, they chose Barnabas who, as later events turned out, was the best person for this task. True to his name as ‘One who encourages’ or ‘Son of Encouragement’, he encouraged the believers there and enabled the work of God to continue in that city. At the same time, God also used him to bring many to believe.
o There is no record of what Saul was doing between the time when he was sent away from Jerusalem (see 9:30) and when Barnabas found him in Tarsus. Most likely Barnabas went to look for Saul because he found that he could not handle the task of building up the church single-handedly and he thought Saul would be the best person to help him.
p It was most likely the non-believers who nicknamed this group of Jewish and Gentile believers ‘Christians’, i.e., ‘Christ followers’ or ‘those of the household of Christ’, or ‘belonging to Christ’. To the pagans of Antioch, these were the people who were always talking about one man named Christ, and so they became known as the Christ-people, the Christians. Just as in Palestine, the followers of the Herod dynasty were called Herodians, so, says Luke, in Antioch, the followers of Jesus Christ first came to be popularly known as Christians.
q The Jews believed that with the last of the OT prophets, the spirit of prophecy had ceased in Israel. But the coming Messianic Age would bring an outpouring of God’s Spirit, and prophecy would again flourish. The early Christians thus not only proclaimed Jesus to be the prophet foretold by Moses but they also saw prophecy as a gift from God to His people.
One important feature of the early church was the activity of prophets who were either attached to a local congregation or engaged in an itinerant (travelling) ministry. In Acts, prophets were engaged in both ‘foretelling’ and ‘forthtelling’. ‘Foretelling’ refers to the act of telling about events that would happen in the future (v. 28; 21:10-11). ‘Forthtelling’ refers to the speaking out of an inspired message of encouragement or exhortation from God (15:32). Prophets also preached, exhorted and explained the Scriptures.
r Agabus later foretold Paul’s imprisonment (21:10).
s Judea did in fact suffer severely from a famine at some point between A.D. 45 and 48.
t ‘Over all the earth’ refers to the Roman empire.
u This is the first reference to church elders in Acts.
v This is the second time Luke mentions Saul’s visit to Jerusalem after his conversion.
Describe how the church in Antioch-of-Syria was established, highlighting the roles of the men of Cyprus and Cyrene, and of Barnabas and Saul (vv. 19-26).
2. Describe what happened when some prophets went from Jerusalem to Antioch (vv. 27-28).
How did the disciples respond to what they heard (vv. 29-30)?
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