Luke named the leaders of the church at Antioch. Barnabas and Saul are already known to us. Simeon was called Niger in reference to his dark skin. Lucius was from Cyrene in North Africa (Simeon could have been from a similar region). Manaen was a lifelong friend of Herod Antipas and may have been a significant source for Luke’s writing about him. While the church was worshipping and fasting, the Holy Spirit indicated that Barnabas and Saul should be set apart for a specific ministry He had called them for. This was the initiation of their missionary work to the Gentiles. After further fasting and praying, they (likely the leaders) laid their hands on Barnabas and Saul and then sent them off.

Being led by the Holy Spirit, they went to Seleucia from where they sailed to Cyprus. On their arrival at Salamis, they shared the gospel first to the Jews in the synagogues. This was Paul’s practice in every town he went to. John Mark had traveled with them to assist them. From Salamis, they traveled across the width of the island to Paphos where they met a Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus, who desired to hear the word of God. But Elymas (Bar-Jesus), a magician and false prophet who was with him opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from belief in Jesus. The idea of a Gentile wanting to hear the word of God while a Jewish man practices sorcery fits the repeated theme of Luke that the Jews were hardened and the Gentiles were open to the Gospel message. Saul, now referred to as Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit and denounced his attempts calling him “son of the devil”. His name Bar-Jesus means “son of the saviour” but he was anything but. Paul rightly accused him of standing as an enemy to righteousness, full of deceit and trickery, and perverting the straight paths of the Lord. Then Paul pronounced God’s hand of judgment against him. Instead of being a prophet who could “see the future”, he was reduced to a blind man unable to see at all. He was humbled from a position of prominence to having to be led by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed. The teaching he had heard had been confirmed by God’s supernatural working through Paul.

The leaders of the church at Antioch were praying and fasting, clearly in anticipation that God would do something, and He did. Are you praying in anticipation that God will use you?

Luke continues the story back at the prison, likely the next morning. The soldiers are unsettled over the disappearance of Peter. They had no idea how he could be missing and were clearly innocent. After Herod was unsuccessful in locating Peter, he interrogated the guards and then had them put to death. Then Herod went from Judea to spend some time in Caesarea.

Herod was angry with the people of the cities of Tyre and Sidon. Having befriended his chamberlain, Blastus, they came together before Herod asking for peace because of their dependence on Galilee for food. On the day he was to conclude their arrangement, he dressed in royal robes, sat on his throne, and addressed the people. They exclaimed that he spoke with “the voice of a God and not of a man.” Because he accepted their praise and didn’t give God the glory, he was struck by an angel of the Lord and died.

In contrast to Herod’s consequence, the word of God brought about life and growth in the church.
Barnabas and Saul returned to Antioch having completed their ministry. They brought John Mark back to Antioch with them.

God expects and deserves the place of preeminence in creation. We were put on this earth to bring Him glory. Are you living your life to God’s glory or your own? How can you correct that and give God the glory in your life today?

The church had experienced a period of peace from persecution since Saul’s conversion but now it rose up again under Herod (Herod Agrippa I). Herod had James, brother of John and one of the inner circle of disciples, killed with a sword. Seeing that this pleased the Jews, he had Peter arrested and put into prison. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened bread which would have brought back memories of the Passion of Jesus and reminded them that disciples may share in Jesus’ suffering. Possibly remembering the apostles’ escape (Acts 5:17-26), Herod had Peter guarded by four squads of soldiers while he waited for the end of Passover to bring him before the people. While Peter was in prison, the church prayed for him in earnest.

On the night before Herod was planning on bringing Peter out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and with two sentries guarding his door. Then an angel appeared next to him and a light shone in his cell. The angel struck him on the side and told him to get up. His chains fell off his hands and he was told to get dressed, put on his sandals, wrap his cloak around him and follow him. Peter obeyed and followed the angel but all the while he thought he was experiencing a vision. After passing the first and second guard, they came to an iron gate which opened by itself. Once the angel had him free, he left him. Then Peter realised that the Lord had sent an angel to rescue him. All of the attempts to secure Peter did nothing to restrain God’s hand.

Peter headed to Mary’s house where many disciples were praying. Mary was the mother of John Mark who would later write the gospel of Mark based on Peter’s eyewitness testimony. When Peter knocked at the door, a servant girl named Rhoda answered. She recognised Peter’s voice and in her joy, she ran to report Peter’s arrival but forgot to open the gate for him. The believers, who had been praying for his release, didn’t believe her and thought she was out of her mind. After insisting that she had seen him, they conceded that she had seen something and reckoned it was his angel (Matt 18:10). Peter continued to knock, and when they finally opened and saw him, they were amazed. He told them to be quiet and then described how the Lord had aided his escape. Then he told them to pass the message on to James (Jesus’ half brother and leader of the Jerusalem church) and those at the Jerusalem church. Then he left them for another place.

Consider how you pray. Do you pray with the expectation that God can do what you ask of Him? Or do you pray thinking that a situation is hopeless because it seems that way from the human perspective? Where have you seen God work around human limitations that can bolster your faith for future prayer?

After the church scattered because of the persecution that began with Stephen, those who traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch shared the gospel only with Jewish people. But there were a few who were from Cyprus and Cyrene who preached the gospel of Jesus to the Hellenists (Greek-speaking Jews) in Antioch. The evidence of God being with them as they preached was that many who heard believed and turned to the Lord. When the church in Jerusalem heard about this, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When the apostles heard about Philip’s ministry in Samaria, they sent Peter and John. Now the church was growing and others, non-apostles, were being used to minister to the church. When Barnabas arrived in Antioch he saw the evidence of God genuinely at work and was glad. True to his name (Acts 4:36), he encouraged the new believers to remain faithful to the Lord with devoted hearts. Some teach that perseverance in our faith is an automatic result of belief in Jesus or even that it is evidence of genuine faith. But here we see Barnabas seeing genuine faith and then encouraging the new believers to be devoted to the Lord and persevere in their faith. God promises that everyone who believes in Jesus is saved forever from the moment of belief (John 5:24; 6:47). But the Christian life requires a continual choice to lay down one’s life (Luke 9:23; Rom 12:1-2) and to develop an abiding relationship with Jesus (John 15:5). This is done through the enablement of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:16-26), the Word of God (2 Tim 3:16-17), and the encouragement of other believers walking alongside you (Heb 10:24-25).

Nonbelievers need a message to believe. Believers need encouragement to continue in the faith and cultivate their relationship to Christ in the context of the Church.

Valdés, A.S

Because of Barnabas’s work, many people were added to the Lord. Because of the growth of the church at Antioch, Barnabas went to Tarsus to fetch Saul and brought him to Antioch where they spent a year teaching the church. It was in Antioch that the disciples, the believers, were first called Christians. “—ians” means “belonging to ”, as Christians we identify with Jesus. The word Christian was not something believers initially used to refer to themselves. They preferred disciples, believers, or brothers. This term was used by others who recognised the distinction of this new group from Judaism.

In those days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. One named Agabus prophesied, by the Spirit, about a great famine that would affect the world (which happened during the reign of Claudius Caesar in about 46-48 A.D.). Just as Jesus’ ministry focussed on the needy, the believers each made a decision based on their own ability to send relief to the brothers in Judea. This gesture would have contributed to the unity of the growing body of the church now spreading abroad. They sent their gift to the elders in Jerusalem by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

How are you doing in your devotion to the Lord? Hopefully, the fact that you’re reading this is an indication of your commitment to spending time in God’s word. What about encouraging other believers to do the same? Are you regularly meeting with other believers, encouraging and being encouraged in your walk with Jesus?

Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings that are easily applied to everyday situations. Consider carefully which of the sayings you’ve read today are particularly applicable to you today and in the coming week. What do you need to change or do more of to make use of God’s wisdom in your life?

The news of the Gentiles receiving the word of God got to those in Judea before Peter returned. When he arrived, he was confronted by the circumcision party, a group of Jewish believers who were still zealous for the Law of Moses. They accused Peter of dining with uncircumcised men, the very thing he had believed he should avoid (Acts 10:28).
Peter began at the beginning and explain in order the events that had transpired. He explained the vision of the sheet of animals and how God had told him to kill and eat. He had examined it closely and initially refused to obey because it seemed to be a violation of the Law. But he explained God’s response saying, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” Peter highlighted that the interaction had happened three times and when the sheet was drawn up into heaven, at that moment, the three men from Caesarea had arrived at the house. The Holy Spirit confirmed that Peter should go with them. Peter added that he had taken six Jewish believers with him as witnesses of what transpired in Cornelius’s house. Peter gave a brief summary of Cornelius’s vision and his expectation of a message from God that would provide a means of salvation for him and his household. When he began to speak, the Holy Spirit came upon them just as He had at Pentecost, and Peter recalled Jesus’ words, “John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit” (Matt 3:11). Peter concluded that if God gave the Gentiles the same gift of the Spirit that he gave to the Jews when they believed in Jesus, then how could he stand in God’s way. Peter’s explanation addressed all the concerns raised by those who confronted him and presented the evidence that to go against what was happening to the Gentiles was to go against God himself. Having heard this, they fell silent. Then they glorified God admitting that God had also granted eternal life to the Gentiles.

Have you ever felt like things shouldn’t happen because they aren’t being done the way you expect them to? Our preferences should never get in the way of God working to grow His church. By using Biblical principles as a foundation, we have an objective way to identify if something should or shouldn’t be done. Where do you need to set your preferences aside for the unity of the church?

Peter took some of the believers from Joppa with him to Caesarea. When they arrived the following day, Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Cornelius met Peter, he fell down and worshipped him, but Peter got him up and corrected his understanding of worship, that people should worship the Creator, not the creature (Rom 1:18-23). As he entered Cornelius’s house, he saw the large group Cornelius had gathered. Cornelius hadn’t even heard the gospel yet but gathered everyone he knew in anticipation of hearing something from God. Why do we, who know the gospel, battle to tell others about it? When Peter said it was unlawful for a Jew to associate with a Gentile, he wasn’t speaking about any Old Testament law, because there isn’t one, but of a cultural prohibition that arose from the possibility of a ceremonial compromise that might arise from such contact. But God had shown Peter, in the vision of the sheet of animals, that he should not call any person common or unclean, and that is why he had come without objection. When Peter asked why he had been called, Cornelius again explained his prayer time, the vision, the angel’s instructions, and their expectation that Peter was going to share a message from God.

Peter affirmed that God shows no partiality and that God looks favourably on anyone who fears Him and does what is right. This does not mean that anyone can earn their salvation, which is always by faith alone (Eph 2:8-9). It also doesn’t negate the fact that all have fallen short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23; Isa 64:6). Righteousness is living in alignment with God’s character and commandments whether the person has heard them or not (Rom 2:14). When people seek after God, He will grant them the additional revelation they need in order to receive justification by faith (Heb 11:6). Peter explained that God sent His message of peace to Israel through Jesus Christ, though He is in fact Lord of all. Jesus’ ministry was from his baptism in Galilee under the power of the Holy Spirit, doing good and healing all to show that God was with Him. Peter explained that he was a personal witness of Jesus’ ministry, his death on a tree, and his resurrection on the third day. Jesus appeared to witnesses who ate and drank with Him after he rose from the dead which testified to His physical resurrection and His continuing humanity. God has appointed Jesus as the one to judge the living and the dead. Peter concluded with the essence of the gospel message—everyone who believes in Jesus will receive forgiveness of sins through His name. Belief in Jesus grants us forgiveness of all sins (Col 2:13) and grants us once-for-all salvation from the penalty of death. Repentance grants us forgiveness from past sins (1 John 1:7-9) and brings us back into fellowship with God. The Jews of Jesus’ day did not begin their new life with fellowship forgiveness (Acts 2:38), they still needed to repent of their involvement in Jesus’ death. The Gentiles, and all future believers, began the Christian life with both positional and relational forgiveness with God.
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on those in Cornelius’s house who heard [and believed] the word. This is a great testimony to the fact that nothing more than faith is needed in order to receive God’s gift of eternal life, sealed by His Spirit. God confirmed they had received the Holy Spirit with a similar manifestation as at Pentecost and all the believers who had gone with Peter were amazed that the Holy Spirit had been poured out on Gentiles as well. Having believed, Peter saw no reason why they too should not be baptised and so they were baptised in Jesus’ name. Then Peter stayed with them to build them up in their new faith.

Belief is all that’s needed for eternal salvation. Repentance is needed for an ongoing abiding relationship with God. Have you confused the two? Are you confident in the knowledge that your salvation is secure in the promise of Jesus to save all who believe in Him? When you find yourself falling back into patterns of sin, are you quick to repent and draw near to God for the abiding relationship that will help you to conquer that sin?

In Caesarea, there was a Gentile (a non-Jew) named Cornelius. He was a centurion (a commander of about a hundred soldiers) of the Italian Cohort (about six hundred troops). He was a devout man who feared God along with his household. He would have been a man who worshipped God in the synagogue and tried to follow the Law as best he could, but not a full proselyte to Judaism (had not been circumcised). At about three in the afternoon, he saw a clear vision of an angel of God who called him by name. He was scared and asked, “What is it, Lord?” “Lord“ in this context is a title of respect, similar to “sir”. The angel spoke of how his prayers and generosity had been recognised by God. His disposition towards God had pleased Him. Now he was to send men to Joppa to bring Simon, also known as Peter, who was living by the sea with Simon, a tanner. When the angel had left, Cornelius called two servants and a soldier, who had a similar devout disposition towards God, told them what the angel had said, and sent them to Joppa.

The next day, while they made their way to Joppa, Peter went onto the rooftop of the house to pray. At about noon he became hungry. While his hosts prepared him something to eat he fell into a trance. This trance would be a state brought on by God Himself rather than a hypnotic altered state we might be tempted to imagine. Peter saw the heavens open and something like a great sheet being let down by its four corners to the earth. The heavens opening shows the source of this revelation. This sheet contained all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. Then a voice said to Peter, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter responded, perhaps thinking it was a test of his faithfulness to the law, that he had never eaten anything common or unclean. The voice replied, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This vision happened three times showing the authenticity of the message. Then the sheet was retracted into heaven again showing the conclusion and reaffirming the source of the message, God Himself. While Peter pondered the meaning of the vision, the centurion’s envoy arrived by perfect God-ordained timing. The Spirit told Peter that the three men were looking for him and he was to accompany them immediately for they were sent by Him. Peter introduced himself as the one they were looking for and asked for the reason they had come. They explained how Cornelius, a God-fearing centurion, had been directed by an angel to find him and hear what he had to say. Because it was likely too late to travel back, Peter invited them to stay as his guests before they set out the next day.

Both Cornelius and Peter defaulted to obedience. Neither of them knew exactly what God had planned but they obeyed in faith. God calls you and me to obey Him and trust Him to do what‘s best in our lives. Where might you be hesitating to obey because you don’t have all the answers yet? Are you willing to take a step of faith and trust God to fill in the blanks as you follow Him?

Luke now transitions from Saul back to Peter. Peter was ministering throughout Judea and Samaria and came to the believers in Lydda. There he came across a man named Aeneas who had been bedridden for eight years and was paralyzed. Aeneas was instantaneously and completely healed. All the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him healed and turned to the Lord—they believed as a result of the healing.

Meanwhile, in Joppa there lived a woman named Tabitha (Aramaic) or Dorcas (Greek) who was full of good works and acts of charity. She became ill and died. Those around her washed her and placed her in an upper room. Clearly, they hoped for a miraculous work from God. Joppa was near Lydda where Peter was. They sent two men who urged him to come to them. Peter went with them and was brought to the upper room. There all the widows showed him the garments Dorcus had made for them while she was still alive—evidence of her good works of charity. Peter put them outside. Then he knelt, prayed, and then turned to the body where he told her to arise. Peter’s actions mimick Jesus’ actions in raising Jairus’s daughter, which he had witnessed (Luke 8:40-56). She opened her eyes and sat up. Then he gave her his hand, helped her up, and then presented her to the widows. This healing became known throughout Joppa and many believed in the Lord. Peter stayed in Joppa with Simon, a tanner. He probably used that time to minister to the new believers.

While these two stories show God’s special working through Peter and his preparation for reaching the Gentiles with the gospel, let’s consider Dorcus. Dorcus was a lady who took seriously the call to live a life of good works, something we have all been saved for (Eph 2:10). How seriously have you taken to doing the good works God saved and prepared you for? Would people want you raised from the dead to continue the good you have been doing?