The Book of Acts Chapter 11
Originally posted Friday, May 16, 2008
Acts Chapter 11:1-18 Peter's
Report to Jerusalem
We
might think that the members and leaders of the Mother Church would be elated
that God had blessed the Gentiles' belief in Jesus with the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit. It was not yet to be. The wall separating Jews and
Gentiles is not only high, it is built with very thick stones and
very difficult to disassemble. The news had preceded
Peter's return. When he reported the events of Joppa to the
assembly in Jerusalem "the circumcised" (later called Judaizers)
criticized him for having met with the Gentiles and, God forbid, having eaten
with them.
In
an attempt to explain his actions he repeated the details beginning
with his initial vision all the way to the baptism of the Gentiles:
the
sheet with the many kinds of animals and reptiles;
the
voice commanding him to kill and eat;
his
objections;
the
voice telling him he must not call profane what God has made clean;
the
three men arriving from Caesarea with a message from a Gentile;
the
Spirit telling him to go with them without hesitation;
the
six believers going with him;
Cornelius'
description of his vision telling him to send for Peter who will bring the
message of salvation for him and his household;
His
preaching the message and in the midst of it the "falling" of the
Holy Spirit upon the gathered Gentiles;
Peter
concludes by pointing out that the Gentiles had received the Spirit just as
they had when they had first believed in Jesus. He quoted Jesus' promise
that they would be baptized by the Holy Spirit. If then, God chose to
include the Gentiles in the community of the faithful who was he to think
he could hinder God?
Acts Chapter 11:19-30 The
Church in Antioch
Luke
returns to the time immediately following the stoning of Stephen and the
scattering of believers "throughout the countryside of Judea and
Samaria." Others went as far as Phoenicia on the western plain of Syria,
to the island of Cyprus, about sixty miles from the Syrian coast, and Antioch,
on the river Orontes and sixteen miles from the Mediterranean. Antioch was
once the capital Syria some three hundred miles north of Jerusalem.
Although
each of these locations was within Gentile territory, they all
had sizeable Jewish communities with Synagogues. The Jewish Christians
from Jerusalem generally limited themselves to preaching among the Jews. In our
passage this seems to be the case. However, vs. 20 tells us that there were men from the island of Cyprus
and Cyrene, a Greek city in North Africa, the present day Tripoli, Libya. Both
locations were predominately Gentile but had large Jewish communities. Luke
reports that these men did not try to proselytize among the Jews. Rather they
spoke to the pagan Greeks (not Greek speaking Jews as in 6:1 and 9:29). Apparently their efforts
were well rewarded with a "great number" of Greeks being converted to
Christianity.
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Note:
Luke
writes that the men from Cyprus and Cyrene proclaimed the "Lord
Jesus" and not Jesus as the Messiah. We see in Peter's message to Cornelius
and his household that mention of Jesus as Messiah is avoided. For both of
these audiences the concept of Messiah would have had little importance. In
fact, it will be among the early Greek churches that Messiah, Christ in Greek,
becomes a last name, not Jesus the Christ but Jesus Christ. Lord will become
the preferred title for Jesus in Gentile Christianity.
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When
news of the Antioch success reached Jerusalem [Joseph] Barnabas was sent to
oversee the continuing evangelistic mission. He was well suited for the
task. He was from Cyprus; he had proved his worth to
the Apostles as one who sold a field and gave the proceeds to
the sharing community (4:36) and he
defended Saul when he came to Jerusalem after his conversion in Damascus. So
Barnabas went to Antioch and "encouraged" the new converts as well as
the evangelists who worked among the Jews and Greeks. The
"field" of work must have been extensive, for Barnabas recognized he
needed help. He knew just the man. Showing his own independence from the
Jerusalem Church, he decided on his own to travel the short
distance to Tarsus to find Saul. He found Saul and exhorted him to be his
partner in a great opportunity to convert the Gentiles. Saul gladly accepted
the challenge and returned with him to Antioch. For an entire year
the two of them shared in managing and teaching the growing Christian
community.
Luke
introduces us to the Christian prophets, an organized group generally attached
to a Christian community. These were Spirit-filled men who could travel
from place to place speaking as the Spirit led them or under the
direction of their home community. They became a problem and in one
Christian writing, the Didache, instructions were given on how long
they could stay in one place as well as prohibiting giving them money. There
were enough false prophets (mentioned as a possibility by Jesus) to raise
concerns about their credentials and credibility. Agabus came to Antioch with
several other prophets who were from Jerusalem. Apparently he knew what he
was talking about. In Antioch he predicted a severe famine which did in
fact occur during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius (ruled 41-54 CE). The
Antiochene disciples were determined to be supportive of the poor in Jerusalem
and encouraged the community members to contribute to the relief effort as they
were able. We will read of similar efforts among the congregations founded by
Paul.
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Note:
Luke
notes that in Antioch the believers were called Christians for the first
time. The assigning of a name to a movement has been thought by some
writers to be recognition that the community is an organized religion,
therefore subject to Roman law. However, that is doubtful since one of the
problems experienced by the Church by the end of the first century was that it
was not a legitimate religion. If it were it would be protected by
Roman law. Such a benefit was reserved for religions with a long history, such
as Judaism. Christianity was no longer considered as a sect of Judaism.
The
better understanding of the name, Christian, is as a differentiation, even
independence from the Church in Jerusalem. This independence will be more
clearly seen as we read Paul's letters in which the Jerusalem Church comes
under severe criticism because of its interference with the Gentile and mixed
churches, of which Antioch is one.
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