PETER'S REPORT AT JERUSALEM 1-13. Immediately after Peter's glorious revival at Caesarea he goes straight to Jerusalem, accompanied by the six Joppa brethren who had witnessed the new departure and the mighty work of God at the house of Cornelius. The news is already flown on the wings of the wind t... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY GHOST FOR JEWS AND GENTILES ALIKE IN ALL AGES 14-18. _“Who shall speak words unto you by which you and all your house shall be saved.”_ Does not this look like they were yet to be saved? Justification is primary salvation; sanctification, full salvation; and glorification,... [ Continue Reading ]
_“If therefore God gave unto them the like gift as even unto us...”_ This declaration of Peter, with many other parallels, settles the question beyond the possibility of cavil that the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius received precisely what the apostles did on the day of Pentecost. They were Gent... [ Continue Reading ]
_“And hearing these things they glorified God saying, Then has God granted unto the Gentiles repentance unto life.”_ The reason why there is much spurious repentance is because it is man's work, the true repentance being the fruit of the Holy Spirit; He alone can give it. When God gives repentance,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GENTILE GOSPEL PREACHED IN PHOENICIA, CILICIA AND SYRIA BEFORE PETER PREACHED IT AT THE HOUSE OF CORNELIUS 19-24. While the above is true, yet it was necessary for Peter, responsive to his heavenly vision and the call of the Holy Ghost, to go to Caesarea and there, in the home of a prominent Ro... [ Continue Reading ]
_“The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number, believing, turned to the Lord.”_ These were Gentiles in the Syrian Empire, some time before Peter, by his apostolical _ipse dixit_, had unfurled the Gentile banner at Caesarea.... [ Continue Reading ]
Here we see that the apostles at Jerusalem, having heard of the progress of the gospel among the Syrian Gentiles, sent away that good preacher Barnabas, beloved by the apostles and saints, to go even to Antioch, the Syrian metropolis, and investigate the strange phenomenon.... [ Continue Reading ]
_“Who, arriving and seeing the grace of God, rejoiced, and continued to exhort them all with steadfastness of heart to abide with the Lord,_... [ Continue Reading ]
_“Because he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and faith.”_ Here we see confirmed the significant fact that the apostles and primitive saints all recognized the Holy Ghost as the sovereign Arbiter in every matter of doubt and controversy, and that they dared not put their hand on the ark of... [ Continue Reading ]
Not only did Barnabas heartily endorse the procedure, but of his own accord he went away to Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, hunted up his old friend and schoolmate, Saul, and brought him to Antioch to help push the evangelistic work among the Gentiles. You see plainly from this transaction the decis... [ Continue Reading ]
DISCIPLES AND CHRISTIANS 26. _“And it came to pass unto them indeed that they were assembled a whole year in the church and taught a great crowd, and that they first called the disciples Christians in Antioch.”_ The followers of our Savior were denominated by Himself and others _“disciples,” i. e_.,... [ Continue Reading ]
GENTILE PHILANTHROPY 27-30. The great drought during the reign of the Emperor Claudius was already on them. The Jerusalem saints had found it necessary to sell their estates in order to support that wonderful Pentecost revival which converted thousands of foreigners and detained them unexpectedly,... [ Continue Reading ]