In our study of Acts chapter eleven, we look at the expansion of the early church to include Gentiles. In chapter 10, we learned of God's lesson for Peter about race relations. In the end, Peter came to understand that the message of Jesus Christ was being made available to all men but, as we see in this chapter, he had to explain it to the leaders in Jerusalem.
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The emissaries and the brothers throughout Y'hudah heard that the Goyim had received the word of God; but when Kefa went up to Yerushalayim, the members of the Circumcision faction criticized him, saying, "You went into the homes of uncircumcised men and even ate with them!"
When God moves, people learn of it and that is what happened after the events of chapter ten. The idea that God loved non-Jewish people would have caused a big stir. Therefore, when Peter went to Jerusalem, the Jews accused him of breaking the law as it was against the Mosaic Law for Jew to associate with a Gentile.
In reply, Kefa began explaining in detail what had actually happened: "I was in the city of Yafo, praying; and in a trance I had a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being lowered by its four corners from heaven, and it came down to me. I looked inside and saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, crawling creatures and wild birds. Then I heard a voice telling me, 'Get up, Kefa, slaughter and eat!' I said, 'No, sir! Absolutely not! Nothing unclean or treif has ever entered my mouth!' But the voice spoke again from heaven: 'Stop treating as unclean what God has made clean.' This happened three times, and then everything was pulled back up into heaven. "At that very moment, three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where I was staying; and the Spirit told me to have no misgivings about going back with them. These six brothers also came with me, and we went into the man's house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Yafo and bring back Shim'on, known as Kefa. He has a message for you which will enable you and your whole household to be saved.' "But I had hardly begun speaking when the Ruach HaKodesh fell on them, just as on us at the beginning!
Peter recounts the events from chapter ten.
And I remembered that the Lord had said, 'Yochanan used to immerse people in water, but you will be immersed in the Ruach HaKodesh.' Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as he gave us after we had come to put our trust in the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who was I to stand in God's way?"
After telling the story of the message that God had given him, Peter reasoned with the church leaders. His reasoning was that, if God wanted to do something such as sharing the gospel with the Gentiles, who was he to oppose that will.
On hearing these things, they stopped objecting and began to praise God, saying, "This means that God has enabled the Goyim as well to do t'shuvah and have life!"
Upon hearing Peter's testimony and reasoning, the religious leaders understood that it was a "God thing" and not of man. They chose to accept the will of God and put their traditions and prejudices aside which is a good lesson for us today as well.
Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution which had arisen over Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch; they spoke God's word, but only to Jews.
This verse refers back to the events recorded in chapters seven & eight. After Stephen was stoned to death, persecution broke out in Jerusalem and many followers of Jesus Christ fled from the city. These people took the message to the Jewish people in these other places. God used this persecution to get the people out of their "comfort zones" and to spread the gospel. They were still stuck on the tradition of God belonging to the Jewish people and so they only shared the message with Jews.
However, some of these, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, when they arrived at Antioch, began speaking to the Greeks too, proclaiming the Good News of the Lord Yeshua. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number of people trusted and turned to the Lord.
At this point in time, Antioch was the capitol of Syria and a very important city. Some of the men that fled the persecution in Jerusalem stopped here and began to share the gospel with Greeks as well as Jews. These men would have been considered radicals as they went against tradition and shared the gospel with non-Jews but with God all things are possible and a great number of people were saved.
News of this reached the ears of the Messianic community in Yerushalayim, and they sent Bar-Nabba to Antioch. On arriving and seeing for himself the grace of God at work, he was glad; and he encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with their whole hearts; for he was a good man, full of the Ruach HaKodesh and trust.
A great number of people were coming to the Lord and news of God working in this city spread. When the news reached Jerusalem, the church leaders dispatched Barnabas to check it out. In this passage, we see that Barnabas could tell that it was a work of God "evidence of the grace of God". That should be a mark of everything we do as Christians. Those that see what we do should be able to see that it is God at work and not of us. Barnabas saw this in Antioch and was pleased to encourage them in the faith. As Christians, we are also called to celebrate and encourage our brothers and sisters.
Then Bar-Nabba went off to Tarsus to look for Sha'ul; and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. They met with the congregation there for a whole year and taught a sizeable crowd. Also it was in Antioch that the talmidim for the first time were called "Messianic."
As great numbers of people were coming to Christ, Barnabas realized that he would need help in training up these new believers so he went to get Saul. They spent a year in the city teaching the people who were known as Christians (followers of Christ).
During this time, some prophets came down from Yerushalayim to Antioch; and one of them named Agav stood up and through the Spirit predicted that there was going to be a severe famine throughout the Roman Empire. (It took place while Claudius was Emperor.) So the talmidim decided to provide relief to the brothers living in Y'hudah, each according to his means; and they did it, sending their contribution to the elders in the care of Bar-Nabba and Sha'ul.
What a beautiful picture we have here of the church in action. In this passage, the Christians in Antioch learned of a famine in the land of their brothers. They immediately banded together to provide help for their brothers in need. They sent their help to the elders in Jerusalem to minister to the church. That, my friends, is the way the body of Christ is meant to function. It seems that today many of the "leaders" in the church get caught up in their own little denomination or local body and are oblivious to the church as a whole.
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