GETTING STARTED
It doesn’t matter how many times someone describes a new experience to you, you just won’t be able to picture it completely until you get there and experience it yourself. A description is a helpful thing, but sometimes it just comes down to “you’ll understand when you get there.” Our passage today shows us one example where the followers of Jesus had heard many times of something that was going to happen, but when it actually did, they were still surprised!
- When have you experienced something that was so much more than what you expected or imagined?
READ THE WORD: ACTS 10:44-48 (ESV)
44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.
English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
DIGGING DEEPER
- Who, specifically, were the “believers from among the circumcised”?
- What were they “amazed” (in the Greek, beside themselves) over? Why?
- Why was speaking in tongues so significant an event at this time in the church’s early history?
- Why was it so important for these believers to be baptized?
- Are there people in your life that you think would never come to faith in Christ? How can you trust God to take the blessing of the gospel to them?
RESPOND TO GOD
From the beginning of Israel’s history, God told the Jews he would bless them and that they would be a blessing to all the nations. Like any entitled child, they embraced the blessing but failed to consistently give that blessing away. They hoarded that blessing, even to the point of being bitter when the blessing of salvation was offered to the Gentiles. God made a decisive move by sending his manifest presence to the Gentiles, even while Peter was still preaching! Peter then affirmed God’s work by baptizing them—firmly identifying them—into the family of God. How easy is it for us to write people off because of our own secret biases? God’s grace is big—much bigger than our own sin, and thankfully, bigger than our sense of justice and prejudice.
- Thank the Lord for his grace in your life, even while you were still a sinner (Romans 5:6-8).
- Ask the Lord to give you his eyes—his vision—for people, and pray that they too will be blessed by the grace of Jesus Christ.