Paul wasn't the only one that amazing things were happening to. I think this section of Acts compresses time, not telling the story in a linear fashion. Acts 8 begins with the scattering of the Jewish believers after the death of Stephen. Acts 11:19 also begins, "Now those who had been scattered in connection with the persecution of Stephen..". The time line picks up again.
But in chapters 8-12, the section we've been calling "witnessing in Judea and Samaria" the narrative just hits the highlights, so to speak, of a period of time that changed everything. The believers scatter. As they go, even non-apostles like Stephen become miracle men. God picks Paul off the Damascas Road a changed man. Peter is so powerful he raises Tabitha from the dead.
The Holy Spirit fell on the disciples on Pentecost and on those who believed. Yet in the case of the Samaritans, it seems that Peter had to go there to witness and attest to the Spirit falling on them. Many equate this spreading of the Holy Spirit with the "keys to the kingdom" Jesus told Peter he possessed.
Even though in hindsight its easy to see that Jesus was offering himself to the whole world, not just the Jews, this transition required another miraculous sign before these early believers could cross over this last threshold, taking the gospel to the whole world. As Peter ministers in Joppa after Tabitha's healing, he little suspects he is in the first measure of a well orchestrated symphony composed to take us to that final frontier... the uttermost parts of the world. Those far parts of the world are made of mainly of non-Jews, Gentiles all, from the most sophisticated Greek to the most untamed barbarian. Surely Jesus didn't die for them......
Peter stays in Joppa after raising Tabitha, living with Simon the Tanner. Far up the coast in Caesarea there is a man, a Gentile, a Roman Centurion. He is described as "devout and God-fearing". He is generous to the needy. He is a man of prayer. And at the afternoon prayer time, about 3:00, he has a vision. God sends an angel to this God-fearing man, with instructions to send for Peter at Simon's house, and the old soldier immediately follows his orders.
The day the envoy from Cornelius arrives in Joppa, Peter is unsuspecting. He goes up to the rooftop to pray. He becomes hungry, and while he's waiting for the meal to be prepared, he dreams about food. But not a dream, a nightmare! All sorts of food, clean and unclean under the Jewish law, are let down from heaven in a great sheet, held at the corners by unseen hands. "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." The voice is from heaven but the command is appalling!
Surely that isn't possible, Peter thinks. In the first place meat has to be killed ceremoniously, you can't just butcher it on a rooftop! And besides, the assortment is disgusting! "Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
The voice speaks again. "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." This happened three times and as Peter is pondering it's meaning, the men Cornelius sent from Caesarea call out at the gate for the one known as Peter. And the Spirit hovering on the rooftop tells Peter not to hesitate to go with these men.
Orchestrated. You wonder if the idea was so revolutionary that Peter couldn't be allowed to think about it very long. Give him the vision and get him on the road before he has time to forget what he saw, to forget that world changing command, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
Cornelius is a man of great faith. He reminds me of another centurion in the Gospels. "I, too, am an man under authority..." that gentile soldier said to Jesus, and Jesus said he hadn't seen such great faith in all of Israel. Cornelius gathers all of his family and friends together, a large crowd verse 27 says, and they wait for Peter to arrive.
Then Peter does come! "We are all hear in the presence of God to listen to everything he has commanded you to tell us." A commanding officer, aware of the chain of command, seeking the will of his Commander. And as Peter tells him of Jesus life, death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit falls on all of them and these Gentiles begin speaking in tongues and expressing the gifts of the Spirit, just as He fell on those first believers the day of Pentecost.
Peter gets it. "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Spirit just as we have." And he stays with them a few days.... in their house..... eating their food.
So the story gets back to Jerusalem before Peter does and there is great agitation! About the glorious new world opening up to the gospel? About a God-fearing soldier who opened a door that changed the world? No.... about Peter going into the house of uncircumcised men and eating with them.
Peter tells the story in first person in chapter 11. He's more detailed and enthusiastic than the third person narrative. The truth can't be denied; God bestowed the Spirit on the Gentiles who believed, just as he had bestowed in on the apostles, then on the multitude of Jews who were believing. The door had opened. "God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."
And a new age begins. The hint is in 11:19. In Antioch the believers begin evangelizing both Jews and Greeks, telling all the good news about Jesus. All they talk about is Jesus, the Christ. Society begins calling them the Christians, those who follow Christ.
