Chapter 1: What happened with the Gentiles in Caesarea?
Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today, everybody finds out what happened with the Gentiles in Caesarea yesterday. When Peter gets back to Jerusalem, trouble is brewing. Yesterday, Peter mentioned that Jews weren't supposed to associate with foreigners. That's one reason why God had to correct his thinking by giving him the vision.
But the rest of the Christ followers back in Jerusalem didn't see that vision. They don't understand what's going on. A group of them known as the Circumcision Party are not happy with the fact that Peter, one of the main apostles, has gone to hang out with a bunch of Gentiles.
Their primary argument is that any foreigners who commit to following the Jewish Messiah should have to convert to Judaism and adopt the Jewish practice of circumcision as well, since that's been the sign that has set them apart for thousands of years.
Being set apart has been a major part of their culture for thousands of years, and any time foreigners have decided to follow Yahweh, they've assimilated into Judaism. Now that the Messiah has come and said that the gospel would go everywhere, they realize that lots of foreigners are probably going to be converting. They really want to protect their culture. Plus, this is all so new.
Chapter 2: Why was Peter's vision significant for the early church?
They probably have no idea what to do with it. And the different opinions are causing a lot of division and tension among the believers. In these early days of the church, when they're figuring things out, it can feel kind of clunky.
It reminds me of the Israelites in the wilderness, fresh out of 400 years of slavery, trying to figure out how to live as a free people in a civil society and follow a patient God instead of an evil dictator. There's so much to learn, so many adjustments to make.
But God patiently walks them through all the transitions, like the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the gospel being preached to all the nations proactively, which is something the Jews have never really done. They've been very insular. Making converts isn't really their thing, even today.
So especially early on, as the church is trying to follow Jesus' command to spread the gospel, it's important to them to get God's seal of approval on any new decisions for it to be obvious and evident as they move forward that they're making the right decisions.
That's why they need to see the activity of the Spirit, why they need to see obvious evidence that God is the one at the helm of anything new. Peter wants the circumcision party to know that God approved of everything he did, not because he's being defensive, but because he knows they need this kind of verification. And they're open to reason.
He patiently explains everything that happened in order. He tells them that God the Spirit spoke to him and told him to go to Caesarea to speak to the Gentiles. He shares the vision with them. He tells them how the Gentiles all believed and how the Holy Spirit fell on them all. And he points them to a teaching of Jesus that foretold this very thing.
Remember how Jesus was always dropping little time capsules of truth along the way? Things that didn't make sense in the moment, but that he knew they'd need in the future? Then Peter says, if God is approving of them, who am I to deny them?
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Chapter 3: How did the Circumcision Party react to Peter's actions?
And not only does the circumcision party agree that Peter is right, but they also glorify God for welcoming in the outsiders. This is incredible. This is an important turning point in the early church. It's where we start to see that more than anything else, the Holy Spirit is the marker of God's people, not circumcision. He is the unifier of his people across all racial and cultural divides.
Some of the believers who fled Jerusalem in the persecution are preaching the gospel but only to the Jews, probably because they haven't been filled in yet on what has happened with Peter and the Gentiles. Others preach the gospel to the Greek-speaking Jews known as the Hellenists, so they're branching out a little bit. And as we know, some of the Hellenists are already believers.
They're the ones whose widows were being ignored in Acts 6. When these other Hellenists are converted, they start a church in their city, Antioch, which is in modern-day Turkey. Barnabas gets word of it and goes to make sure everything is running smoothly. Then he even brings Saul with him and they stay there for a year, teaching them and building them up.
And for the first time in Scripture, believers in Jesus are called Christians. This word is actually only used three times in Scripture, including here. The church in Antioch is thriving, and they're even sending money back to Jerusalem to help care for the Christians there during a famine. Then we run into King Herod again, but for the first time. Same name, different king.
Here's a quick refresher. Herod the Great was king when Jesus was born. He's the one who had all the babies murdered in Matthew 2. Herod Antipas was king when Jesus was crucified, and he's also the one who beheaded JTB. And now his nephew, Herod Agrippa, is on the throne. You don't need to remember any of that. There will not be a quiz.
But if you want to read more on the Herods, there's an article in the show notes. Herod Agrippa is a major persecutor of Christians in Jerusalem. He gets violent with a lot of them, and he murders one of the apostles in Jesus' inner circle, James, as in Peter, James, and John.
The local Jews are thrilled about this, and Herod wants to make them love him even more, so he arrests Peter during Passover. This feels all too familiar. The church starts praying fervently for Peter. He's locked up with two chains between two soldiers being watched by two guards. Guess they didn't know with Peter you need threes.
At some point during the night, an angel wakes him up by punching him in the side. I'm not kidding. The word here means a forceful blow. Punched by an angel. Wednesdays at 8, 7 central. The angel tells him to get up, then his chains fall off, and they walk straight out of the iron door as it opens right in front of them. At first, Peter thinks he just took too much Ambien.
But when he realizes the whole thing is real, he goes to Mary's house. Not Jesus' mom, but the mom of a guy named John Mark. He's believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark, by the way. The disciples are all inside behind locked doors. A girl named Rhoda hears him knock, but she's so overjoyed and shocked that she leaves him outside in the cold.
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Chapter 4: What role did the Holy Spirit play in the acceptance of Gentiles?
What an incredible gift to be given eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to know the truth and to surrender to it. I'm so grateful He has granted me repentance. He's where the joy is. Tomorrow we'll be starting the second half of Acts, so we're linking to a short video overview in the show notes. Video's eight minutes long, so check it out if you have some time to spare.
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