“Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.
Acts 10:47-48
Up to this point in the book of Acts, the apostles had seen a church dominated by Jewish converts. But now God specifically led Peter, with a delegation of believers from Joppa to bear witness to the salvation of the Roman Centurion Cornelius. God saved him and his entire household. The gospel was going out wide and deep and the response to it was too.
Peter was willing to be used by God to take the gospel wherever God led. God did some pre-evangelism training in a vision that helped Peter lay aside his Jewish preferences to enter a gentile home and there preach the gospel. The result was another Pentecost among the gentiles. The Christians who witnessed this knew God had saved and poured out His Spirit on these Roman believers. All that was left was for them to be baptized.
So Peter gave the command for them to be baptized. They believed, they were indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit, and now they obeyed the Lord’s command that disciples are made in baptism. That sort of sealed the deal, for the church recognized and welcomed them into community as well through baptism. And the Jews from Joppa stayed for days in Caesarea to fellowship, share life, and no doubt help train these new disciples in following Jesus well.
Today the gospel is preached globally. The church goes beyond ethnic barriers. May God’s Spirit continue to be poured out among the nations. And may we seriously take the task of disciple-making with no barriers so many more find grace, sins forgiven, Spirit empowerment, and community in Christ!
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