Thursday 112824
Don’t let me or my writings influence or scare you in any way, instead, allow me to be used as a vessel to open the Word, just a little bit, and hopefully, together we are going to read and study His Word, and let God teach us what He wants us to hear.
We have two ground rules in this study:
1 – we are ONLY going to read and follow what is found (that pertains to us), in the Holy Bible.
2 – we are ONLY going to learn from a study, what effort we put into that study.
The verses we are going to study tonight:
Acts 11:1-18, 19-26, 27-30; Galatians 2:9; Acts 12:25.
So, we are going to continue with our lesson on which apostle taught the Gentiles first; was it Paul or was it Peter.
Peter is told to meet with Cornelius, and he baptizes the first gentile at Caesarea. (Acts 10).
Peter is called to Jerusalem to explain why he had entered a gentile’s house and then baptized a gentile. After explaining about the action of the Holy Spirit, the leaders had no further objection. Acts 11:1-18.
Acts 11
vs1 ‘…The apostles and the other believers in Judea heard that Gentiles had also believed the message from God…’
vs2 ‘…Peter then returned from Caesarea, and he arrived in Jerusalem. Some of the Jews there who were believers spoke against him. These Jews thought that all believers should be circumcised…’
vs3 ‘…So they said to Peter, you stayed in the house of men who were not circumcised. You even ate meals with them…’
vs4 ‘…Peter then began to explain everything that had happened. He said to them…’
vs5 ‘…I was staying in a house in the city of Joppa. One day, when I was praying, I had a special dream. In this vision, I saw something that came down from heaven. It was like a large piece of cloth. Somebody held it at each of its four corners and let it come down to the ground next to me…’
vs6 ‘…I looked carefully at it. I saw that there were farm animals with four legs inside the cloth. There were also wild animals, snakes, and birds in it…’
vs7 ‘…Then I heard a voice that said to me, Peter, stand up and kill some of these animals. Then you can cook them and eat the meat…’
vs8 ‘…But I answered, no, Lord, I would certainly not do that. I have never eaten an animal that our Law says is unclean…’
vs9 ‘…Then the voice spoke to me from heaven again. It said, God has made these animals good for people to eat. So, you must not say that it is not right to eat them…’
vs10 ‘…All this happened three times. After that, the cloth went back up into heaven again…’
vs11 ‘…At that moment, three men from Caesarea arrived at the house where I was staying. Someone had sent these men to find me…’
vs12 ‘…The Holy Spirit told me that I should go with them. He said that I should not be afraid. These six believers from Joppa also went with me to Caesarea. We all went into Cornelius’s house…’
vs13 ‘…Then Cornelius told us what had happened to him. He had seen an angel who appeared in his house and said to him, send some men to Joppa to fetch a man who is called Simon Peter…’
vs14 ‘…He will come and speak to you. His message will tell you how God will save you and everyone else in your house…’
vs15 ‘…When I started to speak to Cornelius and his family, the Holy Spirit came down on them. It happened in the same way that he first came down on us at the beginning…’
vs16 ‘…Then I remembered what the Lord Jesus had said to us: John baptized people with water, but God will baptize you with his Holy Spirit…’
vs17 ‘…So we see that God gave these Gentiles his gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the same gift that he gave to us Jews who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, I could never try to stop God…’
vs18 ‘…The Jewish believers heard what Peter said. They could not say anything more against him. Instead, they praised God, and they said, We now see that God has also let Gentiles have life with him. He will accept them if they stop doing bad things and turn to him…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
There is no further record of Peter ever preaching to gentiles after this incident.
Attention then shifts to Antioch and the developing tension over the role, if any, gentiles should have in the Gospel message. Acts 11:19-26. It was during this time that Barnabas went to get Saul in Tarsus (v25) and brought him to Antioch. It was at this time that Saul and Barnabas began preaching to gentiles.
Acts 11
vs19 ‘…After the Jewish leaders had killed Stephen, the believers had a lot of trouble. The believers left Jerusalem and they went to many different places. Some of them went away as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. They told God’s message to people in these places. But they only told the message to Jews…’
vs20 ‘…Some of the believers were people who came from Cyprus and Cyrene. These men went to Antioch. There they told God’s message to Gentiles, as well as to Jews. They told everyone the good news about the Lord Jesus…’
vs21 ‘…The Lord God helped these men with his power. Very many people believed their message and they trusted in the Lord Jesus…’
vs22 ‘…The believers in Jerusalem heard about what had happened in Antioch. So, they decided to send Barnabas there…’
vs23 ‘…Barnabas arrived in Antioch. He saw how God had been kind to the people there and helped them. Barnabas was happy about this. So he said to the new believers, ‘Continue to trust the Lord Jesus completely…’
vs24 ‘…Barnabas was a good man. The power of God’s Holy Spirit was with him. He trusted God completely. Many people in Antioch believed in Jesus and joined the group of believers…’
vs25 ‘…Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul…’
vs26 ‘…When Barnabas found him, he brought him back to Antioch. For one whole year, Barnabas and Saul met together with the group of believers there. They taught very many of them about Jesus. Antioch was the first place where the believers were called Christians…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
Because of a famine, Saul and Barnabas are sent with gifts to Jerusalem. Acts 11:27-30.
Acts 11
vs27 ‘…During this time, some prophets travelled from Jerusalem to Antioch…’
vs28 ‘…One of these men was called Agabus. The Holy Spirit gave him a message from God. He stood up and he said to the people there, Soon people will be very hungry all over the world because there will be no food…’ (That happened when Claudius ruled the Roman world)
vs29 ‘…The believers in Antioch wanted to help the other believers who lived in Judea. Each of them decided how much of their own money they could give…’
vs30 ‘…Then they gave the money to Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas and Saul took this gift to the leaders of the believers in Jerusalem…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
It is probable that this was trip to Jerusalem is that referred to in Gal 2:1, fourteen years after Paul’s conversion. It was at this Jerusalem meeting that Paul agreed with Peter an amicable division of labour – Paul would preach to the gentiles while Peter would preach to the Jews, Gal 2:9.
Galatians 2:9 ‘…James, Peter and John understood that God had given this special job to me. They are the leaders that the church in Jerusalem respects. And they were happy to accept Barnabas and me as their friends. They agreed that we should teach God’s message to the Gentiles. They themselves would continue to teach the Jews…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
Saul returns from Jerusalem to Antioch. Acts 12:25
Acts 12:25 ‘…Barnabas and Saul had gone to Jerusalem to help the believers there. They finished their work and then they returned to Antioch. They took John Mark with them…’ EASY (Easy English Bible)
Just for the record, John Mark wrote the synoptic gospel of Mark. John Mark was a scribe for the apostle Peter.
Paul and Barnabas are sent off on their first missionary journey Acts 13:2 – 14:28, preaching to gentiles, returning to Antioch.
The Jerusalem council is called to debate circumcision. Acts 15.
Thus, it appears that Peter baptized the first gentile (Acts 10, 15:7, 14) but appears to have then decided to concentrate on the Jews as subsequent actions confirmed (Gal 2:11-14). Paul also initially preached to Jews as shown above but later switched his focus to reaching only the gentiles.
Maybe we should ask ourselves what we have learned from these two lessons on who the first apostle was to preach to the Gentiles. It does appear as if it was Peter, but with that said, Jesus did choose Paul to teach the Gentiles.
Once again, this shows me just how difficult it was for the Jew to transform into the belief that a Gentile could be saved. It should also be a lesson just how difficult it was for a Jew to convert away from the teachings of the law.
This should be a lesson to us all today in the 21st century, just how difficult it’s going to be for a person to leave a denomination that they’ve known since childhood, to today now change and follow Jesus and accept the gift of GRACE that God has given us that will Eternally save us from the promise of Spiritual Death.
It is going to take prayer for us to save each one of us from this fate that we ALL have in front of us.
Keep in the Word and study what God has freely given us. Use your voice and let others know what secrets you have found. Speak to them of the importance for them to get into the Word and study it for themselves to learn His Message.
I love y’all. Always remember that God loves each one of us even more than what we can comprehend what Love is.
Jesus, I pray that those ears and eyes, either listening or seeing this message today would be opened to the very fullest and allow Your love to come inside their lives and comfort them. Teach us Jesus. Protect us. We love You. Amen
InHIM. ><)))o>