The Acts of the Apostles 43

Subtitle: A Critical Juncture

Acts 10:17-33. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on June 4, 2023.

Last week, we saw that both Cornelius the Centurion of Caesarea and the Apostle Peter had a vision from the Lord.  The content of the visions are different, but they are essentially about the same thing.

This is a critical juncture in the book of Acts.  Chapters 10 through 15 portray the Lord opening a door for the Gospel to be preached among the Gentiles.  And, let's be clear.  The goal of the Gospel is not only to have it preached all over the earth, but that every person on earth would have a proper hearing of it.

Even though Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul, would come to be used mainly to reach the Gentiles, it is  Peter that God uses to initiate the Gospel being preached to Gentiles.  His witness will be incredibly important in Acts 15 at a council of the Church regarding this issue.

Turmoil is always going to come to the Church simply because we are human.  Some look to good leadership as the key to protecting the Church, to which I would say, "Yes."  However, it is the leadership of Jesus through His Holy Spirit that should be leading.  There have been many people in the Church through the centuries who are very skilled at commanding others, but are they headed in the same direction as the Spirit of God?

Jesus spent time with these Apostles, teaching them and correcting them.  He also poured His Holy Spirit out upon them so that the Church would be enabled to have a strong and sure foundation on which to build.  The faith of the nations is not up to skilled leaders today.  Rather, the faith of the nations is to be put precisely upon the faith that was once and for all delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3) in the first century.

All of this is led and helped by the Holy Spirit.  As the Holy Spirit works on the hearts of lost people, He also works to connect them with true believers in Jesus so that they can have a good hearing of the Gospel.

Let's look at our passage.

Peter is led by the Spirit (v. 17-23)

Peter has been filled with the Holy Spirit, and we see him in a daily communion with the Lord in prayer.  The filling of the Holy Spirit is not a one and done event; it is not something that you "move on" from.  He takes up residence within your heart and daily works with you to become like Jesus.  He is twice called the Spirit of Christ.  That is, when the Spirit moves upon us, He is relating the desires and commands of Jesus to His disciples.  Of course, we must never take this for granted.  We must actively cooperate with the leading of the Holy Spirit.

You may not receive great directives from the Lord every day in visions, dreams, or angelic visitations.  However, we all start our life as a believing disciple with a set of great directives, commands, from the Lord Jesus.  We are to believe on Jesus and his righteousness to remove our sins.  We are to be a people of the Word of God, prayer, and seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit through them.  We are to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can be enabled to become more like Jesus, and to share his Good News with those who do not know him.  That can keep us all busy for a lifetime.

Several aspects of the enabling of the Holy Spirit are seen here.  Peter is given instruction, and he is given direction.

We know that this instruction has to do with the Gentiles receiving the Gospel.  However, this was not as clear to the early Jewish Christians.  For various reasons, it was easier to see preaching the Gospel throughout all of the nations as having more to do with reaching Jews, or Israelites, who had been dispersed to the nations in the prior centuries.  The Old Testament prophesied that Messiah would draw the dispersed of Israel back to the land, and he would restore true worship.  Yet, a close reading of any version of the Great Commission (see Matthew 28:18-20) will show that it is honestly impossible to restrict his commands to simply reaching Jews among the nations.

This social and cultural hurdle has to be overcome by the work of the Holy Spirit.  Notice that the Holy Spirit gives Peter clear instructions, but they do not answer every question that he might have.  The men from Cornelius are arriving.  The Holy Spirit tells Peter that they are there and that he needs to go with them because they are sent by Him.

This is a signature style of the Lord.  He is faithful to give us enough instruction and direction that we can obey, and yet, not enough that it no longer  requires faith on our part.  There will always be plenty of things that we just don't know.  Don't let yourself be frozen by questions and analysis at such times. 

Part of our humanity is that we are generally uncomfortable with not knowing the answers to our questions.  Yet, God values faith over robotic obedience, which we could never give anyways.  He is more interested in you growing to become like Him than you mimicking Him without a change of heart.

In many ways, this is a stronger teaching technique.  We are forced to move forward in faith that it will be clearer down the road.  As we are faithful to what we do know, God helps us to discover more of the truth as our questions experience the fruit of our faith. 

Jesus did this with his own identity as Messiah.  Many of the disciples had come to Jesus on the testimony of John the Baptist.  Yet, Jesus does not emphasize the disciples learning by rote a list of doctrinal teachings on his Messiahship.  Rather, they experience life with him and come to discover that Jesus is doing what Scripture says Messiah would do.  Jesus blessed Peter because "flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven."  These men had been convinced by God's Spirit and not the teaching of a human being.

Here, Peter is learning that he does not need to worry about being defiled by the company of Gentiles, as well as the fact that God was going to save and fill them with the Holy Spirit too.  He didn't have perfect understanding of these things at first.  However, following Jesus is not about being perfect.  It is about being perfected as we rely upon the Spirit of God in our life.  It is about being in the harness with God, and having Him help us along the way.

Thus, God gives us enough to believe him, but leaves room requiring us to walk forward in faith.  I know that I don't have all of the answers.  But, this one thing I do know.  Through His Spirit, God will be with me all the way.  This is what enables us to face a world that is under threat of nuclear destruction without fear.  My life is in God's hand, which doesn't mean a nuclear bomb cannot explode (remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki?).  My life is in God's hands so I know that He is leading me to that which is good.  My hope for tomorrow is not about God controlling everything so that I do not have a bad day.  Instead, it is about knowing His plan for me is good and eternal.  Even death cannot separate us from the love of God and the eternal love He wants to pour out upon us.  God has a plan for you and me.  He intends to bring us through this life to the goodness that He has reserved for us on the other side.  And, good news, there is good even now in the midst of the difficulties of this life.

Peter is also told in verse 20 to go while "doubting nothing."  This is not a categorical statement for everything for the rest of his life.  He doesn't have to answer that cell phone call from "Scam Likely" and do whatever the person on the line says.  This word is specifically about these men and the situation they will create.

When Peter goes downstairs, he is going to see that these men are Gentiles.  He will have doubts about receiving them, lodging them, and going with them to Caesarea.  And while we are at it, let's recognize that we always have doubts.  The point is not so much to get to a theoretical place where doubts never rise in our hearts and minds.  Rather, it is about not letting the doubts cause you to resist, or even rebel against, the clear command of Christ. 

When doubts pop up, you must remind yourself that God has spoken to you.  I see this with those who become Christians, but then have a nagging fear that they may have committed the unpardonable sin.  They fear that the "salvation" is not real.  The only answer to such a thing is to go back to that moment of turning to the Lord.  Most of them could point to a very real moment in which the Spirit of God convicted them of their sins and their need to believe on Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is not playing a game with people.  He would know if someone had committed and unpardonable sin or not.  It is the work of the Spirit of God that gives us confidence that we should keep walking forward in faith trusting God.

Even when we know what God wants us to do, our fleshly mind and heart can come up with doubts.  This is why it is important to have a daily communication with God in prayer, and in the Word.  This can strengthen our confidence in God's leading.  What we do for Christ will be done by faith in him, not simply by feeling and reason.

With all of this leading of Peter by the Holy Spirit, it is interesting to note that the Holy Spirit leaves some of Peter's instruction, or understanding, to come to him through other people.  Thus, we need to seek the Holy Spirit's leading within us, but also learn to hear and see it through others. God also works in and through other people. 

Of course, this is an area where it is important for us to be mature enough in the Lord to recognize when the Lord is working through another person.  In the end, I am responsible to hear what the Spirit is saying and then bring my life into conformity to it.  All of us came to Christ through the work of other people.  However, we then had to take responsibility for what God was saying and make the choice ourselves.  We will see this dynamic throughout this story.

Peter lodges the men over night, and then they head out on the 40 miles trek to Caesarea.  Verse 23 tells us that Peter takes some of the brethren from Joppa with him.  It will be important for others to be witnesses of what transpires in Caesarea.

Sometimes in questionable areas, we can try to do things in secret out of fear.  However, it is always wise to have other believers with us.  In cases where they can't go with you, you can at least talk with them about what is coming up, and ask them to be praying for you.

Peter knows that God is leading him.  He just doesn't know what all God is leading him to do.  When the council in Acts 15 convenes, there will be a large number of witnesses of what God has been doing among the Gentiles.  Each one of them were individuals who stepped out in faith with others.

Peter meets with Cornelius (v. 24-33)

The next morning the group heads out.  Though Peter is headed to see Cornelius, this is more than a meeting with a man.  God is in this meeting and has an agenda of His own.

We are told that Cornelius was waiting for them.  He wants to know what he should do, but he also wants his relatives and close friends to know as well.  We don't know the number of people who have gathered, but the number is less critical than the fact that God is using Cornelius to draw a crowd.

We are not always sure how God is going to use us as well.  A good prayer is this.  "Lord, I want to accomplish what You have for me to do, so help me to recognize it and to do it." 

May God bless those faithful people like Cornelius who have the fire of God within them to gather others to hear the Word of the Lord.  There is no idea that God told him to do this.  We generally do not need a direct word from the Lord in order to do something.  This is in keeping with the God of Israel.  He continually calls for people to hear what He has to say.

The fact that Cornelius meets Peter at the door is a sign of great respect.  This is not the normal way that a Roman centurion would deal with a Judean. 

On the other hand, an angel of God told Cornelius to send for Peter.  If God did something similar in your life, that person would go way up in your estimation.

However, Cornelius falls to the ground and worships Peter.  This word for worship does have a range of meaning.  Thus, the question is this.  Is Cornelius simply showing great respect to Peter as one of greater authority (spirit) than he, or, is he actually worshiping Peter as a divine man.  The gentiles had a mentality that the gods and demi-gods could appear as people and walk among us.  We see this in Acts 14 when Paul and Barnabas heal a man crippled from birth.  The people cry out that "the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!"

Peter probably would have been uncomfortable with both ends of the spectrum.  He definitely would not allow someone to worship him as divine.  Yet, he also knows that he is nobody to be bowed down to.  Only Jesus deserves such honor.  At the cross, Peter had found out just how great he really was.  He was not Peter the Great, but rather, he was Just Peter the Pebble.  It was to Peter the Pebble that Christ spoke the tender words.  "Do you love me?  Feed my sheep."  Peter is not full of himself and needing a fragile ego stroked.

The Church would be in a far better place had those who served in the Church of Jesus through the centuries had the same humility that Peter came to have.   Throughout the years, powerful people within Christianity have done a great disservice to God by requiring too much undue homage to be paid to persons of authority.

Peter was not this way.  He took Cornelius by the shoulders and pulls him up.  He impresses on Cornelius that he is just a man.  Cornelius is a devout believer, but he clearly is in need of godly instruction.  This is why the Lord has enabled this meeting.

It is then that Peter discovers a whole group of Gentiles have gathered.  The elephant in the room is that this would not normally be done by a godly Jew.  Peter begins by clearing out this social issue that had become a wall between Jews and Gentiles. 

Verse 28 says, "You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation."  This was not so much from a specific command in the law as it was a protection that developed from the laws of ritual cleanliness.  Gentiles did not operate according to the Law of Moses, and so were generally defiled through the foods they ate and activity they did.

We should take some time to explain that the word "defiled" or "unclean" in this context has to do with a ritual (ceremonial) defilement.  A defiled person could not go before the altar of God, period.  Thus, it is more about the ability to approach God.  Of course, at the altar, a person could then offer sacrifices for their sins, which Jesus is the once-and-for-all offering for sin.  Of course, no godly Jew ever wanted to be defiled and unable to participate in festivals, or offerings.  Over time, a safe set of instructions had been built up like a wall against accidentally becoming defiled. 

This wall had then become a wall between God's people and the ones that God wanted to reach, Gentiles.  It can get so thick that we no longer have a concept that maybe God still cares about them and wants to reach them.  Yet, if you closely read the Old Testament, you will see that God's heart for reaching the Gentiles was all through it.

Peter tells the group that God has shown him not to call any man common or unclean.  Notice that Peter is making the connection that the Holy Spirit is leading him to make.  The unclean foods was representing the Gentiles.  Just as God had cleansed all foods so that they could now be eaten under the New Covenant, God had also cleansed all Gentiles so that they could now interact with Jews and directly approach God for forgiveness.

When  you run into people who ridicule Christians not following their own Bible because they eat pork or shellfish, point them to this verse.  The death of Jesus on the cross had fulfilled the law and made the foods and the Gentiles clean.  This doesn't mean Gentiles were all saved at the cross, but that they now can approach (have access to) the throne of Grace and believe on Jesus Christ!  There would be no restrictions.  This is not a whimsical change.  It is a change that is made possible through the Incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus!

In verses 30 through 32, Cornelius tells his story of the angel in the vision.  Back in verse 6, the angel says of Peter, "He will tell you what you must do."  In verse 33, Cornelius says that they are gathered "before God to hear all the things commanded you by God."

There is a necessary component to what God wants Cornelius to do.  He is a God-fearer, but he still needs to put his faith in Jesus as the Messiah and Savior.  The same commands given to Peter and his fellow Jews, as well as the Samaritans, are intended for these Gentiles.

This is a good picture of how we should always be when we gather to hear the word of the Lord.  Whether I am an individual in times of devotion (reading the word and praying), or a family honoring God at home, or a church gathering for weekly fellowship, we need to have an attitude that we are gathered before God in order to hear what He would have us do.

God accepts the worship of Cornelius, but He also expects him to grow in his understanding, his worship, and his obedience.  If Cornelius wants to participate in a deeper walk with God, then he will need to mix his hearing with faith.

If this was a group of Jews, Peter would not hesitate to tell them about believing in Jesus.  Yet, now he is faced with the obvious desire of God.  Who is he to tell God that He can't save Gentiles this way?  Who am I to stand in the way of people hearing the Gospel?  For Peter, it was the barrier of "unclean" Gentiles.  God tells him not to call unclean what He has cleansed.

This work of Jesus makes it possible for "whosoever" desires to come before God and ask for cleansing of sins from Jesus.  Everybody needs to hear and have the opportunity to believe.  We have our own ideas about who can possibly come to faith in Christ and deserve a hearing.  For you, it may be a person with tattoos, piercings, and colored hair.  Yet, for them, it may be a person who wears a suit for a living.  The Spirit of God wants to break down these barriers and bring us into situations where we can share the Good News about the sacrifice of Jesus, and the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Peter sees in this moment that God has broken down this wall that had developed between Jews and Gentiles.  May we be a people who are led by the Spirit and not our cultural sensibilities.  The Assemblies of God was always a missionary movement.  The founding generation sought to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that people around the world would have a Spirit-filled witness in their life.  This would give them the best possible chance to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

God help us to desire, to hunger, for the baptism of the Holy Spirit so that we can be a powerful testimony in the lives of others.

Critical Juncture audio