Unknown: If you have a copy of the scriptures, you can turn with me to Acts, Chapter 10, we'll be looking at verse 24 and reading through Chapter 11, verse 18, If you were here last week, and then if you also, as we read through this text, you will notice there is a bunch of repetition. The same account is given three times, again and again and again. And that's a teaching method, isn't it? When you need to hear something that's important, it's often repeated. And so take note of that, that even though it's a longer passage, it's just being repeated so that we might remember, that we might recall and that we might see the significance of what's happening here in our text. Before we read, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Let's pray.
Unknown: Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word, that you are not silent, but that you speak and Lord, through Your Word, we might know of Jesus Christ, that we might know of salvation that is ours for all who believe Lord, I pray that your spirit would indeed fall upon us, that you would grant salvation, that you would open up our hearts to receive The word of God grow us and make us more like Christ. This morning, we long to be more and more free from our sin and free to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Do that work in us.
Unknown: Lord, bless your people. For Christ's sake. It's in his name we pray. Amen.
Unknown: People of God, hear God's word this morning from Acts Chapter 10, beginning in verse 24 And on the following day, they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them, and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him, but Peter lifted him up, saying, stand up. I too, am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered, and he said to them, you yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.
Unknown: So when I was sent for I came without objection. I asked, then you why you sent for me? And Cornelius said, four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner by the sea. So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come now, therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. So Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly, I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to Him, as for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, After the baptism that John proclaimed, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him, and we are witnesses of all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and Jerusalem, they put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and caused him to appear, not to all the people, but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead, and He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is The one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
Unknown: While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word and the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles, for they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we.
Unknown: Have and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. Now, the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision Party criticized him, saying that you went to uncircumcised men and ate with them. But Peter began and explained it to them in order. I was in the city of Joppa, praying in a trance. I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air, and I heard a voice saying to me, rise Peter, kill and eat.
Unknown: But I said, by no means, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth. But the voice answered a second time from heaven, what God has made clean. Do not call common. This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven.
Unknown: And behold, at that very moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were sent, sent to me from Caesarea, and the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction, these brothers also accompanied me and entered the man's house, and he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, send the Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter, he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved you and all your household. As I begin to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as on us at the beginning, as I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized you with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit if then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was I that I could stand in God's way? When they heard these things, they fell silent and glorified God, saying, then to the Gentiles, also, God has granted repentance that leads to life. He who has ears, let him hear the Word of God. Please be seated the night of August, 13, 1961, the East German government, backed by the Soviets, overnight, suddenly erected barbed wire and fences through Berlin.
Unknown: Those barbed wire fences that went up overnight were then soon replaced by concrete walls, families, friends and neighborhoods were all suddenly cut off from one another.
Unknown: From 1961 all the way to 1989 the wall became the symbol of the Cold War, representing the division between communism and democracy. It was heavily guarded. It was nearly impossible to cross. Over 140 people were killed attempting to escape, and 1000s tried but failed.
Unknown: In 1989 after 28 years, that Berlin wall then fell. The world watched as people climbed over the wall, smashing chunks of it to pieces, and embracing neighbors that they hadn't seen for decades. That wall divided families, friendships and a people, and when it fell, there was joy and freedom abounding.
Unknown: Germany, then was officially unified. Walls are powerful, aren't they?
Unknown: They can tell us who is in and who is not, who belongs and who is an outsider. Sometimes those walls, like the Berlin Wall, are made of barbed wire or stone or steel, but sometimes there are other walls that we are often very good at building ourselves that make divides, and those walls can be suspicion of others, pride or even church traditions. Our text today shows us an invisible wall that actually stood for hundreds of years, a dividing wall of religious and cultural hostility between the Jews and Gentiles, and how it had always been God's plan to tear down that wall, and Christ then would gather a people from all nations, of all languages, of all tribes, a people who would be one.
Unknown: For himself. And again, what we see in our text is not only a history lesson, but it is again, a reminder for us that we too are to gather one in Christ, that our stumbling block of the church, and even as we look around at the church today, the one thing that should be uniting the church is the Lord Jesus, Christ.
Unknown: That should be the only dividing thing is Christ the only stumbling block. But we often have a good way of making other stumbling blocks and divisions within the body of Christ, and we'll talk more about that.
Unknown: I've broken our text. It's a longer text, but I've already mentioned it's repeats itself many times, but I want us to see how the gospel, it reaches all.
Unknown: That's the first point. The second point is that it's preached then to all, and that then third, the Gospel unites all who would believe it. It reaches out to all. It is preached to all, and it unites all who would believe it.
Unknown: So first, the gospel is then reaching to all. And if you recall back when we started in the book of Acts. You had that day of Pentecost in chapter one.
Unknown: And I think Peter, if you were to ask Peter at the time in our text, he didn't even quite understand everything that was happening on the day of Pentecost. If you remember back in chapter one, he even then asked Jesus, will you now restore the kingdom of Israel?
Unknown: He was still thinking that Jesus had some great plan for ethnic Israel, to remember, make Israel great again, to return the throne of David, to make Solomon. The days of Solomon great again. Is Jesus now going to make Israel great again? He had the mindset that Jonah had, that God's kingdom and goodness is for the people of Israel alone, not for those Gentile nations. It is for us. But the gospel had greater purposes than just for Jerusalem. It was for the entire world. And God's teaching Peter this lesson, and we see God teaching Peter. Still that lesson in our text, and we will see God teaching Peter, even greater as we go further through the book of Acts. Now the Holy Spirit had sent these Gentile men to Peter. We looked at that last week, chapter 10, verse 20, the Holy Spirit tells Peter go with these men without hesitation. And Peter now travels from Joppa to Caesarea, about 10 miles away. And Cornelius is expecting Peter's arrival. And we know that Peter care or not Peter Cornelius, we know that he cared about his own spiritual well being. We're told in verse two of chapter 10 that this is a man that is praying always. He knows the word that he's charitable, charitable, but also he cares about his household. What has he done here in our text? Well, he's called together all of his friends.
Unknown: He's called all of his relatives. Why? Because he wants them to hear the words of God.
Unknown: He wants them to be saved. He loves his neighbor well enough to call them too that they might hear the Word of God, the kingdom of God is advancing, and it often begins in our own households and then to our neighbors and friends. Do you remember Joshua back in the Old Testament? And he says, As for me and my house, I'm going to lay out options for my children to consider whatever one they choose. I'm not going to pressure them or direct them.
Unknown: There's a lot of different things. Believe whatever you want children is that what Joshua says, Not at all. We will serve the Lord. And I think that's what we see Cornelius doing. He is making sure the Word of God is presented to his household and his friends. It's starting with me, and then in my house, we are going to serve the Lord. And that takes effort in our homes to do that, doesn't it to make sure that not only you but your household, we are going to serve the Lord and take sacrifice to make sure that you're here at church, where the word is being presented, where the saints are gathering. There is a plethora of things that you could do in the world is drawing you to and you will be tempted in many other Sundays to go and be a part of those things. Whereas.
Unknown: Are you in your house? God has called you to be here with his people, under his word and during the week, to be praying for one another, to be in the word together, to be singing together, to be reading together, coming to church, memorizing scriptures together.
Unknown: We see Cornelius has done that.
Unknown: Cornelius, we also see He's rehearsing how to greet this man of God, and it goes a bit awkwardly in verse 25 when Peter entered, entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted it up and say, stand up.
Unknown: I too, am a man. I'm not the Lord. I'm just a man. I'm not the only Vicar of Christ. I'm a man. The only Vicar of Christ is the Holy Spirit.
Unknown: Verse 27 and he talked with him, and he went in and he found many persons gathered.
Unknown: Now, Peter, you know, has really had not a lot of interaction with Gentiles, especially coming into someone's a Gentiles home that they were considered unclean. But he goes to Cornelius house, and that's understandable, but when he enters, he finds many gather. I can imagine. It's almost like Peter. I'm okay with one cousin Eddie showing up, one strange, awkward person showing up. But it's not only one cousin Eddie. Now it's his whole cousin Eddie family. And now there's many, many other cousin Eddie's and Peter is there with him all. And I'm sure Peter feels very out of place of what's going on if you don't know cousin Eddie, I can't promote or deny a particular movie where that's from.
Unknown: And he said to them, you yourselves know how lawful it is for a judo associate or to visit anyone of another nation. He essentially says, you, you know, Cornelius, I shouldn't be here.
Unknown: This isn't right, this is awkward, isn't it? But God has commanded that I come, and God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for I came without objection, and I asked then why you sent me. So what's interesting is we know why Peter is there, right? We know why God has sent Peter and what Peter is supposed to do. But it's here.
Unknown: Peter's telling us he doesn't know. Essentially, he shows up at Cornelius house to this unclean Gentile that God's told him don't call him unclean anymore. The gospels that go to could go to them now, and Peter's like, well, here I am.
Unknown: What am I supposed to do? What am I? What do I do now?
Unknown: And I also just to, just to note the willingness of Peter to obey God's commands without knowing exactly the result or the outcome. Then that's a good life lesson for us too. Sometimes we just need to do what God commands. We just have to do what the Word tells us to do without looking and see. Well, how's that going to turn out? Is that going to turn out poor or bad for me? Is that going to put me in a difficult or awkward situation? We just have to do what God commands. We have to be obedient. So Cornelius then recounts to Peter what happened, how he was praying, and God gave him this vision to send men to Joppa to bring Peter here in verse 33 now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord, to say we're all present here now, Peter, we're all here before God, and we are eager to hear everything that God has commanded you to tell us, speak Peter, Get in that pulpit and tell us. Hurry it up. Do it now.
Unknown: Tell us we are eager. We are longing to hear the Word of God.
Unknown: Does that sound like us?
Unknown: Or are we like Peter? Winter, should, don't we have something there's like football this afternoon, Peter, come on. Hurry it up. Do you see they are longing, they are eager. Get it there. Peter, start the service earlier. Peter, preach longer.
Unknown: Peter, give us the Word of God.
Unknown: Peter, they have great gratitude for the Word of God, longing for it.
Unknown: And these are people that Peter would never expect to be Christians. Remember that these are people that Peter would have put at the end of the list. If you were to ever make a list of people you think that God would save. These are.
Unknown: People at the end of the list, but Christ was working in their hearts, preparing their hearts to hear, receive and believe the Word of God. And I think that's another application for us is, don't we have people too that we think are kind of better candidates for the gospel to be part of the church, to be part of Christ's body. I mean, aren't respectable families? Probably better candidates to be part of the church than addicts, poor prostitutes.
Unknown: Don't we kind of assume that people that vote like us are better candidates to believe, or at least they know the reformed language. Aren't they more likely to receive the gospel? They're closer to the kingdom than someone who believes actually in other religion or from another culture. But I just want to again, remind us that, just like our text, God was already sending his spirit before Peter to work in these Gentile hearts, and that God is still now.
Unknown: Remember Jesus is working now.
Unknown: And that's really the whole point of the book of Acts. It's not remember the Acts of the Apostles so much. It is the continuing acts of Jesus, by the power of his Spirit, through the apostles, that Jesus now is at work in people that you would least expect it, preparing their hearts who are waiting for you, longing for you, even if they are not telling you that they need the word of God, that they might hear it too, and believe it, they are waiting for you to tell them about Jesus, and also preparing you to die to self, to die, to your pride, to die, to your own prejudices, that you too, who know Christ, might live more in Christ and be more like Christ, to be His witnesses. Remember, isn't that the whole purpose of of acts here? Remember, why are we here? Why is the church still here? Remember, at the at the beginning of Acts, when Jesus ascends, why does he leave the apostles? Why not just take him with us, or take, take, take the apostles up and go. Why are we here on Earth? Now, what's the point? What's the purpose? Well, Jesus tells us that we might be his witnesses, that we might be his witnesses.
Unknown: So Peter, verse 34 now, proclaims the gospel to all.
Unknown: He opens up his mouth.
Unknown: We have to open up our mouth to share the gospel.
Unknown: He's ready to preach in and out of season. Remember, there are three things that a Minister must always be ready to do, preach, pray and die. And it's similar for you too. There must be three things you are ready at a moment's notice to do, to share Christ to pray and die.
Unknown: He opens up his mouth and we see his sermon. I won't read it all again, but it's verses 34 through through, 43 and here's the question then, is you know Peter has preached to Jews people in Jerusalem, and we've heard some of his his sermons before. You can look at Acts chapter two. You can see his sermon, but now he's preaching to a group of Gentiles. And how will he adjust his message? What will he talk about? What would be the focus of what he says, Well, I just want to point out he doesn't really change it at all. There's no change. The message is the same. It's about the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that he's coming again to judge the living and the dead.
Unknown: Does that sound familiar?
Unknown: Because you've heard it from Peter again and again, and he preaches the same message again and again. And that would make my sermon prep very easy, but I want you to hear that message every single Sunday in a different way, through the text you should always be hearing every single Sunday about the Lord Jesus Christ, not simply about, well, how can we just heal this relationship and this, you know, century wide division.
Unknown: Can't we just get along? And you know, we have some cultural differences. And you know how?
Unknown: Now, you know these marriages, maybe, how can we strengthen them? We need to hear about Jesus.
Unknown: Jesus. Jesus, that's.
Unknown: What he says. He begins by saying, truly, I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to Him. Peter is making it clear that being a Gentile doesn't matter where you come from. At this point, there's no hindrance to the gospel. There's no hindrance to you now being saved. There's no hindrance to you now in being saved. If you think that you are too far off, if you are too far gone, if you are too whatever, there's no hindrance now to you being saved. Then he says that Jesus is Lord overall, over the Jews, over the Gentiles. Jesus is Lord what isn't Jesus Lord over nothing? He's Lord over all, and all are saved in the same way. There is only one way to be saved, and it is through Jesus one way to be saved, for Jews and Gentiles, for anyone, for you. It is only through Jesus Is that clear, one way, one Lord, Jesus. Then he begins to talk about Jesus's life. He talks about Jesus being baptized, how Jesus was empowered with the Spirit, Jesus's healings, his teaching, his preaching, his death, and it's not an ordinary death, death, it's a cursed death. It's not an ordinary execution. It's cursed because sin is vile and so is the cross and sing, sin brings death and curse, and that's why Jesus came to take your curse that you deserve. The wages of sin is death. You and I deserve curse for our sin. But Jesus went to the cross, and He took upon the curse that you and I might have life.
Unknown: Because Jesus is not dead, as Peter says, he's resurrected.
Unknown: He's alive. God has raised Him from the dead. He appeared to us and to others. He ate and he drank with us. In verse 42 now he has commanded us to preach to people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to judge the living and the dead.
Unknown: To him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through his name, whether you will die soon or whether you will live long and then die.
Unknown: You we will all meet Jesus in one way or another.
Unknown: You're all going to meet Jesus.
Unknown: And Peter's making this point, actually.
Unknown: He says you can have Jesus as your savior when you meet him, and you can know that there is now no condemnation for all who believe. When you meet Jesus, and you have freedom and you have peace and you have salvation, and when you meet Jesus, he is not only your Creator, but your Redeemer and Savior.
Unknown: Or if you reject Jesus, you will meet him as your judge, because He will come again.
Unknown: Peter tells us that you will meet Jesus as a perfect judge, and he will judge every single one of your sins. There is no sin that will not be judged. Every sin will come before the judge of Jesus.
Unknown: And either your sin, not in part, but the whole, will be nailed to the cross of Jesus, or you will bear the weight of your own sin. Every sin, and the wages of sin is death.
Unknown: It is hell, and that is where you will be for all of eternity.
Unknown: And Jesus will put you in the wine press of His judgment and all of his enemies, and you will be defeated. You cannot conquer Jesus. You cannot overcome Jesus, but he has overcome sin and death for you, if you would only believe. And as Peter is preaching this, this is when we're told the spirits poured out on the Gentiles, and they begin to speak in these languages and give glory to God, just like the day of Pentecost, the spirit is demolishing that dividing wall between the Jews and Gentiles. And then Peter says, If God has baptized them internally with the Holy Spirit, why shouldn't we baptize them externally and give them the water baptism? So Peter baptizes them, and he stays with them.
Unknown: And then the gospel is you.
Unknown: Guiding them all together as we turn to chapter 11. This is what happens in verses one through 18. Back in Jerusalem, people heard about what happened there, and there are people who aren't happy. They call themselves the circumcision party. And the circumcision party were people who are part of the Jerusalem church. This is not like the Sadducees or the Pharisees.
Unknown: These were people who had made a faction within the church, and they called themselves a circumcision party.
Unknown: And I know it's hard to believe, but there are people in the congregation who are criticizing their pastor, hard, hard to believe that they would do something like that. And they say, Peter, it's an offense.
Unknown: It's a waste of your time to interact with those Gentiles, socializing, having fellowship with them, eating with them. And you see their politics are overcoming their faith, and if any point, Peter could have pulled rank at this point, right? It's like I'm an apostle.
Unknown: Here's how it is. You just be quiet and listen to me. But listen, he doesn't do that. He he reasons with them, and he recounts the whole thing all over again for them that they might hear, that they might understand. And he talks about the vision that God has given to them, the command that God has given him, the preparation of the Gentiles, that when God sent Peter to them, and the divine action of the Holy Spirit upon them. He recounts it all, reminding us that God doesn't make any distinction, that God saves all.
Unknown: Verse 17, I love this line, who was I that I could stand in God's way?
Unknown: Peter starting to see this. This has been God's plan all along, all the way back in Genesis. In fact, Genesis, chapter 12, do you remember the Abrahamic promise? God made a promise to Abraham. Abraham through you, all the nations are going to be blessed. And Peter finally starting to see he's like, who was I to stay in God's way? This is God's plan.
Unknown: Am I going to stop it? No, I'm not going to stop it. Neither are you. So we might as well get on, on the on the train that God's doing, and follow it and be obedient to what God has called us to do, Israel would be the channel through which the whole world might be saved.
Unknown: Verse 18, when they heard these things, they fell silent and they glorified God, saying, then to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance that leads to life. Now they're getting it.
Unknown: They will still get it a little bit later on, they're working on it just like us. There are things that we like to think that we have gotten, but when we are tested with it, we'll see maybe we haven't gotten as much as we like. We'll see that still happen with Peter, but they're repenting. That is, remember repentance, turning from sin, turning to the Lord, turning to Jerusalem, or turning to Jesus, not Jerusalem. The church is not built on preferences or sameness. It is built on Christ.
Unknown: And that last line, let us too, rejoice with the church in Jerusalem, because that last line affects all of you here.
Unknown: Then to the Gentiles, also. God has granted repentance that leads to life.
Unknown: Then to you. That's you Gentiles, God has granted forgiveness and repentance that leads to life. That is good news, isn't it, God has prepared your heart to receive the Word of God now that you might turn from your sin, that you might believe the gospel and be saved.
Unknown: Thank the Lord for not just keeping the gospel in Jerusalem, but making it all the way here to Tampa.
Unknown: Let's pray, Father, we thank you for saving the farthest, the farthest from the gospel. Lord you have seized and have brought in and Lord, that is us.
Unknown: Lord, if there was a list of people who are close to the kingdom, we would be at the farthest end of that list.
Unknown: But Lord, we thank you that you do not save people based on merit. You don't look into the future and see people who might have a disposition towards spiritual things. Oh no, Lord, it is grace and grace alone, in fact, Lord we you tell us that you save those who are not and have nothing, so that the power of Christ and the glory of Christ might be all the more revealed and shown.
Unknown: Lord, I do pray now that you too would be working in our.
Unknown: Hearts, helping us to receive your word, but also be working in our hearts, ready now to share your word, to go out to those whom you are preparing beforehand, Lord, use us. We're broken instruments to open up our mouth and proclaim Christ, the Lord of all, and it's in Jesus's name we pray, Amen.