Acts 11:15-18, 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.
The filling of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts was evidenced by speaking with other tongues (Acts 2). The tongues to the Jews was a sign that the Gentiles were included in God’s plan of salvation (Jews request for signs, 1Cor 1:21-25). This unity is illuminated in Acts 11 as Peter is confronted by the Jews for going to the Gentiles. Peter as a leader took this hard subject and with grace educated the Jews of how God used tongues to externally signal the salvation of Cornelius and his household. Through prayer, revelation was brought that led to action. Peter with the message and the manner of delivery brought change, “…they (Jews) fell silent. And they glorified God…“ (Acts 11:18). By one miracle of tongues, men were dispersed and gradually fell from true religion (the tower of babel in Gen 11), and by another, national barriers were broken down.
The significance of the tongues was that we are now ONE in Christ, and it meant we now speak the same language, the language of the gospel. Read Paul’s plea in 1Cor 1:10, “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment”
Christ “15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself ONE new man from the TWO (Jews & Gentiles), thus making peace,16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity…18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. 19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”, (Eph 2:11-22). In unity, we break down anything that divides us, and with courage, we speak the same language in glorifying God because we are made one by one Spirit. Let’s lift up in prayers and encouragement our Peter’s (Pastors) as they tackle these hard topics of our day, seeking to bridge the divide. Amen.