Acts 11

Acts 11:1

11:1-3 Word quickly got back to Judea that Peter had preached to the Gentiles and that they had been saved. Therefore, when Peter returned to Jerusalem, he was challenged by those of the circumcision for eating with Gentiles. The circumcision here refers to Christians of Jewish birth who were still bound by their former ways of thinking. For instance, they believed that a Gentile must be circumcised in order to obtain full blessing from the Lord. They still thought it was wrong for Peter to eat with Gentiles. 11:4-14 In defending his action, Peter gave a simple recital of all that had happenedhis vision of the sheet let down from heaven, the appearance of an angel to Cornelius, the arrival of the messengers from Cornelius, the Spirit’s command to accompany them, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles. Since God had worked in so many definite and yet distinct ways, to resist or oppose would obviously have been to oppose the Lord. In his message, Peter added several interesting details not given in the previous chapter:

1. He said that the sheet … from heaven … came right down to where he was (v. 5).
2. He spoke of observing it intently (v. 6).
3. Peter adds the detail that six brethren accompanied him from Joppa to Caesarea (v. 12).
4. In verse 14 we are informed that the angel promised Cornelius that Peter would tell him words by which he and all his household would be saved. This verse is one of the principal evidences that Cornelius was not a saved man before Peter’s arrival. 11:15 According to Peter’s account, the Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentiles as he began to speak. In Act_10:44 it appears that he had already been speaking some time. Apparently he had begun to speak but was interrupted before he had proceeded very far. 11:16 When the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles, Peter thought immediately of Pentecost. Then his mind went back further to the Lord’s promise that His disciples would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. He realized that the promise had been fulfilled in part at Pentecost and was now being fulfilled again. 11:17 Then Peter faced the circumcision party with this question: If therefore God chose to pour out the Spirit on the Gentiles, as He had done previously on the Jews who believed … , who was Peter that he should withstand God? 11:18 It is to the credit of these Hebrew Christians that when they had heard Peter’s account, they recognized the hand of God in it all and did a complete about-face. All their objections were gone. In their place was praise to God for granting to the Gentiles repentance to life.

Acts 11:19

B. The Planting of the Church at Antioch (11:19-30) 11:19 The narrative now goes back to the time of the persecution following the martyrdom of Stephen. In other words, the events described in the next verses took place before the conversion of Cornelius. Those who were scattered after the persecution carried the gospel to:

1. Phoenicia, the narrow coastland along the northeast Mediterranean, and including the ports of Tyre and Sidon (modern Lebanon).
2. Cyprus, a large island in the northeast Mediterranean.
3. Cyrene, a port city on the north coast of Africa (modern Libya). However, they preached the gospel to no one but the Jews.11:20, 21 But there were certain of the believers from Cyprus and Cyrene who went to Antioch and there proclaimed the good news to the Hellenists. Blessing accompanied their preaching and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. F. W. Grant says: It is remarkable how officialism is discredited in all this. We do not know the name of a single person used in the work.The introduction of Christianity to Antioch was an important step in the forward march of the church.

Antioch was located on the river Orontes in Syria, north of Palestine. It was considered the third city of the Roman Empire, and has been dubbed the Paris of the ancient world. From here, Paul and his companions later went forth on their missionary journeys, taking the good news to the Gentiles. 11:22-24 When news of great spiritual awakening reached the church in Jerusalem, it was decided to send warm-hearted, kindly Barnabas to Antioch. This dear man saw at a glance that the Lord was working mightily among these Gentiles, so he encouraged them to continue with the Lord with great determination. How good it was that this infant church should be visited by such a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith! While he was there, a great many people came to the Lord. Also, unity with the church at Jerusalem was preserved. 11:25, 26 Then Barnabas remembered Saul of Tarsus! It was he who had introduced Saul to the apostles at Jerusalem. Then Saul had been whisked out of the city to rescue him from the plots of the Jews. Since then he had been in his home town, Tarsus. Anxious to encourage Saul in the ministry and to give the church in Antioch the benefit of his teaching, Barnabas departed for Tarsus and brought Saul to Antioch. For a whole year this splendid team worked with the church there, teaching a great many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. Doubtless it was a term of reproach at that time, but since then it has been welcomed by all who love the Savior. J. A. Stewart comments: Saintly F. B. Meyer has said: Antioch will ever be famous in Christian annals, because a number of unordained and unnamed disciples, fleeing from Jerusalem in the face of Saul’s persecution, dared to preach the Gospel to Greeks and to gather the converts into a church in entire disregard of the initial rite of Judaism.If these believers had gone from a modern congregation in which the ministry was designated to the sole responsibility of one man, this triumphant period of the Church’s history could never have been written. How tragic that in the average church the ministry gifts of the Holy Spirit lie dormant and latent, because the average believer has no opportunity to minister. As long as every little group of believers has a paid pastor to take care of them, there is one thing certain, and that is, the world will never be evangelized. Thank God for all the voluntary Sunday school superintendents, Sunday school and Bible class teachers and so-called laymen. If they all had to be paid for their services very few churches would be able to function financially. 11:27-30 Although Antioch became the center from which the gospel went out to the Gentiles, it always maintained full and hearty fellowship with the church in Jerusalem, which was the center for Jewish evangelism. The following incident illustrates this fact. Certain prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch at about this time. These prophets were believers who had been gifted by the Holy Spirit to speak as mouthpieces of God. They received revelations from the Lord and delivered them to the people. One of them, named Agabus, predicted that a great famine would sweep over the inhabited earth. The famine did come in the days of Claudius Caesar. The disciples at Antioch promptly decided to send relief to their Christian brethren dwelling in Judea.

This was certainly a touching testimony that the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile was tumbling down, and that ancient antagonisms were obliterated by the cross of Christ. The grace of God was manifest in these disciples who gave unanimously, spontaneously, and proportionately. They gave, each according to his ability. F. W. Grant sadly noted, Today it seems to be every one a little of his superfluity, and the richest in proportion least of all.The money was sent to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

This is the first mention of elders in connection with the church. The idea of elders was familiar to Jews, however, since there were elders in the synagogue. No information is given as to how these men in Jerusalem became elders. In the Gentile churches, elders were appointed by apostles or their representatives (Act_14:23; Tit_1:5). The qualifications of elders are given in 1Ti_3:1-7 and Tit_1:6-9.