Pastor Jeremy M. Thomas
Fredericksburg Bible Church
107 East Austin
Fredericksburg, Texas 78624
830-997-8834      jthomas@fbgbible.org
A0848 – November 30, 2008 – Acts 10:24-48 – The Gentile Pentecost

Acts 10:24-48 τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὴν Καισάρειαν. ὁ δὲ Κορνήλιος ἦν προσδοκῶν αὐτοὺς συγκαλεσάμενος τοὺς συγγενεῖς αὐτοῦ καὶ τοὺς ἀναγκαίους φίλους. 25Ὡς δὲ ἐγένετο τοῦ εἰσελθεῖν τὸν Πέτρον, συναντήσας αὐτῷ ὁ Κορνήλιος πεσὼν ἐπὶ τοὺς πόδας προσεκύνησεν. 26ὁ δὲ Πέτρος ἤγειρεν αὐτὸν λέγων· ἀνάστηθι· καὶ ἐγὼ αὐτὸς ἄνθρωπός εἰμι. 27καὶ συνομιλῶν αὐτῷ εἰσῆλθεν καὶ εὑρίσκει συνεληλυθότας πολλούς, 28ἔφη τε πρὸς αὐτούς· ὑμεῖς ἐπίστασθε ὡς ἀθέμιτόν ἐστιν ἀνδρὶ Ἰουδαίῳ κολλᾶσθαι ἢ προσέρχεσθαι ἀλλοφύλῳ· κἀμοὶ ὁ θεὸς ἔδειξεν μηδένα κοινὸν ἢ ἀκάθαρτον λέγειν ἄνθρωπον· 29διὸ καὶ ἀναντιρρήτως ἦλθον μεταπεμφθείς. πυνθάνομαι οὖν τίνι λόγῳ μετεπέμψασθέ με; 30καὶ ὁ Κορνήλιος ἔφη· ἀπὸ τετάρτης ἡμέρας μέχρι ταύτης τῆς ὥρας ἤμην τὴν ἐνάτην προσευχόμενος ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ μου, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἀνὴρ ἔστη ἐνώπιόν μου ἐν ἐσθῆτι λαμπρᾷ 31καὶ φησίν· Κορνήλιε, εἰσηκούσθη σου ἡ προσευχὴ καὶ αἱ ἐλεημοσύναι σου ἐμνήσθησαν ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ. 32πέμψον οὖν εἰς Ἰόππην καὶ μετακάλεσαι Σίμωνα ὃς ἐπικαλεῖται Πέτρος, οὗτος ξενίζεται ἐν οἰκίᾳ Σίμωνος βυρσέως παρὰ θάλασσαν. 33ἐξαυτῆς οὖν ἔπεμψα πρὸς σέ, σύ τε καλῶς ἐποίησας παραγενόμενος. νῦν οὖν πάντες ἡμεῖς ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ πάρεσμεν ἀκοῦσαι πάντα τὰ προστεταγμένα σοι ὑπὸ τοῦ κυρίου. 34Ἀνοίξας δὲ Πέτρος τὸ στόμα εἶπεν· ἐπʼ ἀληθείας καταλαμβάνομαι ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν προσωπολήμπτης ὁ θεός, 35ἀλλʼ ἐν παντὶ ἔθνει ὁ φοβούμενος αὐτὸν καὶ ἐργαζόμενος δικαιοσύνην δεκτὸς αὐτῷ ἐστιν. 36τὸν λόγον [ὃν] ἀπέστειλεν τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ εὐαγγελιζόμενος εἰρήνην διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, οὗτός ἐστιν πάντων κύριος, 37ὑμεῖς οἴδατε τὸ γενόμενον ῥῆμα καθʼ ὅλης τῆς Ἰουδαίας, ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας μετὰ τὸ βάπτισμα ὃ ἐκήρυξεν Ἰωάννης, 38Ἰησοῦν τὸν ἀπὸ Ναζαρέθ, ὡς ἔχρισεν αὐτὸν ὁ θεὸς πνεύματι ἁγίῳ καὶ δυνάμει, ὃς διῆλθεν εὐεργετῶν καὶ ἰώμενος πάντας τοὺς καταδυναστευομένους ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς ἦν μετʼ αὐτοῦ. 39καὶ ἡμεῖς μάρτυρες πάντων ὧν ἐποίησεν ἔν τε τῇ χώρᾳ τῶν Ἰουδαίων καὶ [ἐν] Ἰερουσαλήμ. ὃν καὶ ἀνεῖλαν κρεμάσαντες ἐπὶ ξύλου, 40τοῦτον ὁ θεὸς ἤγειρεν [ἐν] τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτὸν ἐμφανῆ γενέσθαι, 41οὐ παντὶ τῷ λαῷ, ἀλλὰ μάρτυσιν τοῖς προκεχειροτονημένοις ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἡμῖν, οἵτινες συνεφάγομεν καὶ συνεπίομεν αὐτῷ μετὰ τὸ ἀναστῆναι αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν· 42καὶ παρήγγειλεν ἡμῖν κηρύξαι τῷ λαῷ καὶ διαμαρτύρασθαι ὅτι οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ὡρισμένος ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ κριτὴς ζώντων καὶ νεκρῶν. 43τούτῳ πάντες οἱ προφῆται μαρτυροῦσιν ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν λαβεῖν διὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ πάντα τὸν πιστεύοντα εἰς αὐτόν. 44Ἔτι λαλοῦντος τοῦ Πέτρου τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα ἐπέπεσεν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀκούοντας τὸν λόγον. 45καὶ ἐξέστησαν οἱ ἐκ περιτομῆς πιστοὶ ὅσοι συνῆλθαν τῷ Πέτρῳ, ὅτι καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ ἔθνη ἡ δωρεὰ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐκκέχυται· 46ἤκουον γὰρ αὐτῶν λαλούντων γλώσσαις καὶ μεγαλυνόντων τὸν θεόν. τότε ἀπεκρίθη Πέτρος· 47μήτι τὸ ὕδωρ δύναται κωλῦσαί τις τοῦ μὴ βαπτισθῆναι τούτους, οἵτινες τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἔλαβον ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς; 48προσέταξεν δὲ αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ βαπτισθῆναι. τότε ἠρώτησαν αὐτὸν ἐπιμεῖναι ἡμέρας τινάς. (NA27)

Acts 10:24-48 On the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him. 26But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am just a man.” 27As he talked with him, he entered and found many people assembled. 28And 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. 29“That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for. So I ask for what reason you have sent for me.” 30Cornelius 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, 31and he said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. 32‘Therefore send 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“So I sent for 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.” 34Opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, 35but 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)— 37you 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“We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. 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 become visible, 41not 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.” 44While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. 45All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. 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?” 48And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days. (NASB95)

Question:
I was reading the most recent issue of “Israel My Glory,” magazine and in one article the author discusses the original noun for “virgin” in the Old Testament prophecies about Messiah’s birth and states that Jews do not believe that a virgin birth was prophesied. Is that the case? 

It is true that most Jewish apologists reject Isa 7:14 as referring to a virgin birth. Turn to Isa 7:14. How do we answer this? Does the OT prophesy a virgin birth or is that the figment of Christian imagination. One thing you have to understand is that Jewish apologists are very familiar with Christian arguments for the Messiahship of Jesus and so they have tried to shut the door on Christians by canning certain arguments. This is one of their canned arguments. It’s a straw man argument. Verse 14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” What they say is that the Hebrew word translated “virgin” here is almah which is just a “young maiden” and that if Isaiah had wanted to say “virgin” he would have used a different Hebrew word, betulah, and then it would have been definitively a virgin birth. How do we answer them? The first point against this interpretation is that all the ancient Jewish writers considered this a prophecy of the virgin birth of the Messiah. It’s only the modern Jew from the time of Rashi on, 11th century AD, that we have this change in Jewish interpretation. Second, the Jews who translated Isaiah into the Greek 200 years before the Messiah’s birth translated this word almah with the Greek parthenos and parthenos always refers to a “virgin,” so the Jews 200 years before Christ thought this was a virgin birth prophecy. To this we have no doubt. The third argument gets into the grammar, but to put it simply, there are two signs in this passage, there is a sign to King Ahaz and there is a sign to the whole house of David. We know this because when the sign is for King Ahaz a singular personal pronoun [you] is used, every time you find the singular vv 9, 11, 16 and 17 all singular, all referring to a sign for King Ahaz. So obviously it has to happen in his lifetime, we call that a near prophecy. Vv 13-14 do not use the singular personal pronoun but the plural. That’s because the sign in these verses is for the whole house of David not Ahaz and so there’s a shift to the plural personal pronoun [you] to go along with the whole house of David. Verse 13, “Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you [plural] to try the patience of men, that you [plural] will try the patience of my God as well? 14“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you [plural] a sign: Behold, a virgin [and that should be “the virgin” with the definite article] Behold, the virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” Then the passage shifts back to the singular. So this sign in vv 13-14 is a far prophecy for the house of David. When you come to the NT and you read Matt 1:23 and this verse is quoted by Matthew he translates almah as parthenos which is just like the LXX and always means “virgin.” Those are the grammatical and theological arguments. Even if you dismiss these arguments the logical argument will really tie you in a pickle. The problem with seeing Isa 7:14 as anything less than a prophecy of a “virgin birth” is how then would it be a “sign”? If this is only a “young maiden” conceiving and bearing a child how would one distinguish that from all the other young maiden’s conceiving and bearing a child in Israel? By definition, to be a sign it must have some unusual characteristic about it that distinguishes it from all the other “young maiden” births. And so you must conclude that Isa 7:14 is referring to a virgin birth. And further you must conclude that if the Messiah is to be born of the house of David then He must have been virgin born before 70AD. Because in 70AD all the genealogical records of the house of David were destroyed. And therefore it would be impossible to identify whether a Jew born today was of the house of David, yet that’s the very purpose of this and other OT prophecies. A Jew today who rejects the Messiahship of Jesus is really left without any hope of identifying the Messiah because anyone could claim to be the Messiah. How are you going to know if he’s of the house of David? There’s no way to tell and of course that’s one reason the Antichrist will be so widely accepted as the Messiah. So that’s a very a propos question in light of our celebration of Jesus’ virgin birth next month. While a large portion of the world is going to celebrate Christmas and give gifts and so forth 99% of them don’t’ believe in the very reason we celebrate which is the virgin birth. If I were you I’d start asking my non-Christian friends, “Hey, why do you celebrate Christmas, you don’t believe in it. I don’t celebrate national gay pride month. Why are you celebrating the virgin birth?” This is some of the fun you can have with people who like to play games and never think.

Alright, let’s turn again to the Book of Acts. I hope you’re enjoying this series. This is a book which hadn’t been taught at Fredericksburg Bible so I chose it for that reason. Plus it’s going to answer a lot of questions that people have about tongues, about baptism, about the Holy Spirit and it’s going to give us a firm background for the epistles, these letters weren’t written in a vacuum, they were composed in the 1st century Roman Empire and so this gives us the historical context for the epistles.

Now Acts is tracing the transition, the transition from stage one in Jerusalem to stage two in the regions of Judea and Samaria and finally to stage three, the remotest parts of the earth, each transition causes some turmoil in the early church and the turmoil in chapter 10 is the dietary laws. Food was the chief thing that separated Jews from Gentiles. The Jews could associate with Gentiles but if they did it rendered them unclean so they didn’t enter Gentile houses, they didn’t handle Gentile things and the worst thing you could possibly do was sit down and eat at a Gentile table. So if the witness is to go out to the Gentiles so you can have Jew and Gentile in one body, the body of Christ, the table has to be rearranged, the food issue has to be restructured.

As we said, these dietary codes were a part of the Mosaic Law and their primary purpose was to build a hedge around the nation Israel. Keep Israel separate. Think of the Law as a fence around the nation Israel. Then the rabbi’s came in and added tradition, the Haggadah, the Mishnah, these were traditions that grew up around the law to keep you from breaking the law, they were like warning lights. Over time they became equal in authority to Torah. So now you had two authorities so to speak and this was like two fences separating Jew and Gentile. The barrier had been reinforced to the point that the missionary enterprise that was supposed to be happening between Jew and Gentile could no longer happen. It had created warring factions like the Zealots who would sneak into crowds and assassinate those who favored Roman influence, Roman culture. There was all this hostility. It was this fence erected by the traditions of Judaism that had to be destroyed if this hostility was going to solved. And so when Jesus Christ came one of the very first things he taught was the Sermon on the Mount and in that sermon He was going right at Jewish tradition, it wasn’t the Mosaic Law he was trying to knock down, he came to fulfill that. But to do that, to get to the real issue He had to tear down the rabbinic tradition, the rabbinic fence. And so He said things like, “You have heard it said so and so,” and that was the tradition, that was what the rabbi’s had taught the people in synagogue, and He would say, “but I tell you this…” And that was His way of saying, you’re authorities are wrong, you’re rabbi’s have erected this tradition but the real issue is God’s law. You’re rabbi’s want to generate law, they want to legislate, but God’s the legislator and as long as they keep doing that they end up x’ing out God’s law. Rabbinic tradition negated the truth. And by way of application don’t think you’re immune to this; 99% of people that go to church go to their church because of some tradition. I like the candles, I like the mass, I like the music, it’s just tradition, tradition, tradition till the tradition is all that matters. Now there is one tradition that is valid and it’s the tradition of the early church and that is teaching the truth, teaching content. If that’s your tradition, great. But once you set up tradition outside of truth you’re in trouble. Once you do that you always get the people that love the truth over here and the people who love the tradition over there and most people love the tradition. And Jesus was saying, you’ve got a problem here, your rabbinic tradition is over here, the Scriptures are over there. And that’s basically where the Jews were. It was all tradition, tradition, tradition. I want you to hear this for yourself. I want you to listen to Gutterman, he’s a Messianic Jew, he converted several years ago but he’s recounting his childhood training, he was raised in Orthodox Judaism, he learned Hebrew, did his bar Mitzvah the whole nine yards. He says, “The Gathering Storm, January 2007, Topic: The Middle East with Stephen Ger and Jeff Gutterman” Track 5 3:31-4:11.

The first century was no different. These people supposedly knew the Bible but what was important was the religious traditions and this ended up nullifying the Law. So understand, Peter was raised under the tradition from a child, he sat under Jesus Christ for about three years. And a lot of what Christ had taught he didn’t understand, it took him years to shift from tradition to the truth. Some of you here are in that transition, you were trained in a false system and you’re trying to get all the data rearranged up here, don’t get discouraged, here’s an apostle, he sat under Christ’s teaching ministry for three years and he didn’t get it all down pat overnight. So don’t worry, it will start to sink in, it just takes time. But Peter’s getting a little shove in Acts 10 because the plan of God is moving to the Gentile Cornelius and Peter is a part of that plan, so the dietary barrier has to be shoved aside if this transaction is going to happen. 

So he has his vision of this sheet with clean and unclean animals in it and he’s thinking, “That’s gross,” and then a voice, “Rise Peter, kill and eat.” “What, are you crazy, I never ate pork.” And the voice comes again, “Peter, rise, kill and eat.” “Lord, do you know what’s in that?” Rise Peter, kill and eat!” And the guy can’t figure this out. This is the essence of Peter’s dilemma. Peter had a problem and his basic problem was that he thought what went into a man’s mouth was what made him unclean. And the Gentiles ate unclean animals so they were unclean people, dirty people. The Jews had a nice little pejorative term for the Gentile. Anyone know what it was? The dogs. Gentiles were dogs. Dogs basically are scavengers, they eat road kill. And the Jews were not going to sit down with these dogs. Now turn over to Mark 7. Mark’s gospel discusses the dietary code. Mark was the amanuensis for Peter, that just means he attended all his sermons and took notes, wrote down what Peter wanted written down. He was Peter’s sidekick. Of course he heard about Peter’s vision in Acts 10 and he heard Peter preach on the food issue over and over and over. So let’s see what he wrote about the food issue. Verse 17, here’s something Peter told Mark about Jesus’ teaching. “When he had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable. 18And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, 19because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.) notice the parentheses, this is a side note, he’s reflecting back after the vision in Acts 10, Peter didn’t get this together when Jesus said this, it took him years to get this. But thinking back Peter said to Mark, “I remember the time when the Lord Jesus said this. And I realize now He was declaring all foods clean!” Verse 20, And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. 21“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. 23“All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.” And that of course is the real issue, not what food you eat but what’s in the heart, the mental attitude, the thought processes. Back to Acts 10. And one more thing on the way. Where was Peter when he saw this vision on the rooftop? Where did Simon the tanner live? Joppa. Who else do you remember from the OT was at a crossroads in Joppa? Jonah. What was the mission of both of these men? Go to Gentiles, go to the dogs. Jonah failed. Jonah sailed off into a storm of divine discipline. Do you think Peter has that in mind? I don’t want to make the same mistake as Jonah. So putting all these things together what did Peter do? How did he react to the vision?

Verse 24, On the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. So Peter and the dispatch went to Caesarea. In 11:12 how many circumcised Jews did Peter take along? Six. Why do you think Peter took six circumcised Jews? Under Jewish law you had to have two witnesses right, everything is to be confirmed by two witnesses. So and so murders someone, you better have two witnesses because you’re not getting a murder conviction without them. So if this thing is legit and Gentiles are going to come into the Church, in his mind is this not bigger than a murder case? The six witnesses signals the gravity of the situation. So they took the trip, they went up the Via Maris, the international highway; it took them a couple of days to make it back to Cornelius’ than the dispatch from Cornelius’. But the whole time according to verse 30 was “four days.” Four days would be like a Monday to Thursday because in the Jewish reckoning any part of a day is reckoned as a full day. That’s why you read Jesus Christ three days in the tomb, three days and three nights and so forth, it’s not saying 72 hours, it’s saying a part of a day, a full day and a part of a third day, and that’s why a Friday crucifixion and a Sunday resurrection is no problem. And so they arrive on the fourth day in Caesarea. And Cornelius was waiting and had called together his relatives and close friends. Now why is that little note put in there? Because all these people are going to shortly be regenerated, be born again, integrated into the Church and what do you have ready made, with an instant work of the Holy Spirit? The first Gentile congregation. So Cornelius has gathered his friends and we’ll see the formation of the first congregation. 

Verse 25, as Peter walks in the room what happens? When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him. Look at this, this is a Captain of the Italian Cohort and he’s down on the ground about to kiss Peter’s big toe. At St Peter’s Basilica in Rome they have a statue of Peter and the pilgrims come in and they all bow down and kiss Peter’s big toe. 
 
This is one of the three times in the NT where men are worshipped. These three verses give you the background to deal with the problem of Jesus Christ being worshipped. Jesus Christ was worshipped and He permitted it and you hear people say, “Yeah, but all the great men in the ancient world were worshipped. Therefore Jesus was just a great man.” That may be so outside of Israel but that was not true within Israel. Jews did not worship men. To prove it mark down Acts 14:11, there Paul and Barnabas are worshipped by the Lystrans and they do everything they can to shut down that operation, saying “We are men of the same nature as you, worship God.” Rev 19:8-9 is another one where the apostle John falls down at the feet of an angel and the angel says “Don’t do that. I’m a servant of the Most High God just like you. Worship God.” And of course, Peter here in verse 26 rejects this saying, “Stand up, I too am just a man.” 

The Jews rejected the worship of men. Now in light of these three verses whenever you see people worshiping Jesus like Thomas in John 20, “My Lord and my God,” when you see for example in Luke 5 Peter himself falls down at Jesus’ knees, when you see passages like those, there’s only one way to interpret them. Jesus was permitting, against the grain of the Jewish culture, against Judaism, He was allowing Himself to be worshipped. And to that you can only respond in one of three ways: Jesus was a liar, Jesus was a lunatic, or He was the Lord God incarnate. There are not any in-betweens, not in this culture. The people who read the Bible at 60 miles an hour and feel their way through Christianity never seem to catch the force of this but this is one of many evidences that Jesus Christ is God. 

So Peter tells Cornelius, Stand up, don’t kiss my big toe, I’m just a man! And it’s sort of irony for the Roman Catholic Church because they claim Peter as their first pope, yet he was married and did not accept worship.   

Verse 27, 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. Notice, that’s your interpretation of how Peter understood the vision. He grasped that the vision of food primarily wasn’t given because of the diet; the vision was given because he had to go to people who ate unclean food and so it had all come back to him what Christ had taught, that eating unclean food was not what made a person unclean and therefore the fact Cornelius ate unclean food was no longer a blockade to the gospel. 

And verse 29 shows you that he got the picture rather quickly up on the roof of Cornelius’ house, when he was up their thinking it all out and the dispatch arrived it clicked, he knew he was going on a mission trip and it wasn’t a mission trip to fellow Jews, it was a mission trip to Gentiles. He says, “That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for. So I ask for what reason you have sent for me.” What’s fascinating here is that he realized he was wrong, he admitted he was wrong and he stopped making excuses, he just obeyed the word of God. This is a key example in the NT of a believer who holds to belief A, he’s held belief A all his life and then suddenly he’s confronted with the truth and the truth contradicts belief A and in that situation you have a choice to make. Are you going to reject your lifelong belief and accept the truth or are you going to make up some silly excuse to try to avoid the humiliation of having to admit you’re wrong. That’s the licentious route. Always trying to justify what I did wasn’t really wrong because of this technicality over here. But Peter is willing to admit Lord, I was wrong, you’re right and I’m following your word. It’s a tremendous act. Why is it so tremendous? Because this man understood the consequences of this. The moment he crossed the threshold of that Gentile house he knew very well his fellow Jews were going to jump him. And that’s exactly what they do in chapter 11. No sooner does he get back to Jerusalem then he’s attacked. And knowing that he still went with the word of God. You may have to face ridicule, you may be persecuted, you may be mocked but are you willing to follow the word of God wherever it might lead? The battle is heating if you haven’t noticed. The battle between light and darkness is a head to head conflict and I’m afraid before long we’re going to see who the real warriors of the Christian faith are, there’s going to be a separation between the men and the boys. 

And so verse 30, Cornelius gives the explanation. “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, now, this was an angel but notice it describes the angel as a man, standing there in shining garments, that just means white garments with an added shimmer, it was the dress of Cornelius’ day with a little spice. Some of you think if an angel appeared to you he’d be a big winged creature. You think that because of Medieval art, not because of the Bible. Because in the Bible when angels appear to men they always appear dressed in the normal clothing of the day. So today if one walked in he might be wearing cowboy boots, he’d just fit in alongside everyone else. You probably wouldn’t even know he was here. And notice he’s described as a man, that’s the word aner, which is used to say, the angel was a man, he appeared as a man. And that’s why in Gen 6 you read of the Sons of God coming into the daughters of men and producing these strange offspring, the Nephilim, and we say these were fallen angels intermarrying with human females and you say, that’s strange, but what’s strange is that it’s always a one way marriage, it’s never daughters of God marrying sons of men, it’s always Sons of God marrying daughters of men. And the point is that it indicates that angels are all masculine. Sometimes people quote Matt 22, angels don’t marry, but actually it says angels in heaven don’t marry. The angels in Gen 6 were on earth. Other people say angels are sexless, but this verse argues against this. Angels show up in Scripture looking like men and you can touch them, you can eat and drink with them, you can touch them. And I suppose in addition to eating and drinking and touching them they had sex with these daughters of men, at least in Gen 6. And they produced these freak offspring, the Nephilim, which, Scripturally speaking are the background truth behind the mythology of Greek gods and goddesses. People didn’t just make them up. There was a truth basis but over time it was distorted and people started worshipping these beings of old that were great and powerful, the human-angelic offspring. There’s a reason for all this in the angelic conflict but our point here is that when angels appear to men they show up as men. This is what Cornelius saw.

Verse 31, and he said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. Now this bothers people because you say, “Cornelius is an unbeliever and no unbeliever can please God.” So what’s this? Remember, verse 4, his prayers and alms were remembered by God. There’s only one way to answer this. “…there are certain things that do count before God.”  They don’t merit salvation but God does take note of certain things? Who was Cornelius giving alms to? The Jewish people. Who are the Jewish people? God’s chosen people, He chose them in the Abrahamic Covenant and he said in Gen 12:3, “If you bless them, you will be blessed.” Has Cornelius been blessing the Jews? Yes he has. Is the Lord going to send him blessings for this? Absolutely. God is faithful to His word. So this evidences the fact that the Abrahamic Covenant is still in force even in light of the recent fact that the Jewish people crucified the Son of God. Even after the crucifixion God loves them. They are still His people. God hasn’t fully cast off the Jewish people. The Abrahamic Covenant is an everlasting covenant and evidently Gen 12:3 is still in full effect. This is evidence of it.  And we conclude from this that God was blessing Cornelius because Cornelius was blessing Jews. 

And so, verse 32, he gets more light, ‘Therefore send 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 “So I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. Now that’s the vision and Cornelius’ response to the vision. And notice the reception words, you have been kind enough to come. That shows you as an officer he not only did things, he not only requested things of people, but he knew the cost and the effort that would be required by the men who carried these orders out. So when he says you have been kind enough to come, that tells you that Cornelius sympathized with all that Peter had to go through. He’s saying in this short phrase, Peter, I understand it was a big mess for you, a Jew, to come to me, a Gentile. I understand, Peter, that you even threatened your own social status before your fellow Jews by walking in this door just now. I understand that Peter and I’m deeply thankful to you for it. And that’s another hallmark of the great leader and officer Cornelius was.

Then he goes on to say, Now then, we are all here present before God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”And the verb there commanded is the verb used to pass a military order from a superior to an inferior, the Greek word is prostasso and it is used to describe military operations, and he says, “we have come to hear what God has commanded.” Another element of his soldier mentality is the fact you don’t see any beating around the bush, “Do you want a drink Peter, do you want to sit down, should we start with Kumbaya.” No, it’s just let’s get to the point, we’re here, we’re all ears, we want to know the word of God. And you can’t ask for much better an audience. These people have their priorities straight, number one on the list is the word of God. As a military man he knows what’s important and what’s important is what the Commander of the Universe has commanded. 

So what have we seen, we’ve had the first major Jew-Gentile breach and it happened with a man who was deeply a part of the Roman system, a man who was entrenched in Daniel’s fourth empire, a man though who understood authority, a man who had responded to the light he had in the Roman world, he had apparently rejected the Continuity of Being where all of being is on a continuum and you just have shades of being and he had identified with the Creator-creature distinction of the Jewish Torah. And he had recognized the Jews as God’s chosen people and he was blessing them and the Lord took note. Evidently the Abrahamic Covenant is still in effect and the principle of world history, he that blesses you will be blessed and he that curses you will be cursed is an everlasting principle. Cornelius gets more light due to the fact he had responded positively to the light God had given him and the gospel has now arrived at his house due to the fact of his blessing the Jews. We’ll get into the details of the sermon next time.