Introduction

Throughout history there have been events that have marked the beginning of a new era; the invention of the printing press, the first telegraph message, the first man on the moon. After these events the world was never the same and people’s minds were opened to whole new vistas of possibilities. In our reading this week we come across just such an event.

Up to this point in the story the good news of Jesus has been spread to Judea and Samaria, within the confines of the covenant God made with Abraham. (A case could be made that the Ethiopian was actually a Jewish convert). In other words, the Kingdom of God was simply being restored to its original design. We saw how much this stretched Peter last week and how God had allowed him a respite of peace. This week Peter is about to face his greatest challenge. He is about to step across the great chasm of racism and learn that God loves Gentiles and desires for all people to be included in his Kingdom.

In the second half of the week we see the beginning of great changes in the church. In preparation for the launch of the “ends of the earth” campaign, we begin to see a shifting of focus away from Jerusalem as the center of the church and notice that God has a special place for the multicultural melting pot called Antioch. As Herod, the false King of the Jews, falls under his own pride, the true King of the Jews, Jesus, is positioning his forces to conquer the world with grace, peace, and most of all love for all people.

Outline

Monday: Crossing the Great Divide

Tuesday: Peter’s Transformation

Wednesday: A New Center

Thursday: Of Prayer and Pain

Friday: The King of the Jews?

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Acts 10:1-48

Read the following description of Caesarea.

Named in honour of the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus, it was the Roman metropolis of Judaea and the official residence both of the Herodian kings and the Roman procurators....

The city was lavishly adorned with palaces, public buildings and an enormous amphitheatre, dominated by Herod’s huge temple dedicated to Caesar and Rome.... Like other NT Mediterranean communities, Caesarea had a mixed population, making for inevitable clashes between Jews and Gentiles.

Based upon this description, how do you think the devout Jews felt about Caesarea? Why?

What qualities/behaviors did Cornelius demonstrate that "got God's attention?"

How is this portrait of Cornelius different from the image the Jews must have had when they envisioned a Roman centurion?

Read Leviticus 11. This was the Law that Peter had been taught from the time he was a child. How do you think he felt when he saw the vision of the animals in the sheet and was told to eat?

Read Mark 7:18-19. What did Jesus teach about food?

According to v.28, why is this scene so radical?

What was Cornelius' attitude in v.33? Why is it important to have this attitude?

What realization did Peter finally come to regarding the nature of God? Why was this such an important paradigm shift, not only for Peter, but for the church as a whole?

Here we have another account of the Holy Spirit being poured out on a group of people (similar to Pentecost and the Samaritans). Observe the sequence of events that surrounded this occurrence: baptism, belief, laying on of hands, tongues, etc. How does this compare to the other accounts?

Crossing the Great Divide

Peter’s vision on the tanner’s roof must have been one of the most confusing moments of his life. Try to place yourself in his shoes (or sandals). For his entire life he had been taught that it was wrong to eat certain types of food. In fact, it wasn’t just wrong, it was a sin and doing so would cause God to reject you as an unclean person. Compounded with this teaching was the notion that the reason the world was so bad was because so many people were not obeying these rules and these “unclean” people were polluting our society and they must be avoided at all costs. Even associating with them would spoil you, corrupt you, and bring the wrath of God down on your head.

Now, look into the sheet that is full of unclean animals and hear the voice that says, “Take and eat.” What?!? Surely not, Lord. That is you, right God? I mean, how could you possibly ask me to do this?

At this point we (as the reader) must stop and make a very important decision. Is this the voice of God, or is this an imposter that was impersonating the voice of God and asking Peter to do something that would disobey God and bring his wrath down on his head and throw the church into a wrong turn that would destroy it forever? The answer to this question will determine how you interpret the rest of Scripture.

If

• this is an imposter, then we might as well throw the rest of the Bible out and forget about it, because the rest of the New Testament hinges upon this story.
• this was truly God’s voice, then we need to come to grips with the fact that God asked Peter to do something that appeared to be a sin in Peter’s mind.

Here are some thoughts and observations:

1. Perhaps it wasn’t that God was contradicting himself, perhaps it was that Peter’s theology, as it had been handed down to him through generations of teachers, had become fundamentally distorted and had strayed from the core of God’s heart and intention. When God gave the dietary laws to the slaves in Egypt, he was protecting them from disease and pestilence in an environement that was very hostile to their survival. They were untrained as a nation and they were moving into cultures that undoubtedly carried disease that was foreign to their systems. Because God is a loving God who cares about his people, and because his intent for Abraham’s family was to be a blessing to all nations, God instituted dietary laws. Throughout the centuries these laws had become distorted and had evolved into a tool to drive a wedge between nations. By Peter’s day the dietary laws had become a badge of honor that set the Jewish people apart from the “heathen.” They also became a litmus test of holiness that would keep the wrath of God at bay and prove one’s worth in the kingdom. The law that had given life in its conception now bred death and destruction. God was not contradicting himself; he was confronting distortion and beginning the liberation process for Peter and the church.
2. Following God is a scary and unpredictable endeavor. Look at the great stories of the leaders in the Bible – Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Elijah. When was God tame and predictable in those stories? God told Abraham to go into the unknown, with no map or instruction book; only a relationship with God. God threw Joseph into a dungeon with no explanation or hope. He only had faith. God led Moses with a wild pillar of fire and smoke, and led him on unpredictable paths through the wilderness. God allowed David to enter the holy place and he didn’t die. David followed God with his heart as he bumbled around with his own sinfulness. Elijah knew God well enough to call for rain and hear God’s gentle whisper in the cleft of the rock. Each of these men did not follow a predictable, law-bound God. Instead, they were in relationship with the infinite, Almighty, and they obeyed him as he led.

Today, Peter begins that journey with God. Get up and eat. Now go and extend the right hand of fellowship to the man who represents all that you have been told is evil in the world. Step across the great divide and allow God to do his work in spite of your shortsightedness.

Here is the message for the church today. Many times we become focused on the “laws” that we have created. “Good Christians” do this and “Good Christians” DON’T do that! “Oh, I can’t believe he went and did ________! I thought he was a Christian? We must no longer associate with them.”

Remember, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus brought us a new law. He called us to holiness; to perfection. Yet, the perfection he called us to was not about what we do or don’t do on the outside. He called us to grow in the perfection of God’s unconditional, absolute love. We are called to love the unlovely, the sick, the enemy, and the “unclean.”

Where are the dividing walls today? Are there any places in our hearts where we find the self-righteous tendencies that so easily creep up and place us in the camp with the Pharisees? Are there any people, Christian or not, that we consider to be “unclean” because of the things that they do on the outside of their body, before we ever take the time to examine the inside of their heart? Perhaps we can walk across the bridge of God’s Kingdom alongside of Peter and reach out a hand today.

Just For Kids

Have some fun acting out the story of Peter’s vision. Get a blanket or a sheet and fill it with your stuffed animals. Have one person pretend to be Peter while he was taking a nap. Have a couple people hold the sheet in front of Peter.

God said, “Take and eat!”

Peter replied, “Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

God said, ““Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

This happened three times.

Why was Peter not willing to eat the animals that he saw in the sheet? (Read Leviticus 11 for a clue)

Have you ever had a time when your parents asked you to do something that was against one of the rules that they had made? Think of a time when this would be appropriate.

Here are two things to keep in mind:

1. God is the one who makes up the rules, when he says it’s OK to do something, then it is OK.
2. We don’t get to break God’s rules just because we think it’s OK. God is the only one who gets to make that decision.

In both cases we need to remember that God is in charge, not us.

Wood, D. R. W. (1996). New Bible dictionary (3rd ed. /) (Page 153). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.

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Tuesday

Acts 11:1-18

How was Peter received when he arrived in Jerusalem?  Why?

What association did Peter make between the encounter with Cornelius and the teaching of Jesus?  How did this event impact Peter's theology?

How did it affect the theology of the church in Jerusalem?

In what ways do you see the church in our contemporary culture getting stuck on some theological distortions in the same way the Jewish Christians like Peter had become?

In what ways could God be trying to break us free from these distorted views?

Read and meditate on

Romans 10:12

Galatians 3:28

Colossians 3:11

Peter’s Transformation

Today we are reminded of a very important Bible Study principle. Whenever something is repeated in Scripture it is a strong indication that this is a very important thing that needs to be given attention. In today’s reading we see the duplication of Peter’s experience with Cornelius. Luke could have easily said that Peter simply told them what happened and saved himself a lot of precious parchment space. The fact that he launches into a second recounting of the story tells us that Luke saw this story as crucial to the overall message of Acts.

Here are three thoughts for today:

This story is crucial for the message of Acts. We discussed this yesterday. The Kingdom of God is about fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham that He would bless all nations. Racism and prejudice of any kind is one of the greatest hindrances to the love of God that exists in our world.

When you obey God’s wild call, you will often be misunderstood by fellow Christians. The majority of Jesus followers love to have safety nests and rules to follow. When there are clear-cut rules and life is black-and-white, then things are much easier to manage. That’s fine. Many people function best this way and God can definitely bless that and use it. However, God also calls his people to push the envelope and shake things up from time to time. If God is calling you to do that, just remember Peter. The believers back at Jerusalem gave him a lot of heat for what he did with Cornelius. People are resistant to change and God’s change-agents tend to be unpopular people much of the time.

Change is hard, even for the change-agent. It is comforting to realize that Peter was in process himself. He did not fully understand what was happening around him or the role that God had used him in to turn the religious scene on its ear. Peter was simply obedient. Later on in the story we’ll see that Peter continued to struggle with the racial tension that was deep inside his own soul. However, the lesson we need to follow is found in Peter’s simple statement, “Who was I to think that I could oppose God?” May this be our attitude each day. We are called not necessarily to understand, but simply to obey when God says, “Go!”

Just For Kids

Read the following verses

Romans 10:12

Galatians 3:28

Colossians 3:11

What do these verses tell us about how God feels about the difference between boys and girls, nationalities, and cultures?

What are some cultures that you don’t understand or seem so different to you that you might be a little bit afraid of it? Spend some time praying for that culture and asking God to show you how you could learn to love that culture the way God does.

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Wednesday

Acts 11:19-30

Read the following article that describes the city of Antioch .

Antioch on the Orontes , now Antakya in SE Turkey , some 500 km N of Jerusalem, was founded c. 300 bc by Seleucus I Nicator after his victory over Antigonus at Issus (310 bc). It was the most famous of sixteen Antiochs established by Seleucus in honour of his father. Built at the foot of Mt Silpius, it overlooked the navigable river Orontes and boasted a fine seaport, Seleucia Pieria. While the populace of Antioch was always mixed, Josephus records that the Seleucids encouraged Jews to emigrate there in large numbers, and gave them full citizenship rights ( Ant. 12.119).

Antioch fell to Pompey in 64 bc, and he made it a free city. It became the capital of the Roman province of Syria , and was the third largest city of the empire. The Seleucids and Romans erected magnificent temples and other buildings.

Even under the Seleucids the inhabitants had gained a reputation for energy, insolence and instability, which manifested itself in a series of revolts against Roman rule. Nevertheless, Antioch was renowned for its culture, being commended in this respect by no less a person than Cicero (Pro Archia 4). Close by the city were the renowned groves of Daphne, and a sanctuary dedicated to Apollo, where orgiastic rites were celebrated in the name of religion. Despite the bad moral tone, life in Antioch at the beginning of the Christian era was rich and varied.

What was unique about the ministry of those from Cypress and Cyrene as opposed to those from Jerusalem ?

Why did the church in Jerusalem send Barnabus to Antioch ?

Read the following description of Tarsus .

The coinage of the period suggests a mingling of Greek and Oriental influence....The Tarsus of Paul, [was a] synthesis of East and West, Greek and Oriental.

Given the fact that Saul was born in Tarsus , and had been there for several years since his conversion, why do you suppose Barnabus went to get him?

What was the nature of Barnabus and Saul's ministry in Antioch ?

What was the role of the prophet in the church in Antioch ?

How did the church in Antioch respond to the prophet's message?  What does this tell you about the character of this church?

A Shift in Center

Society longs to have a center. It needs to have a place from which and to which all ideas flow. For the Roman Empire it was the city of Rome that lay at the center of its people. For centuries it was Jerusalem that lay at the center of the Jewish culture. At the center of Jerusalem was the temple with all of its pomp and circumstance. In that house it was believed that the presence of God made His dwelling.

In our story today, Luke drives home one of the major themes of Acts. Luke continually teaches us that there is no political or geographical center to the Kingdom of God. To demonstrate this point we see that the center of influence in the early church began to drift from Jerusalem to the city of Antioch.

This shift makes sense for two reasons:

1. Theologically. God was communicating to his people that it was not the physical temple and the racially exclusivistic Jews that comprised the Kingdom; rather it was the cosmopolitan kaleidoscope of humanity that comprised the Kingdom of God. Being the third largest city in the Empire and a melting pot of races, Antioch was the perfect choices to give a physical representation of what the Kingdom was supposed to look like.
2. Practically. There was a practical reason to choose this city as well. The Kingdom was about to launch on its “ends of the Earth” campaign. In order for this to happen it needed a centralized sea port. Jerusalem was land-locked and not conducive to world-travel. Antioch, on the other hand, was situated on the Orontes River and had a port a Seleucia at the mouth of the river where it emptied into the Mediterranean ocean. We’ll discover that this multicultural city became God’s launching pad for the Kingdom’s expansion into the Roman Empire.

Just For Kids

Let’s get those maps out again. Our passage today mentions four places. Find them and place them on your map:

Phoenicia

Cyprus

Antioch

Cyrene

When the believers from Jerusalem went to Antioch, did they preach the Gospel to everyone? Why or why not?

To whom did the believers from Cyprus and Cyrene preach the good news of Jesus? Why do you think they did that?

One important lesson that we are learning from Acts is that it is wrong to leave people out simply because they are different. God loves all people and wants everyone to know about Jesus. It is important for us to make sure that we never ignore someone or think badly about someone simply because they come from another country or have a different skin color than our own.

Wood, D. R. W. (1996). New Bible dictionary (3rd ed. /) (Page 50). Leicester , England ; Downers Grove , Ill. : InterVarsity Press.

Wood, D. R. W. (1996). New Bible dictionary (3rd ed. /) (Page 1154). Leicester , England ; Downers Grove , Ill. : InterVarsity Press.

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Thursday

Acts 12:1-17

Herod -- There were many Herods in history.  The Herod we meet in this text is the grandson of "Herod the Great" – the one who killed all the boys under the age of 2 in the story of Jesus' birth.  The Herod in this text is not, however, the same Herod (Herod Antipas) that had John the Baptist executed in the Gospels.  By the time of Acts ch.12, Herod the King, also known as Agrippa (Father of the Agrippa found later in Acts), had been given authority by the Roman government to rule over Galilee, Perea, Judea, and Samaria.

Why do you suppose God allowed James to be killed and while He spared Peter through a miraculous prison escape?

How well was Peter guarded?  Why do you suppose such precautions were taken to guard him this way?

What was Peter's initial misperception of the angelic visit?

How did the disciples respond to the news that Peter was at the door? Why?

If James was killed in v. 2, who is the James that Peter refers to in v. 17?

Of Pain and Prayer

Sometimes good people die. One of the greatest unanswered questions in the scripture has to do with the death of James. Why did he die when Peter was spared? Why was his death glossed over when Stephen’s got so much ink? Wasn’t James one of the three disciples that formed Jesus’ inner circle? How could he just die so suddenly with no fanfare?

Here’s the answer…we don’t know. We have to believe that people were praying for him, and yet his life was not spared. Were they not praying hard enough? Was he living in sin? There is no indication to say that these things were true. So, why did it happen?

A missionary once said, “I am immortal until God is done with me.” That’s really the bottom line. If we understand that life isn’t about us – we aren’t the hero of the story – and that we are simply playing our part in the grand story, then we will be OK with the fact that some people will get to live out the miracle stories while other people will live, and die, in relative obscurity. In God’s Kingdom there is no such thing as the insignificant or the obscure, because God sees it all and cares for it all. God cares about the anthill that was washed away by the rain as much as he cares about the coastline that was washed away by the Tsunami. It is all important to Him.

Just this week I received word that two missionaries in Guyana were murdered in their home. They were Wycliffe translators who had been working for years to bring the Word of God in to a tribal language. They were close to completion, but they were killed. Why? We don’t know. We don’t know why some Christians are miraculously healed of cancer while others die. We don’t know why some children die tragically while other people live to 100. We don’t know why James was killed and Peter was spared. All we know is that God knows, and that is enough for us.

There is another side to the lesson from today’s reading. Sometimes, even when we are praying for a miracle, we don’t believe them when they happen right in front of us. Notice that the disciples were praying intensely for Peter’s release, yet, when he came to the door – in direct answer to their prayer – they didn’t believe it.

So, how do we reconcile these two thoughts today? On the one hand we said that we need to leave it all up to God because sometimes good people get killed. Yet, on the other hand we see the prayers of the faithful being answered in a miraculous, resurrection-like, display of God’s power. Which is it? Do we passively concede to the Sovereign will of God, or do we fervently pray in order to see God’s power worked out?

The answer to this question exposes the very nature of God. The answer is…both. God calls us to pray fervently so that we will become aligned to His will and see His glory. Yet, it is His will and not ours that will be done. As servants of the Almighty we need to live and pray each day holding two things in our hearts: first we need to live in expectancy that God can and will do miracles in and through us when we are available to Him, and, two, it has little to do with us and everything to do with Him. He is in control and we can trust him no matter what.

James died and for that we mourn. Peter was spared to preach another day, and for that we rejoice. Through it all, it is the Kingdom of God that advances, not us.

Just For Kids

Today let’s draw a picture of this story.

There are some interesting points of the story that you may want to highlight:

Herod had 16 guards watching Peter.

The angel made it so that Peter could just walk right out of the prison.

Peter thought he was dreaming at first.

The people in the house didn’t believe Rhoda when she said Peter was at the door…she closed the door in his face!

How will you draw this picture?

There are two things to think about today:

1. When you pray for something, don’t be surprised when it actually happens!

2. God is in control, no matter how bad the situation might seem…just keep praying!

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Friday

Acts 12:18-24

Where did Herod make his base of operation?

What did the people of Tyre and Sidon desire from Herod? Why?

How did the people receive Herod’s deliverance of peace?

How did God feel about Herod’s self-opinion?

What happened to the Word of God in spite of the death of Israel’s “King?”

King of the Jews

It is quite possible that today’s reading may have been a bit of comic relief on the part of Luke. Please don’t misunderstand; this story truly happened, to be sure. However, you can nearly taste the satirical flavor that comes through in Luke’s words as he paints the portrait of Herod, King of the Jews.

For over forty years the Romans had allowed the family of King Herod the Great (the baby killer of Jesus’ story) to serve as “King” over Israel. Throughout the story of the gospel these false kings had been battling the true King, Jesus, at every step.

• When Jesus was born Joseph had to hide him in Egypt in order to save the baby from the bloodthirsty and jealous Herod the Great.
• When Jesus was in his time of ministry it was Herod Antipas who had John beheaded and who turned Jesus over to Pilate to be executed.
• Now, as Jesus’ disciples are on the move, it is the next generation of Herod, Herod Agrippa, that tried to stamp out Jesus’ followers by killing James and imprisoning Peter.

Notice the beautiful irony in Luke’s account of Herod’s fate. The people of Tyre and Sidon came to Herod looking for peace and dependent upon him for food. Isn’t that exactly what the prophets promised that the Messiah would provide in His Kingdom when it was established? Here Herod sits on the throne of Israel and proclaims in a lofty speech that he will, indeed, bring peace and provision for his people and the nations that lie around them. He will do it, and he will be happy to take the credit. Oh really? At that point Herod keels over and dies.

So, while the self-appointed and artificially induced “King of the Jews” becomes worm food, the true King of Kings, who brings peace to the world and is the bread of life, continues to expand his Kingdom.

Thanks, Luke, for the satirical reminder that we should never think of ourselves too highly than we ought and never take credit for something that only God Himself can provide.

Just For Kids

What do the phrases “pushing up daisies” or “worm food” mean?

How do those phrases apply to our story about Herod today?

Let’s say that you had worked really hard on a project – like a science fair experiment, a Lego creation, or a painting. Then on the day you were supposed to present it to everyone, you were not able to make it and your brother or sister showed it to everyone. How would you feel if all the people who saw the project loved it, but they thought that your brother had made it? Then, he took all the credit for it. Do you think that would be the right thing for him to do? Why?

In our story today, that is exactly what King Herod did. He took credit for something that only God can produce – peace. Herod thought he was the King of the Jews who brought peace. Little did he know that Jesus is really the King who brings peace to the whole world.

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