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Scripture Reading: Acts 11:1-18
In this message we come to 11:1-18. First we shall consider certain matters covered in these verses. Then we shall pay particular attention to the need for a dispensational transfer.
Acts 11:1-2 say, “Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. And when Peter went up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision disputed with him.” Circumcision was an outward ordinance inherited by the Jews from their forefathers, beginning from Abraham (Gen. 17:9-14), which made them distinct and separate from the Gentiles. It became a dead traditional formality, a mere mark on the flesh without any spiritual significance, and it became a great obstacle to the spread of God’s gospel according to His New Testament economy (Acts 15:1; Gal. 2:3-4; 6:12-13; Phil. 3:2).
In verse 3 those of the circumcision said to Peter, “You went in to men who are uncircumcised and ate with them!” Beginning with verse 4 Peter explained to them in sequence what had taken place. In verse 12 he says, “The Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. And these six brothers went with me also, and we entered into the man’s house.” These six brothers were present as witnesses to Peter’s word while he was speaking.
In verses 15 through 17 Peter went on to explain that the Holy Spirit fell on those in the house of Cornelius, and Peter “remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, John indeed baptized in water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit” (v. 16). Then in verse 17 Peter concluded, “If God therefore gave to them the equal gift as also to us, having believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could forbid God?”
Acts 11:18 says, “And when they heard these things, they were silent and glorified God, saying, Then also to the Gentiles God has given repentance unto life.” In this verse the Greek word for “life” is zoe, referring to the eternal life (1 John 1:2), the life of God (Eph. 4:18), the uncreated, indestructible life (Heb. 7:16), which is Christ Himself (John 14:6; 11:25; Col. 3:4), the very embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9), as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), of which life the Spirit is (Rom. 8:2), received by the believers through their faith in Christ (John 3:15-16) after repentance for their full salvation (Rom. 5:10). The gospel preached by Peter comprises the divine blessings not only of forgiveness (Acts 5:31; 10:43) and salvation (2:21; 4:12), but also of the Spirit (2:38) and life. Forgiveness deals with people’s sins, and life, with people’s death (John 5:24; 1 John 3:14; 2 Cor. 5:4).
The book of Acts is very dispensational. The word “dispensational” is, of course, the adjective form of the noun “dispensation.” The reason the book of Acts is dispensational is that it describes a great transfer that is accomplished during a period of transition. This is the transfer from the Old Testament economy to the New Testament economy.
“Economy” is an anglicized form of the Greek word oikonomia, which means dispensation. Hence, economy and dispensation are synonyms, with dispensation being the English equivalent of the Greek word oikonomia.
In the New Testament the word oikonomia denotes an arrangement. God has an arrangement, a household government, a family administration. God’s household government, or family arrangement, is what we call His economy. The transfer in the book of Acts is from God’s Old Testament arrangement to His New Testament arrangement.
God’s Old Testament arrangement was altogether a matter of types, figures, shadows, and prophecies. In other words, the Old Testament arrangement of God was not in reality. Rather, it was a shadow waiting for its fulfillment.
When the Triune God became a man in the incarnation, the transfer from shadow to reality began. Everything in God’s old dispensation, or arrangement, was a shadow. But in God’s New Testament arrangement we have reality. The transfer from the shadow to the reality began with God’s incarnation, that is, with the conception of Jesus, and was completed on the day of Pentecost with the outpouring of the economical Spirit.
Since this dispensational transfer was fully accomplished with the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, all the shadows should have been over. But those whom God chose and used had been raised in the Old Testament dispensation, and they had been saturated with and even constituted of God’s Old Testament arrangement. As a result, it was very difficult for them to forsake those things in an absolute way.
Let us take the case of Peter as an illustration. Peter was chosen by the Lord and used by Him to carry out His New Testament economy after He Himself had accomplished the transfer. Peter, however, was saturated with and constituted of the things of the old dispensation. For this reason, when Peter saw the vision of the great sheet in which were four-footed animals, reptiles, and birds, and when a voice told him to rise up, slay, and eat, Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common and unclean” (10:14). Knowing what the situation would be the Lord had sent an angel to Cornelius with a word concerning Peter. Furthermore, “while Peter was pondering concerning the vision, the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men are seeking you. But rise up and go down and go with them, doubting nothing, because I have sent them” (10:19-20). Peter loved the Lord, and eventually he went to the house of Cornelius. But this was a very difficult thing for Peter to do.
According to the record in Galatians 2, Peter later had further problems concerning the dispensational transfer. Paul tells us that before certain ones came from James, Peter “ate with those of the nations; but when they came, he shrank back and separated himself, fearing those of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy” (Gal. 2:12-13a). Here we see that even after the situation recorded in chapters ten and eleven of Acts, Peter still practiced hypocrisy in not daring to eat with Gentile believers openly in the presence of the brothers who had come from James in Jerusalem. From this we see how difficult it was for Peter to fully experience the dispensational transfer.
We have pointed out that Acts is a dispensational book. One verse related to the dispensational element in Acts is 1:8, where the Lord tells the disciples, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the remotest part of the earth.” Before the Lord spoke these words, the disciples asked Him, “Lord, are You at this time restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (1:6). The Lord replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father has placed in His own authority” (v. 7). Then the Lord went on to say that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit had come upon them and they would be His witnesses unto the remotest part of the earth. In 1:8 the Lord Jesus told the disciples that He would use them as His witnesses not only among the Jews in Jerusalem and in all Judea but among those in Samaria, and even among all the Gentiles in the remotest part of the earth. Although the disciples heard this word, they did not realize what the Lord was saying. In this simple word the Lord Jesus was indicating that the disciples would need to break through the Old Testament dispensation. From the disciples’ experience we see that to hear is one thing, but to realize and experience what we hear is another. Peter, for example, heard the Lord’s word in 1:8, but he nevertheless had difficulty with the Lord’s fulfillment of this word.
In 1:8 the Lord said that the disciples would be His witnesses in Samaria. This was fulfilled through the preaching of Philip the evangelist. In chapter eight we see that Philip evangelized Samaria and brought a good number of Samaritans into the Body of Christ. After that, the Lord wanted to go further. He had gone from Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria. Now He desired to go from Samaria to the Gentile world. At first Peter did not agree to take this step, but eventually he accepted the Lord’s word concerning the Gentiles and went with six other brothers to the house of Cornelius.
According to 10:23, when Peter went to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea, “some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.” In 11:12 Peter points out that six brothers went with him. We have noted previously that in this case Peter did not act individualistically, but with some of the brothers in the principle of the Body of Christ so that they might witness what God would do with the Gentiles through the preaching of the gospel by the breaking of the Jewish tradition and habit. However, Peter may not have been that familiar with the principle of the Body. He may have been acting here out of caution and out of the need to protect himself from the criticism of those of the circumcision. There is no record that the Lord told Peter to take these six brothers with him; neither are we told that Cornelius invited them to come along with Peter. These six were neither sent by the Lord nor invited by Cornelius; instead, they were taken by Peter as a protection for him. We may say that Peter kept the principle of the Body. However, if we could ask him about the matter, he might say, “You give me too much credit in saying that I acted according to the principle of the Body. What I did in taking the six brothers with me was for my protection. I was afraid that the Jewish brothers in Jerusalem would condemn me. Therefore, as a precaution, I took six brothers with me when I went to Caesarea.”
Not only did Peter bring these six brothers with him from Joppa to Caesarea; he also took them with him to Jerusalem. Peter knew that he would face trouble in Jerusalem and that he would be criticized for what he had done in Caesarea. He realized that he would need witnesses. He was a witness of Jesus Christ, and the six brothers that he brought to Jerusalem were his witnesses.
When Peter went up to Jerusalem, “those of the circumcision disputed with him, saying, You went in to men who are uncircumcised and ate with them!” (11:2-3). The saints in Jerusalem heard about what had happened in Caesarea, about what Peter had done in the house of Cornelius. Those of the circumcision asked Peter concerning this. They seemed to be saying to him, “Peter, what did you do? You took the lead to associate with the uncircumcised and to eat with them! What is this?”
According to verse 4, Peter began to explain in sequence what had taken place in the house of Cornelius. When I read the account in 11:1-18 many years ago, I thought that Peter was quite spiritual in the way he explained the matter to those of the circumcision. However, later I came to see that Peter may have actually been somewhat cowardly, somewhat afraid of those of the circumcision. Whatever may have been the situation, Peter explained things in a very nice way.
Peter concluded his presentation with these words: “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as also on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, John indeed baptized in water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit. If God therefore gave to them the equal gift as also to us, having believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could forbid God?” (vv. 15-17). Peter’s presentation is excellent, and we may learn of him.
Acts 11:18 says, “And when they heard these things, they were silent and glorified God, saying, Then also to the Gentiles God has given repentance unto life.” In this verse the word “then” is not positive, for it does not indicate willingness. Those of the circumcision were surprised that God had given to the Gentiles repentance unto life. Their surprise and lack of willingness to accept this fact are indicated by “then.”
Actually, those of the circumcision should not have been surprised that God had given repentance unto life to the Gentiles. In 1:8 the Lord Jesus had already told the disciples that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even in the remotest part of the earth including all the Gentiles. That was the Lord’s commandment, but the disciples did not realize it, and they did not accept it. After strong testimony was given concerning the Lord’s move among the Gentiles, those of the circumcision could only say, “Then also to the Gentiles God has given repentance unto life.”
We need to be impressed that Acts is a dispensational book. The matter of the change of dispensation is one of the strong points in Acts. To speak of a dispensational change means that in this book we see the need for a great transfer, the need for a great turn. This transfer, this turn, is from the old dispensation to the new.
In the book of Acts the early believers, including the apostles, were in a period of transition. We have pointed out that not even the apostles had a clear vision concerning God’s abandonment of the Judaic things. Peter and the other apostles, therefore, did not pass through this transitional period successfully. Actually, they had a great failure. This led to a mixture of the church with Judaism, which was not condemned by the early church in Jerusalem. That made it necessary for God to use Titus with the Roman army in A.D. 70 to destroy Jerusalem, the temple, and the religion of Judaism. Through Titus the religious mixture in Jerusalem was also terminated. May we all see from the record in Acts the need for a dispensational transfer.
