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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Section - Chapters 10 ch, 10:1-8 ch. 10:9-23 ch. 10:23-48 Cornelius Calls For Peter (ch. 10:1 - 8) Acts
10 is definitely a turning
point in church history. This
chapter tells the story of Cornelius, a Gentile and his conversion to
Jesus. The events of this chapter open the gospel to the Gentiles which in
turn changed the face of the church. What
once was a Jewish church will
later on become more Gentile than Jewish.
This thus fulfills the Biblical principle, "to the Jew first
and then to the Gentile". Paul
uses this phrase in his writings. (Romans 1:16)
The Jews had the gospel first preached to them, now it is the
Gentiles turn. God's plan of
salvation was always for all people, not just the Jews.
The salvation message is first eluded to in Genesis 3 when God says
the head of the serpent would be bruised.
Any children born after Adam and Eve are candidates for salvation.
Israel
was simply meant to be an example nation to other nations how a Godly
people should live. It didn't
turn out that way.
Who
was Cornelius? Luke says that
he was an Italian soldier stationed in There
appears to be 2 types of God fearing Gentiles.
One was a Jewish convert. The
other was somewhat of a convert, not necessarily a full convert, but
leaned heavily towards Judaism. These people would still be classified as
Gentile by the Jews. The first group would be classified as Jews, although
not by birth. Cornelius probably belonged to the second group. The
story is about Peter being called by the Lord to bring the gospel to this
man’s household. Why Peter,
you might ask? That is a good
question that we can’t answer for sure.
Why not call Paul to this task, since he became the apostle to the
Gentiles, and Cornelius was a Gentile.
Paul might not yet have been ready at this point.
Remember, Paul spent three years in the desert area before
beginning his ministry. If
Paul gave his life to Jesus in 35 AD as many suggest, he'd still might be
in the desert area at this time.
This event most likely took place around 37 or 38 AD.
On the other hand, as some say that it was around this time that
Paul left God
might have called Peter first since it appears that it was God's will for
Peter to first preach the gospel to the Jews, and so it might be fitting
that he first preaches to the Gentiles as well.
You
might want to ask another question. Why
call Peter, and not Philip? We
learned earlier that Philip lived in In
verse 3 we read that Cornelius had a vision.
Luke says that he “distinctly saw an angel of God”.
The use of the word “distinctly” tells us that he really did
see an angel of God, even though he was a Gentile. This angel called out
Cornelius’ name. This was
not a vision. Verse
4 continues with Cornelius’ answer. “What is it, Lord”?
Notice that Cornelius’ and Paul’s response are very similar.
Paul asks, “who are you, Lord”?
Cornelius asks, “what is it, Lord”?
In both instances the coma is before the word Lord.
You might remember what I said about that from chapter 9.
The coma and the question mark suggest, at least to me, that
Cornelius was in fact asking 2 questions here.
One was, “what is it”? The
other was “Lord”? Another
way to ask this question would be, , “what is it, and, who are you, are
you the Lord”, or “what Lord are you?" The
angel replied by telling Cornelius that his prayers and good works had
come up to Heaven as an offering, and as a result God was going to bless
him. The angel tells Cornelius
to send men to Joppa to one named Peter who will come to see him and his
family. Cornelius
did as he was told. He sent 2
of his servants and a devout soldier that was within his ranks to get
Peter. Peter’s
Vision (ch. 10:9 - 23) The
day after the angel spoke with Cornelius, and as the 3 men were nearing
Joppa to find Peter, Peter went up on top of the roof to pray.
It was around 12 noon, once again, a Jewish time of prayer.
Remember prayer times were every 3 hours, 9 AM , 12 noon, 3 and 6
PM. Peter was obviously still
very much a practicing Jew. This
you can see by the time he prays and by his response to the Lord. Concerning
the top of the roof. Houses in
those days had flat roofs with steps going up the side of the house to the
roof. People often used the
roof as a place to be. Verse
10 tells us that Peter was getting hungry while praying and so someone was
preparing a meal for him. During
this time he falls into a trance. In
this state of trance Peter saw a big sheet come down from the sky, with
all sorts of animals, both clean and unclean, as described in the Law of
Moses. A voice told Peter to
“get up, kill and eat”. Now
Peter being a good Jew said, “Surely not Lord,
I have never eaten anything impure or unclean”. (ch. 10:14)
Once again, you see Peter’s strict adherence
to the Law of Moses. This
issue would be dealt with later by Paul when he teaches on the Law of
Moses. We know Paul’s stand on the subject.
We see Peter’s present position which is in the process of being
challenged by the Lord. This
might actually be the reason why the Lord chose Peter for this job.
We know that Paul would have no difficulty preaching to Gentiles
and seeing them saved. We do
know that Peter did have trouble preaching to Gentiles, and most likely
the rest of the apostles did too. The
Lord had to prepare Peter and the rest for the ministry of Paul.
Paul’s ministry of leading Gentiles to
the Lord would be more easily accepted by the 12 if one of them
actually participated in an event where Gentiles were saved.
If Peter had not experienced this, Paul would have had a much
harder time than it did with the 12. Peter,
in Paul’s defense of his Gentile ministry refers back to this occasion.
So we know that Peter did get the message the Lord is teaching him
here. So concerning the
question I raised earlier, "why did Jesus choose Peter and not Paul
for this particular task"?
It might well be that Peter needed this experience for the health
of the church and also to help defend Paul in Acts 15.
Verse
15 is the reply to what Peter said. It
says, “the voice said to him a second time, ’do not call anything
impure that God has made clean’”.
Verse 16 says that this happened 3 times.
It was quite clear that the Lord was trying to tell Peter
something. It is plain to us
what this all meant, but it wasn’t plain to Peter. While
Peter was wondering about the vision, the men that were sent from
Cornelius found him. Peter
saw that certain animals were unclean as defined by the Law of Moses.
Yet our Lord was in the process of showing Peter what the New
Covenant was all about. It is
clear that these animals that were once unclean, were now clean, something
that would come to Paul’s understanding, and get in much trouble over. This
begins the change, or at the least begins the new understanding of the Law
of Moses. If one part of the
Law had undergone a change, then all the Law had undergone a change, which
it did. Romans 10:4 says that
Christ is the end of the Law. The
Law has a totally different meaning to New Testament Christians than it
had to Old Testament Jews. The
voice says that Peter should not make unclean “what God has made
clean”. When did God make
these once unclean animals clean? It
was when the ultimate sacrifice was made by Jesus on the cross.
The Law, at that moment of time had been fulfilled.
As Paul so clearly puts it in Rom. 10:4, “Christ is the end of
the Law”. The Law of Moses
was for a specific time period only, and its end came at the cross.
The 12 apostles had not understood this point as
yet. For the first
time, one of the 12 was being taught a new lesson in the New Covenant. The
changing of unclean animals to clean animals tells us something of the
purpose of the Law of Moses. We
often think that the Law is simply a bunch of rules, but it is more than
that. Since the Law was
fulfilled in Jesus, that tells us that the Law was just as much a document
of prophecy as it was a list of rules.
So, once the prophecy was fulfilled, the Law would change in its
significance. Peter
was struggling over this new concept.
Yet the vision had another meaning as well.
Yes, God now views all animals clean, but now He views all people
clean. Gentiles, who were once
unclean could now be clean. This
is another issue that Peter did not yet understand, but was being taught
to him at this moment. One
thing I'd like to point out is that Jesus died for people, not animals,
but animals, as well as the rest of creation is, and will be affected by
the death and resurrection of Jesus. As
seen in Romans 8 where Paul says that all creation is groaning, waiting
for the day the believers in Jesus will be liberated from sin and their
decayed bodies. The reason why
creation is now groaning, and waiting eagerly for that day, is that they
will be liberated too. Therefore,
the creation's liberation, which includes animals was made possible by the
cross of Christ. As
these men approached Peter to come to preach to them and Cornelius,
Gentiles, Peter would then realize the secondary meaning of the vision.
To this date the 12 apostles only thought in terms of preaching the
gospel to Jews. We do know
from chapter 9 that Paul was told this from the very beginning.
Our Lord made it perfectly clear to Paul that he would be preaching
to the Gentile world. Paul did
not seem to have any problem with this, that is as far as we know.
Maybe he did have some problems at first that we know nothing
about. Also, Jesus told His
followers back in Acts 1:8 that they would preach the good news to the
ends of the earth. This should
have clued Peter in on the fact that the gospel would go out to the
Gentiles, but it didn't. Verse
19 and 20 tells us that the Holy Spirit spoke to Peter, “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”.
Peter
did not question the voice this time but went right down the stairs, met
the 3 men and asked why they had come to see him.
The men answered by telling Peter that a angel had spoken to
Cornelius and told him to have Peter come to them and speak with them. Here
we learn that Cornelius was “a God-fearing man” who was “well
respected by the Jews”. Cornelius
believed in a God, but Peter would come and clarify things for him and
show him what God he was really believing in.
Cornelius was a Gentile, probably not even a Jewish proselyte, even
though the Jews respected him. It
is important in our day, a day when many people speak in terms of God as
being a generic god, that we do as Peter did here.
We should clarify to the world that the Christian God is the God of
the Bible, and He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our God is not the god that people of the world speak so freely of
today. I think in the recent
past Christians have failed to make this clear. Once
the 3 men had explained to Peter the situation, Peter invited them in to a
house that was not his own to be his guests for the night. Peter At Cornelius’ House (ch. 10:23 - 48) The
next day, Peter, the men from Cornelius, and some others left for You
can see Cornelius’ excitement and anticipation.
He calls his family and friends together for Peter’s arrival and
when Peter does finally get there, he falls at Peter’s feet.
Peter tells him to stand up since he is only a man.
You
can understand Cornelius’ feelings here.
He had a vision from the Lord which was pretty dramatic.
He most likely had heard of Peter’s reputation as being a
powerful man of God, being used even in the raising of people from the
dead. So it is quite
understandable why he would fall at Peter’s feet. Verse
27 says that after Peter talked with Cornelius at the door of his home, he
went inside and found a gathering room full of people.
Cornelius did not call this meeting after Peter’s arrival, but
before. The room was filled with people waiting to hear what Peter had to
say. The
first thing that Peter told these people was the fact that it was against
Jewish Law for him to even be there with them.
Again, you can see how ingrained the Mosaic Law was in Peter’s
life. His explanation for
disobeying the Law was that God Himself had told Peter not to ”call any
man unclean”. This tells us
that the Lord Jesus is indeed the Lord, even over the Mosaic Law, which in
fact had been replaced by Jesus Himself.
I am not sure that Peter still totally understood this as yet, but
that would soon change. In
verse 29 Peter asks, “may I ask why you have sent for me”?
Cornelius proceeded to explain to Peter that 4 days earlier at 3 in
the afternoon God spoke to him in answer to his prayers and good works.
God told him to call for Peter to come. So
we have 2 men here that the Lord spoke to, Peter and Cornelius.
Cornelius only knew that he had to invite Peter into his house.
He did not know why, or what he needed to hear from Peter.
Then we have Peter, who God told to go to Cornelius’ house.
Peter didn’t know why he was to be there, and that is why he
asked Cornelius why he had called for him. After
hearing Cornelius’ response, something seems to dawn on Peter.
He says, “ I now realize how true it is that God does not show
favoritism, but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is
right.” It now appears that
what the Lord showed Peter in the vision was beginning to sink into his
understanding, and that is, God is not the God of the Jew only. Peter
says in verse 36, “you know the message God sent to the people of The
gospel message included that peace with God was found in “Jesus, who was
Lord of all”. Once again we
see Peter speaking of the good news of Jesus, and that He was indeed Lord
of all things. The Jewish
people understood that the God of Abraham was the Lord of all things, but
now the gospel has defined this in more clarity by saying that Jesus is
the Lord of all things. The
gospel is all about Jesus and finding peace with God through Jesus.
The Jews would have understood peace with God through the Law of
Moses and the sacrifices they were to make.
Peter
gets right into his message by beginning at John’s baptism.
It was through John’s baptism that “Jesus was anointed with the
Holy Spirit and power”. (ch. 10:37)
The word anoint is a word that was seen in Old Testament times.
When one was anointed with oil for instance, the oil was poured on
his head, or placed on his forehead. The
oil then would flow down his face. Jesus
was anointed with the Holy Spirit when He was water baptized.
In John 1:32 John tells the story of Jesus’ baptism.
He said that he saw the Spirit come down from Heaven as a dove and
remained on Jesus.
Jesus was not anointed with oil in this instance, but with the Holy
Spirit. One thing I'd like to
point out is that Jesus was "anointed" with the Holy Spirit.
He did not receive the Holy Spirit at His water baptism as some
suggest. He was
conceived by the Holy Spirit, and being God from birth means that He
always had the Holy Spirit in Him. That
being said, there is more to the Holy Spirit than one body can contain,
and that includes Jesus' earthly body.
That is why Jesus, and us to, can have the Holy Spirit come on us
and yet be in us at the same time.
Those
who hold to an experience, a “second
work of grace” called the baptism in the Spirit point out this
experience by Jesus. They say that Jesus was baptized in the Spirit here,
and if He needed this experience, so do we.
Yet as we have seen, and will see farther, every time someone in
the book of Acts was baptized, or filled with the Spirit for the first
time, they in actuality received the Holy Spirit into their lives for the
first time. This was not the
case with Jesus. When He was
anointed with the Spirit, He already had the Spirit living within Him.
He was born with the Spirit in Him. (Mat. 1:20) This
anointing of Jesus was an anointing into His ministry.
Jesus was filled with the Spirit on the occasion of His baptism.
Many in both the Old and New Testament have been filled with the
Spirit, that is, the Spirit comes on them, whether they actually have the
Spirit within is a different issue, but when this happens, it is for
ministry sake. There is only
one reason why anyone is filled with the Spirit, and that is to do
something for Jesus. You
cannot logically explain the baptism in the Spirit as a second work of
grace based on Jesus' baptism. Peter
goes on to say that because of this anointing, and because “God was with
Him, Jesus went about “doing good and healing all who were under the
power of the devil”. (ch. 10:38) In
western culture we don't always view people under the power of the devil,
but to one degree or another mankind is under the power of the devil.
In
verse 39 Peter says that he was a witness, once again confirming Jesus’
prophecy of Acts 1:8. Peter
witnessed the life of Jesus while He was on earth in His short 3 year
ministry. In
the next verse Peter tells these people that “they (the Jews) killed
Jesus by hanging Him on a tree”. Peter
seems to always mention this fact that the Jews participated and were
behind the death of Jesus. This
apparently is part of the gospel message as Peter sees it. Then
comes the resurrection, something else that Peter never neglects to
mention in the gospel he preaches. He
notes that it was God who raised Him from the dead.
Everyone, especially the Jews would understand that when Peter
mentions God, he is speaking of the God of Abraham, the God of the Jewish
fathers. If the God of the
Jews thus raised Jesus from the dead, then the Jews are not being true to
their own God. Peter
continues by saying that not everyone saw Jesus after He rose from the
dead, only those who “God had already chosen to be witnesses”. This is
interesting. You might ask,
“why did Jesus not show Himself to the whole known world at the time, or
to as many people as possible in order for more people to believe in
Him”? This is a very good
question. The answer can be
seen in what Peter says here. God
chose certain people to be witnesses to the resurrection and it was up to
these people to bare witness of this event to the world.
This is what Acts 1:8 is all about.
Those who witnessed Jesus, in life, death and resurrection,
including ascension were the ones God chose.
It is God’s choice to have man preach the gospel, not Jesus.
As we have seen in Acts 9, Jesus did not preach the gospel to Saul,
Annanias did. When
Jesus rose from the dead, it was not His job to win the world over for
Himself. His job was to be the
sacrificial lamb. It is our
job to be witnesses to the world to this fact. In
verse 42 Peter clearly states, “He commanded us to preach to the people
and to testify that He is the one whom God has appointed Judge of the
living and the dead”. Peter
says that Jesus commanded him and the others to preach. Once again, it was
not Jesus’ job to preach and prove His resurrection. Peter
says that God has appointed Jesus to be the “Judge of both the living
and the dead”. It is clear
that when this age ends, Jesus will be the one who judges all of mankind.
Peter
continues by saying that the Old Testament prophets spoke of Jesus and
said that those who believe in Him should find forgiveness of sins.
We need to understand that this believing is not merely mental
ascent to the truth. It is
truly trusting Jesus for your salvation, and nothing else.
Peter
mentions eating and drinking with Jesus after He rose from the dead.
This appears to be important. Often,
if not all of the time, when Jesus revealed Himself to His followers after
His resurrection it was over a meal. For
example, the 2 men who walked to Emmaus, walked a long way with Jesus and
did not recognize that it was indeed Jesus until they sat down to eat. I
am not sure if there is some type of mystical importance to this or not.
It just seems interesting to note this.
Now
suddenly, “while Peter was speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on
all who heard the message”. Peter
did not even get to finish what he was saying.
Note
those with Peter “were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had
been poured out even on the Gentiles.”
Note here that the Holy Spirit is the gift from God.
Those who claim the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as being a second
work of grace often suggest that the Baptism in the Spirit is the gift
from God. That's not so.
How
did Peter and his friends know that the Holy Spirit was being poured out
on these people? Verse 46 says
that they knew because they were speaking in tongues and praising God. It
is pretty clear that when someone is filled with the Holy Spirit,
something happens that can be seen. We
will see later, when Peter defends this event to the other apostles that
he compares this outpouring on the Gentiles to the outpouring that
happened to the Jews in Acts 2. This
event was the Acts 2 event for Gentiles. This is a great moment in church
history. This event turns a
new page in the church. The
church has been opened up to the rest of the world. The
Jewish church has now become a Jewish/Gentile church, and the farther in
history we go, we see the church being influenced less and less by Jewish
culture. This
movement away from Jewish heritage is a point of debate from time to time.
There is a Messianic Christian movement today that would like to
see the church return to its Jewish roots.
I'm not convinced that this is necessary.
I do believe that we should understand and appreciate our Jewish
roots, because that is Biblically important.
That being said, the gospel has gone out to the Gentile world.
We are called unto Jesus, not our Jewish roots.
I do believe that the Jews do have prophetic and historic
significance. By that I mean
that God's plans for the Jews as a distinct society has not changed from
the days of Abraham when God promised the Jews that they would be special.
They will be special at the end of this age when God brings them
back to Himself and the prophetic aspect to the Abrahamic Covenant will
finally be fulfilled.
Peter’s
first response to all of this was to get these new converts water
baptized. As we have seen
before, Peter always associates water baptism with the new birth, not
that it is necessary for salvation, but it is a product of our
salvation. Peter
makes an interesting remark in verse 47.
He says, “they have received the Holy Spirit just as we have”.
Verse 44 told us that the Holy Spirit “came on” those people.
Here in verse 47, Peter calls this “coming on” experience a
“reception” of the Spirit into these people’s lives.
That is to say, when the Spirit fell on these people, they received
the Spirit for the first time in their lives. In
this instance, these Gentiles received the Holy Spirit when they first
believed in Jesus. This
experience for them was not a second work of grace called the “baptism
of the Spirit”, as some try to use as an example of a second work of
grace. Their salvation
package, as I put it, was accomplished all at once.
They repented, believed and received the Holy Spirit all in one
moment of time. The
chapter closes by saying that Peter “ordered” them all to be water
baptized since they had received the Holy Spirit into their lives.
So they were baptized, and Peter spent a few days with them. Peter
did not invite these people to a five week course on water baptism.
He just baptized them right away.
I think our church today can learn something from this.
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