WWUTT 1071 Peter Visits Cornelius?

Cornelius, Peter, and the Gospel to the Gentiles

The Lord instructed Peter to go to the house of a man named Cornelius and preach the gospel to him and to his household, so that all who hear the gospel will believe it and be saved, just like it's done today, when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text, as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .wutt .com.

Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Reading Acts 10: Cornelius’s Vision and Peter’s Vision

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Acts, chapter 10 today. All of it. I'm going to start reading here in verse 1 and read through to the end of the chapter. At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.

About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon, who is called Peter. He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him.

And having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat.

But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.

And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice came to him again a second time, What God has made clean, do not call common.

This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood at the gate and called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was lodging there.

And while Peter was pondering the vision, the spirit said to him, Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them. And Peter went down to the men and said, I am the one you are looking for.

What is the reason for your coming? And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man who was well-spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.

So he invited them to be his guests. The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

Peter and Cornelius Meet in Caesarea

When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped 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. So when I was sent for, I came without objection.

I asked then, 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. He 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 in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. But God raised him on the third day and made him to appear not only to 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.

The Holy Spirit Falls on the Gentiles

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 have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

Why Peter’s Vision Means the Gospel Goes to the Gentiles

So what's happened here in this story is a man named Cornelius, a Gentile, and himself a soldier, had been told by God that an apostle, Peter, was going to come to him and preach the gospel to him, to his household, and even to his friends.

Now Cornelius was a man of significant prominence. It says here that he was an Italian cohort. A centurion is a Roman officer who has a hundred soldiers under him. So like you think of the story with Jesus and the centurion, the centurion comes to Jesus and says, My servant is sick.

If you will just say the word, I know that he will be healed. For I've got soldiers that do what I tell them to do, and I have servants whom I tell do this and they do it. So with your authority, if you say it will be so, I know that it will be so.

And Jesus said, Nowhere else in Israel have I seen faith like this. So that was the centurion, a Roman soldier with a hundred soldiers under him. An Italian cohort had six centurions under him. So 600 soldiers were in his charge.

A centurion received something like six times the normal wage of your average Roman soldier. So a centurion by himself already made a lot of money and had quite a bit of prominence and social standing.

You think an Italian cohort would have had even more than that. So this was a very important figure, this Cornelius guy, and he was a God fearing man. He gave alms generously. So he gave charity in the name of the Lord.

He praised God for the blessings that God had given to him and did everything in service to the Lord. He feared God. He prayed continually. So the Lord responds to this man and says, I'm going to send Peter to you, who is going to preach the gospel.

And Cornelius was to send a couple of guys to go and and bring Peter to the place where Cornelius was, which, of course, would have been Caesarea. So then we go from Cornelius to Peter in verse nine. Peter is with some friends of his.

We know by what is said at the end of the chapter that he's with some other Jews and he is going up on the housetop to pray. This is a common practice for a lot of Jews. Housetops were flat roofs and you could access the roof either by stairs or by ladder.

So he goes up there to pray. He becomes hungry. Those who are serving him, who are serving the apostle, are going to fix him something to eat. But he goes into a trance and he sees the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.

And in it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him saying, rise, Peter, kill and eat. And this made no sense to Peter, because Peter, a devout Jew, was still following the Jewish dietary laws, even though we read in Mark chapter 17 that Jesus did away with these laws that still had not yet come to Peter in his sanctification.

So let me go here to Mark chapter seven, starting in verse 14, where Jesus is talking about what defiles a person. Now this is right after the Pharisees have questioned Jesus about why his disciples don't wash their hands before they eat.

And Jesus is saying, because this is the teachings of men. This is not what God has said. You don't you don't become defiled because you have eaten with unclean hands. So he goes on in verse 14 to say, hear me, all of you and understand.

There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him. But the things that come out of a person are what defile him. And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable that he had told.

And he said to them, then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him since it enters not his heart, but his stomach and is expelled?

Thus, he declared all foods clean. That's Mark 7, 19. Now verse 20. And he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him for from within, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

All these evil things come from within and they are what defile a person. So this was Jesus talking to his disciples. He declares all foods clean. But remember that he also said to them in the upper room, in the book of John, he said that I will send my spirit and he will teach you more, helping the disciples understand the things that Jesus has taught.

And they would come to an even greater understanding of more things that needed to be taught. And this is one of those occasions in which Peter, who was still following the dietary laws, had not yet come to understand that food will not commend us to God.

We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do eat. That's first Corinthians 8, 8. So Peter is now being taught that he's coming into that understanding through this vision that has been given to him.

He's still abiding by the dietary laws that are in Leviticus chapter 11. But there is to be no separation between Jews and Gentiles. The fellowship between the two brings unity in Christ. The dietary laws do not bring unity.

It is nothing that happens outside the body, but rather a change that happens in the heart. And so this vision is to show Peter that he is to discriminate against no one, that the gospel of Christ is not just for the Jews, but is even meant to go to the Gentiles.

As Jesus had instructed his disciples before he ascended into heaven, and we saw this in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, he said, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

So this is going to be the ends of the earth commissioning that Peter is to do. He's going to go to this Gentile's home. He is not to be afraid of him or withhold the gospel from him. If any food is set before him, he is to eat it.

And Peter even gives kind of an explanation of this when he gets to Cornelius's home. Let me jump to about verse 23 here, where it says the next day he rose and went away with them. And some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.

So he's got some Jewish men who are with him and they go to this Gentile's home. And on the following day, they enter Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and his close friends.

This was all according to the message that was given to Cornelius from God. An apostle is going to come and give you the gospel. So Cornelius has all of his family and friends gathered to hear this message.

This is kind of like the story of the woman at the well in John 4, when she knew that Jesus was the Messiah, when he had said this to her, she goes and gathers people from the village to come back and said, could this be the Christ?

And so they come back and listen to him and they are convinced that he is the promised Messiah, this village in Samaria. And so Cornelius is kind of like that woman at the well. He's gone and gathered his friends and family.

This very influential man, while that woman was, she had kind of a poor reputation in her own town. Yet everybody followed her out to hear from Jesus. Cornelius used his influence to bring people to come and hear the gospel that was going to be presented to them.

So verse 25, when Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. So Cornelius doesn't know any better. He thinks that Peter being a man of God means that he should be worshipped as kind of a God.

But Peter lifted him up saying, stand up. I, too, am a man. So Cornelius didn't even really quite understand what was going on either. This was all part of the sermon that Peter was going to give to him that would lead him to a knowledge of understanding that Jesus is the Christ, not his apostles.

The apostles point to Christ. Now, this is there's another story coming up here in Acts that kind of contrasts with this one. It's in Acts chapter 12 where the people are heralding Herod as a god and he doesn't give glory to God.

So God strikes him dead. In this particular case, Cornelius is heralding he's falling down at Peter's feet and as though to worship him as God. And Peter says, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't do that. I'm a man.

Don't worship me as God. And as he talked with him, he went up and found many persons gathered. And Peter 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. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you have sent for me. Verse 30 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 because he had offered them up to God as being like a memorial.

And so it's saying here that God remembered what it was that Cornelius had done. Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who was called Peter. He is lodging at 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. And so then what you have is Peter presenting the gospel to them.

He talks about Jesus being crucified and God raised him on the third day and made him to appear. Verse 41, 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.

One of the things that Peter conveys here is that Christ only appears to those who have been chosen by him. He doesn't go appearing to everybody. He appears to those whom he chose. And my friends, that's the same for you and me.

If you are a Christian, as I am a Christian, we have become Christians because God has revealed himself to us through his son, Jesus Christ, not in not in some vision of his resurrection or like a bright light on the road to Damascus, as he did with Paul in Acts chapter nine.

But we have seen who he is and we know who he is because of what we read in his word reveals to us. Jesus Christ is the son of God and Jesus shows us the father and we are filled with the Holy Spirit, how we are able to discern these things because Jesus has chosen us.

He does not reveal himself to everyone. So we have been chosen by God as witnesses who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. Peter says, verse 42, and he commands 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.

The Holy Spirit Falls on the Gentiles Before Baptism

To him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. And now look at what happens next. Verse 44, 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.

Now recognize here the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon them before they have been baptized. I had talked about this a couple of weeks ago in the story where Peter had preached in Samaria, the people were baptized and the spirit had not yet come upon them.

But here we see that in reverse order. The point being that baptism does not save a person. That was the statement I made a couple of weeks back. And we see that demonstrated here in Acts chapter 10. There is no emphasis in scripture at all to be baptized for salvation.

For if baptism brought salvation, you would see that as a chief emphasis on the presentation of the gospel. And we simply don't see it here. These men have received the Holy Spirit. These men and women, they fear the Lord and God has blessed them, has come upon them, though they have not yet been baptized.

And Peter says, can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? There are many false teachers out there will say that you have to be baptized to receive the Holy Spirit.

Well, here they were baptized by the Holy Spirit. And then their baptism by water was a demonstration, was an action of obedience that is taken in showing that the Holy Spirit had filled their hearts.

In verse 48, he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and they asked him to remain for some days. We are commanded to be baptized. It is as important a command as love your neighbor as yourself.

If you love the Lord and you fear God and you desire to obey him, then you will be baptized. A person that does not want to be baptized shows that they don't actually fear God. So it is a command that must be obeyed.

But we are not saved by our works. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, it is by grace we are saved through faith. And this is the gift of God, not a result of your works so that no one may boast. We boast in the Lord.

We give glory to him as these persons did when they received the Holy Spirit. Now, once again, when we get to Acts chapter 12, we're going to see about a man named Herod who did not give glory to God.

Instead, he received the glory of men and he was killed for it. Let us not be prejudiced when it comes to sharing the gospel. We preach the gospel with all so that those who hear it, whom Christ has chosen to see him through the presentation of the gospel, they will be saved.

Prayer for Humility, Holiness, and Salvation by Grace

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the forgiveness of sins that has been given through Jesus Christ our Lord and teach us to be humble and ask forgiveness for our sins that we may be cleansed from all unrighteousness and walk in holiness and pursuing godliness that we may be made more like Christ day by day.

Help us to rely not on our works, thinking that our works save us or make us right before God but we have received a borrowed righteousness from Jesus Christ that we would walk in his righteousness, seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all the other things that we need will be added to us as well.

Thank you for your blessing and continued provision in our lives as our benevolent Heavenly Father. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.