Jesus Gathers a New Multinational People. 
Reflection Questions – Acts 10

 

1. Read Luke 1.1-4 and Acts 1.1-3. What is the relationship between the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts? 

2. Read Acts 1.6-11. Where is the resurrected Jesus, physically, during the events that unfold after Acts 1.9? 

3. Thinking back on your knowledge of inter-racial relationships in the Gospels, what are the three main races or groups of people that Jesus’ world could be divided into? (clue: John 4.4-9, Matthew 15.21-28). 

4. Consider carefully Acts 1.8. What big mission does Jesus leave for the disciples? 

5. Read Acts 8.4-13. Here Jesus welcomes Samaritans through Philip’s witness. Then, the Apostles Peter and John confirm  the authenticity of Samaritan faith through the laying on of hands (Acts 8. 14-17). Why is expansion into the Samaritan world so significant? 

6. Now read the account of Cornelius in Acts 10.1-2. Why would it have been impossible for him to practice Jewish food laws, ritual cleansing, and temple worship? 

7. Read Micah 6.6-8. As a God-fearer, with a Gentile (Roman) nationality, and culture, Cornelius has access to scrolls of the Old Testament Scripture in the Greek. He couldn’t practice Jewish food laws, ritual cleansing, or easily attend the temple in Jerusalem for worship. But he could learn about the God of Israel, and trust and obey God’s moral commands. He could ‘act justly… love mercy and walk humbly with…God’, as the Jewish prophets required. What evidence do you see of this in Acts 10.1-2?

8. How do you see Jesus dismantle Peter’s racial prejudice in Acts 10.9-20?

9. Read Acts 10.34-43. On what basis is anyone given a new relation with the Father, and therefore membership of his people? Consider v43 especially.

10. Read Acts 10.44-48. Do Cornelius and his household have to become Jewish (eg practice male circumcision, food laws, ritual cleansing, festival observance in Jerusalem) in order to find forgiveness in Jesus, and be joined into his new people? Discuss reasons for your answer from the account.

11. The message of Acts 10 is that all Gentile nations can know God, through the reception of God’s word the Gospel, without becoming Jewish first. In other words, Jesus makes ways for people to keep the best and truest values of their culture (provided those values are consistent with his Lordship). We can often be true to the noblest values of our culture of origin, and true to Jesus, at the same time.  How might this assist the expansion of the early church? How might this truth assist our expansion today, as Frankston becomes gradually more multi-cultural?       

Spend some time in prayer.