Thursday, May 28, 2026

Opening Scripture

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:8-11

Opening Prayer

Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you that Your mercies are new again today! Help me to grasp Your incredible love and kindness, forgiveness and grace. I give myself again completely to You. Fill me with Your Spirit. Help me have the mind of Christ. Show me Your will and help me walk in Your way. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Daily Bible Reading

Acts 11

The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’

“I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.

“Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’

“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?” When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

Reflection  

The news about Gentiles being saved spread quickly among the Christian community! Sadly, though perhaps not surprisingly, it was not universally celebrated at first. Some legalistic Jewish converts were upset that Peter wasn’t keeping the old laws. They were convinced that a person had to become “Jewish” before they could become “Christian.”

Remember that circumcision was a key component of the Jewish national identity and an easy way to separate the “sheep” from the “goats.” In their minds, it was them (God’s chosen and “circumcised” people) and everyone else (“the uncircumcised” Gentiles). “Circumcision” became a moniker for an entire way of life built around strictly keeping the Law of God.

Interestingly, the legalists didn’t complain about Peter preaching to the Gentiles. They were upset that he ate with them! Eating with someone was a mark of acceptance and “fellowship.” Of course, the food element made the significance of Peter’s vision even more important.

Thankfully, after Peter reported to them what we read yesterday, they relented. “When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, ‘So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.’” What seems rather natural and obvious to us was almost inconceivable to them. As we read last week, God has a way of turning surprise and uncertainty into delight.

In his recounting of events, Peter made sure to connect what occurred with Cornelius, his family, and his friends to “what happened at the beginning” at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit first filled the believers. Cornelius and his household were saved, filled with the Spirit, and baptized as followers of Jesus.

Luke then picks up the story he started three chapters ago. “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria” (Acts 8:1). Some of the Christians who fled the persecution went to Antioch and began sharing the good news about Jesus with the Greeks. God blessed their efforts, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

This represents another pivotal shift in the spread of Christianity. For the first time, members of the Church were actively seeking to convert Gentiles to the faith. The Samaritans were at least partly Jewish. The Ethiopian official was reading Isaiah on his own as he returned home from Jerusalem. Even Cornelius took the initiative to obey the angel and seek out Peter. But now, some missionary evangelists from Cyprus and Cyrene decided to start telling Greeks about Jesus!

Again, the shocking news about Gentiles being saved spread quickly among the Christian community. When the Mother Church in Jerusalem heard about it, they sent Barnabas to check things out. Since the “Son of Encouragement” was chosen for the mission, we can surmise that their motive was blessing, not control.

Sure enough, it was all legit. God was moving in unexpected ways, challenging assumptions and expanding His kingdom. Barnabas was so excited about what he saw that he headed over to Tarsus to find his friend Paul. Barnabas and Paul spent a year discipling the believers in Antioch, and it earned them the name “Christian.”

This “new humanity,” which was neither Jew nor Greek, needed a name. It was common for Roman soldiers under the authority of a particular general to take on the name of their commander with the added “ian” suffix (Latin: “iani”; Greek: “ianos”). The people of Antioch started calling the believers there Christiani.

Flourishing Habit

Flourishing Christians

While Barnabas and Paul were ministering in Antioch, some prophets came from Jerusalem and predicted that a severe famine would soon spread across the whole Roman Empire. This was actually a series of famines that struck various parts of the empire during the reign of Emperor Claudius, who ruled from A.D. 41-54. He was the same emperor who later expelled the Jews from Rome.

Prophecy in the Bible is almost always “forthtelling” rather than “foretelling.” Only occasionally does a prophet predict future events. Most of the time, prophets are used by God to edify and exhort His people. God has always been more interested in us walking daily with Him than knowing what was about to happen.

In our study of Ephesians, we made note of the function of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers in the church. These APEST roles are used by God to “build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature.”

Prophets often make people uncomfortable. They can discern spiritual realities that others miss. Their main concern is to further the mission of God. They are often disruptive of the status quo. They value “truth-telling” above feeling good.

In today’s passage, God used the prophet Agabus – who would later predict Paul’s imprisonment in Acts 21:10 – to prompt the believers in Antioch to take up an offering for the believers in and around Jerusalem.

While first-century Judea was a relatively poor, agrarian, subsistence farming region, Antioch was a thriving commercial center, located on the Orontes River. Like Corinth and Ephesus, it was economically prosperous and spiritually corrupt. The Roman satirist, Juvenal, complained, “The sewage of the Syrian Orontes has for long been discharged into the Tiber.” He meant that Antioch was so vile that it soiled Rome, over 1,300 miles away.

Based on Agabus’ prediction, the Christians in Antioch each gave as they were able and sent their offering to the church elders in Jerusalem by way of Barnabas and Paul. This is one of several “firsts” established by the Antioch Church, which we still practice today.

Do you sense God moving in your life in any unexpected ways?

Is He challenging any of your assumptions to expand His kingdom through you?

Remember: Nothing changes until something changes!