For
they heard them speaking in other languages and magnifying God. Then Peter answered, “Can anyone forbid these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just like us.” He commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay some days.
Acts 10:46-48
Acts 10 [40.] God raised him up the third day, and gave him to be revealed, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen before by God, to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that this is he who is appointed by God as the Judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him, that through his name everyone who believes in him will receive remission of sins.”
Acts 10 [44.] While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word. They of the circumcision who believed were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was also poured out on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in other languages and magnifying God. Then Peter answered,
Acts 10 [47.] “Can anyone forbid these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just like us.” He commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay some days.
Acts 11 [1.] Now the apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. When Peter had come up to Jerusalem, those who were of the circumcision contended with him, saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men, and ate with them!”
Meaning:
While Peter was still speaking in the house of Cornelius, “the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word,” and the Jewish believers who came with Peter “were amazed” that the gift of the Spirit “was also poured out on the Gentiles” (Acts 10:44-45). These verses tell how they knew it, and what Peter did next.
- “For they heard them speaking in other languages and magnifying God”
The Jewish believers could hear the evidence. The Gentiles were “speaking in other languages and magnifying God,” just as the apostles at Pentecost “began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak” (Acts 2:4). Then the crowd had said, “we hear them speaking in our languages the mighty works of God!” (Acts 2:11). Now the same thing happened to uncircumcised Romans. Peter later said, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, even as on us at the beginning” (Acts 11:15).
Christians understand this gift in different ways. Many Pentecostal and charismatic believers see speaking in tongues as a normal sign that a person has been filled with the Spirit, as here and at Pentecost. Others note that Acts records tongues at key turning points, when the gospel reached a new group of people, and point out that Paul asks, “Do all speak with various languages?” (1 Corinthians 12:30), expecting the answer no. Both sides agree on what the sign meant in Caesarea: God had accepted the Gentiles exactly as he had accepted the Jewish believers.
- “Can anyone forbid these people from being baptized with water?”
Peter’s question expects the answer “No one.” The Spirit had already been given, so no one could refuse the outward sign. The words recall the Ethiopian official’s question to Philip, “What is keeping me from being baptized?” (Acts 8:36). In both cases nothing stood in the way.
Peter’s reasoning is simple: “They have received the Holy Spirit just like us.” “Just like us” is the heart of the matter. Gentiles did not receive a lesser gift or a second-class place. Paul wrote, “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks” (1 Corinthians 12:13). When Peter later defended his actions, he asked, “who was I, that I could withstand God?” (Acts 11:17).
The order of events here is unusual. On the day of Pentecost Peter called people to “Repent, and be baptized” and promised, “you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). In Samaria believers “had only been baptized in the name of Christ Jesus” and received the Spirit later through the apostles’ hands (Acts 8:16). In Caesarea the Spirit came first and baptism followed. Christians weigh these accounts differently when they teach about baptism and the Spirit, but all of them show that God gives his Spirit freely and that baptism belongs to all who receive him.
- “He commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ”
Peter did not leave baptism as an option. Jesus had sent his disciples to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Acts often speaks of baptism “in the name of Jesus Christ.” Most Christians see the two expressions as agreeing, since baptism in Jesus’ name means baptism by his authority and into belonging to him; a minority hold that the words used in Acts should be the form spoken at baptism.
- “Then they asked him to stay some days”
The new believers wanted to learn more, and Peter stayed. Staying meant sharing their homes and their meals. That fellowship was exactly what the believers in Jerusalem would question: “You went in to uncircumcised men, and ate with them!” (Acts 11:3).
The Significance of Acts 10:46-48
- One gift, one people
God gave the Gentiles the same Spirit he had given the Jewish believers. There are not two kinds of Christians, but one people sharing one Spirit.
- Do not stand in God’s way
Peter asked whether anyone could forbid what God had clearly done. Churches today still face the temptation to add barriers that God has not set. Peter’s question invites believers to welcome those whom God has welcomed.
Cross-References:
Acts 2:4: “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages.” Pentecost.
1 Corinthians 12:13: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks.” One body.
Matthew 28:19: “Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them.” The command to baptize.
Conclusion: When the Gentiles in Caesarea spoke in other languages and praised God, Peter recognised that they had received the Holy Spirit just as the Jewish believers had, and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. God had made no distinction, so no one could forbid their baptism. Peter then stayed with them, sharing the fellowship that would soon be questioned in Jerusalem.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible