Acts 11 Peter Explains His Actions
11:1 Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God. 2 But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticized him. 3 “You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!” they said.
Well, it was going to happen sooner or later. Jesus had no problem eating with tax collectors and allowing a prostitute to bathe his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair; however, the Jewish believers are pickier than Jesus. Forgetting that Jesus has adjured them to go throughout the world making disciples of every nation, the Jews are horrified that Peter has entered a Gentile home and has even eaten with them. There appears to be a major disconnect between the idea of telling people about Jesus and sharing fellowship with them. But these Jewish believers are in for a shock.
4 Then Peter told them exactly what had happened. 5 “I was in the town of Joppa,” he said, “and while I was praying, I went into a trance and saw a vision. Something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky. And it came right down to me. 6 When I looked inside the sheet, I saw all sorts of tame and wild animals, reptiles, and birds. 7 And I heard a voice say, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.’
8 “‘No, Lord,’ I replied. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean.’
At this point, Peter’s listeners are nodding sagely, agreeing with Peter’s orthodox position. Surely God agrees with them…or does He?
9 “But the voice from heaven spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’ 10 This happened three times before the sheet and all it contained was pulled back up to heaven.
11 “Just then three men who had been sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying. 12 The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry that they were Gentiles. These six brothers here accompanied me, and we soon entered the home of the man who had sent for us. 13 He told us how an angel had appeared to him in his home and had told him, ‘Send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. 14 He will tell you how you and everyone in your household can be saved!’
15 “As I began to speak,” Peter continued, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning. 16 Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”
18 When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”
Orthodox or not, these men are bright enough to remember Jesus’ teachings that you can’t put new wine into old wineskins or the old wineskins will burst as the new wine ferments and expands. And as Peter is speaking, the Holy Spirit is also moving in the hearts of his listeners. These men are neither cruel nor vindictive, but simply stuck in one mode of thinking. As Peter speaks, these men are forced to re-evaluate every assumption they have made as to the nature of being a Jesus follower. In the beginning, these men have assumed that Jesus followers will naturally be observant Jews, but God seems to be turning that idea on its head. How else has this Roman learned about Simon Peter and how else has the Holy Spirit descended on everyone in Cornelius’ household without any formal laying on of hands? Truly, God is making His Will known, and it’s not lining up with anybody’s previous assumptions.
When I was in med school, I worked in a lab with a research scientist who had a poster on the wall that read “we have always done it that way!” The obvious implication was that in scientific inquiry, such thinking would be deadly. But the phrase is just as deadly in spiritual matters. God is forever doing new things. Isaiah 43:19 tells us, “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”
Jesus told his disciples that he had not come to set the Law of Moses aside but to fulfill it. But once Jesus shed his blood on the cross at Calvary, mankind was no longer locked into a system of animal sacrifices to make propitiation for sin. That Calvary sacrifice completely blew away the idea of earning one’s way into heaven. Jesus’ death was the “newest thing” that God had ever done.
Why did God choose Peter to witness to Cornelius? Peter had his faults; he was impetuous and given to bulling his way through situations. But Peter was also intensely practical and open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. And Peter had enough gumption that when other Jewish believers attempted to cow him into agreeing with them, he stood up and forthrightly described the amazing vision God had given him.
Peter is one of my favorite disciples because I can identify with him. I too have made grandiose statements of faith, only to fail. Sometimes I too attempt to force situations. But Peter’s example gives me hope. Later on, Peter will falter a bit, only for Paul to correct him. But the morning that Peter defends the leading of the Holy Spirit and His descent on a group of Gentiles is a glorious moment in Peter’s life. May all of us have holy boldness so that when God does a new thing in our lives, we are willing to stand and testify, rather than trying to downgrade it.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to discern Your perfect Will and then to do it. Help us to be willing to stand against criticism and opposition, even when it comes from our friends and colleagues. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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