START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Acts 10:44-48
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OBSERVE:
It is unfortunate that the lectionary editors have not included the background context of this “mini Pentecost.” What we see in this passage is certainly extraordinary — the Holy Spirit comes on those who hear Peter’s message, and they speak in tongues; and Peter advocates that they also be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
Except for one small, but extremely important detail, this passage could easily have been appended to Acts 2 as a kind of synopsis of what happened on the day of Pentecost. However, the difference between that first Pentecost and what happens on this day is dramatic — the Holy Spirit is poured out for the first time in the book of Acts on those who are clearly identified as Gentiles.
Up until now this movement — known at this point as the Way — has been a Jewish sect. (By the way, they wouldn’t be called Christians until the persecution begins in Antioch, and even then it was likely intended as a term of disparagement. See Acts 11:26.) Now we begin to see the fulfillment of the prophecy from the Hebrew prophet Joel, who is quoted by Peter in his sermon on Pentecost:
It will be in the last days, says God,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh…
It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.(Acts 2:17,21).
The back story can be quickly summed up. Peter was staying at the home of Simon the tanner when messengers from the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius begged Peter to come and visit him. Cornelius was what was called a “God-fearer,” which means he was a Gentile who had come to believe in the God of Israel but had stopped short of full conversion, which included circumcision.
Peter was hesitant because Cornelius was a Gentile. We must remember that to the Jewish mind of the time a Gentile (literally meaning “of the nations”) was unclean; Jews were to have as little to do with Gentiles as possible. But then Peter received a vision from God — he saw a sheet lowered from heaven filled with a variety of different foods, many of which were considered non-kosher. Non-kosher meant that these foods were unclean, and a practicing Jew would never eat them. When Peter declined to eat, God said to him:
What God has cleansed, you must not call unclean (Acts 10:15).
Peter got the message. He interpreted the vision as God’s permission to visit the home of Cornelius and to preach the Gospel, even in the house of a Roman! And when he does, the Holy Spirit is poured out on all who heard Peter’s sermon. In the book of Acts, this is the beginning of the spread of the Gospel into the Gentile world. Through the ministry of Peter, Barnabas, Paul, Silas, and Timothy, the church will take this new faith beyond its Jewish roots.
These Gentile converts have experienced all that their Jewish colleagues have experienced previously on Pentecost in Jerusalem — the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon them, they have spoken in tongues, and they have been baptized.
APPLY:
There are two levels to this story that make it extremely relevant to the modern church and to contemporary Christians.
On the one hand, there is the story of the conversion of these Gentiles. They hear the Gospel preached, the Holy Spirit quickens their own spirits, their faith is made manifest as they begin to speak in tongues, and Peter can see no reason they shouldn’t be baptized into Christ like anyone else who has come to faith.
This is the classic recipe for Christian formation:
- The Word is proclaimed.
- The Holy Spirit is poured out on those who hear and believe.
- Their faith is manifested through spiritual gifts.
- The new believers are baptized as a sign of God’s grace.
However, there is a second level to this account that the contemporary church needs to hear as well. God is impartial in his distribution of grace. One of the issues that had to be resolved in the early church was whether this new faith would remain merely a sub-sect of Judaism, like the Essenes or the Pharisees, or would reach out beyond its origins to the non-Jewish world.
What had to be overcome was the sense of exclusion and even bigotry that existed — in this case not of Gentiles toward Jews, but of Jews toward Gentiles. Note that:
They of the circumcision who believed were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was also poured out on the Gentiles.
It is my sincere belief that the faith of Israel as revealed in the Hebrew Bible was intended to be inclusive. The language that describes Israel as the “elect” and “God’s chosen people” was not meant to suggest that God did not intend to include the Gentiles in his salvation history. Quite the opposite! Israel was to be a “light to the nations” and a “nation of priests” for the nations. That is why the Messiah came as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy. Everything that Israel had experienced, from the Patriarchs to the Exodus to the Exile up to the Return, was part of the plan that was to be fulfilled in the Jewish Jesus who was Son of God and Son of Mary.
So, what this means to us today is that we must recognize our own “Jewish” heritage as Christians. Our Jewish roots bear fruit in our Christian faith.
However, we are also reminded that there are other boundaries that also fall because of the Christian faith. Ephesians 2:14-15 says of Christ:
For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace.
Boundaries of political party, ethnicity, race, socio-economic class, are all torn down because we are all united in Christ.
RESPOND:
The pattern of evangelism and discipleship has been set, and I must be accountable to that pattern:
- Preach the Gospel.
- Expect the Holy Spirit to be manifested through faith and spiritual gifts.
- Baptize those who respond to God’s grace.
I am also to remember that I am to obey God’s Spirit. When God tells me to go and do something, even if it violates my own prejudices and preferences, I need to listen. And obey.
Lord, pour out your Spirit on all people. Turn us toward you, and unite us as your people. Amen.
PHOTOS: Background texture for “Expect God to show up”: “Chalk Board” by Dave Linscheid is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.
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