WWUTT 2613 Cornelius Hears from an Angel (Acts 10:1-8)

There was a devout man living in Caesarea whose name was Cornelius, and though he did not yet know the gospel, he was a God-fearing man. Anything good about him was still from God, when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we come now to chapter 10. And what is Acts 10 most famous for? That's right. This is the bacon chapter. This is where we get permission to eat bacon, which we'll consider as we go through this.

Here's Acts 10. I'm going to start by reading verses 1 through 23. Hear the word of the Lord. Now, there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household and gave many alms to the people and prayed to God continually.

About the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had come in and said to him, Cornelius. And looking intently on him and becoming afraid, he said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

Now send some men to Joppa and summon a man named Simon, who is also called Peter. He is lodging with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea. And when the angel who was speaking to him had left, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants.

And after he explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. And on the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat.

And while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened up and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground. And there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the sky.

And a voice came to him, Rise up, Peter, slaughter and eat. But Peter said, By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything defiled and unclean. Again a voice came to him a second time, What God has cleansed, no longer considered defiled.

And this happened three times. And immediately the object was taken up into heaven. Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius having asked directions for Simon's house appeared at the gate and calling out.

They were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was lodging there. And while Peter was reflecting on the vision, the spirit said to him, Behold, three men are looking for you, but rise up, go down and accompany them without taking issue at all, for I have sent them myself.

And Peter went down to the men and said, Behold, I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for which you have come? And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man, well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was directed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and hear a message from you.

So he invited them in and gave them lodging. Now after this, the next, oh, half to two-thirds of the chapter that we have here is Peter going to the house of Cornelius and sharing the gospel with him.

We won't get into all of that until next week. In fact, most of this here regarding the vision even, we won't get into until next week. But we'll at least consider Cornelius and the Lord appearing to him in what we have in Acts 10 verses one through eight.

Now the way that this breaks down, we have Cornelius's vision, first of all, in these first eight verses, the angel instructing him to send men to Joppa and get Simon Peter to come to Cornelius's home and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

While Cornelius has his vision, Peter has his, and that's in verses nine to 16. What is the meaning of this vision? That's what we'll get into in the next lesson. And then following that will be the Holy Spirit's guidance and Peter's response in verses 17 to 23.

And then of course, we'll have Peter's sermon at the house of Cornelius that will come after.

That.

So today we're looking at verses one through eight, and we begin in Caesarea with the man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort. Now Caesarea here is not the same as Caesarea Philippi.

That one you're surely familiar with as we were going through the gospels together. You know of Caesarea Philippi, that place where Jesus had asked his disciples, who do you say that I am? Peter answers, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

That is a different location. Caesarea Philippi was more inland. Caesarea was on the coast. And Caesarea was a place that was mostly Gentile. A large number of Romans and Italians lived at Caesarea specifically.

In fact, the Roman governor of the region of Judea would have been housed there in Caesarea. And so there were many Romans and many Roman soldiers that were there. So you have Cornelius who is a centurion, meaning that he is the leader of a hundred Roman soldiers.

And he was a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort. So specifically this was, or these were the soldiers that attended to the governor of the region of Judea. That makes Cornelius a pretty important guy.

This is a really important figure here. Just like we saw in chapter eight, where Philip had ministered to a eunuch who was from the court of Candace, who was the queen of the Ethiopians. That's a pretty important guy.

Cornelius kind of had that level of importance. He was really close to the ruler of this particular area. And yet it turns out that he's a God fearing man, not a God's fearing man, right? He's not worshiping the gods of the Romans.

He fears the one true God. That is what is expressed here in the narrative about him. So the man at Caesarea, whose name is Cornelius, he's a centurion. It says in verse two, he is a devout man and one who feared God with all his household and gave many alms to the people and prayed to God continually.

So you have a man that knows God, worships him. His whole household is a God fearing household. There's only one God that is worshiped in this household. And that is the true God, Yahweh. And Cornelius even manifests this faith that he has in God by showing kindness, the love of God to other people.

He gave many alms to the people and he prayed to God continually. Now, there are some who are opposed to the doctrine that regeneration precedes faith and they will use Cornelius to say that regeneration does not precede faith.

Because here, Cornelius believes God. He has faith in God before he has become regenerated by hearing the gospel and putting faith in Jesus and believing. That's going to come much later on in the chapter.

So if this man believes he's called devout, he fears God, the Lord even comes to him and says, your prayers have been answered. Well, this throws a wrench into the doctrines of like total depravity and regeneration precedes faith because clearly Cornelius was not so depraved that he could not seek God and his heart longed for God even before he was regenerated.

So it's really his longing that leads to his regeneration and faith he had before his heart was changed. Before he even heard the gospel and was filled with the Holy Spirit, he was still good enough to seek after God.

But here's the problem with those arguments. None of this would be happening for Cornelius if God was not acting first. This is not to praise Cornelius for his good heart that he would seek after God, even though he hadn't been regenerated yet.

Whatever faith this man has still comes from God. It comes from nowhere else. Cornelius has not automatically made up his mind to be a God fearing man. It is by the blessing of God. And it's by the blessing of God that he comes to him and says, I've heard your prayers and they have been answered.

This all comes from the Lord. Remember what Jesus said in John 644, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets and they will all be taught by God.

Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me. So how is it that Cornelius yearns for the Lord because the father is drawing him? That's exactly it. And those that the father draws will come to him.

All that the father gives me, Jesus said in John 637, all the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. The father is doing the drawing here and Cornelius is drawn.

It's still the work of God and the whole work of regeneration that the Holy Spirit does in our hearts. We go from having that cold, stony heart that will not believe that is continually in rebellion against God to having a new heart that seeks after God.

All of that is very mysterious. That work that the Holy Spirit does in our hearts is mysterious. Who knows how that works? Is it in a moment? Is it over a long period of time? Does it differ from one person to the next?

Jesus even talks about this in John chapter three, where he's speaking with Nicodemus and says, just as you don't know where the wind comes from or where it goes. So it is with the Holy Spirit. The work of the Spirit is very mysterious.

And so how that whole process of regeneration works, I don't know. I do not have any idea at what moment in time my heart was regenerated. I just know that I went from being rebellious against God to loving God and it was by his gracious work in me that happened.

So it is the case with Cornelius. Cornelius is a devout man because God has been kind to him and he is seeking after God, praying to God continually. And so God comes to him and says, I've heard your prayers.

Verse three, about the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw in a vision, an angel of God who had come in and said to him, Cornelius, and looking intently on him and becoming afraid. He said, what is it, Lord?

And he said to him, your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now send some men to Joppa and summon a man named Simon, who is also called Peter. He is lodging with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.

Now, who is this that's appearing to Cornelius? It's an angel of God. That's what it says in verse three. He saw clearly in a vision, an angel of God who came in and said to him his name. And then Cornelius's response is, what is it, Lord?

Now I'm reading from the legacy standard and Lord is capitalized. But who Cornelius is talking to is not God. It's an angel of God. And it's not the angel of the Lord, as we read about in the Old Testament.

That's an Old Testament reference. So this is an angel that's been sent from God to speak to Cornelius. Why does Cornelius call him Lord then? And why doesn't the angel correct him and say, I'm not Lord.

I'm just an angel. I'm a messenger from God. Well, because Cornelius is using Lord in the salutation sense, in the proper address, just like we saw in Acts nine, when Jesus appeared to Saul on the road and said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And Saul's response is, who are you, Lord? Well, he did not believe that Jesus was Lord. So why does he call him Lord? Because it's the proper sense. He's fearful. He's respectful of who it is that is speaking to him.

So he reverently refers to him as Lord or respectfully would probably be the better title. He's not calling him God. Paul did not call Jesus God when he said, who are you, Lord? Because he did not know that Jesus was God.

He did not consider him as God, yet at that point had not been regenerated to know Jesus is the Christ. And so likewise here with Cornelius, when he responds to the angel, he's just saying Lord, like you would say, sir, like you would be respectful to somebody of a high command.

And Cornelius certainly knows what that's like being a centurion himself. So that's why he refers to the angel in that way. So Lord probably should not be capitalized. So we don't get confused in thinking that Cornelius believes he's talking to God.

He's addressing an angel. And the angel says to him, your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. So God recognizes the work that Cornelius does is done in the fear of the Lord. Doesn't mean that Cornelius is not a sinner.

Doesn't mean that he that regeneration doesn't precede faith.

Okay.

None of those doctrines have been obliterated by the fact that God has received the good work that he has done. Cornelius being a God fearing man is still the work of God in his life. So the angel goes on to say in verse five, now send some men to Joppa and summon a man named Simon, who is also called Peter.

We read at the end of Acts nine, that Peter had gone to a couple of different places and performed some miracles. He healed Aeneas. He raised Tabitha from the dead, and that was in Joppa. And so then he goes up to, or he stays there in Joppa with a tanner named Simon and says that he stays in a house by the sea.

Boy, that must have been pretty relaxing. So this house is by the sea, the Mediterranean sea. That's where Peter is at this particular time. What he's doing there. I mean, we're not really given any details about the work he was doing while he was at Simon the Tanner's home.

We just know that's where he was residing while he's on this work, this journey as an apostle, as the Lord has sent him. This is the house where he is staying. And surely God has him there because of this exact encounter that Simon Peter is about to have.

So Peter is staying at this house by the sea. Again, verse six, he is lodging with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea. And verse seven, when the angel who was speaking to him had left, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants.

So Cornelius is trusting them. To go and get Peter and bring Peter to Cornelius and to his house. Now, there's not any great persecution that's going on right now by the Romans against the Christians.

That's not happening yet. The persecution that we've been reading about in Acts has all come from the Jews. It's the Jews that hate that Jesus is being proclaimed as the Christ. And so they want to put Christians to death.

Paul even tried that. Didn't go so well for him. Jesus just made him one of his followers and is going to send him out as an apostle. So the Jews have been the opposition against the church. The Romans have not yet gotten that way.

But yet you still see some great care taken by Cornelius here to appoint a soldier to go help on this journey who is himself devout. This is also a man who seeks God. And God is coming to their aid, having heard their prayers, receive Peter, bring him to your house.

Peter is going to preach the gospel to them. And God is going to use Cornelius and his household to demonstrate that the Holy Spirit has come not just to Jews, but the Holy Spirit has fallen even upon Gentiles.

And that's what we will see at the delivery of the gospel that happens at the house of Cornelius later on. So then after he explained everything to them, it says in verse eight, he sent them on to Joppa.

Now, a little more geography for you here. Joppa is right there on the coast as well. It's further south from Caesarea. So this is a journey that's basically along the bank of the Mediterranean Sea. Peter is going to go from Joppa to Caesarea.

First, he's got to see a vision himself. So while Cornelius has sent these men to retrieve Peter, Peter is up on the housetop at the sixth hour to pray, and he becomes hungry and he sees this vision that is going to be to our benefit as well, because it declares all foods clean, just as Jesus already did in Mark seven, we have read.

But this vision comes to Peter again, so that Peter will not be hesitant to go to a Gentile's house to preach the gospel. And we'll consider more deeply the meaning of this vision and how it communicates that to Peter when we come back to our study in Acts 10 on Monday.

In the meantime, we are reminded that our coming to the Lord is always by the gracious hand of God. It's not because you are a good person and you, by your goodness said, you know, I'm going to do the right thing.

I'm going to seek after God. No, any of our seeking, any of of the reverent fear of God that we are supposed to have any of our prayers, any of our doing good in the name of the Lord, all of that still comes by the hand of God.

It is still by the blessing of God upon our lives. No one does anything good in and of themselves. We might see people doing good things that we with our own eyes would say, oh, what a good man or what a good woman.

We may even know unbelievers that do good things that does not make it good before God. And it does not ascend before him as a memorial automatically when somebody is doing good. God receives the good things that Cornelius does because God is gracious, as it says in Romans nine, he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills.

And God is showing kindness to Cornelius and anything that Cornelius does that is received by God is by the grace of God. It is because God has led Cornelius to him, not because anything good in Cornelius led him to God.

And so it is with you and I, brothers and sisters, we came to the Lord because God acted upon us first. As said in first Corinthians one thirty, it is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus. So let all of the glory belong to him.

As Paul also goes on to say there in first Corinthians, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank you, God, for the faith that we have in Christ Jesus, knowing all of this has come to us because you were good to us.

We may have grown up in good households. We may have been taught from a very young age what it means to be a godly man or woman, but we still did not become Christian until we put our faith and trust in Christ.

And all of that was by your gracious hand. And so, Lord, I pray that you would also extend the good news of the gospel to others, that you would use us to bring it to them and that you would prepare the heart to receive the good news so that they would put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, believe and be.

Saved.

Thank you for demonstrating your love for us. In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It's in his name we pray.

Amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.