Today, I am reading and commenting on  Acts 11-13.

After baptizing Cornelius’ household, Peter went up to Jerusalem to explain what he had done, and why.  Initially, there were objections to Peter socializing with Gentiles who had not converted to Judaism.  However, once Peter gave a full explanation of what happened those objections were silenced (we will see later that at least some of the objectors still had reservations regarding Gentiles joining the Church).  Shortly after this some Jewish Believers arrived in Antioch and began preaching the Gospel to Gentiles there who became Believers.  When the Church in Jerusalem received this news, they sent Barnabas (note that some of those who had preached to the Gentiles in Antioch were from Cyprus, as was Barnabas).  Barnabas spent some time in Antioch and more people came to the Lord.  After witnessing the outpouring of the Spirit on Gentiles in Antioch, Barnabas left to go find Saul.  Luke does not tell us why Barnabas went to get Saul, but I believe Barnabas did so because he thought that the Gentile Believers in Antioch needed to be taught the understanding of God which can be obtained from the Jewish Scripture (what we call the Old Testament) and that Saul was the correct person to teach that to them.  In each of these cases, the Church accepted the moving of the Spirit and then evaluated what needed to be done to solidify the new Believers in their faith.  In the case of Cornelius, the Church knew of Cornelius as a God fearing man, familiar with the Scripture.  In the case of the new Gentile Believers in Antioch, the Church had concern about their knowledge of God, so they sent Barnabas, who upon investigating the situation brought in Saul to teach the new Believers what they needed to know.  In both cases the Church welcomed the new Believers and acted to strengthen their faith.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.