Acts 11

STUDY FIFTEEN: PETER AND BARNABAS – ACTS 11

A. PETER – ACTS 11:1 – 18

When we read Acts 11:1 – 18 it becomes very clear how necessary it was that the Holy Spirit came upon the Gentiles with the same audible manifestations as those experienced by the apostles on the Day of Pentecost.

The news about Gentiles receiving the word of God spread quickly throughout Judea, so that by the time Peter arrived back in Jerusalem the news had reached there before him. There, ‘the circumcised believers’ (that is Jews who had believed in the name of Jesus) ‘criticized him’ – 11:2. They didn’t at this stage question the conversion of the Gentiles, but rebuked him for going into the house of uncircumcised men and eating with them.

In response (11:4 – 13), Peter described his vision in Joppa and the arrival of the messengers from Caesarea, almost word-for-word with Luke’s account in Acts 10. But in verses 14 to 17 Peter gives us additional information that Luke didn’t give us in chapter 10.

Read Acts 11:14 – 17. What additional information is there in these verses, and why is that information important?
11:14:

11:15:

11:16:

The first piece of additional information is about what God had told Cornelius – that Peter would bring him a message through which Cornelius and all his household would be saved. It was clearly God’s intention to save them, and he deliberately intervened in the lives of both Cornelius and Peter to bring that intention to pass.

The second piece of additional information is that Peter said that ‘the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning’. The ‘at the beginning’ was not reported by Luke, who reports Peter as saying ‘they have received the Holy Spirit as we have’ (10:47). Although, as we have seen in Acts 8, there was some obvious evidence that the Holy Spirit came on the Samaritan believers, Luke’s report in Acts 10:46 is the first report of speaking in languages since Acts 2. Peter, in 11:15, did not say ‘as he comes on everyone who believers’; all he could say was ‘as he had come on us at the beginning.’ The only other report of speaking in languages in Acts is in chapter 19, where some disciples of John the Baptist believed in Jesus Christ.

We have two options here: (1) either speaking in languages was so common after Acts 2 that no one thought to mention it, except here in Acts 10 and in Acts 19; or (2) it was so rare that it grabbed the attention on the three occasions that Luke mentions it.

The third piece of additional information is about what Peter was thinking when the people in Cornelius’ household spoke in languages, which was clear evidence that the Holy Spirit had come to them: Peter remembered what the Lord Jesus had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit’.

What do these verses say about that?
Acts 1:5

Matthew 3:11

Mark 1:8

Luke 3:16

John 1:33

Every gospel writer reports John the Baptist’s testimony about Jesus, the Son of God: that he is infinitely greater than John the Baptist, and that while John merely baptized in/with/by water, Jesus would perform a far greater baptism – a baptism in/with/by the Holy Spirit. But this baptism would not happen until Jesus returned to his glory (John 7:39). This is the ‘gift’ promised by Jesus’ Father (Acts 1:4), about which Jesus had spoken to the eleven disciples in John 14 – 16.

Peter told his critics in Jerusalem that he ‘remembered what the Lord had said’ (11:16). And on the clear evidence that God had given Cornelius and his household ‘the same gift’, the gift greater than water baptism – baptism with the Holy Spirit – who was he to deny them the lesser thing, symbolic, ritual water baptism? Had he done so, on the basis of their lack of circumcision, he would have been opposing God, who had given them the greater gift, the gift of himself, regardless of their lack of circumcision.

How does 11:18 describe the response of the Jerusalem believers?

Peter satisfied his critics; instead of continuing to criticize him, they praised God for granting salvation to the Gentiles, which Luke refers to as ‘repentance unto life.’

B. IN ANTIOCH – ACTS 11:19 – 30

In Acts 8:1 we read of the great persecution that occurred against the church in Jerusalem, which caused ‘all except the apostles’ to be scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Luke picks up on their story in Acts 11:19 – 30.

Answer these questions about them:
How far did they go? (verse 19)

Who did they tell about Jesus? (verse 19)

Where did some men from Cyprus and Cyrene go? (verse 20)

What did they do that was different to the others? (verse 20)

What happened? (verse 21)

Who heard about this, and what did they do? (verse 22)

What did Barnabas do when he arrived? (verse 23)

It seems that the church in Jerusalem, where the apostles had stayed when the persecution began, was either very interested in or very anxious about what was happening as the scattered believers told the good news about Jesus Christ. This is the third occasion on which they checked out what was going on. Already we have seen Peter and John sent to Samaria, when the apostles heard that Samaritans had believed (Acts 8:14). We have seen them demand an explanation from Peter, when he returned from Caesarea (Acts 11:1 – 3). And now we see them sending Barnabas in 11:22.

B.1 Who is Barnabas?
Luke mentions Barnabas twenty-nine times in Acts, most of them in association with Paul. We will not look at all of them here, but just enough to get a picture of who Barnabas is.

What do you learn about Barnabas from these verses?
Acts 4:36, 37

Acts 9:26 – 28

Acts 11:24

Acts 11:25, 26

Acts 11:29, 30

Acts 13:2, 3

Acts 14:14

Barnabas was a Levite (4:36), a Jew from the tribe of Levi. This whole tribe was dedicated by God to serve in the tabernacle. You can read about them in Numbers 1:47 – 53. Whether or not Barnabas, a native of Cyprus, had ever been on a roster to serve in the Temple in Jerusalem we do not know, but we do know that he was one of the early Jerusalem believers who donated funds from the sale of a property (4:36).

Previously, only apostles, Peter and John, were sent to check out reports that people other than Jews were believing in Jesus. But now the Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to Antioch, where Greeks were being saved. He was not at this time called an ‘apostle’, but he was evidently active and respected in the church.

His association with Paul is first reported in Acts 9, when he helped the newly converted Saul to be accepted by the believers in Jerusalem. Now, Barnabas left Antioch to look for Saul in Tarsus (see Acts 9:30), and brought him back to Antioch. It seems clear that Barnabas had decided that what the new converts in Antioch needed was teaching from Saul, so he went looking for him in Tarsus; he and Saul ‘met with the church and taught great numbers of people’ for a whole year.

B.2 ‘Christians’ – Acts 11:26.
Luke tells us that ‘the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch’ – 11:26. Previously they had been called ‘disciples’, ‘believers’, ‘the church’, ‘the brothers’, people who ‘belonged to the Way’.

B.3 The prophets from Jerusalem – Acts 11:27 – 29
Forewarned of a severe famine by Agabus, a prophet from Jerusalem, the disciples in Antioch decided to provide help for believers in Judea, and sent their gifts to ‘the elders’ via Barnabas and Saul. This is the first time in Acts that the term ‘the elders’ is used to refer to leadership in the church. Either Luke simply means ‘the older men’, or he is referring to a recognized role in the church parallel to the ‘elders’ in Jewish synagogues. Note: The famine occurred between AD44 and 48.