SPEAKER_00: Well, as we prepare to witness a visible demonstration of faith, I would like you to spend a few moments with me in Acts chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: This is a special service, and this morning, in our first service, we had the privilege of witnessing some baptisms as well.
SPEAKER_00: And in a few moments we will again.
SPEAKER_00: We have a picture of this in Acts chapter 10 that may be familiar to you, or parts of it may be familiar to you.
SPEAKER_00: Just like to read a good portion of this and then just share a few thoughts with you about it.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 10, beginning in verse 30, and I'll read through the end of the chapter.
SPEAKER_00: So Cornelius here is speaking to Peter, with the apostle Peter, and he says, Four days ago, about this hour I was praying in my house at the ninth hour.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He is lodging in the house of Simon a tanner by the sea.
SPEAKER_00: So I sent for you at once, and you've been kind enough to come.
SPEAKER_00: Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
SPEAKER_00: As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, he's Lord of all, you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed, that is, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.
SPEAKER_00: He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
SPEAKER_00: And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
SPEAKER_00: But God raised him on the third day and made 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.
SPEAKER_00: And he commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.
SPEAKER_00: To him all the prophets bear witness that every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
SPEAKER_00: While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God.
SPEAKER_00: And then Peter declared, Can any one withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?
SPEAKER_00: And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and they asked him to remain for some days.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: This passage illustrates one of my hidden fears.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that you are told in seminary as in pastoral training is that you need to be ready to preach at a moment's moment's notice.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter had to preach at a moment's notice.
SPEAKER_00: Without any preparation, without taking the time to study a passage of Scripture and prepare some notes, write out an outline, and say to Cornelius, Cornelius, here is my message for today.
SPEAKER_00: Now Peter was a rigid and structured kind of guy, so I like to think that he liked to have time to prepare.
SPEAKER_00: But here he got to Cornelius' house, and Cornelius said to him, Peter, I was told to send for you, preach.
SPEAKER_00: Go.
SPEAKER_00: We're ready, we're listening.
SPEAKER_00: You may have heard of this interaction, and you may have heard of what led to this interaction.
SPEAKER_00: This man named Cornelius was a Roman centurion, a Roman soldier who believed in the Jewish God.
SPEAKER_00: And how he lived his life displayed that faith in his Jewish God.
SPEAKER_00: But what he did not know was that the God he was worshiping had visited his people.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know what John wrote in John chapter 1, that the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have beheld his glory.
SPEAKER_00: The glory is of the only begotten of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know that.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know that God had come in human form.
SPEAKER_00: That was unknown to him.
SPEAKER_00: And so God himself acted to provide Cornelius with that message of saving truth.
SPEAKER_00: How gracious of God is that! Cornelius was just going about his life doing what he thought he should be doing in faithfulness to the Jewish God, and God said, No, Cornelius, you need more.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna send it.
SPEAKER_00: So he sent an angel to Cornelius who told him to send for the apostle Peter, and Peter would deliver a message by which they would be saved.
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, at the same time that God was speaking to Cornelius and working in his heart, God was preparing Peter as well.
SPEAKER_00: And that was a huge deal, bigger than most of us can really comprehend today.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was a Jew, Cornelius was a Gentile Roman.
SPEAKER_00: And the racial distinctions between Jews and non-Jews were extremely important to the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, according to Jewish law and Jewish pattern, Peter would not be able to cross the threshold of Cornelius' home without incurring guilt.
SPEAKER_00: He wouldn't be able to be invited into Cornelius' home and sit down at his table and have a meal with him without becoming unclean.
SPEAKER_00: There's simply no way that a righteous Jew would willingly put himself in that position, and Peter considered himself to be a righteous Jew.
SPEAKER_00: And God knew that.
SPEAKER_00: So he began to correct that problem.
SPEAKER_00: He sent a vision.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was doing his daily prayers up on the roof of his home, and God sent him a vision, and you may remember this vision, right?
SPEAKER_00: He sent down a sheet coming down out of heaven, suspended by the corners, and in that sheet were all kinds of animals.
SPEAKER_00: And God told Peter, kill and eat.
SPEAKER_00: That's my kind of vision.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter couldn't do that, could he?
SPEAKER_00: Peter couldn't even begin to comprehend in his own mind how God could ask him to do such a thing, because there were animals in there that were unclean according to Jewish law.
SPEAKER_00: If Peter was going to be a righteous person, he could not do that.
SPEAKER_00: But what God told him was, Peter, what I have made clean, do not call common or unclean.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was not to see a distinction between the things that God had made.
SPEAKER_00: And in this context, that applied to people.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we see, when Peter arrived and began to speak, verse 34, Peter opened his mouth, and didn't he always do that?
SPEAKER_00: He opened his mouth and just started talking, except this time God had prepared him for what to say, right?
SPEAKER_00: Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly I understand that God shows no partiality.
SPEAKER_00: But in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
SPEAKER_00: The word fears there is often used in the book of Acts as a synonym for faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's a synonym for believing.
SPEAKER_00: And that demonstrates an important truth here.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of salvation in Christ alone is impartial.
SPEAKER_00: It's impartial.
SPEAKER_00: But the Jewish mindset at that time was that God's grace was limited, limited to just his chosen people, Israel.
SPEAKER_00: If you want an illustration of that, just read the book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_00: God told Jonah, I want you to go to those heathens up in Nineveh.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to preach to them so that they will repent.
SPEAKER_00: And Jonah said, Absolutely not, God.
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
SPEAKER_00: Because I know that you're going to be gracious to them.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't conceive of God's grace being given to those outside of the boundaries of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So if you wanted to receive God's grace, you had to convert to Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: But God showed Peter that everyone is in need of his grace.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone has a need for forgiveness of sins, and God is willing that all should receive it.
SPEAKER_00: For all to receive it requires the good news to be impartial.
SPEAKER_00: Race doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Language doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Color doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Location doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Status doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone, everyone needs the gospel of God's grace in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In this account, God's good news brought salvation to Jews and Roman Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Every nation needs the gospel, every people group, every status group.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't restrict his good news to just a select few.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God taught Peter and the early church.
SPEAKER_00: But for us, the truth being communicated to us is that we need the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You need the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I need the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We need the good news that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, and that he rose again, so that we might be offered forgiveness of sins and peace with God because of what Christ has done.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter then if you live in a nice house or on the street.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if you have a great job or no job.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what nationality you are, where you are from, what you think about yourself.
SPEAKER_00: God is not biased.
SPEAKER_00: He is not partial.
SPEAKER_00: His truth is for you.
SPEAKER_00: But that truth, that good news, that gospel needs to be received.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 11, Peter returned to his home church in Jerusalem, and he told them what God had done.
SPEAKER_00: He told them all about his vision.
SPEAKER_00: He told them all about his encounter with Cornelius.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to notice what Peter says in verses 13 and 14.
SPEAKER_00: So again, he's recounting events that happened.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 11, verse 13, and Cornelius told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see there that Cornelius expected to hear something?
SPEAKER_00: He expected to hear a message.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he told Peter, Preach! Proclaim what God has commanded you.
SPEAKER_00: And he was ready to receive whatever he heard from Peter.
SPEAKER_00: So what did Peter do?
SPEAKER_00: He told them the good news.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 38, how God anointed Jesus, how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed, how he was put to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Peter told him the good news.
SPEAKER_00: The good news about Jesus, about God sending a message of peace and forgiveness through Jesus accomplished through the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And how was that message communicated?
SPEAKER_00: By Peter telling them, through speaking.
SPEAKER_00: Someone said something so that others could hear it.
SPEAKER_00: God sent Peter to tell what Jesus did on the cross so that people might hear the good news of the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: That's important to know.
SPEAKER_00: It's important because of Romans 10, verses 9 and 10.
SPEAKER_00: There it is made clear that belief cannot happen, cannot occur without hearing about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And people can't hear without someone telling them.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what happens here in Acts chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: God sent Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He sent him to communicate the message of forgiveness of sins in Jesus, and Cornelius and all his family and his guests all heard the message.
SPEAKER_00: They received the truth of peace with God through the forgiveness of sin as a result of Jesus' payment for that sin.
SPEAKER_00: And Cornelius needed to hear that message.
SPEAKER_00: And God paved the way for that from beginning to end.
SPEAKER_00: You need to hear that message.
SPEAKER_00: Your friends and your family need to hear that message.
SPEAKER_00: But the question then becomes what then?
SPEAKER_00: What comes after hearing?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Bible tells us that faith comes after hearing.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what we see here.
SPEAKER_00: There is a response to this truth, and that response is faith.
SPEAKER_00: It is belief.
SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter 10, verse 44.
SPEAKER_00: While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
SPEAKER_00: They first heard the message of Jesus, and those who heard believed.
SPEAKER_00: Now you might argue with that, saying, How do you know they believed?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, look down at chapter 11 again, where Peter returned to Jerusalem and told the church what happened.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 15, Peter begins to recount what happened.
SPEAKER_00: As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized you with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: 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?
SPEAKER_00: Who was I?
SPEAKER_00: It's almost a there are there are sections of that that are almost word for word repetitions of chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: So the Holy Spirit fell on them.
SPEAKER_00: That's almost word-for-word repetition of chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter says, I remembered the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: How he said, This is what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And if then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us, when we believed, how could I stand in the way?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_00: Peter connects the indwelling of the Holy Spirit with believing in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We know that when Cornelius and whoever was with him believed in Jesus through the message that they heard from Peter, the Spirit of God came to be within them.
SPEAKER_00: We call that spirit baptism.
SPEAKER_00: That is different from water baptism.
SPEAKER_00: That is when God initiates you in the family of God at the moment that you believe, he puts his spirit within you.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was sent so that they could hear the message.
SPEAKER_00: When they heard, they believed.
SPEAKER_00: When they believed, God gave them his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In the Bible, we never see anyone belonging to God's people without them first exercising the faith given to them by God.
SPEAKER_00: They hear the message, they understand the message, and they respond to the message by believing in Christ alone, in his death, burial, and resurrection that secures their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That means that baptism is the good news on display.
SPEAKER_00: Baptism is the gospel of God's grace being displayed to a watching world.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what happened.
SPEAKER_00: Peter realized that the defining characteristic of a genuine Christian was evident in these people.
SPEAKER_00: That defining characteristic is being indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: They received the message of truth, they believed, and God gave them his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In a gracious display of confirmation, Peter could see that.
SPEAKER_00: Now we see Peter's response.
SPEAKER_00: Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people?
SPEAKER_00: When they believed the message, God gave them the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That happens with every believer.
SPEAKER_00: If you have come to faith in Christ, that has happened with you.
SPEAKER_00: It generally isn't as dramatic as it is for these folks.
SPEAKER_00: But every person who believes in Christ receives the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter responded to that saving faith of these new believers by expecting them to immediately put that on display through water baptism.
SPEAKER_00: In baptism, those who believed proclaimed the message in which they believed.
SPEAKER_00: They proclaimed that Jesus died, that he was buried, and that he rose again.
SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful, beautiful picture of the good news.
SPEAKER_00: And going down into the water, you are dying with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You are being buried with him, and you are being raised up again to new life.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what happens, that symbolizes pictures what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Their inward faith was put on outward display, showing everyone that new life in Christ had taken place.
SPEAKER_00: I know that there are various traditions and patterns for baptism, but this is one of the main reasons why we at Faith Evangelical Free Church don't do infant baptisms.
SPEAKER_00: Because baptism, as demonstrated all throughout the book of Acts, follows an expression of faith.
SPEAKER_00: It follows when somebody hears the good news, responds to the good news by placing their trust in Christ, and then they display that to a watching world.
SPEAKER_00: Now that doesn't mean that if you were baptized as an infant, that that wasn't important for your family or that it means something to you.
SPEAKER_00: Just means this is what the book of Acts demonstrates for us that Jesus prescribed.
SPEAKER_00: In reality, baptism doesn't do anything but get you wet.
SPEAKER_00: Now every Christian should follow the Lord's command and be baptized, but it doesn't save you.
SPEAKER_00: It proclaims that you have already been saved by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: Baptism displays what the Christian receives in Jesus the forgiveness of sins and new life in him.
SPEAKER_00: It's saying, I am entrusting my all to Jesus because he has done everything for me.
SPEAKER_00: And in Cornelius, we have an example.
SPEAKER_00: He heard the message, he understood the message, and he believed in the good news of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And then he was baptized in a display of that faith.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's no indication here, no indication from Scripture that Cornelius or anyone else who believed that day objected to being baptized.
SPEAKER_00: There was simply an understanding in the New Testament church that when you come to faith in Christ, you display what has happened on the inside with an outward public display that everyone can see.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, we have the wonderful privilege of witnessing that.
SPEAKER_00: We've had five individuals already this morning follow Christ in this way.
SPEAKER_00: In the first service, we witnessed uh Skyly and Leah and Semitia and Noel and Joyce go through the waters of baptism.
SPEAKER_00: We heard their professions of faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And now I would like to invite Kaya to come forward and to share with us what Christ has done for her.