It’s a weird story isn’t it? Peter’s up on the roof of Simon the Tanner’s house in the middle of the day praying and he starts to feel hungry. So he asks the cook to prepare some lunch and while he’s waiting he falls into a trance. Perhaps the heat of the day has got to him. Perhaps he starts to think about what the cook might be preparing for him. But as he’s in this trance he has a vision. A vision of a sheet, or perhaps it’s a sailcloth, being lowered to the ground by its corners. And in it are all sorts of animals, reptiles and birds. Then the strangest part of the vision happens. Someone speaks. A voice says "Get up, Peter; kill and eat." Peter would have been used to killing fish, cutting them open to clean them, so it isn’t the idea of killing these animals that surprises him. Rather it’s the kinds of animals they are. These are animals that have been declared unclean by the Old Testament Scriptures. And now he’s being told to eat them? Naturally he objects. He’s a good Jew. He wouldn’t eat anything unclean. That’d make him ritually impure, not to mention disobedient to God.
But then he gets an even bigger surprise. He’s told that God has made these things clean. How can he call them profane if God has declared them clean? Then the whole process repeats, 2 more times. Peter obviously needs time to process what all this means.
I’m reminded of the call of Samuel, when God had to call him 3 times before Eli realised what was happening and told him that it was the Lord speaking to him. Just as in that instance, something significant is about to happen here but Peter takes a while to work it out.
Well we don’t know what was going through Peter’s mind. He was certainly confused by this repeating vision. But his confusion was cleared up when there was a knock at Simon’s gate. Some men were there. Sent by a godly centurion, named Cornelius, to ask Peter to come and tell him the message he has for him. Cornelius was a Roman, but nevertheless a God-fearer.
He’s a step further back than the Ethiopian Eunuch we met in ch9. He was a Jewish Proselyte. Cornelius had accepted that the God of the Jews was the only true God, but he hadn’t taken the further step of becoming a Jewish proselyte. Still, we’re told he prayed constantly to God. What did he pray? Well, possibly that he be included in the salvation that God had promised to his people, - which was just what God was about to bring him.
He too had seen a vision. In his case it was of an angel telling him to send men to Joppa, to find someone named Peter.
This is amazing isn’t it? Here’s Cornelius sending for Peter, but he doesn’t know what Peter is going to say or do. Peter has this strange vision. Then Cornelius’ servants arrive with the message that they’ve been sent as a result of an angel appearing to Cornelius.
And suddenly it all becomes clear to Peter. He isn’t as slow on the uptake as you might have thought, given that he had to be shown the vision three times. That’s what the vision was all about! The Holy Spirit makes it clear to him, telling him that he should go with these men. Now he realises that this vision of the animals and birds was all about the prohibition on Jews mixing with Gentiles. When he gets to Cornelius’ house he explains it to Cornelius and his family: "You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean."
I don’t think we can really grasp just how radical this behaviour of Peter’s is. We have little appreciation, I think, for the huge gulf that was fixed between Jews and Gentiles in the minds of the Jews of Peter’s day, though we get a bit if a feel for it in what he says here. A Jew couldn’t associate with Gentiles, or even visit them, let alone eat with them or stay with them as he ends up doing.
Now we need to say at that point that this idea of the Jews being the special people of God had been taken out of all proportion. Yes, God had called Abraham to form a nation for himself. But he’d done it for one single reason. And do you remember what that was? It was to bring a blessing - on whom? On all the nations. The people of Israel were to be a light to lighten the Gentiles. They were to be a beacon in a dark world, attracting the other nations to God’s rule. Their salvation was never meant to be an exclusive thing. On the contrary, they were meant to invite the other nations to join them under God’s lordship.
Now at last Peter understands. In fact that’s where he begins in his explanation of the gospel: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him." Cornelius and his family have as much right to hear the gospel as any of Peter’s friends. The gospel is a gospel of grace. Anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God.
Mind you we mustn’t stop there, must we? That’s simply Peter’s opening statement. We need to read on or else we may jump to the wrong conclusion.
There are many today who’d stop there and say, "There you are. It doesn’t matter what religion you are as long as you fear God." But Peter goes on to explain what he means by that, and the means by which those people will be made acceptable to God. We need to be careful that we understand this as well. There’s a certain exclusivity about the gospel that we find difficult to accept. It doesn’t come naturally to us with our egalitarian world view. It can come across as arrogant or rude, or even patronising, to suggest that we know the answers and others don’t. But let’s see what Peter says here.
He begins with the historic facts about Jesus. These were things that Cornelius was obviously familiar with. The stories about Jesus would have spread far and wide. You couldn’t have lived in the region of Judea without hearing about the things that Jesus did and said, let alone the things that people were saying about him.
And what is it that Peter reminds them of? The first thing is that Jesus Christ was the one God had promised he’d send to bring us peace with God. The second thing is that this Jesus Christ is Lord of all. In fact that’s why he can bring peace: because he’s Lord of all. Then he reminds them how the message about Jesus spread throughout Judea, from its beginnings in Galilee all the way to Jerusalem. He reminds them of the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus demonstrated through doing good and healing those oppressed by the devil.
He assures them that he was a witness to all that Jesus did. Most importantly he’s a witness to the fact that though they put him to death on a cross, he rose again on the third day. And it was a bodily resurrection, notice. They ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
And finally here’s the climax of his message: Jesus "commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
There we have the two sides of the gospel coin. Jesus has been appointed the judge of the living and the dead. That’s the bad news. Everyone who has lived, is living or will live is going to be judged by Jesus Christ, whether or not they’re Christians. "The living and the dead" is an all-encompassing description. No-one is exempt. But here’s the good news: "Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
So here’s what Peter means when he talks about those from every nation who fear God. He means those who believe in Jesus Christ. Those who believe that he’s going to judge all people. Those who believe that God has sent him to bring forgiveness of sins; that his coming is the culmination of God’s plan from before the creation of the world. Those I guess, who believe that he did indeed die and rise again and is now seated at the right hand of God.
Well, the result of Peter’s speech is as surprising as the rest of this account has been. Even while Peter is speaking God works a miracle in the hearts of his listeners and they’re converted. But notice how this comes about. "While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word." The Holy Spirit doesn’t just come. He comes on them in response to them hearing the word of God, the message of the gospel.
This is why we need to keep on emphasising the imperative of sharing the gospel with people. Because the words matter. The gospel is the power of God for salvation. People need to hear it. Christian behaviour will commend the gospel, but on its own good behaviour is just nice. To be effective it needs to be accompanied by an explanation of the reason for it. It needs to be accompanied by the words of the gospel.
Mind you, our words don’t need to be clever. It’s the Holy Spirit who does the converting, the filling, not our cleverness. Don’t think you can debate someone into the kingdom. No, it’s the Holy Spirit who does the convincing. The youngest Christian, who knows little more than the grace of God, can share the gospel with someone. But nevertheless it’s as they hear the words about Jesus that the Spirit is enabled to act. In this instance the Spirit fills them and straight away Peter baptises them in the name of Jesus Christ as new members of the Christian Church.
Well, there are just 2 more things I want us to notice from this passage.
The first has to do with Cornelius. Now if you think about it he’s not all that different from people we’ll probably come across today. He wasn’t a Jew. That is he hadn’t grown up hearing about God or Jesus. He wasn’t one of the dominant religious group of the region. In fact he belonged to a group who were enemies of the Jews. He belonged to a culture that was entirely pagan. Again, that makes him not much different to most people you and I know outside the Church. Yet having said that you realise that within his pagan mindset he had a deep longing for salvation. As C.S. Lewis described it, he was one who had a God-shaped hole inside him, longing to be filled. I may have said this once or twice before, (and please don’t tell me that I have) but most people today have an awareness of a spiritual dimension to life. Many, like Cornelius are aware of a lack in their lives, a need that’s longing to be filled; a need that could be filled if only someone would share the good news about Jesus Christ with them.
Let me encourage you to be ready for opportunities to share that good news with people. Mind you, don’t wait until you have a vision of a sheet filled with animals and reptiles and birds. That probably won’t happen to you. But you may well find yourself having an opportunity in the everyday course of conversation perhaps to mention your faith to someone, or to mention your church community, or the love and care you experience, or the times when you’ve been helped through difficult situations by your Christian faith, by the presence of God, or whatever. There are so many different ways to do it. So be ready.
Finally, The second thing to notice is this: although at first glance Peter’s experience seems far removed from ours, there are great similarities. We may not be quite as closed to others as Peter was, but nevertheless, we have just as much difficulty moving outside our comfort zone. We have just as much difficulty as he would have had in accepting change.
I was talking to an old friend the other day about how we lived through the 60s and 70 s and we not only accepted change, we were the agents of change. Those were the decades when everything was up for grabs. Nothing was sacred. But we’re not there any more. Those of us who lived through those decades are getting old. My friend is indeed an old friend. And the older you get the harder it is to accept change; the harder it is to step outside your comfort zone.
But we need to find the motivation to do just that. Why? Because Jesus’ great commission was this: to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And if that isn’t enough then here is an equally great motive in this passage. v42: "Jesus is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead." I wonder how seriously we take the implication of that simple statement. Do we believe that our friends and neighbours are going to face the judgement of Jesus Christ? He’s already told us the basis on which he’ll judge them: Listen to what he told the crowd in Mark 8:38: "Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." How are our friends going to escape that judgement? By us stepping out of our comfort zone to share the gospel with them; by us bringing our friends into a community where they might become Jesus friends; where they’ll learn what it means to rejoice in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
We can be sure that God will do his part. The Holy Spirit is with us and will open people’s hearts if we ask him to. And just like Peter with Cornelius we might discover that when we move outside our comfort zone amazing things can happen.
For more sermons from this source or to subscribe to the sermon of the week go to www.sttheos.org.au
