Chapter 11
What appears to be a rehash of the
previous chapter is really something else entirely. There were two problems in
connection with the early Church. The first one was a geographical problem and
the second one was racial. The Church actually began in one place on the day of
Pentecost which is the city of Jerusalem. Hence, on the first day of the Church
Age the Church only existed in one geographical location. This meant that since
the Church was to be a universal body to be custodians of the Word of God
throughout the world, to be responsible for the dissemination of the gospel
throughout the world, they would have to be scattered. So we show in the book
of Acts how the Church began in one spot and became an international group
through the tremendous missionary expansion. This is actually covered in part
in Acts 11:19-30. The second problem was a racial problem because on the day of
Pentecost the Church began with Jews only and it appeared that the dispensation
of Israel was to continue in a different form. But this is not true, both Jew
and Gentile are one in the body of Christ, the middle wall of partition which
had existed in the temple was to be broken down spiritually and any person
regardless of whether he was a Jew or a Gentile who received Jesus Christ as
his saviour would be entered into union with Christ at the moment of salvation,
in other words, regeneration is the only basis for equality in the human race.
Otherwise there can be no equality. While all members of the human race can
have freedom, all members of the human race are not the same. Acts 2 gave us
the Jewish Pentecost, Acts 8 gave us the Samaritan Pentecost, and the Gentile
Pentecost we have seen in chapter 10. This demonstrates that anyone who
believes in Christ is a member of the body of Christ. So this is a chapter of
how the Church expanded geographically and racially. The first half of this
chapter actually deals with the mechanics of divine guidance. How God guides
the believer
Principles
1. To be guided by God you
must know the Word of God. So we have the concept of knowledge. It is the Word
of God which reveals the Word of God. The more you know about the Word of God
the more you know about the will of God — 2 Corinthians 6:1-11, 2 Peter
1:12-21.
2. There is the principle of yieldedness which is rebound. No
one can do the will of God or even know the will of God unless he uses I John
1:9. Romans 12:1 tells us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, but the
word which is used for "present" is the same word used in Romans 6:13
for "yield," and yieldedness or presenting the body is nothing more
or less than the habitual and continual use of rebound.
3. Growth. In order to be guided by God there must be spiritual growth.
Categories
1. The viewpoint will of God. What
does He want me to think? The answer to this is found in the Word of God.
2. The operational will of God. What
does He want me to do? This is the application of God's Word to experience.
3. The geographical category. Where
does He want me to be? Again, this is a matter of growth. So the three
categories depend upon the three principles of divine guidance.
There
are actually specific concepts of the will of God given in the Word. Every
subjunctive mood, every imperative mood, and often the participle is used as a
command. So we have various ways in which God gives specific commands to
believers for specific situations.
Types
1. There is the directive will of
God. In the illustration of Balaam, Balaam was told not to go and to curse
Israel. He was a believer and this was a direct command. However, he disobeyed
this directive will of God and God didn’t kill him, so …
2. The permissive will of God.
Balaam entered into the permissive will of God even though he violated a direct
commandment and God permitted him to go to Balaak. He was offered a great fee
in order to curse the children of Israel.
3. The overruling will of God. God
protects Israel under their covenants and therefore He would not permit the
cursing of Israel.
Today every believer faces a very
serious problem. He can do one of three wills. Since he has his own volition he
can do his own will. he can follow his own life under the principle of
volition. He can also do angelic will. This is a part of the angelic conflict
fallen angels under Satan. He has many things he can do, being religious, being
legalistic. Then there is the will of God which is contained in the Word of God
and this is the objective of phase two. for the believer of his own positive
volition to accomplish the will of God. So it involves knowing the will of God
before you can do it, the execution of the will of God in the power of the Holy
Spirit, and all of this is done through his own positive volition.
Verses 1-18, the racial expansion of
the Church.
Verse 1 — the news of the Gentile
Pentecost. The fact that Gentiles were integrated into the body of Christ came
as a great shock to the Jerusalem church But the Jerusalem church which had
every opportunity of being the leading church of all time dropped the ball and
this is the beginning of it. Some of them never would accept the fact that Jews
and Gentiles are one in Christ. In Jerusalem we have Jews only. Many of these
Jews have lived all their lives under the Mosaic law and now that they have
accepted Christ they go right back to living under the law. Consequently they
simply accept the Mosaic law as the Christian way of life and they cannot
accept the fact that the Gentiles have equal rights and privileges with them
spiritually.
Verse 2 — immediately Peter, who had
led in the Gentile Pentecost as well as the Jewish Pentecost, is going to be
subject to criticism. Peter is actually the leader in both of these Pentecost
experiences. Now he returns from Caesarea where he has had this fantastic
experience. Now we find a certain group of people opposing him, they are very
critical of him. Peter is going to be challenged as to his doctrinal viewpoint.
Principle: Once you become
oriented to the grace of God through Bible doctrine. Once you begin to
understand that it is who and what God is, not who and what we are. Once this
is formed up in the mind it is going to be tested by the criticism of others.
Grace equals God doing the work and man does the receiving. God gets the
credit. Grace depends on the character of God. On the other hand. legalism is
man doing the work and God is supposed to receive what man is doing.
The brand of legalism is Jerusalem
was keeping the Mosaic law, and so we have Jewish believers keeping the Mosaic
law in order to pass this off as Christianity, and they expect God to receive
this and to bless them on the basis of what they do rather than on the basis of
what God does. Peter has now learned his first lesson in grace, he now has some
concept of the principle of grace in phase two and the legalists are going to
challenge him. They will challenge him by judging, by criticism, by maligning:
and this will continue until it reaches Paul’s day and Paul will be the most
persecuted person in the world by believers and unbelievers because of his
stand on the principle of grace.
“they that were of the circumcision”
is not a verb in the original, it is simply “the circumcision” describing
Jewish believers who are very religious, very legalistic. They hate accepted
Christ as saviour but in rejection of Bible doctrine they have simply reverted
to the human viewpoint which has always existed in their minds. They go back to
their prejudice, back to what they have had before. These believers have
accepted Christ but they have not listened to the Word of God and therefore
they are operating simply on the Mosaic law. the principle of circumcision,
giving great credence to their ritual, to their law. and so on. But this is
strictly human viewpoint. There is a great deal of new Bible doctrine which if
they would learn it would help them. But they have rejected Bible doctrine,
they are operating on human viewpoint, so they are thinking like any unbeliever
would think. Consequently they cannot accept this Gentile concept. Their mental
attitude sins are going to produce something and this is really what we are
seeing now is the expansion of the Church and the death of the Jerusalem
church.
So “they of the circumcision” refers
to a segment of believers in the Jerusalem church. Not all of them but a
segment which will eventually dominate. At first they are the leaven but
eventually the leaven will have an effect on the entire lump. These legalists
who are apparently a minority will eventually control and destroy the Jerusalem
church. A little legalism in a church can destroy the dynamics of that church.
The dynamics of the church depend upon keeping the purity of Bible doctrine and
being sure that legalism and the bullying which accompanies it does not
prevail.
“contended with them” the word
“contended” is imperfect tense, which means they kept on doing this. before
Peter got back, when he got back. and after he gave his report. The imperfect
tense indicates that they were constantly at it. The middle voice indicates
they did it of their own volition. To contend means to nit-pick, to criticise,
to malign, to do everything to neutralise the individual who is standing for
grace. These people simply took the position that any believer who did not
observe some of the taboos of the Talmud could not be spiritual. Peter had been
in the home of a Gentile.
“with him” is literally, “face to
face with him.”
Verse 3 — “Thou wentest in to men
uncircumcised.” In other words, he entered their home, had fellowship with
them, dined with them. This is taboo! Legalism is always guilty of judging.
Legalism has false standards. Legalism has no right to judge and legalism is
under triple-compound discipline.
Verse 4 begins the big report,
Peter’s retrospective exposition. Notice one line of truth in this report.
Beginning in verse 5 we will see the
mechanics of divine guidance.
“But Peter rehearsed” the Greek says
he began to expound. He finally began to explain what happened and as he did he
began to give a formal explanation and began to expound “by order unto them
saying.” Notice he is speaking to his critics but as a result of this it
becomes a report to the entire church.
Verse 5-16 divine guidance:
mechanics.
Verse 5 — “I was in the city of
Joppa praying.” Guidance through prayer. It was during the time of his prayer
that actually the vision appeared. Remember that this is before the writing of
the New Testament scriptures. In those days before the New Testament scriptures
were completed God revealed Himself in dreams and visions and trances. Such is not
the case with the completion of the scripture. Here is a man in prayer and out
of this prayer comes divine guidance. God guides through prayer.
Verse 6 — Guidance through thinking.
Prayer doesn’t to it all by itself. “I considered” is the Greek word for
putting your mind down on something, concentrating on something, thinking about
it. So he began to concentrate and to think. It is the perfect tense, he kept
on thinking. But this thinking means thinking doctrine and applying various
doctrines to various situations in life. So the more doctrine we know the more
we can be guided in this particular manner.
Verses 7-10 Guidance through the
Word. This was done three times. That shows how long it took Peter to learn
something.
Verse 11 — the fourth mechanic for
guidance, providential circumstances. This is a dangerous one because an open
door is not necessarily the will of God. It must agree with Bible doctrine. In
this case providential circumstances were very definitely involved in the
leading of Peter. All Peter is saying in this verse is no sooner had the vision
been removed but I went down stairs and there was the patrol. This he took as
the circumstances which showed him which way to go in this case. Now you have
to be careful. Sometimes circumstances are indicative of the will of God and
sometimes they are not. The final authority is what does the Word say. If the
circumstances agree with doctrine, yes; if the circumstances do not agree with
doctrine, no.
Verse 12 — guidance through the Holy
Spirit. Peter didn’t want to have anything to do with this project but the
Spirit said go. God the Holy Spirit does not guide contrary to the Word of God.
He guides in accordance with the Word of God and this emphasises the importance
of being filled with the Spirit.
“nothing doubting” — Peter had all
sorts of doubts, all of the taboos and prejudices he had learned from childhood
on, all of the observations of self-righteousness which had come out of these
taboos. Peter loved his self-righteousness and he didn’t want to part with it.
Verses 13-15 — guidance through
comparison. We have the comparing of notes in this particular area. Cornelius
explained to Peter what the angel had said and Peter by comparing notes with
his own vision begins to put the thing together and he knows that he is to
preach the gospel. And when he gives the gospel message with regard to Christ
and gets to the point where he tells them that all you have to do to be saved
is to believe, that is the point at which they did, and before he could finish
his message those who had believed had exactly the same thing as the Jews on
the day of Pentecost. They are Gentiles and yet they duplicated what the Jews
had. God the Holy Spirit gave them the gift of tongues just as the Jews had the
gift of tongues on that occasion. They were indwelt by the Spirit. In fact they
had everything that the Jews had and when Peter saw that everything was so
ship-shape he said they could be baptised. They can have water baptism because
they have everything that water baptism portrays.
Verse 15 — “And as I began to speak
the Holy Spirit fell on them, as on us at the beginning.” So Peter now sees the
Gentiles as being in the body of Christ.
Verse 16 — guidance through
scripture memory. Sometimes just remembering a certain verse will help in a
situation to do the will of God. “Then remembered I the word of the Lord.” This
is a quotation from Acts 1:5. Peter realises that this was fulfilled in the
house of Cornelius, just as it had been fulfilled prior to that in Jerusalem on
the day of Pentecost.
Verse 17 — Peter comes to a grace
conclusion. “What was 1. that I could withstand God?” Here is Peter oriented to
grace. He recognises that this is the work of God. It is contrary to his own
prejudice, his own background, his own legalism, but he cannot take his
prejudice when he is actually seeing the work of God. This led to the temporary
defeat of legalism in Jerusalem. Legalism would rise again to destroy but at
this particular point Peter’s report does the job.
Verse 18 — the legalists had nothing
to say.
“and glorified God, saying. Then
hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” They simply said
God has given salvation to the Gentiles. They did not say Gentiles are one with
us. Paul will make this very clear shortly.
Verse
19 – in this section we have the geographical expansion of the early church.
“Now they which were scattered abroad” is an aorist participle referring to the
great persecution which occurred in Jerusalem after the martyrdom of Stephen.
The real key to the outline of the book of Acts is based upon the death of
Stephen. There are four sections which deal with it. In chapter eight we have
the persecution of Stephen going to the Samaritan Pentecost. With the Samaritan
Pentecost competed there is a new tack: the death of Stephen to the conversion
of Saul of Tarsus—chapter nine. Then we go back to the death of Stephen and
trace it to the Gentile Pentecost—chapter ten. The death of Stephen is like a
hub cap, and the trends are like spokes in the wheel. Luke starts in Acts 11:19
with the death of Stephen and traces Christianity in its expansion to Antioch
which is going to become the great capital. Everything starts from the death of
Stephen. In this particular case the death of Stephen is traced as the basis of
the beginning of expansion. People were forced out of Jerusalem. Usually they
were believers who were in business, and because of the tremendous persecution
and the economic pressures they could no longer conduct any kind of a business
in Jerusalem. In other words, they couldn’t make a living there. It was either
sit in Jerusalem and starve or move out and find other business opportunities.
They went in three different directions. First they went to Phonice [Phoenicia]
to the north. They went to Cyprus, to which Phoenician trade went and then from
Cyprus all over the world. The third area was Antioch. As these primarily grace
believers left Jerusalem—the legalists stayed around and compromised with the
Jews by observing the Mosaic law—they went preaching the gospel. The word
“preaching” in this verse is not a word for preaching at all, it is really a
word for witnessing—lalew, which simply means
conversational communication. Each of these areas had a large Jewish population
and when these believers left Jerusalem they began by witnessing only to the
Jews.
Verse
20 – when the first believers arrived in Antioch there were no believers in
Antioch. “And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene.” From there they came
to Antioch, and they “spake unto the Grecians.” The word which is used here is E(llhnaj, the Greek word for a Greek. But there is another
word which does not refer to Greeks, the word E(llhnistoj used for a Jew who had accepted Greek culture, or anyone with Greek
culture, and it is translated “Grecian.” But here in this verse are a group of
Jewish businessmen who have accepted Christ as saviour, who have learned Bible
doctrine, who have oriented to the plan of God. And having oriented to the plan
of God, when they go into a new place, they do not simply confine themselves to
witnessing to the Jews, they start talking to Gentiles about Christ.
Verse
21 – “And the hand of the Lord was with them.” The hand of the Lord is an
anthropomorphism. It is the concept of blessing, of doing, of giving. God
blesses on the basis of His character, not because of these people.
“and
a great number believed and turned to the Lord” – so there was a great revival
in the third largest city in the Roman empire. The words “turned to the Lord”
are often used for Gentile conversion. The Greek word is a compound noun, e)pistrefw [e)pi = upon; strefw = to turn]. So they turned upon the Lord. The
preposition “upon” the idea of leaning upon, resting a foundation upon. They
made Jesus Christ their foundation; they believed in Him.
Verse
22 – this revival was so great that it was heard of 300 miles to the south in
Jerusalem. Barnabas was a grace man and he was sent out to go as far as
Antioch. Barnabas—Acts 4:36-37—is not only a grace man in his mental attitude
but he is a grace man in his modus operandi. He sponsored Saul when Saul
returned to Jerusalem—Acts 9:26-27. When Barnabas finally becomes the leader of
the Antioch church he realizes exactly what the church needs. They need a
grace-doctrinal teacher. He doesn’t see himself qualified to handle it and so
he goes to Tarsus and finds Saul. The fourth great thing Barnabas did was to
sponsor Mark when he recognized the rebound of Mark—Acts 15.
Verse
23 – “Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God.” Notice what he
observed. It takes a grace man to recognise grace. The words “when he came” is
the word paraginomai [para = immediate source; ginomai = come to pass], which means to come to pass from an immediate source.
The immediate source of the coming of Barnabas is Jerusalem, and Jerusalem has
turned legalistic. Legalism expelled a grace man. God had a place for a grace
man, and Antioch is going to become headquarters.
“he
was glad” – xairw, meaning to rejoice. In
other words, he responded to it. He sees this grace operation based on doctrine
and when he does he has a response to it in his soul. The word is actually
“rejoice.”
“and
exhorted” – kept on exhorting. The word means to encourage—parakalew, to call from an immediate source. The immediate
source is doctrine. So the word comes to mean to encourage on the basis of
Bible doctrine. He wasn’t really a preacher but he could encourage by
communicating doctrine.
“that
with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” – that with purpose in
the mentality of the soul. Doctrine gives purpose and orientation to the plan
of God. The word “cleave” is the Greek word prosmenw [proj = face to face; menw = to abide]. So to abide face to face simply means
to be in the bottom circle, in fellowship/in the place of the filling of the
Holy Spirit. He encouraged them to walk under the principle of the filling of
the Spirit.
Verse
24 – “For he was a good man.” The word for “good” is a)gaqoj which means good of intrinsic value, divine good.
Divine good is the result of being filled with the Spirit. Present linear
aktionsart indicates that he kept on being a good man. Then this is explained.
What does it mean to be a good man? To be filled with the Holy Spirit. It
should be translated “even full of the Holy Spirit.” Morality and
self-righteousness is not Christianity. Morality is for the entire human race
and is connected with the divine institutions. Note the difference between the
Jerusalem church and the church at Antioch: legalism and human good versus
divine good by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Antioch is dynamic;
Jerusalem is dead.
“and
faith” – Barnabas’s operation of the faith-rest technique.
“and
much people were added to the Lord” – grace causes growth; legalism causes
shrinkage. The local church has to expand before its missionary activity can
expand. Antioch is going to be the great headquarters for missionary effort.
Verse
25 – here is a great man in every sense of the word. He knew that Saul of
Tarsus had greater gifts than he did. This didn’t bother him at all. One of the
greatest tests of grace is when you know that someone is greater than you are.
What do you do about it? Barnabas was totally relaxed about Paul being greater
than he was. He didn’t try to compete with him, he was simply and completely
relaxed. “Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus.” The aorist tense would indicate
that he went in a point of time, but more than that he went with a purpose:
“for to seek.” The word to seek means to search up and down. He did not know
the address of Saul in Tarsus.
Verse
26 – “And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch.” “He found” is an
aorist active participle; “he brought” is an aorist active indicative. Between
the aorist active participle and the aorist active indicative we have one of
the most interesting conversations, but not recorded. Before Barnabas brought
Saul to Antioch he persuaded him.
“And
it came to pass” means that it actually occurred; “a whole year” is an
accusative of an extent of time, and it refers to the year 44 A.D; “and taught
much people” – the church became very large and probably met in several
different places. This was the year of stabilizing, of establishing the base
which would evangelize the entire world in the first century. Here is the
development of a grace church, and in that same year the Jerusalem church began
to go down hill. The teaching of Bible doctrine made the difference in the
church at Antioch. There has to be a stabilised base for missions. That is why
the local church is a part of God’s plan for missions, but it must be a
doctrinally-oriented and Biblically-centred local church in order to succeed.
The believer cannot fulfill the plan of God as an individual apart from
doctrine and neither can a local church fulfill the plan of God for itself
collectively apart from doctrine.
The
fact that they taught “much people” means that they had large numbers of
converts and they had large numbers of people who were interested to go on.
They had no traditional background in the Mosaic law to stimulate legalism,
which hindered the spiritual growth in Jerusalem, they are primarily Gentiles
of Roman and Greek origin. Because this is primarily a Gentile church it stays
away from the very things that destroyed the Jerusalem church.
“And
the disciples [Disciple is a technical name for believers] were first called
Christians in Antioch.” The word “Christian” is an interesting word. It is the
accepted word today, but who called these disciples Christians? Unbelievers
called them Christians in derision. It is a hybrid word with three points
behind it: It expresses Jewish thought, for the word “Christian” is simply the
Greek word for anointed one, the Greek word for Christ. Christ and Messiah are
the same: Messiah is Hebrew and Christ is Greek. The suffix “ian” is Latin and
it means to belong to something—those who belong to Christ. The word is used
again in Acts 26:28 as a term of contempt from the mouth of Agrippa II. It is
also used in 1 Peter 4:16 in connection with the persecutions of the Roman
empire. The name originates from the Gentile enemies of Christianity.
Verses
27-28, the ministry of the prophets in Antioch. Jerusalem was the centre of the
dispensation of Israel but it was not to be the center of the dispensation of
the Church. The Church would be made up primarily of Gentiles even though it
had a Jewish beginning. It is fitting that Antioch should be the first real
headquarters for the Church.
Verse
27 – the ones who came were prophets. Apparently in Jerusalem the grace crowd
were led by the prophets; the legalists were led by either apostles or someone
like James who is now the leader of the Jerusalem church.
Verse 28 – “Agabus.” He is
mentioned in chapter 21. He is that prophet—a grace man apparently, all the
way—who warned Paul not to return to Jerusalem, because out of it would come
something that would bind him up. And he was right.
“and signified by means of
the Spirit” – the word “signify means to give a prophecy dealing with the
future. In those days the gift of prophecy was twofold: foretelling and
forthtelling. It was primarily forthtelling that was the teaching of doctrine,
but foretelling was foretelling a future event. He prophesied an event that
would actually occur in two years. In 46 A.D. there would be a great famine, so
this is the great famine message which caused a tremendous response from the
people in Antioch. They were so impressed with this that they decided to help
the legalists. Remember that basically Jerusalem is a church of legalism;
Antioch is a church of grace. Even though grace and legalism would be
antagonistic for two years the people of Antioch gave offerings and saved money
to relieve the Jews of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will do everything it can to
destroy Antioch and Antioch will do everything it can to preserve Jerusalem.
Verse 29 – “every man according to
his ability.” No tithers! Where you find grace you don’t find tithing. The
Greek says, “Every man as anyone was well off, even anyone who was prosperous
determined.” In other words, they gave out of their prosperity. This was a
wealthy church and they had the ability. The word “ability” is a verb in the
imperfect tense and it means they kept on having the ability. The middle voice:
they were benefited. The indicative mood was the reality of the fact that they
were constantly blessed of the Lord and able to give. The word to determine
means to set aside definite money. It was done in a business-like way. Actually
this gift was sent two years later but they started taking the offering at this
time so that they would be ready to help at the proper time. This is the
application of doctrine to experience, the application of the grace of God.
Verse 30 – Barnabas and Saul took
this money at a later time.