Through The Bible - Acts 10 - Part 3

Brett Meador: The word remission is one that we don't use very often, but it's the Greek word aphesis, which means release from bondage or imprisonment, to be pardoned and forgiven, to be let go as if never committed a crime.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador and God's finished work, offering complete forgiveness. And so this is Peter sharing the Gospel, clearly the Gospel, to Cornelius's family and his friends. Whoever believeth in him, whoever believes on Christ shall receive remission of sins. In Acts chapter 10, Peter's obedience to the call of God resulted in a breakthrough in the early church. Traditionally forbidden, he entered the home of the Gentile Cornelius, boldly preaching the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentile believers. With today's word, Pastor Brett Meador reaffirms God's plan of salvation truly extends to whosoever believes.
Brett Meador: We begin right here in Acts chapter 10, verse 1. It says, "There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band." The word "band" in your King James Bible is in italics because it's not really there, but they're trying to help us with that. In the King James 1611, a band was sort of a group of military soldiers. This guy Cornelius, who is this guy? Well, he's a Roman centurion. So he's a Gentile. That's something you should note, a major part of the story here. And the word centurion, it defines sort of a rank of a Roman soldier, an officer. But he would be in control of somewhere around 80 to 100 soldiers. That would be a centurion. Verse 2: "A devout man, and one that feared God with all of his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway." That says a lot about this guy. He's seeking after what is true. Verse 3: "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 had 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 seaside. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.' And when the angel which spake to Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually. And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa." It says on the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew near unto the city, Peter went onto the house top to pray about the sixth hour, noon. And he became very hungry and would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet, knit at the four corners and let down to the earth. God already spoke to Cornelius with an angel. Now we have Peter who's going to get a vision from God. Verse 12: "Wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, 'Rise, Peter, kill and eat.' But Peter said, 'Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.' And the voice spake unto him again the second time, 'What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.' This was done thrice and the vessel was received up again into heaven." Whatever Peter saw is he saw the animals that Jews would never eat because they were declared unclean or not kosher according to the law. Leviticus chapter 11, Deuteronomy chapter 14 describes the kinds of animals that you can and can't eat. But Peter is told here in verse 13 by the Lord, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." But what does Peter say? "Not so, Lord. You know I would never do that." "No, don't call that which I have made clean unclean," the Lord says. We don't need the Old Testament law because we have Jesus. And that's a key part of this. Jesus was the perfect fulfillment of the law and Peter hasn't really got that yet. This is where the Lord is saying, "Okay, we've got some work to do on Peter. He needs to get this thing about the law, that he's no longer under that law." Verse 17 goes on here: "While Peter doubted in himself what this vision that he'd seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate. And called and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, was lodged there. While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, 'Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore and go down with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them.'" Notice this is the Holy Spirit speaking to Peter, telling Peter about clean and unclean food and then talking to Cornelius and his people. The Lord is orchestrating a meeting and Peter's being led by the Spirit, literally here. Holy Spirit verse 19 tells him to do that. It says in verse 21, "Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius and said, 'Behold, I am he whom ye seek. What is the cause wherefore you are come?' Verse 22: "And they said, 'Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one that feareth God and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by a holy angel to send for thee into his house and to hear words of thee.'" This is just King James way of saying, "Man, Cornelius heard from the Lord. You're supposed to come to his house and you're supposed to go and share a word from the Lord for him." So Peter is still clueless about what's happening. Now in this next section, we have verse 23. This brings us to sort of section number three. So number one: preparation, number two: confirmation, verses 21 and 22, and now explanation of what in the world's happening. That's verses 23 through 33, explanation, this third section. And we see that verse 23: "Then called he them in and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And on the morrow after they entered into Caesarea and Cornelius waited for them and he called together his kinsmen and near friends." So this is quite a deal. Peter brings a small posse from Joppa along with the three dudes that came to get him. So there's a little bit of a crew coming up. And then they show up at Cornelius's house in Caesarea. And it's really cool because he gets a bunch of near friends and now there's a little congregation there just kind of waiting for this apostle Peter to come and say some words. But nobody really knows what in the world's going on except for the Holy Spirit. He knows what's going on, but they're all like, "Okay, we're gathered here today to... I have no idea. Peter's supposed to say something." Now at this point, we've left Joppa and we're now in Caesarea. This is where the first Gentile of the Christian church would be saved right here. Gentile people being saved, this is pretty cool. It goes on: "As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him." Is that a good idea to worship some dude? Now this just goes to show you he's a fervent man, but he's misguided. That's just the case of all humans. You might even be seeking after the Lord, but you're going to do stupid stuff. Here's this amazing guy. I mean, when you read about Cornelius, you're like, "What an amazing guy." But Peter walks in and he falls down and worships. That's not the thing he should be doing. So what does Peter do? "Worship me, my brother"? No, that's always the wrong answer. Verse 26, it says, "But Peter took him up, saying, 'Stand up. I myself also am a man.'" Boy, you almost get the sense of Peter like, "Quick, before anybody sees! Stand up, dude! I'm just a dude like you." I put my sandals on one foot at a time just like you, dude. This is a good response from Peter. It's humility, not seeking praise, keeping the focus on the Lord. We'll soon read about someone who didn't stop the worship of himself and it's not going to go very well for him. Peter says, "Man, I'm just like you." Interesting, Francis de Sales in the 1600s, he said this: "Some men become proud and insolent because they ride a fine horse, carry a feather in their hat, or wear elegant clothing. How foolish! If there's any glory in these things, the glory belongs to the horse, to the bird, or to the tailor. The meanness of heart is in stealing honor from a horse, or for a feather from a bird, or from some passing fashion." His point is, man, God made the horse. God made the feather on the bird. And for you to walk and wear your clothes and drive your car or, you know, ride your horse and think that, "Look at me!" You didn't make that car. You purchased it. And to start thinking you're big because of what you have, this is what he reminds... and I just love Peter's humility here. In fact, it was Peter in 1 Peter 5:5-6, who said this: "Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves to the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another." Not like worshipping others or esteeming others, but it says here to "be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." Peter knew this, 1 Peter 5:5 through 6, and that's why he was so quick to say, "Cornelius, get up off the ground, buddy." So this story, by the way, here in Acts 10, probably is about 10 years after Pentecost. And some people might say, "Well, why'd it take so long to get to this place?" I think that perhaps God wanted to solidify the Jewish believers before they were going to be able to accept the Gentile believers. So everything up to this point was God preparing the hearts for the Jews to receive the Gentiles. Peter's about to explain what's going on here. Almost like he starts talking without knowing what he's going to say, and then the Lord starts to speak through him. This is a very different Peter from the Gospel narrative. Remember when Peter would open his mouth and always say stupid stuff? What's the difference? Quiz time. When Peter said, like in Mark 9, when the transfiguration happened and he says, "Lord, it's good for us to be here." In fact, it says in Mark 9:6, "For Peter didn't know what to say, because he was so afraid, so he said..." That's a funny verse to me. He didn't know what to say, so he started talking. Is that you? I do that when I get nervous. I just start jabbering and say stupid stuff. But Peter, the Gospel Peter is the guy always saying stupid stuff. But here in Acts chapter 10, Peter's going to open his mouth, and I still think he may not know exactly what to say. But what's the difference between him and the Gospel account? The Holy Spirit. Peter's now filled with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is going to give him the words. That's one of the promises Jesus told Peter: "Someday the Holy Spirit's going to remind you of truth and he's going to give you wisdom and things to speak. He's going to put the words in your mouth." And Peter's now doing that. So I love that. Peter filled with the Spirit. There he says in verse 27: "And as he talked with him, he went in and found many that were come together. And he said unto them, 'Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or to come unto one of another nation. But God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.'" Do you see how Peter got it? When did Peter know we weren't talking about food back earlier in the chapter when he saw the sheet? When did Peter know, "Oh, we're talking about Gentiles"? Somewhere between there and here, he got it. Maybe it was as he was speaking, but he's saying, "I should not call any man common or unclean." He understood that the vision was about people, not about food. By the way, though, the principle still relates to food. He can have bacon if he wants to at this point, but it's not about the food. I hope you see that. It's about people. Verse 29: "Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for. I ask therefore what intent ye have sent for me?" And then verse 30, Cornelius said, "Four days ago I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, 'Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa, call hither Simon whose surname is Peter. He is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the seaside, who when he cometh shall speak unto thee.' Immediately therefore I sent unto thee, and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore we are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God." Man, we're ready to go. Peter, let it rip. Preach! That's what's going on here. What a great story. The explanation. This is that explanation I was talking about. It explains why are they all gathered together. Why is there like a little congregation in Cornelius's house? A bunch of Gentiles with Peter standing there. What's going on? I love this. Peter said, "Therefore I came." This confirmed it. If Peter had not received the vision, he would have never traveled with these Gentile messengers. If three Gentiles knocked on the door and said, "Come with us," Peter would have said, "Yeah, whatever, I'm not going there." But God had prepared Peter's heart with a vision. The Spirit orchestrated everything to be there, and that explains why they're all there. So: preparation number one, confirmation number two, explanation number three. But now we have fourthly in this chapter, the fourth act, if you would, is proclamation. Now there's going to be a proclamation of what truth is being given in verses 34 through 43. This is a cool part of the story. So it says in verse 34, "Then Peter opened his mouth and said, 'Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. But in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all.'" Man, there it is. That's the main crux of the issue. Peter says God is not a respecter of persons. In other words, God shows no partiality between people groups and ethnic groups and racial groups. God is not a respecter of persons. This is the foundation of Peter's understanding that the Gospel now's going to go forth to the Gentiles. And you've got to remember this goes against all of the prevailing thoughts of Judaism, that God had any time to care about Gentiles. But Peter's going to say this radical thing: "Christ, he is Lord of all." And "all" meaning Gentiles. One thing you need to be careful about here when he talks about... he says verse 35: "Every nation that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him." Question: does that mean you have to be good enough to be accepted of Christ? Like it says here, but you've got to have righteousness. It says unless, you know, you're fearing God and working righteousness, you'll be accepted with him. Here's what you have to remember: can anybody have any righteousness in and of themselves? No. Our righteousness is like filthy rags, the Bible says. But when you accept Christ, he imputes righteousness on you. You're robed in righteousness. That's what the Bible tells us. So this is all changing the whole thing here. The spread of the Gospel is now the Jesus is Lord of all, including Gentiles. Christianity's the first religion, by the way, to disregard racial, cultural, national limitations. You've got to love that about the Bible. When you read your Bible, it's very clear that Christ is savior of all races, tongues, kindred, nations. All the cults and all the weird religions limited race and was very more nationalistic and stuff like that. Well, verse 37, it says, "That word, I say, you know, which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached." See, now this is Peter in his little miniature sermon here. He's starting to tell the story of what happened: Jesus. And he goes now to John the Baptist. When Jay-the-B came, he was preaching baptism of repentance. We've studied that in previous studies. "How," verse 38, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the third day and showed him openly." What's going on? Peter's just sharing the Gospel. Jesus came, lived among us, lived a righteous life, but he... they hung him on a tree. Remember we talked about this idea of the idiom of the tree in the Bible? The tree, a type of the cross. Maybe you remember Deuteronomy chapter 21 where we saw this whole thing about... "If a man be committed a sin worthy of death and they put to death, thou hang him on a tree. His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day. For he that is hanged is accursed of God, that thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." How do we know that this is a foreshadow prophecy of Christ? The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible. Remember when we saw this? I'm just reviewing this. Galatians 3: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written," Deuteronomy chapter 21, remember? "It is written: Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree." That links the prophecy that Christ became sin. He became a curse for us on the cross. You know, this is all this imagery Peter's bringing up when he says they hanged him, verse 39, on a tree, but then God raised him up from the dead and showed him openly. Verse 41: "Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen of God, even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead." Some of the groups of heresies that came after Christ died and sects that went away from the true church and made up stupid stuff, Gnostics and Gnosticism and stuff like that... some of the groups claimed that Jesus after he rose was merely a spirit. He didn't really raise in bodily form. But this is where Peter, I think, is putting that to death when he says, "No, no, no. Jesus, when he was raised, he ate and drank food with us." I think it was the Gnostics who made this argument: he would just put food up to his mouth but never really eat. That's not what happened. Jesus was seen eating. Remember he was cooking up fish on the seashore in his resurrected form? That's what Peter's reminding of there. And it says, verse 41: "Not all people, but unto witnesses chosen that would be witnesses of his resurrection." Verse 42: "And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of the quick, the living, and the dead. To him give all prophets witness that through his name whoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." Maybe that's a good memory verse for you. Acts 10:43. You've got to love that, too. To him all the prophets witnesses that through his name whoever believeth on him or in him shall receive the remission of sins. The word remission is one that we don't use very often, but it's the Greek word aphesis, which means release from bondage or imprisonment, to be pardoned and forgiven, to be let go as if never committed a crime. That's what the remission of sin... so whoever believes on Christ shall have the remission of sins. And so this is Peter sharing the Gospel, clearly the Gospel, to Cornelius's family and his friends. And so we see that Peter's here with a few other Jews, but mostly Gentiles, which is pretty cool that we see here. So now we come to verse 44, which is our final section, substantiation, verses 44 and 48. Do you remember when Peter talked and God interrupted him there in the Gospels? "Lord, it's good for us to be here. Let us build three tabernacles: one for you, one for Moses." And remember when Peter got... "This is my beloved son. Zip it, Pete!" Like, stop talking, Peter. Well, Peter's going to get interrupted even in this sermon. This is kind of funny to me, too. It's like God says, "I like interrupting Peter." Look at verse 44: "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the word." When did the Holy Ghost fall on them? When they heard the word. This is why I call this the substantiation because can Gentiles really be saved? That's what the Jews would have been wondering. Here's Peter saying Gentiles can be saved. Is that for real? Well, check it out. While he spake, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the word. They're all suddenly filled with the Holy Ghost. This is where they're saved. Now, the question is, was it the "in" or the "upon"? You guys that know the Holy Spirit. Let's keep reading. Verse 45: "And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished." Like, there's Jews standing there witnessing on "Whoa nelly! Gentiles now are filled with the Holy Spirit? What?" That's important that Peter has witnesses here. Many which were believed and astonished as many that came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. "For they heard them speak with tongues," that's the coming upon of the Holy Spirit, "and they magnified God. Then answered Peter: 'Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?' And so he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days." What a beautiful thing. These Gentiles, they start speaking in tongues. Peter says, "Okay, get to the water. We've got to baptize y'all. It's time to be baptized." I love this. This is a great model: preach the Gospel, baptize people, see the Holy Spirit come upon them. It's a great testimony of faith. And so we'll pick it up and see what happens as we continue to see the Gospel spread through the world to the Gentiles now. It's a pretty cool story.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador closes our verse-by-verse look into Acts chapter 10, reflecting on how salvation is by faith in Christ alone, yet God's grace is extended to all. And Pastor Brett will conclude this study with a word of prayer in just a moment, so I hope you'll stick around for that. But first, let me tell you a little bit more about Brett Meador. He's the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Brett's been the pastor of Athey Creek for 30 years. We invite you to listen each day for more. If you missed any portion of our study, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. You can also watch full video messages from him by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have other locations in the Portland, Oregon area. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations". Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations". Well, before we go, here again is Pastor Brett Meador with a closing word of prayer.
Brett Meador: Well, Lord, we are thankful for this chapter. It's a reminder of the Gospel and the importance. How thankful the Gospel came to the Gentiles, for without which we would be toast, with no hope. But praise be to your name that your Son Jesus died on the cross for not only the sins of the Jews but the sins of the whole world. So I pray that we would be like Peter, filled with the Spirit, ready to preach the good news, the Gospel, and let our light shine in this dark world. That's our prayer. So bless these people who've taken this time to carve out to study the Scripture. May it bring forth good fruit. In Jesus' name, amen.
Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time here on Today's Word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will show us how Peter, receiving the word of the Lord, cleanses sin for both Jew and Gentile alike. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.