Acts - Gentiles?
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Transcript
Acts - Gentiles?
Acts - Gentiles?
Peter raised a woman to life, a woman who did good things:
She was devoted to good works and acts of charity…
She dies, and Peter comes and raises her to life again, so she can get back to making tunics and other clothing… :-)
Now, we are going to enter a big shift…because up to this point, the people who are trusting and believing have been Hebrews…
What about the Gentiles?
In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.” He stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” He answered, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.” When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, and after telling them everything he sent them to Joppa.
- Cornelius is introduced as a centurion of the Italian Cohort in Caesarea—a full Gentile (not a proselyte or half-Jew).
- He is described as “a devout man who feared God with all his household,” who gave alms generously to the Jewish people and prayed continually to God. Verse 22 later reinforces this: he is “an upright and God-fearing man… well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation.”
Love God and Love Neighbor
He is doing the law, and according to Christ, the highest law
- These descriptions place him in the recognized first-century category of a “God-fearer”: a Gentile who respected Jewish customs, believed in the God of Israel, prayed to Him, and sought a relationship with Him without full conversion to Judaism (no circumcision, no Temple requirements that would create offense).
- God-fearers were attracted to Jewish theology as preferable to pagan idolatry and participated as far as they could without crossing boundaries that would alienate the Jewish community. Ancient texts outside Scripture also mention this category.
- Heiser summarizes Scot McKnight’s article (Dictionary of New Testament Background) on the spectrum of Jewish attitudes toward Gentiles in the first century:
- **Integrating tendencies**: general universalism (Yahweh is God of all nations); simple friendliness; limited participation in Jewish festivals/rituals; full social/political integration (including intermarriage for some).
- **Resisting tendencies**: strict separatism for ritual purity; restricted Gentile access to Temple and worship; active polemics against Gentile idolatry and intermarriage.
- Peter will later allude to the cultural/religious friction this spectrum created (it was “unlawful” for a Jew to associate closely with a Gentile).
- The angel declares that Cornelius’s prayers and alms have “ascended as a memorial before God” and instructs him to send for Simon Peter (lodging with Simon the tanner by the sea in Joppa).
- Cornelius immediately obeys, sending two servants and a devout soldier from his household to fetch Peter.
He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. Then he heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.” The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.
This vision language deliberately prepares Peter (and the hearers/readers) for the inclusion of Gentiles as covenant people / people of God.
- **vv. 10–16 (with the ekstasis of v. 10 carrying into the vision)**: The Greek term *ekstasis* (“trance”) is the same Septuagint word used for the deep sleep (*tardemah*) that falls on Adam (Genesis 2:21) and especially on Abraham (Genesis 15:12) when God formalizes the covenant.
A Hellenistic Jew familiar with the Septuagint would therefore connect Peter’s experience to those earlier divine speech-events: the original family of God (Adam) → the covenant people defined as Israel (Abraham) → now the same God expanding the covenant people to include Gentiles. The continuity of language signals theological continuity.
Now while Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. They were asking for Simon’s house and were standing by the gate. They called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Look, three men are searching for you. Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation, for I have sent them.” So Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?” They answered, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish people, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” So Peter invited them in and gave them lodging. The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the brothers and sisters from Joppa accompanied him.
The timing and the Spirit’s instruction confirm divine initiative behind the entire sequence.
This already shows Peter beginning to act on the vision by associating with Gentiles, moving past the cultural and religious barriers he will later explicitly acknowledge.
The following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. On Peter’s arrival, Cornelius met him and, falling at his feet, worshiped him. But Peter made him get up, saying, “Stand up; I am only a mortal.” And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled, and he said to them, “You yourselves know that it is improper for a Jew to associate with or to visit an outsider, but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?”
Cornelius replied, “Four days ago at this very hour, at three o’clock, I was praying in my house when suddenly a man in dazzling clothes stood before me. He said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms have been remembered before God. Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter; he is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ Therefore I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.”
Imagine, they are all sitting there waiting to hear him…
This Jew…sitting with Gentiles… and all the gentiles are waiting to hear from Peter
The money verse…
Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every people anyone who fears him and practices righteousness is acceptable to him.
- **vv. 34–35**: Heiser strongly rejects the common Reformed/Calvinistic claim (illustrated by a quotation from Robert Reymond) that, because of total/pervasive depravity, an unbeliever is incapable of ever doing or thinking anything that pleases God. He argues that this view is a serious overstatement of depravity and is directly contradicted by Peter’s words here.
- **vv. 34–35**: The statement does *not* mean that Gentiles are saved by good works or that their deeds merit acceptance before God in a salvific sense. Cornelius is still an unbeliever who has never heard of Jesus; that is precisely why God intervenes to send Peter with the gospel. “Acceptable” here means God is glad when people respond rightly to the light they have and act in accord with his moral will—it does not close the gap of sin or replace the need for faith in Christ.
- **vv. 34–35**: Heiser links the verse to Romans 2 (Gentiles who by nature do the things of the law) and Hebrews 11:6 (God rewards those who seek him). When an unbeliever fears God, seeks him, or does what is right, God notices and approves rather than responding only with increased anger.
Acts - Gentiles?
Acts - Gentiles?
