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This text forms the tag-end of Acts 10:34-43 which is the stated Old Testament lesson for Easter Sunday in all three cycles of the lectionary. As a result, it forms a kind of inclusio for the six Sundays of the Easter season.

The text tells us the effect that Peter's preaching had on the crowd of Jews and Gentiles who were gathered together in the house of Cornelius in Caesarea in order to listen to the Apostle Peter. Peter proclaims the good news of Jesus Christ, telling how "he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil" (10:38); how he was crucified and raised from the dead and seen alive by many witnesses; how he commanded his disciples to preach and to testify that he is Judge of the living and of the dead; and how every one who believes in Jesus Christ receives forgiveness of sins through his name (10:34-43).

Our text, then, begins, "While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word." "Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ" (Romans 10:17). Through the preaching of the Apostle Peter, who tells the crowd of Jesus Christ, God in the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, enters into the hearts and lives of the hearers. The Holy Spirit inspires in them faith, which is the ground of all Christian belief.

In other words, conversion to the Christian faith comes not by the skill of the preacher, not by eloquent rhetoric, not by persuasive arguments or inspiring performance on the preacher's part. Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians that he was with them "in weakness and in much fear and trembling," and that his message was not in great "words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:3, 4). And so it is here with Peter in our text. The fact that his audience comes to faith is not the result of his words, but the result of God's working through his Holy Spirit. The preacher, telling of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, is but the channel of God's activity, who works among his gathered people to transform their hearts. The test of all true Christian preaching, therefore, concerns not the expertise of the preachers, but their openness to God working through them. The preacher may have a disagreeable voice, disturbing gestures, awkwardness of presentation, and those certainly can be overcome by practice; preachers should try to be as skillful in the pulpit as possible. But most important of all is what the preacher knows of the Lord and his word, and how ready the preacher is to surrender self to God and to let God in the Holy Spirit work through him or her.

In our text, the Jews in the crowd who came with Peter to Caesarea are amazed that the Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles present. Heretofore the gospel has been delivered only to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (cf. Matthew 15:24). But it is evident that the Gentiles too have received the Holy Spirit unto faith, because they speak in tongues and praise God (v. 46).

That gives us pause in most of our churches, because we are very wary of anyone speaking in tongues, in that strange jibberish that no one else can understand. Somehow that does not belong in a decent worship service, we think. In our opinion, the phenomenon belongs to the charismatics and other over-zealous sects, and most of us want nothing to do with it.

The interesting fact is that in the New Testament, speaking in tongues is considered to be a valid manifestation of the Holy Spirit, not only here in our text in Acts, but also in the writings of Paul. Paul tells us that he himself had the gift of tongues (1 Corinthians 14:18), and in 1 Corinthians 12:10, he lists the ability to speak thusly among the gifts of the Spirit apportioned to various members of the church. We therefore should be very cautious about condemning anyone as an undesirable fanatic or as someone whom we do not want in our church because he or she has the gift of tongues.

Neverthless, Paul's instructions about tongues are very informative. He writes to the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 14:1-25) that tongues should not be employed in worship unless there is someone in the congregation who can interpret what is being said or unless the speaker himself or herself can interpret the language. "In church," writes Paul, "I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue" (1 Corinthians 14:19). The ability to speak in tongues is without worth in the church unless a translation is given that edifies the congregation.

In our text, however, the assumption is that the Gentiles who have heard Peter have received the Holy Spirit because they speak ecstatically and praise God. There therefore follows an event unprecedented in the life of the early New Testament church. The gathered Gentiles, converted by the work of God in his Spirit, are baptized into the Christian Church. They receive the forgiveness of their sins (cf. v. 43), are made members of the Body of Christ, and become participants in Christ's saving work unto eternal salvation.

God opened wide his mercy to receive not only Jews but also Gentiles into his "one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth." God sought out us all. And now we too are given the forgiveness, the love, the newness of life, and the eternal life that comes to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.