Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

In 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled on the case of Brown v. Board of Education in which the Supreme Court said that public schools could not allow their district to be segregated by race.

This event in the history of the United States led to the civil rights movement that paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to be signed by then President Lyndon Johnson.

The decision by the Supreme Court was a watershed moment in the history of the United States that eventually led to equal rights for all American citizens.

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The early church faced a similar watershed moment in her history in Acts chapters 10-11.

This morning, we are going to look at the story of Peter (a Jew) and a Roman Centurion by the name of Cornelius, and how that one event opened the door for the Christians of Jewish background and culture to become accepting of Gentile converts thus effectively doing away with the ceremonial requirements of the Mosaic Law and completely ushering in the age of Grace.

Acts 11.1-

Peter’s Initial Reception (11.1-3):

Peter had returned to Jerusalem to recount the story of what he had just experienced in Joppa, and was met with a bit of resistance.

There was a group of people in Jerusalem that was called the “Circumcision party.”

These were people that believed that in order for a person to be completely saved they had to be circumcised to “proves their salvation.”

Paul had a group of these people that had followed him from place to place which warranted him to write the letter to the Galatians saying that what they were teaching was a perverted gospel, and we will see in a few weeks how that discussion came about in chapter 15 where the apostles get together to decide whether is was truly grace alone that saved a person or if they had to add the works of the law to the gospel in order for a person to be truly saved.

Here, peter is being criticized for what he had just experienced.

If you remember a couple of weeks ago, we talked about how the Jews related to the Samaritans, no we have a situation of Jews associating with Gentiles.

Jews considered them probably more unclean than Samaritans, and they went so far as to not even invite them into their houses or even go into the house of a Gentile, so Peter no recounts what he had just experienced.

Dramatic Revelation (11.4-10)

Cornelius

Peter recounts what he had experienced prior to his meeting with Cornelius.

We back up to chapter 10 to see this story, and in verses 1-8, we see the introduction of Cornelius.

Cornelius was a centurion in the Italian Cohort.

Basically what that was, was a division of the Roman Army.

Like our Army today, we have platoons that make up a company, companies that make up battalions, battalions that make up brigades, brigades that make up divisions and so on.

The cohort was what was the equivalent of today’s battalion, and these cohorts were made up of several groups of 100 or so men, and the men that were in charge of them were called centurions.

Basically, he was a company commander which would make him an officer.

Verse two says that he was “a devout man who feared God...” What this means was he was a step up from what the Jews considered just a plain Gentile, he was faithful to worship the One True God and abide by Jewish traditions (celebrating feasts, and joining in with worship), but he had not become what they called a proselyte and had not been circumcised.

Verse 3 says, “about the ninth hour of the day...” this means Cornelius was participating in the 3 pm prayer time which was customary for the Jews to participate in.

He’s visited by an angel of God, and tells him that his “alms have ascended as a memorial before God.”

This tells us that he was acting out of pure motives in his giving and his worship was held as acceptable before God.

The angel tells Cornelius to “send men to Joppa” to bring back Peter to his house, and the angel gives specific directions to the house where peter is staying at.

Peter:

Before we get to Peter in Joppa, we will look at how he got there.

Back in chapter 9, just after Saul went to Jerusalem and met with the apostles for a brief time.

He was met with some apprehension, because they knew he had been dragging Christians off to prison for their beliefs.

Barnabas went with Saul to meet with the apostles and explained to them what he saw personally and experienced with Saul on his way into Damascus.

Shortly after that, Peter goes on the road sharing the gospel with people and goes to Lydda, and healed a man by the name of Aeneas, and the residents of Lydda and Sharon both were converted to Christianity because of what Peter was doing.

Then Peter moves on to Joppa, and while he was in Joppa, a disciple names Tabitha, or Dorcas became ill and died, so the Christians in Joppa called for Peter since they knew he was nearby, and he came in and brought her back from the dead, and the last verse in chapter nine says he stayed, “for many days with one Simon, a tanner.”

So Peter is staying at Simon’s house, Peter goes up to the rooftop for his afternoon prayer time (because still being a Jew, he adhered to many of their customs) and something happens during this time.

As he is praying, his stomach starts to growl (like many of our stomachs are doing right now), and he receives a vision.

In this vision, a big sheet comes out of heaven, and on this sheet all kinds of animals come rolling down out of heaven (clean and unclean Levitically), and he hears a voice in 9.13 saying, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat,” and Peter responds in Peter fashion in verse 14, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”

To which God responds, “What God has made clean, do not call common” (9.15).

This vision repeated three times, and Peter is trying to process what exactly God is trying to tell him.

Divine Coordination (11.11-14)

Peter and Cornelius:

While Peter is processing what he has just had revealed to him by God, Cornelius’ men knock on the door, and ask for Peter.

Peter is told by the Holy Spirit that these men have been sent for him and that he should go with them, so the next day they get up and make for Cornelius’ house together.

When Peter arrives, Cornelius rolls out the red carpet and invites his family and friends to the gathering and even falling at Peter’s feet to worship him and wash his feet.

Peter corrects him and says, “Stand up; I too am an man” (10.26).

Peter them sees all the family and friends gathered to gether and says, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that should not call any person common or unclean” (10.28).

Cornelius explains what happened on his end, and tells peter that they were gathered to hear what God was going to say to them through Peter.

Decisive Validation (11.15-18)

Peter begins by sharing with them that he understands now that, “God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

This would be counterintuitive to Peter because of his Jewish upbringing would have taught him differently, so this would have had to come from God in order for him to understand it.

As he is sharing the gospel, the Holy Spirit fell on those that were there, and it amazed those that were of Jewish backgrounds because, “the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on even the Gentiles” (10.45), and because of that immediate outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he told them to get baptized as a profession of their faith in Jesus Christ.

Peter immediately recognized that tis was from God because as he recounts his story to the rest of the apostles, he says in 11.17, “Who was I to stand in God’s way?” and because of what transpired at Cornelius’ house, the Apostles realized that the gospel is open to all who believe regardless of what your background is, and it must be shared freely to everyone.

So now we are faced with the question, “What does this story mean for us?” Aside fro the obvious, that because of Cornelius, those of us that believe can be thankful that the Apostles didn’t leave the gospel with just those of Jewish culture, what other lessons can we take from this story?

We should never hesitate to include all people for the sake of the gospel.

It’s cliche to say “Love the sinner, hate the sin,” but do we truly grasp what that means?

We are called to love all people regardless of their walk in life, and that means accepting them for what they are regardless of how we feel about their life choices.

We can preach to an unsaved person all we want, and they will never get the message we are trying to give them if we just preach to them.

We know that peter was a Jew by birth.

What we see from this story is, at the onset of chapter 10, Peter is staying at Simon the tanner’s house.

So, why is that important?

Simon was not only a Gentile, but he was a tanner, and that means that he dealt with dead animal carcasses.

That means, according to Levitical law, he was unclean, and Jews were to have nothing to do with those that were unclean.

Jews went so far as to say that Gentiles were born unclean and they weren’t even to be allowed in your house.

Paul writes in

We may have to associate with some people that we aren’t comfortable with because they don’t live a life that we think is proper, but if we don’t reach out to the lost of the world, who is going to reach out to them?

They will remain in their sin and die in their sins, and never know the saving grace of God.

We can be assured that God saves all people in the same manner.

Cornelius was a God-fearer.

He went to the temple or synagogue and worshipped the one true God.

He gave alms to the poor, but in the end that was not going to save him.

The only things that could save him was God’s grace and placing his faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and someone had to share that with him.

Just going to church will not save you.

Doing good deeds won’t save you either.

According to a 2009 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life study, 65% of self-identifying Christians believed that there are multiple roads to heaven.

Out of that group, over half of those people were evangelical Christians.

We live in a world that believes in pluralism, and it is very hard for people to accept that there can be only one way to heaven.

God saves all people in the same manner, and that is faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Jesus said in

God’s grace came to us in the form of Jesus Christ and it is only by professing Him as Lord and Savior that we can attain eternal life.

God coordinates divine appointments; therefore we should never hesitate to share the gospel.

When we look back on this story, we see God’s coordination and preparation of those involved.

First, he prepared Cornelius to receive the message.

Cornelius was already a spiritual person, and worshipped the one true God and not the gods of his fellow Romans.

He received a message from God with instructions on what he was to do.

All the while God was working in Cornelius, he was working in Peter as well.

Peter was already getting comfortable with being around Gentiles (as evidenced by him staying with a Gentile tanner), but now he had to face a deeper conviction that grace was available for all people regardless of their status, so God showed him a vision.

In that vision, God showed peter clean and unclean meats and told him he could eat anything he wanted.

Peter was hesitant at first, but God responded with, “What I call clean, you may not call unclean,” and when Peter reports back to Jerusalem, he says, “Who am I to stand in God’s way?”

In the end, he shared the gospel with Cornelius and his friends and family and many were saved.

Now imagine if Peter dug his heels in and said, “I will take no part of this with a Gentile, send one of the Hellenists.”

Conclusion:

God coordinates many of those same exact divine appointments in our lives, and how do we handle them?

Do we say, “By no means God!

I will not talk to those people?”

Do we become like Jonah when he avoided going to Nineveh because he didn’t like them because they were a fierce and bloody people, and perhaps we become stuck on the fact, like Jonah, that there are some people we just don’t want to spend eternity with because we don’t like their particular life choices?

Put yourself in their shoes for a moment.

Maybe there is someone that doesn’t want to spend eternity with you because they don’t care for your type of people.

Is there a particular social group of people of a particular economic status that you shy away from because of personal stereotypes of perhaps there is a mentality that lingers with you from many years ago that makes you have a hard time reaching out to a particular culture?