What does Acts 10:37 mean?
Peter is speaking to a household of Gentiles in Caesarea Maritima, the Roman capital of Samaria and Judea. The Gentiles follow the Jewish God, but although they have heard of Jesus, they don't know the whole story.John's baptism of Jesus started His ministry. John was the son of Elizabeth, Mary's kinswoman, and Zechariah, a priest (Luke 1:5–25). They lived in Judea, south of Samaria which is south of Galilee, and John stayed in Judea, at the Jordan River, during his ministry. There are several different sects of Judaism, including Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. When a person chose to commit to a sect or a teacher, they were baptized as a public display of their allegiance. John preached that people should repent of their sins—admit they were sinning against God and resolve to change their ways. Despite the fact Jesus never sinned, He validated John's message by having John baptize Him. At the baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus, in some way empowering Him for ministry (Matthew 3). John's ministry was extremely popular. Years later, in Ephesus, Priscilla and Aquila meet Apollos, who spoke of Jesus accurately but only knew about John's baptism (Acts 18:24–28). They shared more with him and Apollos became an apologist, evangelist, church leader, and friend of Paul's. Similarly Paul completes the education of a dozen of John's disciples, who place their faith in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1–7).
Immediately after Jesus' baptism, He was led by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1–11). He returned to Nazareth until He heard that Herod Antipas had arrested John (Mark 1:14). Then He began His public ministry in Galilee.