In yesterday’s reading we saw the beginning of the process of breaking down barriers in the growing church. Today sees the culmination of that as for the first time non-Jews are baptised and accepted into the Christian fellowship. The evidence of their faith was plain for all to see and so Peter had no hesitation whatever in baptising them and then staying with them for a few days in order, I would imagine, to teach them more about Jesus and faith in Him.
We have grown so familiar with this story that the full impact of the incident can get lost on us. Up to this point all the converts had been Jews, and they regarded themselves as group within Judaism – a logical and spiritual extension of the faith in which they had grown up. To realise for the first time that God was also blessing non-Jews with the gift of the Holy Spirit cut right across the most significant dividing line they could imagine – Jews and Gentiles. We have grown so accustomed to a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, religiously diverse community that it is virtually impossible to imagine the world the Jews of those days inhabited. That one neat dividing line cut right across everything; there was no half way or doubtful case – everything and everybody was either Jewish or not. And if you were not a Jew you had no place in what they saw as God’s scheme of things!
What the Jews had forgotten or overlooked was the far-reaching nature of the promise made to their founding Father, Abraham. “ .. all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Gen 12 v 3) God had from the beginning planned to include all nations and peoples in the blessing He purposed. Initially it had been for Abraham and his family, that was extended to a nation and now to all nations.
Later on, Paul puts it this way “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace.” (Eph 2 vv 13-15)

For reflection: Once it was a Jew-Gentile barrier. Do you see any barriers or divisions in Christian fellowship in our day that spoil the witness and life of the Church?