The Gospel is for ALL (Part 1)
a commentary on Acts 10 (Context)
Thank you, Lord, for this day. May it be used for your glory!
Good morning everyone and welcome back to Biblit!
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We often take for granted how easy it is to get food here in America. When you “feel” slightly hungry, you just go in your kitchen and eat something.
If you don’t have food at home, you drive or walk to some fast food place and get food easily.
There is no scavenging or hunting anymore. Not for us.
However, there are tons of groups around the world that still hunt for survival. They hunt everyday and sometimes they don’t eat if they don’t get anything.
They eat honey straight from the beehive, they snatch snakes and bite their heads off for an afternoon snack.
We don’t do that.
We haven’t felt that true and real hunger before. And I’d wager we’ve never felt so hungry we fell into a trance and started having visions from God either.
If you have, I would love to hear about it!
Well, this week our main man Peter was feeling hungry. And, although they didn’t have to hunt and someone was actually making him food at the time, he fell into a trance.
Let’s jump in!
Context
This whole chapter is filled with some powerful visions.
But the main theme revolves around Cornelius. If you remember from our last Biblit, I mentioned that Cornelius is this 3rd pillar in Acts where God shows that the gospel is for everyone. Not just the Jews.
Cornelius’s Vision
Well, the chapter focuses on Cornelius himself. It turns out he is a centurion in the Italian Regiment.
Although he was a gentile, he was a devout man who feared God and taught his children to do so too. He was also a good man, he didn’t abuse his power, and he was a true philanthropist for the Jewish people.
Cornelius had a habit of praying around 3pm when most people are taking a siesta. One day, his daily prayer took an interesting turn.
He was kneeling, sitting, walking, or however he was used to praying and all of a sudden a vision from an angel of God appeared and started talking to him.
God told him that all his good deeds had been seen and to send for a man in Joppa named Peter who is staying with Simon the tanner.
Then the angel disappeared. As the reader, we know exactly where this is going. For Cornelius, however, this has got to be pretty strange. But he immediately calls some servants and a soldier to go to Joppa.
Peter’s Vision
After Cornelius sends the men to find Peter, we shift the focus to Peter himself.
It takes time to go to Joppa. Cornelius was in Caesarea so it sounds like Joppa was anywhere from 20 to 60 miles away. That could be an all day journey on foot, or if they had horses it would still take a few hours.
Either way, since Cornelius had the vision at 3pm, they set out the next day.
It was during that day that Peter got really hungry and fell into some kind of trance.
In it he saw some delicious looking food on a large sheet coming down from heaven. And by delicious food, I mean a bunch of four-footed animals, reptiles, and birds.
Basically all the things good little Jewish girls and boys should never eat.
But then in the midst of this vision a voice appeared and told Peter to kill the animals and eat them!
Woa! Peter freaks out and says,
“No, Lord!...For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean.” (Acts 10:14 CSB).
In response the voice said:
“What God has made clean, do not call impure.” (Acts 10:15 CSB).
This vision happened 3 times before Peter finally woke up. And even when he did wake up, he still didn’t get it.
He didn’t understand that God just unlocked bacon for his life.
But he didn’t have time to delve into that because while contemplating whether to eat bacon or not, the men Cornelius had sent showed up!
At the time, I forgot to mention, Peter was on a roof. The Spirit of God told him that Cornelius’s men were there and that he was to go downstairs, meet them, and go with them without doubting anything.
And Peter did just that!
The men told him everything about Cornelius’s vision and so they all ate, slept, and headed back to Caesarea the next day so Peter could meet Cornelius.
Peter Makes it to Caesarea
When Peter meets Cornelius, the man falls at Peter’s feet and worships him, which Peter quickly dismisses.
Peter also notices that a large crowd started to form and he became afraid.
See, Peter still didn’t understand his vision from earlier and he was afraid to be seen with Cornelius. A Jewish man and a gentile in the same home? But once Cornlelius shared his own vision from God, everything clicked.
Peter said this:
“Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. He sent the message to the Israelites, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ - he is Lord of all.” (Acts 10:34-36 CSB).
After this amazing revelation that the gospel is for EVERYONE, Peter shares the gospel with Cornelius and the crowd he drew.
And while Peter spoke, the Holy Spirit came down on everyone who heard!
Peter and the other Jewish believers saw and witnessed the Holy Spirit come on them and couldn’t believe it. Peter immediately got them all baptized, amazed at what God had done.