God is on the Move — Part 3 — The Spreading of the Gospel to the Gentiles — Part 1
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning Church!
It’s good to have each and every one of you here with us this morning.
Before we get into the message this morning, I want to do a little recognizing.
Bring up VBS crew and recognize!
If you have your Bible’s with you this morning, I would ask that you go ahead and be turning to the Book of Acts and we will be starting in Chapter 10 Verse 1 this morning.
Last week, we took a little break from the Book of Acts to look at a Father’s Day message but today, we’re going to get back on track here and continue on in our series…God is on the move!
Now, the two weeks preceeding Father’s Day we seen God on the move in the life of a paralytic man and the life of a disciple named Tabitha.
The paralytic man was a picture of a man who was dead spiritually, and Tabitha was a picture of a Saint who was dead physically but who’s testimony lived on and ultimately led to her resurrection which in itself is a picture of the life of a born again child of God, amen!
Sadly, I’ve been to too many funerals in the last few weeks but you know, I’m so thankful that we, those of us who have been born again this morning, have the promise that we too shall be resurrected to eternal life and that the best is yet to come, amen!
Now, the story before us today is going to pick up with the broader theme of the Book of Acts and I want to take you all the way back to Chapter 1 and Verse 8 so we can see this and get our minds set right for these two sermons over the next couple of weeks here.
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Jesus told the disciples here that they would be witnesses unto Him in Jerusalem, in Judaea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth!
Up to this point, they had only witnessed to the Jews and then, if you will remember, Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ to them and they received the gift of the Holy Ghost.
So, the only group left that had not yet received the Holy Ghost were the Gentiles…those located in the uttermost parts of the earth!
The bigger picture here I want you to see is that Chapter 10 is the final fulfilling of the great commission of Jesus before ascending into heaven.
And the even bigger picture to this is that God is still on the move, amen!
This morning, we are going to be looking at a man who is a gentile but he believes in the God of the Jews. He doesn’t have a full understanding of Jehovah but he wants to know Him!
He desires to have a relationship with the one, true God!
And maybe you are here this morning and you are seeking a relationship with Him as well but you don’t quite know Him just yet…my prayer over the next two weeks here is that you will come to know Him just like the gentile in our story today and that you too, will be gloriously saved!
And not only are we going to see the story of a gentile who comes to know the Lord but we’re also going to see a learning lesson here for the big, bold mouthed disciple we have all come to know and love named Peter.
Peter struggled with something may of us here today struggle with and that’s prejudice.
Prejudice — preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.
Peter like many of us today struggled with prejudice. He was a Jew. In his eyes the Jews were a notch above the rest when it came to their religion.
The God of hte Jews was just that, the God of hte Jews and no one else. Only the Jews were the chosen people of God and deserved to know Him like they knew Him.
The hard lesson that Peter would have to learn here is that Christ died for all.
As Paul would later say in...
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
As Peter will finally learn and we will see next week in our lesson here,
34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
The Holy Spirit here in chapter 10 uses this situation to purge Peter’s prejudice and my prayer is that maybe you are here this morning and you’ve been harboring some prejudice in your heart either about a certain group of people, a certain nationality, a certain race, a certain religion whatever the case may be…my prayer is that God will open your eyes to the fact that we are all made in His image and likeness and that God loves each and ever person the same and we should too!
As we learned in VBS this week, we all have messes and if we will confess our mess, God is faithful and just to address our mess by forgiving us and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
And if we have been forgiven of our messes, we ought to also forgive others of their messes and love them in the midst of their mess!
So, with being said, if you have your Bible’s with you and you are turned to Acts 10 Verse 1, would you say, Amen!
He was a Specific Man — (Vs 1)
He was a Specific Man — (Vs 1)
“There was a certain man” — The last 3 subjects we’ve looked at now the Bible said they were “certain” people!
Aeneas was a “certain man” who needed healing.
Tabitha was a “certain disciple” who needed to be resurrected.
And now we have a “certain man” named Cornelius!
Now, the other thing I want to point out here is that each one of these individuals are listed by name!
God knows who you are this morning friend!
He knows your name, who you are, where you are physically and spiritually.
He knows everything about you, Amen!
And there was a certain man here named Cornelius and the Bible tells us that at this moment he was in Caesarea.
Now, I want to use Chuck Swindoll’s commentary to give us here a glimpse into where we are in the history of the Church and also a glimpse into where this story before us takes place physically.
Chuck Swindoll — As Acts 10 opens, the church is perhaps five or six years old. The gospel had swept through Judea, drawing many Jewish converts into the church. Philip had conducted an extremely effective ministry among the Samaritans, and—to his credit—Peter had embraced as brothers and sisters people that he and his fellow Jews considered half-breed religious compromisers. Having traveled to the seaport town of Joppa, he had accepted the hospitality of a tanner named Simon (9:43). This is also to Peter’s credit—Jews considered tanners unclean because their trade required them to handle the skins of dead animals. Even so, despite Peter’s impressively open-minded attitude concerning Samaritans and “unclean” Jews, he never would have considered a visit to Caesarea Maritima, about 30 miles north.
Every faithful Jew regarded Caesarea with religious and national disdain. Herod the Great had rebuilt this dilapidated trading outpost into a new, thoroughly modern seaport and named it in honor of Caesar Augustus. It was an engineering marvel and quickly became the preferred harbor for merchant and military vessels. Gentiles loved Caesarea for the same reasons Jews hated it. Herod had built it to rival Greek cities, complete with elaborate palaces, public buildings, a large amphitheater, a temple dedicated to Caesar and Rome, and statues of the emperor surrounding the harbor entrance. Consequently, Caesarea Maritima became the capital of the Roman occupation in Israel, where procurators and governors maintained their year-round residence and where Gentiles congregated.
To a faithful Jew, the city represented everything that was wrong with Israel—Roman domination and Gentile occupation aided by compromising Hellenistic Jews.
Now that we have a little better understanding of where the story before us is taking place, the Bible goes on to say that Cornelius is a centurion of the band, called the Italian Band.
Now, what that means is this...
A “band” or “cohort” was a regimen of 600 men and a centurion would be in charge of 100 of those 600 men.
And the specific regimen of men he was in charge of belonged to the Italian Band.
Cornelius was a specific man that God had His eye on!
Not only was he a specific man, but he was also a Spiritual man. Look down at Verse 2 with me.
He was also a Spiritual Man — (Vs 2)
He was also a Spiritual Man — (Vs 2)
The Bible says 3 things about Cornelius here that I want us to take note of this morning.
He was Devout — Speaks of His Faith — He was a reverent man. He was a religious man. Even though he didn’t fully understand the God he believed in, he served Him as though He was the number one priority in his life!
John Phillips — Cornelius lived up to the light that he had. When more light was given he responded to it instantly.
He was Devoted — Speaking of His Family
He was Dedicated — Speaks to His Fervor
He was a Specific Man who was also a Spiritual Man and then we see next here that He sees a Vision! Look on down at verses 3-6.
He Sees a Vision — (Vs 3-6)
He Sees a Vision — (Vs 3-6)
The Particulars of the Vision — (Vs 3-4)
The Particulars of the Vision — (Vs 3-4)
Evidently — Clearly
9th hour — 3 pm
He was afraid — here is a hardened Roman Soldier…a Captain of 100 men and he’s been in combat, he’s seen things I’m sure most men would shy away from, he’s been in situations that would make you shirk and he’s probably one of the toughest men you’d ever meet but the Bible says here that he was afraid!
He responds by saying… “what is it Lord?”
The Bible says that the angel tells him his prayers and his alms had come up before the Lord. This proves that God obviously keeps an eye over all!
14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
4 Doth not he see my ways, And count all my steps?
But his alms and his prayers had come up before the Lord.
That’s speaking of his good works.
This man didn’t even have a full understanding of the God he was serving but serving he did!
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
There was one thing that couldn’t be denied about Cornelius…the man had works to back up his faith!
Can the same be said of you this morning?
Are you working for the God you say you believe in this morning?
Are you serving Him to the best of your ability?
If not, get busy for the Lord!
You can’t do everything but everyone can do something for the Lord!
Find a place you can serve and get busy this morning!
Now I want you to see The Precision of the Vision! — (Vs 5-6a)
Now I want you to see The Precision of the Vision! — (Vs 5-6a)
We see the particulars of the vision and now I want us to look at the precision of the vision.
God had a plan that only he knew about!
Here stood a man who needed to be saved and 30 miles away stood a man who could lead him to salvation!
I stand in awe of the omniscience of God…don’t you?
John Phillips — The Lord knew all about Peter. The herald angel was able to give Cornelius exact instructions for finding him. God never forgets a name, never loses an address, never makes a mistake, never has a moment’s hesitation in knowing where we are or what we are doing.
There is something immensely comforting in that to God’s saints. He who tracks the journeyings of a hundred billion stars in each of a hundred million galaxies, who knows the path, the history, and the destiny of every speck of dust in cosmic space, knows all about me! In all my comings and goings by land and sea and air, He knows exactly where to find me any time He wants me. He knows how to send people across my path and into my life to fulfill His own inscrutable purposes.
Nothing is more interesting in the book of Acts than to see how God keeps track of men. Does He need a man to meet an Ethiopian traveling at high speed away from Jerusalem with a great longing in his soul? He knows where Philip lives. Does He need a man to find blind Saul of Tarsus on the street called Straight? He knows where Ananias lives. Does He need a man to give the gospel to a good but still unregenerate Roman centurion? He knows Peter’s present, temporary address.
There’s the Particulars of the Vision and then there’s the Precision of the Vision and next there’s the Purpose of the Vision. Look at the end of verse 6 there.
Now look at the Purpose of the Vision — (Vs 6b)
Now look at the Purpose of the Vision — (Vs 6b)
Now, who was it that was telling Cornelius what to do here?
An angel right?
Why didn’t the angel just tell Cornelius about Jesus?
Because the gospel of Jesus Christ has been entrusted to men and not angels!
Who did Christ die for? — Us!
Who has experienced the good ness of God because of the precious blood of Jesus? — We have!
Who better to share what God has done through His Son than those who benefited most from His death, burial and resurrection!
John Phillips — The testimony of a believer has special weight. “I was once lost like you, but one day Jesus saved me.” No angel can talk like that. If a man had a choice to go and hear one of God’s saints preach or go and hear an angel preach, Cornelius could tell them what to do. “Go and hear the man,” he would say. “I heard an angel, and he told me to send for Peter.”
What a special task we’ve been given to accomplish for the Kingdom of God!
To simply share our testimony with a lost and dying world!
His Summoning and Sending of the Servants — (Vs. 7-8)
His Summoning and Sending of the Servants — (Vs. 7-8)
Peter’s Vision — (Vs. 9-12)
Peter’s Vision — (Vs. 9-12)
Peter’s Proposition — (Vs. 13)
Peter’s Proposition — (Vs. 13)
Peter’s Principles — (Vs. 14)
Peter’s Principles — (Vs. 14)
Peter’s Reproval — (Vs. 15)
Peter’s Reproval — (Vs. 15)
The Visions Removal — (Vs. 16)
The Visions Removal — (Vs. 16)
Peter’s Inquiry — (Vs. 17-18)
Peter’s Inquiry — (Vs. 17-18)
Peter’s Instruction — (Vs. 19-20)
Peter’s Instruction — (Vs. 19-20)
Peter’s Introduction — (Vs. 21-23)
Peter’s Introduction — (Vs. 21-23)