God’s Impartiality

Introduction:

As we think about salvation, we also must think about God.

God wants us to know Him.

He wants us to fear Him.

He wants us to obey Him.

God is righteous.

This means He views all equal in sin.

This means He has provided righteous equally.

This means He has made access to righteousness equally.

Hopefully, we appreciate God’s nature, and hopefully, we are grateful for who He is.

Human life is more than a composite of choices.

Peter’s Admission

Peter makes a remarkable admission when he speaks to the crowd gathered at Cornelius’s house.

He speaks of something he now ascertains or grasps in a way he did not previously.

He now grasps “God is not partial.”

We should be reminded of the relevant passages as we go along.

Jonah 4

Peter now understands the meaning of his dream.

Introduction Week 2:

Last week we focused on the below information:

His (Peter’s) statement, however has three parts:

God is not impartial

“Among all ethnicities, the one fearing him and working righteousness is approved by him.”

Peter’s observation is not a path to righteousness.

God has a universal standard.

He has a universal desire that He wants from all people.

This week, we will watch as Peter explains God, Jesus, and the events around Jesus to a non-Jewish audience.

What has God done?

We know He is merciful because He has acted to give us forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace.

God’s Third Action:

He sent the word to the sons of Israel proclaiming peace through Jesus.

This action may prioritize the Jews, but it does not privilege them.

Instead, through what he has communicated to Israel, he also makes it possible for non-Jews to be in right relationship with Him.

It also means they are reconciled to one another.

We should not overlook the separation between people caused by the Fall.

Introduction (Part 3)

This historical narrative has great significance for understanding a few subsequent developments:

The way the apostles understood the scope and application of God’s acts through Jesus.

Tensions among believers over the involvement of non-Jews (this seems to go beyond Hellenistic Jews).

The eventual importance of Antioch.

Paul and Barnabas teaching at Antioch.

As we have considered recently, there are significant realities about God revealed herein as well.

Peter includes a universal observation about Jesus:

He is Lord over all.

Peter’s Assumption

As Peter continues to speak, he addresses the audience from the perspective that they are aware of Jesus’s basic narrative.

He begins with what Jesus did after the baptism preached by John.

God anointed him with holy spirit and power.

He traveled doing good works and healing those having been overpowered by the devil.

He did this because, “God was with him.”

Peter’s Access (We Could Think of This as God’s Act)

Peter and the other apostles are witnesses of all Jesus did.

Not only, then, do Cornelius and the others know what happened, but now they have authoritative witnesses who can confirm those events.

This includes that Jesus was hung on a tree.

God raised him on the third day.

He gave him to be seen.

Peter then qualifies this last statement:

Not by all the people

By the witnesses hand selected in advance by God.

Notice he specifically references eating and drinking with the resurrected Jesus.

He commissioned them to preach and witness to all that God had designated him as judge of the living and dead.

This is all consistent with the message of the prophets.

Peter’s message is merely the communication of the authoritative prophetic message of salvation.