Acts - 29

Acts - 29

Acts 11:1-18

Introduction

The Old Testament prophet Jonah is one of my favorites. His story is more well-known because of the whole ‘swallowed by a great fish’ thing. Turns out that Jonah was a pretty terrible person. God calls him to go the city of Nineveh, the capital city of wicked Assyrian Empire, to warn them of God’s impending judgment on their nation. Jonah decides to go in the literal opposite direction. Unfaithful. Disobedient.

He boards a ship to head away from God’s calling. Maybe he’s afraid of the Assyrians. I mean, who really wants to go to the capital city of a terrorist nation and tell them God is upset? Well, God still wants the job done by Jonah, so He sends a tumultuous storm at the ship. To keep it from sinking Jonah offers to be thrown overboard, where he is swallowed by a great fish that the Lord had created. He is in the belly of that great fish for 3 days. Definitely easier ways for God to get your attention, but this one certainly works. Jonah repents. The fish vomits him out on the beach and Jonah goes to where he should have gone to begin with…Nineveh.

He preaches throughout the entire city…forty days and God will destroy you. And it works! Jonah 3:5-10 - 5And the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6Then the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, laid aside his mantle from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. 7And he cried out and said,

“In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, animal, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat, and do not let them drink water. 8But both man and animal must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God with their strength that each may turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands. 9Who knows, God may turn and relent and turn away from His burning anger so that we will not perish.”10Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, so God relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would bring upon them. And He did not bring it upon them.

What an incredible event! God is certainly going to be pleased. And so should Jonah. Jonah 4:1 - 1But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry. That’s an odd reaction, don’t you think? He should be doing cartwheels through the streets. He should be praising God for His abundant mercy. Instead, though, Jonah reveals why it is that he ran from God in the first place. Jonah 4:2-3 - 2And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “Ah! O Yahweh, was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land? Therefore I went ahead to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil. 3So now, O Yahweh, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”

Pay close attention to what Jonah has just said. The reason he ran away from God’s call to Nineveh, the reason he didn’t want to warn them of God’s judgment…was because he knew God was loving! He knew God forgives. And he did not want that to happen. The Assyrians deserve death. They are wicked and evil. No forgiveness for them. In fact, Jonah says, I would rather die than see them forgiven. Mild overreaction.

If you want to summarize the attitude of the Jews towards the Gentiles, look no further than Jonah. The Jews were the chosen ones. They were favored and privileged. God loved them. They were holy. But the nations, the Gentiles? Nope. They are unclean. They are evil. They aren’t loved by God…so they won’t be loved by us either. Yet in Acts 10, Peter has just obediently taken the gospel to the Gentiles. He is the gospel-antithesis to Jonah. God called him to take the good news of salvation in Jesus to the nations…and he did. God graciously, abundantly poured out His Spirit upon these pagan Gentiles and grants them salvation in Christ, just the same as He has granted salvation to the Jews in Christ. But as they say, no good deed goes unpunished…Peter is now confronted with his actions.

Acts 11:1-18 - 1Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, 3saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence, saying, 5“I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from heaven, and it came right down to me, 6and when looking closely at it, I was observing it and saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the crawling creatures and the birds of the sky. 7And I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise up, Peter; slaughter and eat.’ 8But I said, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing defiled or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9But a voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider defiled.’ 10And this happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into heaven. 11And behold, immediately three men appeared at the house in which we were, having been sent to me from Caesarea. 12And the Spirit told me to go with them without taking issue at all. These six brothers also went with me and we entered the man’s house. 13And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is also called Peter; 14and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ 15And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. 16And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could prevent God’s way?” 18And when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”

OBJECTION (V. 1-3)

While Peter has done this incredible thing in taking the gospel to Cornelius, it is also highly controversial. Word quickly spreads back to Jerusalem and to the entire region. The Gentiles have received the word of God. What? How is that possible? They are total pagans. They are evil. And now they have ‘received,’ a word that means welcomed, God’s offer of salvation? You know when someone acts out of character and it throws you off a bit? Maybe you know someone who is typically so gracious and kind, but then out of nowhere they blow up and yell at you. Or maybe you know someone who is a jerk, but then randomly they did something that was really nice. It’s weird when people act out of character. That is how the Jews react to all this. Wait a minute! The Gentiles…the Gentiles accepted God’s word to them? That is certainly out of character. They don’t normally do that.

v. 2-3 - And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” Of course they took issue with him. It is the same word used in chapter 10 when God tells Peter to go with the men sent by Cornelius…go without taking issue. The root word is the word for judgment. So Peter has done this great thing and they judge him for it. Meaning, they condemn him. Who is it that is doing this? ‘Those who were circumcised.’ The Christians who had come out of a Jewish background. All they know is that God has made explicit commands about what it means to be His covenant people. There is even an external marker to show it physically…circumcision. And these Gentiles don’t have that marker.

Before we jump all over them about this…which is an issue that isn’t going away and will continue to be an issue for a century in the early church…let’s remind ourselves that they did not know a single Christian who had not been Jewish beforehand. All of them were circumcised. All of them were part of God’s covenant people beforehand. And then they added Christ to that (in their minds). So if these Gentiles want to become Christians…well, they need to become Jewish first. Only then can they add Christ to their faith foundation. Again, this is going to come back up in chapter 15, prompting the famous Jerusalem Council. This is going to come back up even more fierce in a group of men called the Judaizers who literally follow Paul around the world and undermine the gospel by “fixing” Paul’s message by adding circumcision. This is the reason Paul wrote Galatians!

Here is why this is so significant…in Acts 10 after Peter preaches the gospel to the Gentiles and God saves them, pouring out His Holy Spirit, Peter did not say to them, cool guys, now it’s time to circumcise you. Can anyone refuse circumcision for these new believers? No, he did not say that. If he had, Christianity would never have moved beyond being a Jewish sect. What they did not know yet is that the new covenant in Christ has an external marker to show you are part of God’s covenant people…but it isn’t circumcision. It is baptism.

Colossians 2:8-13 - 8See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily, 10and in Him you have been filled, who is the head over all rule and authority; 11in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, 12having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13And you being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him, having graciously forgiven us all our transgressions.

The verb for ‘circumcision’ means ‘to cut’ for obvious reasons. But it meant to be set apart, cut away from the world to honor God. So the OT prophets talked about having circumcised ears and circumcised hearts. So, yes, Christ calls us to circumcision, but not to a physical cut of a body part, but of the soul now set apart to honor Him…as shown in baptism. So the Jewish Christians are upset. You went to the pagans and ate with them. To label the Gentiles as ‘the uncircumcised’ was actually a racial slur, a derogatory term…literally translates as the ‘foreskin.’ You went to those foreskins and ate with them?! How dare you!

REPETITION (V. 4-15)

Peter’s response is brilliant. He simply recounts the events. v. 4 - But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence. This is important. They are judging, they are condemning…because they are acting in ignorance. They don’t know. In fact, they don’t know what they don’t know. So Peter responds to their emotional response with facts. This is what happened. This is how it happened. Because, Peter knows that if he presents the events as they happened, because they are so profound and ordered by God, they will understand. So from verse 5 through v. 15, Peter simply recounts the exact events of chapter 10.

In the field of Hermeneutics, the interpretation of Scripture, there are several rules and laws that you have to follow to ensure you interpret the Bible correctly. Since the ultimate goal is to arrive at the author’s intended meaning, or the AIM of the text, one of the ways you do that is by highlighting what is repeated. What is repeated is important. That rule does not only apply to single words or phrases. It also applies to entire accounts. And if you are paying attention to Acts so far, you realize this is the third time we’ve heard this story. We heard it as it originally happened. And then when Peter gets to the home of Cornelius, Cornelius recounts the whole thing again. And now we have it repeated here. Why is that? Because this event is critical. What is repeated is important.

Christianity would not be the global mission force that it was and is without this event! Christianity never would have come out from under a Jewish shadow without this event. You wouldn’t be here as a Christian. If the gospel doesn’t go to the nations, it never gets to you. This one account completely turns the ship and propels the faith to the world. Luke repeats it three times to make sure you see the significance of this. He will do the same thing with the conversion of the Apostle Paul. Acts tells us of that event three separate times. This is why. Without the gospel spreading here, and without Paul taking it to the nations, nothing of what we know of church history ever happens.

The Church never takes off and expands in the middle east and Europe. It never transforms into Roman Catholicism. The Protestant Reformers never rise up to preserve the gospel by starting what we now know as Protestant Christianity. There are no Puritans. There is no Great Awakening or 2nd Great Awakening. There isn’t even the founding of America for the sake of religious freedom. Evangelical Christianity that we are part of, centered around the gospel, never even exists because the gospel never would have left Israel.

So Peter tells the old, old story yet again. And in so doing he inserts only one piece of information that we did not get in chapter 10. End of verse 12 - These six brothers also went with me and we entered the man’s house. Peter plus the six Jewish Christians make a party of seven who are all there now to answer their objections. Well, it just so happened that Egyptian law, of which Jews are quite familiar, required seven witnesses to prove an event happened in a court of law. It just so happened that Roman law required that important legal documents like a will had to have seven seals on it from seven witnesses to legitimize the document. God, in His kindness, has provided seven witnesses, for them and for us, to prove to us that this is real.

APPLICATION (V. 16-18)

Now Peter takes this defense and applies it to his audience to help them understand why God has done this and how they should respond. v. 16 - And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ This statement was originally given by John the Baptist in the wilderness when he was baptizing the Jews for repentance. Luke 3:15-16 - 15Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were reasoning in their hearts about John, as to whether he was the Christ, 16John answered, saying to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water, but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the strap of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

It is reiterated by Jesus in Acts 1:4-5 - 4And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Don’t think of this statement of baptism in the Holy Spirit in the modern charismatic view, as they have morphed it into something else entirely. The word means ‘immerse.’ The gift Jesus will give to His people is that He is going to send to them the indwelling presence and power of God the Holy Spirit. That happened at Pentecost in Acts 2 (which is why Jesus said it would happen ‘not many days from now.’ Then it happened in Acts 8 with the Samaritans. And now the same is happening with the Gentiles. God is willing to forgive and dwell within these pagan, dirty Gentiles!

v. 17 - Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could prevent God’s way? The same gift…God is doing with them the same as He did with the Jews. That’s humbling, don’t you think? We aren’t any better. We are not superior like we thought we were. God will save them with the same grace that saved us. People still wrestle with the same today:

Racial Social Economic National Intellectual Moral

And it works. Peter has gotten their attention. Who was he to stand in God’s way of saving? Who are they to do that? They are certainly convicted. v. 18 - And when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, ‘Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.’ They quieted down…yeah they did! Shut your face your judgmental jerks. But they get it…God has granted repentance to them too. God has ordained that they are saved too. I am not superior. I am not a first-class believer while people unlike me are second-class believers. We are all saved by the same grace. Because I needed it just as much as they did.

Salvation is not to produce any kind of arrogance or elitism, thus making you the standard for the kind of people God saves. Salvation is only to produce humility, in acknowledging that you are a pagan, dirty sinner, who cannot be good enough to save yourself, but in desperate need of God’s grace. And God graciously, abundantly saved you and granted even to you the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. God granted forgiveness of sins, even to you. God granted the hope of eternal life, even to you. What marvelous grace!