Restore 24: Acts

Luke's narrates Herod Agrippa's grisly end. It is fitting for a ruler who kills apostles. Agrippa tries to kill Peter, but God saves Peter and then kills Agrippa. Luke provides the briefest of narrative setting, which is that for an unspecified reason Herod is angry with Tyre and Sidon, and that, in the mending of this relationship, Herod appears and gives them a speech. The people seem to be overawed and acclaim him a god (v. 22). Agrippa does not give "the glory to God" (v. 23), and is "immediately" struck down by an angel of the Lord. Luke concludes, "he was eaten by worms and died." That's it. Luke's account is quite economical but, apart from something that must have indicated a sudden pain, we should probably not think that Agrippa keeled over and was consumed by worms at that very moment. More likely he suffered something when they were praising him and was taken away ill, dying not long after. The mention of worms may be literal, bu...

The first Gentile converts—the Ethiopian eunuch and Cornelius and household—have been God-fearers i.e. Gentiles who were partial converts to Judaism. The coming of the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius etc demonstrated the astonishing fact that the Gentiles could be brought into salvation on full and equal terms. But it is only now, in Antioch (note 1), that the Gentile mission really begins. It begins with diaspora Jews (men from Cyprus and Cyrene) who have been dispersed by the martyrdom of Stephen. They start proclaiming the Lord Jesus (11:20) and many respond in faith. Barnabas, who is also from Cyprus (4:36), is dispatched from Jerusalem to see what is going on, just as Peter and John had been sent to Samaria after the success of Philip (8:14). Barnabas rejoiced to see all that God was doing —he was generous and gracious, and, rather than guarding his ancestral faith, he celebrated that God had joined them in it, and encouraged them. Then he set off to find Saul in Tarsus, where he had b...

Peter arrives at Cornelius' house, who is very happy to see him! Falling at someone's feet pays special honour and can also be a gesture of supplication. It can also be worship, and this was more likely (and therefore ambiguous) in the east than the west. Outside of Judaism, which kept a stricter boundary between between God and creation, there were numerous levels of divinity, various spirits and even semi-divine humans. It would be surprising if Cornelius really is attempting to worship Peter, given what he knows of Judaism, but he could simply be overwhelmed and grateful, and not a little in awe of a man that an angel has sent to him. I think it is more likely that Cornelius was not actually worshipping Peter, but Peter did not want this gesture to be misinterpreted, and certainly did not want to be seen as receiving worship! Genuine servants of God are horrified when worship is directed away from God and on to them (cf. Rev 19:10; 22:8-9). We will see this with Paul and Bar...

Cornelius has had a vision, and now Peter has one. This vision is of vast importance, and the statement “What God has made clean, you must not call profane” is given three times. It is impossible for us, in our time and culture, to appreciate the revulsion Peter would have felt at seeing these animals and being told to eat them (note one). It would help somewhat if we could, because it would in turn help us to understand the enormity of what God was about to do in pouring out the Spirit on the Gentiles. And it would help us understand better the continuing opposition to the Gospel (especially in Paul's ministry), as it contained not only the absurdity of a crucified Messiah but the unthinkable justification of the nations—and the final twist of the knife would be the teaching that Jews would be cast out whilst Gentiles are brought in!! On a purely human level it would make no sense at all. Again we see the direction of the Holy Spirit in His mission. He has told Cornelius to send ...

Peter goes down from Jerusalem to Lydda to visit the believers there. We are given another remarkable miracle story but the details are scarce. Luke says that Peter found Aeneas, not that Aeneas was brought to him. Was he in the home of a believer? Did he meet him on a street? Was he himself a believer? The way Luke words v. 34 makes me think of the lame beggar at the temple in ch. 3. In 3:6, it says this:  "But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”"  The fact that Peter in 9:34 says, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed!”, makes it sound like Peter is saying a name (Jesus Christ) that Aeneas has not heard before, and Peter wants to make it clear who is to credit for what is about to happen. The effect is that all the locals and those in the surrounding area of the plain of Sharon saw this man now healed and turned to the Lord. So, although Peter went obstensibly to ...

Chapter 7 ended on a low note, to say the least. Stephen's death also introduced Saul, who is shown as approving of and superintending it. There follows a much happier chapter mainly following the activities of Stephen's colleague Philip. This showed that despite that trauma of Stephen's lynching, and the severe persecution that accompanied it, God prospered his people all the more. Now we return to Saul, where God shows again that his plan of salvation is invincible. This fierce murderer—who believes he is serving God—will literally be stopped in his tracks, and all that knowledge, training, and furnace of zeal will be put to the true service of God, that is, proclaiming the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Saul takes the initiative to ask the high priest for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that he might have the authority to extradite fugitive Christians back to Jerusalem. The right of extradition had been granted by the Romans some time ago, and reaffirmed by Ju...

Here we have another amazing story which is also groundbreaking. Philip first brought the Gospel to the Samaritans, and now technically this is the first Gentile to be saved. Of course, there may have been other proselytes in Jerusalem who were saved in the first days and weeks of the new church (cf. Jn 12:20-21), and Luke has not narrated any of these. The real cross-over point of the Gospel to the Gentiles is still to come with Peter and Cornelius. For that moment, God made special preparation for the revelation of the mystery of the inclusion of the Gentiles, which includes Peter's vision and other remarkable features, plus his debrief in Jerusalem, where the leaders accepted and celebrated God's sovereign mercy. Where was this eunuch from? Luke says Ethiopia, but he does not mean the country we know as Ethiopia. Rather 'Ethiopa' referred to the region south of Egypt, and was regarded as mythically distant. The capital city of that empire, Meroë, was about a hundred ...

This episode, where there is a delay between the Samaritans believing in Jesus and then 'receiving' the Holy Spirit, has unsurprisingly caused much debate. There is another like it, in 19:1-7, where Paul encounters disciples of John the Baptist who had not been baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus (v. 5). There are some important parallels: in both cases, the believers are multiple; they have already responded with faith; an apostle lays on hands and prays; the reception of the Holy Spirit is manifest i.e. "they spoke in tongues and prophesied" (19:6) Granted, Luke does not say that the Samaritans spoke in tongues or prophesied (8:17), but it seems likely that they did, partly because Simon could see that they had received the Holy Spirit, and was so impressed by what he saw that he offered the apostles money to learn the technique or formula (v. 18-19). Also, because the Gospel has crossed a significant historical barrier, it seems that it was important that the ...

The lynching of Stephen unleashed a severe persecution of the church in Jerusalem, with Saul leading the way. Although the apostles managed to remain in Jerusalem, the rest of the church was forced to flee the city. As is typical of Luke's storytelling, a character has been introduced briefly--in this case, Saul--but won't feature properly until later on (cf. Barnabas in 4:36). Meanwhile, Acts 8 focuses on the ministry adventures of Philip, one of the seven leaders appointed alongside Stephen. The theme of this section is, of course, not really Philip himself, but the first steps of the Gospel outside Jerusalem on the way to fulfilling Jesus' command in 1:8. Thus we see a crucial moment when the Gospel crosses a bitter, ethnic barrier to Samaria, and then again when an African proselyte is converted, and returns to his country rejoicing. In all this the way is being paved for the great mystery to be revealed, the inclusion of the Gentiles in the people of God (note 1), whic...

Stephen has finished his speech in front of the same court that condemned Jesus, the Righteous One. It was supposed to be a defence, but Stephen has instead accused his judges. It was these judges who had heard Jesus say: "But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God." (Lk 22:69) This declaration secured Jesus' condemnation, and Stephen's vision of this Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God will secure his own. Jesus' statement at his own trial draws from Dan 7:13, where the one like a Son of Man approaches the Ancient of Days and is given an everlasting kingdom (after Israel's enemies have been destroyed), and from Ps 110:1, where the Messiah is invited to sit at the right hand of God (until Israel's enemies have been destroyed). Jesus' point is that his vindication will come, and they will see it. Stephen sees that this has begun to come to pass, that the Son of Man has indeed come to the Anc...