The Salvation of the Gentiles

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 31 July 2016

We are continuing to study week by week, and now we come to Acts 10 which has a primary mission emphasis; because it deals with this great missionary principle and historical fact. The Gospel had been committed first, to the people in Jerusalem; and then to Judea and Samaria; and finally, the design of God was to take the Gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. And our master plan of evangelism is in Acts 1:8.

Remember Matthew 28:19-20 which recorded the Great Commission, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel." Initially, the church was Jewish; and it was stretching them to be able to reach Samaritans, whom they despised. And it was an even greater step to reach the Gentiles, whom they doubly despised. And so as we come to Acts 10, we learn in the Word of God how God began to open the church to the Gentiles; and He did it through Jewish men.

Now the key in the early church is Peter. The church exploded in Jerusalem, and then it exploded all throughout Judea and Samaria, and people were being saved everywhere. Peter was moving around. He was the preacher to the unsaved. He was also the teacher to the saints. And in Lydda, he healed a man named Aeneas who eight years had been a paralytic. And that caused all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon turned to the Lord.

He stayed there for some time until he heard from some disciples that there was a beloved Christian lady named Dorcas in Joppa some ten miles away, who had died. And knowing that Peter was near, they did not bury her, but only set her up in an upper chamber. They went to fetch Peter to see if he could raise her from the dead. And Peter did precisely that; and in response to that miracle of God, many believed in the Lord.

Peter had a very special commission. For in Matthew 16:19, our Lord Jesus Christ said to him, “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus meant, “Peter, you will unlock the door in the expansion of the church. You are the point of contact between the Spirit of God and the church." And on Pentecost, Peter was in Jerusalem and the church began there, and it was he who preached, and he was there when the Spirit came. And then he was also present in Judea and Samaria.

And the last key left in Peter's hand was the key that opens the church to the Gentiles. And that was difficult for Peter, because he had been raised with Jewish traditions, engrained with legalism, and super-nationalism. So that there wasn’t any room for Samaritans or Gentiles, who were considered to be unclean. But already the Spirit of God has begun to change Peter.

Then in addition, another tradition that was breaking down is because he stayed, in verse 43, in the house of Simon, the tanner. And that work was despised by Jews, because it deals with dead animals; and no self-respecting Jew would have anything to do with such a man. But Peter stayed in his house maybe as a long as a couple of years and, so he shows that his prejudices are being changed by our Lord.

God wants to take the Jew and the Gentile and make them “one new man." Ephesians 2:13-16 says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation. 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body.”

Well, in order for God to change this dichotomous situation into unity, He is going to do a little preparation. So in Acts 10:1-20 tonight, God introduces to us this confrontation that finally results in the Gentiles being brought into the church. God prepares first the Gentile and then He prepares the Jew. The Gentile is Cornelius and the Jew is Peter and He gives each one a special vision, which is like training in preparation.

Now, as we watch what God does with Cornelius and Peter, we will see principles of what God does with everybody, because you have here a receiver, Cornelius, and you have a messenger, Peter. Let us see how God prepares the receiver who is going to receive the Gospel and how God prepares the messenger who is going to give it. And then at God's perfect timing, He brings the two together. Learn from this, because it is important for us to understanding of how God is going to use us to do the same.

Acts 10:1, “There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius.” The first thing we learn about God's preparation is that God chooses the receiver. God chooses the one who receives the Gospel, as well as the one who brings it. In John 6:37, Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” But then He said in verse 44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

God is in the business of choosing. Ephesians 1:4 says, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” God had Cornelius all singled out. In Acts 13:48 it says, “Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” God had already determined who would be redeemed. God does all the selecting.

Now Caesarea was a military garrison, and the home of Pilate was there, or any other procurator of Palestine, because the Roman government had their headquarters there. And also it was populated by Gentiles with only a minimum of Jewish people. It is about 30 miles north of Tel Aviv. Augustus has given this city to Herod as a gift. So, it had been made into a beautiful city.

Verse 1 continues, Cornelius was “a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment.” He commanded 100 men. A Roman legion had 6,000, and it was divided into ten divisions, and each division had 6 centurions. Verse 2 says he also was, “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always.” Cornelius wanted to know God, and he had lived up to the light that he had. So God moved in to give him more light, the light of the world, Jesus.

So another thing we learn about God's preparation of the receiver is that God responds to the willing and open heart. Election never violates volition or choice. They always go together. I don't know how, God knows how. But Cornelius was sovereignly chosen by God, and he also had a searching heart. God reached down and gave him, really, the disposition to turn and seek God, even when he was dead in trespasses and sins.

All right, Cornelius was a devout man. That means he was religious and he feared God. This was a Gentile who abhors of his own religion, the immoralities and the idolatries of his own faith, and he had come to the conclusion that the God of Israel was the true God. He actually began to pray to that God. He perhaps become involved in worship in certain synagogues.

So God had to not only to choose him, and respond to his searching heart, but also He had to prepare him. Verse 3-4, “About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!” 4 And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, “What is it, lord? So he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.” The ninth hour of the day," is 3:00 PM, which was the time for the evening prayers for the Jews.

Here appears crystal clear, an angel who says, "Cornelius” and talked to him. Soldiers aren't supposed to be afraid, but he was afraid of this. You know that anywhere in the world, God sees and reads the heart of every single individual. Like smoke ascending from a fire, your prayers and the deeds that you have done have risen up to God, and He is moving in response to you.

Verse 5-6, “Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. 6 He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do.” God always wants to tie with faith an act of obedience, because that's what the Christian life is all about. Praise the Lord, he believed God and he was obedient. Next in order to break the barriers down, the Lord wanted Peter to lead Cornelius to Christ in Cornelius' own house, which no Jew would ever enter.

Cornelius obeyed immediately. Verse 7-8, “And when the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually. 8 So when he had explained all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa.” Here was a man of true faith, and God gave him the opportunity to prove the obedience of faith. Meanwhile, He prepares the messenger, Peter, down in Joppa.

Verse 9, “The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour.” That's noon. It's time for prayer then, and so Peter was going up on the roof to pray. Now, God had to change a lot in Peter. He began as a racist, and God had to tear that down, and God needed one more vision to get Peter over the hump in dealing with Gentiles. We are going to see that the work of the Holy Spirit on the messenger is identical to that on the receiver.

God chooses the messenger that He wants, just like He chose the receiver. The Spirit of the Lord moves on people and leads them in the way that God wants them to go. If you feel God leading you strongly, obey the Spirit promptly. God wants you as a messenger for a specific mission. In John 15:16, Jesus says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.”

Verse 10-11 says, “Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth.” God gave him a vision that involves eating, and here comes a big sheet. Verse 12-13, “In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”

Here is the key point, the animals in it were clean and unclean. In Leviticus 11, God laid down some absolutes, so in the mind of a Jew, there was a great division between clean animals and unclean animals. And these dietary laws were so distinct that they couldn't get together socially with Gentiles, and that's the point of Leviticus 20:25. And now God says to eat all this.

Verse 14-15, “But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean. 15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” And verse 16 says, “This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.” What is this specific meaning of the vision? God is abolishing the Old Testament Jewish dietary laws. They were designed to separate the Jew from the Gentile. Now the body of Christ is designed to unite them.

The Jews and the Gentiles who were both in the church wouldn't eat together, and this is what Paul dealt with in Romans 14. Paul says, "Do not purposely offend that Jew who doesn't yet understand his liberties." And Paul also says to the Jew, "Don't you try to make the Gentile conform to dietary laws that God has set aside." See, God wanted to remove the barrier so they could be one in Christ.

Mark 7:14-15 records the words of Jesus, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: 15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.” Jesus is simply saying, "I'm not concerned anymore about what you are putting in your mouth. I'm only concerned about what you are saying and if that is not loving it will defile you."

1 Timothy 4:1-3 is very clear, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, 3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”

Verse 17-18 says, “Now while Peter wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen meant, behold, the men who had been sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate. 18 And they called and asked whether Simon, whose surname was Peter, was lodging there.” God not only prepares the receiver and prepares the messenger, but He uses divine timing for just the right moment, before Peter could wake up, bang on the door, there the guys were.

Verse 19-20, “While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are seeking you. 20 Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.” God wanted an act of faith out of Peter, just like He did out of Cornelius. Are you available when God calls you and He has also already prepared the receiver?

The Apostle Paul operated on this principle. It says in Acts 18:9-11, “Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” 11 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.” God can and will use you if you are ready. Let's pray.