Hey, podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash podcast and click the donate button, or follow the link in our show notes.
Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. I'm Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, Caesarea by the Sea. This is a place that was the site of many famous occurrences, but the event we're going to look at today that occurred in Caesarea by the Sea is the conversion, the salvation of the first Gentile convert. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, before he ascended into heaven, Jesus commanded his followers to share the gospel message with all the nations, and immediately the disciples went to work telling the world about Jesus. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress reflects on the remarkable conversion of the very first Gentile who accepted Jesus. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress? Thanks, David. Just three months from now, hundreds of friends of Pathway to Victory will be departing from Vancouver, British Columbia, and cruising north along the coastline to the great frontier. But time is running short to reserve your spot on the Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska. The dates are June 15th through 22nd. Along the way, I'll be teaching from God's Word, and we're bringing our own music with Michael O'Brien and Rebecca St. James, and even our own community.
And even our own comedian, Dennis Swanberg. The scenery in Alaska is absolutely breathtaking, with cascading waterfalls, towering pine trees, bald eagles, and jaw-dropping glaciers that spill into the sea. And there will be plenty of time for rest and relaxation as well. Space is limited, so make your reservation soon at ptv.org. Well, over the course of five days this week, we've been taking a virtual tour to Israel together. The messages we're featuring this week and next on Pathway to Victory are messages I delivered just last year on location in the Holy Land.
In a moment, you'll hear a message from Caesarea by the Sea. But first, I want to make sure you know about a brand new book I've written with you and your family in mind. It's a photo album of sorts, a coffee table book that depicts the final seven days of Jesus' ministry. I've called this exclusive book, The Power of the Cross. This is a keepsake that you will enjoy for many years to come, not only during the Easter season, but all through the year. When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, I'll see that a copy is sent to your home right away. Please be ready to jot down our contact information later in the program. But right now, come with me to a hillside in Israel.
I'm speaking to you today from Caesarea by the Sea. One of the most disturbing aspects about hell is not only the eternal suffering people will experience there that will go on day and night forever and ever. But what is disturbing to me about hell is who is going to be in hell. Hell is not reserved for child molesters, criminals, murderers. There are going to be many good people, many religious people in hell. Why in the world would God dispatch good people, religious people to hell?
Because the fact is, as good as somebody is, nobody is good enough to merit God's forgiveness. There is only one way to be saved, and it's through personally trusting in the forgiveness that Christ came to offer. And that's the truth we're going to see in the passage we're going to look at today. I welcome you and those of you who are watching to Caesarea by the Sea. This is a place that was the site of many famous occurrences. The Gospel was first preached here by Philip the Evangelist. We know, for example, that Pontius Pilate had his residence here.
You'll hear about that in a little bit. By the way, did you know that before 1961 there was no evidence that a man named Pontius Pilate ever existed? Many critics of the Bible say it was just made up. There's no historical confirmation. But in 1961 at this very place, there was a stone discovered. It's called the Pilate Stone that had Pontius Pilate's name on it as the procurator over Israel at the very same time that Jesus Christ lived. It was one more archaeological discovery that confirmed the truth of the Bible.
Here the apostle Paul was imprisoned for two years as he awaited his trial in Rome. But the event we're going to look at today that occurred in Caesarea by the Sea is the conversion, the salvation of the first Gentile convert. You remember that when the Gospel began in Jerusalem, the Gospel was mainly for Jews only who converted to Christianity. But then in Acts chapter 8 we have the Ethiopian eunuch who was a Gentile who had converted to Judaism and then was saved. But in Acts 10 we find the truly first Gentile convert who was saved and he was a man named Cornelius.
And if you have your Bibles you can turn to Acts chapter 10 or you can listen to me as I read the story of Cornelius. Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort. So here was Cornelius, a Roman soldier and we find this description of his character. He was a devout man, one who feared God with all of his household and he gave many alms to the Jewish people and he prayed to God continuously.
Notice what is said about Cornelius. Unlike other Romans who worshiped a multiplicity of gods, he worshiped one God, the true God of Israel. Not only that, he prayed and gave money continually. He prayed to God and he gave money to the poor. And not only that, he sought to know God personally.
How do we know that? In verses 3 to 6 it says about the ninth hour, 3 p.m. of the day, he clearly saw an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, Cornelius, and fixing his gaze on the angel and being much alarmed, Cornelius said, What is it, Lord? And the Lord said, Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. We don't know what he was praying, but apparently he was praying that he could know God better. By the way, have you ever heard it said that God can't hear the prayers of a non-Christian?
Baloney. He can hear the prayers of anybody he wants to. And he can answer those prayers. And he said to Cornelius, this good man but unconverted man, your prayers have been answered. Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon who is called Peter, for he is staying with a tanner named Simon whose house is by the sea. Apparently Cornelius was asking for further revelation about God. And so he says to Cornelius, you send for a man named Peter and he will lead you to know more about me. Have you ever wondered how it is that Cornelius came to know about God? We're not told exactly how it happened. But perhaps one night when he was on duty right around here, he was marching around and he looked up into the stars and he thought, you know, I didn't create those stars. There's somebody greater than I am.
And I want to know who that is. When I read that story, I think about Chuck Colson. Many of you know the name of Chuck Colson.
In the 70s, he was Richard Nixon's hatchet man. In 1954, when Colson was serving in the Navy, he was out on a ship one night. And he said that night, I suddenly became as certain as I ever had been about God. I was convinced that God ruled over the universe. Colson acknowledged there was a God, but it would take 20 years before he received the revelation of who that God was and how he could come to a revelation or an understanding of him.
It was the same for Cornelius. He believed that there was a God and he prayed that he could know that God. In theology, this is what we call general revelation. General revelation is what anybody can know about God apart from a preacher, a Bible, an evangelist.
And Paul writes about natural revelation. In Romans 1 19, Paul says, Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God has made it clear to them, for since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature has been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. You don't have to read the Bible to know there is a God. All you have to do is look around you. The Bible says the fool, the moron, literally has said in his heart, there is no God.
You have to be a moron to believe that this world came into existence by itself. Everyone can know there is a God. But believing in God is not enough to be saved. Natural revelation, the knowledge of God, as our former member who's in heaven now, Charles Ryrie, used to say, natural revelation is not enough to save a person, but it's enough if rejected to condemn a person.
And that's why Paul says everybody is without excuse. It doesn't matter whether that child in Africa has ever been to a church or heard a missionary, he or she can look up and know that there is a God. Everyone can know there is a God. But Cornelius reminds us, secondly, that anyone who desires further revelation will receive it.
Say that with me. Anyone who desires further revelation will receive it. God is interested in saving as many people as possible.
And when God sees a person who wants to know him, he will get the special revelation to him about Jesus Christ. And that's what we see in Cornelius. Now here's Cornelius out here in Caesarea praying that God would give him further knowledge about God.
Notice how God answers in chapter 10 verse 9 of Acts. It says, on the next day as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the house top to pray. God comes to Cornelius. He says, send some of your men to Joppa to go get a man named Peter who is residing at the house of Simon the tanner. And so here are the men on the way to Peter.
Now Peter doesn't know what's going on. The Bible says Peter was just going up to have his morning prayer time with the Lord. And while he was having his prayer time, he got hungry. Have you ever been hungry while you're praying? It's kind of hard to concentrate when you're hungry and praying at the same time. But Peter was praying and verses 10 to 14 say he fell into a trance and the sky opened and he saw something like a great sheet coming down that was filled with animals, both clean and unclean.
Those which Jews were allowed to eat and the animals Jews weren't allowed to eat. And a voice said, Peter, no longer condemn what I have blessed. And again, the voice came to him a second time saying what God has cleansed no longer consider unholy. Eat from those unclean animals.
And then it happened a third time and immediately the sheet was taken up into the sky. And Peter was reflecting on what in the world that vision meant. Don't call unclean what has been called clean. Little did he know God was not just talking about animals.
He was talking about people. Those people, Gentiles, you consider unclean, I consider worthy to be saved. So here's Peter up on the rooftop trying to figure out what it means when suddenly he hears a knock at the door and it's those men Cornelius had sent to bring him back. And they said, Peter, Cornelius, a centurion, a God-fearing man well spoken of by the Jews was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear a message from you.
Peter obeyed and he went to the house of Cornelius. Now here's the point. God will send further revelation about himself to anybody who wants it. Everyone has a knowledge of God. Everyone has a knowledge of God. Anyone who wants further revelation about God will receive it. And the third truth we see here is no one is saved apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ.
Now I want you to think with me about this. If you ask the average person on the street, what do you think is the eternal destiny of somebody who believes in the one true God, who gives of his money to the poor, and who wants to know God even more intimately, do you think that person will be in heaven or hell? 99% of people including Christians will say, oh, well that person is going to heaven. Believing in God, giving money to the poor, wanting a further revelation and praying to God continually, oh, surely that equips you to go to heaven. But no, that wasn't enough for Cornelius. Cornelius could not be saved apart from a personal faith in Jesus Christ. And so God goes to an extraordinary effort to uproot Peter and send him to this one man named Cornelius. We saw the same thing in Acts 8, a few chapters earlier.
Remember that Ethiopian eunuch who was in his chariot? He had been converted to Judaism. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship the one true God. He was on the way back. He's reading in his scroll the book of Isaiah, and he's confused, wondering who in the world is this about?
What is God doing miraculously? Sends Philip there. And Philip appears and gets in the chariot with the Ethiopian eunuch and says, what are you reading? And he read to him from the book of Isaiah. And he said, I don't know if this is speaking of Christ or somebody else. And the Bible says, Philip, leading there to faith, a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anyone who wants a further revelation of God will receive it, but no one can be saved apart from faith in Christ. Peter is delivered to Cornelius. And Peter said to Cornelius and his household, you yourselves know it's unlawful for me who is a Jew to associate with you. And yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.
That's why I came without even raising objection. So I ask what reason you have sent for me. And Cornelius tells him what God had said to him. And Peter preached the gospel to him. If you read verses 34 through 43, Peter preaches about the perfect life, the sacrificial death, the indisputable resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And this is how he concludes his sermon.
And God ordered us to preach to the people and to solemnly testify that this is the one who has been appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. Of him, Jesus, all the prophets bear witness that through his name, everyone who believes in him receives the forgiveness of sins. What was the gospel? Listen to me, the gospel that Peter preached was not a gospel that was centered on social justice. Peter didn't talk about reconciliation of broken relationships.
He didn't talk about how to break free of addictions. All of those things are things that happen maybe after you're saved. But the gospel message is about one thing, how a person can be forgiven of their sins. And it is only through faith in Jesus Christ. That is the gospel that Peter preached that day.
And it is the gospel we proclaim 2000 years later. People say, Oh, you evangelicals, all you're talking about is the person's ticket to heaven. What could be more important than your ticket to heaven? There are many important things to teach a person after they've received a ticket to heaven.
But there's nothing more important to teach a person until he received that ticket, that assurance of heaven. So Peter preached the gospel and what happened as Peter preached these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message and all the circumcised believers who came with them. That is the Jews who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. By the way, from Acts 2 on, you see the same pattern. When somebody believed they received the word of God, they were baptized with the Holy Spirit of God.
That was an unusual occurrence. It's what happened to every believer from this point on in the New Testament. And not only that, notice what these new believers did. Verse 47 said, and surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did. And so Peter ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And then they asked for Peter's to stay on for a few more days.
That is another pattern. You see when somebody trusts in Christ and acts, they are baptized with the Spirit of God. That's the spiritual baptism, but they are baptized in water as their profession of faith in Christ. Always the message of the New Testament was believe and be baptized. Never was it be baptized and grow up and maybe you'll believe. It was always believe and be baptized.
What is the application of this passage for us today? Remember what we saw about God's plan of salvation. We saw that everyone has a knowledge of God. Secondly, we saw that anyone who wants a further understanding of God will receive it. But we also saw thirdly, nobody is saved apart from belief in Jesus Christ.
Now here's the $64,000 question. How is it that people, 8 billion of them around the world, how is it that they receive that special revelation about Jesus to be saved? Well, they'll never going to hear it unless we are faithful to deliver that message, that message. We have to be the ones who say like Peter did, yes, Lord, I'm available.
And it's not enough to just say I'm available. We need to be proactive. Jesus' final words to his disciples before he left was go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. We need to be proactive in taking the gospel. Do you understand, ladies and gentlemen, the only reason God has left you and me here on planet Earth, the only reason he didn't rapture us to heaven the moment he saved us was so that we can fulfill that command to make as many disciples as possible as quickly as possible before the Lord comes again. That is our divine mandate. But, Pastor, how can we do that when there are billions of people out there? There are not enough missionaries you can hire in the world to go and reach everybody with the gospel.
It just can't be done. But I believe still God's promise that when he sees a man, woman, boy or girl who wants to know him, he's going to get the gospel to him. I'll tell you how God does it. He does it through the miracle he has created called radio, television, the Internet.
I believe those were inventions not of Mark Coney or Steve Jobs or any other inventor. That is God who inspired the development of those gifts to get the gospel out as quickly as possible in these last days. And every day at Pathway to Victory, we hear stories of people in the furthest parts of the world who are won to Christ by the preaching of the message.
They get that special revelation through radio, television and the Internet. Not long ago, I got a letter from a guy. He was out in the middle of nowhere in Africa, not in any village nowhere. And on his cell phone, he heard our Easter message and prayed to trust in Jesus as his savior. But this is the one that touched me that we just got recently in our office because it came from here in Israel. A man named Baruch wrote to us and said this, Growing up a religious Jew, I would never listen to, talk about or have anything to do with Jesus. It was forbidden. But that always made me even more curious as to why. This thought bothered me all the time, and I could not get rid of it for many years.
Finally, I found the answers I was looking for during my search while watching a program on TV called Pathway to Victory. I watched and listened as Dr. Jeffress opened the scripture to me in such a new way and proved to me that the Jesus I was told to hate was indeed the Messiah we had been waiting for. My heart felt such a relief when I finally accepted this truth in my life. I have finally found what I was looking for in all the synagogues, Talmud and years of Judaic schooling.
My life will never be the same. Please pray for me as I now share this truth with my family and friends. That's the power of the gospel. Isn't that a beautiful testimony from one of our Pathway to Victory viewers?
It's proof that there is power in the cross of Jesus Christ. Well, we've come to the end of the week, and there's only a few more days remaining in this special presentation of messages recorded on location in Israel. So remember, if you'd like to share these eight messages with your friends and family, be ready to take down our contact information from David. He'll explain how you can receive the entire collection of eight CDs and DVDs called Live from Israel. Plus, I want to send you my brand new and exclusive book that's called The Power of the Cross. This is among the most extravagant and beautiful books that Pathway to Victory has ever published. It's a picture book of sorts, with some of my favorite images from the Holy Land. Each one is a depiction of the last seven days leading up to Easter morning. And alongside every picture and image, I've written personal comments about these moments in Christian history. The Power of the Cross contains more than 90 pages of colorful images and commentary from me, and I believe your family will treasure this book for many years to come. My book, The Power of the Cross, is yours when you include a generous donation to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. And inside the same package that arrives at your home, you'll also find a special booklet I've written called Three Days That Changed the World. This multifolded brochure gives you the hour-by-hour account about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here's David to explain how you can request these new resources right now.
Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you get in touch today and give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request The Power of the Cross. It's a beautiful brand new large print book that outlines the week leading up to Christ's death, His burial, and resurrection. Just call 866-999-2965 or visit our website that's at ptv.org. And when you give $75 or more, you'll also receive the brand new eight-part teaching series called Live from Israel.
These dynamic messages were preached on location in the Holy Land, and they come on both DVD video and MP3 format audio discs. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. If you'd prefer to send your donation by mail, write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. That's P.O.
Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins, wishing you a great weekend. Then join us next time when Dr. Jeffress teaches from the Mount of Olives about the return of Jesus. That's Monday, here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway partner, go to ptv.org slash podcast and click on the donate button or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
