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BY BOOK BIBLE STUDY
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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday August 19, 2016
PETER EXPLAINS HIS ACTIONS
Acts 11:1-18
Acts chapter 11 begins
with Peter arriving back at Jerusalem after spending several days with Cornelius,
the Gentile believer and his family, in Caesarea. Cornelius and his house had
just become the first Gentile family accepted into the Christian Faith and the
HOLY SPIRIT had fallen fresh on them, just as HE had fell on the Jews at the
last Pentecost celebration (Acts 2).
News of the Gentile
conversion had already reached Jerusalem and the Jewish believers were waiting
anxiously to rebuke and criticize Peter for his associating with Gentiles, and eating
and drinking with them in their home. Such an action was a direct violation of
their own Jewish laws that they had set up, apart from GOD, because Jewish men
felt they were superior to Gentiles, Samaritans, and all women (Vs.1-3).
Luke wants us to realize
the importance of the visions that GOD showed to Peter, and, to Cornelius, in
the shaping of Christianity into an all-inclusive world religion. The Jews were
already set to make this new ideology from the mind of GOD, just another sect
of Judaism that would only include Jews into the club.
However, Luke is led by
GOD to see these incidents as milestones along the way to building the only
religion that can ever be indorsed by GOD HIMSELF. He wanted all mankind to see
and realize that JESUS came, not only to save the Jews, but rather, HE came to
save all humanity by giving them an opportunity to embrace the free gift of
salvation through HIS vicarious sacrifice on the cross at Golgotha.
After Peter explained
his vision from GOD that he received while still in Joppa, and how the HOLY
SPIRIT had instructed him to go to Caesarea and witness to Cornelius’ family, it
seemed to satisfy the Jewish assembly’s objections, and they began to praise
GOD wholeheartedly moving forward.
Through the divine
intervention of GOD, by way of Peter’s and Cornelius’ visions, the people were
able to see how GOD had given the Gentiles the same privilege and opportunity
to turn from sin, and to receive eternal life, as HE had afforded the Jews, beginning
at Pentecost.
The Jewish people and
their leaders were exceedingly glad about GOD’s plan for the new Church of
CHRIST, and they began to look forward to sharing the Gospel with all the
nations of the world in the future (Vs.4-18). And they trusted in the HOLY
SPIRIT of GOD to lead, guide, and counsel them as they moved forward.
THE CHURCH AT ANTIOCH OF SYRIA
Acts 11:19-30
Antioch, which means
“speedy as a chariot”, is a Syrian city located on the south side of the
Orontes River in Phrygia, a province of Asia Minor near the border of Pisidia.
In biblical times, Antioch had a worldwide reputation for being a fast-living,
morally loose city, and most of the people there worshiped the idol god “Daphne”,
the Greek god of “fresh water”.
Ironically, it is also
the place where the followers of CHRIST, or, “Adherents of the Way” were first
called “Christians” after Paul and Barnabas stayed there and taught and
preached for a year, just prior to their first and only missionary journey
together (chronicled in Acts 13).
Here in Acts chapter 11,
taking up at verse 19, we see, quite literally, the birth of the Christian
Church in the pagan city of Antioch of Syria. After this predominately Gentile
branch of the Christian Church is established, and word gets back to Jerusalem,
the apostles sent Barnabas there to encourage the new believers to stay true to
the LORD in their early struggles, and sure enough, large numbers of people
were converted at that time.
This all occurred about
nine years after Paul (Saul) had to flee Jerusalem, after he had made the
mistake of debating the Word (Gospel) with a group of hostile Greek-speaking
Jews who later tried to murder him. Paul was rescued, however, by a group of
believers who received word about the murder plot ahead of time. They took Paul,
first to Caesarea, and then, on to his hometown of Tarsus to safety (Acts
9:28-30).
When Barnabas arrived in
Antioch, he began to see the tremendous opportunity for Christian growth, and
being overwhelmed by the workload there himself, he decided to go to Tarsus to
find Paul and convince him to come back to Antioch to help out. They both
stayed in Antioch with the Church for a full year teaching large numbers of
people.
During this time a few
of GOD’s prophets traveled to Antioch from Jerusalem, one of which, was a man
named Agabus. Being full of the HOLY SPIRIT, Agabus stood up in one of the
meetings and predicted that a great famine would come upon the whole Roman
Empire in the near future. This prediction was later fulfilled during the reign
of the Emperor Claudius.
The believers, acting
upon Agabus’ prophecy, decided to send relief to the brothers and sisters of
Judea. Everyone gave as much as they could, and entrusted the proceeds into the
hands of Barnabas and Paul to take back to the elders of the Church in
Jerusalem. This act of love by the Church at Antioch towards the Church at
Judea undoubtedly helped to unite the two of them together into a relationship
of friendship with each other, just as Christian churches are meant by CHRIST to
do.
JESUS expects us, as
Christians, to respond to each other in ways that are pleasing to GOD. In fact,
HE tells us in Matthew 25, verses 31-46, concerning HIS final judgment, that,
HE will judge according to how we have reacted to human need in our lifetimes
here on earth.
In this chapter of the
book of Acts, verses 27-30 holds great significance in the fact that the early
Church realized the importance of unity within the new “Christian Network” of
believers. When there was famine in Palestine, the first notion of the Church
at Antioch was to send financial and spiritual help to Jerusalem and beyond.
Here we see, perhaps for
the first time, the Christian Church being thought of as “a body of believers”
being held together, and accountable, only by the ideology of GOD HIMSELF. It
was and is, an ideology that is meant by GOD to transcend all the racial, structural,
organizational, and worshiping style differences of man, and bring them all
together in fellowship and love.
“Christian Unity” is
what JESUS prayed about in John 17, and it is also what the Apostle Paul wrote
about to the Christian Churches in all of his doctrinal letters. It is a unity
not born of bricks and mortar, but rather, it is a unity of personal
relationships, not unlike the one that we’ve already seen between the FATHER
and the SON, that will stand as an example to us for all time.
We as Christians can
truly reach the world together, but first, we must prove to the world, through
our behavior that, “Christianity really does produce the best men and women”.
And until we can do that, no person in and of the world is going to ever take
us serious.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
