The Gospel for the Gentiles

INTRODUCTION

What do you want?

I know what Chiefs and Lions and Niners and Ravens fans want today.

Every poll seems to say that Americans want happiness.

My kids want candy and screen time.

What do you want?

If you are a Christian and particularly, if you are a member of our church, I hope that you want what we see in the Bible this morning.

CONTEXT

This desirable scene is found in at the end of Acts 10. Peter has come to the home of a Gentile after God called him to do so.

Peter had a vision that showed him how all food was declared clean in the New Covenant and now it would be no problem for him to enter into a Gentile man’s home and share the Gospel with his family and even sit at his table.

Peter was told to make no distinction and to go to Caesarea without hesitation.

Upon arrival, he met Cornelius, a man who also had a vision.

Cornelius was a God-fearing Gentile who was told by an angel of God in a vision about this man named Peter that he was to send for.

The last time we were in Acts together, Peter and Cornelius had coordinated the visions they received from the Lord.

And Cornelius said this to Peter:

Acts 10:33 ESV

So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”

The door is open for the Gospel and we will see Peter walk through it and God move in an amazing way.

I’ll read the text for us and then we will have three teaching points this morning and then a question for us.

TEACHING POINTS

1. Faith comes through hearing the Word of God (v. 34-43).

2. Salvation is wrought and confirmed by the Spirit of God (v. 44-46).

3. Transformation is expressed through the ordinance of God (v. 46-48).

APPLICATION QUESTION

Do we believe God still does this?

Acts 10:34–48 ESV

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

HEARING THE WORD OF GOD (v. 34-43)

GOD LOVES THE GENTILES

Peter opens his witness with a reiteration of what God has taught him through this entire Joppa/Caesarea experience:

He has truly learned that the Gospel is for all.

God is not a God of partiality. He is after the worship of people of all nations who would fear Him and walk in paths of righteousness.

He accepts the worship of peoples from all over the world.

And God has always been this way.

As King Jehoshaphat was speaking to the judges he was appointing, he said this:

2 Chronicles 19:7 ESV

Now then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the Lord our God, or partiality or taking bribes.”

And even though He revealed Himself primarily to Israel under the Old Covenant, there were still times in which His grace was set upon Gentiles.

We think of Naaman the Syrian who was healed of his leprosy and worshipped the Lord.

We think of the Ninevites that Jonah preached to, who repented of their sin.

Or we can look in the genealogy of Jesus and we can see that there are Gentiles included in the line of the Jewish Savior:

Tamar, the Canaanite who bore two sons to Judah (Matthew 1:3)

Rahab, the prostitute, who assisted the Israelite spies in Jericho (Matthew 1:5)

Ruth the Moabite who is King David’s great-grandmother (Matthew 1:5)

Prophets like Isaiah and Zechariah foretold the praise of Gentile nations.

The grace of God being given to Gentiles is not a novel plan that the Lord came up with as an audible at line of scrimmage before the birth of His Son.

It was foreshadowed, it was sprinkled throughout the Old Covenant and it came to full fruition in His Son—the Lord of all, as Peter calls Him in v. 36.

FULL COUNSEL OF THE GOSPEL

Now, what we are seeing in verses 36-43 is truly the full counsel of the Gospel. Peter is preaching the message that God’s people have been preaching for 2,000 years.

It is the message that God commissioned us to proclaim.

Peter says in verse 42 that it is the message He has commanded the Apostles and the church to preach.

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Go

Make disciples

Baptize them in the name of the glorious Triune God

Teach them all that Jesus commands

Acts starts with Jesus telling the Apostles that they will be witnesses to the end of the earth.

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts ends with Paul in Rome, the heart of the Gentile world, proclaiming the Gospel with all boldness and without hindrance.

The proclamation of this Gospel, to the glory of God, is what the church does. It is what she is about.

Peter calls the full counsel, “the word that he sent to Israel...” (v. 36) and then he begins to unpack it for Cornelius and all who are gathered in his house.

God sent preached good news through His Son, Jesus Christ (v. 36)

Isaiah 52:7 says that feet which arrive upon a mountain with good news are beautiful feet.

There have never been feet more beautiful than the Son of God’s. He did not just bring the good news, He is the Good News.

He did not just bring the Word—He is the Word.

And Peter says that the events than transpired regarding Jesus are known to Cornelius and his family, showing just how much a stir the life and ministry of Jesus causes.

Caesarea was a mainly Gentile town, 62 miles from the home base of Jesus’ ministry, and yet, it is assumed that they have knowledge about what occured with Jesus.

As Peter explains the sending of God’s Son, he actually starts with the baptism of John for the baptism ministry of John as he preached repentance as the forerunner for Jesus’ ministry.

Peter says that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power (v. 38).

He is likely referring to the baptism of Christ at the hands of John.

Matthew 3:16 ESV

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;

And in the power of the Spirit, Jesus went about doing good and healing the demon-possessed (v. 38)

This was one of the signs that the Kingdom was at hand—that the King of the Universe had come to earth in the flesh.

There was a demonic uprising during the time of Christ unlike anything seen on the earth before or since.

That isn’t to say the demonic is not still active today. It is. Christians wage a war with the principalities of this present darkness.

But during the time of Christ on the earth, the devil’s activity heightened in reaction to his greatest enemy coming to redeem the souls of men.

The Serpent-Crusher came to Earth and the serpent rose up with venom to try and stop Him.

But he couldn’t. Because God was with Him (v. 38)

Just as Jesus is God and God was with Him at Creation (John 1:1), Jesus is God and God was with Him in His incarnation.

Peter says that he and the other apostles saw all of this. They are witnesses of all that Jesus did in Judea and Jerusalem (v. 39).

This was part of the qualification for being a foundation-laying Apostle of the church—to be an eye-witness to the work of Christ on the earth—including the most important work that Jesus accomplished in Jerusalem.

Peter’s explanation of the death and resurrection of Christ is brief.

It is likely that he said more than Luke records, but Luke sums it all up in 14 Greek words.

They, meaning the Jews, put him to death by hanging on a tree

But God raised Him on the third day

And this is evidenced by a host of people who God chose to reveal the resurrected Christ to (v. 41).

Not everyone in Judea saw the resurrected Christ, but many did.

The Apostles did.

Mary Magdalene did, along with three women from Matthew 28:9

Paul did in his Damascus Road vision, though it happened abnormally.

And Paul explains that 500 other people saw him at one time in 1 Corinthians 15.

No lawyer would call 500 witnesses to the stand to corroborate a story unless they were absolutely sure that those people would have the same testimony.

Paul’s confidence in these 500 witnesses speaks to the how sure their testimony must have been.

Peter says that this resurrected Christ is the Judge of the living and the dead (v. 42) and that everyone who believe in Him will receive forgiveness from their sins through His name (v. 43).

Peter points to the prophets as witnesses to all of this as well. He is showing that this is not his opinion. This was foretold.

The major Old Testament prophets proclaimed a definitive forgiveness of sin in the last days:

Isaiah 33:24 ESV

And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.

Jeremiah 31:34 ESV

And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Ezekiel 36:25 ESV

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.

So it took us a bit to get here, but this bring us to our first teaching point today:

Teaching Point #1: Faith comes through hearing the Word of God (v. 34-43).

Paul teaches us this, does he not?

Romans 10:13–17 ESV

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

The Gospel is Good News.

And that Good News is really summary of the saving message of God in His Word.

Peter has given Cornelius that message of the Bible.

He has given him news of his sin.

He has given him news of a Judge.

He has given him news of a Savior.

He has given him news of repentance and forgiveness.

And when people hearing this full counsel of the Gospel, and they agree with God about the evil of their sin and trust Christ to save them from it, they will be forgiven.

When the Word of God exposes their hearts for being sinners who have broken God’s laws and stand in danger of eternal punishment, and then the Word of God offers them the grace of Christ, and someone believes, it is credited to them as righteousness.

God forgives them and declares them not guilty because His Son was made guilty for them.

He washes them and remembers their sin no more.

This is what the whole of Christianity hangs on.

If the things that Peter said here are not true, we have nothing. We have no faith.

For Christianity depends, not upon a complex of ideas, but upon the narration of an event. Without that event, the world, in the Christian view, is altogether dark, and humanity is lost under the guilt of sin.

J. Gresham Machen

But what the prophets and the eyewitnesses and Peter are telling Cornelius and telling us is that these things are true.

The newborn faith we are about to see spring from these people in Cornelius’ home is not rooted in a set of principles or in some religious way of life.

It is rooted in Good News of the the event of the death and resurrection of Christ.

Peter is not preaching salvation as a thing that is discovered through Enlightenment.

He is preaching salvation as a thing that happened and that must be trusted in.

Faith comes through hearing the Word of God—the full counsel of God’s Good News of salvation in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who lived and died and rose again.

WROUGHT AND CONFIRMED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD (v. 44-46)

Having heard Peter’s testimony, let’s see what happens with Cornelius.

Luke says that while Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the Word.

This is the wording used to explain how the first Gentiles are saved.

No altar call.

No “repeat after me” prayer.

No walking an aisle

That is because none of those things save you.

God saves you with His grace by His power.

Luke is not concerned with the Ordo Salutis here.

He is not concerned with the “Order of Salvation.”

He is simply wanting us to know that the Spirit of God is at work, which is confirmed by tongues that the Gentiles start speaking in, in verse 46.

Teaching Point #2: Salvation is wrought and confirmed by the Spirit of God (v. 44-46).

When I say the “Ordo Salutis” or “Order of Salvation,” I am talking about the sequence of salvation.

Our being born again is just one part of our salvation.

God’s saving purposes on behalf of His people stretch back into eternity past and forward into eternity future.

There is God’s foreknowledge and predestination of the elect in eternity past.

There is God’s calling of His people.

There is the regeneration of the heart by the work of the Spirit.

There is the faith and justification.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Those whom God chooses and God redeems, God sanctifies and conforms into the image of Christ throughout this life.

And then, there is glorification, which will be consummated fully when He returns and we receive our resurrection bodies and dwell on the New Earth for age upon age into eternity future.

REGENERATION

Here in Cornelius’ living room, this group of Gentiles certainly experience the regeneration of their hearts—a work of the Holy Spirit.

Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley define regeneration as, “supernatural rebirth into spiritual life, by which God begins salvation.”

Martin Lloyd Jones said there is no more profound change in the universe than when the Holy Spirit of God regenerates the heart of a sinner.

Regeneration was promised in the Old Testament:

Ezekiel 36:26–27 ESV

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

We would never walk in the statutes of the Lord or obey His rule, or even respond to Him in faith, if the Spirit of God does not first change the heart.

Paul writes to Titus about regeneration in the New Testament:

Titus 3:4–5 ESV

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

This is the new birth that Jesus told Nicodemus about in their famous John 3 conversation:

John 3:5–6 ESV

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

This is a direct reference to Ezekiel’s prophecy in Ezekiel 36:25-26, by King Jesus.

God the Father is the Author of our salvation by His sovereign choice.

God the Son redeems those whom the Father has chosen.

But it is God the Spirit who regenerates and makes alive the people of God.

INDWELLING

But the work of the Spirit in salvation does not stop there.

He does not regenerate our hearts and then retreat from us. Far from it.

As we repent of our sin and trust in Christ, our salvation is sealed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus taught this to His disciples:

John 14:16–17 ESV

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Listen to AW Tozer speak to how distinct and central this is to Christianity:

Deity indwelling men! That, I say, is Christianity, and no man has experienced rightly the power of Christian belief until he has known this for himself as a living reality.

A. W. Tozer

GENTILE PENTECOST

I believe we are seeing both of these things happen to Cornelius’ household.

They hear Peter preach the Good News and God’s Spirit makes their hearts alive.

They respond in faith and the Holy Spirit of God takes up residence in them.

Luke, unconcerned with listing out the theological realities, simply says, “the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.”

This verse is dear to me because in many ways, this is how my own mother came to faith.

She came to church with me and my dad and before the sermon could even end, the Holy Spirit fell on her.

God knew the day long, long before she did and He took His daughter for Himself—Deborah Howard.

The believers with Peter are amazed because when Cornelius and company start speaking in tongues and extolling God, it is obvious that they have received the same Spirit as Peter and the Apostles and the church at Pentecost in Acts 2.

We don’t know what languages they speak in, but I would think that Hebrew or Aramaic were among them because Luke says they are “extolling God.”

How could they know that unless they understand them on some level.

Regardless, this is almost like a Gentile Pentecost.

We’ve mostly just seen Jews and Samaritans saved until now, but the Gospel is starting to penetrate the end of the earth, just as Jesus said it would.

The same Spirit that took up residence in Apostles and the earliest church in Jerusalem, is taking up residence in a repentant Roman centurion in a city named after Caesar.

This is key, because when Peter is being accused by people in Jerusalem as doing something wrong by going to Cornelius’ house and eating with and accepting an uncircumcised man, Peter will point to the gift of tongues as a sign that the Holy Spirit is at work.

Acts 11:15 ESV

As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.

Acts 11:17–18 ESV

If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

You really see the purpose of the sign gift of tongues here, don’t you?

It existed in the early church as a sign of salvation, but also as a sign of judgment.

The fact that salvation was moving to Gentile nations was a sign of judgment upon Israel.

To use the language of Jesus’ parable, as the tenants of the vineyard, they rejected His servants, the prophets who came to get fruit.

Then they killed the Son of the Master of the Vineyard.

As a result, Jesus says:

Matthew 21:43 ESV

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

So the tongues spoken by Gentiles were the sound of judgment for unbelieving Israel.

However, it was also the sound of salvation for the nations, as God’s grace is available to everyone.

And that is Luke’s main focus here. Joel’s prophecy about tongues in the last days is coming to pass and the Gentiles are experiencing it.

Faith comes through hearing the Word of God and salvation is wrought and confirmed by the Spirit of God.

EXPRESSED THROUGH THE ORDINANCE OF GOD (v. 46-48)

After it was clear that salvation had come to Cornelius’ house, Peter makes a declaration in the form of a question:

Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit?

Peter is carrying out the commission given to him by Jesus in Matthew 28.

He is going to baptize Cornelius and his household in the name of the Triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The baptism won’t save them—that has already happened, as evidenced by the extolling of God in tongues—but it will be a first step of obedience for these newborn believers.

It will be a physical, outward expression of the spiritual transformation that has taken place.

Teaching Point #3: Transformation is expressed through the ordinance of God (v. 46-48).

Ezekiel’s New Covenant prophecy and promise has come true.

God has graciously cleansed Cornelius and company from all their uncleannesses.

He has given them a new heart.

They have the Spirit in them.

They will now be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Greek word that translates to baptizing in verse 47 and baptized in verse 48 is baptizo.

It literally means to immerse.

If you wonder why we are so adamant as Baptists about baptizing by immersion, this is really what it comes down to—the way the New Testament writers talk about it.

The Greek word baptisma used by Paul in Romans 6 means the same thing.

The immersion is a symbol of what has happened to the believer.

They were dead in sin and locked in a grave of their own depraved nature—alienated from God and strangers to Him.

But then, God’s Spirit gave them new birth and they were freed from the prison of sin.

The old man of sin and depravity has died with Christ and the new man has been raised with Him.

Romans 6:8 ESV

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

Like the Lord’s Supper, baptism is a picture that is given to us.

The difference is that baptism is the symbol we use to show our entrance into God’s church.

The Lord’s Supper is the symbol we use to show how we remain.

SPONTANEOUS BAPTISM

That being said, we have to make sure that when we read Acts, we understand that Luke’s writing with the purpose of describing what is happening in the early church, but not necessarily prescribing what the church should do at all times.

To understand what is descriptive and what is prescriptive in Acts, we really need the help of the rest of the New Testament, which gives us more clear instruction on how the church should function.

Some people have read this and thought that this means as soon as someone believes, they should be baptized.

Many churches even practice spontaneous baptism, where they open the waters up and let people come in and get baptized with little to no interface with the person.

Truthfully, the rest of the NT is silent on how soon someone should be baptized after their conversion.

And that silence should give us pause when it comes to practicing baptism the way Peter does here.

We have to keep in mind that Peter had the gift of tongues as clear evidence of Cornelius’ salvation and the indwelling Spirit:

Acts 15:8–9 ESV

And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.

But we do not have that today.

Instead, we are looking for the evidence of the Spirit in the fruit of a person’s life:

Is there love? Joy? Peace? Is there patience and kindness? Goodness and faithfulness? Gentleness? Self-control?

A person does not need to be Charles Spurgeon to be baptized, but they do need to be saved. It is a sign for the redeemed.

Therefore, we should have some level of patience to inspect the fruit of someone’s life before we would rush to the waters.

Otherwise, we may give them a false assurance when there is not actually saving faith.

It could also be confusing for the church to see loads of people coming through the waters, but not remaining at the Lord’s table.

Christian writings in the late first century give instructions about baptism that call for the baptizer and the baptism candidate to fast for “some days,” before giving the ordinance.

By the 4th century, believers were catechized with doctrinal question and answer before entering the waters, to ensure they were not just doing it to improve their social status.

Speaking of Charles Spurgeon, he made his own sons wait until they were 18 to be sure their faith was their own, before he would baptize them.

I am not saying we need to do that, but I am saying that there should be a pause before we administer the ordinance.

We want to do it rightly.

I say this as a guy who was baptized in April of 1999 but wasn’t saved until July of 1999.

A very nice preacher came to my house and asked my parents if they were Christians and they said yes.

They had both been soundly converted.

I wanted what they had, but I still saw all of it as works you practiced to try to get to heaven. When he asked if I was a Christian, I said, “I think so.”

I was baptized alongside my parents.

However, I came to my new pastor, David Slayton, some years later and told him that I had not actually been baptized since I became a Christian.

He said we needed to fix that and so he re-baptized me.

There is nothing wrong with that—but it’s something we could avoid a bit more with a touch of patience in our discipleship.

But the bottom line is this:

Faith comes through hearing the Word of God. Salvation is wrought and confirmed by the Spirit of God. And Salvation is expressed through the ordinance of God.

CONCLUDING APPLICATION

Now, as we wrap up our time today, my question is this: Do we believe that God still does this?

I’m not talking about the tongues bit. We have talked plenty in our study about how certain spiritual gifts served a particular purpose in the early church and are not active today.

Instead, I am speaking to God saving through the preaching of the Word.

The Spirit of God falling on unbelieving hearts.

The waters of baptism be stirred by the dead who have come to life in Christ.

Do we believe this?

Can I tell you a fear that I have?

It is that we would get so busy with serving that we would lose track of sharing.

It is that we would get so busy with church-work that we would forget about the most important work of the church.

It is that preparing for and planning and pulling off programs would cause us to get lazy with our proclamation.

We are one of the busiest churches that I know of. We stay working.

But to what end?

What is all of this about?

Our purpose as the workmanship of God is to carry the Gospel to the world.

We want to see people commit to Christ.

We want to see them cultivate a real, true, spiritual relationship with Him.

And then we want to send them out, carrying the Gospel to more people.

And here is the thing—I believe that you want that. I believe that down to each one of our active, covenant members, we want that.

But spouses want to romance one another.

Dads want to spend time with their kids.

Leaders want their organization to have better long-term goals and vision.

The reality is that we can get so bogged down with busyness that we don’t do what we want to do and what we need to do.

But I am sure that the remedy for our lack of intentionality in sharing our faith and discipling others has to start the same place that all wisdom starts. With a fear of the Lord.

We have to fear God enough to believe that His Word saves.

We have to have the sort of trembling faith that truly believes—if I can just get my Bible open with someone, God’s Word will change a life.

We have to have the sort of trembling faith that truly believes—if I pray to God for His Spirit to change hearts, His Spirit WILL change hearts because that is what His Spirit does.

The sort of trembling, praying faith that will get on its knees and plead with God for souls to be saved and the baptismal waters to be splashing around.

Let’s not just be busy—let’s be bold.

Let’s not just be programming—let’s be proclaiming.

Let’s not just be wishing for Seaford to be saved and baptized, let’s be wanting for it at the throne of grace, prayer after prayer.

God still saves.

Do we still expect Him to?