Acts 10-15

The pace of Acts is very fast to say the least. Pentecost would have happened about 29 CE. Saul's conversion would have happened some ten years later. In today's reading you will notice the name change of Saul to Paul. It did not happen on the Damascus road as some teach. You may remember from previous blogs that Saul was both a Jew and a Roman citizen. To the Jews, Saul would continue to be known as Saul. To the Gentiles, he was known as Paul, his Roman name. This dual citizenship becomes a major tool for sharing the gospel as Saul's/Paul's ministry progresses.

The vision to Peter in chapter 10 signals the shift of Christianity from a Jewish reform movement to a Gentile movement. This brought all kinds of challenges that we will be reading about today. Peter's vision of the sheet is powerful because it challenged his whole sense of calling and self-understanding. The foods he is invited to eat in the vision will be some of the Gentile foods he will need to eat at Cornelius' house. A casual conversation with any missionary will tell you that part of effective sharing of the faith involves embracing the culture, including the food. Like the Ethiopian eunuch and many of the converts on the day of Pentecost, Cornelius is a god-fearer. He already prays to God and God speaks to him in a vision about a man named Paul. This happens at the same time that Peter is getting the vision of the sheet and prepared for a meeting with Cornelius. We used to say in mission work that we "took Christ to people." We have learned, as Peter does here, that we can only reveal the Christ who is already there, preparing those who speak and those who hear. Peter and Cornelius meet and then Peter preaches to his household, which may have included not only his immediately family and servants, but also his extended family and friends. Peter is blown away as he sees the Holy Spirit come upon the Gentiles just as the Spirit had come upon the Jews.

Three questions hit me from this passage. First, does God's way change over time? God had given the orders that his people eat kosher food, now it is not required. In our own day and time, the role of women pastors is expanding dramatically. Is the sheet being dropped again? I think so, and it will so do. God is both stable and dynamic, solid and adaptable. Second, the people are speaking in tongues before they come to faith in Christ (seems a little out of order doesn't it?). Speaking in tongues is a manifestation of the Spirit's presence. Some people experience the filling of the Holy Spirit at the same time as they commit themselves to Christ. In fact, my mentor in ministry gave his heart to Christ, received the Spirit and the call to preach at the same time. For me, they were separate events. Third, what about speaking in tongues? For many people, speaking in tongues is the primary evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Pentecostal and Assembly of God Christians insist on that. In the book of Acts the Holy Spirit fills people five different times, 3 of them with speaking in tongues present. From my experience, some speak in tongues when the Holy Spirit fills them and some do not. What is a universal experience is that people are filled with a new boldness to share their faith. When I opened up to the dimension of the Holy Spirit in my life, I did not speak in tongues, but I did experience Christ at a whole new level and I have not been able to keep quiet about Christ and what he can do since. One thing for sure, you can't put God in a box. Our doctrines and methods give us guidance, but they can't be the end all of what God does. Peter certainly had some explaining to do when he got back to Jerusalem, and it took some doing (Acts 11:1-18). Notice the way that the power of the Holy Spirit breaks down barriers and creates wider points of unity. The Spirit still does that.

I'm on a roll here, so I might as well continue. Part of my calling to ministry is inviting people to be filled with the Spirit. The thesis of Acts is that the church is a movement of the Holy Spirit, nothing less. It is not primarily about believing or saying or doing the right things. It is about God's people having the unlimited Christ alive in and through them. I really am not that concerned whether a person speaks in tongues or not, but I am very concerned that people have a dynamic faith in Christ through the power of the Spirit. I cannot imagine myself preaching, teaching or doing ministry of any kind without the power of the Holy Spirit. The dyanmic participation and learning in our class can only be attributed to the presence of the Spirit filling our reading, preparation and sharing togethether, being the true "teacher" among us.

On the other side of this, I am also committed to "despookifying" the Holy Spirit. Many have made the Holy Spirit strange and frightening. The Holy Spirit is the living Christ in and through us - liberating, stretching, empowering, comforting, convicting and somewhat unpredictable - but never wierd. Along that same line, I don't believe the Holy Spirit forces itself on people. We have control of what we say and do in the name of Christ and we are responsible for it. The Christian who says, "I couldn't help myself. It was all God," has moved beyond what God generally does in the Holy Spirit.

You might have been uncomfortable with me describing the Holy Spirit as "itself." I could have said herself, since in the Old Testament the word for Spirit, ruach, is feminine. The Greek word for Spirit, pneuma, is neuter). Oral Roberts taught us, "The Holy Spirit is a He." Oral was not biblically correct. Why is that important? We tend to identify God as male. Jesus did teach us to call God Father, a male image. But the Spirit given in the feminine and the neuter allows us to understand that God is not limited to what we understand as male, female or even neuter. God as Trinity embraces the totality of creation.

Chapter 11:19-31 tells of the beginning of the church in Antioch. For the first time you see the church referred to as Christians. It is most likely a name given us by our enemies. Roman writings criticize "the Christ ones", saying "See how they love each other," which they perceived as pitifully weak. It was from our critics that we got the name "Methodist" as well. In chapter 12, James becomes the second martyr mentioned in the book of Acts. Then Herod goes after Peter, but instead Peter is miraculously released from prison and Herod is the one that dies.

In chapter 13 we have the beginning of the first missionary journey of Paul, accompanied by Barnabas (see map above). Paul does an anti-miracle causing Elymas to be blind. A sermon is preached in Antioch of Pisidia (a different Antioch from earlier) in the synagogue, once again reinterpreting Jewish history. It is received well by the people but not by the Jewish leaders and they are driven out of town. Notice the repeated rhythm of positive response to the gospel and persecution. In chapter 14, they visit Iconium, Lystra and Derbe and are received as gods because of the miracles they are doing (one extreme) and stoned and left for dead by Jewish leaders (another extreme).

I mentioned earlier that Gentile responsiveness to the gospel posed quite a challenge for the Jewish Christians (see Galatians 2:1-14). They saw the mission of Christ as connected to the "restoring of the kingdom of Israel." It was, but it also, in the words of Paul, included a "new Israel," a new people of God. In chapter 15, conservatives (led by Peter and James) felt that the Gentiles should become like Jews - undergo circumcision and follow the Jewish food laws. Liberals like Paul and Barnabas felt that to be unnecessary. This is the old church argument about whether we should ask those outside the church to become like us or whether we should build a bridge to them offering Christ in ways they relate to. In a historic decision they decide not to require circumcision or the Jewish food laws to be observed by the Gentile Christians. They send Judas Barsabbas and Silas along with Paul and Barnabas, who not only deliver the good news but offer encouragement and participate in ministry with them. Keep watching for Silas as the unfolding story of Acts continues.