Table Host Discussion Guide

Week 8: No Second Class Citizens

This week’s teaching presses the gospel forward into one of the most disruptive realities in Acts: there is real equality in Christ and in His kingdom. The early church had to confront deep cultural walls, first through the inclusion of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8), then through Cornelius and the Gentile household receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 10–11), and even through Peter’s later hypocrisy that Paul confronted (Galatians 2). Along the way, we see how God patiently dismantles prejudice, sometimes even meeting His people in their blind spots. God does not show favoritism, and the church must not either. We are reminded that the kingdom isn’t theoretical: it forms a new people, confronts favoritism as sin, and calls us to repentance and justice. As we reflect on real injustice even in recent history, it is our responsibility to live “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Discussion Questions

What does it mean to say “the kingdom of God has no second-class citizens”?

• Answer: In Acts, God repeatedly proves that belonging is not based on ethnicity, status, or cultural “insider” markers, but on Christ and the gospel. The Ethiopian eunuch is welcomed (Acts 8), Gentiles are fully received (Acts 10–11), and Peter declares, “God does not show favoritism” (Acts 10:34–35). Paul later emphasizes unity in Christ (Galatians 3:26–29).

• Application: Where do you feel tempted to rank people—who is “safe,” “like us,” “more spiritual,” or “less than”? What would repentance look like in a specific relationship, habit, or attitude this week?

Why was the Ethiopian eunuch’s inclusion such a big “kingdom announcement”?

• Answer: The eunuch had been worshiping and reading Scripture (Acts 8:27–28), yet Deuteronomy 23:1 describes restrictions that could push someone like him to the margins. Acts shows the new covenant doing what the old covenant couldn’t fully accomplish: an “excluded” person is brought in. Isaiah even anticipated this kind of mercy and inclusion (Isaiah 56:3–5).

• Application: Who tends to get pushed to the margins in our world—socially, economically, racially, relationally? How might Jesus be calling you to step toward them the way He did toward outsiders?

In Acts 10, why does God give Peter a vision about animals if the point is people?

• Answer: God meets Peter where his categories are strongest: clean/unclean (Acts 10:11–15; Leviticus 20:25–26). Peter eventually learns the vision is not mainly about food; it’s about not calling people impure or unclean (Acts 10:28). God is dismantling prejudice and expanding Peter’s obedience to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47).

• Application: Where might God be confronting you gently, starting with something you understand (a “smaller” category) to lead you into a bigger area of obedience (people you avoid, assumptions you carry, groups you dismiss)?

Why did the Spirit fall on Cornelius’ household before baptism, and what was God proving?

• Answer: In Acts 2 the pattern is repentance and baptism followed by the gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:38). In Acts 10, God flips the order (Acts 10:44–47) to make the point undeniable: Gentiles are not second-class and cannot be blocked. Peter defends this directly in Acts 11:17–18: God gave them the same gift; who was Peter to stand in the way?

• Application: What “gatekeeping” attitudes show up in church culture today, spoken or unspoken? How can you personally become the kind of believer who removes barriers and makes room for people to come all the way to Jesus?

Peter slipped again in Galatians 2. What does that teach us about favoritism and pressure?

• Answer: Even after Acts 10, Peter draws back from Gentile believers when pressure arrives (Galatians 2:11–12). Paul confronts it because it contradicts the truth of the gospel. James names favoritism as sin (James 2:8–9), and Acts 6 shows that prejudice can even show up inside “the church” through cultural-linguistic divides (Acts 6:1).

• Application: What pressures shape your behavior (family expectations, friend groups, political tribalism, fear of being misunderstood)? Where might you be “drawing back” from brothers and sisters you should be embracing?

Prayer Prompts

• Repentance & heart alignment: King Jesus, search us. Show us any prejudice, favoritism, or fear in us. Give us humility to confess it and courage to repent. (Acts 10:34–35; James 2:8–9)
• Unity that reflects heaven: Lord, make our church look like Your kingdom. Teach us to love across lines of race, culture, background, and class so we practice now what we’ll live forever. (Revelation 7:9–10)
• Justice + gospel courage: Holy Spirit, help us notice where people are overlooked, pushed aside, or excluded, and make us the kind of people who step in, protect the vulnerable, and welcome the outsider in Jesus’ name. (Acts 6:1; Acts 8; Acts 10–11)