Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts - 28

Acts 10:34-48

Introduction

“Incident and Emergency Management,” also known as “prepping” has seen a dramatic rise in recent years.

Once a fringe movement of people (doomsday preppers) who lived in remote locations with gas masks on, prepping has now gone a bit mainstream due to the current realities of food shortages, supply chain delays, and the ever-increasing threat of catastrophic forms of warfare.

Though it was already on the rise, Covid sparked a dramatic upturn.

In fact, the week that lockdowns were ordered in March 2020, one popular prepping website noted a 25-fold increase in site traffic.

It is estimated that emergency prepping will increase to a $425 billion per year industry by 2025.

When you step into a situation where you know everything has been covered, where you know it has all been prepared, your confidence is going to soar.

Everything has been thought of.

All the necessary steps have been taken.

Now, it is time to step up and deliver.

This is the situation that the Apostle Peter finds himself in as he steps into the home of Cornelius.

God has set everything up for him.

Earlier in chapter 10, an angel appears in a vision to Cornelius to tell him to call for Peter.

God then appears in a vision to Peter himself and educates him on what is truly clean and unclean.

God orchestrates all the events to bring Peter and Cornelius together.

God has so prepared all the details that Peter now stands in the house of Cornelius in front of a room full of Gentiles who are eager to hear whatever it is that God has commanded Peter to preach to them.

Acts 10:34-48 - 34And opening his mouth, Peter said:

“I most truly comprehend now that God is not one to show partiality, 35but in every nation the one who fears Him and does righteousness is welcome to Him. 36As for the word which He sent to the sons of Israel, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all— 37you yourselves know the thing which happened throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed.

38You 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.

39And 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 tree.

40God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He appear, 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.

42And He commanded us to preach to the people, and solemnly to bear witness that this is the One who has been designated by God as Judge of the living and the dead.

43Of 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 things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the word.

45And all the circumcised believers who came with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.

46For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and magnifying God.

Then Peter answered, 47“Can anyone refuse water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?” 48And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Then they asked him to remain for a few days.

TS - In this little sermon by Peter, his last in the book of Acts, he explains salvation to them, telling them how it works and what it means.

Information that we need to know.

THE MESSAGE OF SALVATION (V.

34-36)

Peter opens by acknowledging the magnitude of what is happening right now.

For centuries, since God made His original covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12, salvation has been for the Jews.

God chose the nation of Israel to be His treasured possession on the Earth.

God had promised to work in them and through them.

He would be their God and they would be His people.

God blessed them.

God protected them.

God saved them.

Sadly, the Jews took that glorious doctrine of election and twisted it into wicked favoritism.

To them, God only loved them.

To Hell with the rest of the world.

They were God’s treasured possession and the rest of the world were pagan, dirty, heathens.

These nations were called Gentiles (everyone who was not Jewish) and they were to be avoided.

Jews are holy; Gentiles are unholy.

Jews were loved by God; Gentiles were hated by God.

Clear, black and white distinctions.

But now Peter stands, directed by God Himself, in the home of one of those pagan, dirty, Gentile men.

Quite a reorienting experience.

v. 34 - I most truly comprehend now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the one who fears Him and does righteousness is welcome to Him.

The truth is, though, God never did show partiality.

The Jews did, not God.

From the very beginning, God’s concern was global.

Genesis 12:1-3 - 1And Yahweh said to Abram,

“Go forth from your land,

And from your kin

And from your father’s house,

To the land which I will show you;

2And I will make you a great nation,

And I will bless you,

And make your name great;

And so you shall be a blessing;

3And I will bless those who bless you,

And the one who curses you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Isaiah 19:24-25 - 24 In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom Yahweh of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

Amos 9:7 - 7“Are you not as the sons of Ethiopia to Me,

O sons of Israel?” declares Yahweh.

“Have I not brought up Israel from the land of Egypt,

And the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?

God has always been at work in the nations.

He has always had people in the nations.

And now through the gospel it is official…in every nation people can come to God.

No demographic of person is rejected.

Anyone, from any nation, who fears Him and does righteousness is welcome to Him.

This is salvation language.

To ‘fear God’ is to worship Him, to love Him, to revere Him.

Only the saved do that.

To ‘do righteousness’ is to be right with God and live rightly in response.

God is willing to save people from any and every nation.

The message of salvation is the good news of peace through Jesus Christ.

It is good news, as opposed to the bad news of your sin.

Your sin has separated you from God and you are in open rebellion against Him.

The good news is that He is willing to forgive.

This is why it is good news of ‘peace.’

Because outside of Jesus Christ, you are not at peace with God, no matter how moral you might be.

On your own, in your sin nature, you are at war with God.

But there can be peace…through Jesus Christ.

His sacrifice for sin, paying the un-payable debt your sin owed to God, declaring a cease fire with the Creator, is the only way to have peace with God.

Nothing you can do, nothing you can say, could ever accomplish that peace.

But the good news is that Jesus accomplished it for you.

Your only step is to trust in Christ.

THE MEANS OF SALVATION (V.

37-43)

From this point on in his sermon, Peter outlines how exactly salvation works.

He gives an overview of the person and work of Christ…or as we say it here, who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.

He begins with Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist.

John was the forerunner for Jesus, the one prophesied by the prophet Isaiah who would come prepare the way for Israel’s Messiah to arrive.