Acts 11:1-18

Discussion Questions

• In the church today, what areas of internal conflict present the largest hurdles to fellowship with other believers?
• Do you ever struggle with a “Jesus plus” mindset (such as Jesus plus rules, Jesus plus customs, etc.) that affects your ability to love and serve others?
• How did Peter respond when questioned about his actions, and how might we use that as a model when we face criticism for following God’s leading?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. If you’d like a copy to follow along in, just slip up your hand really high and someone will bring you one. We’re continuing on in the book of Acts today. These first 18 verses of Chapter 11 can be seen as the final scene of the narrative that Pastor Matt taught on last week, which you remember was the incredible conversion of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and his household, complete with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and with water baptism. We don’t have to spend much time reviewing what happened in last week’s text because Luke has seen fit to repeat much of it through Peter’s retelling of the events in Caesarea here in Chapter 11. I do want to point out, before we start Chapter 11, the response of Peter and his companions that were with him that we see toward the end of Chapter 10, because I think it sets us up for a stark contrast as we go into Chapter 11. Verse 45 in Chapter 10 says, “And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.” And it goes on to say in 47 that Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” Peter, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, has gone through a remarkable change in the way he sees not just Cornelius and his household, but any Gentiles who may come to saving faith in Jesus. God has shown him that in light of the Gospel, he is to make no distinction between Jews who come to faith and Gentiles who do, and that he should not call any person unclean or common, despite what Jewish law and tradition would say.

And so, we see that on the request of these new Gentile believers, he remained with them there in Caesarea for a period of days. We don’t know exactly how long, but I think we’re okay to ask ourselves what those additional days may have looked like. Here were Peter and these six other circumcised brothers. These are believers who are practicing Jews that are with him, spirit-filled believers, they’re staying there in the house of Cornelius with all his household, who are also now spirit-filled believers. And I would guess that in addition to some initial discipleship, some teaching, some prayer, there was much fellowship. There was breaking of bread together, there was a new sense of community between these Jewish brothers and these new Gentile brothers and sisters. Peter and these brothers were accepting the hospitality of these new converts. And that is a proper response to new conversion. We who are in the family of God welcome new brothers and sisters in. We welcome them to the table of grace. We welcome them to the table of fellowship. We begin to do life with them.

But as we see, as Chapter 11 begins, word of these events traveled fast, and not everyone who heard about what God was doing in Caesarea among the Gentiles were amazed. We’re going to see more tension from within the early church that is characterized by an identity struggle among those who make up this increasingly varied group. This is more internal tension being faced by the early church. And it’s a challenge that we still face today. So, we do well to sit up and pay attention to the way this group of believers navigates this tension. Let me pray for our time in the Word today, and then we’ll jump into Chapter 11 together. Father, thank You for Your unconditional and unchanging love toward us, for Your new mercies that were waiting for us this morning. Thank You for the gift of Jesus. Thank You for Your Word, Spirit, as we study, teach, admonish, and encourage us together, we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. Beginning in verse 1 of Chapter 11, it says: “Now the apostles and the brothers, [which would also include sisters, just so you know] who were throughout Judea, heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, ‘You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.’” Now notice that what we don’t see is Peter being summoned, but he’s choosing to do the appropriate thing after something like this. He’s going back to Jerusalem, which at this point is still the headquarters of the early church, and he’s probably intending to give a full report of what happened in Caesarea.

He understands from his own experience that some of this is going to be hard to swallow, hard to believe. So he and, we’ll see in a few verses, his six companions are ready to give a full report of this exciting and encouraging turn of events. But before he gets so much as a word out, he’s being called into question by the circumcision party. Who or what is this referring to? It’s not just the lamest party you could ever be invited to. It’s referring to a group of people. Generally speaking, this term, which in some translations is simply just those of the circumcision, could be describing any Jewish believer at this time. But the indication here is that it’s a faction of some sort within the early church in Jerusalem. And in a few chapters, in Chapter 15, which actually takes place over the course of some considerable time, we’re going to see that this problem comes up again. And what we’ll read in Chapter 15 is that a group, which is perhaps this same group, is teaching that unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. And just in a few verses after that, Luke identifies this group as believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees. This is what we’ll see in 15 when we get there.

Again, I think it’s likely that we’re talking about the same group and that they continue to struggle with this even after this account from Peter. And Peter even gets pulled back into this way of thinking, we know, because Paul writes in Galatians that he confronted him about it. But this is a group, we don’t know how big, of Jewish believers who, at first glance we know, are very attached to the idea that circumcision is a necessary step in order for any man to be considered clean enough for table fellowship with Jews. But we also have good reason to believe from this text and from Chapter 15 that it’s actually a salvation issue for these brothers. They are framing it as Peter breaking the customs, but what they’re really saying is, how can these uncircumcised Gentiles be saved without going through the same process we’ve gone through? Not how can they be saved at all, but how can they be part of this family of God’s people without the whole package of laws and customs? It wasn’t that they didn’t know themselves that they needed to repent and be forgiven in order to be saved. They understood that. It was that they assumed that everyone would come to the Jewish Messiah through Judaism. So, by definition, they were Judaizers. Gentiles could be saved, but they had to become Jews first. They had to be proselytized. It’s a Jesus plus approach to salvation, which we know is dangerous. Jesus plus circumcision. But again, how are they framing it? Peter, you stepped out of bounds. You were a Jew, and you should have known better. You broke the rules by eating with these unclean Gentiles.

And Peter’s response is really a model response. He doesn’t get defensive, but he gives a reasonable defense. And just a note, Luke could have easily just written that Peter explained all that had happened to them, but instead he chose to depict the detail regarding the things that happened in Caesarea because he’s telling the retelling, he’s showing Peter in the retelling of those events, in order. And remember, Luke, the writer of Acts, is a Gentile, and his original audience is Gentile. And his intent is not only to assure those readers of the historic reliability of the Christian faith, but in this case, it’s also to ensure any Gentile believers, of which there would have been many who will be reading this, that this question of how they come to Jesus has been debated and answered and settled. That’s for us as much as it is for the early readers of the text, as most of us here today are here because of this move of the Holy Spirit in bringing the Gospel to these people outside the framework of Judaism.

This is intentional repetition as we hear Peter’s reasonable defense. Verse 4: “But Peter began and explained it to them in order: ‘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. Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” But I said, “By no means, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” And Pastor Matt pointed out last week the absurdity of Peter’s response to God as essentially being, no, Lord, that’s against my religion. But I think it’s reasonable for us also to assume that he might have seen this as some sort of test of his piety. And at this point, it isn’t that he doesn’t believe in or love or worship the risen Christ, but he really intends to maintain his religious identity. He’s a practicing Jew who now enjoys the fullness of having encountered the promised Messiah. So, believing Jews at that time are still Jews. They just understand that Jesus has fulfilled the messianic promise. But for now, Peter’s still maintaining much of the religious identity of Judaism. That’s important. We’re going to come back to that idea, but let’s look at verse 9: “But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’” And if you’re reading along in the Pew Bible, you see that this is not just referring to the idea that God has originally made something clean, but that He has cleansed it. It says, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” Peter was coming at this from the idea that unclean things could make him unclean, just like these Jewish believers that he’s addressing. But when Jesus comes in contact with the unclean, He doesn’t become unclean, He cleanses. And He’s the only one we can say this about. That’s such an important distinction. Verse 10: “This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. And behold, at that very moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction.” In other words, Peter is starting to understand the vision here.

He’s starting to understand the meaning of this. It’s actually not about food at all. And he says, “These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house.” Now, in the first century, this idea of having seven witnesses would have been significant. So, he’s pointing out that not only was he not alone, but there were seven of them. He’s saying, Don’t just take my word for it. Ask our brothers who were here with me and saw all of this. And that would have been enough to establish a credible witness to these events. Verse 13: “And he [Cornelius, he’s talking about] told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter. He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’” Now this is interesting. We’re not told in Chapter 10 that the angel tells this to Cornelius, or that Cornelius relates it to Peter when he gets there. But it’s further evidence that Cornelius, though he was a devout seeker who had much admiration for Judaism and much reverence for Yahweh, was not saved. He still needed to hear the message about what the God of Israel had done through Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. It’s a really good reminder that God’s intent for salvation is wide and welcoming. And by instructing this devout and hungry Roman named Cornelius to send for Peter, God was opening the door not just to Cornelius, but to his entire household.

Remember, Peter told them Jesus is Lord of all, and that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sin. And then we saw the Holy Spirit fall on all who were listening. Salvation through Jesus is an individual, heart-by-heart matter, but thanks to the wideness of the gospel message, conversion necessarily results in communities of belief, groups of people that bear witness to the name of Jesus, just like The Village Chapel. And in this case, it began in this Gentile household and would no doubt begin to spread from there. It was a very short connection from the Roman world into the rest of the world. That’s why this was so important. Peter goes on in verse 15: “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.” So, he’s inviting these Jewish brothers to remember Pentecost, which was a Jewish phenomenon. He’s essentially saying this was like a Gentile Pentecost with all the same evidence of the Holy Spirit. And he wants them to understand that the Holy Spirit was acting on His own in sovereign and surprising ways. But to further convince them that this was a legitimate work of the Holy Spirit, he does something all of us should be prepared to do. He checks what’s happening in the moment, in the experience, with the Word of God. In this case, he checks it against the actual words of Jesus spoken to His disciples before the ascension.

In verse 16, he says, “And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 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? When they [talking about the circumcision party here] heard these things, they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, ‘Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.’” So, these circumcised believers are quite literally speechless in this moment as they come to grips with the reality of what this means, and then they glorify God and say something very telling here. This is why I said earlier that they are framing this as a circumcision issue, but it’s really a salvation issue. What’s blowing their minds and rocking their worlds in this moment is that God has granted repentance that leads to life to the Gentiles while they are still Gentiles and without a requirement to stop being Gentiles and to start identifying as Jews. This was what was so hard for them. And again, the model Peter gives us here is one that includes the work of God in every aspect of his account.

He begins with a vision from God, he receives a command from God, he arrives in Caesarea to the news that Cornelius has been prepared by God. And then while he’s still preaching to the Gentiles, God acts. What could these brothers possibly say in response other than what they said? And Luke is really writing in part to emphasize this point. Part of why he includes the Cornelius’ account where he does in his book is so that when we see the Gentile mission to the believers in Antioch next week, there’s no room for doubt that God is approving this, that God is choosing this. Now, when we leave this text, we might leave it under the impression that this is settled, but unfortunately, we see that it’s not. As I mentioned earlier, over time, this continues to be a sticking point within the church. And it comes up again as the reason for the Jerusalem Council in Chapter 15, because the circumcision party shows up at the church in Antioch and starts pushing this same message. And Peter responds then by reminding them about this moment that we just read about in Chapter 11. So, we’re going to put this on the screen because I want us to see what Peter says about it. So, we’re getting ahead here. We’re going to go into Acts 15 because I want you to see how he reminds them of what we just read.

It says: “The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, ‘Brothers, you know that in the early days [He’s talking about the day we just read about] God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will.’” So, you see how Peter’s refrain remains consistent each time he addresses this. God did this, not any human. God chose the Gentiles and He poured out His Spirit on them. Okay, so what can we walk away with today from this text? There are plenty of directions we could go, they’re all good. I want to go back to this framework of identity.

Let’s start with a summary statement of the text that’s sort of framed in that language. We’ll put it on the screen. The circumcision party were clinging to a religious identity that kept them from enjoying freedom of fellowship. Peter shared how the Holy Spirit declared the new spiritual identities of the Gentile believers and how the Word of God confirmed the identity of the Holy Spirit as the one responsible. Only then did the circumcision party begin to recognize and embrace a shared identity with the Gentiles. I think it’s important that we attempt to understand the world of these very religious believers for a moment because it’s actually pretty relatable as a way of being, as a way of thinking, as a way of behaving for us today. And as I mentioned earlier, I think it’s reasonable to say that if you had asked Peter before his experience in Chapter 10, he would have said the same thing about himself. He was hanging on to a Jewish identity that did not allow for the possibility that the laws and customs that he so adamantly adhered to were not only no longer necessary but might actually be hindering his ability to enjoy fellowship in the growing family of Jesus Christ. So, he’s sympathetic to what these Jerusalem brothers are struggling with. And to some extent, we can be too.

They were struggling with an identity that was based on an “ism.” And you know what I mean by that. Morality is good until it becomes moralism. Tradition is useful and encouraging, but traditionalism insists that things never change, even when they should. We’re called to obedience, but we’re not called to legalism. Some of the most dangerous ism’s form when groups of people begin to feel that their identities are under pressure or are threatened. Have you noticed that? Think of a flag that really offends you. There’s probably some kind of ism behind that, isn’t there? Or maybe you hate it because you feel like it leads to some sort of a dangerous ism. Now, in our 21st century Christian context, with the luxury of sitting where we do in church history with all of the Bible, we might look at the circumcision party and say that they’re simply struggling with legalism. But we have to attempt to look at this through the mid-first century Jewish eyes of the people in the text. Imagine the pressure that was mounting on Jewish culture at this time in Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s only a few decades away from an incredibly bloody revolt, the bloodiest revolt that’s ever happened in the lives of the Jewish people against Rome that would result in total destruction. And it’s not just going to come out of nowhere, it’s mounting. And for every Jew, believer or not, they feel this. They can feel this mounting. So, these brothers are clinging to what they know and what they understand, which is how to be distinctly Jewish in a place and time that is culturally Greek and that is politically and militarily Roman. So, it was really just Judaism that they were hanging on to. And up to this point, circumcision was the outward sign of the covenant position they held with God. It was what marked them as God’s people.

But the tighter they clung to this Jesus plus religious identity as a means of their acceptance by God, the further their hearts actually were from Jesus. And the Apostle Paul addressed it specifically in his letter to the Galatians because this faction were back at it again with the believers in Galatia. We’ll put it on the screen. He says in Chapter 5, “For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly await for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. [He’s talking about licentiousness there.] But through love, serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Now Paul’s not making medical recommendations there, and he’s not saying that observing Jews should not be circumcised. What he’s saying is that when it comes to justification, circumcision does not matter. That if anyone is adhering to that custom or to any other part of the law as a means of being justified, Christ is of no advantage to him. In fact, he chooses his language very intentionally, and he says that this mark that once set God’s people apart for Him is now severing His followers from Him because of the heart behind it. So, here’s what it gets down to. I’m going to offer four points here about this freedom that Paul is writing about to the Galatians. When we cling to religious identity, we miss out on the true freedom that identity in Christ offers. Number one, freedom from slavery to the law. This is what Paul is saying to the Galatians. Don’t allow yourselves to be put under this yoke of the law. You’re called to freedom. Secondly, freedom of life in Christ. This is the flip side of the same coin. Life in Christ is what we’re freed for. It’s the opposite of bondage to sin or to works. Third, freedom to love and to serve our neighbors. How can we love and serve others well if we’re holding them or ourselves to an unrealistic standard of works? Jesus plus anything is going to put a yoke on our neighbors that we ourselves cannot bear. And fourth, freedom of full fellowship with believers who are different from us. This was really the heart of the issue, the way they framed it in Jerusalem.

Peter had gone to Caesarea, and he had had table fellowship. He’d enjoyed community. He had welcomed them into this family, these Gentiles, who they considered unclean. Think about the beautiful variety of backgrounds in the body of Christ around the world. It’s so rich, it’s so diverse. So, what ways of thinking, what ways of seeing ourselves, of seeing others have we constructed around identity that would keep us from enjoying the feast of fellowship around the table of Christ with all of His followers? Are we walking around hungry for that fellowship because we’re refusing to take part in the feast for some reason? Tim Keller puts it this way: “Traditional religion says, ‘I give God a good moral record, so he has to bless me.’ The gospel says, ‘God gives me a good moral record through Christ, so I want to bless him.’… Religion says, ‘If I obey, then God will love and accept me.’ The gospel says, ‘God loves and accepts me, therefore I want to obey.’” See the difference there? And yes, there is a call to obedience, but it’s in response to the love of God. And it’s not obedience to a system of religious rules or traditions that we or anyone else have come up with. It’s the obedience that Peter models so well for us in this passage. The obedience to listen and watch for the Holy Spirit, working and guiding and directing.

And we willingly go where He tells us to go, ready to share gospel hope with the world around us. It’s not the yoke of obedience to the law, it’s a gospel yoke, the yoke of Christ. Jesus invited us to take it on in the Gospel of Matthew when He said this: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Do you hear that? That’s what we’re called to. We’re called to the freedom of taking on the light yoke, the light burden, the easy yoke of Christ. He’s a good master. Why would we trade the easy burden and the light yoke and the soul rest of our good master for this slavery of the law, for the exhausting pattern of judging ourselves and others in our lives against an impossible standard? Christ has set us free from this, brothers and sisters. So, we can enjoy the firm footing, the assurance and the rest that comes from standing on the level ground at the foot of the cross. Cross of Christ is where all who come have equal standing. The cross is the great equalizer.

It isn’t coincidence that Luke includes the conversion of Saul, the devout Jew, and the conversion of Cornelius, the Roman Gentile, in his account of how the Spirit was forming and growing the first church. Not only are these two conversions hinge moments for the spread of the Gospel, but they’re also a stunning reminder that no matter who we are or where we come from, none of us can save ourselves. We all come with the same need. We’re all welcomed on the same basis of what Jesus has done, and we all receive undeserved grace. Is that good news this morning? Say amen. Amen. Let’s pray together: Father, we know that You’ve called us to freedom in Christ. We ask this morning that You would identify and illuminate for us any Pharisaical places in our hearts, any areas where we might be clinging to religious identity in the false hope that it would make us acceptable to You. We ask You to gently pry our fingers off of these parts and redirect us to our identity in You so we could be free to love and serve, free to fellowship, free for community. We ask that as a people, we would continue to pay attention to what Your Spirit is doing in our homes, in our communities, in our city. Spirit continue to call us and equip us to be a people who would bear Your name and offer hope and freedom to a world in bondage. We ask all of this in the name of Jesus, our good Master and our living King. Amen.

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“All My Boast Is in Jesus“ by Bryan Fowler, Matt Papa, Matthew Boswell, Keith Getty
“Nothing But The Blood“ by Robert Lowry
“How Deep The Father’s Love For Us“ by Stuart Townend
“Come Unto Jesus“ by Jordan Kauflin, Matt Merker, and Laura Story
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois
All songs are used with permission. CCLI License no. 2003690

Looking for our Hymns of the Week or resources to worship anytime? We’ve curated a playlist of hymns TVC Worship has led on our YouTube Channel!

Call To Worship: Bless the Lord

Leader: Bless the Lord at all times; let His praise continually be in your mouth.
People: My tongue shall tell of Your righteousness and of Your praise all the day long.

Leader: Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together!
People: We will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and His might, and the wonders that he has done.

All: You are great, O Lord God. For there is none like You, and there is no God besides You!

Classic Prayer: Anselm

O God, Thou art life, wisdom, truth, bounty, and blessedness, the Eternal, the only true Good! My God and my Lord, Thou art my hope and my hearts joy. I confess, with thanksgiving that Thou hast made me in Thine image, that I may direct all my thoughts to Thee, and love Thee. Lord, make me to know Thee aright, that I may more and more love, and enjoy, and possess Thee. And since, in the life here below, I cannot fully attain this blessedness, let it at least grow in me day by day, until it all be fulfilled at last in the life to come. Here be the knowledge of Thee increased, and there let it be perfected. Here let my love to Thee grow, and there let it ripen; that my joy being here great in hope, may there in fruition be made perfect.

Confession of Faith

New City Catechism Part 1, God, Creation & Fall, Law
Q 13, 14

Leader: Can anyone keep the law perfectly?
People: Since the fall, no mere human has been able to keep the law perfectly, but consistently breaks it in thought, word, and deed.

Leader: Did God create us unable to keep his law?
People: No, but because of the disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, all of creation is fallen; we are all born in sin and guilt, corrupt in our nature and unable to keep God’s law.

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