Acts 11:1-18

Holy Spirit help me to see You in every person I come into contact with.

God shows no partiality: The good news of the gospel is not for a certain population. In every nation every kind of person is welcome into the kingdom of God. This is precisely what Christ had told the apostles.

The manifestation of the Holy Spirit was the same to the Gentiles at Caesarea as it was to the Jews at Jerusalem.

This section begins a bold new step in the mission of the church. The Samaritans were part Jewish; the Ethiopian eunuch and Cornelius were Jewish proselytes. Finally the Jewish Christians that made up the early church understood Jesus’ commission to them: they were to bring the gospel message to the Gentile too.

Peter and John traveled to Samaria to join Philip in the revival there. Peter’s missionary efforts described show the power of God at work. He traveled to Lydda where Aeneas was healed, and in Joppa he restored Dorcas to life and stayed many days with Simon the tanner. The vision of the unclean animals and birds prepared Peter to accept Cornelius’s invitation to come to Caesarea, where the gospel was powerfully effective among the Gentiles.

Because of the importance of the issue of personal prejudice, Luke repeats the account of the vision of the sheet and the unclean animals that God used to free Peter from his racial bigotry. Peter had wisely taken six brethren with him when he visited Cornelius’s home. He anticipated the argument from “those of the circumcision”. Faithlife Bible/NKJ Bible.

Acts 11:1–18 (NKJV): 

Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!”But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, saying: “I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came to me. When I observed it intently and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘Not so, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth.’ But the voice answered me again from heaven, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common.’ Now this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven. At that very moment, three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea. Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, ‘Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.’ And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”