Acts 10:34-43

Story

What’s up, My name Nathan, Good to be back, work with young adults

Who knows what’s special about today? It’s SuperBowl Sunday

This is quite possibly the most important event for Americans every year. You’ve got people who love football and people who care nothing about football sitting down for 3 hours watching the same thing

How many of you are watching for the football? How many are watching for the commercials? How many are watching for the halftime?

The rest of you are just going for the good food at the parties, it’s ok to admit it!

Either way, the SuperBowl is something that unites a big group of people for different purposes.

This morning we’re going to look at what happens when the Bible does the same thing, uniting all types of people for one purpose.

Background Info

If you’ve got a Bible with you this morning, go ahead and turn to Acts 10

In this chapter, we meet a guy named Cornelius. He’s a very influential man in the Roman army. He was probably pretty wealthy and highly respected by everyone… Except the jews

Because he was a Roman, he was considered a gentile, which is anyone that’s not Jewish.

And what you need to know is that Jews and Gentiles did not hang out together.

Jews thought that Gentiles were filthy and unloved by God. On the other hand, Gentiles saw Jews as rebellious and prideful. So you could say that these two groups of people don’t quite get along.

But Cornelius, even though he was a Gentile, was a follower of God. He didn’t worship the Roman gods like everyone else. Instead he worshipped the One true God as represented in the Bible

One day, Cornelius gets a vision of an angel telling him to send people to bring the apostle Peter, who was a jew, to him. And so he does

Now at the same time, Peter also gets a strange vision where God tells him that whatever God calls clean, is in fact clean. It’s a weird and confusing vision to Peter, but before he could find out what it meant, the people sent to bring him to Cornelius show up

They travel to Cornelius’s house, and all of his friends and relatives are there waiting to hear what Peter has to say

Pick up with me in verse 33 where Cornelius says

Acts 10:33–35 “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.” 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.”

1. God Does Not Show Favoritism

Point #1 this morning, “God Does Not Show Favoritism”

This is completely ground breaking to everyone in the room, Peter included

Even though the Bible had always said that God cares for all people across the world, the jews had lived as if they were the only ones able to receive God’s love

But now it finally clicks for Peter. It was never about your race or where you were from. It was always about your heart

Before this, the jews thought they were the only ones worthy of God’s love. Because God has chosen to work through Abraham and moses and the nation of Israel, they thought that God only cared about them

But that was so far from the truth! God had always cared about all the nations, He was just choosing to work through the Jews to bring in the other nations as well

And once it clicks for Peter, he says “ahhhhhhhhh now I get it!”

It wasn’t about where you were from that determined if God loved you or not. It was always about the heart

Verse 35 says it’s the people who fear God and respond to His call to follow Jesus that makes someone acceptable to Him

It didn’t matter if you were a Jew or a Gentile, the invitation to have your sins forgiven extends to all people

So today, Christianity isn’t just for Americans, it’s for all people

God loves you regardless of your skin color, ethnicity, friend group, or how popular you are. His love extends to all people

So Peter starts by telling these people, I’ve got good news! God’s love isn’t constrained to Jews, it’s available to all people. You and me included

He shares the truth of God’s universal love

Now he’s going to move into how you can experience God’s love

[TRANS]

Let’s look at verse 36

2. The Life and Death of Jesus is Good News

Acts 10:36–42 “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.”

Point #2 this morning “The Life and Death of Jesus is Good News!”

After telling the Gentiles how God’s love is available to them, Peter shares the gospel and emphasizes these 5 important details

The good news is that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ

Because of his death and resurrection, we are children of God and experience His peace in all circumstances

He is God and has all power over creation

For us then, that means that Jesus has the power to heal, to save, and to help us in every time of need

Jesus died on the Cross for our sins

Everything we’ve ever done, all of our sins past, present, and future, was paid for by Jesus on the Cross

Because He died as the perfect sacrifice, if we trust in Him to be saved and follow Him, we will spend eternity with Him in heaven

Jesus rose again after 3 days

This is massive! Not only did Jesus die, but after 3 days, He came back to life

Because it’s so important, it gets talked about a lot, and that’s a good thing, But i don’t want us to miss just how crazy this is

He was DEAD for three and came back to life. Nobody performed CPR, no medical; it was only by the power of God that death was defeated

And because He rose again, death no longer has a hold on us either. So if we trust in Jesus to be saved from our sin, then when we die, we too will be raised from the dead by the power of God to spend eternity with Him in heaven

Lastly, #5, everyone will stand before Jesus and answer for everything they’ve ever done

Not just some people, but everyone. You, me, Jews, gentiles, the people at the SuperBowl. Everyone

And there’s only two answers that we can

1. i trusted in myself to be saved from my sins. I was a good person, I definitely wasn’t as bad as THAT guy

And Jesus will say, “it’s not enough. You don’t have the power to save yourself from your sins. only I can.”

And as a result, those people will have to pay for their sins against God in hell

But that’s not the only answer; #2 you can say “Jesus paid for my sins on the Cross and to Him i give my life”

To those people, the ones who have been forgiven in Christ, they will get to spend eternity in heaven with God

They will live with God forever, experiencing His love that He gives

This is what Peter tells to the Gentiles that have gathered to hear what God has taught him. He shares the gospel with them.

That as a result of the perfect life and death of Jesus on the Cross, our sins can be forgiven

As we continue reading, we see that this good new is available to all

[TRANS]

Which leads us to point #3

3. The Good News is Available to All!

it says Acts 10:43 “To him [Jesus] all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.””

Peter is saying this “the whole Bible points to Jesus and if you trust that He died for your sins, you can be forgiven.”

Not my name, not your name, but through the powerful name of Jesus, your sins can be forgiven. You can be born again

There’s one really important word in that verse: “Everyone”

Everyone who believes, Everyone who asks for forgiveness

Jesus tells all people to “Come” to him

Not just the jews, as they originally, but the gentiles too.

He invites me, He invites you, your best friends, your worst enemies, the people you’ve never met before; He invites them to be saved from their sins

[TRANS]

Gospel Response

So as we close this morning, I’m going to offer you the same invitation that Jesus and Peter offered to those people back then

So everyone close your eyes this morning

The invitation that Jesus offers all people is this:

“Come”

Come to Jesus, have your sins forgiven

Be born again, and experience the life that God always intended you to live

There are people in this room this morning who need to have their sins forgiven by Jesus for the first time

If you’ve never asked Jesus to forgive you of you sin, today is the day you can be made right with God

Nothing standing in the way between you and God, you can experience the full love of God in your life

If that’s you this morning, I’m not gonna ask you to do anything weird, I’m just gonna ask you to look up at me

If that’s not you, i’m gonna ask that you keep your eyes closed, not looking around, so that those people can feel comfortable to do that

But if that’s you this morning, would you just look up at me

… Do you mean that? Are you willing to ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and give your life to following Him?

Ok, then i’m going to ask you to talk to your small group leaders when we break-off here in a second, and they’ll walk you through what that means to follow Jesus

Let’s pray this morning and go to our small groups

[PRAY]