Conversation Points for Acts 10:44-48

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• This passage comes as part of a long passage about Peter’s missionary work among the Gentiles. The section starts in 9:32 with Peter traveling among members of the community in Lydda and Joppa. While he is there he heals a paralyzed man and brings a woman back from the dead. While Peter is in Joppa, the narrative switches to a God-fearing gentile named Cornelius in Caesarea. Cornelius had a vision of an angel who told him to send for Peter, so Cornelius did. The next day, Peter had a vision of a sheet full of unclean food descending, and a voice inviting him to eat. Peter refused to eat anything unclean, but the voice replied, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” After this vision, the men Cornelius had sent arrived and invited Peter to come with them. So Peter went with them. When he reached Cornelius, he told him about the vision and said that even though it was unlawful for a Jew to associate with a Gentile, he knew from this vision that God’s mission was also to the Gentiles. Peter then began to speak about how “God shows no partiality…” (Acts 10:34). It is in the middle of this speech that Peter was interrupted by the Holy Spirit descending on the crowd.
• V. 44 says Peter was interrupted, but nothing important is left out of Peter’s speech. Instead, the interruption demonstrates the Holy Spirit taking the lead in fulfilling the plan of salvation, intruding upon Peter’s ministry to illustrate Peter’s point.
• This interruption becomes Peter’s justification for the Gentile mission. Throughout the rest of Acts, when Peter is asked why the uncircumcised gentile can be included, he will reference the gift of the Holy Spirit to Cornelius.
• There are several parallels between the “Gentile Pentecost” and the coming of the Spirit to the disciples on Pentecost. This connection guarantees the right response to Peter’s question of if the gentiles should be baptized. Of course they should, they are recipients of the same Spirit.

Works Sourced:
Allen, Amy Lindeman. “Commentary on Acts 10:44-48.” Working Preacher. . Accessed: 30 April 2018.

Wall, Robert W. “The Acts of the Apostles.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume X. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002.