Acts 10:44-48. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 25, 2023.
Today we are going to talk about the first time that Gentiles were filled with the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
It is one thing to think of God filling Israelites and sending them out into the nations with power to be a witness. They were in the position close to God, and the Gentiles were far from God. If there was going to be any powerful witness, then surely it must be through Israel alone.
Thus, it was harder for some in the early Church to grasp the full magnitude to what Jesus had done at the cross, and what He was now doing through the Holy Spirit. In fact, the way to draw ourselves back to the truth is to understand Jesus as a servant (Matthew 20:28). We are not just putting on a powerful display. We are powerfully serving lost people by serving God's heart for them.
Israel was not called of God like some kind of teacher's pet, an act of favoritism. Just read the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 (and the multitude of passages throughout the prophets). God told them up front that they would not be any different than the Gentiles in their faithfulness. Isaiah depicted Israel as a blind and deaf servant. Fat lot of good that will do God. However, Christ rises up as the ultimate Son of David, the ultimate Israel, who serves both Israel and the Gentiles.
The heart of God was in redeeming Israel and the Gentiles all at the same time. In eternity, we will dwell with Him as the Sons of God without the distinctions of Jew and Gentile.
So, the early Church had to come to grips with God cleansing the Gentiles so that they could directly approach His throne of grace through Jesus, instead of the Law of Moses. And, they had to come to grips with God filling and empowering Gentiles by the Holy Spirit filling them. This was hammered out in Acts chapter 15.
Over the years, the Church has almost inverted this issue. We have come to the point that some almost doubt that a Jewish person can be saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. Some label them as "Christ Killers" as if they have done the unpardonable sin. Yet, this is not the case. God is breaking down this dividing wall of hostility by His Holy Spirit. Can God fill a Jewish person? Of course, He can and does, all around this world!
Let's look at our passage.
As Peter is preaching to Cornelius, his family, and his friends, they are baptized in the Holy Spirit by the Lord Jesus. Yes, this passage doesn't exactly use this phrase here. However, in Acts 11:15-17, Peter clearly testifies that this is the same thing regardless of what words are used to describe it.
With that said, let's take a few moments to look at some of the variety of terminology used of the Holy Spirit's work in believers.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit uses the imagery of water baptism to depict a person completely immersed and doused with the Spirit. It is an external image that is comparable to another image that pictures a person being "clothed with power" from on high. The Holy Spirit comes upon the believer for a particular work and empowers them for it.
However, there is also internal imagery that is used, such as being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit resides within a person at salvation, but it is clear that we need to be filled with the Spirit. Jesus employed the analogy of a spring of living water that comes up out of our heart, overflowing our life, and touching others (John 7:38-39).
In this passage, we have the phrase, "the Holy Spirit fell upon [them]." This is another external image that highlights the vertical aspect of God and man. It is a common way of speaking of the Spirit in the Old Testament. It gives the sense of suddenness. The Spirit falls upon them suddenly. However, it also emphasizes that the person on the earth is receiving empowerment from heaven. The Spirit falls upon them from heaven. This implies that something powerful will then follow.
All of these phrases are not so much different things as they are different ways of talking about the same thing.
I love that they are baptized in the Holy Spirit, "while Peter was still speaking these words." Peter hadn't had a chance to give an altar call. He hadn't even mentioned that the promise of the Holy Spirit yet. In fact, this reminds me of the event in Acts 8 where Peter lays his hands upon the Samaritans and prays for them to receive the Holy Spirit. He also had not done this.
This does not mean Peter was doing something wrong, or he was taking to long to get to the point, and Jesus was becoming anxious. I believe that it happened this way because Jesus was trying to teach Peter something, and by extension, to teach us.
Peter's last words were, "To Him all the prophets witnessed that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins." Remember that these people are the exact opposite of a hard audience. They were ready to believe whatever Peter told them. At this point, they have heard the Gospel and are no doubt believing that this Jesus was the Messiah promised by God through His prophets.
This is a key moment. It shows us that there is not a ritual, or procedure, or a particular prayer that must be prayed in order to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Jesus does the work as we believe the word of God.
It is a human tendency to reduce things to a "way that it is done." We tend to reduce the powerful work of God's salvation to a list of three things you must do.
Don't get me wrong. There are absolutes that never change. Jesus is the only one upon whom we must believe in order to be at peace with God. That will never change. However, we can accrete all manner of ideas, doctrines, and theologies that are not absolute upon the absolute truth about Jesus.
When we do this, we make all kinds of boxes that we believe God will stay in. Our mortal flesh is uncomfortable with an omnipotent, omniscient Sovereign who is the Creator and Lord of the universe. We must be careful of creating boxes in our mind that attempt to define what God can do because we He may choose to come in a way that doesn't fit in your boxes. We might even crucify the Lord of Glory, resisting the Holy Spirit, because He isn't doing it "right."
Peter did not have to coach these Gentiles that day. The Spirit of God sovereignly came upon them and moved in them to do what He wanted. They were filled with the Holy Spirit in the middle of Peter's sermon.
Luke describes the group of people who came with Peter as believers of "the Circumcision." This phrase was used by Jews of themselves, and it referred to biological Israelites who observed the Law of Moses. For a male, circumcision came to be the most important sign of the covenant. This was a general use within Israel.
However, in the New Testament, we find a narrower use of this term for circumcised Israelites who had believed upon Jesus, but also believed that Gentiles should conform to the Law of Moses, i.e., be circumcised, before they could embrace Jesus- more likely that they would embrace the Law of Moses at the time of embracing Jesus (they both went hand in hand). Paul dealt with this especially in the book of Galatians.
This will be the main issue in Acts 15. It will be a council to determine if the theology of The Circumcision was correct. I believe these believers that had come with Peter were part of this group. Peter himself leans this way, but is clearly being taught by the Holy Spirit that this is a wrong-headed way of seeing the work of Jesus.
Jesus is building a case for Peter (as a master teacher) that has three main components in this passage. First, Peter could not deny his vision and the things that he saw and heard in it. Second, Peter could not deny that the Holy Spirit told him to go with the men to meet Cornelius. Third, Peter could not deny that God had sovereignly poured out His Spirit upon these Gentiles in the same way He had done at Pentecost back in Acts chapter 2.
We are told that those believers of The Circumcision were astonished. They can't believe what they are seeing, not because they have never seen it before, but because it is messing with their theology, their precious little boxes. If we improperly develop limitations to God that are not right, He will be faithful to mess with our theology and show us the truth (if we have eyes to see). Hold fast to God's word, but don't hold rigidly to your ideas about God's word that go beyond what it says, or "makes sense of what it says." Don't do so especially in the face of God's sovereign actions. Learn to love the Holy Spirit's work more than your limitations of what that can be.
It is easy to look at the Pharisees, people whose theology caused them to resist what God was doing, and thank God that you are not like them. Roman Catholics can look at Eastern Orthodox and be glad that they are not like them. "Too bad that they didn't understand. Thank God that we have the truth!" Protestants can do the same thing to Roman Catholics. "They didn't get it and fought the Holy Spirit, but we've got it!"
On and on, we can go, always looking back at what we believe justifies us and condemns others. The problem is that, as we look back, we build little restrictive boxes of human reasoning, and mentalities, that somehow believe that we now understand completely how God does things. We who think that we are on the cutting edge of following the Spirit of God can be stuck in rigid thinking that causes us to resist what God wants to do in our day.
This is precisely what Dietrich Bonhoeffer dealt with in pre-Nazi Germany. The fall before Hitler became Chancellor and the Nazi party quickly took power, the Lutherans were looking back to Martin Luther and celebrating that they had the truth! Yet, Bonhoeffer warned them that they were not doing what Martin Luther did. Martin Luther stood against every demon of hell to be faithful to what the Holy Spirit was saying in his day. This is not what the German Lutheran pastors of 1932 were doing. They were resisting the prophetic voices of men like Dietrich and allowing Hitler to take power. Many of them did not wake up to the threat until it was too late.
It doesn't matter what group you are in and what they did for God in the past. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit right now, and go forth as He sovereignly leads us!
So, how did they know that the Gentiles had been filled with the Holy Spirit? Verse 46 tells us that they heard them speaking with tongues, and magnifying God. This most likely means that some of the onlookers understood some of their language. Yet, it was quite clear that they were all speaking in different languages.
There were three recognizable things in Acts 2 at the Day of Pentecost. There was a loud sound like a wind, there were tongues like fire above every head, and they began speaking in tongues. We never see the first two signs again, though God can do them at any time. Similarly, John the Baptist saw a dove descend upon Jesus at His water baptism to signify that He was also filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not seen again as well (though God is sovereign and can do so at any time). It appears that speaking in tongues is the main, immediate evidence that a person has been filled with the Holy Spirit.
A person may say that we are not told that the Samaritans spoke in tongues in Acts 8 when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. However, there was something that happened that was obvious to onlookers. This is why Simon the Sorcerer was amazed. Though it doesn't mention what he saw, the most likely is that they spoke in tongues.
That said, the main purpose for the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not speaking in tongues. Rather, it is about empowerment to witness to the world around us. Thus, the long-lasting evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a life that is transformed into a powerful witness to others. This doesn't mean that everyone you witness to becomes a believer. However, it does create a tension for us as Christians. My job is not to make people believe. Rather, my job is to make sure that I am filled with the Spirit, listening to Him and following Him. My job is making sure that I am not standing in the way of what He wants to do through me, but rather, being a channel of the Spirit.
Let's not be guilty of honoring Spirit-led people of the past, all the while resisting the Holy Spirit today.
So, when were these people actually saved? As God-fearers, they had been accepted by God, but only under the grace that would later come through Jesus. Once Jesus had come and paid the price for sin on the cross, they would need to obey the Holy Spirit and believe upon Jesus. We are saved when we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, these people were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit all at the same time! On top of this, they weren't even water baptized yet.
Do we really need to water baptize someone if they are already baptized in the Spirit? Peter believed so. After the initial coming of the Spirit upon them had subsided, Peter continues to teach them what they must do. They need to obey the Lord by being baptized in water in the name of Jesus Christ. It is a command of the Lord not just to the believer, but especially to those who bring them to Christ.
This is a problematic passage for any who try to make water baptism necessary for salvation (or Spirit baptism for that matter). We are not water baptized so that we can be saved, or filled with the Spirit. A person is water baptized because they have believed and been saved by the Lord Jesus.
Peter asks if anyone can forbid them from being water baptized. The obvious candidates for forbidding would be The Circumcision group. I don't think Peter is asking their permission, but rather stating that they should speak now, or forever hold their peace. Who can argue with God?
If Peter had laid his hands upon them and prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit, then they would probably have protested (as if, Peter is actually the one baptizing people in the Spirit). They were clearly check-mated by the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. No one could object.
Peter also reminds them that these Gentiles have received the Holy Spirit "just as we have." How did they receive the Holy Spirit? It was a gift that came sovereignly by faith in Jesus, the Lord's Anointed One, and at the Lord's timing. They did not receive the Holy Spirit because of their circumcision, or great ability to keep the Law of Moses. This doesn't mean the Law is bad, but that it could not be the means of salvation and being filled with God's Spirit. The New Covenant was a greater covenant than the Old covenant. Thus, the older work of the Spirit can sometimes become a stumbling block when God calls us into new territory.
Thus, they baptized these new Gentile believers.
I want to take a few moments to point out things that are normative versus things that are necessary. It is normal for people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and then be water baptized. This might happen the same day, or weeks later. We might even have a class teaching on what water baptism is all about. A person then may pray for weeks, or longer, asking for God to baptize them in the Holy Spirit. When we say something is normative, we mean that it is the common way that things happen. Most people experience a sequence to these things. However, it is not necessary that it always happens that way. Sometimes there are extraordinary circumstances and activity.
We might even think about the concept of averages. If we took the length of childbirth for women and plotted it, we would most likely see a Bell Curve graph. We could even determine the average length of time for a woman to give birth of a child from the onset of labor pains. I am not sure who the woman is who has set the all-time record for speed of delivery. However, the average length of time for a woman to give birth would have meant very little to her and any midwife at the time. The attendant would not be yelling at her to quit pushing because she is having it too soon. If she is dilated and the baby is coming, who cares what the average is. Similarly, the poor woman on the other end of the spectrum is not encouraged by the knowledge that "she is taking too long." Imagine a doctor walking out because she isn't "doing it right."
There are somethings that are necessary for childbirth, but there are also many things that are normative, and yet not necessary. They are just common, the average experience of most women. Is not salvation a spiritual birth into God's kingdom? Should we not simply deal with what is happening instead of critiquing on things that are not necessary, though perhaps normative? I think so, but more importantly, I think this is what Scripture shows us.
I believe that these passages exist to give us caution. We can tend to build rigid ideas around what normally happens to the point that we are to accept God when He steps outside of our box. In fact, the idea that people can be filled with the Holy Spirit and speak in other tongues today has become something that is outside of the box of many Christians.
Of course, we can do the same thing with the order, or the laying on of hands, etc. God may normally use these things, but it doesn't make them necessary. Only one thing is needful. It is sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning of Him by His Holy Spirit. It is relationship with God by the Spirit. Jesus wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. When I am in a loving relationship with Him, I will want that too.
I want to encourage us to be a people who are seeking, praying, and asking God for the Promise of the Father, His Holy Spirit. Let us be a people who are being baptized in the Spirit, and daily filled with power for the task at hand. This is not just a one time thing that is simply "one and done." It is a daily walking with the Lord, seeking His will, and His empowerment for that will. Let us make a powerful difference in the life of the Church, and in the lives of the Lost.