The Gospel Advances to the Gentiles (Acts Sermon 25)

Turn in your Bibles to Acts 10. We’re continuing this incredible series in the Book of Acts, and for me, one of the most incredible and magnificent truths about Almighty God is that He is mighty enough to both run the entire universe and feed a single sparrow. At the same time, He is not so taxed holding together two trillion galaxies, each having 100 billion stars or more, that He cannot at the same time open his hand and feed a single bird flitting around in your backyard. Isaiah says concerning the countless stars in the universe, Isaiah 40:26, “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and his mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”

The application of that amazing knowledge in Isaiah 40 is that individual human beings should not assume that God cannot care for them personally while He does all of that. The very next verse, Isaiah 40:27 says, “Why do you say, O Jacob, or complain, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from my God; my cause is disregarded by the Lord?’” You see the application, this mighty God who counts each of the stars and actually names them and sustains them, cares about you, and our way is not hidden from him, and He knows what we are going through. 

As we come to Acts 10, we come to the historical record of one of the most significant moments in all of human history. One of the significant shifting of epochs in redemptive history when God used the apostle to the Jews, Peter, to bring in the first crop of Gentiles to the church of Jesus Christ.

Cornelius is a paradigm, the first of an uncountable number of Gentiles who have since that great day been born again and joined the eternal body of Christ. Millions upon millions upon millions. A stream of nations has flowed into the spiritual Zion since that day, two millennia of years, of macro-history, big- picture history, the shaping of the world of humanity, and a scale so grand and so complex that it’ll take all of eternity to study it properly as it deserves. 

Yet it is also the story of the conversion, the salvation, of a single human being, a man named Cornelius, along with several other of his friends and family that day. The way that Jesus spoke to their hearts as a good shepherd, calling each of them by name in their inner heart, by the Spirit, to follow him and to find life in him, and how through faith the Spirit of God entered into them and began that day to testify with their spirits that they were children of God. So yes, it’s a magnificently significant day in all of world history, but it was also a significant day for Cornelius. Because of that day, Cornelius is right now in the presence of the Lord. He’s in paradise waiting for his resurrection body. He doesn’t have it yet but filled with perfect joy. Cornelius is there just like the thief on the cross whom Jesus told that day, “You’ll be with me in paradise.” 

We must not lose the tiny as we acknowledge the massive. The God who created the universe made that universe out of tiny atoms. The God who has woven together the awesome mighty tapestry of history has studied and put into place every single thread of its various colors. As we look at Acts 10:21-48, we see the story of a single evangelistic encounter one day in time, a moment in time, but it’s also the story of how God changed history by cleansing Gentiles of their sins by faith in Christ. Let’s step back and look at context. 

Context: 

We’re in the Book of Acts. We don’t have to wonder what the Book of Acts is about. Acts 1:8 gives a theme verse for the entire book where the Lord said to his church, to his apostles, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” The Book of Acts has shown how that happened, the progress of the gospel from one room with 120 believers in the city of Jerusalem until it moved out to fill Jerusalem with the teaching of the gospel so that no one in Jerusalem hadn’t heard it. It then moved out through persecution, then into Judea and Samaria and began to win people there. We’ve already seen that step by step and by this time in Acts, in the Book of Acts, in Acts 10, that work has been done and continues to go on. But now we turn to the ends of the earth, the journey to the ends of the earth, the long and glorious journey of the gospel and the advancement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ through Gentile nations to the ends of the earth and to the end of the age. It’s been going on to this present day. 

God used Peter, as I said, the so-called “apostle to the Jews” to unlock this door to him. We’re given the keys, and He had the privilege of unlocking the door. Peter was not called to be an apostle to the Gentiles. That would be the apostle Paul. But there is a very important principle that Paul himself wrote about in Romans 1:16 where he says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” It is a very important principle, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. God made a choice among the church, and He chose Peter. He appointed Peter to do the honors of unlocking that door, the door of heaven to the Gentiles, all the Gentiles who hear the gospel with faith and repent of their sins and believe.

The outline of this chapter is simple. First, God prepares both Peter and Cornelius in verses 1-35. Second, Peter preaches the gospel to Cornelius in verses 36-43. Then third, God saves Cornelius and all those who are with him that day who heard the gospel with faith. Putting it simply, God prepares, Peter preaches, then God saves. 

I. God Prepares

First God prepares. We saw this last week a very key verse in this explaining the preparation of God for this gospel work. Ephesians 2:10, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.” God is the master craftsman, and He’s arranging all of his materials before He does his skillful construction. His construction He does by proxy, powerfully through us; we are workers and also his workmanship.

He’s working on us so that we will work for him. We’re told in that verse that He goes ahead of us and prepares the good works for us to walk in them. He does all kinds of amazing things in other people’s lives that we don’t know anything about. Then we step in at just the right time and do our little part, and it’s a marvelous thing. We saw that last week God prepared Cornelius first by a vision of an angel who told him to send men to Joppa and  fetch a man named Simon Peter who would tell him a message by which he and all his household would be saved, the angelic visitation and vision in Cornelius. Before that happened, Cornelius had been being prepared for decades it seems through his love for Judaism, his renouncing of the polytheism of the Roman culture and his desire to know more about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. His piety, his prayers and his good works, all of these things showed his heart moving in a Godward direction. We also saw that Cornelius responded in faith-filled obedience immediately without delay, sending trusted men to Joppa to get Peter. 

That was that side of the equation. He then works the other side of the equation. He prepared Peter for the encounter with a vision himself, a stunning vision of heaven being opened, and a large sheep being let down by four corners, let down from heaven to earth. In it, it contained all kinds of animals, four-footed animals, beasts, and even reptiles, things that the Jews were forbidden to eat were in that sheet and the command came from heaven, “Arise, Peter kill and eat!” And Peter gave his response, “Never, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” Then the voice came from heaven a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” That thing happened three times, then the whole sheet was taken back up to heaven. While he was thinking about that vision, the men sent by Cornelius arrived. The timing was amazing. He’s still thinking about it, trying to understand the vision, and there came the call at the door at the gate and the Spirit directly told Peter what to do. “Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them for I have sent them” (Acts 10:19-20).  We walked through this last week.

Now we’re picking up the account here in verse 21 and 22, “Peter went down and said to the men, ‘I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?’ The men replied, “’We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He’s a righteous and God-fearing man who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.’”

Keep in mind that Jewish tradition, as we’re going to talk more later, would’ve forbidden Peter from interacting at all even with these Gentile messengers from Cornelius. But God was breaking down barriers. What barriers? We talked about them last time, the hatred between Jews and Gentiles and Gentiles and Jews, the dividing wall of hostility. As we saw last week, as we said, the Jewish nations were called to be a light to the darkened world. The Jewish nation was called to be a light to the Gentile world. That Gentile world was steeped in wickedness and idolatry in sexual immorality and perversions and godless wickedness. The Jews knew the true God and were called on to be out of all the nations, a kingdom of priests, a priestly kingdom to minister the truth of God to the darkened worlds. But the Jews tragically failed in one of two opposites: by imitation on the one hand or by isolation on the other.

First imitation. They adopted the wicked ways of the Canaanite religions around them and the other pagans around them, and they imitated them in their godlessness and their Baal worship and Molech worship and Chemosh worship and all of that, and they adopted their wicked worship practices. As a result, God did what He said He would do. He sent them to exile. The Assyrian exile phase one, and the Babylonian exile finished it. After the exile, they came back, and they went into isolation. They went the other way seeking to have nothing to do with the Gentiles. They went way beyond the law of Moses to the point where they would not speak to the Gentiles or interact with them at all. As we’ll see in verse 28, but you can look at it now, Peter says to Cornelius, “You are well aware that is against our law for a Jew to associate with the Gentile or visit him.”

most Jews had no desire whatsoever for the Gentiles to be saved from the wrath of God and their destruction by their paganism.

As I said last week, that was never in any of the law of Moses. That was way beyond the law of Moses, but that’s where the Jews were at. To make matters worse, most Jews had no desire whatsoever for the Gentiles to be saved from the wrath of God and their destruction by their paganism. They didn’t want them saved. As we saw in the case of Jonah, how Jonah fled from the Lord and fled from the mission to the Ninevites because he didn’t want the Ninevites saved. He was enraged when God showed them mercy and grace and was so angry he was angry enough to die.

The Jews hated the Gentiles, and the Gentiles hated the Jews. There was, Ephesians 2:14 tells us, a barrier, a dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles. So, when these Gentile men came to Simon the tanner’s house, Peter shockingly welcomed them in. Look at verse 23, “Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.” This was evidence of Peter’s faith-filled obedience to the vision and what the Spirit of God was telling him to do. 

Furthermore, the next day, he went with them. Verse 23, 24, “The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along. The following day he arrived in Caesarea.” Peter had the amazing foresight to bring some other Jewish Christians with him on that journey and not go alone. These other brothers were Jewish believers there in Joppa, and they accompanied him, and they would be critical eyewitnesses to the whole encounter. It would be very, very important for Peter’s reputation so it wouldn’t just come down to Peter’s word about what happened at Cornelius’s house. Those men came with him, and their testimony would corroborate Peter’s in the next chapter. We’ve seen Cornelius prepared by a vision and by his faith-filled obedience, and then we’ve seen Peter prepared by a vision and his faith-filled obedience.

Notice by the way, in both cases, they acted immediately on what God was telling them to do. To delay is to disobey. There was a timing to all of this, and they were prompt in their obedience. Peter and Cornelius were also very much prepared by their humility. We see a very rich humility in both of these men. Pride is the enemy of everything God wants to do in building the kingdom of Jesus Christ. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, and so if he’s going to work with us, he’s going to humble us first and he’s humbling.

Cornelius was humble in his reverence for the Jewish religion. He’s a Roman leader of a hundred men, a commander of a hundred men. He was a significant leader in the Roman system, and yet he was humble in his reverence for the Jewish religion. He was humble to obey the vision. He was humble to send men to Peter. Then Peter was humbled to set aside his Jewish traditions and his sensibilities and be willing to do this potentially controversial mission to a Gentile man’s home. Then Cornelius shows more humility by not hiding all of this in embarrassment but summoning together a significant group of people to wait for Peter to come. As Peter arrived, Peter is humbly obedient, stepping across the threshold into Cornelius’s house, a direct violation of Jewish rabbinic traditions. As he does, we see even more of Cornelius’s humility as well as Peter’s.

Look at verse 25, 26, “As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence.” What a moment that was, here’s this Roman centurion down on the ground at Peter’s feet. “But Peter made him get up. ‘Stand up,’ he said, ‘I’m only a man myself.'” Cornelius was just overwhelmed with this moment,  he fell before him. Here is the man of God. Here is the messenger of God, and so hence his physical reaction down on the ground. But Peter refuses the gesture and makes him stand up. “I’m no different than you are. We’re both men. Get up.”

I want to give a historical note here. Roman Catholics believe that Peter was the first Pope, humanly speaking, the rock on which Christ built his church. Tragically, in later centuries, the Pope, the bishop of Rome, began to carry himself like an earthly emperor potentate. In the style, the very thing Jesus had said, “Don’t do you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their high officials exercise authority of them not so with you, don’t do that.”  Yet the Pope eventually came to be so venerated that people coming into his presence would kneel before him as if they were kneeling before God on earth and they would kiss his ring in a sign of submission and reverence. There’s a famous encounter that occurred in the year 1077 in Canossa, Italy where King Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, knelt outside a locked gate for three days in the snow seeking forgiveness from the Pope, Pope Gregory. On the third day, the Pope opened the gate and allowed Henry to walk barefoot in the snow, to kneel before him and to kiss his ring as a sign of penance. I’m just telling you, Peter wouldn’t have done any of that. As we can see from this encounter with Cornelius, only Jesus rightly accepted worship, and He did. Jesus accepted worship because He’s God, but Peter knew who he was.

Then Peter describes his willingness to enter the house verses 27-33, “Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them: ‘You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. So when I was sent for I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?’  Cornelius answered, ‘Four days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, “Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon, who is called Peter. He’s a guest in the home of Simon the Tanner, who lives by the sea.” So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we’re all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.’” 

That’s the first phase of this chapter. God has prepared both sides for this moment. Everything’s ready. This reminds me of that dramatic moment with Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Remember how there’s that contest between the true God and Baal, and the issue was which of them really existed? Elijah, when it was his turn, got everything ready. He got the altar ready, he got the animal on the altar, he got the wood, and then he even commanded that lots of water be poured on it to heighten the miracle that was about to happen. Everything was ready, but what was missing?  Fire from heaven. That’s something only God can do. We can get everything ready, but God has to work. And so, God prepares. Then Peter preaches, and the fire comes from heaven through the preaching of the word. That’s how God use it. That’s how He works. 

II. Peter Preaches the Gospel

Peter preaches the gospel. He combines the history of Jesus along with the theological significance of Jesus. That’s what we have to do in preaching the gospel. We have to give the history of Jesus, and we have to say the significance of what Jesus did. No one can call on the name of the Lord without knowing the facts of Jesus’ life and ministry, his death on the cross, and his bodily resurrection from the dead, the biography of Jesus. That’s what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give us- the basic facts of Jesus’ life. They’re essential to salvation.

Peter recounts the key facts, a pattern for all that followed, including us. We need to do it this way. He also speaks of the meaning of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection of the good news of what He came to bring. Verse 36 begins with the word of the gospel, the message God sent to the people of Israel telling the good news, the Word. “You know the word God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news.” That’s the gospel. Salvation comes through the proclamation of the Word of God, which is the good news, the gospel.  Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes from hearing the message,” and the message is heard through the word of Christ. You’ve got to preach the message. Salvation will come on this group of Gentiles by hearing that message with faith. They hear the message and believe it’s true. That’s how salvation comes. That’s how the fire falls from heaven. The Holy Spirit will be poured out on them without them even moving a muscle as we shall see. As Cornelius had just said in verse 33, “Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” We’re here to hear what you have to say.

Then Peter mentions peace through Jesus Christ. Verse 36, “You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ.” What a marvelous message this is. The good news is of peace… Peace with God vertically, peace with each other horizontally. He comes to bring peace to the earth. We need vertically, we need peace with God because we had been God’s enemies as proven by our wicked behavior and our violation of his laws. We were God’s enemies and therefore God was at war at us. We didn’t feel it, but it was true. We were God’s enemies by our evil behavior, and therefore peace with God. This reconciliation with God is infinitely priceless. Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” It’s an incredible statement, isn’t it? “Having been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” 

A few verses later in Romans 5:11, “We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Reconciliation is a restoration of a peace-filled relationship with God. That’s what this gospel comes to bring- peace with God, reconciliation with God. 

We are also horizontally at war with one another. We have already talked about it, the dividing wall of hostility, the hatred, the fracture within the human race, and Peter is testifying that in Christ, that barrier is coming down. We can be at peace with each other. Through Christ, this warring wicked world of ours, we’ll ultimately be completely pacified. We’re going to spend eternity in heaven, at peace with God and at peace with one another. And how rich is that?

Then Peter talks about the Lordship of Christ. He ascribes to Jesus’ status, Lord of all. He is Lord of all. Verse 36, “You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.” Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords… he is sovereign over all nations, including Rome. He’s sovereign over the Roman empire. He’s Lord of all. Cornelius is a Roman centurion. He was a man under Caesar’s authority in the Roman army. and the soldiers that answered to him were under his authority. But the entire world is under Jesus’s authority. He’s Lord of all. He’s exalted the heaven far above all ruling authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, he’s infinitely above every authority. That’s Jesus. He’s Lord of all. 

Not only that, he is Lord of you. He’s Lord of your life. Every part of it should be under the lordship of Christ, Lord of all having to do with you. We don’t divide Jesus is savior and Jesus is Lord. It’s not like first we’ll accept in a savior and later we’ll work on Lord. He is Lord, He’s Lord from the start. You have to become increasingly aware of what that lordship means for everything you think and feel and do in your life. He’s Lord of all, Lord of all.  To be saved from sin is to humble yourself and to take his kingly yoke upon you, submitting to his kingly authority. You’ll find his yoke is easy and his burden is light. It’s a beautiful thing. 

Then Peter goes through the facts of Christ’s ministry. He traces out the essential elements of the ministry of Jesus, beginning with John the Baptist, and he especially zeroes in on the miracles. Verses 37-38, “You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached – how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who are under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”

These miracles that Jesus did, of which you can read about in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, these miracles are essential to our faith. They’re essential to us knowing who Jesus is. They’re a valid grounds or basis for our faith. Jesus said  to believe on the evidence of the signs of the miracles. John said it when he said, ”These are written in the gospel so that you may believe. The miracles are written so that we can believe.” 

[Jesus] didn’t speak a word apart from the will of the Father. …[and] Every word He spoke was by the power of the Spirit.

I find it incredibly significant that Peter ascribes the miracles of Jesus to the power of the Holy Spirit. Not that long ago, the theological significance of that hit me for the first time. I’d never thought about it before. I knew that Jesus said plainly, He didn’t do anything ever apart from the will of his Father. He didn’t speak a word apart from the will of the Father. He didn’t do a work apart from the will of the Father. Everything He said was what the Father told him to say. Everything He did was what the Father told him to do. I knew that. But what I underestimated is He would say the same thing about the power of the Spirit. Every word He spoke was by the power of the Spirit. Every miracle He did, He did by the power of the Spirit. He didn’t do anything apart from the power of the Spirit.  My brain exploded when I tried to think, could Jesus have done a miracle without the Spirit? It blew up because the Lord said, that’s a foolish question, so, I stopped thinking it. Why would He? Father, Son, and Spirit are in perfect unity at every instant, and this is a display of the power of the Spirit of God. Every miracle He did, every word He spoke was by the power of the Spirit. 

By the way, you can see this very plainly in Luke 4, the account of Jesus defeating temptation in the desert. It’s interesting. Jesus was filled with the Spirit. The Spirit drove him out into the desert. He has the encounter with the devil, resists the temptations and then comes back in the power of the Spirit. I just want to say to you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, would that every one of you and me would enter and leave every one of our temptations like that. Enter the temptation filled with the Spirit, leave the temptation filled with the Spirit. But the implication there in Luke 4 is that Jesus resisted the devil by the power of the Spirit. He did everything by the power of the Spirit. It’s awesome.

You’re like, oh, it’s a new idea, like the changing of the water into wine, the wedding at Cana in  Galilee, that was by the Spirit. Yes, the leper that came to him and said, “If you’re willing, you can make me clean.” Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. “I’m willing,” he said, “Be clean.” Was that by the power of the Spirit? Yes. When He said “Lazarus, come forth,” was that by the power of the Spirit? Yes. This is the work, the activity of the Spirit, all of it, but in obedience to his Father by the power of the Spirit of God.

 Furthermore, Peter sees all of Jesus’s ministry and especially his healings and all of that as liberating work from the power of the devil. He was liberating people who are in captivity to the devil. As 1 John 3:8 says, “The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”  The devil is a murdering thief. Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Jesus said in Luke that his mission was to bind up the strong man and plunder his house. The strong man is Satan. We are plunder from Satan’s house. Jesus did the plundering. We’re told by the author to Hebrews that Jesus ultimately destroyed Satan’s kingdom by his death and his resurrection from the dead. Hebrews 2:14-15, “By his death, he (Christ) might destroy him, who holds the power of death, that is, the devil.” Destroy the devil who held the power of death and to free, “Free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Jesus’ death on the cross in his resurrection, broke the power of the devil, destroyed him and set us free from our fear of death. That’s awesome. 

That’s the liberating power of Jesus concerning Satan’s kingdom and now centerpiece to this, and you’re going to see this again and again in the Book of Acts, the proclamation of the death and especially the resurrection of Jesus. I actually cannot find a gospel preaching in the Book of Acts that doesn’t mention the resurrection. They mention it every time. It’s the centerpiece of the gospel. “They killed him,” verse 39, “by hanging him on a tree. But God raised him from the dead on the third day.” It’s interesting, Peter does not explain the theology of substitutionary atonement, the transfer of guilt, our sins put on Jesus. He died, his righteousness given to us and we live that exchange. Peter doesn’t go into all of this. He may have said it at the time, it’s just not recorded here, but he does speak the facts of the death and resurrection and links that to the forgiveness of sins. It is by that that our sins are forgiven.  We cannot preach the gospel without these essential facts. 

He also speaks of his role and the role of others as eyewitnesses. Peter highlights that role. It really does matter, friends, whether these things happened or not, it really does make a difference if this is history or mythology. It’s not just what reading this inspirational story does to me and helps me feel better. No, it matters to the point where Paul says in 1 Corinthians, if Christ has not actually been raised from the dead, your faith is worthless and you’re still in your sins. So essential to the entire history of the gospel is the role of eyewitnesses who were there and saw the whole thing and testified to what they saw in their hands handled and what they heard with their own ears. Those eyewitnesses are the link the rest of the world has to these historical facts. Verse 39-41, “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen, by us who ate and drank with him after he from the dead.”Those facts were established by eyewitness testimony because the history is vital.

Then he talks about how the gospel ministry was commanded, verses 42- 43, “He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Jesus is the judge of the entire human race. Every single human being that in the end will ever have lived is going to be gathered before Jesus on that final day, and He will separate all of humanity into one or two categories, sheep and goats, believers and unbelievers. Jesus is the judge of all the earth. He is the judge of the entire human race. We’re all going to stand before him and He’s going to determine whether each person will spend eternity in heaven or hell. The basis of it will be what we did with this gospel. Did we believe it? Hear it and believe it with faith, or not.

Jesus is a judge. Peter refers to the prophets who predicted all of these things. Though Peter doesn’t cite any prophecy here in this account, he probably did give some of the prophecies because they’re vital to the gospel proclamation, but he just mentions and then he gets to that good news. Everyone who believes in him or receives forgiveness of sins through his name, that is the good news. It’s incredibly good news. We deserve to go to hell. We have rebelled against God. We’ve broken his laws. He’s not going to let it slide. He’s not going to not notice. There’s no skillful lawyer tricks to get us off. We’re in great, great danger apart from the saving work of Christ. We have no hope of salvation. But the good news is that everyone who repents of sin and believes in this gospel message received forgiveness of sins in his name.

And that’s the good news – at peace with God forever. We see number one, God prepared this whole thing we’ve seen. Number two, Peter preached, and then we see God saved. 

III. God Saves

Look at verse 44-46, “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.” While Peter is speaking these words suddenly, invisibly, the Spirit falls on them. The fire comes from heaven, but you can’t see anything as Jesus said to Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wishes. You hear it sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it’s going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. You can’t see the wind, but you can see what the wind does.” You can’t see the falling of the Spirit, but you can see the change in the people.

All they did is listen. They are probably into it, like leaning in, but they weren’t going anywhere. They didn’t do anything. Paul’s going to ask a very, very important question to the Galatians as they tried to add works to the gospel. They had heard the gospel and the Holy Spirit been poured out on them and he asked them a question. Galatians 3:2, “Let me ask you only this one thing: Did you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” It was just when you were hearing, you’re just listening, and you believed and you received the gift of the Holy Spirit, hearing with faith. Not one of these people in Cornelius’s house moved a muscle. They didn’t do an altar call. They didn’t come forward. They didn’t go to the anxious bench. They didn’t move a muscle. They didn’t pray the sinner’s prayer. Can you get saved without praying the sinner’s prayer? I don’t know. Is that even possible? They didn’t move a muscle. It is with the heart that you believe and are justified. The Bible says now, after that, it’s with the mouth that you confess and are saved. I understand that. And you get water baptized, that’s all going to come. But the real salvation has already happened. I’ve said this before. Every true sinner’s prayer ever prayed was prayed by somebody already justified. They were justified before they spoke a word. By faith, we need to keep this in mind. We’re justified by faith, not by works, not by any movement of the body.

The evidence was the outpouring of the Spirit. What does that mean? Back in those days, in the apostolic era, the baptism of the Spirit was attended with speaking in tongues. They were speaking in tongues and praising God. The account says they had received salvation, the joy of full forgiveness of sins and a new nature. They were born again by the Word and by the Spirit, and they started speaking in tongues and praising God. At this point, the Jewish believers who came with Peter can’t believe what they’re seeing. I mean, they’re stunned. I’m stunned at them being stunned. What did they think they were coming there for? They never thought it would work or maybe, … we’re going to get into this, God willing later. They thought, okay, now they heard the gospel. Now they got to get circumcised. Right now they got to start actually being Jews. Amazingly, God skipped that step very significantly. Circumcision is not needed, but they’re astonished. They’re amazed. And by the way, their reaction shows how hard it’s going to be for the Jewish believers to accept the Gentiles as is, as full brothers and sisters in Christ. They’ll have a hard time with it and we’re going to see that. 

But Peter understood. Peter didn’t waste any time. He knew what he was there to do, and he did it. Look at verse 46-48, “Peter said, ‘Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.’ So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” The real baptism, the real baptism is the baptism of the Spirit by Jesus Christ. He has the power to do that. John the Baptist said, “I baptize with water, but after me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I’m not worthy to stoop down and untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and also with the fire of judgment” (John 1:27).

Jesus does the baptism of the Spirit, which means to immerse you in the Godhead through the Spirit. It’s salvation. Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free.” By the Spirit, Cornelius is immersed in Christ spiritually, one with Christ, he’s part of the body of Christ. Water baptism then comes as an out invisible sign of the true baptism that’s already occurred by Jesus mystically powerfully in the heart. Water baptism is just a show of that. 

After that they had a meal together. What a fun time. They’re going to pay heavily for that meal, as we see in the next chapter. We’ll get to all that. But let’s see what happened. “They asked Peter to stay with them for a few days” (Acts 10:48). In chapter 11:2-3, “Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, ‘You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.'” But that was the whole point of the vision. God makes things clean that were unclean. Before those foods were unclean in the old covenant, but Jesus declared all foods clean, and now He’s declaring people clean by faith in Christ. They enjoyed that fellowship meal. Later, Peter’s going to draw back from table fellowship with the Gentiles, and we’ll have to get into all that in due time. But that day was a good day for Peter, and he knew what he needed to do. 

IV. Applications

First of all, marvel at the sovereignty of God in salvation. Only God could do this. Only God could orchestrate this whole thing. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).

“All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I’ll never drive him away” (John 6:37). You see the activity of God the Father through God the Son and God the Spirit, the sovereignty of God. We’re told only by the Spirit of God can you say, “Jesus is Lord.” 1 Corinthians 12:3, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord,’ apart from the Holy Spirit.” By the Spirit we say, “Jesus is Lord.” You owe your salvation to the Holy Spirit as much as you do to God the Father and God the Son by the Spirit. 

Marvel secondly, at the peace that Christ comes to bring. We do not live in a world of peace, and we’re frequently not at peace ourselves. This is a world of turmoil. Sin brings turmoil and division, but peace comes through Jesus Christ. That’s the gift that we have. There should be peace of mind, the peace that transcends all understanding should guard your heart and your mind in Christ. There should be peacefulness. But we have a status of peace with God through faith in Christ that cannot change. “Having been justified through faith, we have peace with God.” (Romans 5:1)

Sin brings turmoil and division, but peace comes through Jesus Christ. That’s the gift that we have.

I want to ask each one of you, do you have that today? Do you know that God is at peace with you because you have had faith in Jesus? I told you, you can’t feel generally that God is at war with you, but have your sins been forgiven through faith in his name? Have you yourself received salvation and the testimony of the Spirit to your spirit that you’re a child of God? If not, you’ve heard today everything you need. You don’t need any more information. You’ve heard the gospel today. Repent now and believe. You don’t have to come forward here or do anything physically here.

You’ll have to do a lot of things physically the rest of your life showing obedience, but none of those will justify you. Simply hearing with faith forgives sins. Have you done that? I beg you to. Don’t leave this place under the wrath of God. Marvel at the peace and unity that Christ will bring to this fractured and divided world. We’re going to a world, heaven is a world of peace and of unity, and we’re going there. We’re going to be there, and we’re going to see people from every tribe, language, people, and nation. We’re going to love them and be at peace with them and they with us. And best of all, we’re going to be a peace with God and He with us. 

I was reading an incredible account recently of the reconciliation that Christ alone can bring. We don’t realize how much brokenness and division there is in the world. Group A did this to group B, and group B remembers that and forever hates group A. That’s all over the world. It’s all over the world. We were missionaries in Japan, my wife and I, and I didn’t realize the incredible hostility there was from Koreans and Chinese toward the Japanese for the atrocities of World War II. I was aware of it, but I didn’t realize the depth and how much bitterness there is in that, and that’s not the only place.

 This account comes from Africa. A missionary was officiating at a communion service in Africa. Beside him there sat an elder, a man who’s very old, a chief of the Ngoni tribe by the name of Manly Heart, and there were many Ngoni in the congregation at the communion service. The old chief said that he could remember the days when the young warriors of the Ngoni had gone out to bloody their spears at the expense of other tribes, and they had left a trail of burned and devastated villages. They came back with blood on their spears as proof of their manliness and their courage, and they dragged women and plunder from these villages.  This is how they lived. The missionary recounted the fact that the two tribes with the Ngoni were forever fighting against and slaughtering with the Nsenga and the Tumbuka. Now here there was a communion service and gathered around the table of the Lord Jesus were people from the Ngoni tribe, the Nsenga tribe, and the Tumbuka tribe in warm-hearted fellowship, one with another. They used to shed each other’s blood, and now they were one because of Jesus Christ and the blood of Christ shed on the cross. They gathered not to fight, but to share their love for each other and for the Lord. Somehow in the great grace of God, all those barriers had been broken down. All of the things that built hatred and animosity, all of the walls and memories and bitterness had been shredded and destroyed by faith in Christ.  We’re going to see that in heaven, aren’t we? It’s going to be perfect unity, and I believe memory, so we can give God glory for what He did, but perfect unity. 

Finally, I want to ask, do all of you yearn? Do you not yearn to be part of this, to do the work that God has for you to do, to ask if even this week you might have an opportunity to share the gospel with somebody that God’s been working in, say, “Lord, give me an opportunity and then give me the awareness to see it and the boldness to seize it. Make me a part of this great work that you’re doing in the world.”

 Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for this incredible account, lengthy account. We thank you for its details and its richness. Lord, I pray that these themes that we’ve drawn together here at the end would resonate with us. Your incredible sovereignty and salvation, your great grace to give us peace through Jesus Christ, and the unity that you alone can give between warring peoples that used to hate each other. Lord, make us ambassadors of the same gospel. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

It is a magnificent truth about God that he is mighty enough to both run the universe and to feed a single sparrow. He is not so taxed by holding together the two trillion galaxies, each having 100 billion stars, that he cannot open his hand and feed a single bird flitting around in your backyard.

Isaiah says concerning each of the countless stars in the universe,

Isaiah 40:26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

The application of that amazing knowledge is that individual human beings should not assume that God cannot care for them personally while he does all that:

Isaiah 40:27  Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”?

As we come to Acts 10, we come to the historical record of one of the most significant moments in church history… when God used the Apostle to the Jews, Peter, to bring in the first crop of Gentiles to the church of Jesus Christ… Cornelius was the first of an almost uncountable number of Gentiles who have since that great day been born again and joined the eternal Body of Christ. Millions upon millions upon millions, a stream of nations flowing into the spiritual Zion. Two millennia of years of macro-history, the shaping of the world of humanity in a way so grand and a scale so awesome it will take all of eternity to study what God did.

YET it is also the story of the conversion of a single human being—Cornelius, along with several other single human beings, his family and friends. The way that Jesus spoke to their hearts and called them each by name to love him and follow him, and how the Spirit of God entered them and began to testify with their spirits that the have now become children of God.

Yes it was a massively significant day in world history… but it was also a significant day for Cornelius. Because of that day, Cornelius is right now with the Lord in paradise, awaiting his resurrection body and filled with perfect joy.

We must not lose the tiny as we acknowledge the massive. The God who created the universe made it out of tiny atoms. The God who has woven together the mighty tapestry of history has studied and put into place on the loom the single thread.

Today we look at Acts 10:21-48… the story of a single evangelistic encounter. But also the story of how God changed history by cleansing Gentiles of their sins by faith.

Context:

This is the second sermon on this chapter… we began looking at it last week.

The Book of Acts is given to show how the power of the Holy Spirit came upon Christ’s apostles and disciples and how they were witnesses for him in Jerusalem, then in Judea and Samaria, then beginning the mission to the ends of the earth.

By this time, the gospel has spread throughout Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Now it’s time for it to begin its long an glorious journey through the Gentile nations to the ends of the earth and to the end of the age.

God used Peter, the so-called Apostle to the Jews to unlock this door. Peter was not called to be the Apostle to the Gentiles… that would be Paul. But there is a very important principle:

Romans 1:16  I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

So God made a choice among the church to appoint Peter to do the honors of unlocking the door of heaven to the Gentiles who repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

The Outline of the Chapter is Simple:

God Prepares Both Peter and Cornelius (vss. 1-35)

Peter Preaches the Gospel to Cornelius (vss. 36-43)

God Saves Cornelius and All Who Heard with Faith (vss. 44-48)

I. God Prepares

A. God Sovereignly Prepares This Gospel Encounter

Ephesians 2:10  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

1. God is the master craftsman, and he arranges all his materials before doing his skillful construction

2. As we saw last week, God prepared Cornelius first by a vision of an angel who told him to send men to Joppa to fetch a man named Simon who would tell him a message by which he and all his household would be saved

3. Cornelius had been being prepared for this for years by his love for Judaism and by his humble piety

4. Cornelius responded in faith-filled obedience, immediately sending trusted men to Joppa to get Peter

5. God also prepared Peter for the encounter with a stunning vision of a great sheet, like a massive tarp, being let down from heaven to earth by its four corners… it contained all kinds of creatures of the earth and birds of the air… as well as reptiles; things Jews were FORBIDDEN to eat by the Old Covenant

6. God commanded Peter, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” Peter responded, “Never, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice from heaven responded poignantly, “Don’t call anything impure which God has made clean.”

7. This happened three times, then the sheet was taken back up into heaven

8. While Peter was thinking about this vision, the men sent by Cornelius arrived… God’s timing was impeccable!!

9. The Spirit directly told Peter what to do:

Acts 10:19-20   “Simon, three men are looking for you.  ²⁰ So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”

B. Peter’s Faith-Filled Obedience

1. Peter went down and opened the door for these Gentile men

2. They told him their mission

Acts 10:21-22  Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?”  ²² The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.”

3. Keep in mind, Jewish tradition would have forbidden Peter from interacting at all with these Gentile messengers from Cornelius… but God was breaking down his barriers

4. What barriers? HATRED between Jews and Gentiles… the “dividing wall of hostility” as we saw last week

a. As we said last week, the Jews were called to be a light for the entire Gentile world

b. The Gentile world was steeped in idolatry, sexual immorality, and godless wickedness

c. The Jews knew the true God and were called on to be out of all the nations on earth a kingdom of priests… to shine the light of truth as a beacon to the Gentiles

d. But they failed in one of two ways

i) Imitation: adopting the wicked ways of the pagans, worshiping their gods and goddesses, indulging in their wicked worship practices

ii) Isolation: after the exile, they went the other way, seeking to have nothing to do with the Gentiles; they went way beyond the Laws of Moses to the point where they would not speak to Gentiles or interact with them at all

Acts 10:28  “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him.

iii) To make matters worse, most Jews had no desire whatsoever for the Gentiles to be saved from destruction by the gospel; they were like Jonah who would rather DIE than rescue the sinners of Nineveh

e. The Jews hated the Gentiles and the Gentiles hated the Jews

f. Paul called this state of affairs between Jews and Gentiles a “barrier, a dividing wall of hostility” (Eph. 2:14)

5. So, when these Gentile men came to Simon the Tanner’s house, he shockingly WELCOMED THEN IN

Acts 10:23  Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.

6. This was evidence of his faith-filled obedience to the vision and what the Spirit of God had told him

7. Furthermore, he went with them THE NEXT DAY

Acts 10:23-24  The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along.  ²⁴ The following day he arrived in Caesarea.

C. Peter Had the Foresight to Bring Other Men

1. Other brothers (Jewish believers in Christ) accompanied him

2. They would be EYE-WITNESSES of what happened at Cornelius’s house, so it wouldn’t just come down to Peter’s word

3. Their testimony would corroborate Peter’s in the next chapter

So, we’ve seen Cornelius prepared by a vision and by his faith-filled obedience

AND we’ve seen Peter prepared by a vision and by his faith-filled obedience

NOTE: in both cases, they acted IMMEDIATELY on what God told them to do! “To delay is to disobey!”

D. Peter and Cornelius Prepared by Humility

1. Both of these men are also prepared to play their roles by HUMILITY

2. Pride is the enemy of everything God wants to do through the Gospel of Jesus Christ

3. Cornelius was humble in his reverence for the Jewish religion, and humble to obey the vision and send men for Peter

4. Peter was humble to set aside his Jewish traditions and be willing to do this potentially controversial mission to a Gentile man’s home

5. Cornelius shows more humility by not hiding all this in embarrassment, but summoning together his entire household and close friends

6. As Peter arrived, he is humbly obedient by stepping across the threshold into Cornelius’s house… a direct violation of Jewish rabbinic laws

7. As he does, we see even more of Cornelius’s humility, and of Peter’s

Acts 10:25-26  As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence.  ²⁶ But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.”

8. Cornelius was overwhelmed with the moment and fell before him as though he were God himself

9. Peter REFUSES this gesture and makes him stand up: “I AM NO DIFFERENT THAN YOU!!”

10. NOTE: Roman Catholics believe Peter is the first Pope; tragically in later centuries, the Pope began to carry himself like an earthly potentate

The Pope eventually came to be venerated so that people coming into his presence would kneel before him and kiss his ring.

A famous encounter occurred in the year 1077 in Canossa, Italy, when King Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, knelt outside a locked gate for three days in the snow seeking forgiveness from Pope Gregory. On the third day, the Pope opened the gate and allowed Henry to talk barefoot in the snow, kneel before him and kiss his ring to show penance for his sins.

11. Only Jesus rightly accepts worship, because only God should be worshiped… proving that Jesus is God

E. Peter Describes His Willingness to Enter the Home

Acts 10:27-29  Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people.  ²⁸ He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.  ²⁹ So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?”

F. Cornelius and his Household Humbly Ready to Hear

Acts 10:30-33  Cornelius answered: “Four days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me  ³¹ and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor.  ³² Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’  ³³ So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.”

So… everything is now ready! Like when Elijah ministered on Mt. Carmel against the prophets of Baal; he got the altar ready with the sacrifice and poured water on it to show the miracle that was about to happen… but the fire had to fall from heaven.

So it will be on that day at Cornelius’s house in Caesarea

II. Peter Preaches

A. The Gospel Combines the History of Jesus with His Significance

1. No one can call on the name of the Lord without knowing the facts of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection

2. Peter recounts the key facts as a pattern for all that followed

3. But he also speaks of the MEANING of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and of the good news of what he came to bring

B. The Word of the Gospel

Acts 10:36  You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news…

1. “Message” = word

2. “Good news” = gospel

3. Salvation comes through the proclamation of the WORD of the Gospel

Romans 10:17  Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Salvation will come on this group of Gentiles by simply HEARING with FAITH!!

The Holy Spirit will be poured out on them without them moving a muscle, as we will see

As Cornelius had just said,

Acts 10:33  Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us

C. Peace Through Jesus Christ

Acts 10:36  You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ

1. What a marvelous message this is!!

2. The Good News is of peace… peace with God and with each other

3. We need peace with God, because we had been God’s enemies, and therefore, God was at war with us

This reconciliation with God is infinitely priceless!!

Romans 5:1  Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

Romans 5:11  we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation

4. We were also at war with each other… alienated from each other

a. Again the “barrier, the dividing wall of hostility”

b. Peter is testifying that in Christ, that barrier is coming down and we can be at peace with each other

Through Christ, this warring wicked world of ours will ultimately be completely pacified… and we will spend eternity at peace with God and with each other!!

D. The Lordship of Christ

1. Peter also ascribes to Jesus status as Lord of all

Acts 10:36  You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

2. Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords… he is sovereign over all nations, including Rome

3. This man is a Roman Centurion, a man under Caesar’s authority with soldiers who answer to him and must obey him

4. But Jesus is exalted to the heavens far above all rule and dominion, and all authority in heaven and on earth is his

5. To be saved from sin is to humble yourself and bow the knee to Christ’s lordship, swearing to obey him for the rest of your life

E. The Facts of Christ’s Ministry

1. Peter then traces out the essential elements of the ministry of Jesus Christ, beginning with John the Baptist

2. He especially zeroes in on the miracles

Acts 10:37-38  You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached–  ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

3. These miracles are essential to our faith; they are the basis of our faith that Jesus is God the Son

4. It is extremely important that Peter ascribes all of Jesus’ miracles to the power of the Holy Spirit

5. Some time ago the theological significance of Peter’s statement hit me more fully; God the Father anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit so that he could do these miracles

6. In other words, just as Jesus did nothing apart from the will of his Father, he did nothing except by the power of the Spirit

7. The Spirit enabled Jesus to change the water into wine, heal lepers, give sight to the blind, feed the five thousand, still the storm, and raise Lazarus from the dead. All of that Jesus did in obedience to God the Father by the power of God the Spirit

8. Furthermore, Peter sees all of Jesus’ healings as a liberating work from the power of the devil

1 John 3:8  The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work

a. The devil is the murdering thief

John 10:10  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

b. Jesus’ mission was to plunder Satan’s dark kingdom

c. Jesus ultimately destroyed Satan’s kingdom by his death and resurrection from the dead

Hebrews 2:14-15  by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death– that is, the devil–  ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

F. The Death and Resurrection of Jesus

1. The centerpiece of the gospel

Acts 10:39-40  They killed him by hanging him on a tree,  ⁴⁰ but God raised him from the dead on the third day

2. Peter does not explain substitutionary atonement here

3. But it is clear that it is on the basis on this death and resurrection that our sins are forgiven

4. We cannot preach the gospel without these essential facts

G. Eyewitnesses Chosen

1. Peter highlights the role God gave him and some other key witnesses to all this

2. It really does matter that these things all actually happened

3. Therefore, eyewitness testimony is vital

Acts 10:39  We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

Acts 10:40-41  God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.  ⁴¹ He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen– by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

The facts had to be established by eyewitness testimony, because the history is vital

1 Corinthians 15:14   if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

H. Gospel Ministry Commanded

Acts 10:42-43  He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.  ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

1. Jesus is the Judge of the entire human race

2. All individuals will stand before him on Judgment Day, and he will determine whether they spend eternity in heaven or in hell

3. Peter referred to the prophets who predicted all of these things

4. Though Peter does not cite any prophecy, he alludes to the fact that Christ was born, lived, died, and rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures

I. The Ultimate Good News… Again!!

Acts 10:43  everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

1. This is the good news… that sins can be forgiven by our holy God

2. And if our sins are forgiven, we are at peace with God forever!

3. This forgiveness comes by simple FAITH IN HIS NAME

4. Faith is an inward work by the Holy Spirit… it comes by the proclamation of the word of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit

III. God Saves

Acts 10:44-46  While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.  ⁴⁵ The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.  ⁴⁶ For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

A. As Paul Will Say to the Galatians

Galatians 3:2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

“Hearing with faith”

Not one of these people moved a muscle

They didn’t come forward to the altar call

They didn’t speak a word

They didn’t pray the sinner’s prayer

They HEARD the words of the gospel and BELIEVED they were true!!

B. The Evidence: The Outpouring of the Spirit

1. In those early days, the evidence of the Spirit’s activity was made clear through the gifts of the Spirit

2. Clearly explained here as speaking in tongues

3. They were also praising God!!

4. They had received salvation, the joy of full forgiveness of sins, a new nature

5. They were born again by the word and the Spirit!

C. Astonished Reactions

1. The Jewish Christians there could not believe what they saw

2. They should have been ready for this… why else were they there to begin with

3. They had had two days to get used to the purpose of this entire mission

4. But their reaction shows how hard it would be to fully eradicate the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile

D. Water Baptism

Acts 10:46-48  Then Peter said,  ⁴⁷ “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”  ⁴⁸ So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

1. The miraculous baptism is the baptism of the Spirit

2. That brings LIFE and connects sinners to the Body of Christ at the instant a sinner repents and believes in Christ

1 Corinthians 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body– whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free

3. Water baptism is an outward and visible symbol of the inner baptism of the Spirit that Christ alone can do

E. Evidence of Unity: Loving Fellowship

Acts 10:48  Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

Acts 11:2-3  Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him  ³ and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

Peter and his fellow believers enjoyed fellowship with Cornelius and his family and friends. They did not hesitate to eat with them.

IV. Applications

A. Marvel at the Sovereignty of God in Salvation

1. Only God could have orchestrated this whole encounter

John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

2. And ONLY by the Spirit of God can anyone be saved

1 Corinthians 12:3 …no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

B. Marvel at the Peace Christ Brings

1. Most importantly, peace with God

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

I need to ask each one of you… do you have this peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ??

You can have it no other way!

All of us have sinned and broken God’s laws… and are naturally under his wrath

But if we trust in Christ, all of God’s righteous wrath is forever removed from us

Has that happened to you?

2. Marvel at the peace and unity Christ brings to a divided world!

a. It’s not just Jews and Gentiles

b. People hate each other all over the world

c. This group hates that group because such and such happened centuries ago

A story of amazing reconciliation from the mission field:

A modern missionary… was officiating at a communion service in Africa, and beside him there sat an elder who was very old, a chief of the Ngoni tribe by the name of Manly Heart; and there were many Ngoni in the congregation at this communion service. The old chief said that he could remember the days when the young warriors of the Ngoni had gone out to bloody their spears at the expense of other tribes, and they had left a trail of burned and devastated towns and bloodied bodies, and they came back leaving all the blood on their spears as kind of trophies of their killing, and they always dragged all the women back as booty. And the missionary recounted the fact that the two tribes, which the Ngoni were forever and ever fighting against and slaughtering were the Nsenga and the Tumbuka. And now here was a communion service, and gathered about the table of the Lord Jesus were people from the Ngoni tribe, the Nsenga, and the Tumbuka. Once busily shedding each other’s blood, now one because of the blood of Jesus Christ, they gathered not to fight, but they gathered to share their love. Somehow, in the great grace of God, all the barriers had been broken down. All of the things which built hatred and animosity, all of the walls that had been built between these people, which could only be scaled in hatred, were crushed by love.”

Only the love of Christ can destroy the deep-seated animosities and historical hatreds, bringing true peace in heaven between redeemed people from every nation on earth.

C. Be Willing to Play the Role Peter Did

1. God is at work every single day, winning lost people to himself

2. He goes ahead of us to prepare works of evangelism for us to do

3. Ask God to make you a part of this… say “God, open my eyes to people you want me to befriend, to get to know. Help me to be a part of what you are doing to win lost people into your kingdom!”