The Fruit of Faithfulness

Introduction

Background:

In the first half of chapter 10, we see God orchestrating the movement of the Gospel to the Gentile nations. He is preparing two people… the man named Cornelius, and the Apostle Peter.

Cornelius is a Centurion. This means that he captain is over 100 troops and he lives in the region of Caesarea. At some point in his life, he began to observe the Jewish faith and was dedicated to following the laws of God. So much so, that this person who would normally be hated by the Jews, both for his position in the military and because of the region in which he lives, has earned respect from the Jewish people because of how closely he follows their laws.

Peter, on the other hand, is an Apostle. He is someone who was physically with Jesus while Jesus ministered here on this earth, and he has the authority to speak on behalf of the church of Jesus Christ. When Jesus gave him the name Peter, Jesus says, “On [Peter] I will build My church.” Now, this is very important, because God always follows His processes, and He doesn’t deviate…so when Peter was established as the overseer of all the New Testament Church, everything that Jesus wanted to accomplish was then revealed and confirmed by the Apostle Peter.

What has happened so far in this chapter is Peter and Cornelius have both been given a directive by God. And angel tells Cornelius, “If you want to know the truth of Who you are following, go and find God’s servant Peter.” Jesus Himself tells Peter, “Do not call unclean the things God has declared to be clean.” Translation: Do not call the Gentiles unworthy anymore, because I am going to spread My Gospel to the end of the earth.

And what happens? This non-Christian named Cornelius is exceedingly obedient. It appears that this man doesn’t have a shred of pride in him, because he immediately submits to what the angel tells him to do.

On the other hand, this “Apostle” Peter, this rock of the church, decides he’s too holy to listen to Jesus. It’s one of the most ironic and tragic scriptures in all of God’s word, because it shows just how hard and blinded we get when God begins to use us in His work. We can get to the place where we believe that we have the answers, we get to the place where we are so filled with pride, that we would argue with Jesus Christ Himself.

Thankfully, Peter wises up and is contacted by the Holy Spirit, and listens to Him, and follows these men, sent by Cornelius, back to Caesarea to share the Gospel with them. Despite Peter’s conviction to follow the Jewish law, despite his prejudice against the Gentiles, God still used Peter because God said that He would…and…not only did He use Peter….He taught Him another lesson…this important lesson, “Your word is not infallible, but Mine is.”

Context:

Now Peter, guided by the Holy Spirit, has made contact with Cornelius. The remarkable thing about this interaction is that, Cornelius, before he even knew of Jesus Christ, was a better witness for Christ than most of the American church. The Bible says that Cornelius gathered his relatives and close friends to come and hear the Word of Truth. Because of his faithfulness, Cornelius and the region of Caesarea experienced the gospel. This is what we would understand in the modern context to be a revival.

It has come to my attention that when churches have revivals in today’s world, that people won’t attend. There are two causes for this, and one is greater than the other. One, people aren’t as ready to hear about the Bible as they were at one time. Two, and even more disheartening, is that the people of God have grown comfortable…they would rather miss a revival service to do what they want to do instead of compelling their friends and relatives to come and hear God’s word.

We live in a new age where things are different…and it seems like Covid was the defining point for many churches…but just like Peter laid down his pride and his prejudice to do what God has told him, we have to do the same thing if we want Providence to experience God in a fresh way. What we are going to see in verses 24-43 is Cornelius who is a faithful witness, Peter who is a faithful servant, and we are going to see the Infallible testimony of Jesus Christ on display.

When you get those three ingredients and bring them together, revival will happen, and we will experience God in a way that might seem fresh to us, but it will be in a way that will magnify His Amazing Grace.

I. A Faithful Witness

Acts 10:24 NKJV

And the following day they entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them, and had called together his relatives and close friends.

Quickly, I want to say that Cornelius was not acting out of understanding, but was acting out of genuine concern. The faithfulness of a person is not always grounded in understanding, but it is grounded in having the right attitude. We know that Cornelius was still ignorant of the things of God because the next two verses tell us that he bowed down to Peter when he arrived…but the focus of this verse is not on his understanding but on his faithfulness and genuine concern. The focus of this verse is on his attitude toward the things of God.

Notice this about Cornelius… it is that a faithful witness be working in the waiting.

There wasn’t much that Cornelius could do at this point. So far, he has learned to observe the Jewish customs, he has done everything that he knew to do, and he is faithfully and truthfully seeking the will of God.

When Jesus was on the earth, He says in John 4:23

John 4:23 NKJV

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

This is what is on display in the life of Cornelius…he may have been ignorant of Jesus, but he was not empty of truth.

In his spirit…in his inner man, Cornelius had the right attitude. While he did follow the religious customs of the Jewish religion, there was, within him, a stirring of the Holy Spirit.

How God Begins His Work in a Man

The Bible makes it clear that we don’t seek God, that He has come to us. However, in order for the Holy Spirit to begin stirring in a person, opening their eyes to the truth of the Gospel, to the truth of Who Jesus Christ was, that person must be open to receiving that relationship.

When a man actively rejects the Holy Spirit in his life, when he actively rejects sound biblical wisdom and Holy Spirit conviction…what begins to happen? His heart begins to harden.

Once a man’s heart is hardened, it takes the Word of God to break it to pieces.

Jeremiah 23:29 NKJV

“Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

When a man’s heart becomes hard, it requires hard preaching to get that outer rock broken so the Holy Spirit can work in their life again.

However…

If a man’s heart is soft, and they are open to receiving the truth, it is just as the Lord says in Jeremiah, it will captivate them just like a fire that is let loose in a dry forrest. It will burn inside the heart of the person who is open to receiving the truth of God’s Word.

In that kind of heart, the Holy Spirit has free reign to work. What kind of heart is a soft heart? It is a heart that is genuinely seeking the Lord.

How Can We Know Who is Seeking?

You cannot know the heart of another person. I am not called to determine the heart of a person, I am not called to determine who will and who will not accept Christ, I am only called to preach His word.

The Bible says so…it says that no one can know the spirit of a man except that man.

1 Corinthians 2:11 NKJV

For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?

Paul is writing here…and he is saying that we cannot know what’s in a person’s heart, that it is between them and God.

Imagine if Peter would have been as stubborn as he always had been.

There is Cornelius, and he is earnestly seeking God, in his heart he wants a relationship with the Spirit of God…

But when the Holy Spirit tells Peter to go to Cornelius, Peter says, “Lord, I don’t know if you know this or not…but those Caesareans are pagans. Worse than that, they are Gentiles..it’s unlawful for me to meet with them. There is no way they are in condition to accept you as the Messiah. It’s impossible, Lord…I’ve seen their type before…I know how they think…”

Imagine that…

If that would have been Peter’s attitude, then Peter would have missed a blessing and Cornelius would have begun to doubt God. For, the angel said to Cornelius, “send for Peter and he will teach you about God.”

Cornelius sends for Peter, but Peter doesn’t come…and Cornelius gets word that Peter never came because he was prejudice against Caesarea and against the Gentiles…

So, now instead of Cornelius, his relatives, and his close friends experiencing the Spirit of God, their hearts are hardened toward the saving power of Jesus Christ…and they die and go to Hell because Peter decided he knew better than God.

So, the truth is, it’s not our job to decide who will and who will not accept Christ, it’s our job to be a faithful witness…even to those you consider to be unclean.

Is there any racism in your heart? is there any political or social prejudice in your heart that would prevent you from being obedient to God? You ought to be ashamed…and you ought to repent of your sin.

And church, I’m not just talking about black vs. white or left vs. right, I am talking about people in this community that look like you, talk like you, but you think are too far gone for God’s redemptive work.

I’ll believe, that this church believes, that anyone can be redeemed by Jesus Christ when I see the prostitutes, the drug heads, the loudmouths, the poor and needy, the smelly and disobedient children, and the people that are in this community who you have written off as a basket case come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, are baptized there in that baptistry, and sit amongst us with the people of God embracing them with love and affection.

We cannot know who is seeking God, we cannot know, unless the Lord leads us there, who the Holy Spirit is stirring to faith, so quit trying to make a judgement call and start being a faithful witness.

Cornelius, before he was even a Christian, was a faithful witness, someone genuinely concerned about inviting people to hear the truth. When he was told to wait, he didn’t moan and complain, he got busy doing what he knew was right…in this case that was to be a faithful witness.

If God has you in a season of waiting for His plan to be revealed, get busy being a faithful witness, this shows God your genuine love and affection for His truth and His work.

I. Faithful Witness

II. A Faithful Servant

Acts 10:25–26 NKJV

As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I myself am also a man.”

A Faithful Servant is Humble (v. 25-26)

Cornelius, even though he was a genuine witness for the truth, was dangerously ignorant of the things of God.

A person like Cornelius has so much knowledge of the things of God that he was able to follow the Jewish law to a T, yet he lacks understanding. He’s a man who thinks that there is still something to gain by having a title and position.

The reason, in my estimation, that he bows down to Peter, is because he believes that Peter has power in his position as an Apostle…but Peter doesn’t let that thought linger long….he says, “Why are you bowing, I am a man just like you.”

Peter’s Humility on Display

Notice that Peter doesn’t take any glory or praise…

Cornelius is a man who is in authority, and he believes that another with authority is coming…but his understanding of the things of God is limited.

When he bows down, Peter very directly says, “I am just a man.”

Do you know what Peter recognizes?

Peter recognizes that if there is any authority that he carries with him, it is given to him by God.

Here’s where the businessman, the banker, the superintendent, the professor, or the manager gets it wrong in the church…

When they believe that they are a source of authority in the church because of their expertise, they show that they lack understanding of God’s word.

Here is Peter, he is an Apostle…he is the man who Jesus has established His church on, and he claims none of it for himself.

“Stand up, Cornelius, I am just a man. I have nothing to give you except for the Testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Many a businessman, many a banker, and many a mr. or mrs. high and mighty have ruined a church. They ruin it because they believe that they are the authority because of their worldly expertise. The Spirit of God can’t work in a place like that and He cannot work in a person like that…for God to work where that kind of person is, that person will need to be removed.

And mind you, when God is ready to work…when He’s had enough…they will be removed.

A faithful servant is humble, recognizing God and His word as the sole authority.

A Faithful Servant is Obedient (v. 28-29)

Acts 10:28–29 NKJV

Then he said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. I ask, then, for what reason have you sent for me?”

Peter doesn’t try to make himself look better than he is.

He tells them about his prejudice…and then says, “but God has shown me different.”

And because the word of God convicted me, because I am a sinful man, and God had to reveal this truth to me that you are not unclean, but loved by God, I came without objection.

Peter is saying, “I wouldn’t have come here a day earlier because I thought you were unclean, but God has shown me different…and I am here now because God sent me.”

Notice this shocking question Peter asks:

“Why have you sent for me?”

Now it seems that Cornelius wasn’t the only one who lacked understanding. Peter did too….but I don’t want to be too hard on Peter, because I’ve been there, and I am there.

When you serve God, don’t expect to be in on the plan…

Why does God operate that way? Well, very simply…in most cases He has to because even if He shows us what He wants from us and is doing around us…we have a habit of ignoring it.

Two, there would be no faith involved if we knew the end result.

Your relationship with God is a relationship built on trust.

The reason God allows you to go days, months, or years, without hearing from Him, is because He is getting ready to prove that He is faithful and worthy of our praise. He is proving that He can be relied on.

Not only that, He is working in the heavenly places to refine us and to strengthen us…

Time and time again in the Bible, you will see the people of God disobedient, and you’ll see the chastisement or the discipline of God, but what you’ll also see is that He already has His redemption planned.

God never allows you to walk through a valley of darkness, and God never brings the rod of discipline against you to destroy you…He always allows it or brings it to deepen your trust in Him.

Romans 8:28 NKJV

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

You might not be in on the plan, you might not hear from God, but that has nothing to do with your trust in Him.

Your trust in Him is dependent on only one thing…His faithfulness.

When you get within you a deep conviction that God is faithful…then your circumstance won’t matter because you will be holding on to that promise that He is working for your good…so long as you belong to Him…so long as you have trusted in Jesus as your savior.

A Faithful Servant is Used by God (v. 30-33)

Acts 10:30–33 NKJV

So Cornelius said, “Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms are remembered in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa and call Simon here, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea. When he comes, he will speak to you.’ So I sent to you immediately, and you have done well to come. Now therefore, we are all present before God, to hear all the things commanded you by God.”

Notice this…that Peter didn’t go by his own initiative…he was sent by God.

Cornelius didn’t hear about the church and contact the head of the church…he was instructed to send for Peter by God.

When your humility and your faithfulness to the Lord is mature and honorable…you won’t have to try so hard to seek out the assignment, because the assignment will come to you.

I didn’t decide one day that I was going to pastor a church.

In my mind, I was prepared to hang out for another 6-7 years in student ministry to see the group that I began with graduate high school…to do what I could to retain them in the church so that they don’t fall away…

But I am sitting in class at New Orleans Seminary, and I have already been wrestling with the reality that I will eventually pastor…but I have this problem…I can’t complete my degree unless I have been at my church for one year…and because I am ambitious, I don’t want to leave now to go and pastor because I’ll have to slow down the process and take more time…take a whole extra year…and I like where I am, it’s so convenient and my family and friends are here…

I’m in class…and they are talking about the great need for young men to preach the Word of God…and just like that, I had to remove myself from the classroom because I’m overwhelmed with conviction to preach and to pastor.

I didn’t know how it all worked so God prompted me to call a pastor that I knew, and he gave me the advice to just get the word out that I am searching for direction in pastoring…

Meanwhile…what I didn’t know is that there was a church in Hatton, Alabama struggling to find the man God wanted them to call.

What I didn’t know is there at that church, they had an interim pastor that played high school basketball with my pastor.

What I didn’t know is that when I applied for that random church in the top corner of Alabama in January of 2024, that I would move my family 5 hours North to love and to be loved by an awesome congregation.

What I didn’t know is that God would take a broken and scared teenage boy and call him to ministry, would allow him to walk through the deepest darkest valleys of life, and would, by His faithfulness call that irresponsible, foolish, and unworthy man to preach the gospel…but He did…not because I am worthy, but because He says I am.

Church, you listen to me…if you will just slow your life down, get on your knees and seek the face of God regardless of your circumstance, your life will align in a way that you cannot replicate on your own.

When I was first called to ministry, I ran my life into the ground trying to promote and exalt myself to leadership…it wasn’t until I gave up that God’s work began. As the Scripture says,

“God resists the proud, but gives grace to humble”

and, “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

When you are humble before God, when you are obedient to God in the things you already know to do, then, and only then, will you be used by God…and it will be so clear and so supernatural, that it can’t be anyone else other than God.

III. A Faithful Savior

What Peter is getting ready to do is to preach the infallible testimony of Jesus Christ…

The word infallible means “without error”, the word testimony means “eye witness account”.

That is…that what Peter is about to preach is set in stone and is the Gospel Truth.

Acts 10:38–43 NKJV

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

What is Biblical Belief?

v. 43 says that whoever believes in Jesus as the resurrected Savior will receive forgiveness from sin.

What then, is biblical belief?

It’s not an intellectual acceptance of the facts.

James 2:19 (NKJV) You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!

It’s not a “get out of Hell free card”

James 2:20 (NKJV) But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

That is, if you have true belief, if you have true faith, your life will be changed…if there is no change of life then there is no salvation that has taken place.

Finally, faith is, biblical belief is, “to trust in the promise of Jesus Christ”.

That is to trust Him, and to submit to His truth, and to live your life in His service. Biblical faith is trust in Jesus Christ that results in the filling of the Holy Spirit…which produces in a person new life…

For, as the Scripture says…

John 3:3 NKJV

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:16–21 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”