Indwelling Spirit
Acts 11:1-18
1 Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God. 2 But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticized him. 3 “You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!” they said.
4 Then Peter told them exactly what had happened. 5 “I was in the town of Joppa,” he said, “and while I was praying, I went into a trance and saw a vision. Something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky. And it came right down to me. 6 When I looked inside the sheet, I saw all sorts of tame and wild animals, reptiles, and birds. 7 And I heard a voice say, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.’
8 “ ‘No, Lord,’ I replied. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean.’
9 “But the voice from heaven spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’ 10 This happened three times before the sheet and all it contained was pulled back up to heaven.
11 “Just then three men who had been sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying. 12 The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry that they were Gentiles. These six brothers here accompanied me, and we soon entered the home of the man who had sent for us. 13 He told us how an angel had appeared to him in his home and had told him, ‘Send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. 14 He will tell you how you and everyone in your household can be saved!’
15 “As I began to speak,” Peter continued, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning. 16 Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”
18 When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”
I love this interaction. There is a righteous indignation on what has happened with the Gentiles both hearing and responding to the Gospel. The Jewish-background believers were careful to keep the purity of their newfound faith in the Messiah. They did not want there to be any inappropriate behaviours or beliefs develop. So, they rightly defended their position, but with a spirit of humility. Peter was allowed to speak about why he had preached to the Gentiles. Peter gives an explanation that is largely experience-oriented about a vision he had. The Jewish believers listen intently and when they heard that the Holy Spirit had fallen on the Gentiles they were convinced and did not want an exclusive Jewish orientation to their faith. I note the story turns on the presence of the Spirit and that clearly there was something that could be seen – noting that the Spirit fell on them “just as He did on us at the beginning”. Was this with tongues of fire, a mighty rushing wind, and the gift of tongues? While we have no evidence of the manner that the Spirit came in power here, it is likely that the impact of the Spirit was at least in the gathered believers speaking in tongues.
Some diminish the importance of the gift of tongues and the evidence of the indwelling Spirit. Here we see very clearly, that without this evidence the believers of the first century would not have accepted the Gentiles as believers in Jesus.
What is the evidence of the indwelling Spirit in your life that others observe – this is perhaps a very confronting question but one if we place ourselves in this story that we need to face.
Father, would you fill us again with your Spirit – fill us without measure and may the impact of this infilling be so powerful that those around us would comment!
Written by Ps. Richard Botta