Bible Study 2/5/25

Acts 10:1 Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort,

Here we are with another shift in the story of Acts as we begin to briefly focus in on another individual. If you couldn’t tell by now, Luke definitely covers a lot of ground in church history in this book. So we come here to the city of Caesarea, which has been mentioned briefly a couple times before in the book, with a man named Cornelius. The Judean city, was a new town established by Herod the Great and named after the Emperor Caesar, and it had become the center of government for the Roman administration in Judea. The name Cornelius was an incredibly common name in this day, which as we’ve studied before is probably why we have the qualifiers in this text - he was a centurion in the Italian cohort, and as we see in the next verse was a devout man that feared God. There weren’t too many Romans yet that feared God, so he would stand out a bit, in addition to his high rank in the Roman military. The reason Cornelius was such a common name is one of the weirder things I’ve come to learn. The name was given to thousands of slaves in 82 BC when a man named P. Cornelius Sulla had granted them freedom. So this guy freed thousands of people from slavery, and then gave them all his name. At this point a little over 100 years later, the name continued in popularity simply because so many people had the name. I imagine that you could probably stand at the edge of the city, throw a stone up in the air at random, and it’ll come down on someone named Cornelius. The last thing noted in this verse is Cornelius’ position; a centurion in the Italian cohort. A centurion in this day is essentially the equivalent of a sergeant in our military today - someone with authority and command over a group, but led under order from those in higher authority. The Italian cohort would be troops that were originally recruited in Italy and were likely stationed in Judea to perform garrison duties. A cohort would consist of about 500 men, split up between six centurions, meaning Cornelius would have authority over around 80 or so men. So this sets up our background for who Cornelius is, but Luke continues in verse 2.

Acts 10:2 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.

Probably much more important to Luke in recording this story was not Cornelius’ occupation, but rather his unlikely faith. Christianity was hardly common amongst the Jews in the early church, and it was especially rare amongst the Romans. But it wasn’t just Cornelius who was a man that feared God, but his whole household as well! We don’t get an in-depth account of Cornelius in this recording, so we don’t know how he had come to be a God-fearing man, but apparently it went so far as to impact his entire household. He feared God, he gave alms to the poor Jews here in Judea, and he prayed to God continually. You could argue that he might have been doing a better job of following the Law of God than the Jewish people of the day. Though Cornelius and his household were God-fearing people, they were still Gentiles and still would’ve been looked down on by the Jews. We can confirm that Cornelius wasn’t circumcised (Acts 11:3), which means the same can likely be said about his household. Even as the church was continue to be established, one of the main sticking point of the Jewish people was circumcision. The biggest fight in the church in Galatia was some in the church mixing the Law back into the faith, particularly when it came to circumcision. The Jews would’ve seen someone like Cornelius and his household as still being pagans, whether they were God-fearing or not, simply because they had not yet fully adhered to the Jewish faith. Given Luke’s language here, the way he speaks of Cornelius is probably an “after the fact” view of who he was, not how he was viewed at the time of this story taking place. There is a reason for Peter’s dream and God leading him to Cornelius - Peter, as a Jewish man and new christian (like all christians), probably would not have gone to Cornelius on his own. But let’s get into Cornelius’ dream first.

Acts 10:3–6 (3-4) About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!” And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

The time of day is certainly always noted for a reason, otherwise it would be nothing more than a useless detail. Given the time of day, noted here at about 3pm, we can be certain that Cornelius was not asleep and this wasn’t just a random dream that he was having. What we can also gather from the time is that it was the hour of prayer at the temple in Jerusalem, so it is fair to assume that Cornelius was in active prayer at the time of this vision. As he was seeking the Lord, an angel came to him and called him by name. He immediately knew it was the Lord, which I think does tell us something about the sincerity of his faith, and asked the angel why the Lord was calling him. The angel begins with an encouragement, saying that his prayers and alms had ascended as a memorial before God. The alms were his giving to the poor, which we already know from 2. The use of the language prayer, however, is slightly different than we might understand. The language used here is that of sacrifices whose smoke ascends to God, one commentator thinking that it meant that Cornelius’s prayers having had a sacrificial efficacy before God. The implication is that God is responding because of the prayer uttered by Cornelius. We don’t know the content of Cornelius’ prayer at this moment, but we know that God was answering with what he needed.

(5-6) “Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.”

And what is made clear is that what he needed was someone to disciple him. So here is Cornelius at the hour of prayer in Jerusalem and the angel tells him to send men over to Joppa. A simple request, but one that might take a bit of time to see the fruit of following. Joppa was an ancient seaport to the West of Jerusalem, a small portion of what we now know as Tel-Aviv Joffa. The two areas are about 50km (or 30 miles) away from each other, so it wasn’t going to be a quick trip. But here is something interesting to note, and I think it some ways it is a test of Peter’s faith, as we will read in a minute - the angel didn’t tell Cornelius to go himself, but to send some of his men to go get Peter. This means that Peter had to then make this journey back with these men to meet a stranger that God told him he needed to go see. 30 miles each way, probably talking close to a two-day trip, though given the distance it is more likely that they rode. As we bring in the context of the rest of our text, we know that they left the next day and Peter returned with them the day after, so they made it a fairly quick trip. Of course, Simon was another common name, so the angel narrows it down for him - go find Simon the tanner, with whom will be staying Simon, who is also called Peter; you’ll find them by the water.

Acts 10:7–8 When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants, and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

So Cornelius immediately got to work and called a handful of his men to go on this journey to bring Peter back to meet with him. He explained all the details and sent them on their way. One interesting thing to note is the inclusion of a “devout soldier” amongst the group that he sent. It is a fair guess to say that Cornelius might have thought this was necessary to properly convey the message that he had received from the angel to send for Peter. How do you think Peter, of all people, would’ve responded to a group of Romans showing up to bring Peter back to their commanding officer? Probably a lot differently if it wasn’t for this soldier who was also believer and could appeal on behalf of Cornelius according to what the angel commanded him to do.

Acts 10:9–16 (9-12) On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.

So now we move to Joppa where we see Peter. Around the sixth hour, or about noon, Peter went up to the roof of the house to pray - most likely looking for some privacy, as he was a guest in someone else’s house. Noon isn’t necessarily a significant time of day, but Jews who were serious had a pattern of praying 3 times a day. Since 3pm is the hour of prayer, a routine of every three hours (9am, noon and 3pm) would make a good bit of sense. Around this time, he became hungry, which probably resulted in a bit of distraction from his prayer. Now let’s quickly understand, there was no three meal standard of breakfast, lunch and dinner back then. During the week, it was common for Jews to eat a smaller meal in the morning and then a larger meal in the late afternoon. So he’s not hungry because it’s lunchtime, much like the reason why we would probably be hungry. Perhaps the food preparations that were taking place in the house were creating an aroma that drew him toward hunger. The combination of prayer and hunger led to a vision. In this vision, as Luke records, the sky opens and he sees a great sheet coming down. It is possible that this rooftop had a shade covering above it to protect from the sun, which could’ve lended a hand to this portion of the vision. And on this sheet, all kinds of animals were there. When I’ve illustrated this story to make a point before, I often adjust the vision to something we can understand. I like to picture Peter in prayer and suddenly before him a giant plate of bacon comes down. Then the vision continues.

(13-16) A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.

There’s a lot of cool things happening in these short verses. A voice comes to Peter and tells him to go kill and eat. Of course, as Peter clearly responds, this sheet is full of both clean animals that could be eaten and unclean animals that were against the Law to eat according to Leviticus 11. If Peter were to eat of that which was unclean, he would break the Law of God and become unclean himself. But the voice responds back to him again, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”

Howard Marshall The effect of the vision was thus to announce to Peter that the distinction made in the Old Testament between foods that were ‘clean’, and therefore fit for human consumption, and those that were unclean, was now cancelled, so that in future Jewish Christians could eat any food without fear of defilement. Later Christians realized that the cancellation of this law was part of the new order brought by Jesus, and that some of the things said by Jesus implied the abolition of the Jewish distinction between things clean and unclean.

This was not merely the Lord instructing Peter of what Jesus had made new, but also preparation for the relationship he was about to have with a Roman Gentile.

Now notice one other thing in these verses - “This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.” We can remember about Peter that the number three was significant to him. He denied Jesus three times, and then Jesus restored him three times. It’s probably a safe argument that the Lord repeating this vision three times was to assure Peter that the word that he was receiving was true and was from the Lord. Given that Peter will be defending himself in chapter 11, that assurance was probably pretty important.

Acts 10:17–20 Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate; and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. “But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.”

Peter now comes out of the trance that he was under and spent some time meditating on what the Lord had spoken to him. The men sent from Cornelius had arrived at the door to meet with Peter, but it seems that before Peter even knew they were their, the Holy Spirit told him that men had come to see him and He commanded Peter to go and meet them.

What we also see in these few verse is that this was all part of God’s plan. While Peter’s vision was seemingly independent of this visit, Cornelius received a vision specifically for this. And Peter’s vision, while not as direct as Cornelius’, was preparing Peter to go to Cornelius’ house and spend time with a group of Gentiles while not having to worry about what is on the menu. Once upon a time, Peter would’ve been the first in a line of Jews to reject any association with the Gentiles, but on this day the Lord prepared him to go and sit with them much in the same way as Jesus did, but going even further as to eat their food.

Acts 10:21–23 Peter went down to the men and said, “Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come?” They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you.” So he invited them in and gave them lodging.

I don’t know if too many of us would act like Peter in this scenario, but thankfully he had the Holy Spirit to lead him. Three men you don’t know are at the front door of the house you’re staying in, a house that’s not your own, and they’re asking for you by name - would you rush to the door yourself? Let’s be honest, we live in a day and age where a knock at the door or the ring of the bell isn’t something that gets us excited. If anything, we’re prepared to shoo away a salesman or Jehovah’s Witness as soon as we hear the door.

So Peter comes to the door and the men give to him an account of why they are there. They let him know that Cornelius is a righteous and God-fearing man, that he is (oddly enough) well spoken of by the Jews, and explain that he was directed by an angel to come to his house. Of course, as we will study next week, Peter quickly connects the dots as he was led by the Spirit to this moment. So he invites the men in, gives them a room, and they spend the night with Peter.

NEXT WEEK: 10:23b-48