TUESDAY
Next in line for this week is our boy Cornelius and his household. Yesterday we read that the Spirit poured out upon the Samaritans when they believed and Peter and John laid hands on them and prayed for them to receive the Spirit. Today we see the same extending of the Spirit to the Gentiles in Acts 10. We covered this in the campaign, so I won’t spend a lot of time on this today.
In Acts 10 Peter sees a vision that reveals God has accepted the Gentiles into the people of God. A Roman centurion named Cornelius also has a vision of an angel telling him to send for Peter. He does so and Peter comes to preach the gospel to his whole household.
Acts 10:44–48 44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, 47 “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” 48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.
This story goes against the otherwise normal way of receiving the Spirit in Acts—the laying on of the Apostles’ hands and praying for them to receive the Spirit. Here, the Spirit falls on the household as Peter is speaking. Even in Acts, then, with the unique things that God was doing, the reception of the Spirit is not formulaic.
The reception of the Spirit is evidenced by speaking in tongues and praising God. Again, this is not paradigmatic for all experiences of the Spirit, but these can be evidences of the Spirit.
Again, the big idea here is that the Gentiles are accepted into the people of God. God made it very clear by pouring out his Holy Spirit upon them.