John Campbell on breaking out of the box

This book is called ‘The Acts of the Apostles’, but it soon becomes clear when reading it that the apostles only act when driven, cajoled, shaken and stirred by the Spirit. Justo Gonzalez has it about right when he calls his stimulating commentary Acts: The Gospel of the Spirit. Here, through some very Gospel-like storytelling, we hear how the Spirit led initially bemused followers of Jesus into a richer and richer understanding of the implications of the Gospel of the risen but absent Jesus. And this passage from Acts 11 sits right at the heart of where, it seems, the Spirit is trying to take the Church.

When something is especially important in Acts, we either get a speech about it or we get told it three times. This story has the apostle Peter give a speech about its core message and it’s also the second of three tellings of the same basic story. It’s important…

John Campbell is a retired United Reformed Church minister

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This is an extract from an article published in the May 2022 edition of Reform

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