Bible Study Lesson for Acts 11:1-18: Peter Explains His Actions

Verses 1-18 consists primarily of Peter retelling the story of Cornelius as described in chapter 10 because he is criticized for accepting Gentiles into the church.
Verses 19-30 describes the birth and growth of the church in Antioch.

Read Acts 11:1-3. When I read these verses I had to laugh - there really, truly is nothing new under the sun! Something good happens - Gentiles have received the word of God - but there is always someone who has to criticize how that good came about and whether or not it is really good! To give the Jewish Christians credit here, they had been abiding by the Jewish laws regarding circumcision and clean/unclean food their entire lives; they were raised to believe that Gentiles were unclean and that their food was unclean and that for a godly Jew to eat their food and to be in their houses was to be disobedient to God.

To us it probably seems a bit silly, but to them it was very serious stuff. Up to this point it had seemed that the good news was following a particular pattern: you were a Jew or converted to Judaism, then you accepted Christ. Or, if you accepted Christ, you had to convert to the legal requirements of Judaism (circumcision, diet, etc.) This trend toward legalism is going to rear its ugly head multiple times in the New Testament. We will see it presented overtly in Acts 15. Here's a preview: Read Acts 15:1-2. Paul will talk about our freedoms (and responsibilities) as Christians in regards to diet in Romans. Read Romans 14:19-23, and about holy days in Colossians 2:16-17. I do not doubt that such freedoms would have seemed very strange to the Jewish Christians (though perhaps not to the Gentiles, who were probably not raised under such strict guidelines) and would have taken some getting used to.

{ Discussion questions: Can you think of examples of legalism that you have seen crop up in the church today? What are we supposed to do if we are interacting with a brother/sister who has different beliefs about what the Christian walk is supposed to look like? What are we supposed to do if our home church/denomination puts requirements on us, as individuals, which we don't agree with? }

Peter defends his actions by retelling the story of the previous chapter. Read Acts 11:4-14. In verse 14 we are given a little more information than what was told in chapter 10, the angel tells Cornelius that he and his household will be saved. The term "household" includes not only Cornelius' family, but also his slaves, and any servants/employees that worked for him.

Read Acts 11:15. Peter's audience would have understood that "the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning" meant that the Gentiles spoke in tongues, just like the Jews had at Pentecost.

Read Acts 11:16. Peter is reminding his audience of what is recorded in Acts 1:4-5.

Read Acts 11:17-18. Peter makes it clear that he believes that God intervened divinely on behalf of the Gentiles and that there was no way he was going to oppose God's will. After all, only God could have given Cornelius and his family the gift of the Holy Spirit. His audience agrees and accepts that Gentiles, too, can be believers, without first converting to Judaism. This was a major victory and a major step for the church. (Though as we will see, there will be times of backsliding in the future. Read Galatians 2:11-16.)

The rest of this chapter talks about the birth and growth of the church in Antioch.

To be continued...

Sources
Editors. Compton's Interactive Bible (software)
Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford (notes). The Student Bible. NIV Version