Here is a teaching on chapter 11 of the book of Acts. If you want to check out previous Bible studies and chapters going forward, join our group here. Once you get added into that Facebook group, you can go to the "units" tab and you'll see all of the chapters and their study guides as they are being taught.
First I want to pray over you.. Lord I pray that you lift up every single person reading this right now. I pray that you wrap your arms around them and show them so much love. Lord please give us the knowledge and understanding to know exactly what it is that we're reading and the wisdom to implement it in our daily lives. I pray that through every aspect of our lives that you guide us and show us truth, and that we open up our heart, our mind, and our eyes to you Lord. I pray that you be with Norman, that he finds stability and a home, and I pray for other homeless people that they're able to find a home and that we just open up our hearts and have generosity to everyone. I love you with my whole heart. In Jesus' name, Amen.
So I know that prayer was a little bit different and I added some people that I was praying for at the end there. I know have said this a lot of times, but prayer is so powerful and when you have multiple people praying for you it's going to make it that much more powerful. So I want to pray for you. There's two different ways that you can give me your prayer requests so I can add them to my list and I will be praying for you. If you're on my Facebook group, it's called Faith Fuels My Fire, I have an announcement on my Facebook group. It's a pin post at the top where you can add your prayer requests there and there's also other people that will have their prayer requests so you can pray for them. Or if you just want to email me your prayer requests, my email is faithfuelsmyfire@gmail.com. Just put in the subject line "prayer requests" so I know what it's for and I will get you added to my list and I'll be praying for you.
Acts Chapter 11:
1 The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."
4 Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened: 5 "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6 I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7 Then I heard a voice telling me, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.'
8 "I replied, 'Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' 9 The voice spoke from heaven a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.' 10 This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
11 "Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12 The spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel appear to his house and say, 'Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.'
15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17 So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord, Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?"
18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."
So in these verses here the circumcised believers were criticizing Peter for going into the house of uncircumcised men and eating with them. But Peter explained everything that had happened while he was in Joppa and how the Holy Spirit told him not to hesitate to go with these men and it was so they would be saved. The Lord doesn't discriminate based on culture, race, or anything like that. Jesus saves everyone. Whoever believes in him, has faith, and asks him to come into their heart; they will be saved. It doesn't matter the color of your skin, your culture, none of that matters. Jesus knows our hearts, he knows everything about us, and when we have faith then he will save us and we can all receive the Holy Spirit.
Once we're saved we have the Holy Spirit within us and there's not only one type of person that can receive the Holy Spirit. It's not only just Jews that receive the Holy Spirit, but also everyone else that believes in Jesus and has faith, and that's what these Jews are recognizing here in these verses, and that's what Peter recognized whenever he was sent to the Gentiles for them to be saved and have the Holy Spirit. Like I said in other Bible studies of the book of Acts, whenever we're guided by the Holy Spirit God will take us places that we need to be, but not necessarily that we want to be. Sometimes we may not understand why we're being led to certain places and it may not be anywhere that we would normally go, or it may not be doing that we would normally do, but we just have to make sure that we stand firm in our faith, stay faithful, be obedient to the Lord, and he will always provide for us. Whenever we let the Holy Spirit guide us we will always be exactly where we need to be.
Now in verse 16, we saw this in our Bible study from chapter 1 of the book of Acts. Where Jesus tells his disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift that God the Father had promised. And that in a few days they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. That is what Peter is talking about in verse 16, that he remembered that that's what the Lord had said.
19 Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
22 News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
So in verse 19 where it says "those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen," we saw in our Bible study from chapters 6 and 7 of the book of Acts where Stephen was stoned to death. Then after that some of the believers had been scattered to different places. These believers were traveling and only speaking to Jews about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but we see in verse 20 here that some of them from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and they were speaking to the Greeks about the good news of Jesus. And a lot of people believed and turned to the Lord. This just shows again that when we let the Holy Spirit guide us then we are exactly where we need to be and the Lord will always provide for us. Everywhere we go there's a chance that someone may be saved and God puts us in places specifically to spread the gospel and love and light to others. So we have to make sure that we're taking every chance and opportunity and not letting any chances pass by to spread the good news about Jesus.
In verse 22, the church at Jerusalem sent Barnabas to Antioch because they heard about the news of these Greeks coming to the Lord. Barnabas saw that the grace of God was so evident when we got there and he was so filled with joy and encouraged them to remain true to the Lord.
25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
27 During this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.
Alright, so those are all the verses of chapter 11 at the book of Acts, but I'm going to discuss these verses with you guys here. So in verses 25-26 Barnabas went and found Saul and for a whole year they taught people in Antioch, and that's where they were first called Christians is in Antioch. In verses 27-28 we see that some prophets came down to Antioch from Jerusalem and Agabus predicted a severe famine, which that happened during the reign of Claudius. Agabus was full of the Holy Spirit. It says that "through the spirit," he predicted this famine. Now I know I've went over from other Bible studies in the book of Jeremiah, where God says to beware of false prophets. So sometimes when people are prophesying, it's all lies and they're full of wickedness and Satan, and it's not coming from God. So we have to make sure that we're praying, asking for discernment, and we're opening our eyes to the truth to make sure that we're not deceived by the enemy. But here we can clearly see that Agabus was led by the Spirit, so what he was prophesizing was true, and that's really what had happened during the reign of Claudius.
Anytime we're led by the Holy Spirit we're always going to be speaking truth. We're never going to be led astray as long as we're staying faithful and obedient to God and what the Holy Spirit is telling us. In verses 29-30 we see that the disciples decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea, and this just shows that all the disciples and apostles work together for one common goal. That goal is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ so that others may be saved and baptized. They all helped each other, loved each other, and came together as one like Jesus prays about in chapter 17 of the book of John.
Acts Ch 11 Study Guide
Does Jesus discriminate based on culture, skin color, etc?
Who will Jesus save?
Who can receive the Holy Spirit?
Why did some of the Jews from Cyprus and Cyrene go to Antioch and speak to the Greeks about the good news of Jesus?
Why did what Agabus predicted really happen?
What is the one common goal that the apostles and disciples worked together for?
What is your biggest takeaway from this Bible study?
So that concludes this Bible study. Next week we're going to go into chapter 12, so make sure you stay tuned for that.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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