When human barriers come down, HEAVENLY BLESSINGS come down!
Acts 10:1-34
Have you ever noticed that the guy driving slower
than you is always a jerk, whereas the guy driving faster than you is always a maniac? By fallen nature, we’re all prone to justify ourselves and to condemn those who are different than we are. We’re prone to judge others according to outward characteristics, rather than to accept them as individual human beings on an equal par with us.
We’re all prone toward prejudice in some form or another. But for God to use us effectively in His purpose, He must break us of our prejudices.
We all have built-in prejudices that God must break down before we be truly effective with the Gospel. We see Him doing just that in our text.
I. The Initiator of the Gospel Work
Watching the unfolding drama of Cornelius’ conversion shows that this was not a mere accident or chance. The careful, detailed hand of a Sovereign God works through the personalities involved to bring about His saving work among the Gentiles. While we see the outward work of the messenger presenting the gospel and the believer responding, behind it all was our great God who was working in the secret places of men’s hearts that He might be glorified in the saving of sinners.
A. The SINNER - Cornelius
Up to this point in the history of the early church, the gospel had been carried only to the Jews and Samaritans, which were half-Jews and worshipers of Jehovah.
There is the solitary incident of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch, who himself was a worshiper of Jehovah. But there had been no conversion of a group of Gentiles which represented the mass of population outside Judaism. Carrying the gospel to Cornelius represented a new step in the gospel work of the church. They had kept to themselves, i.e., to Jews only. Now they would branch out into the forbidden realm of Gentiles. This was not just a little hurdle for these Jewish Christians. This was leaping across a chasm that no Jew was willing to cross.
It all commences with the gentile named Cornelius.
1. Cornelius was a man of character, because he as a “devout man” who “feared God with all his house.”
2. He was a man of charity, because “he gave much alms to the people.”
3. He was a man of communion, because he “prayed to God alway.”
Yet, in spite of all of those genuine qualities, Cornelius was still a lost Gentile, and up to this point a formidable barrier existed between the Jews and the Gentiles.
He was a Military Man - "centurion"
He was a Moral Man - "a just man, and one who feareth God"
He was a Model Man - "of good reputation among all the nation of the Jews" He was a good man, but he still needed to be saved.
B. The Servant - Peter
Peter seems to be the main character of the first half of the book of Acts. He was the chief spokesman for the apostles and the clear leader of the early church.
Peter would not voluntarily come up with the idea of carrying the gospel to the Gentiles. Such a move would have been offensive to the Jewish mind. Yet this was the clear mandate of Jesus Christ to the disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). Obstacles of tradition in Peter’s mind would have to be conquered for him to move outside the comfortable setting of Judaism.
He was beginning to move away from the enslaving traditions that held his nation in spiritual bondage. This is evident by his staying for a period of time ("many days" in 9:43) with a tanner by the name of Simon in the city of Joppa. Tanners were considered to be despicable among Jews because their trade was unclean. They continually dealt in dead animals, touching them, handling them, working with them. Such a practice caused a person to be ceremonially unclean so that he could not participate in the religious practices of Judaism. The trade of a tanner was on par with being a leper. For Peter to stay with Simon the tanner showed that the legalism and prejudice in which he was reared was beginning to be stripped away by the renewing work of the Holy Spirit.
Peter was God’s choice instrument to break down this massive barrier held in the minds of the Jewish Christians concerning the furtherance of the gospel among the Gentiles. If Peter could go to the Gentiles, then so could every other Jewish Christian! Behind his going was the secret working of God.
God was at work with both men to prepare and bring them together. While God prepared Cornelius for Peter, He was also preparing Peter for Cornelius.
You can be assured that Peter would
not go the Gentiles without divine persuasion! Nor would Cornelius even consider sending for Peter without divine direction. We see in this chapter of the book of Acts a marvelous symphony of a divine work to bring about the conversion of a group of Gentiles and opening the door for the gospel to extend to the Gentiles. God is orchestrating the events to bring these two men together in a way that shocked both of them by breaking down the wall of prejudice between them.
How did it all come about? God did it!
Our Lord is more interested in saving the lost than any of us can imagine.
Only the living God can work in both the believer and the unbeliever to bring about the salvation of the lost!
The Lord is the Initiator in gospel work.
II. The Instruments in the Gospel Work
There is a grand consistency in the gospel work throughout the New Testament.
A. The message (36)
The gospel involves proclaiming Jesus. You cannot preach the gospel without preaching Jesus Christ.
The message is for all.
1. Pardon in Christ (43)
2. Peace by Christ (36)
3. Power through Christ
B. The messenger
God works through human vessels to declare the goods news of Jesus Christ.
We all come to Christ in the same way, i.e., as a response to the proclamation of the gospel. It may be written, recorded, public, or private, but in some way the gospel is presented to an unbeliever, and he responds with saving faith.
Luke gives clear details of the story related to Cornelius’ conversion. Acts 10:3,4 “He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.”
The obvious question we must ask is why did
the angel not deliver the message of the gospel to Cornelius? He certainly was wise and articulate. But the angel explained nothing of the gospel to Cornelius. He directed Cornelius to a man, Simon Peter.
Was the angel not capable of delivering the gospel? I certainly think he was capable to relate the gospel message, but as an angel he had never experienced the gospel. He did not understand what it was like to come to faith in Christ and receive mercy and grace, and the forgiveness of sins.
Look at Peter. He was merely a man. But he was a redeemed man! He certainly did not have the eloquence of an angelic messenger, nor the glorious appearance. But he knew what it was to be a lost sinner saved through the atoning death of Jesus Christ. He understood what it was to be dead in his trespasses and sins, then made a new creature in Jesus Christ.
Who would you send: one who knew about the message or one who knew the message experientially?
What qualifies any of us to proclaim the gospel to unbelievers? The fact of our personal redemption through the saving work of Jesus Christ alone qualifies us to testify of the gospel of Christ.
Messengers are not always willing participants
in delivering their message. Jonah was to go to the city of Nineveh and preach repentance as the messenger of God. But what did Jonah do? He fled! He was unwilling to deliver the message of God to the sinful Ninevites. So, the Lord graciously brought Jonah to obedience by using three days in the belly of a great fish for the prophet to consider his responsibility. The sad thing is that Jonah never really overcame his reluctance. He so despised the Assyrians that he did not want God to show mercy to them. He knew that if he preached the message of God that God would probably show mercy. He was right about that but so wrong in his own attitude. He was full of prejudice and even bitterness toward other people. God used him in spite of his reluctance.
But not so with Peter. God worked in his life in order that Peter might overcome his own reluctance. The attitude in Jonah was typical of Jews toward Gentiles. When a Jew became a Christian he was still a Jew in the national sense. He still had years of prejudice to overcome. With that first group of Christians we find that they were quite satisfied to stay in Jerusalem, so God brought about circumstances of persecution to drive them out of Jerusalem and into the world with the gospel. Crossing the Gentile barrier and overcoming reluctance was essential.
The vision of Peter that showed the unclean animals on the sheet lowered from heaven with the verbal command, "rise Peter; kill, and eat!" served to arouse Peter to the fact of his own prejudice against the Gentiles. The vision puzzled him (v. 17) so that he was not sure how to respond to it. God’s command was clear, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common" (v. 15).
The general significance, look back there at the vision again, is that those clean and unclean animals represent Jew and Gentile. The Jew is represented by the clean animal. The Gentile by the unclean. And what’s God saying? He’s saying, "Jew and Gentile are gonna be mixed in the church." Now watch this. The tarp or the sheet is the church. The church was born in heaven, in the mind of God. The church came down to earth. It includes Jew and Gentile, and the significant part of the vision is that it says, "And the vessel was received up again into heaven." How is the church gonna be leaving this world? By the Rapture. If the church mixed of common and uncommon, Jew and Gentile, is acceptable to God, acceptable enough to enter back into heaven, then it ought to be acceptable to us to allow Gentiles to come in.
Now, you see, Peter is being taught that God accepts both in His church, which He will one day receive unto Himself. And if God can receive the mixture, you and I ought to be able to, as well. So you see how his heart is being prepared for his work?
Now, having done all that preparation, verse 17 says that Peter “while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate.” Before Peter has a chance to act, there is a knock on his door. What is the mathematical probability that those guys would knock on that door just after he got the vision? "Is there a guy here named Simon Peter?" God not only prepares the receiver and prepares the messenger, but He ordains the divine timing for just the right moment.
God has planned this whole thing. Peter’s anxious meditation and the arrival of the visitor is simultaneous. The timing reveals the providence of God.
At just the right moment the team dispatched from Cornelius’ house came to the gates of the home where Peter stayed. The Holy Spirit told Peter to go with these Gentiles without misgivings (v. 19-20). Then he did a most amazing thing, he invited these three Gentile men to spend the night with him as his guests. Jews just did not do this! They had nothing to do with Gentiles, especially in regard to showing hospitality to them. Part of the battle was won!
The next day Peter goes and after Cornelius relates the story of the angel appearing to him with the message to send for Peter (vv. 30-33), Peter gives a response which shows that his reluctance was conquered. Acts 10:34 “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.”
As a messenger of the gospel, you may have some reluctance to carry out your responsibility. Seek, by God’s grace, to overcome your reluctance by the power which God provides.
III. The incumberances to the Gospel Work
What hinders Gospel work?
What stands between you and the gospel work God has commanded you to?
A. Natural barriers
Some barriers are just natural. These include geographic and linguistic hindrances to proclaiming the good news. The little band of disciples in Jerusalem could not even begin to imagine traveling to the ends of the earth to proclaim the gospel. In all likelihood, they had been nowhere but their own little country. Transportation was difficult in their day, since most of it was on foot, through rugged terrain, and often with grave danger of personal attack.
We are most fortunate in our day of
seeing geographic barriers broken down by the availability of air travel.
Another big natural barrier is that of
language. That is why our missionaries spend typically their entire first year in language study.
By God’s grace and help, we can cross the natural
barriers we face.
B. Cultural barriers
Peter’s biggest barrier was cultural. He was a Jew, Cornelius was a Gentile--and not just any Gentile but a Roman Centurion. The general attitude of Jews toward the Romans was absolute hatred! They despised them in every way. The atmosphere in which Peter lived was one which considered a hatred of Romans to be perfectly permissible.
Now Peter was called to carry the gospel to this man. All that he had been taught, all of the cultural influences which had shaped his life were being put to the test. For the sake of Jesus Christ, all of this was crushed by the love and mercy of God!
We face cultural barriers that have been built by racial prejudice, social prejudice, economic prejudice. For the sake of the gospel, we must lay all of these in the dust at the foot of the cross. Whatever stands between you and communicating the gospel to a sinner must be broken. We must go to the root of it all and recognize "that God is no respector of persons” and neither should we who are adopted into his family.
NOW, this may call for repentance on our part.
C. Personal barriers
We can erect plenty of our own personal barriers in order to excuse ourselves from being witnesses of the goods news of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is a barrier of an inability to speak. Then consider Moses who attempted to excuse himself because of his inability only to discover that God can conquer even our inability to speak.
Perhaps it is a barrier of our knowledge of the Bible which we use to excuse ourselves. Then heed the command of Scripture in II Tim. 2:15. Become a student of the Word.
We could go on, but I think this will suffice to point out that whatever our barriers on a personal level may be, God has given us something to overcome them. He provides the grace, strength, power, and ability to carry forth the goods news of the gospel of Christ.
Conclusion
The Lord is working as the Initiator of gospel work; we can be assured of that. And He has given to each of us the message of the gospel to give to the world. This is not the job of angels; it is the job of the redeemed.
When we yield to the Lord and put to death our prejudice, He can then use us mightily in His service.
When human barriers come down, HEAVENLY BLESSINGS COME Down!__________
We see a remarkable manifestation of God’s working in the affairs of men
A. The purpose of God (striking in its intention)
God is breaking down human barriers.
B. The plan of God (simple in its process)
God is preparing Peter and Cornelius for each other, separately yet simultaneously.
C. The power of God (sufficient in its scope)
God arranges all circumstances to coincide.
