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biblestudy: Acts (Part Eleven)

Acts 10; 11:1-18 Conversion of Cornelius
John W. Ritenbaugh
Given 22-Nov-88; Sermon #BS-AC11; 83 minutes

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Well, just very briefly, by way of review. Uh, once we left the 6th chapter of the Book of Acts, we began to see a progression. Through Act 7 with the preaching of Stephen to the Hellenistic group there in in Jerusalem and then in chapter 8, we moved on to Samaria and preaching was done there by those people who were scattered from out of Jerusalem by the persecutions that arose. Uh, from the Hellenist. Because of the preaching of Stephen, we begin to see the ripples as it were on the pond begin to expand out from Jerusalem as the gospel begins to reach out away from that central area. Then also in Chapter 8 we have the preaching of the gospel by Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch, and then he is taken from the eunuch and he works his way up from Aotus, as it is called there, up the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and we leave him in that chapter in Caesarea. And then in chapter 9, we find the conversion of the apostle Paul. And of course, you understand from other things in the Book of Acts that the apostle Paul eventually becomes the central figure. And so his conversion is very important for one of the themes that Luke is developing here, and that is the progression of the gospel out away from Jerusalem, how it happened, you know, what were the important steps, and who are the important personalities involved in doing this. Uh, then in toward the end of, of chapter 9, we find the apostle Paul converted. He is beginning to preach. It does not say that he preached the gospel of the kingdom of God, that he did preach Jesus as the Christ. He was familiar enough with the scriptures regarding the Messiah to be able to do that, and we find that that his preaching there stirred up quite a bit of trouble and resentment against him. He had to flee, he went to Jerusalem, he began preaching a bit there and he had to flee again, so. With Chapter 9 concluded, we find the apostle Paul then now a part of the work of God, and certainly one of the most important elements in the preaching of the gospel around the world has been put into place. Now the apostle Paul was far from prepared for preaching the gospel at this time, that is as we leave it there at the end of chapter 9, but there was. Much preparation that had to be done in his life in order to prepare him more fully. Uh, before we leave chapter 9, there is of course something at the end there that brings Peter back into the, into the story and uh. It locates him in the area of Lita and then Joppa which is over on the Mediterranean Sea. And it was there in Japan that that he was used by God to resurrect one Tabitha or you prefer her other name Dorcas, and it is there also that it mentions that Peter stayed with a man named Simon the Tanner, and I mentioned to you that as we closed off the Bible study last week that It is interesting that according to Jewish regulations at the time, that a tanner because of the nature of his work was considered to be unclean. It was because of all the things that he had to touch in the tanning of leather leather. Apparently much of it came from unclean animals, that's my supposition anyway, but it rendered the man unclean. We see Peter, a man who was a Jew and certainly was familiar with many of the strictures that were part of Judaism at that time, but we find him apparently shown as losing some of his scruples regarding these things that he was able to see had nothing to do with biblical injunctions, but had nonetheless something to do with Judaism. And that's interesting because it leads right into chapter 10, where Peter is going to face something that maybe he never thought he was ever going to have to face. And this arose in the inversion of Cornelius, who was a Roman centurion. Now this story in chapter 10. It is so important to the book that it's repeated twice. In fact, it's told back to back in chapter 10 and then also in chapter 11. Uh, the version in chapter 11 is succinct by comparison to what is in chapter 10, which contains a lot more details, but the story takes up 66 verses, which is more than any other single story in the entire book. So I would have to say that Luke, as the author and God, of course, as the real author, considered it a very great importance to our understanding. Now the incident shows. Not only the conversion. Of a Gentile But the first really major Uh, realization by the church. That Gentiles were to be accepted into full fellowship. With Jews In addition to that, it also shows the very first time that the gospel was taken directly to Gentiles. Now in every other case prior to this, even though there may have been some Gentiles who were converted, it was always peripheral. It was not the main thrust to what the people who were taking the gospel were doing. For instance, when Philip went up and preached to the Samaritans, there were undoubtedly some Gentiles converted, but his primary approach were to any Jews that happened to be there. And Any A proselytes of Judaism. That happened to be there. Now, a good example of this is the conversion of the Ethiopian who was a eunuch, but a man who had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and if the man was a convert to Judaism, he was the very type, if indeed he was a Gentile, and I think he was, he was the very type of person that the apostles would have been preaching toward them and full blooded Jews. But here in the in the conversion of Cornelius, That was not the case at all. It was something that was taken directly to a Gentile who had no previous contact with Judaism in terms of religion, lifestyle, way of life, however one might have put it want to put it. Now the Jews had for a long time accepted Gentiles into Judaism, but not in the full fellowship. And a good way to just remember that is you might remember that attached to the temple was the court of the Gentiles. And that was for Gentile proselytes to Judaism, but That was as close to the temple as they were allowed to get, and it was certainly as illustrative of the kind of fellowship that they had with Jews. It was always kind of at a standoffish position. And now this situation is the Uh, event That changed all of that in the Christian church because the Christian church up until that time was largely Jewish in its thinking even though doctrinally, undoubtedly they were different from the Jews, but they had years and years of living as a Jew and so many of those things that came out of Judaism were brought into the church wholesale and including. The attitude toward Gentiles, that's very plain from what we are going to see here in chapter 10 that Peter still had it in him, an apostle, a man who had spent 3.5 years with Christ, and yet it's very evident from his own lips that he was still following many of the same ideas that he brought with him from Judaism. OK, now in this account there are 4 things that are directly addressed. OK, number one is this. The church's resistance to Gentiles being evangelized. And or In direct contact, in fellowship in the church. there was a resistance to that. We'll see this very plainly, not only in Peter's reaction, but also in the reaction to the Jews in Jerusalem after this occurrence. We'll see that at the very beginning of chapter 11, verses 1 through 3. So, it addresses that. The second thing was that it addresses, it shows very clearly that it was God Himself who led the church into this right understanding. He orchestrated the whole thing. And the third thing is, It's kind of interesting that it was Peter, not Paul, that God used. In this regard, and I think it's interesting because Paul, I am sure because of his upbringing, because of his being reared in Tarsus, being a man who was, as we would say today, more cosmopolitan in his approach to life, I think that he would have been considered by The Jewish, if I can put it that way, element within the church, those who had spent their lifetime around Jerusalem, that Paul would have had what would have been considered a liberal approach to things. Stephen certainly did. Uh, and Paul seems to have been of the same bent of mind. And so the one that had to be convinced is not Paul. It was Peter. And so it, it's very interesting that God uses Peter to be the one that he opens the door through because Peter would have certainly far greater influence with those people in Jerusalem where the headquarters church was than the apostle Paul would, who would have a natural bent toward going to the to the Gentiles. And of course God having given him that commission, giving it, giving it to Paul directly, not to Peter, Paul would have then certainly had an inclination to go to the Gentiles that Peter would not have. So there are two, I think, very good reasons why God had to use Peter first. And then thirdly, that since Peter was the chief apostle, first among equals, it was essential that God begin that work through him. I think that that was the right thing to do there. So 3 good reasons why God used Peter in this instance and not Paul. And then the 4th thing is That is addressed is the Jerusalem Church's acceptance of the Gentile conversions apart from any previous allegiance to Judaism. That's a major thing. That it addresses the church's acceptance, the Jerusalem Church's acceptance of Gentile conversions apart from any previous contact with Judaism. As I mentioned to you before, the Gentiles who were previously converted, those who were up in Samaria, the Ethiopian eunuch, those that may have been converted through the preaching of Philip at Caesarea or Antioch, these people almost invariably they invariably had contact with Judaism prior to their contact with Christianity. That was a major step. OK, let's begin in chapter 10. And in verse one, there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment. Caesarea was Directly north of Joppa. And about 65 miles northwest of Jerusalem, so that you can kind of get a picture of where it was, was on the Mediterranean Sea. Now at one time this town was called Strabo's Tower. But during the reign of Herod the Great, Herod was a great builder. If there was anything that made him great, he liked to build. He was a man who was responsible for Uh, the last reconstruction of the temple. OK. In order to show his loyalty to Caesar He decided that he was going to make this stra bo's tower into a first-rate city. And he undoubtedly made it into Uh, a very beautiful city. It never became really what what one would call great in terms of having a great population or in terms of having a great commercial or business center, but he undoubtedly made it into one of the most beautiful towns in the area and some of the things that were accomplished, the evidence of it remains even to this day. Uh, I do not know how he did it, uh. But I can imagine the engineering problems that were involved. One of the things that kept Caesarea from being a real commercial center, let's say a rival to Japan at that period of time was that they had a shallow harbor. It was beautiful, but it was shallow. You know it's, it's natural configuration was good except that it was shallow. And even the boats of those days could not navigate it too well. So what he did is somehow or another he dredged out the whole harbor. How how he exactly did this that I do not know. You know, I'm trying to think of this in terms of the way that we would do it today. We'd get big dredging barges out there and be lifting up big buckets of sand and transporting it somewhere else. How he did it, I do not know. I do not think they had big steam shovels and dredging equipment like they have. Maybe he blocked off the whole harbor, drained it out, dug it out, and then let the water back in. It's entirely possible that they did something like that, but at any rate, it was quite an engineering feat. And the city had no natural water supply, so he had built. Uh, a long aqueduct that led from the mountains all the way into town and there are, there are segments of that thing that still remain today. Where the water was built or the aqueduct was built and it was just like an elevated channel was all the way from the mountains into the city. And so the water was being transported above people's heads all the way into the city so that they had a continuous supply of fresh water that was being brought in from the snows in the mountains, quite an engineering feat. Filled the town with beautiful buildings, colonated buildings, an amphitheater that would seat several 1000 people, and they could hold shows and things of that nature had gardens put all through the city. He really made it into a first class center, and then he dedicated it to Augustus Caesar. So it got its name then from Augustus Caesar, who was Julius Caesar's adopted son, and eventually became the Caesar. Now Cornelius Very common Roman name. has a little bit of an interesting history. And that is that there was A man by the name of Cornelius Sulla. Apparently very wealthy. Because he had 10,000 slaves, at least that many. But at any rate in 82 BC, this is a good while before what happened here. But in 82 BC Cornelius Sulla gave Liberty. To 10,000 of his slaves. And Out of gratitude to him, they all named themselves after him. And so suddenly in the area of wherever Cornelius Sulla was, there were 10,000 Cornelius. I do not think anybody ever bothered to trace them all. But maybe this Cornelius we have here is somehow or another a descendant of one of those freed men that formerly had been one of the Cornelius who was a slave to Cornelius Sulla. OK, it was a common Roman name and he was a centurion. Uh, a centurion was a man who was a leader of a cohort, and a cohort was 1/6 of a Roman legion. Everybody's heard of the Roman legions. A cohort normally had in it between 300 and 600 men, so a legion was 6 times that, or about 3600 men. Uh, normal strength was considered to be 600 men for a cohort. Now a centurion was roughly the equivalent of a captain today in American army standards, and normally they were men who had worked themselves up through the ranks. And we are given the responsibility. Not so much for Daring leadership or anything of that nature because there are evidences of what Rome expected a centurion to be and what they normally picked a centurion, the outstanding quality that they were looking for was somebody who was steady, stable, sound minded, was not flighty, uh. He was not apt to lead his men on desperate missions, but rather somebody who was very committed to saving as many men as he possibly could, yet could be relied upon to be somebody who would stand and fight to the death if he was in a situation where that occasion called for it. So they were not looking for you know, the, the, the daring dashing leader type but rather somebody who was steady and stable and could give a lot of encouragement and I say stubbornness and stiffness to to the men who were under him. Now he is called in verse 2. A devout man and one who feared God with all his household who gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always. Now the, the phrase that is used to describe him that, that it says that he was a devout man and one who feared God. Does not mean that he was worshiping the true God. You see that ought to be evident from the story. He was converted to the true God. He was not worshiping the true God, but he was what we would call today a religious person. It does not mean though necessarily that he was religious in what we would consider to be outright paganism. It is highly likely though that he was someone who had broken away from the paganism of Rome and was religious in his own right. That is entirely possible that he had rejected the paganism of Rome. But neither was he converted to either Judaism or to the, to the true church, neither one of them. There are no evidence that he was a proselyte of the Jews, but rather, he began The kind of person who would put things together, began to see that there was a Creator God could begin to see the fallacies of the paganism of Rome with its, you know what's the word I'm thinking of, it's polytheism. And could see that that that did not add up with what he was able to observe in the universe and so he had kind of broken away and he was religious. About that and apparently had convinced other people in his household of the same fallacies that he himself was able to perceive. And so he, he had a man, or we had a man here who was apparently being prepared by God for the conversion that was very shortly to come. So he was religious, devout, a devout person person. Now in verse 3. About the 9th hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius. And when he observed him, he was afraid and said, What is it, Lord? And so he said to him, Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Now send Jappa or send men to Jappa and send for Simon, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner whose house is by the sea, and he will tell you what you must do. Now it was the 9th hour, which is about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And maybe he was praying. Doesn't say, but maybe he was praying and uh. God gave him a vision. And Let's see, there was something he saw clearly in a vision, and it says when he observed him. All right. Uh, a little bit more specific English word was he stared at him. He did not know quite what to make of what was going on. And I, I think that that would be the, the reaction that, that most of us would have, you know, sort of, if we had never seen a vision. Of an angel, we would probably stare too, just like Moses in the burning bush. I've got to turn around, turn aside and see what's going on here. Well, that's sort of what he did. He stared at him and then he began to, I am sure, feel a measure of fear. So then he's given direction to send for Peter at Simon's place. And that is something that is Uh, I will not say peculiar to God, but maybe that is the right word, peculiar. But frequently when something like this occurs, God gives the person something to do. In order to test the person's faith and obedience. Whether it was a healing, as in Naaman, the Syrian, they told him to dip himself 7 times in the river Jordan, and Naan was reluctant to do it, but he followed through with the encouragement of another of his people, and of course he was, he was healed. There were times in Jesus' ministry when he told people things to do and they were healed as they went about doing it. And so in this case, he told He did not just make Peter show up there, but he made Cornelius do something in order to provide a little test right at the very beginning. And so Cornelius responded immediately. Verse 7. When the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually. So when he explained all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa. I would imagine That he chose These two men from his own household and the soldier because they had similar religious ideas. And he felt that he could entrust this responsibility to them. It was not something that they would shirk and that they would follow through with enthusiasm regarding this. verse 9, the next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the 6th hour, which was about noon time. And then he became very hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were made ready, he fell into a trance, and he saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners descending to him and let down on the earth to the earth. And in it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, Peter, rise, Peter, kill and eat. Now it's about 30 miles from Caesarea to Joppa. And so We're going to see here as we put things together that God timed Peter's vision. Uh, I should say Peter's corresponding vision, that is the vision that Peter had corresponding to Cornelius's. So that it would occur. At just about the time that these men were arriving from Caesarea. So that the thing would be fresh on his mind, and there would be no doubt in Peter's mind that this was something that was from God and it was not just a daydream that he was having, but it was very real, and he would be motivated to believe step by step, you see that he was. He could then look back on when it was all over, and we find later on that this is exactly what he did, and he could see God's hand in it right from the very beginning, so that Peter had no illusions that the gospel was meant by God to be taken to the Gentiles and to be taken immediately. There was to be no further hesitation. In doing that, Now, Even though Peter As I mentioned before, seemed to be Uh, getting rid of some of the scruples that he might have had as a result of growing up a Jew. I mean, some of the scruples toward Gentiles. I do not believe that Peter was about to go to the Gentiles voluntarily on his own. Uh, it was something that had to be done this way in order for Peter, who, you know, if you look in the, in the New Testament, the first four books, that sometimes Peter had a hard time getting things through his head, just like we all do. And this was something that was deeply ingrained within him, and it was something that was very difficult to go out. In fact, those of you who are familiar with the Book of Galatians know that in Galatians 2, some of these scruples still showed up many, many years later. I'm going to show you that when we get to chapter 11, that this was probably that thing that occurred in Galatians 2 was about. 46 AD. And that was a number of years after this occurrence. Maybe as many as 10 years later, and still those things were nagging at Peter's mind. And so this was, this had to be done this way in order to really impress it on Peter's mind that he was to go to the the Gentile that God had chosen to be the first one contacted in this unique way. OK, on the verse 14, but Peter said, not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean. Now this was A number of years I would say a minimum of 2 years. After Christ's death and resurrection. It may have been a little bit longer than that, but I would say it's probably at least 2 years. So here we have a man who had spent 3.5 years with Christ, another 2 years after Christ's death and resurrection. And he was still not eating anything that was common or unclean. Now most commentators write that off as being a part of Peter's Jewish scruples. That's possible. But certainly there was ample evidence from the preaching of Christ that if Christ had cleaned or declared clean, Animals that formerly had been declared unclean. That he certainly would have known about it. And I think that his response would have been different. As Peter was generally somebody that though he was seemed to be hard to convince that once he was convinced why his mind was pretty well set on on what was right and he followed through with it. So he had never eaten anything common or unclean. Two different words. Common means that which is ceremonially defiled or externally defiled. That is, it is not unclean by creation but becomes unclean. Through contact with something that is unclaimed. Now that could be anything from dirt that is a clean piece of meat being dropped in the dirt or to becoming ceremonial unclean from coming in contact with something else that was unclean. As The Jews would view it a Gentile. Or an unclean animal. So Peter had never eaten anything that was externally defiled or unclean, meaning unclean by creation. That is declared unclean by law or command from God. Now those things that are declared unclean by creation or declared by command from God are listed in Leviticus X1 and Deuteronomy 14. Those things that are made common. are not listed because that could include anything that was unclean or clean, yeah, clean, pardon me, but had been made unclean by coming in contact with something that was unclean. So Peter had never eaten any. And a voice spoke to him again the 2nd time. This time it said what God has cleansed, you must not call common. The common explanation of this is That what God cleansed was meat. That is that God had reversed the commands that were given in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Now this was done 3 times and the object was taken up to heaven again. OK, now in verse 17, now while Peter wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen meant, behold, the men who had been sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate. To see how it was timed. It was time so that The vision was over and that Peter had the opportunity to begin to meditate on what was going on. All the time he was hungry. Which was interesting. You suppose God brought the hunger on. Now it was noon time, but from what I have read the Jews of those days that day did not ordinarily eat a noon meal like we do. But rather they apparently had a brunch, what we would call a brunch, 10 o'clock in the morning, mid-morning or late morning, and then they would have a second heavier meal in late afternoon. So they did not eat lunch, yet here he became very hungry. Now if he was following that, why did he become hungry? Maybe it had something to do with the vision. Maybe God brought the hunger on so that it would help to precipitate a better understanding of the vision that he was going to have. I do not know, just speculating. But he still hadn't eaten When they came. And they called and asked whether Simon, whose surname was Peter, was lodging there. And while Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, behold, 3 men are seeking you. Now, what's interesting here is that Peter was really lost in thought. I do not think that he was up on the top of a 10-story building. Very likely a common structure of the day was no more than about 2 stories tall. It might have only been 1, with the second story being the open portion of the route. But whatever it is, it says that they call. It means that they shout it out. They apparently knew that they were at the right place because they had scouted around inside the town. They knew that they were at the right place, and they were calling out for this Simon called Peter. Peter did not hear them. He was up there so deep in thought over what this thing would, would mean. He was, as we would say, 1000 miles away. And God had the kind of tap him on the shoulder and say, hey, wake up those men down there are, are after you. Verse 2, I rise therefore and go down and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them. See, another step. To make sure that Peter understands that this thing is directly in God's purpose. And then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius and said, Yes, I am he whom you seek. For what reason have you come? And they said, Cornelius, the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear words from you. And then he invited them in and lodged them. Now the thought actually stops right there, so I am. Uh, it's interesting in the way that they describe Cornelius and that is that they They added something as a man who was Uh, held in good reputation by the Jews, meaning the Jews there around Caesarea. I'm sure that they did that in order to impress upon Peter that they had good intentions about what their reason for being there was. And then of course they, they told of the the vision and told him that Cornelius had sent them because Cornelius had been instructed to listen to what Peter had to say. OK, he invited them in. And then they, they did not leave until the next day. Now this is kind of interesting too for what it doesn't say. I wonder about these things. What did they talk about? Now, here, here, here were some men, though they did not have the vision. They were told the vision directly from Cornelius. Peter did have a vision. And it was obvious. That something, at least obvious to Peter, that something was afoot. Now what do these two disparate Groups talk about. Did they talk about religion? Did they talk about the Bible? Did they talk about the weather? Did they talk about the trip down? Did they talk about going back, uh. Those kind of things interest me because Here is Peter, a Jew. He is has invited into his house. People who were undoubtedly Gentiles, did he eat with them? It doesn't say Uh, The reason I say that is because it becomes a part of the context just a little bit later. Peter begins, the first thing he, he says to these people, when he gets to Cornelius's house, you know how that it is unlawful for a Jew to keep company with a Gentile. Now here he is lodging them. Peter's being set up. And he's beginning to learn something that is going to be very valuable to him and also to the church. And now, on the following day, Uh, well, it says on the next day, Peter went away with them and some brethren. Uh, Turned out to be 6. Brethren with him, went with him from from JAPA and it was probably very important that he took that many people with him. And we will learn why when we get to the next chapter. But he took 6 people with him. The following day they entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. Now it's not too unusual for One man to bow to another as a mark of deference to honor him, pay respect to him, but He apparently got all the way down on his knees. And And reverenced him. Peter was very quick, as we find to Uh, straighten that out. In verse 26, Peter lifted him up, saying, stand up. I myself am also a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together. And then he said to them, You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or to go to one of another nation. Peter was beginning to understand what was going on. He did not understand it fully, but he knew from what had occurred already that God was involved in this. And it's almost as if he is, it's almost like an apology. Now, one of the things that is interesting here to me. Is that Jewish law at the time. Allowed for Jewish and Gentile partnerships. And even we are permitted to bathe together. However, whenever they did that, it made the Jew ceremonially defiled, unclean. And for a Jew to go into a Gentile's house. Made him unclean. Because he was, you know, just like the piece of meat would become unclean by touching something that was unclean. So did a human being become unclean by touching something that the Jew considered to be unclean and therefore the person was unclean until evening, and then he could go through the ritual of having himself cleansed. I'm going through this because I want you to understand the mental attitude that was behind all this and what it what it did to any relationships between these people that if a person was a devout Jew, it was virtually impossible to have any kind of close relationship with a person who was a Gentile. And I am sure that it established prejudices in the mind. That would have hindered any, any kind of real friendship. The kind that you can, you and I can have within the church. Now here he was Doing the kind of thing. That was In a way, the most forbidden thing of all. Outside of actually marrying someone that the Jews considered to be unclean. The next worst step you see was to accept their hospitality. You see, he was the one who extended the hospitality before down in Jaffa, but now here he was being invited into this Gentile's home and accepting the hospitality. We're seeing a major thing occur in the early church, something that changed the course of history, and that's why it's here. Because it changed the direction of the church. Entirely. Now if this had not occurred, something else would have occurred, but it was this incident that God caused it to occur. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Now that phrase solves the problem with the clean and unclean vision that Peter had a little bit earlier, where Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I've never eaten anything common or unclean. This verse shows that God had no intention of changing the laws regarding clean and unclean animals. His intention was to change Peter's mind about men. That a human being is not to be considered automatically as unclean simply because he is a non-Israelite. Therefore, verse 29. I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. I asked them, for what reason have you sent for me? Boy, now there is a question that is loaded. OK, now verse 30. Cornelia said, 4 days ago I was fasting until this hour, the 9th hour, and I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing. And said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard. Your alms are remembered in the sight of God. Send therefore to Jappa and call Simon here, whose name is Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon the tanner by the sea, and when he comes, he will speak to you. So I sent to you immediately, and you have done well to come. Now therefore, we are all present before God to hear all the things commanded you by God. Boy, if ever a man had a receptive audience, here was, here was an audience. I am sure that later on Peter must have looked back on this and wished that every audience that he ever faced was as receptive as this audience was. But this audience had been prepared by God for a very special occasion. Then Peter opened his mouth and said, in truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality. That is God is no respecter of persons. Now we can begin to understand that there is no inconsistency in the Old Testament. that Israel's choice by God was not based on merit. Peter is beginning to see that, beginning to see it very, very clearly. Israel was not God's favorite because they had earned the right to be called by God and to be His chosen. But rather, it was, it was by God's grace that Israel was chosen by God to be the one that would be the model nation. was by grace. So in truth I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent. Uh, let's see. I, I, I wrote myself a note here. And now I can't, it was Last week when I put this part of this together, and now I'm trying to think of what it meant. Oh, I know what I, I was thinking of here. It it's this this sentence here in verse 35, but in every nation, whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him. Now if you take that verse and rip it out of its context, You could begin to get the idea that somehow or another we can go around Jesus Christ. You see that we really do not need him. And that somehow or another by our good works, we will be accepted by God simply because we have good works and we might do some do some praying. Uh, what I wrote here was that this is essentially the same thing that the Pharisee said in Jesus' parable there in Luke 18. Remember the Pharisee came before God, you know, the story of the public and the Pharisee and the Pharisee came before God and said that I fast twice in a week, you know, and I give my alms before men and I pray and I do all of these things. He said, I'm not like other men. I'm not like this publican over here. You see what he was doing was expecting God to accept him on the basis of his good deeds. And he was essentially, you see, as we would look at it now, going around Jesus Christ. Now that is not so. A good life is acceptable to God within the framework of the gospel, and that includes Christ's sacrifice. So we cannot get around Jesus Christ simply by doing good. We are made righteous before God because of Christ, because all of our works, even the very best ones. God says there is filthy rags. And they have no intrinsic merit before God because they are already tainted by the sins. Of this sinful man. But when the sacrifice of a sinless man Of a sinless God. Precedes us Then we are accepted before God on the merits of His righteousness. Not on the merits of our righteousness. And you can check that with Luke 18, where the Pharisees's prayer and his good deeds were rejected. The Republicans were accepted his appeal to God on the basis of his repentance. was accepted. What Peter is doing here is he is telescoping a lot of principles all into one statement. And that we cannot jump to the conclusion that people will be accepted before God simply because they are good. There are an awful lot of people in the world who are like Cornelius. They are devout, they are sincere, they are religious. But they aren't coming before God on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. They have not repented. As God would have us repent. They do not believe the gospel. They may understand about Jesus Christ. But they have not been called of God, and I am glad that kind of people are in the world. This place would be far worse without them. They help to maintain a measure of stability in the world. Because they contribute their morality to the world and make this a much better place to live in than it would be otherwise. But there is no acceptance before God on the basis Of our own works. We are accepted before God because of the work of Jesus Christ. So do not allow yourself to be deceived into thinking that God calls people simply because they are righteous or because they are good people. He does not. And that's very clearly shown in Romans 9, which we will not go to now, where Paul expands on it. And gives us greater understanding. OK, verse 36 then. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all. That word you know which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, began from Galilee. After the baptism which John preached. I think that we are undoubtedly seeing just an outline of what Peter spoke on. But I am sure that he expanded on these things a great deal because we cannot assume that Cornelius would have a complete knowledge of what was going on in Judea when he may not have even been there. He may have only heard things through rumor regarding the teachings of Jesus Christ, but undoubtedly he did not hear very much of what Christ said or very much of what any other of the evangelist apostles had said. And so we are seeing here just the bare bones of what Peter spoke about, and it may have taken him an hour or two to go through this. he established, you know, step by step. The authority of Jesus Christ and why we could be accepted before God as a result of who Jesus was and what he did and what he represents to man and how he is our Savior. And then he began, I'm sure, to preach some of the gospel to him as well, some of the things involving the kingdom of God and the great and wonderful potential that we have before us. OK, then he preached peace through Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. That word, you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, where God was with him. And we are witnesses of all these things which he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the 3rd day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead. Now it is interesting here there is There is something missing. Now what we see here is a very Compressed sermon. It's even shorter than the sermon, at least in the writing here, than what was given in Acts the 2 chapter when he spoke to the Jews there on the day of Pentecost. And what's given there in in Acts 3, again, uh. Now here this is just 78 verses long. Those other accounts are about 20 verses long. You know what's missing here? I think it's very interesting. He did not accuse the Gentiles of killing Christ. He made very clear to the Jews. That they were guilty of killing Christ. Now there is no doubt that the Gentiles are just as guilty of killing Christ. As the Jews were. But he did not bring it up here. At least it's not recorded. He only says that that the Jews killed him, and actually we understand that literally if you want to look at it that way, the Gentiles were the ones who killed him in the person of the Romans at the instigation of the Jews, and I'm sure that God did that so that all of mankind would be represented by both the Jews and the Romans. So the Gentiles were represented there in being the the literal executors of Christ because they were the ones who actually nailed them to the cross. But he did not bring that up here. And now you have to wonder why is it because he did not want to offend them? Uh It's a possibility. But I am sure that, that before this whole thing was over, that he let them know too that they were guilty of the death of Jesus Christ, but it was not included here in in these notes that we have of the sermon that that he gave on that day. So God raised up Christ, verse 41, and he showed them to witnesses there. And then verse 42. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is he who was ordained by God to be judged of the living and the dead. Now that's pretty clear. That all men must stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Judgment is now on the, on the house of God. So in that sense, we are standing before him now, being judged according to our works. In verse verse 43 then to him all the prophets witness that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins. Now you can see from The things that Peter explained to these people. That believing On Jesus Christ, believing in His name. is not something That is Entered into with Out a pretty good background. Of the kind of things that Jesus Christ, or I mean that that Peter preached regarding Jesus Christ. Now the reason I say this is because In the past anyway. There have been missionaries who have been sent out to Oh. Heathen lands as we would call them. Striving to get these people to accept Jesus Christ. You know, I cannot tell you about individual cases of people who have done that, and I do not in any way want to denigrate their sincerity, uh. In doing what they did. But it hardly seems likely to me. That they were able to give the kind of education that these people needed regarding God, regarding the Bible, regarding Jesus Christ. That would would have enabled them to truly believe in the way that God shows you and me. He wants us to believe in order to have our sins forgiven. Now here we have even here an unusual case. Of people who undoubtedly had been set up by God, prepared by God. In order that they be able to repent, let's say, and accept Jesus Christ in a very short period of time. You can also see the same thing with the Ethiopian eunuch. That that was a man who was specifically prepared for conversion. He was already familiar with the Old Testament. He did not understand it. He already apparently was a proselyte to Judaism. He had a background so that when Philip put the pieces all together for him, he could very quickly see it. And be led to repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ. The same thing holds true. For the conversions that took place in Samaria. Those people were already familiar with Judaism. The Samaritan religion was a copy of Judaism. As close as they could get without actually being Jews. In addition to that, These people, many of them undoubtedly were witnesses to the preaching of Jesus Christ Himself. And so there was preparation going on beforehand for their acceptance of Jesus Christ. And so much of the work of the Missionaries of the Modern mostly Protestant churches. was not preceded with the kind of experience or education that these people that we are seeing in the book of Acts already had before the apostles came in contact with them. So it's very doubtful. I say virtually impossible that any of these people Who were the, the converts of these missionaries. Ever could come to a true repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ. In verse 44. Now while Peter was still speaking these words. The Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished. As many as came with Peter because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. So you can see the frame of mind that they were in. I, I would guess that it was entirely possible that the whole while they were there, listening to Peter talk and maybe can even prior to that, maybe conversing with these people or whatever, they were somewhat on edge. Uncomfortable with that situation. They having the scruples that they did regarding the supposed or believed uncleanness of the Gentile and here they were there in the house, accepting their hospitality, maybe even having eaten some of their food and Their conscience was probably defiled. I'm imagining things here, but I think that I'm not far from being wrong. Why else would it say that they were astonished? God giving his spirit, the Gentiles? As many as came with Peter because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God, and then Peter answered, can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized to have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, and then they asked him to stay a few days. Now apparently the thing that that triggered Uh, this sequence of events that begins in verse 44 was what he said in verse 43. Be to him all the prophets witnessed that through his name. Whoever believes in him. You see, the whole time there he was preaching Jesus Christ and giving them a background of understanding. Regarding the place of Jesus Christ in the purpose of God. You see, that was the key element that they needed to understand at this time. And that it must have struck these Gentiles like a thunderbolt. God must have given them an inspiration really to understand the import of what Peter was saying. You see, this was something that was new for Peter too, because up until this time, he did not think about going directly to the Gentiles in the same way that they went to the Jews or in the same way that they went to proselytes, to Judaism. You see, now it's hitting Peter and it hits these people all at once, and they are motivated to respond and God responded too. The very deep acceptance of Jesus Christ as God and as Savior. And the sacrifice of his blood, of his life was done in their behalf, and they recognized it. Of course, we are deeply gra gratified as a result of it. So when clear unmistakable signs were given, speaking in tongues. They could not deny. And so They went then through the outward sign that is baptism, the outward sign of faith in Christ's sacrifice, and forgiveness and cleansing and commitment and reception into the body of Christ. OK, they asked him to stay a few days. undoubtedly they wanted. More information regarding what they were getting involved in. But What we just read there was one of those. Once in history occurrences. Well that was the Gentile equivalent of the day of Pentecost. And as significant as the day of Pentecost was, this day was maybe even more significant. In some respects, Because it opens salvation to everybody. And most of the world is not Israelite. Somebody has estimated that the The total population. Of the, of the world from the time of Adam on up to this time somewhere some pretty great latitude between 40 and 60 billion people. Out of that 40 to 60 billion people, only a very tiny number are Israelites. And if salvation was just open up to the Israelite people, then we have just a few billion at the most who are Israelite and all of the rest, the other, you know, 36, 38, 40, 50 billion people that have ever lived on this earth are Gentiles. So this was a real benchmark here. That's why it's repeated twice. God does not want us to slip by this and think that it was an insignificant or minor occurrence. It just literally changed the history of the world. Just like Pentecost did. If God had not turned to the Gentiles. Then the preaching of the gospel would have been done around Palestine and that would have been just about it. Or maybe wherever else, the apostles knew that there were Israelite people. Up in Britain, France, Northwestern Europe. But it never would have Had the impact That it had Do you realize that that Let's say Christianity in all its forms. Despite the overwhelming, seemingly overwhelming teeming masses of people in India, and Japan, and China. The single largest religion in the world is Christianity. There are more people who are Christian than any other religion. There are more people who are non-Christian than there are Christian, but taken singly, Christianity numbers more people than all the other religions. This was the beginning. OK, now in chapter 11. Now the conversion of Cornelius. It was a landmark because of just the things that I just mentioned to you, because it marked the first penetration. In the world outside of the area of, of Palestine. It was the first penetration of the gospel into the Roman Empire. And it began to show the church that the, that God was not about to be confined to convert strictly from the Juda I'll say the Judaistic world. And I mentioned that that one of the things that is addressed in this account is that it shows the church's response to this. And there were objections. So what, what occurred? Now the leadership in Jerusalem accepted its validity. But even though they accepted its validity, it did not mean that everyone accepted its validity. It means that the leadership accepted it. And there were objections that lasted for many, many years, and it's one of the, the major problems that the young church had to address in its early years. Now that acceptance by the leadership in Jerusalem. It was important to Paul's mission later on. Because they understood. And so as far as the leadership was concerned, Paul had a free hand. But uh, There were objections, and we are going to see now several chapters here that on and off are going to be devoted to these objections. In chapter 11, verse 1, now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. Now notice the focus here. Apostles, brethren, Judea. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him. Saying you went into uncircumcised men and ate with them. It's kind of interesting. They did not object to the gospel being preached apparently. They did not object to the to the conversion, they objected to them going in and eating. See, you see the mindset that was there? You can understand that it was something that they were reared in all of their lives, and to them, a Gentile was unclean. So here they are accusing the apostle of going in and eating with these unclean people. Now, one thing I think that needs to be clarified here when it says those of the circumcision, it's, it probably does not indicate. A special clique within the church. The reason I say that is because almost everybody in the church was was circumcised, you know, all the men. How many were uncircumcised must have been very, very few. Because even the proselytes, the Judaism, the male proselytes were required to be circumcised. So when you see a phrase like that, It simply means the Jews, those of the circumcision, the Jews, just uh. It is designating them. In a way that it separates them from the leadership. It means the great body of Jews, the majority of the church, in other words. OK now what was their concern? Well, First of all was the thing that we've already mentioned. Centuries of scruples regarding their contact with the Gentiles. had given them that attitude toward the Gentiles, so they were critical of Peter for having done that. But I think that there was another problem here, and that was fear. Because they still had fresh in their mind what happened to Stephen. And They feared. Raising the ire. Of non-Christian Jews. Now what do you think That these people Who had raised such a tempest and tumult against Stephen that he died. What do you think that they would do when they heard now that this little group of people was not only preaching things that they deemed to be anti-law were now associating with Gentiles and inviting them into their fellowship. Undoubtedly, they feared that they were going to see the end of the period of quietude and peace that they had had since the, the tumult from Stephen's death. have died down. Do you remember it said that everybody Practically was chased out of Jerusalem except The apostles Well, the ones that really got chased out of Jerusalem were the were the Hellenistic Jews who had been converted. And they were the ones who began to take the gospel into Samaria and up to Antioch and over to Caesarea. Until now we have one of the leaders from the Jerusalem Church, a real Jewish Jew, see, maybe one that we call a Zionist today, a real Jewish Jew, and he was involved in taking the gospel to Gentiles in Caesarea. That would have been upsetting. OK, now verse 4, Peter begins. Explaining But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, step by step, chronologically. Now he compresses it. When I I was in the city of Jaffa praying and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners, and it came to me. And when I observed it intently and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts creeping things and birds of the air, and I heard a voice saying to me, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But I said, not so, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth. The voice answered again from heaven, What God has cleansed, you must not call common. Now this was done 3 times, and all were drawn up again into heaven. At that very moment, 3 men stood before the house where I where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea. And then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man's house, and he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, and he said, Send men to Japfa and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter, who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved. As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning, and then I remembered the word of the Lord how he said, John, indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And if therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I should withstand God? Now here we have an abbreviated telling of the story. And we get a clarification here of Acts 10 and verses 22 and 23 because there he clarifies what the angel said to Cornelius. We do not get that full picture there there. OK, now I want to jump to verse 15 here. Because Peter did. said something here that was very telling. And that is That what happened to Cornelius and his group was the same as what happened to the original group. Now the original group were those that experienced. The falling of the Holy Spirit on them on the day of Pentecost, the 120. And what Peter did is he associated, and of course what God did before him was he associated. What happened to Cornelius with that group and not with any other converts? This was a unique occurrence and it was done in that way so that everybody would understand if they examined the facts of the case that God had opened up the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles. Nobody could Uh, really honestly refute that. Now what that would mean in practical application. is that there was to be no second class status for any gentile convert. They stood on equal footing with any Jewish convert. Now that was not so in Judaism. Though a Gentile proselyte would be taken into fellowship in Judaism, he was still a second class citizen. Again exemplified by the court of the Gentiles. Where he was not allowed any closer to the temple than that, that was as close as his fellowship came. So always the fellowship in Judaism with the Gentile, even at best was at arm's length. But here God is showing that there is to be a total equality. Of both Jew and Gentile, and so you see this magnified. Uh, back in Galatians 3, Paul said that there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female. He means that everybody is equal in God's sight. There is no distinction, no respect of persons with God. those distinctions are human distinctions. That it's our prejudices that keep us apart from one another. OK, another thing that this does. I Uh, when you connect verse 15 and verse 16 and 17. It becomes very clear it's a proof text that the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the receiving of God's Holy Spirit are one and the same thing. the Holy Spirit fell upon us in verse 15, and then he refers to John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Very clear connection there. And then it established very clearly in Peter's mind because God had not withheld His Holy Spirit, then neither could Peter refuse baptism to these people. So thus then God showed that the church is under. Compulsion from him to baptize Gentile believers. OK, verse 18, and we will finish here. That when they heard these things, they became silent. And they glorified God, saying, then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. Now this verse shows the immediate reaction. That there were no further objections at that time. But it leaves unanswered many, many questions that are going to take the church here in the first century, many, many years to resolve. And we are going to begin to see that as we move through here. Things like what is circumcision? See what part does it play in the conversion of a person? What about clean and unclean? What about all of the various washings? These things are going to be addressed, but right here they are not answered. The people are convinced that God indeed. Is allowing Gentiles in the church on an equal footing with the Jewish converts, many questions yet remain to be answered.

JWR/aws/drm

 

 

Sermon Topics

False Gospels

Jesus Christ's Return

Life after Death

Repentance

Resurrection

The Gospel

The Kingdom of God