What does Acts 11:1 mean?

Jesus told the disciples they would bear Him witness in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). On the day of Pentecost, thousands of Jews from all over the Roman empire heard Jesus' story and received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). After a mob murdered Stephen and Saul began his persecution, the Jesus-followers fled Jerusalem and took Jesus' story into Judea, Samaria, and parts far north (Acts 7:54—8:4).

It has been perhaps ten years since Jesus' ascension, and the church was still comprised of almost only those of Jewish ethnicity—until a Roman centurion received instruction from an angel to call for Peter to explain how to receive approval from God. As Peter shared Jesus' story, the Holy Spirit fell on the centurion and his friends and family.

Word has gotten out. Peter may be the foremost of Jesus' closest twelve followers, but the division between Jew and Gentile is hundreds of years old and not easily breached. He will have to answer to the home church in Jerusalem for what he did (1 Peter 3:15–16).

"Word" is from the Greek root word logos which means an idea, a doctrine, or a message. John 1:1 identifies Jesus as the Word of God. Here, before the New Testament books had been widely spread, the "word of God" does not explicitly imply written Scripture; it refers to the total message God means to give mankind. This includes that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is the Savior, that He resurrected after His death, and that He is the core of salvation.