10:44 Peter did not need to call for his hearers to repent on this occasion. As soon as he gave them enough information to trust Jesus Christ, they did so. Immediately the Holy Spirit fell on them filling them (v. 47; 11:15; cf. 2:4) and baptizing them (11:16; cf. 1:5).
God gave His Spirit to individuals from both groups, Jews and Gentiles, solely because of their faith in Jesus Christ (11:17). The Gentiles did not have to do anything but believe on Jesus. They did not need to become Jewish proselytes, experience baptism in water, undergo circumcision, turn from their sins, or even say they were willing to turn from them.461
Note that Spirit baptism took place here without the laying on of an apostle's hands. The identification of Spirit baptism with the apostles was not necessary here, as it had been with the Samaritans (cf. 8:17-19). Here the important point was the connection between faith in Jesus Christ alone, apart from any external Jewish rite, and Spirit baptism.
10:45 The outward evidence that God had given His Spirit to these Gentile believers as a gift was that they spoke in tongues and praised God (cf. 11:15-16).462This amazed Peter's Jewish companions because it proved that God was not making a distinction between Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus regarding His acceptance of them.
10:46a Probably Peter and his Jewish companions heard these Gentiles praising God in Aramaic, which these Gentiles would not have known previously since Aramaic was a language the Jews spoke. The Jews present would have understood Aramaic immediately and would have recognized that the ability to speak in an unstudied language was an evidence of Spirit baptism, as it was at Pentecost.
10:46b-48 There was no reason to withhold water baptism from these Gentile converts; they could undergo baptism in water as a testimony to their faith immediately. They had believed in Jesus Christ and had experienced Spirit baptism. Baptism with the Spirit was Jesus' sign of His acceptance of them, and baptism with water was their sign of their acceptance of Him. They had done everything they needed to do. They did not need to experience anything more such as circumcision, or admission into the Jewish community, or the adoption of traditional Jewish dietary laws, or anything else.
"I have heard people say sometimes that if you are baptized with the Holy Ghost you do not need to be baptized in water. It is not a question of what you need--it is a question of what God has commanded."463
The events Luke recorded in 9:32-10:48 prepared Peter for the Lord's further expansion of His church to include Gentiles. Peter had unlocked the door of the church to Jews on Pentecost (Matt. 16:19; cf. Eph. 2:14). What happened in Cornelius' house was "the Pentecost of the Gentile world."464By pouring out His Spirit on these Gentiles, God showed that in His sight Jews and Gentiles were equal. The Jew had no essential advantage over the Gentile in entering the church. God observes no distinction in race when it comes to becoming a Christian (cf. Eph. 2:11-3:12).
The Ethiopian eunuch was probably a descendant of Ham, Saul was a descendant of Shem, and Cornelius was a descendant of Japheth (cf. Gen. 10).465Thus with the record of their conversions in chapters 8-10 Luke told us that the church is equally accessible to all branches of the human family.
Why was the conversion of Cornelius rather than the earlier conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch the opening of the church's door to the Gentiles? The conversion of the Gentile eunuch was a case of individual private salvation. The conversion of Cornelius, on the other hand, involved several Gentiles, and it was public. God had saved individual Gentiles by faith throughout history (e.g., Ruth, Naaman, et al.). With the conversion of Cornelius, He now, for the first time, publicly brought Gentiles into the church, the new creation of God, by Spirit baptism. The eunuch became a Christian and a member of the church, but that was not evident to anyone at the time of his conversion. With Cornelius' conversion, God made a public statement, as He had at Pentecost, that He was doing something new, namely forming a new body of believers in Jesus. In chapter 2 He showed that it would include Jews, and in chapter 10 He clarified that it would also include Gentiles. The sole prerequisite for entrance into this group (the church) was faith in Jesus Christ regardless of ethnicity, which had separated Jews from Gentiles in Judaism for centuries. The distinctive difference between becoming a Christian and becoming a Jew (religiously) was that God gave the Holy Spirit to every Christian. The sign of this, for the benefit of the Jews, was that He enabled those to whom He gave the Spirit to speak in tongues.
