The Gospel is EVEN for the gentiles

Introduction

Imagine if in order to be a Christian, first you had to become a Jew. If you were a male you would have to be circumcised, you would need to keep the food laws and follow the laws of Leviticus. Only then could you receive the Gospel, only then could Jesus be your Saviour.

You couldn’t come as a gentile, you had to come to Jesus as a convert to Judaism.

Imagine preaching the Gospel to people in Paignton with that message. You have sinned, you need Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Saviour. Be circumcised, follow the laws of Moses, become a convert to Judaism so that you can then repent and believe in Jesus Christ and be saved.

Well up until the passage we have just read this was the way that the early believers thought. If a gentile was to receive the Gospel firstly they needed to become a Jew. Thankfully all of that changed and this passage describes how the change took place.

How did this change? We find the answer in the passage we have read together.

In Jesus said to his disciples these words; “ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

At this point in our reading, Jesus Christ has now ascended in to heaven, the day of pentecost has been and gone. The disciples have received power because the promised Holy Spirit has come, they have been witnesses to Christ in Jerusalem, in all Judea and also Samaria but not yet to the ends of the earth.

For that to happen something drastic needed to take place.

This happened in chapter 10.

In short, God makes it very clear that the Gospel is for the gentiles as well.

Some gentiles are converted and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now this should have been wonderful news to the church back in Jerusalem. However from our passage we see that it was not well received. The Christians in Jerusalem were still working within the framework of Jesus being the Jewish Messiah and therefore if a gentile wanted to come to him first he had to become a Jew.

After the events in our passage the church realised that actually Jesus is the Saviour of the world.

How did this change take place?

We will find out in a moment as we walk through this passage together.

But, just before we do I must make it clear that the events that took place in this passage effect all of us. If this did not happen we would not be here this morning worshipping our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I.Hard to swallow v.1-3

So in our passage we see how the Church came to undertand that the Gospel is even for the gentiles.

What we see from the first three verses is that this truth was hard to swallow.

The fact that gentiles had received the word of God was extremely contreversial. This is shown in v.1 by how quickly the news spread from Caesarea where Cornelius lived to the apostles and all the brothers who were throughout Judea.

V.1 says “

The news spread like wild fire and the Christians at Jerusalem were not too happy about it.

The result was that when Peter went went up to Jerusalem we are told in v.2 that those of the circumcision Criticized him.

In v.3 we are told what they said; “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

Instead of the believers in Jerusalem rejoicing that the pagans had turned from their Idolatry and now worship the one true God through the Lord Jesus Christ, they were more concerned with the fact that Peter had gone in and eaten with them.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

In their minds Peter had broken the law.

This was also going through Peter’s mind at the time when he first went to preach to them at the command of God.

In ch 10:28 when speaking to Cornelius and his family he said; “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation.”

In the mind of a 1st century Jew to associate with a person who was a gentile was to defile yourself, you were breaking the law, you were not maintaining spiritual purity. You cannot find this in the Old Testament but it was a tradition that was handed down and it had become ingrained in the jewish mind.

In the mind of the Jewish person if a gentile was to become part of God’s convenant they had to become a Jew.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

If they wanted the spiritual blessings that are found in Jesus Christ, forgiveness of sin, peace with God, eternal life, first they had to become Jews.

Somehow they had failed to see God’s constant reminders in the Old Testament that one day the nations will worship him.

In the first book of the OT we read in God’s promise to Abraham “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

In the final book of the Old Testament we read . For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.

In the first book and in the last book of the Old Testament it is clear that God had a saving purpose for all the nations. This theme runs through out the whole Old Testament.

Somehow these early believers had also failed to remember the teachings of the Lord Jesus himself in Matt 8:11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,

These early believers had been blinded by their traditions and failed to recognise the teachings of God’s word. As a result they were reluctant to take the Gospel to the gentiles and when it did go to them they were not happy.

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In case we feel that they are terrible and we would never do anything like that ourselves, we must be aware of the same danger we face when we put man made traditions and ways of thinking above what the scripture says.

A common way of thinking in Britain that affects evangelism is the idea that religion is private. You have to keep your faith to yourself. This is something that some Christians can believe, it is a man made idea, completely contrary to the word of God and it hinders the work of evangelism.

This is just one example. We must examine what we believe against what the Word of God teaches to ensure that we are not holding on to man made ideas that disrupt the work of God.

This is what the Jews were doing in our passage and thats why the idea of the Gospel going to the gentiles was so hard to swallow.

Yet at the end of our passage we see that they changed their mind. What was it that convinced them otherwise?

look with me at the verses that follow and we will find out.

II.Clear to see v.4-17

The Gospel going to the gentiles was a fact that was hard to swallow, but yet God made it very clear to see that this was of him.

After being criticised by the Circumcision party, Peter opens his mouth and begins to defend himself.

He does this by making it clear to them that it was God who brought all of this about and Peter obeyed otherwise he would have been opposing God himself.

In verses 3-17 we see that God made it clear to Peter in three ways that he wanted the Gospel to go to the gentiles.

Peter lists them as he explains what happened.

These events were documented in the previous chapter but now peter reherses them for the people to hear so that they might understand that this is the will of God.

a) Peter’s vision

Firstly, Peter begins by telling them about his vision. In v.4-10 Peter explains what happened in this vision.

He saw a great sheet come down from heaven, on the sheet was a number of wild beats, a voice comes from heaven saying rise Peter kill and eat. Peter replies by saying No Lord, I have never eaten anything unclean or common. The voice replies do not call common what God has made clean. This happened three times.

This for Peter at first was a strange vision. In Chapter 10 we see that he was unsure about what it meant. But as you look at it in the context of the events that surround it, it is clear that the animals represent the gentiles and God is saying to Peter not to call them unclean or common for God has made them clean.

In other words Peter is not to refuse the Gospel to those God wants to hear the Gospel.

b) Cornelius and the angel

Just as the vison had finished, some men came to where Peter was and asked for him. They explained why they had come and the Holy Spirit to Peter to go with them.

Peter was accompanied by six men and when he arrived at Cornelius’s house in Caesarea, Cornelius explained to Peter that an angel had appeared to him and told him to send for Peter who would bring a message by which he will be saved.

c) The Holy Spirit fell on them

Then as Peter began to delcare this message the Holy Spirit fell on them as he did upon the Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost. And Peter reasons that if God had given the same gift to the gentiles that he gave to the jewish believers how could he refuse them a part of Christ.

His words were “Who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

To Peter it was very clear that God had orchestrated all of these events so that it will be clear for all to see that the gentiles have a place in the new covenant made in Christ’s blood.

Peter acknowlegdes that the same gift was given to them as it was to us. He acknowledged that what took place on Pentecost for the jewish believers took place again for the gentiles in the house of Cornelius.

III.News to share

This was a clear sign that they were all one in Christ. There was no hierachy of Christians. All Christians are equal before God.

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Peter clearly understood that this was God’s will and even though he risked opposition he still obeyed God and took the Gospel to the gentiles.

We should be thankful that he did.

Here we have a challenge for ourselves. There are many times in the Christian life when you will have clear direction from God and yet there will be a temptation to please men rather than God.

Let Peter here be an example to us of bold obedience to the LORD.

The main point of this section though is that God is concerened about the gentile nations and wanted to make it clear to the church at the time, that Jesus had come for them as well.

God’s purpose for the world was that the nations would praise him. He brought this purpose about by sending his Son.

Exmaple-

Now he wanted his church to tell them, so he orchestrated all of these events to make sure they knew this was his will.

How grateful we should be this morning that God was concerened for us and made sure that his church knew the Gospel was for all the nations not just Israel.

If you are here this morning and you do not yet believe in Jesus Christ, you have not yet repented of your sin and surrendered yourself to him as your Lord and Saviour, then I urge you not to refuse the grace of God.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be forgiven for your sin and receive eternal life.

The Gospel going to the gentiles was at first a hard fact to swallow but God had made it clear to see it was his will, the result was that the church recognised this was news to share.

III.News to share

After hearing Peter’s defense and all that God did to make it clear that the Gospel was for the Gentiles as well as the jews, in v.18 we read that the people fell silent.

They were silenced, there arguments were taken away.

They fell silent and then they glorified God.

This is what they said at the end of v.18 “Then to the gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Some translations capture their supirse well and translate this sentence “Then even to the gentiles has God granted repentance that leads to life.”

The church now recognised that God intended the Gospel to go to the gentiles.

The phrase they used was God has granted the repentace that leads to life.

This phrase can be taken in two ways and probably means both.

God has granted the gentiles repentace that leads to life firstly by giving them the oppurtunity to hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and giving them the oppurtunity to repent.

Secondly, God has granted the gentiles repentance that leads to life by giving them not just the oppurtunuity to repent but also the ability.

God in his grace had worked in the hearts of gentiles in chapter 10 and because of this they repented and believed.

Everyone who repents does so because God grants them repentance.

Jesus said no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Here in this verse we learn that God was drawing gentiles to Christ as well.

This repentance that God was granting even to the gentiles was the repentance that leads to life.

That means that it leads to eternal life.

Life which begins now by knowing God through Jesus Christ and which continues into eternity in the new heavens and the new earth. WHere God will dwell among us and we will forver be with the Lord.

This life comes a s a result of repentace towards God and faith towords our Lord Jesus Christ. God has given this repentace to the gentiles both the oppurtunity and the ability.

When the church knew this what was their response?

Well we read in v.18 that they gloried God but then we see in the rest of the book of the Acts that the church made sure the Gospel was taken to the gentiles. From chapter 13 through to the end of the book the focus is now on the Apostle Paul and his mission to the gentiles.

God had granted repentace to the gentiles and from the rest of the book we see that many gentiles believed and were saved.

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SO the response of the church to the fact that God hd granted repentace to the gentiles was that they took the glorious gospel to them and many belived.

In fact we are here today almost 2000 years later becuase of this very truth that God has granted repentance that leads to life even to the gentiles.

SO what should our repsonse be to this truth?

Well i you are not a Christian then your resposne should be to repent and believe in Jesus CHrsit. The Lord Jesus died upon the cross to pay for the sins not just of the jews but also of the gentiles. He rose again on the third day, not just for the jews but also for the gentiles. He offers forgivnes of sin and peace with God, eternal life, not just to the jews but also to the gentiles.

Thereofre as a gentiles he commands you to repent and believe?

Have you done that?

If not then you must, God has granted repentance that leads to life even to the gentiles and it would be foolish to refuse this grace.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

But what about those of us who have already beloieved, we have repented and we have eternal life. We are memebers of Christ’s church. What should our repsonse be?

well it should be the same repsonse that the early church had. We must tell the gentiles about this good news.

God has granted repentace that leads to life even to the gentiles, if the people in Paignton repent of their sin, turn from doing wrong and believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, their only hope of salvation, if they call on the Lord they will be saved.

Instead of going to hell, they will go to heaven, instead of being punished for their sin they will be forgiven, instead of being enemies of God they will be his children instead of being rejected by Christ at the last day they will be accepted and welcomed with open arms. Instead of being cast out they will be brought in.

This is wonderful news, the Bible calls it the glorious gospel.

Our repsonse as believers should be that we make sure it is known.

We cannot save people, only God can save, but we can make sure that they know.

Is this a priority in your life?

Do you look for oppurtunities to make the Gospel known?

If you are a Christian then that means you know the Gospel, if you do not know the Gospel then you cannot be a Christian, it is by believing the Gospel that we become Christians and if you believe it then you know it and if you know it then you can share it.

The Bible does not tell us to know the answers to everyones questions, but it does tell us to give a reason for the hope that is in us and we do that by simply sharing the Gospel.

Any Christian can do this and it is something that we must do. I ask again is this a priority in your life?

Well this was a priority in the early church, as soon as they understood that God has granted repentsce even to the gentiles they made sure they heard about it.

Conclusion

We are here today as a result of what happened in this chapter. We can trace our our history as gentile believers to here in .

The Gospel is even for the gentiles. This was a hard fact to swallow, but God made it clear to see that it was his will and so the church welcomed it as news to share. Here we are today.

Praise God for his grace and his loving kindness that he has shown to us.

God has granted repenace that leads to life even to the gentiles and becasue of that we are here today and many of us are saved by the grace of God.

If you are not yet saved, then believe in Jesus christ, repent and believe.

If you are saved, then tell others the good news that they might be too.

Let us pray.