Daily Thoughts from Acts: From Criticism to Praise (Acts 11:1-18)

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” But Peter began and explained it to them in order: “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’  As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”  (Acts 11:1-18 ESV)

The inclusion of Gentiles in this manner into the church, without their having to become Jews (for males that meant being circumcised and something in one way a Gentile could never really become) was perhaps the most important facet of the new wine skin of Jesus’ message.  It meant there was no wall between God and every people on the planet.  It meant the completely Jewish skin of the faith would be altered to include the skin of every nation.  That would bring with it many changes to the shape and sound of the Way.  We see it today.  It is not the obliteration of variety but the multiplication of it.

It was very difficult for these Jewish Christians to accept.  This is why Peter had taken with him several Jewish believers as witnesses and why he recounts what happened so that these believers could see that God is behind this.  When the testimony is given there is nothing they can say in response but “Praise God!”

This did not completely solve the issue as will be seen later in chapter 15.  Making this shift is not without controversy.  Though it is not completely analogous, this is somewhat like the controversy that surrounds whether a Muslim must sever all ties to the mosque to become a Christian, or whether any ethnic minority who has been viewed as less than equal to the majority, can be received as an equal.  God’s answer is yes, they must be.

We still struggle with this.  It is still tempting to make our experience of faith the experience that each of our converts must have.  Missions around the world has wrestled with this greatly.  I remember sitting in a church in India as we sang obviously British hymns, whose tunes I recognized and which the congregation sang rather listlessly, and then experiencing the exuberance with which they sang the obviously Indian hymns.  It is at the heart of our struggle with contemporary versus  traditional worship in American churches.  We experienced God this way, and so must you.  Lord, help us not to criticize the variety but to say, “Praise God!”