Conversion of Cornelius - Culture and Gospel (Acts 11:1-30)

[Stephan Choe]

July 14. 2023

Leading verses 17-18: "If therefore God gave them the same gift as he gave us also, who have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ: who was I, that I could gainsay God? When they heard it, they held their peace, and praised God, saying, so hath God also given unto the Gentiles the repentance that leadeth unto life!"

Today, we want to know how Christianity accepted the view of opening the Gospel to all peoples. Peter's experience contributed to this.

We need to properly understand the relationship between the Gospel and the culture of each nation in order to effectively spread the Gospel.

May God help us understand the universalism of the gospel and spread the gospel worldwide. 

1. Spreading the gospel through the customs of each nation (1-18)

Each people have their own custom, and this custom has its own value. It cannot be said flatly that the custom of one people is better than the custom of another. And the custom of the people and the gospel are two different things.

In the early church, Christians were predominantly Jews. Among these Jewish Christians, the initial opinion was that people from other nations should observe all Jewish customs in order to become God's children and have eternal life. For example, the Jews do not eat pork. In their opinion, foreigners such as Italians or Germans should not eat pork in order to belong to God's people and have eternal life.

Peter was the top apostle. But he was a Jew, after all. As a Jew, he was deeply imprinted by his Jewish traditions. He first thought that all foreigners must first observe Jewish customs in order to become God's children and receive eternal life. But do you know how hard it is for non-Jews to adhere to all Jewish customs? If people from other nations had to observe Jewish customs first in order to become God's children, it would be a heavy burden for them. But that is not necessary. Because the gospel and the customs of each people are two different pairs of shoes.

But God wanted to open wide the gate of the gospel to all nations. To do this, God first wanted to bring Peter, the top apostle, to understand. Peter was to understand that in order to be saved, man needs to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, but not Jewish customs. God showed this to Peter through Cornelius.

But the legal-minded Jewish Christians accused Peter of breaking their moral laws. Peter then explained to them his action to save Cornelius in an understandable way. The point of his explanation is: God showed him that for salvation every man need only believe in the gospel, but it is not necessary to keep the Jewish customs.

Peter was in prayer in Joppa. In prayer, he saw a supernatural vision: a linen cloth came down from heaven by four tails. But in the cloth were various four-footed animals that the Jews considered unclean. For example, the Jews consider pork unclean and do not eat them. And Peter heard a voice, "Get up, slaughter, and eat!" Peter answered, "O no, Lord; for nothing forbidden or unclean has ever entered my mouth." But the heavenly voice said to him, "What God has made clean, do not call forbidden!" Three times, the heavenly voice repeated the same. And the cloth with different animals was pulled up again toward heaven.

At that moment, three envoys from the Roman centurion named Cornelius were standing at the door of the house where Peter was staying. The Jews considered people from another nation unclean and had no fellowship with them. But the Spirit of God told Peter to go with them without hesitation. Arriving at Cornelius' house, Peter told him and his people the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Cornelius and his people believed the gospel. While he was telling them the gospel, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as the Spirit had come upon the first disciples earlier at Pentecost. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord: 'John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'

Now Peter said to all the people in conclusion, "If then God has given them the same gift as He has given us who have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could resist God?"

Peter here emphasized that all peoples can become children and receive eternal life not through Jewish customs, but simply by believing in the gospel of God.

Without the experience of this miracle, Peter could have thought that all people must first observe the Jewish customs and believe in the gospel in order to be saved. Peter, or rather the first church, could only come to the correct understanding, with the help of God, that for salvation it is unnecessary for man to observe the Jewish customs. This insight opened wide the door to salvation for all peoples. Praise God for His goodness! This is true today as well. It is not necessary to observe Korean or German customs in order to become God's children. It is only necessary to believe in the gospel.

2. The world mission spirit of the church in Antioch (19-30)

First, some disciples also told the Greeks about the gospel.

Let's look at verses 19 and 20. During the persecution of Stephen, believers were scattered. Some Christians went as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the gospel.

These Jewish Christians told the Jews about the gospel of Jesus Christ. But some Jews from Cyprus and Cyrene who had become believers came to Antioch and also spoke to the Greeks of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Verse 21 tells us that the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number of the Greeks became believers.

This incident shows us the mystery of the world mission. The Jewish Christians told the Greeks about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the hand of the Lord was with them. The mouth of the believers and the hand of the Lord worked well together. This teaches us that we should tell about the gospel to other people and count on the helping hand of the Lord to do so: On the one hand, we are to go to people and tell them about Jesus Christ. On the other hand, we are to count on God's activity.

There are two one-sided assertions about evangelism: Some people make efforts for evangelism, but they do not count on God's help. Other people do nothing for evangelism themselves, claiming that God Himself would lead people to faith.

But verses 20 and 21 give us the right insight into the successful evangelism: the believers told the people the gospel, and the hand of the Lord was with the people, so that a great number became believers.

We can compare ourselves with some believers who spread the gospel among the Greeks. We can tell the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Germans and to all nations. In doing so, we should not only count on our strength, but count on the hand of the Lord. For this, we need to pray to God and follow His effectiveness.

Second: Encouragement through Barnabas

If the church in Jerusalem had not experienced the conversion of Cornelius, the church could have been suspicious of the conversion of the Greeks in Antioch. But the church in Jerusalem heard about the church in Antioch and sent Barnabas to Antioch. Verses 23 and 24 tell us the following: "When this man (i.e., Barnabas) was come there, and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and exhorted them all to cleave unto the Lord with a steadfast heart: for he was a tried man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith."

Barnabas was an important worker in the church in Jerusalem. His original name was Joseph. But because he was a comfort and encouragement to others, he was given the new name "Barnabas" by the apostles. Barnabas means "son of comfort" (Acts 4:36).

The apostles sent him to Antioch to encourage and strengthen the church in Antioch. Although the church in Antioch was still small compared to the church in Jerusalem or elsewhere, Barnabas did not compare it to the church in Jerusalem. Because he had eyes for God's effectiveness, he could rejoice in it. Barnabas exhorted the Christians in the church of Antioch to remain steadfast in the Lord with a firm heart. He was a man filled with the Holy Spirit and faith. He followed the work of the Holy Spirit.

I thank God that in the early days of student evangelism in Bochum, He preciously used the living community of Renate Buchholz, Esther Bae and Pauline Lee to overcome the cultural differences between Germans and Koreans and to spread the gospel among the students.

Third, strengthening the church through Saul

Barnabas realized that the church in Antioch needed strengthening. So he went to Tarsus to look for Saul. He found Saul and brought him to Antioch. Barnabas and Saul stayed with the church for a whole year and taught many. Because Barnabas and Saul taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and the way of life in the power of God, many people became believers and wanted to imitate Jesus Christ. These believers behaved differently from those who did not believe. Despite various adverse situations, they thanked Jesus for saving them. They loved Jesus Christ and other people. They wanted to become like Jesus Christ. Some unbelievers mocked the believers and called them "Christians" (Greek: "christianoi"), because in the eyes of some unbelievers the believers looked like madmen on Christ. But the believers found their designation "Christians" to be an honor, because they wanted to belong to Jesus Christ.

In Korea, there was a similar mocking name for Christians "Jesu-jang-i". The term "Jesu-jang-i" means the people who are crazy about Jesus. They always talk about Jesus and live for Jesus.

So the term "Christians" means "Jesus' disciples." Christians are the people who believe in Jesus Christ, belong to Him and want to become like Him. This is the meaning of Christians. 

Christians from Antioch played an important role for Christianity all over the world. On the one hand, Christians in Antioch properly overcame the closets of Jewish culture and opened wide the gospel of Jesus Christ to all peoples. Secondly, Christians from Antioch were able to send out Saul and Barnabas as active missionaries. We will learn about this later. No wonder, Antioch became the seat of one of the five original patriarchates around the middle of the 4th century, along with Jerusalem, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome.