Acts Chapter 11 Study Guide

Family Study Guide for November 9 - November 15, 2006
(Read Acts 11 Online)

Reflections on Acts 11 by Mark Chesner, Coach

Most of us in the church today are what Jews in Jesus time would have called "Gentiles." We are not Jewish and we do not follow the old Jewish law. We do not do sacrifices, we do not keep kosher in our eating, we do not wear a yarmulke while worshiping, and we do not celebrate Passover.

At the same time, we call ourselves Christians which means "followers of Christ" (a term which was invented in this chapter at Antioch). And Jesus Christ was absolutely Jewish in his life! He kept the Sabbath, He followed kosher eating laws, He worshiped God in the Temple which involved sacrifices, and He celebrated Passover (that was what He was doing at the Last Supper!).

Hasn't this stuck you as odd? How can be trying to be "like Christ" when we are avoiding so many rituals and laws that He observed every day of His life?!

The answer was given in Acts 10, and is seconded in Acts 11. Acts 11 opens with the circumcised believers (which means both those born Jewish and those who converted to Judaism in order to follow Christ) calling Peter onto the carpet for having preached to Cornelius and the other gentiles in his house, and having brought salvation to them. They criticize Peter's actions, and force him to recount everything that happened before they are willing to believe that this could be how God is working in the present time.

Does this seem weird to you? Are you asking yourself, "Why should the Jewish believers care how God works with Gentiles?" Think about how hard it is to try and keep the Law! We find it hard enough to get up every Sunday morning for church, but in the Jewish world the Sabbath was only one day of a fully ritualized week! They had to watch what they ate, watch what they said, watch how they prayed, watch how they dressed, keep doing sacrifices (which meant buying an animal if you did not happen to own one), etc. That costs time, money, effort, and leaves no time off! And now, God is offering the same salvation to a people who don't have to bother with any of that. No different from the last time you had to spent hours studying for a big test in order to get a B or a C, and found out the kid who got the A didn’t study at all. It seems unfair.

But God does not leave off "proving" to everyone that His New Deal is in effect! After Cornelius, God works the same way with the disciples who fled from the persecution that sprang up around the killing of Stephen. We will see that even after this, not all "circumcised believers" are as willing to accept the change of affairs as those in Acts 11. But for now, God is teaching the same lesson over and over again: "I accept both Jews and Gentiles into the Kingdom of God."


Questions to Consider
- When has life seemed unfair, when God gave someone something for free that you had to work very hard to achieve?
- Why is God changing the deal for salvation, after Jesus? Or is it really the same "deal"?
- Why did the first Christians assume that Christianity was for Jews only?



Bible.Org Outline for Acts 11
1. The Accusation of the Jewish Believers (11:1-3)
2. The Explanation of Peter (11:4-17)
a. Recounting of Peter’s Vision in Joppa (11:4-10)
b. Recounting of Peter’s Visit to Cornelius in Caesarea (11:11-16)
c. Recognition of the Legitimacy of the Gentile Mission by Peter (11:17)
d. Response of the Jewish Believers (11:18)
C. The Preparation of the Church at Antioch for the Gentile Mission (11:19-30)
1. The Birth of the Church in Antioch (11:19-21)
2. The Response of Jerusalem to Antioch: The Sending of Barnabas (11:22-24)
3. Barnabas and Saul at Antioch (11:25-26)
4. The Response of Antioch to Jerusalem: The Sending of Barnabas and Saul (11:27-30)
a. The prophecy of Agabus: Worldwide Famine (11:27-28)
b. The Poverty of the Judean Churches: A Collection Taken (11:29-30)