The
events we just heard about in Acts 10:44-48 occur as part of Peter’s first
sermon to the Gentiles. Peter had received a vision from God. In that vision, a
sheet unfolded from heaven. On that sheet were animals of all kinds, including
animals that were unclean under Jewish law. God commanded Peter to eat, but
Peter refused because of Jewish dietary laws. God replied that he has made
these animals clean and what he made clean could be eaten. This vision was a
metaphor for God’s command to expand Christianity to include the Gentiles, who
were also considered to be unclean by the Jews.
At
the same time Peter had his vision, Cornelius had a vision. Cornelius was a
Roman centurion in Caesarea. He and his whole household (family members and
servants) were God-fearing people. They accepted both the Jewish concept of one
God and Jewish ethics. They may even have attended the local synagogue. Because
they were Gentiles, they were not people Peter and others in the Jewish
community would have thought to be included in God’s plan of salvation.
As
a result of that vision, Cornelius sent representatives to see Peter and invite
him to come and teach him and his family.
Just as in Peter’s vision, God made no distinction between Jews and
Gentiles. It was during that meeting that the Holy Spirit came and touched
Cornelius and his household. God sent several Jewish believers to accompany
Peter, so together they could be witnesses when the Holy Spirit was poured out
on Cornelius and his household.
Cornelius
was a tough Roman soldier, but he was also drawn to the Jewish faith. He
worshipped in the synagogue (albeit in a different section that was reserved
for Gentile converts). Since the Jews treated the Gentiles with disdain, it’s a
wonder that Cornelius put up with that treatment. Well, he did, because he was
a seeker. Something told him that there was more to life than his earthly life.
Something told him there was a God. His desire to know God was stronger than
the rude treatment he received from the Jews. Even though the Jews welcomed
Gentile converts, these converts were never completely accepted. Cornelius’
beliefs changed his behaviour and his personality. He gave alms to the poor and
supported the synagogue.
Honest
seekers find what they are looking for. Jeremiah 29:13 states that God promises
to hear the prayers of those who are looking for him. God gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to these
Gentiles as a sign of his plan to accept Gentiles into the church without prior
conversion to the Jewish faith. This more than makes up for humiliation and
ridicule.
When
the Holy Spirit touched Cornelius and his family, Peter immediately saw it as
an opportunity to baptize them. Since they had received the substance of what
the sign of water baptism points to, and since they had been changed by the
Holy Spirit, it was inappropriate to withhold the sign that they were part of
the body of believers. Baptism is not about salvation or going to heaven. The
thief who died on the cross who believed in Jesus was not baptized before he
died. Baptism is about being obedient to God, who commanded believers to be
baptized once they became his disciples. The baptism of Cornelius and his
household must have been one of the most joyous and moving in history. It, like
all baptisms with water, was the outward sign of the inner Spirit baptism which
had taken place. History was made, and consequently the Christian church took a
whole new direction.
Acts
10 marks the expansion of Christianity to include the Gentiles. This expansion
was approved by both Peter and Paul. Without expansion, Christianity would have
remained a sect of Judaism. Acts 10:44-48 marks a major shift in Peter’s
ministry. It’s Peter’s conversion of sorts. He is torn between custom and
convictions. The Holy Spirit whittled away the hardness of Peter’s heart toward
those he had been taught to avoid. The Holy Spirit was the true preacher. It
makes God’s Word come alive through-or in spite of-our words. It renegotiates
our perceptions of others and what they can or cannot do. It changes our own
character and leads us to other people whom God loves.
The
Holy Spirit allows us to see things in new ways, just like Peter saw things in
a new way because of his vision. The Holy Spirit opened Peter to new insights.
It also gives us new insights into who needs to be a part of our church family.
These insights force us to open our eyes and hearts to those who the world
rejects. There is no room in the church for divisions caused by race, colour,
social status or other divisions such as the one caused by your recent decision
to tear down your church and build a new one or divisions caused by people who
belong to different denominations. For example, my father told me that one time
when he was in the local post office picking up mail a lady asked him what
church he belonged to. When he said that he belonged to the Anglican Church in
Liverpool, the lady replied, “Well, that’s what I was afraid of!” She turned
around and walked right out of the post office!
Jesus’
friendship is one of mutual love and respect. Friends like Jesus expand our
world, expose us to new and creative possibilities and sustain us when we are
in need. The disciples did not have any idea what God was doing, what God was
capable of, and who God was able to reach. They were close-minded and thought
that the only way to God was the same way they came to God. We are the same. We
often think that the way people should come to Christ is the same way that we
came to Christ. The problem is that this is not the way God thinks or acts. God
sees the entire picture, but we can only see a part of it. God sees a church
where everyone is welcome, but we sometimes only see a church where people who
look, think or act like us are welcome. Jesus said that the two Great
Commandments are to love God and love people. When we emphasize the love of law
instead of the law of love, we are going against God’s will. We must suspend
the rules we have come to rely on and welcome what God is doing in our
churches, our communities and our world.
During
World War I, a Protestant chaplain serving with American troops became friends
with a local Catholic priest when they were stationed in Italy. When it was
time for his unit to move on, the chaplain joined them, but he was killed
shortly thereafter. When the priest learned of the chaplain’s death, he wrote
to the chaplain’s commanding officers and offered to bury the body in the
cemetery behind the priest’s church. The officers knew that the chaplain and
the priest were friends, and so they gave permission. The Catholic Church
authorities, on the other hand, were opposed. They told the priest that the
body could not be buried in the cemetery because the chaplain was a Protestant.
After
the war, one of the men who served with the chaplain visited Italy and met with
the old priest. The veteran wanted to pay his respects at the chaplain’s grave,
and to his surprise he was taken to a grave inside the fence! The veteran knew
of the church’s refusal to allow the body to be buried in the cemetery, so he
asked the priest if he had received permission to move the body. The priest
shook his head and said, “They told me where I could not bury the body, but
they did not tell me that I could not move the fence.”
God
did the same thing for the Gentiles. He moved the fence that the Jews built to
keep the Gentiles out. He moved the fence to include all of us. In return, we need to welcome everyone, just
like this church welcomed Vietnamese refugees twice in the 1980s. We need to
welcome everyone just like this church did when it started the local food bank
in the 1980s. Even though the local church may say that it welcomes everyone,
there are people in our community who will never really understand that because
they are suspicious of our motives or
they have their own prejudices or attitudes. A good example is an incident that happened to
me and my mother a couple of weeks ago. I took her to church for the first time
since she had her stroke. Unfortunately, because of her stroke her ability to
control certain types of bodily functions has been negatively affected. I won’t
go into specifics in order not to offend anyone’s sensitivities, but when she
had the related “problems” (for lack of a better word), the affects were
obvious to the congregation. Certain members took offense. To make matters
worse, these members did not approach me directly with their concerns. They
talked about them behind my back when they approached my brother in the grocery
store. How can we reach people when they feel they can’t reach out to us?
We,
like the Spirit-filled Gentiles in the Book of Acts, need to rediscover the
depth of our disbelief and disobedience even if that is not the politically
correct thing to do. We need to realize that we hunger and thirst for the story
of Jesus and his love for everyone. We need to run to the waters of baptism and
drown our old sin-filled lives. We need to be raised from spiritual death and
filled with a passion for the Gospel, because it will make one helluva
difference in our world.
Bibliography
1.
Jeremiah, Dr.
David: The Jeremiah Study Bible, NKJV (Brentwood,
TN: Worthy Publishing, 2013)
2.
Jude
Siciliano, O.P., “First Impressions, 6th Sunday of Easter (B).”
Retrieved from www.preacherexchange.org
3.
Ogilvie, L.J.
& Ogilvie, L.J.: The Preacher’s
Commentary Series, Vol. 28: Acts (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.; 1983)
4.
Witherington,
B. III: The Acts of the Apostles: a
socio-rhetorical commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Co.; 1998)
5.
Jacob Myers,
“Commentary on Acts 10:44-48.” Retrieved from http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1294
7.
Samuel
D. Zumwalt, “Easter People Baptize.” Retrieved from http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-81060-521-8-e.html
8.
Jeremiah, Dr. David: The Revolution that Changed the World (Carol Stream, Illinois:
Tyndale House Publishers. Inc.; 2015, pgs. 179-194)
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