Baptised in the Holy Spirit / Acts Bible Study Chapter 11 (TV Audio #484)

Bible Study with David Hathaway (TV Audio Podcast)

"I began telling them the Good News, but just as I was getting started with my sermon, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as He fell on us at the beginning! Then I thought of the Lord’s words when He said, ‘Yes, John baptised with water, but you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’ And since it was God who gave these Gentiles the same gift He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to argue?” When the others heard this, all their objections were answered and they began praising God! “Yes,” they said, “God has given to the Gentiles, too, the privilege of turning to him and receiving eternal life!” (Acts 11.15-18.)

In Acts 11, we see a significant shift in the early church's understanding of its mission, as it embraces the inclusion of Gentiles and expands beyond its Jewish origins.

At Pentecost the Gospel began with the Jews, but Jesus came to save the world. We are intructed by Jesus in the Great Commission to bring salvation to all people. Jesus told the parable of the Wedding Feast: the invited guests didn't enter into the celebration, so we Gentiles have been invited. During the ministry of Jesus He healed the Centurion's servant; from this we can understand that Jesus came to save the whole world, just as He said in John 3.16, 'For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.'

'Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them...

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.' (Matthew 22.)