WEEKLY SUNDAY
SCHOOL LESSON
An international
Sunday school lesson commentary
For
Sunday October 25, 2015
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readers worldwide
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TRUSTING
THE SPIRIT
(Reaching
the world together)
(Acts
11:1-18)
Acts chapter 11 begins
with Peter arriving back at Jerusalem after spending several days with
Cornelius, the Gentile believer and his family, in Caesarea. Cornelius and his
house had just become the first Gentile family accepted into the Christian
Faith and the HOLY SPIRIT had fallen fresh on them, just as HE had fell on the
Jews at the last Pentecost celebration (Acts 2).
News of the Gentile
conversion had already reached Jerusalem and the Jewish believers were waiting
anxiously to rebuke and criticize Peter for his associating with Gentiles, and
eating and drinking with them in their home. Such an action was a direct
violation of their own Jewish laws that they had set up, apart from GOD,
because Jewish men felt they were superior to Gentiles, Samaritans, and all
women (Vs.1-3).
Luke wants us to realize
the importance of the visions that GOD showed to Peter, and, to Cornelius, in
the shaping of Christianity into an all-inclusive world religion. The Jews were
already set to make this new ideology from the mind of GOD, just another sect
of Judaism that would only include Jews into the club.
However, Luke is led by
GOD to see these incidents as milestones along the way to building the only
religion that can ever be indorsed by GOD HIMSELF. He wanted all mankind to see
and realize that JESUS came, not only to save the Jews, but rather, HE came to
save all humanity by giving them an opportunity to embrace the free gift of
salvation through HIS vicarious sacrifice on the cross at Golgotha.
After Peter explained
his vision from GOD that he received while still in Joppa, and how the HOLY
SPIRIT had instructed him to go to Caesarea and witness to Cornelius’ family,
it seemed to satisfy the Jewish assembly’s objections, and they began to praise
GOD wholeheartedly moving forward.
Through the divine
intervention of GOD, by way of Peter’s and Cornelius’ visions, the people were
able to see how GOD had given the Gentiles the same privilege and opportunity
to turn from sin, and to receive eternal life, as HE had afforded the Jews, beginning
at Pentecost.
The Jewish people and
their leaders were exceedingly glad about GOD’s plan for the new Church of
CHRIST, and they began to look forward to sharing the Gospel with all the
nations of the world in the future (Vs.4-18). And they trusted in the HOLY
SPIRIT of GOD to lead, guide, and counsel them as they moved forward.
Here we see, perhaps for
the first time, the Christian Church being thought of as “a body of believers”
being held together, and accountable, only by the ideology of GOD HIMSELF. It
was and is, an ideology that is meant by GOD to transcend all the racial,
structural, organizational, and worshiping style differences of man, and bring
them all together in fellowship and love.
“Christian Unity” is
what JESUS prayed about in John 17, and it is also what the Apostle Paul wrote
about to the Christian Churches in all of his doctrinal letters. It is a unity
not born of bricks and mortar, but rather, it is a unity of personal
relationships, not unlike the one that we’ve already seen between the FATHER
and the SON, that will stand as an example to us for all time.
We as Christians can
truly reach the world together, but first, we must prove to the world, through
our behavior that, “Christianity really does produce the best men and women”.
And until we can do that, no person in and of the world is going to ever take
us serious.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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