The Primitive Gospel

Acts of the Apostles (26)

Introduction

As we continue to work our way through the book of Acts, we are not going to spend very much time on the retelling of the Cornelius story in verses 4-14 here. But we are not setting this repetition aside as unimportant because Luke obviously intends to emphasize it. He wants us to note it. He tells the story in chapter 10, and then repeats it in detail in chapter 11. Then there is a strong reference to this episode at the Jerusalem Council later (Acts 15:7-11). This incident was truly a significant event.

We can note a few additional details that we do learn in this recounting. We learn that six Jews accompanied Peter from Joppa (v. 12). We learn that the angel told Cornelius that the message that Peter would bring would be words of salvation (v. 14). And Peter tells us here that the Spirit fell on them near the beginning of his talk (v. 15). So with that in mind, after the set up (vv. 1-3) we will begin the bulk of our exposition at verse 16.

The Text

“And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying . . .” (Acts 11:1–30).

Summary of the Text

So the apostles and brothers of Judea heard that the Gentiles had received the Word of God (v. 1). So when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the circumcision party there challenged him (v. 2). The charge was that Peter had gone in with Gentiles, and had shared table fellowship with them (v. 3). The eating together appears to have been the central problem. So Peter tells the story over again (vv. 4-15), including the fact that “these” six men here saw it all. 

Peter remembered the Lord’s statement that John baptized with water, but that His followers would be baptized with the Holy Spirit (v. 16). So if God gave Gentiles the Spirit in the same way that He had done for the Jews on Pentecost, who was Peter to fight God (v. 17)? Now this satisfied them and they glorified God (v. 18), saying that God had apparently granted Gentiles repentance unto life. But this resolution was only a temporary one.

Those who had scattered because of the persecution after Stephen’s death had preached the Word to Jews only, but doing so in Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Cyrene (v. 19). Phoenicia was along the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus was an island about sixty miles out, and Cyrene was in modern day Libya, on the north coast of Africa. Now some of these men from Cyprus and Cyrene came to (Syrian) Antioch and began preaching the Lord Jesus to Greeks (v. 20). (Pisidian) Antioch to the west comes into the story later. The hand of the Lord was with them, and many believed and turned to the Lord (v. 21). The church at Jerusalem heard about this, and so they sent Barnabas up to Antioch to check it out (v. 22). He got there, saw the grace of God at work, was glad, and exhorted them to cling to the Lord with resolute and steadfast hearts (v. 23). Barnabas was a good man, full of the Spirit and faith, and many more people were converted (v. 24). So Barnabas then went to Tarsus to enlist the help of Saul (v. 25). This was about 80 miles away, as the crow flies, but a bit more by road. They came back to Antioch and then taught a lot of people there for a year (v. 26). The name Christian was first applied to believers there in that city (v. 26).

But “Christian” is no mere nickname assigned to us by the pagans. Isaiah had prophesied that this time would come. God was going to come to the Jew and to the Gentile together, and He was going to make one new man out of the two (Eph. 2:15), and that new man was to be the Christian man.

During that time, prophets came up from Jerusalem to Antioch (v. 27), and one of them named Agabus prophesied that there would be a great famine throughout the whole empire (oikoumene), which then happened during the reign of Claudius Caesar (v. 28). Claudius reigned from 41 A.D. to 54 A.D. In response, the believers there in Antioch, each according to capacity, decided to send a famine relief gift to Judea (v. 29). They did this, and sent it to the elders there by the hands of Saul and Barnabas (v. 30). Note that Saul is still being called Saul here, and not Paul.  

The First Pauline Epistle

One of the things we should want to do is integrate the timeline of the epistles into the history of Acts. Our first opportunity to do this comes with Galatians, which I take to be Paul’s earliest letter in the canon. But to do this we have to answer the question, “Who were the Galatians exactly?” There was an ethnic Galatia up north—think rural Celtic tribes—and there was the Roman province of Galatia down south. Think of the difference between the Dakota Indian tribe, and South Dakota.

If Paul is writing to the Galatians of the Roman province, then this places his book within the chronology of Acts. If he is writing to the ethnic Galatians up north, then we don’t quite know how and when Paul ever got acquainted with them. This is important for several reasons. One is that the “south Galatian” understanding gives us an early date for Galatians, and a mature statement of “justification by faith alone” very early on in the history of the church. It was not a late “add-on,” not a Pauline afterthought or footnote. Second, the details of Galatians blend very nicely with Acts on this view. For example, the “famine relief visit” (Acts 11:28-29) is the visit that was in response to a revelation (Gal. 2:2). It also explains Paul’s comment that they only asked that we remember the poor, the very thing that a famine relief visit was intended to do (Gal. 2:10). And then last, it explains why Paul didn’t appeal in Galatians to the decision of the Jerusalem council in a letter dedicated to the very same controversy. He didn’t appeal to it because it had not yet happened. It also explains the heat that Paul displays in Galatians.

So the mission to the province of Galatia happened in the neighborhood of 47-48 A.D. and the Jerusalem Council was somewhere near 48-49 A.D. Thus the best date for the writing of Galatians would be right before the Council, probably in 48 A.D., during the reign of Claudius.

The Gospel at Ground Zero

In the book of Galatians, we see a fully-formed and robust articulation of justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law. With an early date for Galatians, we can see just exactly how Paul was instructing the early Christians—what he was teaching them. We also see how this proclaimed gospel was causing an inchoate church to form, making the gospel the seed of the church, and not the other way around. We also see how this plain and primitive gospel was senior to the church, and to her officers, and senior to angelic messengers. If we or an angel from heaven preach a different gospel than the one that was first preached to you, then let that messenger be accursed and damned (Gal. 1:8).

And so what is that gospel? That Christ, the eternal Son of God, was made man for our sakes. He lived a perfect, sinless life, was crucified, buried, raised, and ascended, and all of His perfections are imputed, gratis, to absolutely anyone who looks to Him in faith.

That is the Word that establishes the church, and that is the Word that is in the process of building a new world.