Peter, what have you done?
Acts 11:1-18 · Vern Peterman · Sep 24, 2017
Acts (2017-18), No. 35
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492667144891

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. It's great to see the group of kids that are gathered here. And even if they have to leave, right? So we're going to be stepping our way through the book of Acts here, chapter 11, first 18 verses 1 through 18. And just one thing, you know, as you go through this, this is a repetition of what you've seen in the prior chapter.

And so you may be thinking, oh no, Vern's going to go through this and we've heard it all before. And anyway, so I know you're thinking, oh no, I'll be bored stiff. And at best it will be a, yeah, I've heard this before, a deja vu experience, right? Well, so anyway, we'll try not to have it be such that you're prying your eyes open, OK? Try to move along quickly here.

So there are several things that are different about this passage that make it from, you know, other than being just a repetition. And one, Peter's going to give us new information, things that weren't previously included. So that'll be one thing that'll make it different. One other thing is we've had 48 verses in the last few weeks here, and you can trim that down to just 18 verses, so it's going to be shorter.

And one more thing, the Jews are going to be challenging him, so there's some drama to this situation that hadn't been happening before. So anyway, all those things should keep it from being quite such a sleepy time. If he gets too bad, I think I have some cold water to throw—never mind. Anyway.

So Acts 11.1, this is now the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

So this is the other 11, aside from Peter. and the brethren who at this point in time were the Jewish believers in Christ. That's basically all that there were in great part in the area around Judea. Judea is the area around Jerusalem. This would imply, by the way, that a lot of the persecution that had taken place was subsiding for a time and that a lot of the Jewish believers in Christ were coming back to this area around Jerusalem.

The Gentiles, that in the Greek is the ethnos, the ethnic ones, and then finally they received the Word of God, and that is middle voice, that is, they took the action to receive and received it upon themselves. Finally, the Word of God is a term that's used several different ways in scripture.

In this case, it's the gospel, the good news of salvation. That's what's intended there. So this had all taken place at Caesarea Maritima, looking to the north. This is a kind of an artist's rendering of what it would have looked like at the time. Now, so it says the Gentiles also had received the word of God. The news that the Gentiles, in addition to the Jews, had received the word of God, that is the gospel of salvation. That's the gospel.

So that piece of news spread really fast. And you might wonder how that could happen without texting and email, right? And Facebook and Twitter and things like that. And boy, it is amazing how fast news can travel. Hopefully it's true news. But having gone to high school in a small town, I was astounded how fast news traveled.

So anyway, just to kind of give the picture, here is the map that you have on the first page of your handout here. And so this area of Judea is the area around Jerusalem. So it's within Jerusalem and kind of a day's walk or so around in that area. So here would be Jerusalem in New Testament times, just to kind of give you a picture. So here they go from Caesarea. down to Jerusalem.

So here's Peter, he arrives with these six others, and so that's how this begins. And so the way it works here is the Gentiles win the toss, right? So then the Jewish believers in Christ do the kickoff. And so then the Gentiles are receiving. Now you have to remember that these rules for Jewish football are very different, especially as they become believers in Christ.

It's just not the same at all. Jewish football has entirely different rules, and these Jewish believers in Christ were having to work away from the menorah formation that they'd all been trained under. And so that was one adjustment. But there's also an entirely different set of rules. This is a weird game. No points for a touchdown, but a conversion, that means everything. I mean, it's really different. Anyway, we don't have time to go through all that stuff, but just so you get the idea.

So the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, they received the Word of God, that is the Gospel, the Gospel of their salvation. They did so of their own wills with the action of receiving coming back on them. That's what it means here to have the middle voice. So these Gentiles not only just passively received it, They, in fact, actively received it and took it in, and the action came upon themselves. Here's Acts 11, 2-3.

And when Peter came to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, saying, You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them, and had bacon! Ah! Okay, so when Peter, so he's also called Simon and Cephas, and he is the apostle, came up to Jerusalem.

Now, what you see is there's always up to and down from Jerusalem. And we'll take a look at that here in a minute. That's going from sea level, which is where Caesarea was, up to about 2,500 feet above sea level. So that's quite a rise. That's what it means up to Jerusalem. It doesn't have to do with going north, south, any direction. Elevation-wise, it's up.

Those who were circumcised would be the way of saying these were the Jewish believers in Christ. It may also have some sort of an emphasis on those who are really big into the Jewish-Gentile distinction and into the law. They took issue with Peter. They challenged him. And in fact, so that's the start of why Peter begins explaining things the way he did. And he says, you went to the uncircumcised men.

This would be the Gentiles. I won't show a picture of it, but it reminds me of when we were over there in Israel at Beth Shean, and there was this big public restroom area. And that would be the time when the Jews would be looking around, who's circumcised and who isn't, right? So that would be a big deal with them.

And they ate with them, eating ritually unclean foods, and so that would be the issue. So, going from Caesarea to Jerusalem. And this up to Jerusalem, just to kind of get you an idea, this is on the top of the second page. So you go from sea level up to Jerusalem around 2,500 foot, so roughly a half mile. So one way to look at it is Denver's the mile high city, Jerusalem's the half mile high city, okay, just to give you an idea. Here's a summary of the Jewish food laws from Leviticus chapter 11.

So land animals that both chew the cud and have a split hoof. And how many of you have seen a cud? I actually have and sometimes cows lose it and you have to put it back in. Anyway, enough of that. So sea creatures have to have fins and scales both, so no eels. Eels, that doesn't cut it. Winged insects have to have jointed legs to hop. And finally, birds of prey and carrion reptiles and other crawlers were off limits. So you like lizard? Nah, can't have it. Not as a Jew.

Acts 11, 4 and 5, but Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them an orderly sequence. saying, I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky, and it came right down to me.

One of the points we make is this term for orderly sequence. That's right out of Luke chapter 1 verse 3. Luke had used this previously. As a matter of fact, as I study through the book of Acts, I say, The same guy who wrote Luke wrote Acts, just no question. The word patterns, including this one, between the two, entirely consistent. Finally, the point we make, there's four corners from the sky that actually is the word that's translated elsewhere, heaven, even in the same passage. And it could very well be, you know, he's seeing the sheet coming down out of heaven.

Here's Acts 11.6, and when I had fixed my gaze on it and was observing it, I saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the crawling creatures and the birds of the air. So this fix my gaze, we're going to be taking a look at that shortly. That's a specific word that's used from the first chapter of the book of Acts on in towards the end and in multiple times. We'll remark about that just shortly here. Four-footed animals, you'll see this. We saw that in chapter 10.

And the rest of this description, Romans 1.23, also has just about these exact same words. And the reason is this was a typical Jewish way of summarizing all the unclean animals. It's a standard way, so we see it twice here in Acts and then the beginning of Romans. That's the way the Jews would kind of list, here's all the animals we're not supposed to eat.

Now, fixing my gaze. Now you may want to have your gaze fixed. This person certainly needs to have it done. But that's not what this is talking about. Fixing my gaze here is almost a Dr. Luke only word. He uses it a couple times in the Gospel of Luke. Paul uses it twice in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, but otherwise we see it repeatedly. here in the book of Acts.

In Acts 1.10, for example, the eleven apostles were gazing intently, same word, at Jesus as he ascended. And you can imagine, if Jesus is ascending right in front of you, that's not quite what you're expecting. I imagine that would get your attention.

In Acts 7.55, Stephen, and I'll quote here, gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God. and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

And that was the last thing that he saw while he was on earth. This is really rather amazing. As a matter of fact, as I continue to think about this, I'd have to say I'm continuing to learn from this. And especially when you think about he could have been focused on all those really big rocks that were being thrown at him and how angry the Jewish leaders were that were throwing them. We have no evidence that he focused on that at all. He was not distracted. This particular word is Dr. Luke's way of expressing beholding the Lord in the book of Acts, gazing intently. A really neat word, one like I say I'm still learning from myself.

Here's Acts 11, 7 and 8. I also heard a voice saying to me, get up, Peter, kill and eat. And I said, by no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth. So you could have this in kind of some different vernacular. I also heard a voice saying to me, giddy up, Peter, nuke it and eat. Right? But not exactly. So he took this as the voice of God. And then the other thing we point out here, Peter had always followed all of the food laws. He was just about to do differently, right? At the Lord's direction. Here's Acts 11, 9, and 10.

But a voice from heaven answered a second time, Would God has cleansed no longer consider unholy? So it says this happened three times and everything was drawn back up into the sky. And again, that could be translated heaven. So he took this as the voice of God, a voice from heaven, the Lord directing him.

No longer consider it unholy. That's an imperative. That's not like, hey, why don't you think about this, or a suggestion. He was told from God, don't consider it unholy. This is a commandment, if you will, of God. And then, so this up into the sky, like I say, could be translated heaven.

Here's Acts 11, 11 and 12, and behold, at that moment three men appeared at the house in which we were staying, having been sent to me from Caesarea. The Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. These six brethren also went with me, and we entered the man's house. So notice that the three men were these devout Roman soldiers and two servants, so all three of them Gentiles.

And they were at the house where they were staying, which was the house, as we know, Simon the Tanner in Joppa. And Caesarea was a Roman military base. And if you can think of different places, even in Colorado, where kind of a military base is the main thing going on in a particular area or community, that would be Caesarea. It was primarily a Roman military base, and everything else that went on was in support of that.

And here's the new piece of information that we have, is that it's six brethren. These are Jewish believers in Christ who go along with Peter. You can imagine, they're kind of probably surprised and amazed at what's happening here, at least. And he says, we entered the man's house. So all seven Jewish believers in Christ, with these six plus Peter, entering the house of Cornelius here. Here's Acts 11, 13, and 14, and he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, Send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here, and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.

So this is Cornelius. Interesting, he keeps referring with pronouns and the man and things like that, but Cornelius. And then he will speak. Who's going to speak? It'll be Peter, be speaking words. What's interesting is the way the Greek puts it, it's speak-spoken words, okay? Speak-speak words, right? Speak-spoken words.

And then finally, by which you will be saved, you and your household. This is the presentation of the gospel, okay? These are the words by which you will be saved when you believe them. And this is very similar in terms of the wording, only minor differences with Acts 16.31, the Philippian jailer. We'll be looking at some chapters down the road here. Here's Acts 11, 15, and 16. As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He did upon us at the beginning.

And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And so one of the things, as we saw reading through the passage, Peter began to speak, but he didn't get to finish. Why? It's because actually Peter was interrupted.

He had said enough so that the gospel was clear. The people believed it, and God said, that's it. And that's really something for us to take a look at, too. God wants us to believe. He says, that's it. I'll take it from there, right? That's all there is to it. We don't have anything to add to our salvation, to enhance it, anything of the sort.

We believe and God does it. So the interruption here is actually not God being rude, but it's very instructive. Here is the Holy Spirit fell upon them, that is the Gentiles, just as he did upon us at the beginning, so the Jews who had believed back in Acts chapter 2. And then it says, John baptized with water, you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

John himself said this back in Luke 3.16, and Jesus said it again in Acts 1.5. So both of those passages would underscore that same message. John baptized with water, but Christ would have these baptized with the Holy Spirit.

So one of the things to look at and observe is the Holy Spirit fell on them at the beginning and it had not been happening since from the time in Acts chapter 2 until now. This is a very important point. All what's reported here is the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles at this event that Peter's recounting. and the Holy Spirit had fallen on the Jews.

Even in the era of the apostles where miraculous things were happening, the Holy Spirit did not keep falling afresh on any of those who believed. You may have heard of a song that is sometimes sung, you know, fall afresh on me. There's no need to do that. There's no call for it. The Holy Spirit did not keep falling afresh on the Jews who believed, nor upon the Gentiles. So Acts 2, the day of Pentecost, May 24, 33 AD, back then the Holy Spirit had fallen on those who believed.

Here, the events of Acts 10, 1 through 11, 18, as we're seeing in this passage, happened over about a week and a half period of time. 40 to 41 AD, and it had not been continuing to happen between those times. We're going to repeat from last week, just to underscore it, and also for those who might have missed it, the best-kept secret on tongues and acts. Tongues in the Book of Acts follows a specific pattern. Tongues only occurred three times as recorded in the book of Acts. It was always in an evangelistic context with Jews present and at least one apostle. That's part of the pattern.

The second half is this. It occurred once among the Jews in the Jewish land. This was the day of Pentecost with Jews there right in Jerusalem. That was the first. The second one, once among the Gentiles in the Jewish land, that's what we see recorded in Acts chapter 10 and these verses here in Acts 11, 1 through 18. the Holy Spirit fell upon them and they expressed tongues in this instance once among the Gentiles in the Jewish land. And one more we're going to see in Acts chapter 19, once among the Jews in a Gentile land.

That's it. That's the pattern. Why? Because Acts is transitional. You don't keep looking for that actually fairly rare pattern to keep happening and happening and happening day by day. Here's Acts 11.17, Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as he gave us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way? This is an if that is assumed to be true, so it's not doubting that it came about, but rather it is stating that it came about and wanting people to think through it with him. Now, when it says the same gift, is that the gift of the Holy Spirit or the gift of tongues? Which one? Which one does he mean? Well, we'll take a look at that in a minute here.

As he gave us also, this was looking back the Jews in Acts chapter 2, after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, so the Holy Spirit was given on what event? On believing. The Holy Spirit was given at the time of belief. Believing in the Lord Jesus, that's who he was and is and what he has done. When it says believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's not just believing in him and that's it. It's believing in who he was and what he has done.

And that's what we see. Sometimes it's put here, as we'll see in other chapters, kind of in shorthand. Finally, standing in God's way. Opposing what God's doing. And there's great significance to that. We'll look at it shortly. So, regarding the question, the same gift, is it the Holy Spirit or tongues?

Acts 2.38, 8.20, and 10.45, where the same Greek and English word, in fact, is used, the gift refers to the Holy Spirit in each case. So that would be the pattern here. So it makes sense that the Holy Spirit is the gift here.

Also in Acts 8.20, the Holy Spirit is the gift, but there's no mention of anyone speaking in tongues. So it would again put the focus on the gift. And one more thing, when it does mention the gift of tongues in 1 Corinthians, it's a different word for gift. So that further confirms the gift here that Peter intends to convey is the gift of the Holy Spirit himself. Also noted, it's on believing that one receives the Holy Spirit. It is not a separate experience from belief.

It is not a pleading. It so happens my grandparents were Assembly of God pastors, and so in the Assembly of God teaching there's all this after the fact pleading and urging and urging people to receive the Holy Spirit and have that expressed by the gift of tongues and all that sort of thing, and it created great frustration when people couldn't do it. I talked to Bob Eccle about the statistics on that. He says, well, it's probably genetic as to whether or not you can express this modern gift of tongues. So anyway, and the Holy Spirit is not given on the basis of tarrying, of coaxing. Oh, I've heard people just being, you know, beaten over the head. You must not have enough faith and all sorts of things. begging the Holy Spirit not to leave or begging the Holy Spirit to come back after leaving.

It doesn't have to do with anything of those. He's given once upon believing. That's it. And this is a biggie. Did you see what Peter said in this verse? I'll just put it right out. Legalism is standing in God's way. Got that? Legalism is standing in God's way. This is very important. Legalism is standing in God's way. It's not an effort to be righteous and holy. Legalism is standing in God's way.

Acts 10.1 through 11.17 puts it this way. Legalism in the body of Christ is standing in God's way. There's no other way to understand that.

Here's Acts 11.18, when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God. As a matter of fact, if you think about that, wait a minute, how do they quiet down and glorify God at the same time? Well, we'll talk about that. And saying, well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.

So when they heard this, that is what Peter had said in these previous verses, They stopped challenging Peter. That was the quieted down. So you can imagine their challenge of Peter was pretty intense and just boom. They said, Peter, you did something terrible. And so they stopped that.

And then next, they glorified God consistent with God's eternal purpose as they realized what God was doing here. And then finally, God is granted to the Gentiles just as he had to the Jews. Also, the repentance that leads to life. We point out here the repentance is the change of mind that ends in belief. We have a supplement on repent and repentance, and this is one of those key points. Repentance that leads to life only because repentance ends in belief. That is, in the evangelistic context of the Book of Acts, that's the consistent pattern. It is a change of mind that ends in belief, and literally into life. Repentance, the change of mind that ends in belief, into life. There is no going into spiritual life without belief.

Now, one of the things you'll notice here in this whole recounting, although it was included in the original account, Peter did not repeat baptism. Ding! This is big, because what that tells us is these people believed and were saved. It's the repentance that leads to life, not the getting wet. Getting wet doesn't do it. Getting wet is a picture. of being saved. That's what the baptism is. It does not cause or result in salvation. Baptism is not needed for one to be saved.

So finally, that repentance that leads to life and acts to repent is to change one's mind so as to end in belief. That's its meaning in every evangelistic context. Also, an act of repentance, a noun, is the change of one's mind so as to end in belief, so as to be saved. So repentance into life is the change of one's mind so as to end in belief in the gospel of salvation, So to have eternally the resurrection life of Jesus Christ and to be saved. That's what repentance is all about.

It is not all about feeling really, really bad for your sins and singing the blues. That's why we don't ask you to come up here and cry for a while, right? That's why I don't plead and plead and plead. Repentance is a change of mind that ends in belief. It doesn't matter what emotions go along with it, and there may be. But in the end, it's a change in mind that ends in belief in the gospel. That's the axe message in the evangelistic context for repentance.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this. It's a simple recounting. It is a simplified recounting that Peter gives. And yet what he includes and what he doesn't include is astounding. We thank you that it's very clear from what Peter says here that legalism is in fact standing in your way. It is also very clear what is needed for salvation. We have a change of mind that ends in belief. And we thank you for those clear and simple messages of the gospel that, in fact, brought us into the body of Christ as the Gentiles. And we just thank you for your amazing grace and your marvelous life. In Jesus' name, amen.