The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. Acts 11:1
There are some events that just have to be broadcast and the fact that the Gentiles had ‘received the word of God’ was definitely Front Page News. Peter had followed the leading of the Spirit, but now the repercussions followed. Opposition often follows any genuine move of God’s Spirit, it’s almost a confirmation that it’s from God. Religious spirits hate anything that threatens to change the current state of affairs.
- The Book of Acts is sometimes referred to as the Acts of the Holy Spirit, He was the one who was initiating all the change. We listened to an episode of Elijahstreams last night where the speaker, Johnny Enlow, said that it was the Holy Spirit who ‘Driving the events’ in society today. He also said that things would never again be as they were, so we shouldn’t yearn for the past.
2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticised him (these people all had something in common and wouldn’t accept others who didn’t, often the way) 3 and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
A number of times in Acts we read that the apostles were sent out from the Church in Jerusalem. Acts 8:14, 11:22 But on this occasion it was the Spirit of God that told Peter to go with the Gentiles. He was wise in taking six other men with him who could confirm his account.
Peter had to go up to Jerusalem and speak with the elders of the original church. He gave then a detailed account – (eyewitness detail gives credibility to our words and is hard to refute! That’s part of the reason our testimony is so powerful) – of the vision he’d had three times. Then the arrival of the three messengers from Cornelius, (no time to discuss the next move) with his request for Peter to come to him. The Holy Spirit is good at arranging things His way.
Peter was a leader ‘out on a limb’, but he had to defend his actions before the Elders in Jerusalem. He couldn’t ignore them, they held governmental authority of the recently born Church. Peter’s account came down to the fact that soon after they’d arrived with Cornelius, God’s Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles. He couldn’t undo or oppose God’s sovereign will for these people. Thankfully the elders accepted Peter’s explanation and began to support the Gentile Church.
In the coming days we too may see a very different Church being birthed on the earth. Many standards that people have clung to for their identity may become obsolete, but we can never oppose the moving of God’s Spirit. We need to find out if there’s LIFE in whatever is being done in the Name of the Lord and be flexible. We are not the judges of the New Life in Christ.
God bless and keep you today.