richmahn_en_tn/act/11/intro.md

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Acts 11 General Notes

Special concepts in this chapter

"The Gentiles also had received the word of God"

In the early church, Christians were almost exclusively Jewish. Many Gentiles then started to believe in Jesus. This is what it means to "receive the word of God."

"Baptism in the Holy Spirit"

Many scholars believe this events marks the time when the Spirit started to indwell people when they began to believe in Jesus. The Spirit did this in order to assure them and to guide them. Others believe this event gave them the ability to speak in tongues, in addition to indwelling them, but that it is an event that occurs after they come to faith in Christ. (See: rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/believe and rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/save)