(Acts 10:34-41) Below is a section of a Bible lesson I recently wrote that will be published in the Fall by Stinson Press. In it, we see that God is very inclusive, for the doorway to Him is always open to any who would enter. However, the doorway is Jesus Christ.
God provided the
Jewish people with a multitude of guidelines, and prohibitions to maintain
their uniqueness and purity of bloodline. However, this was to enable them to
be a light to the world and avenue through which His Son would enter the world.
Their role was to be a people unspotted by the world but heavily involved in
the world. They were to bridge the gap between God and the world. Instead, they
separated themselves from the world in every way possible. They looked down on
those who were not a part of their Jewish world.
Consequently, God had to do something extraordinary to convince the Jewish converts to take the gospel to the Gentiles. He chose Peter to build the first bridge to the Gentile world.
In the first part of
this chapter, God sends an angel by way of a vision to Cornelius, a centurion at
Caesarea. He is a proselyte, one who has converted to Judaism. We know this
because verse 2 says he was “A devout man and one that feared God with all
his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always.” In the
vision, he is told to send men to Joppa to a specific house and bring a man by
the name of Peter back with them.
Just
before the men arrive at the house where Peter is staying God gives Peter a
vision. In it, a large sheet is lowered down before him with various unclean
animals on it. He then hears a voice that tells him to kill and eat. Peter
refuses and says he has never eaten anything common or unclean. Peter thought
it was a test from God, when in fact, God was conveying a new truth to Peter.
After Peter’s refusal, the voice said, “What God hath cleansed, that call not
thou common” (Acts 10:15 KJV). While Peter was thinking about the vision, the
Bible says, “the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.
20 Arise, therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting
nothing: for I have sent them” (vv.19-20).
After
the men explained what they wanted he was able to understand what the vision
was about. When he arrived at Cornelius’s home, he acknowledged that God is not
a respecter of people. He then points this out to Cornelius and his household
by saying. “But in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness
is accepted with him” (v.35).
Peter
then shares the gospel with the Cornelius’ household. He points out that Jesus
is Lord of all and then proceeds to back up his claim by reminding Cornelius of
the things that he and all of Israel had heard about Jesus. The baptizing of
Jesus by John, the miracles by Jesus, and His death, burial, and resurrection,
all of which provide the proof that warrants believing and putting one’s faith
in Jesus as the Messiah. Furthermore, Peter points out that the resurrected
Jesus did appear to His many followers.
