From Strength to Strength Our Understanding

From Strength to Strength: Our Understanding Versus God’s Plan

Acts 11

In this chapter we learn of the relationship between believers in Jerusalem (a Jewish church) and the new Gentile disciples.

Keep in mind that the Jerusalem church’s problem is not prejudice but rather a misunderstanding of the purposes of God.
The OT understanding of God’s program was that of an earthly kingdom which would bless the Gentiles through the reign of Israel’s Messiah.

But the nation had rejected Christ and His kingdom; did this mean that the Gentiles could not be saved?
Must they first become Jewish proselytes?

Peter’s experience at Caesarea (Acts 10) and Paul’s revelation of “the mystery of the church” (Ephesians 3) helped to answer these questions.
Both experiences proved that both Jew and Gentile stand condemned before God and can be saved only through faith in Jesus Christ.

I. The Jerusalem Church Accepts the Gentiles (11:1–18)

The faithful Jews contended with Peter because he had fellowshiped and even eaten with Gentiles.

As long as God’s kingdom plan was still being offered to the Jews, Peter’s actions were wrong.

God’s message was “to the Jew first” (Acts 1–7). Christ had commanded the disciples to start in Jerusalem (Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8), and when Jerusalem believed, the nation would receive the Messiah and the kingdom would be established (Acts 3:25–26).
Peter did not go to Cornelius’ house because he understood God’s new program, but because he had been commanded personally by the Holy Spirit (11:12).

These believing Jews who criticized Peter did so not because they hated the Gentiles, but because they wanted to be faithful to God’s revealed will.

When Peter told them how the Spirit had guided him and sealed his ministry by coming upon the believing Gentiles, the Jewish Christians rejoiced and glorified God.

Note that Peter proved what he did was God’s will by appealing to:

(1) his own personal experience (vv. 5–11),
(2) the leading of the Spirit (v. 12), and
(3) the Word of God (v. 16).

Three essentials are always necessary if we are to do God’s will: personal testimony, the leading of the Spirit in our hearts, and the clear teaching of the Word of God.

II. The Jerusalem Church Encourages the Gentiles (11:19–26)

Now the Gospel goes into new Gentile territory, Antioch, a key city in Syria.

The persecution described in 8:1ff had scattered Christians as far as Antioch, about 300 miles north of Jerusalem.
True to their commission, they had preached to Jews only (this was before the events of Acts 10, of course); but some disciples began to preach to the Gentiles. The word “Grecians” in 11:20 is not the same as the word in 6:1, where it means “Hellenized Jews.”

Here, the word actually means “Greeks”—in other words, Gentiles.

Many Gentiles came to know Christ as their Savior, and the Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to investigate the situation.
But his mission was unlike that of Peter and John’s in 8:14–17, for these believers had already received the Spirit and experienced the grace of God.
In v. 23 we see for the first time the word “grace” is used in Acts with reference to salvation. (Acts 4:33 refers to the grace of God assisting believers.)

Grace was to become Paul’s great message in years to come. Note that these Gentiles were saved by grace (v. 23) through faith (v. 21). This is what Eph. 2:8–9 teaches.

Barnabas rejoiced at finding this Gentile assembly and exhorted them to continue in their faith.

Then he did a strange thing: he left the church and went to find Paul.
Why did he do this? Because Barnabas, filled with the Spirit, knew that God had given Paul a commission to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15, 27).
Peter’s importance was diminishing, as was God’s kingdom program, and Barnabas knew that Paul was to be the next leader, preaching the message of God’s grace. For an entire year, Paul and Barnabas taught the Gentiles the Word of God. From this church they went out on their first missionary journey. The church at Antioch assumed greater importance than the church at Jerusalem when Paul replaced Peter as God’s special apostle who brought the revelation of the mystery of the church.

III. The Jerusalem Church Gets Aid from the Gentiles (11:27–30)

These “prophets” (v. 27) were Christians who ministered in the local assemblies and revealed the Word of God. That they came to Antioch from Jerusalem indicates that there was close fellowship between these two churches. “All the world” in v. 28 can mean either all the Roman world or possibly only the land (Judaea). The Gentile believers immediately sent material aid to the believers in Judaea as an expression of Christian love.

This famine is important, for if we read Acts 2:44–45 and 4:31–35, we see that a vital change has taken place in the Jerusalem church. In Acts 2–7, the church at Jerusalem had no needs at all; in 11:27–30 we read that these same people were in need of outside help. What had happened? The “kingdom program” with its special blessings had passed on. As long as the kingdom was being offered to the Jews, the Spirit conferred special blessings on the believers, and there was not one that lacked among them (4:34). But when the kingdom was finally rejected with the stoning of Stephen, these unusual blessings were withdrawn, leaving the Jewish believers in need. Several times in the Word we read of special aid sent to the “poor saints at Jerusalem” (Rom. 15:26; 1 Cor. 16:1ff.; 2 Cor. 8–9).

The pattern of giving in Acts 2:44–45 and 4:31–35 does not apply to the local church today, although the spirit manifested is certainly to be desired. Note that the believers in Antioch did not have “all things in common” but rather gave personal contributions according to their ability (11:29, see 2 Cor. 9:7). Paul instructs us to provide for our own (1 Tim. 5:8), warning that if we do not, we are worse than infidels. God’s pattern for giving is that each believer give tithes and offerings to the Lord, starting with the local church. Barnabas and Saul (Paul) were chosen to take the offering to Jerusalem. They later returned to Antioch, bringing John Mark with them (12:25).

In chapter 12 we will see the close of Peter’s special ministry, and chapter 13 ushers in the ministry of the Apostle Paul. These chapters close the period of transition when the message of the kingdom was replaced by the Gospel of the grace of God, Jerusalem was replaced by Antioch in Syria as the center of ministry, and Peter was replaced by Paul as the leader of God’s work.

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[1]Wiersbe, Warren W. Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the New Testament, Page 304. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1997, c1992.