Salvation Reaches Out Part 1
Notes
Transcript
Up to this point the Gospel has went to the Jews, first in Jerusalem, then to the rest of the Jewish towns and even to Samara to the people that were thought to be half breeds.
Now here in chapter 10 we will see what would be the most earth shattering turn on events in the young history of the Church.
The Gospel the Good News will now come to the gentiles. Gal 3:28
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
We see here in chapter 10 the globalization of the Gospel.
We see 8,000 years of segregation whipped out by the act of Christ on the Cross.
Sovereign Preparation (vv 1-20)
Sovereign Preparation (vv 1-20)
The momentous events of Gentile inclusion in the church and Cornelius’s salvation required sovereign preparation.
Both the convert, Cornelius, and the preacher, Peter, received visions from God preparing them for what was to follow.
The Preparation of Cornelius (vv 1-8)
The Preparation of Cornelius (vv 1-8)
Since man is dead in sin, salvation cannot and does not begin with him. Eph 2:1-4
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
One such dead man, Cornelius, whom God was about to save, lived in Caesarea, an important city located on the coast roughly thirty miles north of Joppa.
It was the capital of the Roman province of Judea, and the residence of its procurator.
Naturally, a large Roman garrison was stationed there.
Among them was Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort.
A Roman legion at full strength consisted of 6,000 men, and was divided into ten cohorts of 600 men each.
A centurion commanded 100 of these men, and each legion therefore had 60 centurions, who were considered the backbone of the Roman army.
The Roman historian Polybius described centurions as “not so much venturesome daredevils as natural leaders of a steady and sedate spirit, not so much men who will initiate attacks and open the battle as men who will hold their ground when worsted and hard pressed and be ready to die at their posts”
Like the other centurions mentioned in the New Testament, Cornelius had reached his rank by proving to be a strong, responsible, reliable man.
More than a good soldier, however, Cornelius was 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.
His was a seeking heart; he had lived up to the light he had, and God was about to give him more.
This is the necessary balance to divine election, that God responds to the seeking, willing heart.
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.
Divine election and human responsibility are both the clear teaching of Scripture.
Salvation is both accomplished by God and commanded of sinners.
Although our limited comprehension does not allow us to harmonize them, there is no conflict in the mind of God.
Cornelius was a God fearing person but had stopped short of fully converting to Judaism.
He was praying during the 9th hour of the day which is the most important hour in the Jewish faith. Acts 3:1
1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
Gods response to his seeking helped to prepare Cornelius for Salvation.
The Preparation of Peter (vv 9-20)
The Preparation of Peter (vv 9-20)
Peter is also in a time of prayer and as he is praying it is around noon time and he is hungry.
In his vision he see a sheet coming down with all kinds of animals on it, 4 legged, birds, and things that crawl.
He is told to rise kill and eat.
This goes against his Jewish system of belief and law. Lev. 20:25-26
25 You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean.
26 You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.
During the time of the Old Testament God wanted Israel to be kept separate from the other countries around her and such dietary and social interactions would help this to happen.
However since the coming of the New Covenant and the calling of a new people (the church) the days of the dietary restrictions was over.
The vision left Peter greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might signify.
That meaning was twofold.
On the negative side, it signified the abolishing of the Old Testament dietary restrictions.
Such separating features were now counterproductive, since God was bringing Jews and Gentiles together in the church, not keeping them apart.
On the positive side, the vision pictured the inclusion of both the Gentiles, symbolized by the unclean animals, and the Jews, symbolized by the clean ones, into one body.
God not only sovereignly prepared Cornelius and Peter but also sovereignly determined and arranged the timing of bringing them together.
