A man always takes an individual line, in opinion or in conduct, in peril of being misunderstood and called to account by his fellows. And yet the intellectual and moral advance of the race is made only by the pressure forward of individuals who, on some ground, refuse to keep in the old lines, and persist in making their own way even in districts marked by common sentiment as "dangerous." It is often the precise mission of youth to check the strongly conservative tendency around them, and utter fresh truth, or at least truth in fresh forms. This is illustrated in the case of St. Peter. He had come to grasp a truth which was a heresy from his own older standpoint, and a heresy to those with whom he had been working; but he knew it was truth, so, at the peril of being misunderstood, he acted upon the truth. He now knew that Christ's gospel was for Gentile as well as Jew, so he fearlessly went into the Gentile's house, and there preached the Word of life, and baptized the believing household. And he was misunderstood and called to account. The passage before us is his effective defense: to it there could be no reply. He rehearses the whole matter, and says, "God led me, and I followed. God taught me, and I believed. God sealed my work with the witness of his Spirit, and I know I have his acceptance." This is the answer which the sincere man who acts out of the common line may make to all who oppose or object. "I do but follow the Divine leadings and teachings; God sets my witness, and the testimony I make must be at least a portion of the truth of God."

I. GOD STILL OPENS HIS TRUTH TO INDIVIDUAL SOULS. We do not, indeed, expect new revelations. There is a sense in which the book-revelation in the Scriptures is complete: no man may add thereto or take therefrom; and no man's testimony can be of any value save as it can be tested by the revealed Word. And yet, though this may be fully admitted, we may recognize the fact that, through spiritual insight or through intellectual skill, men do bring to light missed and hidden things, or they do set received truths in forms that are new, and by their newness arrest thought and even arouse opposition. In this way every truth of the Divine revelation is brought prominently before men's thoughts every few years. God sends among us great thought-leaders; stirs, by their preachings or writings, the stagnancy of religious thought, and makes fresh and living to us truths which had become mere dead formalities. St. Peter had but a fresh hold of an ancient truth, one long revealed by psalmist and prophet: still, he had such a new grip as made him a power; even the agent that fulfilled Christ's will, and "opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

II. THE INDIVIDUAL WITH A FRESH TRUTH MUST EXPECT OPPOSITION. It will surely come from:

1. His fellow-workers, who will feel a secret jealousy of his being made the medium of Divine communications, and who will keenly feel how the new truth interferes with their teachings.

2. Those of conservative tendency, who think the absolute and final truth is in their charge.

3. The earnest but timid people who fear that everything fresh must put God's truth in peril.

4. The friends of theological or ecclesiastical systems, who consider their systems complete and needing no changes, nor having any open places in which new truth may fit. St. Peter found that an imperfect report of his doings at Caesarea had gone before him to Jerusalem, and when he himself reached the holy city, he was assailed from the very narrowest platform, and accused of the very small sin from our point of view, but very large sin from the Jewish point of view, of eating with the uncircumcised." He very wisely refused a discussion on this mere feature of the matter, and explained fully what had happened. Those who contend often take a mere point of detail, and are best met and answered by putting the question in dispute on the broadest, deepest grounds.

III. PROOF OF DIVINE LEADINGS OUGHT TO SILENCE ALL OPPOSITION. This is the great lesson of St. Peter's conduct and narrative. All through he pleads that he only recognized and followed the Divine will as revealed both to him and to others. God spoke to him in trance, and vision, and providence, and inward impulse. God spoke to Cornelius by angel-form and angel-voice. God sealed the work of St. Peter with the gift of his Spirit, and, as a faithful and true man, he could only go where God led him, and speak as God bade him. To his audience it was the best of all answers, the one that would disarm all opposition. A sincere Jew must be loyal to God's will, however it might be revealed, and however strange to his feeling it might seem. And this is essentially the answer which every thought-leader and every advanced teacher now must be prepared to make and to prove. If he only speaks, as a man, some religious fancies and feelings of his own, we are rightly skeptical; but if it is plain to us that a man has been "taught of God," and if we can see signs of acceptance and Divine benediction on his work, then we too must hear his testimony with open and unprejudiced minds, seeking grace to enable us to express our old faith in the new form, or to add the new thought to our received doctrines. God may, indeed, not speak to us now by dream, or trance, or vision, or voice; but we need not therefore think that direct communication with our soul is impossible. Still we may say, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth;" and still we have with us that Holy Ghost, whose work it is" to lead us into all truth, and to show us things to come." And it should be our abiding conviction and inspiration that "the Lord hath yet more light and truth to break forth from his Word." - R.T.

I am about to tell you such words; yet I am far from supposing that this announcement of my purpose is calculated to ensure to my message that attention which it demands; for man is interested about anything rather than the salvation of his soul — and yet, "what should it profit" man? The soul once lost is lost forever.

I. EVERY MAN'S FIRST AND CHIEF CONCERN OUGHT TO BE ABOUT THE SALVATION OF HIS SOUL.

1. Every man is a sinner, and without salvation he must perish. You may be too proud to acknowledge this, or too much occupied to give it attention, or too indifferent to ponder it, or ready to deny it in the sense which we contend. Well, "you make God a liar, and His truth is not in you," for "God has included all under sin." Perhaps you will point me to that abandoned woman, or to that bloody blasphemer, or to that iron-hearted jailer, and bid me go preach this doctrine to such as these. Ah, the question is not whether you have sinned like this or that man, but whether you have sinned at all, for so it is written, "Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Oh, you will say, I never did anybody any harm, I have been a kind parent, an upright tradesman, my reputation without a blemish; but that is not the question; the question is, hast thou "loved the Lord thy God with all thy heart"? etc. I see you shudder and shrink back! I hear you cry, "But God is merciful" — so He is, but then, if you appeal to His mercy, you give up the point, you confess yourselves sinners, for if you be not sinners you may appeal with confidence to His justice.

2. Every man's first and chief concern ought to be about the salvation of his soul, because, being a sinner, he is placed by his sin in circumstances of the most imminent peril. The wretch that trembles on the brink of a tremendous precipice, over whose head a sword is suspended by a hair, upon whom the volcano is ready to burst or the earth to yawn, is in safety compared to that sinner who has transgressed the law of God, and is exposed by his transgression to His righteous indignation and wrath. Oh, then, what will you do to be saved? Will you present an atoning sacrifice for your sins? Where will you obtain it? Have you wealth to purchase it? The ransom of ten thousand monarchs would do little, rivers of oil and oceans of blood are not sufficient. Do you propose to work out a righteousness whereby you can be justified in the sight of God? How can you do it? Can an imperfect creature work out a perfect righteousness? and even if you could for the time that is to come, how would it avail for the atonement of the sin that was past? Listen, it is our business to tell you the response to this cry from heaven.

II. THE GOSPEL IS THE ONLY SOURCE FROM WHICH SATISFACTORY INFORMATION IS OBTAINED ON THIS MOST MOMENTOUS OF ALL SUBJECTS. Take this question, "What must I do to be saved," to the system of modern infidelity or of ancient philosophy. What answer do you get? The sneer of derision, or the sullen silence of despair — they cannot tell. Take it to this Book, and the answer is instant, decisive, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." What does the violated law of God demand? Perfect obedience. Behold it in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Does justice demand an infinite atonement? Behold it in "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

1. In the gospel there are words whereby we may be saved, and the salvation they announce is precisely adapted to the sinner's case. You are guilty, but there is forgiveness for you, and you are condemned, but there is a righteousness that justifies you freely; you are a rebel and an outcast, but there is an Advocate that pleads for you; you are polluted, but there is "a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness."

2. These are words whereby you may be saved individually. Let us hear your personal history. I hear one say, "I am a child of pious parents, and I have sinned against early instruction and impressions!" Well, but thou mayest be saved! I hear another, "I trampled under foot a father's admonitions, and despised a sainted mother's tears, and brought down their grey hairs with sorrow to the grave!" Well, but you may be saved! I hear another say, "Ah, but I mingled with infidels and apostates, I mocked the Bible, at God, I blasphemed Christ!" Ah, but you may be saved!

3. But while these are words whereby you may be saved, rejecting these, you must perish. "He that believeth not shall be damned." "How shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation?"

(T. Raffles, D. D.)

1. Cornelius was no common publican or sinner, but possessed all the qualifications of a saint, if a saint can grow in the sell of this earth, without a seed from heaven. If any man could be just with God apart from Christ, surely this is the man. Yet the Word of God treats him as a sinner, and tells him what he must do to be saved. There is no escape from the force of this case. It effectually shuts out all hope of merit. The difficulty of attaining a conviction of sin is greater where sins are less gross. Hence publicans and harlots go into the kingdom more readily than Pharisees.

2. By what means shall Cornelius be saved? By words. Strange when the loss is so deep and real that words, articulated air, should bring deliverance. It was natural for Naaman to toss his head in contempt at the proposal of a bath in Jordan as a cure for disease, and there is a class of scholars in our day who sneer at the proposal to cure sin by words. They have no confidence in doctrines that enter the mind from without; they would rather trust to principles that spring up within. Beware of wandering into the mist here. Words become life or death when God employs them to proclaim His will. God said, "Let there be light, and there was light." "Lazarus, come forth," and he came. Even in the ordinary experience of life men are saved or lost by words. An ocean steamer is rushing through the water — two words, "Breakers ahead!" from the watchman, "Starboard hard!" from the master, words that passed away as breath on a breeze, saved five hundred human beings from a watery grave. Humanity is like that ship, and God sends words whereby we may be saved.

3. Truth, like spirit, is invisible till embodied, and words are the body of truth. They may be spoken, or printed, or wired, it matters not what form they assume, they are the body in which truth dwells. Satan embodies himself in words whereby man may be destroyed, the Holy Spirit in words whereby we may be saved. Take heed how ye hear; the missing of a word may be the loss of a soul.

(W. Arnot, D. D.)

Agabus, Barnabas, Christians, Claudius, Cyprians, Cyrenians, Grecians, John, Peter, Saul, Simon, StephenCaesarea, Cyprus, Cyrene, Jerusalem, Joppa, Judea, Phoenicia, Syrian Antioch, TarsusDeclare, Family, Household, Message, Salvation, Saved, Sayings, Speak, Teach, Truths, Whereby1. Peter, being accused for preaching to the Gentiles,
5. makes his defense;
18. which is accepted.
19. The gospel being spread in Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch,
22. Barnabas is sent to confirm them.
26. The disciples are first called Christians at Antioch.
27. They send relief to the brothers in Judea in time of famine.

Acts 11:14

     5682   family, significance
     8427   evangelism, kinds of

Acts 11:1-18

     5250   centurion
     7525   exclusiveness

Acts 11:1-22

     7241   Jerusalem, significance

Acts 11:4-17

     7730   explanation

Acts 11:4-18

     1457   trance

Acts 11:5-18

     7512   Gentiles, in NT

April 27 Evening
A new name.--REV. 2:17. The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.--Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.--They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.--Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

The Exhortation of Barnabas
[Footnote: Preached before the Congregational Union of England and Wales.] 'Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.'--ACTS xi. 23. The first purely heathen converts had been brought into the Church by the nameless men of Cyprus and Cyrene, private persons with no office or commission to preach, who, in simple obedience to the instincts of a Christian heart, leaped the barrier which seemed impassable …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

A Nickname Accepted
'The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch' --ACTS xi. 26. Nations and parties, both political and religious, very often call themselves by one name, and are known to the outside world by another. These outside names are generally given in contempt; and yet they sometimes manage to hit the very centre of the characteristics of the people on whom they are bestowed, and so by degrees get to be adopted by them, and worn as an honour. So it has been with the name 'Christian.' It was given …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

Peter's Apologia
'And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. 2. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, 3. Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. 4. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying, 5. I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The First Preaching at Antioch
'And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they ware come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21. And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.'--ACTS xi. 20, 21. Thus simply does the historian tell one of the greatest events in the history of the Church. How great it was will appear if we observe that the weight of authority among critics and commentators sees here an extension of the message of salvation …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

Repentance unto Life
By "Repentance unto life," I think we are to understand that repentance which is accompanied by spiritual life in the soul, and ensures eternal life to every one who possesses it. "Repentance unto life," I say, brings with it spiritual life, or rather, is the first consequent thereof. There are repentances which are not signs of life, except of natural life, because they are only effected by the power of the conscience and the voice of nature speaking in men; but the repentance here spoken of is …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

Completion Op the Fifth Continental Journey.
1849-50. The disorganized state of Germany presented a serious obstacle to John and Martha Yeardley's resuming their labors on the Continent. FROM JOHN YEARDLEY TO JOHN KITCHING. Scarborough, 6 mo. 23, 1849. We spent two days at Malton with our dear friends Ann and Esther Priestman, in their delightful new abode on the bank of the river: we were comforted in being at meeting with them on First-day. On Second-day we came to Scarborough, and soon procured two rooms near our own former residence. The …
John Yeardley—Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel

From the Ascension to the Church at Antioch.
Acts Chs. 1-12. The Book of Acts. The book of Acts is the only purely historical book of the New Testament. It is as a continuation of the gospel of Luke. It follows the fortunes of the infant church and gives us all the light we have in regard to its further organization and development, but it does not claim to be a complete history of the work of the early church. As a history it is as remarkable for what it omits as for what it narrates. The central theme is the triumph and progress of the gospel …
Josiah Blake Tidwell—The Bible Period by Period

Repentance
Then has God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.' Acts 11: 18. Repentance seems to be a bitter pill to take, but it is to purge out the bad humour of sin. By some Antinomian spirits it is cried down as a legal doctrine; but Christ himself preached it. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent,' &c. Matt 4: 17. In his last farewell, when he was ascending to heaven, he commanded that Repentance should be preached in his name.' Luke 24: 47. Repentance is a pure gospel grace. …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Some Associated Questions
A BRIEF reference to some of the other difficulties, which have been found in Luke's references to matters of contemporary history, will form a fitting conclusion to this study. In some cases all that is wanted to solve the difficulty is proper understanding of Luke's words. That, for example, is the case with Acts 11:28, where the statement, that in the days of Claudius there was famine over all the world, has been misinterpreted to imply that harvests failed and a famine ensued in every part of …
Sir William Mitchell Ramsay—Was Christ Born in Bethlehem?

What God Hath Cleansed
'There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, 2. A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. 3. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. 4. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The Breaking Out of Discord
'And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. 2. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. 3. And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

Rome Protects Paul
'And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the Temple, I was in a trance; 18. And saw Him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning Me. 19. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on Thee: 20. And when the blood of Thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

Knowledge and Obedience.
"For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father."--COL. i. 9-12. The Epistles …
W. H. Griffith Thomas—The Prayers of St. Paul

Other New Testament Names for "Being Filled with the Spirit. "
That we may see how full the New Testament is of this blessing, and that we may the better understand what it is and how it is obtained, let us just glance at some other terms used by the Holy Ghost when speaking of it. 1. "Baptized with the Holy Ghost." "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence" (Acts i. 5). See also Acts xi. 16, Matt. iii. 11, Mark i. 8, Luke iii. 16, John i. 33. Now, though "baptized" and "filled" are sometimes convertible terms, it is instructive to note …
John MacNeil—The Spirit-Filled Life

Luke.
Lucas, Evangelii el medicinae munera pandens; Artibus hinc, illinc religione, valet: Utilis ille labor, per quem vixere tot aegri; Utilior, per quem tot didicere mori!" Critical and Biographical Schleiermacher: Ueber die Schriften des Lukas. Berlin, 1817. Reprinted in the second vol. of his Sämmtliche Werke, Berlin, 1836 (pp. 1-220). Translated by Bishop Thirlwall, London, 1825. James Smith (of Jordanhill, d. 1867): Dissertation on the Life and Writings of St. Luke, prefixed to his Voyage and …
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I

For if they be Urged from the Gospel that they Should Put Nothing By...
31. For if they be urged from the Gospel that they should put nothing by for the morrow, they most rightly answer, "Why then had the Lord Himself a bag in which to put by the money which was collected? [2572] Why so long time beforehand, on occasion of impending famine, were supplies of corn sent to the holy fathers? [2573] Why did Apostles in such wise provide things necessary for the indigence of saints lest there should be lack thereafter, that most blessed Paul should thus write to the Corinthians …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

As it Is, However, They, against the Apostle of Christ...
27. As it is, however, they, against the Apostle of Christ, recite a Gospel of Christ. For so marvellous are the works of the sluggards, hindered that they want to have that very thing by Gospel, which the Apostle enjoined and did on purpose that the Gospel itself should not be hindered. And yet, if from the very words of the Gospel we should compel them to live agreeably with their way of understanding it, they will be the first to endeavor to persuade us how they are not to be understood so as …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

Whether Chrism is a Fitting Matter for this Sacrament?
Objection 1: It seems that chrism is not a fitting matter for this sacrament. For this sacrament, as stated above (A[1], ad 1), was instituted by Christ when He promised His disciples the Holy Ghost. But He sent them the Holy Ghost without their being anointed with chrism. Moreover, the apostles themselves bestowed this sacrament without chrism, by the mere imposition of hands: for it is written (Acts 8:17) that the apostles "laid their hands upon" those who were baptized, "and they received the …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

How Does it Come?
How does the Filling of the Spirit come? "Does it come once for all? or is it always coming, as it were?" was a question addressed to me once by a young candidate for the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. There are many asking the same question. We have considered how the Fullness is obtained, but now we proceed to consider, How does the Fullness come? In speaking of the blessing of being filled with the Spirit, the New Testament writers use three tenses in the Greek--the Aorist, the Imperfect, and the …
John MacNeil—The Spirit-Filled Life

The Ministry of Angels.
1 High on a hill of dazzling light, The King of Glory spreads his seat, And troops of angels stretch'd for flight, Stand waiting round his awful feet. 2 "Go," saith the Lord, "my Gabriel go, "Salute the virgin's fruitful womb,[1] "Make haste, ye cherubs, down below, Sing and proclaim the Saviour come." 3 Here a bright squadron leaves the skies, And thick around Elisha stands;[2] Anon a heavenly soldier flies, And breaks the chains from Peter's hands.[3] 4 Thy winged troops, O God of hosts, Wait on …
Isaac Watts—Hymns and Spiritual Songs

As That, "Take no Thought for the Morrow...
29. As that, "Take no thought for the morrow," and, "Take therefore no thought what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or what ye shall put on." [2344] Now when we see that the Lord Himself had a bag in which was put what was given, [2345] that it might be kept for necessary uses as the time should require; and that the Apostles themselves made much provision for the indigence of the brethren, not only for the morrow, but even for the more protracted time of impending dearth, as we read in the …
St. Augustine—On Lying

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