<p>10:47 <i>Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these who have received</i> <em>the Holy Spirit just as we?</em>- The word means 'accepted'. Peter had been taught that God <em>accepted</em> <em>whoever</em> believed in Him, regardless of their race. But now Paul had to remind Peter that truly, God &ldquo;<em>accepteth </em>no man&rsquo;s person&rdquo; (Gal. 2:6). The same Greek word was a feature of the Cornelius incident: whoever believes <em>receives</em>, accepts, remission of sins (Acts 10:43), and they <em>received</em>, accepted, the Holy Spirit as well as the Jewish brethren (Acts 10:47). With his matchless humility, Peter accepted Paul&rsquo;s words. His perceptive mind picked up these references (and in so doing we have a working model of how to seek to correct our brethren, although the success of it will depend on their sensitivity to the word which we both quote and allude to). But so easily, a lifetime of spiritual learning could have been lost by the sophistry of legalistic brethren. It&rsquo;s a sober lesson.</p><p>The case of Cornelius (Acts 10:47) shows the urgency of baptism; Peter didn&rsquo;t report the case back to the elders, he went ahead immediately with it. Acts 10:36-43 usefully record &ldquo;the word&rdquo; of the Gospel which had been sent to Israel and which the Gentiles could now also believe: &ldquo;God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.&nbsp; And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name&rdquo;. This &ldquo;word&rdquo; of the Gospel has several allusions to the great commission- &ldquo;we are witnesses&rdquo; is Lk. 24:48, and Peter clearly felt he was fulfilling the great commission when he says that he is preaching because after the resurrection, Christ &ldquo;commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God&rdquo;. Peter&rsquo;s comment that &ldquo;to Him all the prophets bear witness&rdquo; was doubtless said with his mind on how after His resurrection, the Lord had expounded where He was to be found in the prophetic writings. The Gospel which the great commission required to be taught and baptized into is therefore summarized in &ldquo;this word&rdquo; which is summarized here by Peter. It was a brief message about the person of Christ, His death and resurrection, His forthcoming return in judgment, and our need to repent and receive forgiveness by association with His Name.</p><p><em>&ldquo;Can anyone withhold&rdquo; is t</em>he same word used by the Lord to rebuke the disciples for 'forbidding' John's disciples and the little ones to come to Him (Mk. 9:38); and yet He uses the same word to describe how the lawyers hindered s.w. 'forbad' people to enter the Kingdom. There's a very clear parallel here between the disciples and their Jewish teachers who had so influenced their thinking. But they finally got there- for Peter insisted that Gentiles should not be forbidden s.w. 'hinder' baptism (Acts 10:47); and he uses the same word again when he says that now, he will not &quot;withstand s.w. 'hinder' God in hindering people to come to Him (Acts 11:17). The awfulness of the disciples' attitude is brought out by the use of the word in 1 Thess. 2:16, where Paul says that the way the Jews 'forbad' or hindered the preaching of the Gospel was cause for the wrath of God to come upon them &quot;to the uppermost&quot;. And the disciples initially followed their Jewish elders in this kind of behaviour. In passing, there is a sober warning here to those who would likewise 'forbid' baptism to those who sincerely seek it, and who will not allow &lsquo;little ones&rsquo; to the Lord&rsquo;s table.</p>