The Same Gift.

17Apr09   Acts 11: 1-18 NIV

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1: 5

The apostle Peter, when criticized by the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem, had to explain his reason for having had meals with the household of Cornelius the Centurion. He recounted "everything to them precisely as it had happened" (11: 4).

Peter told them that he accepted the invitation to visit Cornelius' household in Caesarea only after the Lord gave him a vision in which he was asked, three times, to partake of unclean meat. Naturally, Peter refused, but each time hearing a voice from the Lord tell him, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean" (10:15; 11:9). 

He told the Jews that when he arrived in Caesarea, he learned that Cornelius had seen an angel appear in his house, telling him, "Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. ¹⁴He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved." (11:13).

And Peter said that as he began to deliver that message to Cornelius' household, the Holy Spirit came upon them "just as it had happened to us at the beginning" (11: 15). 

It was the same gift. Peter could recognise it easily.  What happened to the audience in Cornelius' house that day was a repeat of that which took place in Acts chapter 2 on Pentecost day. I'm not sure about the blowing of a violent wind within the house, nor do I think it likely that tongues of fire appeared once more, to rest on each person's head.

But when Peter told the critical Jews that it happened to Cornelius' house just as it happened to themselves at the beginning, obviously he had seen and heard them speak in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them. It was the same miraculous phenomenon. It was the same Holy Spirit of God.

When Peter realised that the same gift was given to the Gentiles as it had been given to the Jews, he remembered the words of the resurrected Lord Jesus in Acts 1:5 (quoted above).  As reluctant as he was, he had to accept the fact that God had given the same gift to the Gentiles, the "goyim", people who until then were regarded as outside the kingdom of God. Seeing the gift of the Spirit being poured out upon Cornelius' household made Peter remember that he was very small in the sight of God. 

". . . 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?" (11: 17)

The apostle Peter must have remembered what he had said earlier in his long sermon on Pentecost Day. He had called upon the God-fearing Jews from "every nation under heaven"  that day at Jerusalem, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call" (2; 38, 39) 

Now, at last Peter knew the full implication of his Pentecost message. The same promise, the same gift is to be received by all whom the Lord our God calls - including those Gentiles.  Today this gift is also available for people everywhere who repent and believe in the Lord Jesus.

It's the same gift. You can receive it too.