I love how honest the Bible is when it comes to the shortcomings of God’s people. Sometimes, we are given a glimpse into the foibles of the great heroes of scripture. Other times, as in these two chapters in Acts, we are able to see the weaknesses of the early church. We often put the church in Acts on a pedestal, but believe me, they had their problems too. That seems to be the case of any group filled with sinners. Let’s take a look.
Acts 11:18 – And they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has given repentance resulting in life even to the Gentiles.” (CSB) Well, duh! Of course God grants salvation to the Gentiles. Did you think that it was only for the Jews? The answer to that question is a big, fat YES! Peter’s explanation of the Gentile Pentecost to the so-called “circumcision party” of the Jews clearly surprised them.Their presumption that salvation was only for the Jews nearly blinded them to what God was doing, not to mention, what God had clearly said in the scriptures all the way back to his promises to Abram in Genesis 12:3. Here, they realize that repentance leading to life (that is, spiritual life in the soul that leads to eternal life) was a gift of God and was not limited to a particular group or nation. True repentance comes from God and comes often to the most unlikely recipients (like us). Because it is the power of God, no one is beyond it. May God help us to trust in the power of the gospel to bring repentance and life to the greatest sinners and that through that trust, we will more faithfully proclaim Christ and the believe God for the results.
Acts 12:16 – Peter, however, kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were amazed. (CSB) Peter was arrested by Herod after Herod had executed James, the brother of John. The church gather together to pray for Peter’s release at Mary’s house (the mother of Mark) and during that prayer meeting, Peter was miraculously rescued from prison by an angel of God. He immediately went to the prayer meeting (where the church had clearly been gathering together for some time) and even though this is exactly what they had been praying for (a reasonable assumption from the text, I believe), they didn’t believe Rhoda when she told them Peter was at the door. This is a comedy of errors. Rhoda sees Peter at the door but forgets in her excitement to let him in. The church gathered gets the rare privilege of witnessing an answer to prayer while they are still in the prayer meeting, but they can’t believe it. How like us they were! We pray and we ask but we don’t believe we will receive. As we have been reminded recently in our study in Ephesians, prayer doesn’t change anything but God does! The power is not in the prayer but in the One who answers prayer! We need to remember Who we are praying to and perhaps that fact will increase our faith, open our eyes to answered prayer, and keep us from being so shocked when we see God do the miraculous.
Until next time, blessings!