I worked with a supervisor who was very by the book. Every T crossed, every I dotted. Fortunately, I did not report to him, I think I may have done something drastic if I had.
But I remember receiving the occasional email from him. Like any up and coming member of management, he had a sage, carefully crafted and hopefully profound (to HIS boss) signature like “Yes we can,” “If you fall seven ties, get up eight,” or as we fantasized with this guy, “The beatings will stop when morale improves.”
His email signature was mundane, engineer-like: “If it’s not documented, it’s not done.” You engineers and other societal outcasts (JK) are nodding in silent agreement. But it never struck me until several years later how true that statement is.
The act of making another major change to the relationship between God and people through the Gospel was and is forever profound. But now, to add salvation to the Gentiles, this blew a LOT of Jewish fuses. The act was to reverberate throughout the rest of the Book of Acts, and it needed to be told (documented) by a teller who was just as flabbergasted.
So what change does God want to make with you that you’re resisting? And will you (and I) be willing to hear that voice, often a friend or trusted one, that’s calling for it?
Acts 11:1-2 – Through the grapevine, the news spread fast. They were shocked and stunned, resentful that Peter went to the Gentiles. Change is seldom easy, especially for the pious Jewish believer, who throughout her life, has obeyed the laws and testimonies of the Mosaic Law. So when word of this event with Peter is made known, the natural inclination is to “take issue.”
Acts 11:4 – A parchment or scroll was generally not larger than 35 feet. Books tended to be concise for this reason. So why would the HS inspire Luke to repeat this story? Because it is very important.
Acts 11:10 – Isa 61:10
Acts 11:12 – Peter was wise in bringing six men to be witnesses.
Acts 11:17 – Who indeed,
Acts 11:19 – It took the blood of the martyr to propagate the Gospel. These new Christians are still preaching primarily to Jews, though.
Acts 11:20 – Antioch was the 3rd largest city in Rome with a population of about a half million people, and a center of commerce. In the mythology the city was dedicated to Daphne, the Goddess of seduction, being seduced by Apollo. It was became the center of the Christian faith after Jerusalem Christians were persecuted. See Acts 6:5, 13:1, 14, chapters 14 & 15, and Galatians 2:11 and 2 Tim 3:11.
Acts 11:23 – Note the effect of the grace of God.
It is the heart that God looks at.
Acts 11:25 – anazeteo – to seek high and low energetically, used only by Luke here and when Jesus was left back at Jerusalem. (Luke 2:44)
Acts 11:26 – Note the pattern: In v 20 was preaching, v 23 exhorting v26 teaching by Paul; a perfect troika, all necessary.
Christians – “little Jesus” – what a wonderful epithet.
Acts 11:28 – By meeting in koinonia and being in the Spirit, these Christians didn’t just ooh and ahh from the works shown, non they went on to the practical ministry implied by it. We see Agabus later in the book Acts 21:10 prophesying over Paul’s belt as to Paul’s future. He here prophesies that a famine from 46 to 48 AD would occur. This gave the saints the opportunity, like Joseph, to prepare for it, and to exercise giving to the saints in Jerusalem, who would be in terrible poverty owing to their being disavowed by the Jewish community for their faith.