Sunday, September 3, 2023 AM

We rejoice in your truth today. Thank you for helping us to sing, grab hold of each other's hearts. Lift together to you. Recognizing your glory in the face of Jesus Christ, we ask that you would turn our attention now to him and to the good news.

He came to declare where we ask for mercy upon those at our right hand and our left hand. We do not know you mercy for their souls, grace for their salvation, confident in your mercies, confident in your power.

Oh, God, I pray that you would help us to lay hold of this wonderfully good news of Jesus Christ and him crucified, of our Savior risen, ascended and reigning, that we would make a right application of this good news to our own hearts throughout all of our lives.

And pray these things for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 10, Acts chapter 10, and we'll be looking at verses 34 through 48, Acts chapter 10, verses 34 through 48, a series of stories all knit together surrounding the truth of the resurrection.

Why can Aeneas, lame eight years, get up off the ground? Why can Tabitha come back from the dead? Why can Peter eat all kinds of creatures? Why can he go with Gentiles to their home? Why can each one rise in each one of these ways?

There's only one thing that makes sense of all of it, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the son of the living God. He is the eternal word who took on flesh, the light of the world, born of a virgin, righteous in his life before the face of God, anointed by the Holy Spirit, God of God and man of man for us and for our salvation.

He died on the cross as the Lamb of God and took away the sins of the world. And he rose from the dead the third day for our justification, and he ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords.

And he has sent forth his Holy Spirit to make all things new by the preaching of the gospel of his kingdom. And he reigns until all of his enemies are placed as a footstool for his feet, and he will return to raise the dead and judge all mankind.

As the light of the world, he is the light of God's word, and in his light, we see light. This is the good news. This is the good news that Peter preaches to Cornelius. You stand with me as I read God's word, Acts chapter 10, beginning in verse 34.

This is the word of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, by his Holy Spirit, through his servant Luke. And Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him.

The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ,.

He is Lord of all.

That word, you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him, God raised up on the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with him after he arose.

From the dead.

And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is he who was ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him, all the prophets witness that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins.

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word, and those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.

And Peter answered, Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, and they asked him to stay a.

Few days.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. As a dear brother in Guthrie, Oklahoma, my old boss, Sunday school teacher, basketball coach, driving instructor, horse riding instructor, a man who was very much fatherly to me.

His name was Tim Ellis, and he owned the Taco Mile in Guthrie, and I worked for him. I remember one day it was he and I and a young lady on a lunch hour in the summer. And boy, were you busy. And all of a sudden, it was just the two of us and the young lady was gone because she was running the front cash register.

And every time she had a little break, she went over into the office and sat down in the office. Brother Tim and I were flying around the rest of the store working till finally he had enough with it. And he got angry.

He always smiled really big, showed all his teeth when he was angry, and he smiled really big at her and said, Why don't you go on home?

We don't need you here today.

I don't have any use for you today. Why don't you go on home early? She's awfully confused by that, but she went on home and she never got put on the schedule again. And we just ran around trying to keep things going.

I thought about that a great deal. What happened? She didn't understand what her job was. She didn't understand what her job was. She thought her job was getting paid and collecting benefits. That's why she came to work, to get paid and collect benefits.

You see, it's not just one generation that has that problem. Every generation has folks with those problems. Right. She was looking at the benefits. She was looking at the rewards and thinking that that was what her job was.

We ought not misunderstand the good news of Jesus Christ. We ought not misunderstand the gospel of the kingdom. The good news is about Christ, not about what we get out of him. We can see that in the preaching that we look at in the Bible.

We ought not misunderstand the gospel. It's about Christ. It's not about us. It's about rejoicing in Christ, not listing out all the good things that we believe are ours. I wonder if you know the person of the gospel.

Do you know the person of the gospel? It's not you. When we read at the beginning of Peter's message to Cornelius and all those whom he had gathered together. A little multitude of folks in Caesarea that he had gathered together, when Peter begins preaching to them, he begins with God and how he has sent forth his son, Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's the focus of the message that Peter brings to Cornelius. Now, in verses 34 and 35, we see the person of the gospel in the shadows of Christ. In verses 34 and 35, look at what Peter says, he opened his mouth and said, in truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him.

What's he talking about?

Now, this is a great passage for misuse and misapplication and misunderstanding, but if we just read the context, what do we find? That Cornelius feared God, he was a God-fearer. You know who else was a God-fearer?

Theophilus, to whom Luke is writing the book of Acts and the gospel of Luke. You don't know who else was a God-fearer? How about Luke himself, who lived in Troas before Paul came through preaching the word?

When Gentiles heard the message of the scriptures, of the law and the prophets and the writings, and they said, wow, that's the truth, I want to believe that, they were called God-fearers. And even though they may not be circumcised and they wouldn't be offering sacrifices in the temple, like Cornelius, they would pray and give good gifts to God and they would be sincere in their faith.

And, you know, that category was not something that was invented, that came from the books of Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. Throughout those books, as you read, you find about the stranger, the outsider who comes among you and the instructions about including them in, like, the Passover feast and so on.

That's what Peter's talking about. This is how it has worked throughout all of the old covenant. It doesn't matter if you are a Jew or not. You could be a Gentile. But if you fear God, God would look upon that with favor.

Why? Because as a Gentile, when your attention was turned to the life of Israel, you were turning by faith toward the very shadows of the Messiah himself. But now things are different, aren't they? Jesus Christ came and said, this is my blood of the new covenant.

He comes and dies upon the cross and he is raised from the dead. And because he is raised from the dead, everything is now different. And this is why the angel came to Cornelius and said, you're a devout man, you pray, you give good gifts, you are well thought of by all of the Jews.

And you know what? You need to be saved. That there's a message you don't have, you need to hear something, you need to send your servants to go get this man named Simon, whose surname is Peter, and he's going to tell you what you need to know.

And when Peter comes, he says, you know how it works, you know how it works. Even Gentiles are welcomed by God when they turn their attention to the shadows of Christ. Intrinsic to the old covenant, but that's not enough.

They're not left there, the God fearing Gentiles are not left in this position, staring at shadows. The disciples of John the Baptist later on are not left there simply sharing it, staring at the promises of the coming Messiah.

They are not left there. Apollos is taken aside and further instructed about the gospel of Jesus Christ because it's not enough. You have to know the person of the gospel. And so Peter begins to talk about the person of the gospel.

Verse 36, the word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ, Yeshua Messiah, He is Lord of all. You see how Peter just inserts that, that word God sent to the children of Israel, the power of the gospel to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.

Look, that word, you know, so you know that word. I think the eyebrows in the room went up. I think Cornelius said, I know that word. I know that there's there's peace through Jesus Christ and that he's Lord of all.

How do I know that?

That word, you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism, which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Now, he had heard that the fame of Jesus of Nazareth had gone out through all the land. They had all heard about this wonder worker who had who had delivered the demon possessed and who had healed the lame and healed the blind and healed the leper and raised the dead.

I mean, Josephus, the historian, knew that and he was farther removed even then than Cornelius and Caesarea. He was much farther north. They had all heard the reports. But what did it mean? Peter begins to let Cornelius and the audience know what it means.

It means that that Jesus Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit and that he was sent forth from God to bring peace. To bring peace. All these signs that he mentions, what did what did what did he do? What have you heard about him?

Well.

He went about doing good. He had power, he healed all who were oppressed by the devil. What what was this? It is Shiloh bringing the shalom, it is Jesus bringing peace, it is it is Jesus Christ who is the image of the invisible God, the last Adam, bringing the new creation with him wherever he goes.

And so he comes forth, he touches leprosy, it goes away. He touches blindness, it goes away. He approaches and the demons flee. Signs that he indeed, he is the Messiah, signs that he indeed is the promised one, just like John the Baptist preached, just like Malachi preached, the son of righteousness has risen with healing in his wings.

Here he comes. And he is anointed by the spirit of Christ. Anointed by the spirit of Christ, wherein God, the father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, identifies for everybody who wants to pay attention, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

What a shocking statement for Israel who had borne that title, they were the son. They were the anointed ones. Their prophets were anointed, their priests were anointed, their kings were anointed. But now, in the son of David, all of what the New Testament says about Christ, the Old Testament said about Israel.

And here the person of the gospel is being set before Cornelius, Cornelius. You appreciate the reading of the scriptures. You give alms, you pray faithfully. But what you need to know, who you need to know, is the person of the gospel.

Look how Peter exalts Christ. Think about how we've been exalting Christ here today in singing these hymns. Why? That we would stir up, by God's grace, love for the person of the gospel. Do you love the person of the gospel?

Is that where your attention is? What do you say about him? What do you think about him? How do you how do you boast about him with others? Do you know the person of the gospel? Do you know, deeply, truly know the preaching of the gospel?

Look at verse 39. Peter says, and we are witnesses of all things. Which he did everything that he did, we're just witnessing what he did. Verse 40 says him, God raised up on the third day and showed him openly.

Peter says in verse 41, we ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead. Verse 42 says he commanded us to preach and testify that it is he who was ordained by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.

To him, all the prophets witness about his name. Do you see that the preaching of the gospel entails setting forth both the person and the work of Jesus Christ? That's the good news. Gospel means good news.

Gospel isn't really a genre of music. It isn't a style of truth. It is good news. Several times in a year, the Roman emperor would send forth his good news and he would set forth his political agenda for the entire empire about how everyone should rejoice that he's the political savior is going to fix everything for all the people and everybody should be happy about it.

And he never kept his promises and it never came true and everything stayed exactly the same or got worse. Sound familiar? But when but when Jesus comes forth as king of kings and lord of lords, he proclaims the good news of the kingdom and what he sets forth is his own person and his own work.

Christ is the good of the good news and he's the news of the good news. So Cornelius has heard the report, those with him, they have heard the report about how Jesus went about and he did this and he did that.

And it was very impressive. But that report, you see, has to be tied to. The fullness of Christ's work, how often did Jesus say to those whom he delivered, to those whom he healed? He said, go and tell no one.

And that's not a very good strategy for evangelism. But why would he say, go and tell no one? Because they didn't have the full message yet. They were going to run around and say, hey, you've got problems.

He's the problem solver. That's the good news.

No, it's not.

You're afraid he'll make you confident. That's not the gospel. So Jesus kept on saying, go and tell no one, go and tell no one, go and tell no one. Until such time as he died upon the cross and he was raised from the dead.

And then he said to his disciples, go tell everyone. Now you have the full message. Now you know who I am and what I have done. Therefore, go and preach. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are central and how Peter preaches to Cornelius and all those who are with him.

Verse 39 says, we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they, meaning the Jews, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. They killed him. Hanging him on a tree.

Why? Cursed is everyone. Cursed is every man who is hung upon a tree. Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the son of God, was hung upon a tree to bear our curse. He shed his blood and he died. For without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins, he died in our place and for our sake to bring us to God.

And he was raised from the dead the third day, him God raised up on the third day and showed him openly to those whom he chose and look that we ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. It was a real resurrection.

He was really, truly, fully bodily alive. And because of that. Because of that. All authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth as the last Adam, as the head of of all whom God saves through his son, by his spirit.

But he's also judge of everyone, king over all kings, lord over all lords. God has set his anointed upon his holy mountain and all the judges and all the kings of the earth. Was bow the knee, do homage to the son, he is ordained by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.

You know, this resurrection of Jesus Christ after he was killed by guilty men. This resurrection condemns all those who hated him. They all now stand very clearly and blatantly in the wrong. They put to death the prince of peace.

They put to death the son of God. And now he has come back from the dead and stands over them and everybody else as the.

Judge.

They falsely accused and murdered the judge who will evaluate them and have something to say to them at the end of all time. What a horrible position to be in. But not only is he in his resurrection, does he condemn the haters, but he also intercedes for the humble, for he is at the right hand of God.

Verse 43 says to him, all the prophets witnessed that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins. Why? Because he pleads his own blood and his own merits and his own righteousness at the right hand of God and all who lay hold of him by the grace of God through the faith that God provides us as we grab hold of Christ, it's his merits before God and he died upon the cross for our sins.

And so our sins are forgiven because he's alive. He is our intercessor because he is alive. He is our mediator. If he has not risen from the dead, Paul says, we are of all men most miserable. Do we know the preaching of the gospel, that it is the person and work of Christ, that it is that it is focused upon his death and resurrection and all that that entails and that this was proclaimed by the apostles and the prophets?

It doesn't matter where you go in all of the word of God, we're going to find the preaching of the gospel. We're going to find the declaration of the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the light of the world, so he's the light of the word.

And we see the gospel proclaimed here. Do we know the preaching of the gospel? And I don't say this in an academic sense, I do not say this in a traditional sense, that you perhaps have heard the preaching of the gospel, that you can catalog how many times that you have you have heard the person and work of Jesus Christ.

I mean, do you truly know it, apprehend it, grab hold of it, embrace it? Do you know the preaching of the gospel? And when you consider. When God in his sovereignty brings you to the brink and to the end of yourself and you have to think about what everything depends on.

Do you know the preaching of the gospel and do you know the preaching of the gospel when you rise up in the morning and when you lay down at night, when you go out of your house, when you come back in, do your children know the preaching of the gospel?

Do they know who Jesus Christ is? Do you know that all the things that he has done? Do we know the preaching of the gospel and do we listen to the preaching of the gospel? Oh, yes, we can hear it. Oh, yes, we can.

We can say, oh, yeah, there's that there's that essential point of the gospel. There's that other essential point of the gospel. Yes, I'm making sure that when someone says that they're preaching the gospel, OK, they're not being heretical.

Yes, they're being on point. I don't mean that kind of listening to the gospel. That's well and good. But do you actually listen to it? Do you preach it to yourself? Do you apply it to yourself? How do you come before God?

How do you come before God when you pray? How do you come before God when you sin? How do you come before God when we gather together as the saints in church? How do you go before God when you when you need help?

How do you come to God when it's time to thank him and to praise him? Oh, we need to apply the good news of Jesus Christ, his person and work, his death and resurrection to our own selves. And do we know the power of the gospel?

Do we know the power of the gospel? Verse 44, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit. Fell upon all those who heard the word, the power of the gospel is not a magic formula, some sort of collection of power words and superstitions that that if we repeat after somebody else by this magical mantra, we have somehow accessed salvation.

What is the what is the power of the gospel? The flesh profits nothing. It is the spirit who gives life. Look at the power of the gospel. While Peter was still speaking these words, he hadn't got to point three.

He had not given the altar call. He had not. Laid down another line of reasoning while he is still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word, the spirit brings. Life, great confusion amongst the.

Members of the Jerusalem church, when they heard what happened up in Caesarea and what Peter had been involved with and when Peter gave them the full report and laid everything out for them, this was their response in verse 18 of Acts 11.

When they heard these things, they became silent. They took a page from Job and covered their mouth, said, well, we're going to stop complaining about what God does. They became silent and they glorified God, saying.

Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life, that's the power of the gospel. Every aspect of our salvation from the beginning to the end has been won for us by Christ's righteousness, by his death upon the cross, confirmed and affirmed and applied by his resurrection from the dead, his ascension and ascending forth of the Holy Spirit.

The power of the gospel is in the person of the gospel who, by the preaching of the gospel, saves. Now they are granted repentance, which means that they turn away from their from themselves. Cornelius is no longer thinking about the alms that he gave and the prayers that he offers and the good report that people have of him no longer.

No, his attention is now upon the Savior, Jesus Christ, his merits, his goodness. Those who are with him are no longer thinking, well, Cornelius has the best chance out of all of us to be saved because, you know, he's got all these great morals and he and he's so much ahead of us in terms of his duties.

No longer are they looking at Cornelius, they're looking at Jesus Christ, the Savior. No longer is Cornelius impressed with Peter, as when Peter showed up, he fell down before him and venerated him and worshiped him.

What is Peter? Look at Jesus Christ.

What are you?

Look at Jesus Christ. Because they repented, they turned away from themselves and they turned to Christ and thus they are by faith brought into living union by the power of the Holy Spirit with Jesus Christ, the Savior.

To repent this gift of repentance. What does it look like? I make a pile of all of my bad deeds, I make a pile of all of my good deeds and I flee it all for Christ and Christ alone. And the Holy Spirit comes upon them in their salvation in a way that he did with the Samaritans, in a way that he did with the apostles.

So as to signify that the work of Christ is continuing and building the new covenant temple and now stones are being quarried from the nations, from the Gentiles, not just the Samaritans, not just the Ethiopians, not just the Jews, not just the Hellenists, but also flat out Italians.

Cornelius of the Italian regiment is now a living stone in the new covenant temple. And those who are with Peter, those, verse 45, those of the circumcision, those who were born Jews circumcised the eighth day who had believed upon Jesus Christ and rejoiced in the good news of the Jewish Messiah.

They are now astonished. All of them who came from Joppa. Why? Because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also, they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God, just like in Pentecost.

So all of a sudden, Cornelius' group of a variety of different people, some of his soldiers and then his slaves, his household, relatives and friends in this port city of Caesarea have gathered together.

They could all kind of communicate together with the trade language of Greek, but they all come from different backgrounds. And all of a sudden, when the Holy Spirit comes upon them in their conversion, they begin preaching the good news.

They begin exclaiming the good news and thanking God for the good news in the languages that they had never learned before. And they all were edified. And then those who are with Peter are astonished at the power of the gospel.

They are astonished by the power of the gospel evident in the lives of these Gentiles. We ought to be astonished at the power of the gospel in our lives. Are you still astonished? Pardon the invention of a word, but perhaps we need to be re-astonished.

Re-astonished about the power of the gospel in our lives, that God would save us, that he would save us to that degree. And since God saves in this way. Peter answered, verse 47, Can anyone forbid water?

That these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. Then he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, and they asked him to stay a few days. In other words, well, the Lord has already brought them into his temple as living stones, so we ought to give an amen to that.

You see, when you're born again, you come to faith in Jesus Christ. What does the church say? Only that which shall have been confirmed in heaven. We're just going to say the amen. We're going to say the amen.

You come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're born again. You're alive by the grace of God in the life of the Holy Spirit. Then you are to be brought in full embrace into the church. How do you come in?

The front door is called baptism. Front door is called baptism. Now they are full members of the church. And what is the acceptance that we have? Well, it should be no surprise, but Ephesians chapter four, Ephesians chapter four, verse one, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

It's something that's already there. But the grace of God were called as stewards of the grace that we've been given, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Listen. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all.

Now, that is not the gospel, but it is a blessing of the gospel. Why is it that we can have this kind of unity? Why is it that we can be forgiven of our sins? Why is it that we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?

Why is it that we can have confidence to come before the throne of God to find grace and mercy in our time of need? Why is it that all of these things are so? It is because of the person and work of Jesus Christ and only him.

It is not my person by which I receive these blessings, it is not my work by which I achieve my salvation. It is Jesus Christ in him alone, and this is why this is why because of his resurrection that we rise, that we live in spiritual life.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the time you've given us in your word. I pray that you would help us to have a clear, undistracted affection for your son, Jesus Christ, that we rejoice in him and in his truth.

I pray that you help us to love Jesus, listen very carefully to his good news and live by the power of his resurrection. I pray these things in his name. Amen.

Would you stand.