Acts 11:1-18: God Is Building His Church

Acts 11:1-18: God Is Building His Church 

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Acts, and today the next passage we come to is Acts 11:1-18 as the passage upon which today’s message will be based. So, in preparation, we’ll be reading a portion of the verses in that passage. It says,

1 Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus says to Peter, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Although there’s a lot in that verse we could discuss, notice in particular those five words: “I will build my church.” Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “You will build my church”—as if we could accomplish such a feat by our own power or cleverness. Nor did Jesus say, “I will build your church”—as if everything revolved around our desires and preferences.  No, Jesus said, “I will build my church.” You know, that might very well be the most important statement in the entire Bible about how we should think about church and, we might say, “do” church. The church belongs to Jesus and came into being as a result of his initiative, was bought with his blood, was established by his authority, is advanced by his power, must function according to his will, and exists ultimately for his glory. All if that’s wrapped up in those five words, “I will build my church.” 

And that’s also exactly what we’re going to see in our main passage this morning of Acts 11:1-18. Now, in order to understand this passage, we have to remember what’s just taken place in the previous chapter. In Acts 10, a huge barrier was crossed. Up until that time, there was a massive separation between Jews and Gentiles—people who weren’t Jews. The Jews despised the Gentiles and therefore refused to eat with them or even associate with them in any way. And that’s the way it had been for centuries. Jews and Gentiles just didn’t mix. But God sovereignly led the Apostle Peter to go to the house of a Gentile named Cornelius in order to share the gospel. Such a visit to the house of a Gentile would have typically been considered by a Jew to be scandalous, but God told Peter in a vision it was okay, so Peter went and shared with Cornelius the message of Jesus. The result was incredible: Cornelius and his relatives and close friends who had all gathered to hear Peter’s message embraced what Peter was saying and became Christians. So that was Acts 10. 

Now, in the present passage, Luke—who’s the author of Acts—does something highly unusual. He essentially tells the story of Acts 10 a second time. And this is unusual because it isn’t the kind of thing Luke typically does. He’s not like some people, who often seem to ramble on and on and take 10 minutes to say something that could have been said in 2 minutes. I’m sure we all know people like that, but that’s not Luke. Luke is very concise and to the point. So why, then, does he use all of this precious space—18 verses to be exact—retelling the story of what’s just happened in the previous chapter? Well, the most obvious answer is that the events of Acts 10 are extremely significant. The crossing of the ethnic barrier between Jew and Gentile meant that Christianity wouldn’t just become another sect of Judaism. It would become a worldwide religious movement. And that’s what Jesus had said from the very beginning. In Acts 1:8, he had told his disciples to spread the message about him “to the end of the earth.” And now, finally, that was happening. For the first time, the gospel message was being proclaimed to the Gentiles. 

Yet, as we’re going to see in Acts 11, many Jewish Christians found that to be a difficult pill to swallow. Look with me at Acts 11:1-3: 1 Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 

So the people who are having difficulty accepting these new Gentile converts are identified here in verse 2 as “the circumcision party.” Circumcision was something God had commanded Abraham and his male descendants to do in order to mark themselves off as God’s chosen people—the people uniquely favored by God. So circumcision was a source of great national pride. And it seems as though this “circumcision party” within the Jerusalem church wanted these Gentiles to be circumcised before they would accept them as fellow believers. Essentially, they wanted the Gentiles to become Jews before embracing Jesus. It’s also highly likely that they would expect them to keep the rest of the Old Testament law and Jewish customs as well. 

But, in the subsequent verses, Peter appeals to them to reconsider their position. Look at verses 4-10. 4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 

Now, the point of this vision was that God was commanding Peter to eat foods that were designated in the Old Testament law as “unclean”—meaning that they were off limits. The implication is that the Old Testament law is no longer binding for God’s people. So that’s one thing we can glean from this vision. Yet, this vision is even more significant than that. God wasn’t just telling Peter it was now okay to eat unclean foods. He was actually preparing Peter to accept people who were formerly regarded as unclean.

Look at verses 11-17: 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” 

So Peter goes to Cornelius’s house and tells him and the others who were gathered there about Jesus. And God had prepared Cornelius to hear that message. In verse 14, the text records how God had said to Cornelius that “[Peter] will declare to you a message by which you will be saved.” The natural question, of course, is “saved from what?” And the resounding answer found throughout both the Old and New Testaments is saved from our sin. The alarming reality is that every single person in this world is in a state of sinful rebellion against God and destined to face God’s judgment. Even worse, there’s nothing we can do to extricate ourselves from that situation or merit God’s favor. Because, you see, the problem isn’t just that we’ve done sinful things but that we have sinful hearts. And there’s nothing we can do to change our hearts. We need a Savior! And that’s exactly what God’s provided in the person of Jesus. Jesus came to this earth as a human being, lived a perfectly sinless life, and then died on the cross to take the punishment for our sins. He endured the judgment we deserved so that we wouldn’t have to. The full measure of God the Father’s wrath came down on him instead of us. Jesus then rose from the dead three days later so that he’s now able to save all who will put their trust in him. That’s the message Peter shared with Cornelius as well as the message people today so desperately need to hear. 

And as Peter was sharing this message, verse 15 records the most remarkable thing. Peter recounts, “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.” In other words, just like the Holy Spirit fell upon Peter and other Jewish Christians in Acts 2 at the feast of Pentecost, he had now fallen on these Gentiles. The evidence of that would have been the Gentile converts miraculously speaking in languages they hadn’t learned—just as Peter and the other Christians had done back in Acts 2. That phenomenon, often called “speaking in tongues,” was the external sign that the Holy Spirit had come upon a person. So the fact that the Holy Spirit had come upon these Gentiles without the Gentiles first being circumcised or converting to Judaism was, in Peter’s mind, a clear indication that such measures weren’t necessary. Essentially, Peter was arguing that God giving the Holy Spirit to these Gentiles was conclusive evidence that they belonged in the church and should be fully accepted as fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. As Peter states in verse 17, “If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

We then read this in verse 18: When they [that is, the members of the Jerusalem church] heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” And that’s how the Jewish Christians came to accept Gentile converts into the church. I’m sure it must have taken a lot for them to do that—it was undoubtedly a radical idea to them. Yet the evidence was undeniable. God had given the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles just as he had done to the Jews at Pentecost. And, by the way, I admire the way in which these Jewish Christians had the humility to admit that they were wrong. Their view of the scope of God’s saving purposes wasn’t even close to being adequate. Yet they were humble enough and teachable enough to admit that. Hopefully we can have that same teachable mentality. Because the reality is that none us has things all figured out. So, as we read the Bible ourselves and discuss the Bible with each other, we should always be on the lookout for aspects of our thinking that need correction—and be willing to change anything God wants us to change in response to the things we read in Scripture. 

Yet the theme that sticks out the most to me in this passage isn’t Peter’s argument or the response of those in the Jerusalem church. Rather, it’s the sovereign hand of God that we see bringing all of these things about. It was God who sovereignly gave Cornelius a vision telling him to send messengers to Peter. It was God who sovereignly prepared Peter to receive those messengers and then go to Cornelius’s house without hesitation. It was God who sovereignly imparted the Holy Spirit to Cornelius and his household. It was God who, in the words of verse 18, sovereignly “granted repentance” to them so that they were able to turn from their sins and embrace Peter’s message. And, to sum all of that up, it was God who determined the scope of his saving blessings—that they wouldn’t just be for Jews but for Gentiles as well. Everywhere we look in this passage, we see God, God, God, God, God. 

So the main idea I’m convinced we should glean from this passage is that God is building his church according to his own sovereign will. God is building his church according to his own sovereign will. 

Notice here how God doesn’t ask permission from the Jewish Christians or from the “circumcision party” to do something. He just does it. He doesn’t conform to the expectations his people have but instead expects them to follow his lead and submit to his will. That’s the central theme that ties this passage together. What God does here in Acts 10-11 is totally contrary to what anyone expected—and it’s on them to get with the program and follow God’s lead. Again, as Peter says in verse 17, “Who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” 

And the same goes for us today. Let’s be clear: both the church and the church’s mission belong to God. And when we engage in that mission of telling people about Jesus and leading them to become disciples, we’re simply joining God in what he’s already doing. It’s kind of like when I went on a short-term mission trip to Bosnia several years ago. I was a part of a team that visited missionaries in Bosnia named Steve and Kim for 11 days and sought to help them in any way possible. Now, keep in mind that Steve and Kim had already been there for 6 years, so they were the ones who were running the show. They knew the language, they understood the culture, and they had already developed a strategy and were actively utilizing that strategy to connect with the local community and lead people toward Jesus. So it would have been foolish—not to mention highly inappropriate—for me and the other members of the short-term team to show up and start doing our own thing. No, we did whatever Steve and Kim told us to do. Humanly speaking, it was their operation—their show to run—and we were simply joining them. And that’s the way it is in an even more ultimate sense with God. Both the church and the church’s mission belong to him. He’s the one in the driver’s seat, so to speak, and who therefore determines not only our destination but also every turn and every stop along the way. Again, God is building his church according to his own sovereign will.

And I’ve been saying “God,” but, to be more specific, it’s Jesus who’s building his church according to his own sovereign will. As we’ve already seen in Matthew 16:18, Jesus says, “I will build my church.” The church, quite simply, belongs to him—having been bought with his blood and sustained by his power. In addition, Colossians 1:18 says of Jesus that “he is the head of the body, the church.” Jesus is the head, and the church is his body. Another way to say it is that Jesus is Lord of the church. The church was established by his authority in the past, is governed by his commands in the present, and will one day give account before his judgment seat in the future. Jesus is Lord of the church. We’re reminded of that right in verse 17 of our main passage, where he’s referred to as “the Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s the undercurrent that runs throughout this passage and guides all of the events that take place. 

And as I think about the significance of this passage for us today, I can’t help but think about all of the ways, unfortunately, in which the lordship of Jesus over his church is often being undermined in many churches today. The reality is that Jesus has made it very clear what he wants the church to be like, how he wants the church to operate, which priorities he wants the church to focus on, and which principles should guide our efforts. Yet, it seems as though many churches and church leaders have taken it upon themselves to change things. It’d be kind of like walking into someone’s house and taking it upon yourself to rearrange their furniture. Maybe you want the couch to be here instead of here, or maybe you want a certain picture to be on that wall instead of this wall. So you just move the stuff without even asking permission. That’s a good way to get yourself uninvited to someone’s house. You don’t do that to someone else’s house. Yet, for some reason, many professing Christians seem to feel the freedom to do that in the church. 

So I’d like to use the rest of our time together to briefly highlight four tendencies that undermine the lordship of Jesus over his church. 

A Tendency toward Pragmatism 

The first is a tendency toward pragmatism. It seems as though many churches, in their quest for numerical growth, are driven more by a spirit of pragmatism than they are by biblical convictions. And when I say “pragmatism,” I’m simply speaking of a willingness to do whatever “works.” Many churches and church leaders seem willing to do just about anything that’s not clearly sinful in order to get people in the door and keep them coming. Their guiding question isn’t so much “Is it biblical?” but rather “Does it work?” That’s what they’re interested in. 

This often manifests itself in church services that are focused more on entertaining people than on nourishing them with substantive biblical truths. People come and they have a great time and they’re entertained, but they leave without ever having received anything substantive. They’ve been fed the cotton candy of entertainment rather than the meat of the Bible. As a result, these kinds of churches are often a mile wide but only an inch deep. I’ve also seen a wide variety of gimmicks employed from time to time—efforts to attract people that rely on novelties or shock value or outrageous stunts instead of on the glories of Christ and wonders of the gospel. 

And it’s often said by the leaders of these kinds of churches that even though the message never changes, the methods must change. Yet, in response, I’d say that our methods should grow out of our message. That is, our methods should be guided by and a product of the biblical truths we believe. 

Because, at the end of the day, the main measure of a church’s “success” isn’t the number of people who attend but rather how Christlike the people of the church are. That’s what the Bible says is God’s will for our lives, according to Romans 8:29. He wants us to be “conformed to the image of [Christ].” So if you take that and apply it to the church as a whole, that’s the main measure of success—not numbers, but Christlikeness. Our goal here at Redeeming Grace isn’t to be a big church but rather to be a healthy church and a faithful church. God will make this church as big as he wants it to be. Our job is to focus on being biblically healthy and faithful. 

A Tendency toward Compromise 

Then a second tendency—in addition to a tendency toward pragmatism—that undermines the lordship of Jesus over his church is a tendency toward compromise. And I’m specifically thinking of theological compromise. The reality is that many of the truths taught in the Bible aren’t very popular in our modern and politically correct society. In fact, I’m not sure these teachings have ever been popular. So, many churches have downplayed these offensive teachings—or, at times, even denied them outright. It’s like we’re all in middle school or something, and these churches want to sit at the “cool table.” They don’t want to have to eat lunch with the kids who are at the bottom of the social totem pole. They want to be able to sit at the “cool table” and be liked and accepted and popular. And in order for that to happen, there are certain biblical teachings that just have to go. 

And like I said, even if a lot of these churches don’t come right out and deny these offensive teachings, they very conspicuously omit any public mention of them. And I’m not taking about peripheral teachings, either. I’m talking about core gospel truths like human sinfulness and God’s judgment and the need for repentance. There are a lot of churches where you go in and hear teaching that doesn’t necessarily say anything clearly unbiblical, but if you listen to enough of that teaching, you’ll notice that certain key truths and themes of Scripture somehow never seem to come up. So the problem ends up being not so much what’s said but rather what isn’t said that should be said—again, core gospel truths like human sinfulness and God’s judgment and the need for repentance. Any church that omits these key themes is guilty of theological compromise and, ultimately, undermining the lordship of Jesus over his church. 

A Tendency toward Neglect

Then a third tendency that undermines the lordship of Jesus is a tendency toward neglect—that is, a neglect of clear commands from God. The fact is that following God’s commands for the church isn’t always easy. For example, the Bible tells us that if a church member is walking in an unrepentant sin—meaning that if they have a pattern of sin in their life that they’re not even making any effort to repent of—the rest of the church should bring that to the person’s attention and confront them about the issue. And if the person continues pursuing that sinful desire even after countless attempts to persuade them to follow Jesus in that area, then the church needs to remove them from membership. The process for that is clearly laid out in Matthew 18:15-17. The goal of that process, of course, is to love the person and prevent them from continuing down a path that will eventually lead to their destruction. Yet, as is so often the case, what’s loving isn’t necessarily easy. So most churches just don’t do it. They’re guilty of neglecting that command. And, by the way, that particular command is found not just in Matthew 18 but in numerous places throughout the New Testament. 

Also, that’s just one example of a command many churches neglect. There are plenty of other commands that are commonly neglected as well—such as commands to share the gospel in our day-to-day lives, commands to care for the poor and vulnerable, and commands to focus not on our comfort but on God’s Kingdom. I’m reminded of the rebuke Jesus issues in Luke 6:46: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” 

A Tendency toward Idolatry

Moving on, a fourth and final tendency that undermines the lordship of Jesus over his church is a tendency toward idolatry. This idolatry can take a lot of different forms—many of which we’ve already covered—but one of these forms is making an idol out of our preferences. When we add rules and requirements to those found in the Bible and treat our own preferences as if they were God-given mandates for the whole church, we’re undermining the lordship of Jesus. For example, when a family who homeschools their kids implies that a family that doesn’t homeschool is negligent, that’s a preference they’re elevating to the status a God-given mandate. Other preferences might include the presence or absence of various programs in the church, the style of music in our Sunday morning worship service, the personal decision of whether or not to consume alcohol in moderation, the translation of the Bible that’s used, and the nature or level of our church’s participation in various social causes. Those are all preferences. Also, one especially timely preference issue is our personal belief about whether someone should get the COVID vaccine or not. Whenever we treat our preferences as if they were God-given mandates that are binding for everyone, we’re engaging in a form of idolatry and ultimately undermining the lordship of Jesus over his church. 

Conclusion

So, to sum all of this up, the church belongs to Jesus. And whenever we as Christians engage in these four tendencies, we’re undermining that. It’s kind of like we’re hijacking the church. It’d be similar to you driving your car down the road and stopping at a red light and someone forcing open your door, throwing you out of the car, and driving off. They would be hijacking your car. And that’s essentially what we’re doing when we engage in these four tendencies. We’re hijacking the church—pushing Jesus out of the way so that we can grab hold of the steering wheel ourselves. 

So hopefully we as a church can avoid these tendences. Hopefully, by God’s grace, we can humbly acknowledge and joyfully surrender to the lordship of Jesus here at Redeeming Grace—by letting our methodology grow out of our theology and avoiding pragmatism, by standing firm in our biblical convictions and avoiding compromise, by obeying every word of Scripture and avoiding negligence, and by holding our preferences with open hands and renouncing idolatry. Jesus is Lord and is altogether worthy and altogether desirable. 

As Paul states so well in Philippians 2:5-11, 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.