Acts 11


Peter Explains His Actions

¹The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. ²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him ³and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."
⁴Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened: ⁵"I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. ⁶I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air. ⁷Then I heard a voice telling me, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.'
⁸"I replied, 'Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'
⁹"The voice spoke from heaven a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.' ¹⁰This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
¹¹"Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. ¹²The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house. ¹³He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, 'Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. ¹⁴He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.'
¹⁵"As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. ¹⁶Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' ¹⁷So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?"
¹⁸When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."

Acts 11:1-18

Explanation:

Peter's Defense of His Gentile Mission (11:1-18)

What would convince a charismatic that the cerebral theological discourses that pass for sermons in emotionless orthodoxy can call people to genuine faith? What would convince those in a formal tradition that the faith of those who have responded to emotionally charged charismatic preaching is authentic?

How Peter convinced Jerusalem church members who had been prejudiced against uncircumcised Gentiles becomes a model for us as we seek to sort through claims to God's working which challenge our biases.

Peter Encounters Criticism (11:1-3)

The conversion of Cornelius's household was a truly momentous event: the Gentiles also had received the word of God (10:44-45; compare 8:14; 17:11). The gospel had decisively crossed its last cultural threshold. The scope and level of the reporting also shows the import of this milestone. The church throughout Judea, even the apostles, heard about it.

Peter is not summoned, yet he may anticipate some trouble, so he goes up to Jerusalem, taking along corroborating witnesses (see v. 12). There he immediately encounters criticism from circumcised believers. The reference to circumcised believers does not seem to refer here to the whole church, which was completely Jewish at this time (contrast Longenecker 1981:397). Rather, it points to certain believers who were particularly zealous for the law and insisted on no social intercourse between circumcised and uncircumcised (Bruce 1988:220; Gal 2:12). They charged Peter with making himself ritually unclean by entering a Gentile's house and eating with him (see comment and background information at Acts 10:28).

Commentators may speculate about the motivation behind these charges--perhaps fear of persecution from unbelieving Jews (Bruce 1988:219) or Jewish-Roman tensions under Caligula (Kistemaker 1990:408). But what is clear is that prejudice led to a myopic view of the situation (compare the Pharisees' treatment of Jesus: Lk 5:30; 15:1). How sad it is when man-made rules designed to protect our holiness and bring us close to God prevent us from seeing and rejoicing when God grants salvation to those who had not known his grace.

Peter Defends His Actions (11:4-15)

Early reports of Cornelius's conversion may have been fragmented and garbled. To set the record straight, Peter explains (18:26; 28:23) the situation in an orderly fashion (compare Lk 1:3; NIV's everything . . . precisely as it had happened communicates more the intent than the method itself). Peter's report is an orderly, reliable, factual account of the divine initiatives in word and deed that brought Cornelius and him together.

Luke shows the reliability of his account by using it as a second witness to the events of Acts 10 (compare Deut 19:15). He presents it as a first-person eyewitness report. All the events are relayed either as Peter experienced them (his vision, Acts 11:5-10; the arrival of Cornelius's men and the Spirit's command, vv. 11-12; the Spirit's coming, vv. 15) or as they were reported directly to him (Cornelius's vision, vv. 13-14). The six brothers are brought in as witnesses as well (vv. 12-15). Their number may be significant for commending the truthfulness of the account to Luke's Roman audience, since it was the custom in Rome to authenticate a really important document by attaching seven seals to it (Barclay 1976:87). Finally, Peter calls on his audience as witnesses when he likens what happened at Caesarea to what they themselves experienced at Pentecost (v. 15).

This is above all a factual report of the divine initiative via interpreted acts to bring salvation to the Gentiles. Peter makes no comment on his personal circumstances, his perplexity about the vision or his own interpretation of the events' significance (10:9-10, 17, 19, 28-29, 34-35). He lets the facts speak for themselves. Any interpretation of their significance is objective and revealed, for it comes from heaven, the Spirit and the angel (11:7, 9, 12, 14).

In this way Peter teaches the main lessons of his experience. God has cleansed all foods (v. 9). The dietary laws that marked the distinction between Jew and non-Jew are abolished. The Spirit commands that Peter live out this new freedom by accompanying uncircumcised men to their master's house, "not making any distinctions" (v. 12). He is not to treat them as he would have when the food laws, which made distinctions, were still in force (diakrinanta should be taken as a true active [Marshall 1980:196], not with its middle meaning, "hesitation," as in NIV, probably under the influence of 10:29; compare 10:20). The angel tells Cornelius that the purpose of Peter's visit is to proclaim a message by which uncircumcised Gentiles may enter into salvation (11:14).

Indications of Peter's understanding of the events' significance are not entirely lacking. He emphasizes the divine origin of his vision (11:5/10:11). He stresses the providential ordering of events by his immediate juxtaposition of them: his vision and Cornelius's men's arrival (11:11/10:17-18), the beginning of Peter's preaching and the coming of the Spirit (11:15/10:44). Finally, he hints at the divine rejection of the Jewish taboo against entering a Gentile's house when he notes that the angel appears in his [Cornelius's] house (11:13).

From the content of Peter's report we learn again that the real hero of the Cornelius conversion narrative is God, "the gracious prodding One who makes bold promises and keeps them, who finds a way even in the midst of human distinctions and partiality between persons" (Willimon 1988:99). Where distinctions born of racial, ethnic, class or gender prejudice stand as obstacles to the advance of the gospel, we can be sure that God will prod us to eliminate them.

Peter's method shows that "the proof of Christianity always lies in facts" (Barclay 1976:87). God speaks a word and then fulfills it. God acts to fulfill his saving purposes and then interprets that act so that we may understand and appropriate it to ourselves. Whether for the Christian or the non-Christian, the method and the expected response are always the same: report the facts through reliable witnesses; receive, believe and act on the report.

An Interpretive Case for God at Work (11:16-17)

Peter now seizes on the similarity of the coming of the Spirit to Cornelius's household and the Spirit's coming to the disciples at Pentecost. He points to the divine origin and the salvation-history significance of the Pentecost experience by remembering Jesus' words of promise (Acts 1:5; compare Lk 3:16). John's baptism of repentance, in preparation for the coming of the Messiah at the last day, would be superseded by the Spirit's baptism, inaugurating the presence of the salvation blessings of that last day. At Pentecost, Peter says, we experienced this same gift, the Holy Spirit himself (Acts 10:45-47; 15:7-11; compare 2:38; 8:20), by meeting only one condition: belief in the Lord Jesus Christ (15:7, 11; compare 2:44; 4:4, 32; 8:12; 10:43). If Cornelius's household has received this gift without being circumcised, then Gentiles too must be acceptable to God on the same condition.

To refuse to incorporate the Gentile believers into the church via baptism and full table fellowship would be to thwart God's purposes. Peter cannot, indeed he would not be able to, stand in the way of God (NIV's Who was I to think that I could oppose God? makes explicit the element of judgment; see comment at 10:47). It was incumbent upon Peter, if he was to follow God's lead, to treat these Gentiles as full brothers and sisters in Christ by accepting their hospitality and eating with them.

As with the Samaritans (8:14-17), the external manifestation of the Spirit's coming and presence serves a limited though vital purpose in salvation history. It should not be taken as a normative pattern for all Christians in all times and places. This time the Spirit comes before any profession of faith or water baptism, demonstrating that God the knower of all hearts has indeed cleansed these Gentiles' hearts by faith, making them fit to receive the Holy Spirit. Not only does this sequence of events convince Jewish Christians of the soundness of Gentile conversions, it also links the Spirit's coming to conversion so as to call into question any view of baptism of the Spirit as an experience subsequent to conversion/regeneration (see note at 1:5).

The Church Responds in Praise (11:18)

The facts, the divinely given interpretation and the apostle's application prove convincing. The critics had no further objections (literally, "became or were quiet"; see Lk 14:4; Acts 21:14) and glorified God with a confession that the Gentiles' faith is genuine. Such praise usually occurs in Luke-Acts in response to a miracle or to news of the Gentile mission (Lk 5:25-26; 13:13; 18:43; compare 2:20; Acts 13:48; 21:20; compare Lk 23:47). So then, God has even granted the Gentiles repentance unto life. The phrasing indicates that the Jewish believers understand the "revolution in principle" that has occurred. It is not just an isolated God-fearer's household but the Gentiles, all non-Jews, to whom the door of salvation is wide open. Further, this repentance is not a precondition produced by human effort. It is a gift from God to the Gentiles, just as it was to the Jews (Acts 3:26; 5:31).

What then should convince us that God is at work even in ways that cut across the grain of our prejudices? A plain hearing of the facts and their interpretation, judged by the promises of God's Word, is where we start. And when we keep in mind that salvation begins with the gift of repentance, our prejudices, which will always demand that the outsider meet certain performance standards, will melt away. In their place will come wonder and praise to God that his salvation has touched people whom we, left to ourselves, would not.

Acts 11


The Church in Antioch

¹⁹Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. ²⁰Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. ²¹The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
²²News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ²³When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. ²⁴He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
²⁵Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, ²⁶and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
²⁷During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. ²⁸One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) ²⁹The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. ³⁰This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

Acts 11:19-30

Explanation:

The Mission Continues and Faces Opposition (11:19--12:25)
Two vignettes of life in the Antioch and Jerusalem church provide a transition from the mission to Jews to the mission to Gentiles; from Peter, the apostles and the Jerusalem evangelists to Paul and his missionary band; and from Jerusalem as the sending base to Antioch.



The Gentile Mission at Antioch (11:19-30)

Ancient Antioch was famous for its humor, especially the coining of jesting nicknames. When an organized brigade of chanting devotees of Nero led crowds in adulation, this band of imperial cheerleaders with their ludicrous homage was quickly dubbed Augustiani. And earlier, when the devotees of the one called Christ came to public attention, they were named Christianoi, partisans of Christ (11:26). What may have been first coined by outsiders as a term of derision (see Acts 26:28 and 1 Pet 4:16, the only two other New Testament occurrences of the term--both on the lips of hostile unbelievers), the followers of the Way embraced it as a fitting label.

Theophilus and his peers had heard the name, though not always distinctly. It was confused by many with Chrestianos, possibly deriving from Chrestos, "useful," a common name for a slave (compare Suetonius Claudius 25.4). What does it mean to be a Christianos, a Christian (Tacitus Annals 15.44; Suetonius Nero 16.2)? Luke clears this up for Theophilus and us by pointing to Antioch.

Inclusive Evangelism (11:19-21)

To show the origin of the direct mission to the Gentiles, Luke picks up the thread of the story from Acts 8:4 and notes the geographical progress of Hellenistic Jewish Christians who spread the life-giving seed of the word (Lk 8:11) even as they were scattered by "affliction" (NIV persecution; compare Acts 14:22; 20:23) brought on by Stephen's martyrdom. They evangelized the Jews of Phoenicia--modern Lebanon, the coastal strip seven and a half miles wide and about seventy-five miles long from Cape Carmel north to the river Eleutheros. Congregations in Tyre, Sidon and Ptolemais were the fruit (21:4, 7; 27:3). They extended their mission to Cyprus, the location of a very early and now very large Jewish colony (Philo Legatio ad Gaium 282; compare Acts 4:36) and then on to "Antioch on the Orontes" in Syria. Three hundred miles from Jerusalem and fifteen to twenty miles east of the Mediterranean, it stood at a point where the Orontes River breaks through at the convergence of the Lebanon and Tauros mountain ranges.

Of the sixteen cities built by the Seleucid general Seleucus I Nicator and named for his father Antiochus, Syrian Antioch was the largest and most prosperous. With a population of over 500,000, including a Jewish colony of 70,000, and a thriving economy because of its strategic position at the crossroads of trade routes south to Palestine and Egypt, east to Persia and west to the Asia Minor peninsula, Antioch was justly called "Antioch the Great, Queen of the East." Josephus ranked it as the third greatest city of the Roman Empire, behind Rome and Alexandria (Josephus Jewish Wars 3.29).

This free city, capital of the Roman province of Syria, was "a melting pot of Western and Eastern cultures, where Greek and Roman traditions mingled with Semitic, Arab, and Persian influences" (Longenecker 1981:399). Cicero (Pro Archia 3) praised its art and literature. Juvenal referred to its reputation for immorality, writing of "the Orontes pouring pollution into the Tiber" (Satires 3.62)--the invasion of Rome by eastern superstition and profligacy (compare Barclay's [1976:89] description of the cult prostitution associated with the worship of Daphne and Apollo; the temple was near Antioch).

To such a city came Hellenistic Jewish Christians from Cyprus and Cyrene (a city on the Mediterranean coast of modern Tunisia) and directly evangelized Gentiles, while continuing the outreach to Jews (note also in v. 20). Luke gives us neither the motive nor the date of this bold new mission thrust. Because Luke sees Peter as the inaugurator of the witness to the Gentiles (15:7, referring to 10:1--11:18), and the church sends Barnabas and not the apostles to investigate the Gentile mission at Antioch, it appears that this witness follows Peter's preaching to Cornelius. Indeed, it may be consciously following Peter's precedent.

Preaching of the good news of the Lord Jesus to Gentiles points them to Christ's sovereignty and deity. "Many were trying to find in various mystery cults a divine Lord who could guarantee salvation and immortality to his devotees" (Bruce 1988:225). The good news is that "this can be found in the Lord Jesus" (compare 10:36; 16:31; 20:21; 28:31).

The Lord's hand, an Old Testament metaphor for God's power and favor (Ezra 9:7; Is 66:14; compare Lk 1:66), is with this witness--not in signs and wonders (Acts 4:30; so Krodel 1986:207), for they are not explicitly mentioned here, but in the convicting and convincing work of the Spirit such that significant numbers believed and turned to the Lord (4:4; 6:7; 9:24; 10:27; 14:15; 15:19; compare 9:35; 26:18, 20).

Though Luke uses Lord interchangeably for the Father and the Son, if all the uses in 11:19-26 speak of Jesus, we learn the comprehensive role he plays in bringing salvation to the Gentiles. He is the gospel's content, power and goal. He is the sustainer and the identity of those who receive it.

In a day when a misapplication of church-growth theory's "homogeneous unit principle" can produce monocultural churches, God's blessing on inclusive evangelism across ethnic lines at Antioch is a necessary reminder of where God's heart is. While he may indeed give growth within homogeneous ethnic units, such units are not his ideal, and neither should they be ours.

Authentic Growth (11:22-24)

Though Luke does not tell us the Jerusalem church's motive for dispatching Barnabas, the circumstances and the church's disposition are probably not unlike what we find in Acts 11:1-3. The church as a whole is sympathetic, which their choice of Barnabas indicates, but a segment, "those of the circumcision," are not so sure and need to be placated (Marshall 1980:202).

The Jerusalem church's action reflects a concern for continuity and accountability in the advance of the church's mission. Sometimes missionaries today hesitate to tell all that is happening in their work, believing that unorthodox strategies or methods required by cross-cultural witness will not be understood by "the folks back home." The early church never manifested such lack of trust, and the resulting churches were the stronger for their willing accountability.

Barnabas authenticates this church growth both in his initial reaction, joy, and in his encouragement to perseverance. Unlike "those of the circumcision" in verse 2, but very much like the hosts of heaven (Lk 15:7, 10), Barnabas rejoices at seeing the evidence of the grace of God (Acts 11:23; NIV introduces the phrase the evidence of). The grace that Barnabas sees is not so much the change in lifestyle or the more manifest spiritual gifts (as Williams 1985:193), though these are undoubtedly present; rather, it is the great numbers of newly and soundly converted Gentiles. "In Acts grace is that power which flows from God or the exalted Christ and accompanies the activity of the apostles giving success to their mission" (Esser 1976:119; Acts 4:33; 15:11; 18:27; 20:24). Do we, with Barnabas, rejoice "at the spectacle of God's free favor, unlimited by racial or religious frontiers, embraced and enjoyed by all without distinction" (Bruce 1990:273)?

Barnabas, true to his name ("Son of Encouragement," 4:36), encourages (note continuous action imperfect parekalei) the Antioch believers to steadfast loyalty to the Lord (compare Josephus Jewish Antiquities 14.20; Wisdom 3:9; Lk 8:15). Note that the "glue" of their perseverance in salvation is a personal relationship with Christ embraced from the inside out, not the external mark of circumcision and Jewish practice. And such must be the case for new converts to Christianity from any culture. If the heart is first abiding in Christ as Lord and Savior, the new ways of living will necessarily follow as the person learns to walk according to God's will as revealed in his Word.

Luke now authenticates Barnabas, showing approval of this "bridge person's" authentication of the Gentile witness at Antioch. He attests his character as a good man (Lk 8:8, 15; compare 6:45). He presents that character's source: full of the Holy Spirit and faith (see comment at Acts 6:3; compare 6:5; 7:55). Instead of operating by sight, insisting that Gentiles show outwardly, through circumcision and ritual observance, what they claim to have happened inwardly, Barnabas chooses by faith to apply God's promise of a universal offer of salvation to the Antioch situation (Lk 24:47; Acts 2:21, 39). Finally, Luke tells us of the fruit of such character: numerical growth of the church (compare 2:41, 47; 5:14; 6:7; 8:6). In any age those full of the Spirit and good character, "faith" vision and fruitfulness will be on the cutting edge of the church's advance.

Doctrinally Sound Nurture (11:25-26)

Though Luke does not give the motive, the explosion in numbers and the need to conserve the harvest through careful grounding in the faith may have moved Barnabas to recruit Paul, still called Saul (E. F. Harrison 1986:194). He travels northwest to Tarsus in Cilicia, east Asia Minor, to look for Saul in his hometown (the term implies a thorough search; compare Lk 2:44-45; Acts 9:30; 21:39; 22:3). For a whole year Barnabas and Saul work together in the church, teaching great numbers of people. As Luke uses the concept and as Paul articulates his calling (2 Tim 1:11), teaching (Christian nurture) and evangelism are not necessarily mutually exclusive activities (compare 4:2; 5:42). When the gospel and the Christian way of life are correctly understood, teaching and evangelism are distinct but must be seen as inseparable.

The believers are first called Christians at Antioch. Literally the verb means "to transact business." Hence to transact business under a particular name is to be known by that name (Bruce 1988:228).

Holistic Liberality (11:27-30)

For Antioch to model fully what it means to be Christians, it must demonstrate orthopraxy by meeting physical needs (compare 2:42-47).

Antioch learns of a need through the word of prophets, Agabus in particular. Itinerant prophets ministered in the first-century church. They were evidence that the last days, the time of salvation, has dawned (2:17-18; Longenecker 1981:403). They "spoke revelation from the Spirit (1 Cor 14:29-30), usually in terms of edification and encouragement (1 Cor 14:3, 31) and even fundamental doctrine (Eph 3:4-5). But occasionally their ministry included prediction" (E. F. Harrison 1986:197). Prompted by the Spirit, Agabus "makes a prediction" (in extrabiblical usage this action points to enigmatic speech [Lake and Cadbury 1979:131], but not here, according to Haenchen [1971:374]): a great famine will spread over the entire Roman world. Luke tells us this prediction was fulfilled during Claudius's reign (see note). The entire Roman world, literally, is the inhabited world politically, not geographically. At this time it was often viewed as coterminous with the Roman Empire (Lake and Cadbury 1979:131; Marshall 1980:204). This prediction was probably made before Claudius's reign (A.D. 41-54; Bruce 1990:277).

Since we too live in the last days, should we in the church expect to find prophets foretelling the future? Christians are divided on this issue, based on beliefs regarding how the closing of the canon of Scripture relates to the presence of revelation today. That factor must certainly be taken into account. Any claims to divinely inspired prophecy must be tested and must meet the criteria in Scripture for true prophecy (Deut 18:20-22). Alleged divinely inspired prophecy must be completely fulfilled. Anything less is not biblical.

The church responds in holistic liberality. Each member as he or she is financially able--that is, from discretionary income (compare Lev 25:49; Acts 19:25)--decides what to give and contributes it to a fund for famine relief. Their liberality is holistic in two ways. First, it extends beyond spiritual concern--"we will pray that God provides for you in your affliction"--to practical physical aid. Hence the collection is labeled a "service" (diakonia; Acts 6:1; 12:25; Rom 15:31; 2 Cor 8:4). Second, this interchurch relief involves the receiving church serving the sending church--a mixed Jewish and Gentile congregation serving a Jewish assembly. Such unity is based on the conviction that the church is a body greater than any single congregation within any culture. This unity carries with it a responsibility for the well-being of all disciples, wherever they are (note the use of the terms disciples and brothers). Barnabas and Saul take this collection to the elders (see comment at Acts 15:2), who have emerged as the administrators of physical aid in the Jerusalem church after the evident dispersal of the "Seven" at Stephen's martyrdom.

In our time, in the Western world and increasingly elsewhere, decades of social legislation have made the state responsible for meeting the physical needs of our neighbors, including fellow Christians. Antioch's example, then, raises the hard question: How much personal responsibility do I feel for the physical needs of others, especially the church in the Two-Thirds World? Though we cannot meet every need that global news brings to our attention, we can still do something to live out the holistic liberality that is an essential mark of being Christians.