Bringing in the Gentiles
The difficulty of change is a big part of what is behind the Biblical story of Cornelius. This man, you may already know, was the first Gentile convert to Christianity and no, the difficulty of change wasn’t his problem. The problem came when Jewish Christians were faced with accepting the Gentiles into the Kingdom of God. I realize that may sound rather strange to us but it was a huge obstacle to the church of the first century. Understand it has ramifications right down to our day.
Introduction
But Lord,
I’ve always bought brown sugar in square boxes with brown letters on the box.
I saw the plastic bags of sugar in the grocery store yesterday.
I could tell by looking that this was a better way.
The strong, air-tight bags would keep the sugar soft and useable.
But I’ve always bought brown sugar in boxes.
And I reached for the box.
Now, back home, I wonder why.
Lord, why are we... why am I... so reluctant to change old ways?
Some old ways are valid, but some need changing.
And I cling to square boxes with unthinking tenacity, just because I’ve always bought
square boxes.
That is not reason enough.
Times have changed - and are changing so fast it makes my head swim.
I am obligated to face my days intentionally!
The container that brown sugar comes in is no great thing.
But there are other, weightier matters that require rethinking - and perhaps revising.
If I am going to live significantly,
I must make my big decisions purposefully, intentionally, comprehensively.
Forgive my square boxes.
Amen.
That prayer comes from little book called BLESS THIS MESS AND OTHER PRAYERS, by Jo Carr and Imogene Sorely.
The difficulty of change is a big part of what is behind the Biblical story of Cornelius. This man, you may already know, was the first Gentile convert to Christianity and no, the difficulty of change wasn’t his problem. The problem came when Jewish Christians were faced with accepting the Gentiles into the Kingdom of God. I realize that may sound rather strange to us but it was a huge obstacle to the church of the first century. Understand it has ramifications right down to our day.
Perhaps the magnitude of the difficulty is why Luke, the writer of the New Testament book of Acts took a chapter and a half to tell the story.
Acts 10 is where we’ll begin our lesson this morning in our ongoing series called Acts of the Apostles. Please join me there in your Bibles. Today’s lesson is called Bringing in the Gentiles. It concerns the conversion of the household of Cornelius. As we go through this passage I want you to understand the context. Immediately before the events described in the tenth chapter of Acts are 1500 years of Jewish exclusivity. God’s people were the Israelites, the physical descendants of Abraham. While there was provision made for non-Jews to come to God, there was always a separation based upon race that kept Jew and Gentile apart. For now, due to the limits of our time, I’ll have to assume you understand at least some of the reasons for that. I’ve explained it before.
To help us move fairly rapidly through Acts 10 I have broken down Luke’s account into four parts that should be fairly easy to track. We begin now with:
1. The Vision of Cornelius
1 Now there was a certain man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, 2 a devout man, and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people, and prayed to God continually.
Cornelius was an officer in the Roman military, a centurion, which meant that he commanded 100 men - a group called a "century." His century was part of a larger division, a cohort, made up of six centuries. A Roman legion consisted of six cohorts. The Italian nationality of the men who made up Cornelius’ cohort may indicate that they were troops especially loyal to Rome. Cornelius’ name is Latin, not Jewish, one of several indicators in this passage that he was a Gentile and not a Jew.
Luke tells us four things about this man’s religion. He was devout. He was God-fearing. He was a giving man. And he was a praying man.
Later in this chapter, in verse 22, it says that Cornelius was "a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews."
With a description like that you might get the mistaken idea that Cornelius was in right standing with God because he was so religious. But he wasn’t. When Peter retold this story in Acts 11, he indicated in verse 14 that Cornelius was told to send for Peter who would "…speak words to you by which you will be saved…." Cornelius was religious, but unsaved - a condition similar to many modern people.
Though Cornelius was oriented toward the God of the Jews he was probably not yet a proselyte to the Jewish faith. In Acts 11:3, in Peter’s recounting of this story, the Jews accused Peter of going into the home of "uncircumcised men." So while Cornelius was certainly religious and sympathetic to the Jewish religion, apparently he had not yet fully submitted to the Law of Moses and circumcision. It is probably best to view Cornelius simply as a devout seeker of God who knew about the Jewish faith.
3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in to him, and said to him, "Cornelius!" 4 And fixing his gaze upon him and being much alarmed, he said, "What is it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
What a tribute to this man’s desire to please God! "Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God." Perhaps there could not have been a more appropriate person to have the honor of being the first Gentile convert.
Jesus had promised, "Seek and you shall find," and indeed, that is what we see happening here, even though the seeking Centurion and the mandatory messenger of God were in different cities.
5 "And now dispatch some men to Joppa, and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; 6 he is staying with a certain tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea."
So Cornelius, honored by God with a vision but probably rattled by the appearance of an angel, did what he was told to do.
7 And when the angel who was speaking to him had departed, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were in constant attendance upon him, 8 and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
2. The Vision of Peter
As the men sent by Cornelius approach the city of Joppa, Peter fell into a trance while he was praying and waiting for his noontime lunch.
9 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. 10 And he became hungry, and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; 11 and he beheld the sky opened up, and a certain object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him, "Arise, Peter, kill and eat!" 14 But Peter said, "By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean." 15 And again a voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." 16 And this happened three times; and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.
The key to understanding what is going on here is found in the meaning of those words, "all kinds of...animals and crawling creatures...and birds." Under the Law of Moses, the Jews could only consume certain animals for food. Everything else was off limits. God’s Old Testament list of clean and unclean animals can be found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Apparently this lowered sheet contained both clean and unclean animals and God’s command to "arise…, kill and eat" was inconsistent with the regulations under the Law of Moses. Peter’s immediate hesitation to obey was neither improper nor unpredictable. But the vision certainly left the Apostle scratching his head and wondering what was going on.
17 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; 18 and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. 19 And while Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are looking for you. 20 "But arise, go downstairs, and accompany them without misgivings; for I have sent them Myself."
So the Spirit gave Peter three more commands that seemed really strange to him. "Arise… go downstairs, and accompany these men without misgivings." But wait! Peter couldn’t go with these men! Jews weren’t supposed to have anything to do with Gentiles. What is going on?
Things were changing and Peter was experiencing some of the difficulty involved. In fact, he was having a hard time keeping up.
21 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?" 22 And they said, "Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you."
Stop there momentarily and notice two things in that last phrase in verse 22.
First, the angel specified that Peter was to visit the home of Cornelius, not the other way around. Verse 28 of this chapter makes it clear that Peter believed it was unlawful for him to visit a Gentile. So here is another big challenge for Peter - to visit a Gentile.
Second, the angel told these Gentile servants of Cornelius that they were to hear "a message" from Peter. Literally, they were to hear "words." Hang onto that. You might even want to put a little check mark beside it. It will have some significance later in this passage.
23 And so he invited them in and gave them lodging. And on the next day he arose and went away with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him.
You have to wonder where Peter had those Gentiles sleep that night! Did he invite them in to where he was staying or offer them some kind of outbuilding? This was all very new to him.
3. The Conversion of Cornelius
24 And on the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them, and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 And when it came about that Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter raised him up, saying, "Stand up; I too am just a man."
Notice that Peter refused to receive worship from Cornelius. While the Apostles were great men and filled a critical role in the church, they were still just men and no man is supposed to be worshipped, not even an important one. Only God is to be worshipped. Perhaps this is further reason to believe that
Cornelius wasn’t a proselyte. Surely had he been more versed in the Law he would have understood that it is wrong to bow down in worship to any man.
27 And as he talked with him, he entered, and found many people assembled. 28 And he said to them, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.
That was the message of the clean and unclean animals on the sheet! Peter is beginning to understand the change going on.
29 "That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for. And so I ask for what reason you have sent for me."
It seems that though Peter understands that things are changing, he still hasn’t figured out that God wants him to preach the gospel to these Gentiles.
It might seem at first that God was only now revealing His acceptance of the Gentiles to Peter, but that really wasn’t the case. The words of Jesus before his ascension, as recorded in Mark 16:15, had been, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." In Acts 1:8 Jesus told the apostles, "You shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." Peter himself had said on Pentecost to the assembled Jews, "For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off…." The taking of the gospel to the Gentiles had been adequately revealed. It just hadn’t sunk in yet.
30 And Cornelius said, "Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour; and behold, a man stood before me in shining garments, 31 and he said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. 32 ‘Send therefore to Joppa and invite Simon, who is also called Peter, to come to you; he is staying at the house of Simon the tanner by the sea.’ 33 "And so I sent to you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here present before God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord."
Remember what I asked you to hang onto back in verse 22? "Cornelius… was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message (literally, to hear words) from you." What message? What words? The message, the words that were to be taken into all creation! Jesus made them clear in Mark 16:15-16: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."
Now back to our text.
34 And opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, 35 but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right, is welcome to Him. 36 "The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all) — 37 you yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed. 38 "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him. 39 "And we are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. And they also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. 40 "God raised Him up on the third day, and granted that He should become visible, 41 not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us, who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. 42 "And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead. 43 "Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins."
This is a good sermon! But apparently both the hearers and the preacher needed a little bit more motivation. Remember that Peter himself was still figuring it out. So God gave them all a sign to verify the truth that the Gentiles could come to God, too,.
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. 45 And all the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also. 46 For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God.
If Peter needed any further proof after the two visions that the Gentiles were to be included in the gospel message, he surely had it now.
Then Peter answered, 47 "Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?" 48 And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.
Several important doctrinal issues arise from the account of this passage. I don’t have time to deal with all of them so I’ll focus primarily on just one. It can be phrased in the form of a question: When was Cornelius saved? Was he saved before or after he was baptized in water?
Those who believe we are saved by faith only with no action or obedience on our part say that Cornelius was saved before he was baptized, the moment he believed Peter’s message. After all, didn’t the Holy Spirit fall upon them before they were baptized? Isn’t that proof that they were saved before they were baptized?
To begin, let me point out that the passage does not say directly when salvation and forgiveness of sins was given or when Cornelius moved from a lost condition to a saved one. We are left to deduce that answer and before we do that, perhaps we should be sure we have the entire story, because it doesn’t stop here. There is one more part.
4. Peter’s Explanation
After Peter stayed on for a few days with Cornelius and his household, he went up to Jerusalem. When he arrived he learned that the news of what had happened in Caesarea had arrived there before him. Not surprisingly, a delegation of Jews met him to find out why in the world he had been preaching to uncircumcised Gentiles.
1 Now the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, 3 saying, "You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them."
What follows is a recounting of the things we just read in chapter 10.
4 But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence, saying,
Note Peter’s stress on re-telling the story in orderly sequence. That is important, as we shall soon see.
Peter goes on to tell of the vision of clean and unclean animals, the appearance of the servants of Cornelius at the gate of the residence where he was staying, the words of the Holy Spirit telling him to go with them without misgivings. I won’t read it now because it is nearly identical to what we read in chapter 10. Then he comes to the vision that Cornelius had. We’ll pick it up there because Peter clarifies a couple of things that are important to the question I asked earlier about the timing of Cornelius’ salvation.
13 "And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, ‘Send to Joppa, and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here; 14 and he shall speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’
Peter was to speak words by which Cornelius and those in his house would be saved. The words would be important. You might recall verse 22 of chapter 10 that I asked you to mark and hang onto. That verse said, "Cornelius… was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you [Peter] to come to his house and hear a message [literally, "hear words"] from you."
From these two verses we learn that for Cornelius to be saved he had to hear certain words Peter was to bring him. Now look at the next verse:
15 "And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He did upon us at the beginning.
Question: When did the Holy Spirit fall upon these Gentiles? What does it say here? As Peter began to speak. So was it at the beginning, the middle, or the end of Peter’s sermon that the Holy Spirit fell upon them? It was at the beginning. Before he had a chance to speak all of the words by which they would be saved, the Holy Spirit fell upon them. In other words, the Holy Spirit fell upon them before they were saved. They had not yet heard the words.
What we have here is a case of the Holy Spirit falling upon unsaved people. Why? To convince Peter to go ahead and preach to them those words by which they would be saved.
Wait a minute? Can the Holy Spirit come upon a person not saved by the blood of Jesus? More specifically, did the Holy Spirit ever come upon a person not saved by the blood of Jesus? Yes, He did. Here are a couple of examples.
In Luke 2:25 we read these words about a Jewish man in the Temple named Simeon who met Joseph and Mary not long after Jesus’ birth: "And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him." This man was not a Christian because Jesus was still a baby. Yet the Holy Spirit was upon him.
When Samuel revealed to Saul that he would be the first King of Israel, we read in 1 Samuel 10:10: "When they came to the hill there, behold, a group of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him mightily, so that he prophesied among them." Surely no one would suggest that because the Holy Spirit came upon Saul, he was a Christian. Jesus wouldn’t be born for another 1000 years.
The Holy Spirit most certainly has operated upon various people for various reasons throughout the Bible and it wasn’t necessarily an indicator that they were saved by the blood of Jesus. Further, I suggest to you that there is a difference between the Holy Spirit coming upon a person and being in a person.
Since the Spirit fell upon Cornelius and his household at the beginning of Peter’s sermon, before he had a chance to speak the words he needed to hear in order to be saved, it doesn’t seem correct to conclude that Cornelius was saved before he heard the words he needed to hear. This account is not an exception or a contradiction to what Peter and the other apostles had preached earlier in Acts. When Peter finally got around to speaking those words that needed to be heard so that Cornelius could be saved, they were the same as they had been to the Jews.(1)
On Pentecost, Peter told the Jews who wanted to be saved, "Repent and let each of you be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The case of Cornelius was no different except that God gave some validation in the form of a manifestation of the Spirit so that Peter would know it was permissible to speak those words. The Holy Spirit came upon them to prove that the Gentiles could be saved. Presumably, Peter finished his sermon, including those words they needed to hear in order to be saved, which aren’t necessarily recorded here, and then he called on these Gentiles to repent and be baptized just as he called on the Jews to do in the second chapter of Acts.(2)
"Wait a minute!" someone says. "I see baptism in verse 47 but repentance isn’t mentioned in Peter’s sermon."
No it isn’t. But apparently he taught it, even though it isn’t recorded in chapter 10. Look at the next verses:
16 "And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 "If God therefore gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?" 18 And when they heard this, they quieted down, and glorified God, saying, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life."
We know Peter preached repentance because the Jews grilling him acknowledged it there in verse 18: "God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life." We know that he preached baptism because he ordered their immediate baptism in water. Surely he didn’t do that without some instruction.
Cornelius wasn’t saved before he repented and was baptized. He was saved when he did these things, just like the Jews on Pentecost and everybody else described in the book of Acts.
Conclusion
Change is hard but sometimes it is necessary. We’ve learned that from this passage in Acts. When it comes to the things of God, whenever we find ourselves on the wrong side of what His word teaches, it’s time for us to change, no matter how hard it may be.
Footnotes: Please use your back button to return to your place.
1. See Acts 15:11 where Peter made this clear: "But we believe
that we [the Jews] are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way
as they [the Gentiles] also are."
2. Acts 2:37-39
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
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All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.
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