Acts 11:21

‘And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.'

And ‘the hand of the Lord was with them'. Compare Acts 4:30. It may thus indicate signs and wonders. But it is a good Old Testament phrase (Ezra 9:7; Isaiah 66:14; compare Luke 1:66) and may simply (if we can say simply in such a case) indicate God's mighty power at work in men's hearts. Either way a great number of Gentiles who believed turned to the LORD. Many Gentiles had been waiting for just such a moment and eagerly responded to the truth. We note that the message that these believers proclaimed was of ‘Jesus the LORD' not of the Messiah Jesus, which would have meant less to Gentiles. However, as they became known as ‘Christ-men' it is apparent that the idea of the Messiah was not totally neglected. The were aware Who their LORD was.

It is probable that we are to see these Greeks as God-fearers like Cornelius, who were now, as a result of what had happened to Cornelius, seen as directly approachable. In view of the large Jewish population, and the moral depravity for which the city was well known, it is likely that there were large numbers of such God-fearers who looked to the synagogues because of their belief in the one God and their high moral teaching. However, while the Jews continually saw them as ‘outsiders', even when welcoming them into their synagogues, the Christians now offered them the same belief in the one God and high moral teaching, and added to this their teaching about One Who had come from that one God to be men's Saviour. Furthermore they gave them a warm and genuine welcome on a level with themselves. And so for the first time we have news of a church where the Greek Christians probably outnumbered the Jewish Christians and took part with them on equal footing.