Lechem Panim #166 “God Prepares Cornelius & Peter” (Acts 10:3-23) Pastor Cameron Ury

Hello and welcome to the show today! In our study of Acts chapter 10, we have been taking a look at a Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius, who we see is striving in every way that he can to follow God. But he does not yet know about Jesus. But he is drawing near to God in the best way that he knows how. And that is something that God will always honor. God promises in…

James 4:8a (NKJV)— 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Well that is what Cornelius has been doing. And so therefore Jesus is preparing to draw near to him in a powerful way. Now it says in…

Acts 10:3-8 (NKJV)— 3 About the ninth hour of the day {([3:00 p.m.])} he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!”
4 And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, “What is it, lord?”
So he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. {(So we see that God is acknowledging that what Cornelius intended has in fact been the reality. [Cornelius’ prayers, devotion, faith, and goodness were like a fragrant offering rising up to God.] And God is about to reward him. Now the Angel continues, saying:) 5 Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. 6 He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do.” 7 And when the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually. 8 So when he had explained all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa.

The Right Servant— Now you can definitely sense how military-minded Cornelius is. After the angel gives him these instructions, he immediately obeys. Now God could have had him send for Philip, who was already in Caesarea (Acts 8:40), but he doesn’t; because remember [it was Peter, not Philip, who had been given the “keys.” {And what this shows us is that} God not only works at the right time, but He also works through the right servant, and both are essential.] There are people God isn’t sending to others because His intention is to send them to you. You are the one He wants to open the door for them. The question is, are you and I going to respond to that call?

Peter’s Preparation— Now it was not only necessary for Cornelius to be prepared for this event; Peter had to be as well. After all, [he had lived as an orthodox Jew all of his life (Acts 10:14).] And because of that (being a product of his culture) he did not see the Gentiles as a part of God’s salvation plan. For the Jews of the time there was a strong barrier between them and the Gentiles; and they considered them aliens and strangers [as far as the Jewish covenants and promises were concerned (vv. 11-13).] However, we know that that barrier was [broken down at the cross (Eph. 2:14–18).] And now [“There is no difference” either in condemnation (Rom. 3:22–23) or in salvation (10:12–13).]

A Seed In The Declaration— And you know, a very similar circumstance took place when the United States was founded. God no doubt inspired Thomas Jefferson to write these incredible words into our Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Now you’d think that this would mean that America (from the moment it was conceived when that Declaration was signed on July 4, 1776) would be a nation free of racism and slavery (which is often a product of that racism). But no, it took a long time for that to trickle down. It wasn’t until almost a hundred years later that the Thirteenth Amendment finally abolished slavery in 1865. And it wasn’t until 1870 (5 years later) that the Fifteenth Amendment gave African Americans the right to vote, which was a landmark decision. And then in 1954 there was another landmark decision made by the Supreme Court. And that was the Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education, which ended segregation in public education. And then in 1964 of course you had the Civil Rights Act, which gave equal opportunity to all. Now did any of these decisions fix all our problems or completely eradicate racism? No. But each of them was another step in the right direction. And when you take a step back you can see how God placed a seed in the minds of our founding founders (some of whom owned slaves) and caused that seed to grow and eventually bring freedom and desegregation to our land and a recognized equality that has become so complete that on January 20, 2009 we inaugurated our first African-American president. And whether you liked his politics or not, that (for many people) was a milestone because it revealed just how unified the United States had become under the idea that all of us are equal. Now we have a long way to go still, but that equality (for much of our history) has been recognized as having its roots in the very the nature of God Himself, in whose image we are created.

Losing The Seed— Now unfortunately that concept has been vehemently attacked in recent years. And that is sad, because it was that concept that got the ball rolling in the right direction to begin with. And without that foundational belief in our being created in the image of a loving God, we will always be open for that racism to creep back in. Because without God, there is nobody to hold us accountable for how we treat one another. And if naturalism is true (the belief that we were only created through natural processes) and we are all just highly evolved primates, who is to say that one race is not better than another? Actually that’s exactly what Evolution teaches in its doctrine of the Survival of the Fittest. There are some people who are lower on the evolutionary food chain and may even need to die so that the fittest can survive. That was one of the key fundamental ideas that drove the Nazis. And they ended up committing the most heinous acts imaginable on other human beings not because they were insane (though many of them were) but because they took these evolutionary ideas to their logical conclusion. Now not everyone who rejects God will embrace that kind of hatred, because all of have demonstrated at least some of the effect of our having been created in the image of God; but anywhere from which the fear of God has been removed, history will always repeat itself. Because you will have lost the very foundation that supports every individual’s inherent worth. And furthermore, it is only through Jesus that we can be renewed in the image of our Creator and receive the spiritual equipment we need to overcome our evil tendencies and defeat racism. And that is what was starting to happen in our passage today; and things will eventually progress to the point where Paul can write in…

Colossians 3:11 (ESV)— 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

But this was a big transition; one that God had to prepare Peter for. And so it says in…

Acts 10:9-16 (NKJV)— 9 The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour {(12:00 noon)}. 10 Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”
14 But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”
15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” 16 This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.

Unclean— Now what was going on with this vision, and why did God choose to use this imagery to teach Peter to start to see the Gentiles as He did? Well, keep in mind that the text says Peter was hungry. And so what better way to “speak to his condition” (as the Quakers used to say) than to give him a vision involving food. He’s longing for food and so God gives him food; just not the food he was expecting. He is given food that (according to Jewish dietary regulations) was ceremonially unclean. And [the distinction between “clean and unclean foods” was a major problem between the Jews and the Gentiles in that day. In fact, {we will see in the very next chapter that} Peter’s Christian friends {actually} criticized him for eating with the Gentiles (Acts 11:1–3)! {And so} God used this centuries-old regulation (Lev. 11) to teach Peter an important spiritual lesson.]

Peter Refuses— Now (though it shouldn’t have) this command to eat ceremonially unclean food came as quite a shock to Peter. And he politely but vehemently refuses God! And though he meant well, it was still wrong for him to respond the way he did. As Dr. W. Graham Scroggie wrote, “You can say ‘No,’ and you can say ‘Lord’; but you cannot say ‘No, Lord!’” If He is truly our Lord, then we can only say “Yes!” to Him and obey His commands.] But God is very merciful and patient with Peter, which should be an encouragement to us because He is just as patient with us. But the angel responds to Peter. Verse 15…

Acts 10:15 (NKJV)—15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.”

Both Unclean— Now I want you to hear this, because this is very important. The lesson here is not that the Jews were clean and the Gentiles were just as clean. No, it was that both Jew and Gentile alike are unclean in the sight of God. Both needed cleansing. The Jew is just as unclean and in need of the cleansing of God as the Gentile is. And the reason that is important for us to understand is because what this [meant {was} that a Gentile did not have to become a Jew in order to become a Christian.] The Jew was not at some kind of higher spiritual level just by being a Jew. No, ALL of us need the cleansing work of Jesus Christ. Now Peter doesn’t understand the meaning of the vision right away, but (as we saw with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, God’s timing is perfect. It says in…

Acts 10:17-20 (NKJV)— 17 Now while Peter wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen meant, behold, the men who had been sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate. 18 And they called and asked whether Simon, whose surname was Peter, was lodging there. 19 While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are seeking you. 20 Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.”

Doubting Nothing— And that [phrase “doubting nothing” (Acts 10:20) means “making no distinctions.” You find it again in Acts 11:12, and a similar word is used in Acts 11:2 (“contended with him” = “made a difference”). Peter was no longer to make any distinctions between the Jews and the Gentiles.] And it says in…

Acts 10:21-23a (NKJV)— 21 Then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius, and said, “Yes, I am he whom you seek. For what reason have you come?” 22 And they said, “Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, and to hear words from you.” 23 Then he invited them in and lodged them.

Who's Your Cornelius?— You know, this story has so much to say to us about allowing God to challenge and re-shape our world-views. Even we as Gentiles who (by God’s grace) have been grafted into His family can still look down on others. We can become exclusive in our thinking. And I don’t think there are many of us here today (if any) who are openly racist or prejudice; who would say there is a person or a people group that we hate or openly reject. But I don’t think this passage is just about not openly rejecting people. Sometimes we reject by neglect. And the way we reject by neglect is by simply choosing to overlook people. And I think that for each of us, there probably is a Cornelius in our life that needs what we have in Christ Jesus, the Good News of the Gospel. The question is, are we willing to go to them? Are we willing to cross whatever barriers we have to in order to introduce them to Jesus? As we close today, I want to challenge you to ask God to show you the Cornelius in your life; and after revealing that person to you, ask Him to give you the courage and strength to reach out to them with the love and message of Jesus Christ. Because if you do, they will be blessed, you will be blessed, and the Church will be blessed. Let’s do so. Amen.