¹⁵ “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. ¹⁶And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’”

As Peter brings to a conclusion his defense of eating with the Gentiles (Acts 11:2–3), he helps the Jerusalem believers see the wonderful truth of God’s acceptance of the Gentiles. He pulls out all the stops, comparing what happened with the Gentiles to what happened on the day of Pentecost at the very beginning of the Christian movement. He is speaking with an authority that comes from great certainty. He is absolutely sure of what he speaks as an eyewitness.

Peter has been building up his key point: the activity of the Holy Spirit falling on them, which he relates to what Jesus called “baptism.” The falling of the Spirit at Pentecost was what John the Baptist predicted when he spoke of Jesus, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). Jesus reminded them of this within His last words to them before leaving them at His ascension: “[F]or John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5). So now Peter says the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles just as He had the Jews at Pentecost—it was the same phenomenon, with the same meaning and the same fulfillment of Jesus’ words. The Gentiles were and are included in Jesus’ baptism of the Spirit. The apostle Paul spoke of this when he wrote, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13).

Theologians and denominations through the centuries have argued and debated the working of the Holy Spirit and what exactly this event was all about. Is this a baptism of the Spirit, the filling of the Spirit, or the control of the Spirit? Whatever else is true, being a Christian—a genuine follower of Jesus Christ and part of God’s spiritual family—means having the Holy Spirit living in us. The apostle Paul puts it this way: “[I]f anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Rom. 8:9).

But does this mean all Christians should have the experience of speaking in tongues like at Pentecost (Acts 2:4)? Should there be an ecstatic occurrence that others liken to “being drunk” (Acts 2:13)? Possibly Cornelius and company could have had that experience, which may have helped Peter recognize the event as similar to Pentecost. But neither Luke nor Peter felt it important enough to mention those details, if in fact they occurred. What was important is that Gentiles were now part of the body of Christ, the Christian movement.

Lord, help me to carefully understand the movement of the Holy Spirit.