The reason our passage today begins here in Acts 9:32 is because a change in the subject has taken place. We are now back to Peter, whom we last saw in Samaria in chapter 8. Peter is the dominant character all the way through chapter 12.

The dominant narrative in our passage today is the story told in chapter 10 which runs through to verse 18 in chapter 11. It’s clearly an important story for Luke to tell, the story of the gospel reaching a large group of Gentiles. But before we get there, we have two “miracle” stories: the healing of Aeneas (9:32-35) and the healing of Tabitha (9:36-43). These miracle stories and the dominant story in chapters 10-11 go together by character and by geography. Peter is the central character. The major event takes place in Caesarea. Peter arrives there after he has made his journey to Lydda and then to the coastal town of Joppa, from where he is summoned to Caesarea.

But what else unites these stories besides the person and the places? In other words, can we discern a unifying theme in these stories that Luke is emphasizing to his reader? What is this whole passage about?

Here’s a suggestion for us to consider today: as Peter travels from Jerusalem, he begins to see what Jesus, by his Spirit, is up to. He sees real results. He sees things changing. He even sees himself changing. He sees transformation. That’s one thing these stories are all about. The transformation that happens because of the gospel, the good news of Jesus, the good news of the kingdom of God. Everyone is welcome to participate in the transforming power of the kingdom of God.

Let’s go along with Peter and see the transformation of the world by the kingdom of God as we see Jesus healing, judging, and baptizing the world.

Healing the World

First, we see Jesus healing the world.

Jesus Christ Heals You

The two “miracle” stories told here at the end of Acts 9 make that point. As Peter comes across a man named Aeneas who had been paralyzed for eight years, he said to him, in verse 34, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.” Peter very much thinks not only that Jesus is alive, but that Jesus is also present, and that he is active. Jesus is doing things. And one of the things Jesus is doing is healing. “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.”

The same thing must be said about the dead woman named Tabitha in the next episode. Before Peter said, “Tabitha, arise,” he “knelt down and prayed,” signaling that it was in answer to Peter’s prayer that Tabitha was restored to life. “Tabitha, Jesus Christ heals you.”

The Restoration of Life

I think it is a mistake to put too much attention on these miracles themselves. I know we may want to do so. We may want to defend the reality of supernatural or miraculous healings today, but we don’t need to do that. We who believe in the resurrection of Jesus surely must believe that God can do what God wants to do.

What I do think important for us today is to see what these miracles (and others today, should they occur) mean. What are they telling us? They are telling us that the whole point about Jesus is that he is a healer, a restorer of life. The God of the Bible who is made known to us in Jesus is not out to wow us with random miracles and displays of power. He is out to save us. To put things right again. To make people walk again. To make people live again. The transformation that Jesus brings is all about the healing of the world that God has made.

Of course, there are plenty of others who have not received such gifts of healing. And even as they may groan and wonder, “Why?” and “How much longer?” these stories are meant to give us hope. Jesus, crucified and resurrected, is a healer. He has power over even death itself. And he will not stop until his healing work has been finished.

The Gospel Difference

So, don’t lose hope. After all, where else might hope be found? Who else promises to heal this very world, bringing a lasting transformation signaled by his declaration, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev 21:5)?

And remember, Jesus may be up to more than any of us can see. In the story of the healing of Tabitha, there are a few interesting observations. She is the only female in the New Testament who is called a disciple. Her reputation described in verse 4 has long outlived her with numerous societies called by her name that minister to the poor and needy.[1] And it just may well be that hers was the house in which the church there met—the upper room mentioned in verse 37 hints in that direction— and she may have been critical to the sustenance of the entire Christian community in her village.[2] So in restoring Tabitha to life, the fragile church there was spared its own death blow.

At any rate, at the end of both stories we see similar outcomes: people believed and turned to the Lord. The Christian community continued to grow. The good news of Jesus made a real difference, putting things back together, drawing people together, healing people and sustaining community. That’s the transforming power of Jesus who is healing the world.

Judging the World

Second, Jesus is healing the world because Jesus is also judging the world.

Divine Initiative

Turning to Acts 10, we are told a story about a centurion named Cornelius who is directed by an angel of God to send for Peter in Joppa. Meanwhile, Peter has a vision in which he is instructed to kill and eat some animals that were off-limits for Jews. Peter objects but is told, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” Just then, Cornelius’s company arrives, and Peter is told by the Holy Spirit to go with them to Caesarea. When he gets there, Cornelius tells him about his encounter with the angel and Peter tells him the story of Jesus.

But that’s a quick summary of 43 verses. Anyone can see that for Luke this is a very important story. He wouldn’t take this much time to tell the story—and he tells it again in chapter 11—unless he wanted to emphasize something.

This is the story of the good news reaching and being accepted by Gentiles. The spread of the gospel into the non-Jewish world is what will dominate most of the rest of the book of Acts. This story is a major turning point in redemptive history, in the whole biblical plotline. And for Luke it is important that he stress that the impetus for the gospel spreading to the Gentiles comes from the direct command of God, “as is indicated by the visions and messengers divine and human who are employed to confront, convict, convince, and even convert” Cornelius and his household.[3] The Creator God is the initiator of this very critical moment.

The Decisive Moment

And it begins with Peter learning a very important lesson. As he is up there on the housetop praying, waiting for lunch to be ready, he has this vision. He “saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth” (v. 11). Perhaps we should think of this “great sheet” as a giant tablecloth as the famished Peter is commanded to feast on various kinds of animal meat. Think Texas de Brazil! The only problem here for Peter is that at least some of that meat is non-kosher, so he objects, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean” (v. 15). But the answer from heaven is this: “What God has made clean, do not call common” (v. 15).

Verse 17 tells us that Peter was perplexed about what it all might mean. How could God be telling Peter to violate a clear command of Scripture? Whatever the whole thing meant, this was a difficult thing for Peter. Verse 16 says he went back-and-forth with the command on two more occasions, once more denying the Lord three times.[4]

But when he arrives at Cornelius’s house, he seems to have learned the lesson. “I’m not supposed to be hanging out with Gentiles,” he says in verse 28, “but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.” That’s what Peter understood the vision to be all about.

In other words, Peter understood that God was teaching him that the decisive moment had arrived when Jewish particularness was no longer needed. It’s not that God had changed his mind about whether or not Jews could eat pork; the whole point of not eating it was to set Jews apart from Gentiles for God’s redemptive purposes. But once that purpose had been achieved, once the decisive moment had arrived, there was no longer a need for Jew and Gentile to be set apart one from the other.

The Forgiveness of Sins

What was the decisive moment that signaled now a major shift in Jew and Gentile distinctions? We can see from what Peter says to Cornelius and his associates in verses 36 it is the “good news of peace through Jesus Christ” who “is Lord of all.” As Paul says it most succinctly in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

In other words, a new situation has come about because of Jesus and what he has already done.[5] It is taking even Peter some time to grasp this and its implications. But he says, in verse 42, that he has been commanded to proclaim and to testify that Jesus “is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.”

Notice carefully: it’s not simply that Jesus will be the judge of the living and the dead one day. The point is that he has already been made judge and is doing that work now. What is true about the future has taken root in the present.

Of course, we hear “judge” and tend to think of condemnation and punishment, but the emphasis is on justice, of putting things back together again. Of making things right. And this kind of judgment begins with human beings. He is “judge of the living and the dead.” He is the one who is tasked with putting us right. And so, as Peter says in verse 43, “everyone who believe in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Baptizing the World

Apparently, Cornelius and those who were gathered with him listening to Peter did believe in him, did receive this forgiveness of sins, because, verse 44 says, while Peter was still speaking, “the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.” Peter and his companions—there were at least six other Jewish believers there with him (Acts 11:12)—were stunned “because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.” Peter commanded the Gentiles to be baptized. But it is not the water baptism that is most important. The water baptism signified another baptism that had already happened. A baptism that Jesus had already performed on these Gentiles. Yes, Jesus is baptizing. And this has profound implications for how believers in Jesus are to live.

One New Family

Chapter 11 tells us that Peter eventually returned to Jerusalem. By the time he got there, the rest of the apostles and the other believers had heard the news “that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.” But this did not lead to celebration; it first led to criticism. The circumcision party criticized him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

It may be hard for us modern readers to understand the seismic shifts that are happening here at the beginning of the gospel movement. The suspicion and criticism that met Peter on his return to Jerusalem raise the point that the spread of the Christian gospel was not without difficulty—even from within the church itself.

Pretty much the whole second half of the book of Acts will concentrate on the mission of Paul in spreading the gospel throughout the larger Gentile world. (In Romans 11:13, Paul calls himself “an apostle to the Gentiles,” and in Galatians 2:8 he speaks of Peter’s “apostolic ministry” to the Jews and his own “to the Gentiles.”) The challenges are sure to come as the good news goes out to the Gentiles and has a great reception among them; tensions between Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians will necessitate the first Christian “council” in Acts 15. But Luke is emphasizing to us that it is Peter himself who has first seen this transformation taking place. He wants to emphasize that whatever distinctions might be seen between the ministry of Peter and Paul, whatever “branches of the early church” might be traceable, still these are part of the same movement.

Fast forward to our own day and we can draw the obvious conclusions on at least two fronts. There are always those in the church who are tempted to feel uncomfortable about “those kinds of people” (whoever they might be) being welcomed into the community of faith. Even if we aren’t tempted to say, think, or feel such things, there remains the temptation to ostracize or sideline other “branches” of the Christian church, of other professing Christians. If this story has any relevance for today it is surely to be found here, in the all-too-uncomfortable challenge of finding unity and standing in solidarity with people who are so different from us, maybe even suspicious to us, but who nevertheless share the same Christian identity with us. We must not disfellowship those who have also been baptized by Jesus. They belong to the same family as us.

The challenge is real; let’s be honest. We all prefer to be around people who are more or less like us. That’s human nature. It’s not entirely sinful or evil. Relationships are hard enough, and you can start by being in Missional Families with people with whom you feel other affinities. But there isn’t anything particularly Christian about getting along with people with whom you have a lot in common. What is striking is when the only thing that explains unity among persons is their Christian identity.

Peter shares the story of chapter 10 from his perspective. In verse 15, he recounts how “the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning,” and then he adds that at that moment he remembered what Jesus had said to him and the other disciples, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” This “baptism with the Holy Spirit” was the “promise of the Father” which Jesus had told them about, the promise that they were to wait for, the promise that would empower them to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.

So, seeing the Holy Spirit fall on the Gentiles just as he had fallen on them at Pentecost came with obvious implications. God had given the same gift to the Gentiles he had given to the apostles themselves. For Peter, this was the decisive factor.[6] Case closed. The Gentiles, by virtue of them receiving the same gift of the Holy Spirit, the same baptism with the Holy Spirit, were fully equal to the apostles. They were not second rate, second class Christians. They belonged to the same family, full stop.

One United Mission

And that’s why, yes, Peter “went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” How could he not? Despite the fact that Cornelius and his congregation lacked the mark of the Jewish faith, they had something more important in common with Peter. They had the mark of the Christian faith. And that made all the difference.

What mark? They had been baptized by Jesus with the Holy Spirit. The criticism was silenced, at least for a time. “And they glorified God, saying, ‘Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.’” (v. 18).

If we could situate ourselves among Peter and his criticizers, we would undoubtedly get the sense of what they were feeling. There was a transformation happening here, and hence, a new beginning. The Holy Spirit fell on them, Peter says, “just as on us at the beginning.” Since he’s referring to the Pentecost moment in Acts 2, he’s saying that that moment marked the arrival of a new era, with the gift of the Holy Spirit as the key blessing promised for this new day of salvation. And what has been made plain for everyone to see is that the Gentiles are fully included in this new day of salvation. They, too, are part of the plan.[7] God has granted them repentance—the word refers to a change, a transformation. And it is a transformation “that leads to life.”

Here we find a truth that runs deep in the New Testament: “The link between the gift of the Spirit and possession of life is the link between soteriology and sanctification.”[8] In other words, the message by which we can be saved necessarily includes the promise by whom we will be transformed. To be given the gift of the Holy Spirit means not only that you are identified as belonging to God; it also means that you are empowered to become godly, like God. Godliness is not about becoming deified; it’s about becoming fully human, as God himself became in the person of Jesus.

That’s why it is Jesus that we worship, Jesus that we follow. Empowered by his Spirit, our task is to learn from him how to live in the present reality of the kingdom of God. This is what Jesus did, what he was ‘good at,’ and what we are to learn from him to do as well. I am to learn from Jesus how

to live my life as he would live my life if he were I. I am not necessarily learning to do everything he did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner that he did all that he did.[9]

Yes, the gift of the Holy Spirit means you belong to him. Freely, by grace. You don’t earn the Holy Spirit. You receive him as you receive and trust in Jesus.

But the key point that is often left out is that the whole point of salvation is transformation. It’s about being, finally, what you (and God) have always wanted you to be, a full human being, an image bearer. A light to the nations. But you can’t be that without being baptized by Jesus with the Holy Spirit.

The thing is, anyone can be baptized by Jesus with the Holy Spirit. There is nothing you need to do to qualify for this gift and for this transformation. “God shows no partiality,” Peter said in Acts 10:34. He will take anyone who wants to come to him and join in the mission.

So, how about you? Won’t you come and join in the transformation of the world by the kingdom of God? “What do I need to do?” you ask. Receive Christ. Run straight to him. Nothing is necessary other than this, that you will have Christ. He certainly will have you, whoever you are.

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[1] S. F. Hunter, “Dorcas,” The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Co., 1915), 870.

[2] Ben Witherington, III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 332.

[3] Witherington, III, Acts of the Apostles, 341.

[4]  Witherington, III, Acts of the Apostles, 350.

[5]  Witherington, III, Acts of the Apostles, 354.

[6]  Witherington, III, Acts of the Apostles, 364.

[7] Darrell L. Bock, Acts, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Robert W. Yarbrough and Robert H. Stein (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 408.

[8] Bock, Acts, 409.

[9] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998), 283.