In The Word
Read: Acts 11:1-18
Peter Reports in Jerusalem
11 Now the apostles and the brothers and sisters who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, the Jewish believers took issue with him, 3 saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4 But Peter began and explained at length to them in an orderly sequence, saying, 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky; and it came to where I was, 6 and I stared at it and was thinking about it, and I saw the four-footed animals of the earth, the wild animals, the crawling creatures, and the birds of the sky. 7 I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But a voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’ 10 This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into the sky. 11 And behold, at that moment three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea came up to the house where we were staying. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house.13 And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, ‘Send some men to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here; 14 and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ 15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as He also gave to us after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” 18 When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has also granted to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
Peter arrived back to Jerusalem only to be criticized by his fellow brethren in the ministry. They couldn’t understand why a Jew would go and eat with the Gentiles. Peter explained to them the revelation and truth that God had opened his eyes to see. He then shared with them that God gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Gentile believers just as He had to them as well. They were then quieted down and began to glorify God that the Gentiles received the repentance that leads to life.
Sometimes we can be criticized by our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord today. If we are, then it should be a time of revealing God’s truth to each other. Nothing can be accomplished when there is arguing and disunity. We must always be in agreement with the essentials of God’s truth. Sometimes we might disagree in some areas in God’s Word. This should only be in the areas where there may be some grey areas. On those things we should make our island big enough for all to live on. Why? Because it’s our love for one another that shows the world we are followers of Jesus Christ.
So in some areas, be willing to hear your brother or sister in Christ out and then go to the Scriptures to validate whether what they see lines up with God’s truth. If you don’t see it like they do, realize that you can’t convince anyone, because the Holy Spirit leads and guides us into all truth. So in those areas that no one in 2,000 plus years has been able to figure out, let’s be mature enough to have unity in our disagreement.