You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?
Is there anything here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.
Welcome to More Than Ink. Well, last week we left our story kind of in a cliffhanger. Peter has just walked into this room full of Gentiles. They're expecting him.
They sent for him. They're all holding their breath. What is he going to say? And what's going to be the result? We're going to find out today on More Than Ink. Well, good morning. Here we are.
This is More Than Ink, and I'm Dorothy. And I'm Jim. And we have been adventuring with Peter in Acts 10. And last week we were on the road with him when he had some guys come and call for him at the house where he was staying and say, we've been sent by God to come fetch you so you can come and give us a message. So he travels 30 miles with these guys up to Caesarea to a house of a Roman centurion who has gathered all the people he loves, his family and his close friends, to hear this message because he was instructed by God to send for Peter.
So it's a great adventure. Here's what we talked about last time, a divine appointment. God has brought this guy Cornelius and the Apostle Peter together supernaturally.
Right, God set it up. And so we left it as a cliffhanger last time. We left him where Peter had shown up at the house and hadn't even walked in the house yet. We left him standing on the doorstep for last week. I mean, a room full of people expecting him. And they're all waiting for him, right?
Bated breath. Have you ever had that experience of walking into a room full of people who are expecting you? We have, actually, when we were late to a place we were going to sing and we walked in and the whole place just erupted in applause.
And so it was really fun and it's a highlight in my memories of that response of the crowd who were just expecting us. So that's probably something of what Peter encountered here. That's where we are right here. He's here, he's here, he's here, get ready. So now Peter is here and the divine appointment is clearly something everyone knows God put together. So what's going to happen? So we're at chapter 10, verse 25.
I'll pick it up, what do you say? So everyone's with bated breath. They're waiting and here he is.
So when Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet and worshiped him. Not a great response, but it's an interesting start. Well, he's been told this guy is... It's a big deal. Is from God.
It's a big deal. You need to listen to him. Right, right. So he worships, but he worships him. So verse 26, so Peter helped him up and saying, oh, stand up.
I too am just a man. And as he talked to them, he entered and found many people assembled just like you're saying. And he said to them, you yourselves know that it's forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner and yet, and yet God has shown me that I am not to call any person unholy or unclean. And that's why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for. So I ask, for what reason did you send for me? Okay.
Stop back up the truck for a minute. Peter has made this gigantic leap. Now he has connected the dots from that vision with the unclean stuff.
A couple of days in the company of these guys, a couple of days traveling with him on the road and he's come to this conclusion. God has shown me that I'm not to call any person unholy or unclean. Because remember, the bottom line on that vision was, what God has cleansed, don't you regard as unholy.
Right. What God calls holy, don't reverse that. So, you know, we had no indication last week about whether or not Peter had made the connection between the crazy rooftop vision with the sheet and the animals, but he has here. And he explains that coming in and he's making it very clear to them. He says, you know, what I'm doing now is very unusual.
This is new territory. I should not be doing this, but because of this miraculous vision on the roof, something has clicked inside Peter and he realizes that coming into this Gentile house was something that God had arranged from the very beginning. And it was okay. It was okay. And the vision on the roof, interestingly enough, although it was about clean or unclean food, kosher food, you know, the kosher food rules, it really wasn't about that evidently. It was about the fact that it was about the Gentiles. It wasn't about the food. It was about God doing the cleansing. Yes.
Right. And again, I said this last week, but Peter had been with Jesus when he said, hey, it's not what goes into your mouth that makes you unclean, it's what comes out of your mouth. And so one of the gospel writers says, and thus he declared all foods clean.
Declared all foods clean. So, you know, Peter probably has connected all of those dots. He's remembered some things and suddenly he's like, well, okay, I've been staying in the house of a tanner.
I'm already in unclean territory. I just find it fascinating that God uses the conflict about kosher foods for Peter to come to the understanding that God is actually seeing these Gentiles differently than the Jewish community had seen them. That they had value and God was going to honor them by meeting them with Peter here. But you know, it's interesting because all through the prophets in the Old Testament, God was very concerned about the Gentiles. There are passage after passage about God welcoming the Gentiles. The one prophet says, my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples, right? It's like the Jews were intended to be God's model community as a welcome place to bring the Gentiles into relationship with God.
To be an outreach into the Gentile community. Now, God was very careful with the Israelites when they came into the promised land. God says, I don't want you to be contaminated by what these people believe.
But he also had said through Abraham, who was the father of the nation, that all the nations will be blessed. So they had missed that. They had isolated themselves. They had put down the Gentiles in their own mind. They actually even called Gentiles dogs. And so this entirety, this legacy in Peter's head from all the rabbis teaching, stay away from the Gentiles, don't walk into their houses, all this kind of stuff, it's crumbling right here. And God used instrumentally this rooftop vision about the kosher foods for Peter to realize that coming into Cornelius' house was something that God was arranging, although it goes against all his traditions he's been taught about the Gentiles. And yet God had prepared a whole community of people. They were all ready to hear and to believe.
They already believed in some sense. Do yourselves know, he said, that it's forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner? Yeah, forbidden by the rabbis, but not forbidden by God.
I mean, he should not be standing in this house right now. And yet, and this is wonderful, and yet God has shown me that I'm not to call any person unholy or unclean. And that's why I came, without raising any objections. That's pretty huge. I know. Pretty huge. What a huge change has happened. And I think you're right.
I think it transpired in that overnight stay with them down in Joppa and in the two day or so walk of coming up to Caesarea. Yep. I think he finally got it. And so now he realizes he's on a mission from God in a Gentile house. But he asks this question. So why did you sing for me? So why am I here? Why am I here?
Why am I here? So Cornelius explains it, verse 30. So Cornelius says, okay, well, four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour and behold, a man stood before me in shining clothing and he said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard. Your charitable gifts have been remembered before God. Therefore, send some men to Joppa and invite Simon who is also called Peter to come to you.
He's staying at the house of Simon the tanner by the sea. So I sent men to you immediately and you've been kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here present before God to hear everything that you have been commanded by the Lord.
Isn't it interesting? He says, we're all here present before God. Before God, right.
Not present before you. We just want to hear what God has commanded you to say. Cornelius sees this as a divine appointment. This is something that God has orchestrated.
And he did tell him previously, he says, you know, you need to listen to what this guy has to say. So he knows there's some kind of message and he knows it's not Peter's message. It's a message from God because God has put this together. So we're waiting to hear what God wants to say through you.
I wonder what Peter's reaction was at that point. Like, well, I suppose I can say what I've been saying all along about who Jesus is. Well, you know, Peter has preached some powerful sermons recorded in Acts.
Pentecost and on. But isn't it fun that he says right here in the beginning in verse 34, opening his mouth, Peter said, I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation, the one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. Okay, stop. That's an amazing change.
That is a huge change. But God had told them clear back in Deuteronomy. He's not a God who shows partiality. Right, right. Right.
So, but it took hundreds of years for that peg to drop in the hole. You know, and if he had a rabbi Pharisee staying next to him, he would strongly disagree with that. He would see the Jews as the favored, the ones that God does show partiality toward, you know. But what he's seeing right here is that issues about race don't matter, issues about whether you're an elite religious person doesn't matter, issues about what your income is, I mean, your class. I mean, all those things have nothing to do with anything. In fact, there was a very famous prayer that the Pharisees used to recite at the time to show their partiality. And they would say, thank you, God, that I'm not a slave, a Gentile or a woman. Yeah, thanks, God.
Yeah. But now Peter is having, I mean, he's just really changing. This is, you have to understand in terms of the history narrative of the Old Testament into this part of Acts and stuff like that, this is groundbreaking.
It's hard to explain how big a deal this is of what's happening. And not only did he understand enough to walk into Cornelius' house, but he's actually saying to them at the beginning of what he's going to say to them, that God has no partiality, which, you know, to Gentile ears, especially these Gentiles who are devout followers of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to them, this is the most welcome news ever. God shows no partiality. You all in this room as Gentiles, as Romans, you are not second-class citizens in God's kingdom. And you know, God has already made it clear, both to Cornelius and to Peter, that God has heard Cornelius' prayers and accepted his gifts. So there's something authentically righteous, authentically God-ward going on in Cornelius, and God has accepted him.
Yeah. And at this first breath, he's saying, you are welcome. Isn't that amazing? It's an amazing thing. It's an amazing thing.
Every nation, the one who fears him and does what is right, is acceptable to him. Wow. And Peter's going to get in trouble for that in Jerusalem in a couple of chapters.
Totally, totally. But that's still to come. That's still to come.
He's going to have to explain himself. But this is where in the narrative, after the coming of Jesus, suddenly scales fall off the eyes of the Jews. They realize that the Jewish Messiah did not just come for the Jews. He came for the Gentiles as well. And up to this point in the story, it's not generally known.
They should have, but they've ignored that from the Old Testament. But this is now it's starting to change and it's groundbreaking. It's just hard to, it's hard to express how big a deal this is or what's turning in front of our eyes here. Well, let's go on and see what he says. That's just his opening, opening sample and what he says. He's come to understand that in every nation, the one who fears God and does what's right is acceptable to him. That's great good news. So verse 36, the word which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ, he's Lord of all, you yourselves know the thing that happened throughout Judea, starting from Galilee after the baptism, which John proclaimed, you know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power and how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him.
Okay, wait a minute. How did he know that they knew all those things? Probably from those couple of days traveling together on the road. He confirmed it with the devout soldier and the other servants. They know a lot about Jesus.
They know what's been going on. Which I think confused Peter a little bit because he's like thinking, well, if you already know all this stuff, then why is God sending me to them? You know, I mean, I think that's really what's behind his statement when he when he first starts out, you know, so for what reason did you send for me in verse 29?
I mean, you guys know all this stuff. Well, the interesting thing is that Jesus had said to Peter, now I'm going to give you the keys of the kingdom. You essentially are going to be the one that opens the door to the kingdom to the Gentiles. Right. And here's again, we talked about the fact that God works in the hearts of both sides, both the hearers as well as the speakers. And very clearly God has been working in their heart, knowledgeably, they understand who Jesus is.
Right. So God has been doing an independent work there, but that doesn't that doesn't remove God's need to have Peter come to them. So we need to see what's different. It's not just an information thing about Jesus, but he is saying, you guys know all this stuff. God's working according to his own plan for his own purposes. So look at verse 39.
It's like you almost this seems to me like Peter's thinking out loud. Verse 39, and we're witnesses of all the things that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put him to death by hanging him on a cross. God raised him up on the third day and granted that he be revealed, not to all the people, but to witnesses who'd been chosen beforehand by God, that is to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he ordered us to preach to the people and to testify solemnly that this is the one who has been appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.
Okay, he's warming up now. All the prophets testify of him that through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. Okay, he's finally zeroed in on the core of the gospel, right? It's like he's been kind of talking to himself as well as to them up to this point.
Right, right. So evidently they know the history of what happened with Jesus in those three years. They know that history and they know that that history demonstrated the fact that the Holy Spirit was with him. They heard about the miracles, I'm sure. I mean, they know that, but the whole point of the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus and who Jesus demonstrated himself to be that he outlined in 42 and 43, maybe they hadn't gone that far.
That's what I was thinking. Maybe they hadn't gone that far. So Jesus was an important guy from God, but just how important is Jesus? And that's what he had to share in that last section. Yeah, so through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. So it's like, like I said, he's warming up, but he doesn't even really get to his clincher statement that he had used in his previous sermon, so therefore repent. So therefore repent.
Right? Because, well, verse 44 just makes me laugh out loud. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.
Never got to the invitation. He never got to finish his sermon. Well, because as Peter is speaking truth, and that's all he's doing here. He's speaking what he knows and his firsthand experience. He's saying, I'm a witness to these things. I witness this. I witness this. And as he's speaking this truth, he's not doing anything clever in his speaking.
Like Paul said, I didn't use anything clever. I'm just telling you the truth. And as he's witnessing and confirming what they've heard, because he's a witness, the Holy Spirit is working in their hearts as they're listening. And they are believing. And they're believing. They are clearly believing because the Holy Spirit comes and all the Jewish believers who came with Peter in verse 45 were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had also been poured out on the Gentiles. And they see the evidence of it. How did they know? Ah.
46. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Okay, that's exactly how it happened in Acts 2. Yeah.
Right? The speaking in tongues was a visible, audible evidence that something supernatural is going on here. And what they're speaking is a known language proclaiming the glory of God. Right, right. So this is the undeniable proof which Peter doesn't know it at the time, but he's going to need to be able to see this and relate this in the next chapter.
Because this causes a great conflict in the church. Okay, but the funny thing is that in Peter's sermon in Acts 2, he had quoted Joel 2, 28 and 29 where God says, I'll pour out my spirit on all mankind. Right?
And Peter uses that into his Jewish audience in Acts 2. Right? But it's like, oh, oh, oh, he really is pouring it out on all mankind. Yep, yep. So in this particular case, the speaking in the tongues is an undeniable proof of the fact of the working of the hidden working of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. Right. And that's just a super important thing. And it's not just Peter who recognizes it. All of his Jewish believing friends who came with him, see it and validate it. They all unanimously recognize this as evidence that the Spirit has been poured out on these Gentiles. Yeah, and on the basis of two or three witnesses, a thing can be said to be true.
Right. And again, like I say, in the next chapter, that's going to be important. Because this whole change of mindset, this paradigm shift about whether the Gentiles can actually benefit from the Jewish Messiah or not, that's going to cause a lot of people to go into a tizzy. And so here, Peter and his friends from Joppa are seeing it with their own eyes, an undeniable evidence of the fact that God, through the Holy Spirit, has worked in their hearts, even while Peter is just speaking the facts about Jesus. You know, it's fascinating to me that God had said clear back in Genesis, Abraham believed God, it was reckoned him as righteousness, right? That God had promised his Holy Spirit to those who believed him. And Peter said, let me just read you this verse from Acts 239, because it's right after Peter had quoted or had said to them, repent, this is to his Jewish audience on the day of Pentecost. And then he says in verse 38, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to himself. Yep.
Okay, so this is a room full of Gentiles who have been called together by Cornelius, but by God through Cornelius. And they fit their requirement of being far off people. God has prepared their hearts and they have believed. Yeah.
Already. Yeah, they have believed. And it's really it's spine tingling. Oh, it is. It's almost as though the Holy Spirit has interrupted Peter's speech. That's right, he does. And when Peter realizes what's going on, you know, he doesn't even have to get to the closer.
You know, salesmen always have this thing, you have to have a closing line. Clearly. Peter hasn't gotten there because the whole deal has been closed by the Holy Spirit. That's right. While he's been speaking. Is that not wonderful?
I know, yeah. So while they're actually speaking in tongues, Peter's response is okay, wait, 47, surely no one can refuse the water for those to be baptized who've received the Holy Spirit just as we did. In the same way we did. In the same way. Right, with the same evidences. Right, so he ordered 48, he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and then they asked him to stay on for a few days. Well, I would too.
When do you just want to be in on that conversation? Because, you know, I think too, Peter's seeing the parallels from Pentecost and more. Right. And so in the next couple of days, he can sit around and say, look, what you guys just experienced is not unique to you. This has been happening now for some time, first in the Jews and now with the Gentiles and I am blown away. So he could start telling the stories of all these parallel accounts and say, look, you guys clearly are being welcomed into the kingdom of God through what Jesus has done for you. Well, it happened to the Jews at the day of Pentecost, then it happened to the Samaritans when they went and ministered up there, and here it is happening in a completely Gentile context. So that's exactly what Jesus had told them would happen at the beginning of Acts. You're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and beyond, and to the utmost ends of the earth.
Yeah, yeah. I think it's important, if I just go back for a second, at the end of his speech, he talks about the fact that Jesus has been appointed as the judge of the living and the dead. It's a parallel thing that happens when Paul goes to Athens in Acts 17, we'll see it, because what he says is that God has appointed a man to be a judge, and he's proven who that man is by the resurrection from the dead. And when he mentioned the resurrection, people just go crazy in Athens. But his point that he gets to is that here's a judge, and here Peter is not, he's not mincing words either, because when you look at Jesus, you're seeing someone who's simultaneously the judge and through his actions, someone who can pay the price of the wrath of God because of the judgment. So it's about as high as you can get in terms of talking about who is Jesus?
Well, in 42 and 43, he's the judge of the living and the dead, but everyone who believes in him can find forgiveness from that judge. I mean, it's just, it's as high as you can go. It's a remarkable thing.
Well, that's interesting because the Romans were all about authority structure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's exactly right. And so he's saying you can't go any higher than this authority. This is the one to whom all the living and the dead will have to face.
Wow. I mean, it's huge, but that's not a depressing end because everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness. And as they're hearing that, the Holy Spirit is saying, yep, and working in their hearts are going, amen, I'm in then.
They believe and the Spirit says, yep, you do, here I come. Yeah, yeah. That's just glorious.
Yeah. You know, and before we end, I might mention some other verses. We've mentioned a couple already about this opening of salvation to the Gentiles, which is just, I mean, it's just a remarkable story right here. In Isaiah 60, you know, arise, shine for your light has come. And at the end of that, in verse three, he says, and nation shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Well, here they are responding to the light. Jesus is the light of the world and that's exactly what's happening. And you mentioned the other centurion, you know, and even in the mention of that centurion in Capernaum, it turns out Jesus adds when he talks about the faith of that centurion, he says, look, you guys, many will come from the East and West and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom. And boy, are you guys going to be surprised.
So that indeed is actually happening right here. What Peter heard in those instances, he's seeing it happen right in front of his face. And I dare say, as I kind of, as I stand back and I look at this narrative account of what happens with Cornelius and Peter and the vision on the roof and stuff like that, this whole story has less to do with the conversion of Cornelius than it does in the conversion of Peter.
I think that's true. And the change in his heart. God is just transforming Peter and we see it happening.
Like I said, the first part of this speech reads almost like he's talking to himself, like he's thinking out loud and connecting the dots. Here's Peter going through a radical transformation as well as Cornelius and his entire family. And that will be important, like I say, because next time when we get together as we turn into chapter 11, Peter is going to come back into Jerusalem and they have heard. The people in Jerusalem have heard what's been going on.
Gentiles with a capital G and that's going to cause a great confusion and a great amount of discussion in Jerusalem. And Peter's going to go back there and he's going to recount what we just read today. And he's going to recount this and this is going to cause a ripple effect in the early church that's unparalleled to hardly anything else. I mean, Pentecost was a big deal. This is the second big deal in terms of them understanding that what Jesus is bringing to the Jews he's actually bringing to the Gentiles.
And in the next chapter we're going to duke that out. And it's glorious when Peter makes his summation statement there in Jerusalem when he says, I couldn't stand in God's way. God was doing this. It's just very exciting. And the fact that it's related in three full chapters in Acts over and over again.
So since you have this story so clear in your mind, we recommend you jump ahead and read it to chapter 11 because he's going to have to take this event that you just read and he's going to use this to start a ripple effect in the church community that doesn't ever stop. And it's amazing good news for us. And we are here in Christ because of it.
That's right. So I'm Jim and I'm Dorothy and we're glad you're with us. And next time we're going to see what happens when this is talked about back in Jerusalem here on More Than Ink. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you're there, take a moment to drop us a note. Remember, the Bible is God's love letter to you. Pick it up and read it for yourself and you will discover that the words printed there are indeed more than ink. I think that's just fine. Oh, so fun. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
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