Acts, 10:23-48
Vern Peterman · Apr 24, 2005
Acts (2005), No. 16
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262324264689

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

Alright, what we went over last week, we were talking about the Gentiles having the presentation of the gospel through Peter, witnessed by six Jews there, and what we want to take a look at here comes in just a couple of questions at the end. Aside from the background given as to why the events of this chapter are given such chronological detail, can you think of any other reasons why there would be such a level of chronological detail? The point being that as you read through this passage in Acts 10, 23 through 48, there's all this chronology of this day, the next day, this hour, the next hour, And it's real interesting, there's lots of detail about chronology and time, and so the question why? Tom? Okay, so it's giving lots of chronology details, not just the events, but the chronology details about a huge shift.

The Gentiles are brought into the church and that's being made quite apparent to this group of Jews that's gathered, Peter and the six others. Yeah, good. Any other thoughts on that? Let's think about one thing, because we're going to be looking at it this morning. Imagine you're Peter, or one of the six, but especially Peter.

The Jews are going to have to go back to the group of Jews in Jerusalem, and they're going to say what? Hey, Peter, you've got some telling to do here. You've got some explaining to do, right? What's this you have done, Peter? What were you thinking?" kind of questions.

And Peter is not only going to have to give a very credible account, the giving of a precise chronology that the other six agree to, yes, that's what happened, would verify further the historical reality of this event. Peter wasn't just dreaming this up.

It's something that the others could testify to as to the time and the sequence. It was historical reality as chronicled here by day and even by the hour. It really took place and he was going to have to testify to that and have the other six who are with him testify to the same. Remember, two or three witnesses, certainly six would be sufficient. plenty enough, but their accounts would have to agree. And so what you see here is, here's Dr. Luke recording as an historian, in this case, the detail, this day, this time, this hour, this place, these people. Okay.

What difference does that make to us now? Is there some difference that it makes to us now, seeing this detail to chronology? Some way it matters to us? Yeah, go on. Yeah, certainly this is a pivotal event, isn't it? This is a very pivotal event, and so yes, it has application and implication for us now. So very pivotal, yes. How about also, it serves as verification for us.

This is a real event, not just something that somebody dreamed up. It happened in real space and time, testified by a group of people, all who had testimony that agreed. And Dr. Luke was able to go back, record it, as verifiable history during a period of time when, if anyone were to disagree with the events, they could have done so. They still were alive. So he gives lots of detail at a time when, could it be falsified? It certainly could have been, but it was not.

Okay, how about a second question? What things were different between what Peter said on the day at Pentecost and the events described in Acts 34 through 43? How about the sequence? What was different between the day of Pentecost and this day? Sure, sure. What was different between what Peter said on the day of Pentecost and what he said here in Acts chapter 10 to the Gentiles? On the day of Pentecost, there was a presentation of the gospel to this group of Jews. Here is a presentation of the gospel to Gentiles. Interesting. He records that what happened to the Jews also happened to the Gentiles.

But there was a difference between them, at least one. Tom. Okay, yeah. What's interesting is you had an initial speaking in tongues in the language of the various people who were gathered, about a dozen dialects. Yeah, good point. What else? What else is different between the two events? Yeah, Marian? Ah, isn't that interesting? We have a reverse testimony. The testimony on the day of Pentecost, she's pointing out, was to those who were of the various languages of Jews gathered in Jerusalem. Here, we have a reverse testimony. Who's doing the speaking of tongues?

The Gentiles speaking now to the believing Jews, Peter and the six others gathered. Okay, good point. Excellent observation. What else? At the end of the Day of Pentecost event, Peter goes and points to the Jews and says what? He says repent, yes, and that's a good point, but he points a finger at him, doesn't he? Yes, whom you crucified. Did he do that here with the Gentiles? Something very interesting.

Was not he in the house of a centurion? Couldn't he have said, you did it? This may not have been the centurion there. Probably not. But what's interesting is he doesn't point the fingers that way. Not to this group of Roman soldiers and others gathered there. So you've got a difference there. What else is different, and you touched on it, Josiah, you mentioned on the day of Pentecost they said what?

Repent, okay? Repent, which is not... Repenting isn't sitting there beating your breast and crying and thrashing on the floor and all those things, okay? Repenting isn't when you come up and put your knees on the carpet in front of the church or something like that. Repenting means a change of mind. The Jews needed to change their mind about who Jesus Christ was and what He came to do.

Okay? In the instance here of the Gentiles, it was a calling, you need to believe. There is not a conflict between the two. For the Jews, there was a specific change in direction. For the Gentiles, it's an understanding of the gospel and a believing in it. So they're not in conflict, they're not in addition to one another. It's because the character of what the Jews needed to believe was a reversal. That's why it was a change of mind, a repentance. For the Gentiles, it was a matter of them understanding the gospel in the first place, and then believing. So a different appeal there, a different appeal. Okay, let's turn to Acts 11, 1-30. Hopefully you got the handout here to work with us. What's happening here? All right now.

Here's the time that we talked about before here's Peter Peter's heading back to Jerusalem with the other six and He's got to recount these events again this here's the The leaders gathered in Jerusalem, and they're saying hey Peter. What were you thinking? You know how did this come about Peter you have a little bit of explaining to do I? Ever had one of those experiences? Hopefully they've got something good to say when they ask. But anyway, that's what Peter's up against here.

And then we see the last part of this passage, a shift from a focus on Jerusalem, and everything's been kind of centered around the church in Jerusalem up till now, right? To the church in Antioch. And we'll see how that comes about. So it's a major turning point, not only in this recognition of, yes, the Gentiles have indeed come in. It's also a major turning point in terms of where the church is focused geographically and the direction towards which the church is focused. Up to this point, everything's been, let's get the Jews and converts to Judaism aware of the gospel, and now we have a different situation. We're turning to the Gentiles. We'll see that early on here. Let's look at the background section.

There's a phrase in Acts 11.4 that reflects the attention to detail that we talked about before.

And what happens is we see this attention to chronological detail continue, but Peter began speaking and proceeding to explain to them in orderly sequence, going through this happened this way and this time. And so the attention to detail in chronology and sequence that we saw in chapter 10 Peter continues it. He has a credible, historically pinned down chronology of what took place. This is how it happened, this is the day it happened, this is the time, this is the sequence, this is what took place at each time. So he recounts those things in the same level of detail.

It's interesting, as you look at this, Dr. Luke, as he begins writing the Gospel of Luke, he writes to a fellow otherwise unknown to us named Theophilus. And he says, I gathered, and after comparing and carefully going over everything, I wrote an account. And this particular section here continues this kind of intensive detail that Peter has conveyed to Dr. Luke, apparently. And so we see that quote from Luke 11, 1 through 4.

In as much as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the exact truth about the things you've been taught. You see the precision there? I've carefully looked over everything. We're talking about eyewitness accounts I've written to you in detail and that's what we see here. He's carrying that out and this is a point where that detail, that sequence, that chronology matters a lot.

Peter must go to Jews who have been told for 15 centuries you got Gentiles to contend with and here's how you do it. Now The Gentiles are brought into the church and they don't have to come through Judaism. They don't have to go through the steps. And the separation that's been there is put out of the way. That is a huge change. And so Peter does have a lot of explaining to do, but he does it well. He does it in fine detail. And the rest with him testify and support what he has to say.

One of the details we get out of Acts 11, 1-18 that wasn't presented in Acts 10 was that he went from Joppa to Caesarea with six others. We saw before that there were others. Now we see the six. That's where we got that detail. Then the number of Jews accompanying Peter would provide good verification. Notice we have at least two or three witnesses. Well, we got well over that. No problem with that. And it seems that these were Present there in Jerusalem. That's the evidence from Acts 11 12 these six brethren also went with me It's like he's pointing to him. He's right here. You can ask him. Okay?

All right Then this is in the last paragraph there on the page a massive shift in perspective and mindset as this has been There's doesn't appear to be any doubt on the part of Peter the six Jews or the believing Jews in Jerusalem. I that the door had been opened for the Gentiles. You don't see hours and hours of dispute and all that described here. This is conclusive. Yes, this is what took place.

Okay, now, next page. Now we're shifting over to Antioch. With the exception of a minor mention of a believer from Antioch in Acts 6.5, and that is one of the deacons who has come to Jerusalem, we hear of the church of Antioch for the first time here in Acts 11.19. Now, I've got some bullets there as to why this is important. Why is it critical? Why is this a huge shift and a big difference? It's the most prominent church to be mentioned outside Jerusalem at this point. That's one thing.

Any other church, it was only implied. There's no specific mention of other churches outside Jerusalem. If anything, it's just implication. For example, there's believers in perhaps Joppa, where Peter was with Simon the Tanner. It was the first place that says explicitly that the believers were called Christians. Christians.

Now, what does that mean? Why does that have any significance? Christians. What's that? Yeah, that's right. It didn't exist before. So here's a word that came up, and now that it's in existence, what do people think when they hear of it? To us, it's a word that we've grown up with, we know the meaning, use it the first time. Yeah, there seems to be some, you know, here they were first called Christians, it was noted, and it seemed like this was something to kind of ponder a little bit, because like a new word, It has some significance, you have to let it soak in.

Yeah, Tom? Okay. Yeah The other point next one on there. Here's Antioch. It would be the first church of note with mixtures Jews and Gentiles and And we specifically see that there were Jews there were Gentiles there were both of them, and it was one church Interesting There was no messianic fellowship. It was one church with Jews and Gentiles. This is a radical thing. We think about it. you bring a church together, if you bring people, and Antioch was a place, you know, very much a mixing of cultures, a mixing of languages, it was on the road, as we brought out before, the road from the Silk Road coming over from China and India and the East, the first place it hit the major city in the Roman Empire was Antioch. Antioch bide with Ephesus for the third largest city, and in the century following the New Testament would surpass it. A big city, a huge melting pot, a massive mixture of languages and cultures, and radically different cultures in some cases. Yeah, Tom?

Yeah, you could make a kind of a port city comparison. The L.A. Basin, some people have compared the San Francisco area to be another where you've got people pouring in. Any place like that would be a good comparison where you've got a real mixture of cultures. The truth is, even though we're not a port city, far from it, we have quite a mixture of cultures here.

There's quite a, for example, about 40,000 of Russian descent here in the Denver area. Quite a number, you may have noticed, of Korean churches. And so there's a lot of mix of that. A number of different cultures are here in the Denver area. In any place like that where you can think of a mixture of different cultures, that was Antioch. That was Antioch. Here we also have evangelism and teaching, both, sprang from people who are not all directly centered out of Jerusalem. It wasn't a bunch of people coming out of Jerusalem saying, hey, let's just move ourselves up to Antioch and kind of transplant something there. This seems to have been brought together from different places, and we'll see as we study on what that means.

We mentioned here it was becoming the largest city in the Roman Empire, excuse me, third largest city. It would pass Ephesus in the middle of the next century, roughly a little over a century later. It was the first major city along the Silk Road trade route that was within the boundaries of the Roman Empire, as they came in from China, from India, brought in silk and spices and some of the more valuable things out of the east. The first place they hit the Roman Empire, as far as any major city, was Antioch. From there it scattered up to the south, to North Africa, and to the north into Asia Minor and into Europe. So you had a moving and it all focused through Antioch, the first place in the Roman Empire that it would hit, as far as any major city is concerned.

We also see an emphasis on believers being built up. That's something we studied recently in Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. And we see that ministry being described here in that building up process. The other thing that we also see coming out of Antioch, whereas Jerusalem you see little movements here and there to reach into other areas, from Antioch it's like this is a major thing.

A missionary-mindedness comes out of Antioch, and it's new. And they have the latitude and liberty to do that, in part because they have this understanding, hey, this word needs to get out in Gentile lands, and it isn't just going to hang around Jerusalem. It's no longer temple-centered. It's no longer centered around the Jews. That's a big change. And final bullet there, Antioch, along with the church at Ephesus, retained a more literal approach to scripture in the next few centuries.

One of the things we covered in church history, some of you have had a chance to take that, is what took place is that about the third century, a lot of Greek ideas about the interpretation of scripture got carried over among the Christians, and there was an increasing tendency to allegorize scripture. We would look at it and say, you're kidding. Ridiculously allegorizing scripture. Job's seven sons represented the twelve apostles. Figure that one out.

There was a compulsion to allegorize scripture that was brought into the church. There was even this idea that the literal understanding was babyish. the allegorical understanding is spiritually mature. With that idea being carried across, it was Ephesus and Antioch that maintained the idea of a literal understanding of scripture the longest. They finally became overwhelmed as what eventually became the Orthodox and Catholic churches, kind of overwhelmed the churches there. But Antioch and Ephesus were the ones who held on to literal interpretation the longest And then that literal interpretation became very much a minority in the church.

Maintaining, but a minority. Okay, you'll see a couple of color items there at the bottom of that page. One of the things you'll take a look at is there is mention in this passage of these different leaders, people coming from different places, You had people coming from Cyrene, which is over, I think that's now in Libya. So you had Cyrene there on the western end of the map on North Africa. And from Cyprus. So people coming over from different places. So it's real interesting.

Antioch was evangelized by people not just from Jerusalem, but people from other places, sometimes fairly distant. And those people then came to Antioch and brought the gospel. Some of them only came to the Jews, but it makes mention some of them also went to the Greek-speaking people, the Gentiles. There, as you see in the picture, and also we have up here, this is modern Antioch.

That's the site there. Antioch, so you can see kind of the name has been in general structure retained. But that's the site. It is not right on the coast, but very near the coast. And as we'll see in subsequent study, there's a port city right nearby that Antioch would use for access to the water. Okay. Now, interesting things. There are some extra-biblical traditions, that is, traditions outside of Scripture. They're in writing, but of course, once we step outside of Scripture, you have varying reliability.

I thought I'd pass them along because it's kind of interesting. One of those indicates that Luke was from Antioch. So that would be interesting that Dr. Luke came from there. And another was that Peter was located there from 47 to 54 AD. Some possible biblical support for that, Galatians 2. Both of those, again, are extra-biblical traditions, so we need to remember that's not, you know, nailed down history. It does not have a level of reliability of scripture.

But, interesting considerations. Alright, we've got some questions here. We want you to speculate. Can you handle that? Speculate a little? Item 1, well it calls for speculation what might have been the outcome of events in the church had Peter not been able to convince the rest of the believing Jews in Jerusalem that the Gentiles had come to faith in Christ directly and that by God's intent. So you think about that, what could have been the outcome? Peter goes to Jerusalem and he tells these guys the account and they say we don't believe you. What might have been the outcome? what might have happened.

Think about that. Again, it's speculation. It's up to you to figure out what could have been there. The second question. The Lord used Peter to bring the gospel to the Gentiles even though Paul was to be the apostle to the Gentiles. The question is, is there good reason for the Lord to have done it this way? Now, Tom, we're just thinking about it now. So for next week. So don't answer it yet. Okay. So what if Paul had been the one to present the gospel to the Gentiles first? So give that some thought. Bless you.

And then number three, in Antioch, we find there's a mindset to extend ministry into other geographical areas. The mindset first shows up in the offer of financial support for the church in Judea. The church in Antioch also seems to involve Barnabas, who came from the church in Jerusalem. And the question is, do you see a spirit of competition between the churches in Jerusalem and Antioch?

One, after all, is the founding church. One, after all, is a church that's Jewish through and through. It's the place where it started. It's the place that has the people who actually saw the Lord and actually saw him resurrected, and those kinds of things. Do you see it? And what difference would that make? So, ponder those questions. Those are for you to take a look at here. Now, any questions, thoughts here? We're actually quite a bit early ahead of schedule. Thoughts, questions?

I was thinking something about how the Jews in Jerusalem would have received the news that the Gentiles were part of the church or that Peter was spending time with the Gentiles. Because the Jews had a history. One of the descendants of of the Alexander the Great's generals, one of the Syrians, not the Ptolemies, but the guys of Seleucus, they tried, when they kind of wrested control of Palestine from the Ptolemies, they tried to Hellenize the Jews. Yes, they tried to force the Greek culture and religion on them. 170 BC, something like that? You're thinking like 165? Yeah, you're thinking Antiochus? Yeah, yeah.

The Greek cultural background ruler actually tried to force the Jews to participate in parades to the god of wine. Pagan parades to the god of wine. It was well established in Greek and Roman culture. You might have heard of Bacchus. and well-established in Greek and Roman culture, and he came in with the threat of death. You're going to do this too. And yeah, it was quite a time trying to make it happen, and ultimately he didn't succeed. Yes, yes. So that's part of their culture and context. Yep. I might also, you brought up a good point.

There was a kind of a rotation of severe persecutions against the Jews that kind of went around the Mediterranean. And the general drift of it was it went along North Africa, and in Alexandria they had a huge bloody time where they just slaughtered a whole bunch of Jews like out in the amphitheater. And it wasn't legal. but the Roman governor just stood on and smiled while it took place and that rotated around up to Antioch so there had been a period of time where it was getting more and more intense conflict between the Jews and the Gentiles and so to have this interaction and to have the Jews and the Gentiles in Antioch actually call one another brothers and say, we are one church.

That was profound. That was shocking stuff. The cultural background that preceded this made this just an amazing thing. This is phenomenal. Yeah, Marianne. I think that's an excellent point, Marion, because this is something, culturally, this kind of thing shouldn't happen. If you were to say, what does the culture point towards that, this wouldn't be what you would guess. What? I'm having Jews, and we've just been through several decades of intense, even bloody conflict, and now we've got Jews telling the Gentiles the gospel, and ending up calling each other brothers, and ending up going to the same assembly, it's no longer a synagogue, the same assembly, and Yes, yeah, and we'll look at that.

You look in the area around Antioch. They had all kinds of pagan gods and goddesses that they worshipped. Some of them were more Greek in origin. Some of them were names we see in the Old Testament from many centuries back. And now here we have this place where all those are being called to a relationship with the Lord. And what's the appeal? No longer, here's the long list of rules, no longer we hate you because it's ingrained in us, but we're brothers because we both put our trust in the Lord and we're going to spend eternity together.

That was radical. That was a huge change and something that the world had never seen up to this time. Sociologically, you would not predict it based on the things that you had seen go on. in that culture up to that time. It was indeed a work of the Lord through the Holy Spirit to bring this about, to bring people who historically hated each other's guts to the point of bloodletting and to love one another and call one another brothers and to say, this is so good we've got to go tell somebody else. And Gentile brother or Jewish brother, I'll go along with you. Yeah, this is wonderful stuff and this is miraculous stuff. This is stuff that evidences the work of the Holy Spirit in hearts.

Unparalleled in history. Nothing like it. Excellent point. Any other thoughts and observations here? We're going to see more about this church in Antioch because it's going to be the sending church for Paul and Barnabas here in a couple chapters. And as I look at it, I get really excited about it. I look at it and I see this is amazing work that the Lord is doing. Doing radical things never done before. Things contrary to the culture, contrary...

Here Paul, the one who would go out just not that many years before and hunt down every Christian he could. And Paul himself testifies later in Acts. He says, if I had a chance, I voted for death. Every chance I could, I voted for death. Now, I'll go out and even if it means death, I'll tell everybody I can. I'll teach day and night.

That is a radical change. That's marvelous stuff. Anything else? Okay, let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, we're indeed turning a corner that is beyond what can be described from any human perspective, what can be justified and what can be understood. This is indeed a meeting, Lord, of fallen human beings that have been gloriously and marvelously transformed by your grace. And Lord, as we see this phenomenal event taking place, as we see lives being changed that by any earthly explanation should not have changed. As we see people calling one another brother and willing to go out and go certainly out of their way to tell others, that is a transforming that is indeed remarkable.

We thank you for what is recorded here, for our blessing. We thank you that as we see them going through these sequence of steps that we can tell that you are teaching them, building them up, that they're learning and understanding more. And we pray the same for ourselves. And we thank you for the position that we have in you that makes that possible. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.