Unshaken: Chapter a Day

Acts 10 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

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What if the boundary you’ve always trusted isn’t God’s boundary at all? We dive into Acts 10, where a Roman centurion’s sincere prayers meet an apostle’s uncomfortable vision and the Holy Spirit tears down a wall between Jew and Gentile. Cornelius is generous, devout, and still missing the full story; Peter is faithful, bold, and still learning what clean and unclean mean in a new covenant. When their paths cross in Caesarea, the result is more than a touching moment—it’s a turning point for the global church.

We walk scene by scene through Cornelius’s angelic encounter, Peter’s sheet vision, the arrival of messengers, and the charged meeting that follows. Along the way, we press into big questions: Does God hear an unbeliever’s prayer? Why does God use people instead of angels to share the gospel? What happens to tradition when the Spirit acts first? Peter names his discomfort entering a Gentile home, then lays out the gospel of Jesus with clarity. Before anyone drafts a policy, the Spirit falls, and the room learns in real time that God shows no partiality. Baptism follows faith, and hospitality turns strangers into family.

Expect honest talk about partiality, courage, and obedience. We explore how ancient dietary laws prepared the church for a bigger table, why moral sincerity is not the same as salvation, and how hospitality becomes mission. If you’re wrestling with hidden bias, intimidated by cross-cultural witness, or curious about how the early church navigated radical inclusion, this conversation offers both challenge and comfort. Listen in, then take a step—confess prejudice, share the good news, open your home, and celebrate when God brings the far near. If this helped you think and love more clearly, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend who needs hope today.

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Pastor Plek:

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. That's Pastor Holland. We're talking Acts chapter 10. We're going to outline it. We are going to make some obser observations, get into some interpretation, and then finally some application that you can apply today. So in verses 1 through 8, you've got Cornelius' vision and then obedience. Uh and then followed by Peter's vision of the sheet. So God talking to two different people at the same point, at the same time. And verses 1 through 8 is with Cornelius, and then 9 through 16 with Peter. Then verses 17 through 23, the messengers arrive, and then Peter responds, invites him in, treats him as guests, and then goes with him to uh to Cornelius' house in Caesarea. Verses 24 through 33, you've got Peter meets up with Cornelius and his family. He goes to worship him. Peter goes, Hey, I too am a man. Don't worship me. And then verses 34 through 48, Peter's sermon and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Cornelius and the fam. Uh, let's get into some observations. What do you see here, Holland?

Pastor Holland:

Peter's dream, uh, his vision, uh, rise, Peter, kill and eat uh all the animals. You know, very strange thing. Peter doesn't understand it um at first, but it's a very important um turning point here in the book of Acts. Yeah. And uh, you know, represents the doing away, the fading away of God's um uh ceremonial laws regarding food and dietary restrictions, things that were particular to the old covenant that are now um faded away with um this new age, uh, the new covenant, and Peter having to deal with not only um, you know, just the dietary restrictions going away, but what it symbolized with God bringing Gentiles into um the body of Christ and to belong to the church.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, I love that. Okay, what about the fact um that Peter just he has to overcome so much of that? Yeah. And um granted it's Peter, so he, you know, he is the rock and all that, and so him getting envisioned three times should have been pretty significant, but still, that's a big bold move, and it must have been pretty scary, which he re-emphasizes when he shows up. You know how it's unlawful for me to be in your house right now because you guys are right unclean. So he gives them kind of the complimentus that they're not as good. However, uh, he's now saying, like, God is doing some inclusive work here, which I thought I love that.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. God, God has shown me, verse 28, that I should not call any person common or unclean.

Pastor Plek:

Which is kind of cool. And I think we sometimes can fall into the, you know, those pagans, those heathens, those people who don't know Jesus, but they are made in God's image and God has a plan specifically for them. Yeah. Um, how about the fact, now here's a question Does God answer the prayers of people who are not saved? And clearly here, he not only answers his prayer, but he does take his alms. Yeah. Like his alms have come up before him as a memorial offering. What is that about?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. It's uh to me, so if you think about how does a person get saved, well, first God chooses them and then he begins to draw them to himself, and then he calls them, um, and they respond in faith and are justified and adopted. And so what it looks like here is that God has chosen Cornelius, and Cornelius, though he hasn't heard the gospel yet, um, is already being drawn to God. And then Peter's the one who gets to come and be the mouthpiece for God to call Cornelius. Um, but Cornelius is giving his prayers in faith with the little that he does know. Um, and Peter gets to fill in more um of the reality of the gospel.

Pastor Plek:

I just love the fact that like if you're not a believer, pray. Yeah. If you're not a believer, uh give. Yeah. Uh and it might be that God is using those things to draw you near to him in some way.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Um, I'm trying to remember who it was. It said, like, uh, obedience is the great opener of eyes. Um, I think it uh man, what's the the guy's name with the uh Mueller? George Mueller might have been George Mueller. He's the orphan dude. I think it was Tim, but obedience, the great opener of eyes. Um, that idea of like, you know, your obedience is yeah, you go, okay, I don't really know what I'm doing here, but I'm taking steps. That is faith being worked out. Um yeah. Okay.

Pastor Plek:

What about uh next observation? How about uh the the faithful servants? I love that there was a devout soldier, and I can appreciate that as one who was in the military. Yeah. But I had devout soldiers. And when it came, and I whenever I had like when I wanted to do something for like uh Iraqi Christians, uh, I would use those guys because they kind of got it. They understood the the greater mission in those sense. So I thought that was kind of a cool thing that I just observed that he had soldiers that were following God, even though they didn't have the whole picture.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

I mean, he he's clearly he's praying to God, he's just praying according to what he knows. Um, and Peter gets to come and fill in what he doesn't know yet, right?

Pastor Plek:

Okay, how about this? He also the first thing he does is bow bows down and worships Peter. Like, this is why I think for God to become a man for all the Gentiles, not a hard thing. They're like, Yeah, we've we've heard this, this story before. God can be a man. Uh right. I mean, like with all the demigods and all that in there, whereas Jews couldn't handle that, which is why I think whenever Jesus did miracles in with a demoniac in Mark V, uh, you've got, hey, go and tell everybody what the Lord's done for you. But whenever he does crazy miracles in Israel, he's like, Don't tell anybody.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

They can't handle it yet.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. And also, I think about, you know, a man in the military who has a very clear understanding of hierarchy, authority, honor, um, submission, you know, instead of bow down, um, you know, the who he would typically bow down to, right, is like Caesar, who was God, you know, the son of God, self-proclaimed. Um, and so he's kind of doing what he knows.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, I'm just thinking he was, but he was if he was worshiping him, would you I guess you would worship, I guess, yeah, you're right. That's what he knows. You worship the humans.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Um, so, and now Peter is saying, Oh, we don't do that here. We don't do that. Okay.

Pastor Plek:

Uh, all right, what about um any other observations?

Pastor Holland:

Let's keep it moving.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, how about nature of man?

Pastor Holland:

We um it it is in our nature to um uh show partiality and to prefer some groups over other groups. And there's ways about that that are just kind of like natural and normal, um, but very corrupted by sin um in kind of like uh, you know, the warnings in the Old Testament and Proverbs and the New Testament in James about showing partiality is that you know, thinking that you are better than other people, superior to other people in um in terms of your worth or your standing before God. And that's in our nature, and Peter's clearly guilty of it here.

Pastor Plek:

Love it. Um, what about uh man can be devout and even moral, yet still need the whole gospel?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, that's good.

Pastor Plek:

Um, like Cornelius definitely was awesome, but he was not saved, right? And an angel wasn't the means of his salvation, which to me, like it would be a lot faster for God if everyone got an angel visit. Like, I mean, right. I mean, like if we all got angel visits, that would be way easier. Yeah, and you you take the human element out of it, it'd be the the message would not get lost in translation, people wouldn't do it wrong, you might not have different sex popping up, everybody on the same page, but God loves to use people, yeah.

Pastor Holland:

And he doesn't always choose what is just the fastest way, yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, let's get into some truths about the character of God. I think that might be it. It's like that God uses people uh to spread his message and to get the job done of whatever his uh will is, which I just think is what an inefficient and slow way to really get stuff done.

Pastor Holland:

That's great. Um, God uh verse 34 again, God shows no partiality. That's his character. Um, he yeah, he is righteous and just and um in in everything that he does.

Pastor Plek:

How about God values genuine heart seeking of him? Um and I like it because it's Cornelius was doing prayers and alms probably as best he knew. And you know, he probably wasn't circumcised, right? Because there was a way to be a full-on Jew. You go get circumcised, and he's like, I'm good.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, yeah. It's interesting. It's he wanted to worship God, but didn't want to be a Jew. And and you know, Peter said essentially says, like, that's okay here. Verse, verse uh 35 in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. Like that to me is mind-blowing. Wouldn't it be way easier to maybe he is safe though, right? Like in before, you know, in an old testament sense of like he had faith in God and believed in his messiah, he just didn't know that that messiah had come yet.

Pastor Plek:

Right, you know, but he's not getting circumcised, which you would like throughout the old testament, there's a big connection of being circumcised and but it wasn't required to be saved.

Pastor Holland:

Abraham obviously being the example who was saved before he was circumcised.

Pastor Plek:

Sure, but he was circumcised. Yeah. And so I feel like that's like that was part of the obedience. And here he's like, I'm good. Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

And this is leading up to the whole debate of like the next several chapters of Acts is how does the old covenant, you know, those kind of laws, circumcision, how does that fit in with the gospel, other nations? We're going out to place, you know, different nations. What does this all mean? So that's kind of what's the whole next section of Acts is about.

Pastor Plek:

I mean, if you want to get elite Christians, you just put a high barrier of entry like circumcision in there. You're not gonna get the faint of heart.

Pastor Holland:

Right.

Pastor Plek:

You get some finally, real men who are willing to do whatever it takes.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, and Peter's saying though, he goes, in every I love this. In every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. And you go, man, God's God's will, his plan is for that people of every nation to fear him.

Pastor Plek:

I like that. All right, that's a good transition to application. What's a sin to avoid, a promise to claim, an example to follow, a command to obey, or knowledge to believe? What do you got?

Pastor Holland:

Um again, we've said this a few times. I think we're gonna keep saying it in X, but um, to be baptized. Verse 47, can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?

Pastor Plek:

I love it. Once you get the Holy Spirit, go get baptized. Right. Um, how about preach the gospel boldly? Uh Peter is like every time he turns around, there's another like, hey Peter, I need you to come here. Now do your thing. And he goes, fine. And he lets her rip and shares the gospel boldly and without fear, and he's he's proclaiming the good news of Jesus, even to people that um, and he goes, as he as everyone there well, I love how he says, as you well know. Yeah, like that was kind of a cool thing to sort of add in there that you already knew about all this stuff that Jesus he is the one he says he is, he is the king.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. And it's interesting because Peter is the apostle to the Jews, Paul apostle to the Gentiles. But um that's not so to be fair, Paul's the one that said that. So not that it's not true. Yeah, I mean, their areas of focus though, they tend to be in those directions, but it's not totally exclusive. Here you see it's Peter, right, with this Gentile guy. And you know, Paul Paul shows a lot of love, you know, in like Romans 11 for his kinsmen according to the flesh. Like it's very normal to have a special love for your people, right? And yet, God also calls you to go beyond that. Um yeah, and so I, you know, another um command to obey, um, or maybe this is an example to follow, um, an application is that God shows no partiality. We should not show partiality.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

In terms of the way that we um honor other people and share the love of God with others.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. How about maybe sin to confess or avoid is confess any prejudice, partiality, yeah, or cultural traditions that cause you to uh push away somebody as opposed to draw them near to the gospel. Yeah, that's good. Uh anything else before we land the plane here? How about rejoice that God's actually seeking those who are lost? That's good.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, I love that.

Pastor Plek:

We need a party about that. Amen. Yeah, when someone gets baptized, you should throw a party. Yeah. And celebrate that this too is a child of God.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, the uh I guess I would have one more in light of that, verse 48, it says they asked him to remain for some days. And you just see you see so much hospitality in the book of Acts of like, hey, you're here, like stay, let's feast together, let's celebrate, let's get to know each other, let's bless each other, like be a hospitable person.

Pastor Plek:

You know, here's what's sort of difficult for me. In this party, and he's staying for several days. What are they talking about? I don't know. Yeah, I mean, like, as one who doesn't really do small talk, that would have been brutal.

Pastor Holland:

I mean, maybe that Peter's teaching them the old testament.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, yeah. Maybe, maybe because if there wasn't some sort of purpose and we just had to sit around and just like, I guess I'd pull out settlers of Catan and be like, oh, let's play.

Pastor Holland:

Maybe that's what they did.

Pastor Plek:

Hey, uh, thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.

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