Call to Commitment

 

 

Peter enters Cornelius' - a Gentile - house

 

Peter enters a Gentile House

       24. And the following day they entered                            Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting                          for them,  and had called together his                            relatives and close friends. 

      25. As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him                and fell down at his feet and worshiped him.

      26. But Peter lifted him up, saying, "Stand up; I myself am also a man." 

      27. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together. 

      28. Then he said to them, "You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep

            company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not   

            call any man common or unclean. 

29. Therefore I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. I ask, then, for what

       reason have you sent for me?" 

30. So 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, 

31. and said, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms are remembered in

       the sight of God. 

32. Send therefore to Joppa and call Simon here, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging in

       the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea. When he comes, he will speak to you.' 

33. So I sent to you immediately, and you have done well to come. Now therefore, we are

        all present before God, to hear all the things commanded you by God." 

 In the first part of this chapter, I referred to the return trip to Caesarea and that Jewish brethren from Joppa accompanied Peter (v. 23). People spend thousands of dollars on higher education, but Cornelius is going to receive teaching from a higher source and Peter is the messenger, who will bring it to him. He had been busy gathering his relatives and friends into his house to hear the gospel, the most wonderful news that has ever entered human ears (v. 24).

Cornelius met Peter and fell down to worship him (v. 25). Now, we know that his action must be corrected immediately, but let us not be too harsh with the man. Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah, who saw people going into all the world, and he said this about them, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things” (Ro. 10:15). People are known for handsome figures and faces, but Cornelius saw something more beautiful… beautiful feet that carried the gospel to his home!

 Of course, Peter stood him up, because he knew he himself was nothing but a simple Galilean fisherman, whose only qualification was that he had been with Jesus. Recognizing the fact that there was no worthiness in his person, he could see the glorious privilege that was his for having walked with Jesus. He had received the Promise of the Father, to which Jesus referred, and under that anointing, he had the high honor of preaching the gospel (v. 26).

 They talked together as they entered the house, an unlawful practice for a Jew, but it was precisely for this reason that the vision prepared Peter. Not only were these Gentiles gathered for a great blessing, but Peter himself was being freed from religious bondages that he had been under since childhood. Luke records that many were gathered in Cornelius’ house. Seeing this kind of hunger and to see God at work in human lives, is a thrill that is equaled by no other. I can tell of similar occasions, where similar efforts had been made to gather people to hear the good news. I can remember, as I write, the expressions of expectancy on the faces of those present (v. 27).

 I suppose that Cornelius already knew of the Jewish predicament that Peter was in, because the three, who went to bring Peter, told that the centurion had a good reputation among the Jews, so obviously already had experience with their customs. Peter explained the things God had just taught him, that He is no respecter of persons, and it is in His heart to accept the Gentiles and purify them from all uncleanness. Again, I have personally seen, the wonderful liberty brought to people, who had been bound by religious prejudice. Jesus taught against it and said that by keeping tradition, the religious person laid aside the commandments of God (Mk. 7:8) History shows that, as long as these people held to their religious beliefs, they opposed the free moving of the Holy Spirit in their day (v. 28).

 Peter added that he came immediately, without reservations, obeying the Lord from the heart, breaking the strict traditions of his former religion and learned, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Co. 3:17). Peter has been wonderfully set free from Judaic bondage. As he asked those who were sent to Joppa, he again asked the centurion, the reason for which he had him come. The envoys had told him already, but there is no testimony, as fresh and alive as first-hand testimony.  (v. 29).

 For this reason, Luke records Cornelius’ story for the third time, this time from the centurion’s own lips. An individual must have a personal encounter with the Lord. What someone has learned from others and the accounts of what others have experienced, has little value. The centurion knew the time, even the hour, even the activity that he was involved in, and how reality from heaven was revealed to him (v. 30). He knew, precisely, the angelic message and how it came directly from the throne of God (v. 31). He remembered the instruction from the angel and how, Peter, having followed that instruction, was presented in person before him at that moment (v. 32).

 How the Lord overcame Peter’s reluctance, added to the power of what was occurring in the centurion's life. He could boldly agree that Peter had “done well to come,” because this was a milestone that he could never forget, God in heaven, working and manifesting Himself in his life, was an awesome reality to him. “We are present before God,” he believed and confessed, and the prospect was tremendously exciting. For the first time in history, a Gentile group had come together to hear the word of God. God was visiting Caesarea, not Jews this time, but hungry and attentive Romans, called to hear what God, their Creator, the Lord of heaven and earth, was saying to them (v. 33).     

 

Gentiles Hear the Good News

34. Then Peter opened his mouth and said: "In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. 

35. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. 

36. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all— 

37. that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: 

38. how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. 

39. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. 

40. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, 

41. not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. 

42. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. 

43. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins." 

Peter introduces his message, declaring that God had shown him that He is not partial to any people (v. 34). Before this meeting is over, he and his fellow Jews, will see before their eyes a more astounding manifestation of that truth. When God chose Abraham, he began a process of separating a people from the rest of the nations of the world. However, that did not mean that God was ignoring the rest of His creation. The Psalmist wrote, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psa. 24:1).

Jesus emphasized that point with two examples from the Old Testament in Luke 4:25-27: “But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." 

 See how God opened His heart to Jonah to show him how it beat for the people of Nineveh, their infants and even their livestock: “Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?” God brought Rahab out of soon-to-be-destroyed Jericho and Ruth out of Moab and adopted them into the family of Israel. Both are honored in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:5.

 In the first part of this chapter, I referred to two Gentiles in the Gospels, who came to Jesus. One was the Syro-Phoenician woman, whose earnest plea for her daughter and her faith in the generous mercy of God, obtained help from the Jewish Messiah. Jesus told her that it was not right that the little dogs (the Gentiles) should eat from the table until the children (the Jews) were fed. Her return was, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs." I think that we have already seen in the last few paragraphs that the Gentiles have always eaten those crumbs and throughout the church age, all we non-Jews have eaten bountifully from the Lord’s table. It was another Roman centurion in Capernaum, whose faith Jesus admired, claiming that it exceeded what he had seen from the Jews (v. 35).

 At this point, Peter began to preach Jesus and the gospel of peace, brought from Him to the Jews. He preached, first, His person, declaring that “He is Lord of all” (v. 36), but that He became known as Jesus of Nazareth. Peter then traced the unfolding of the gospel, beginning in Galilee, following John the Baptist’s message, and then spread throughout Judea. He assumed that even these Romans had heard of its progress (v. 37).

 He preached that the Son of Man from Nazareth was anointed, the Christ, and as a great example to those, who would believe in Him, at His baptism, the Holy Spirit came upon Him as a dove. With that anointing, He ministered in power, healing the sick of all diseases and delivered those bound by the oppression of the devil. In His ministry, He was subject to the Father, perfectly, in His teaching, in His deeds, and in His will. He confessed these things with His own mouth. His teaching:  "My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me” (Jn. 7:16). His deeds: “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner” (Jn. 5:19). His will: “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (Jn. 5:30). God, the Father, was with Him in an infinite measure (v. 38).

 Peter and his fellow-disciples witnessed His ministry, from beginning to end, and were at the cross to witness His death (v. 39). They were witnesses of the truth of His resurrection, when He openly showed Himself to over 500 believers (v. 40). Notice here he termed it “the third day”, crucified on Friday and rising on Sunday. Though he appeared openly, He did not appear publicly. His resurrection is witnessed by disciples (v. 41). Even in this He is subject to the will of the Father, for the Father chose the ones who would be witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus, called the Firstfruits of the first resurrection. The first resurrection is three-fold and only believers will experience it. Without an explanation, I will simply declare that the first part of the First Resurrection was the resurrection of Jesus, which His disciples witnessed. The second phase takes place at the rapture of the church (1 Th. 4:16), and finally and third manifestation of the First Resurrection, will take place after the Great Tribulation (Rv. 20:4).  

 Peter now showed the reason that the disciples could not be silenced by their leaders, the Sanhedrin, for they were commanded by Jesus “to preach to the people.” They and we must also preach, as part of the gospel, that judgment is coming in the future, and Jesus will be the Judge of the living and the dead (v. 42).

 Since the beginning of time, He is the fulfillment of all prophecy. It is also prophesied, since before the revelation of the New Testament, that He, and He alone, is the One, Who came to erase the sin of those who would believe (v. 43). Paul will later tell his disciple, Timothy: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 T. 1:15). Jesus revealed it to Nicodemus, the teacher of the Jews, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16). It was God’s plan that His creation could find a sure way of salvation through Christ 

 

The Gentiles are baptized into the Holy Spirit

                44. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 

 45. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of          the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 

46.  For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, 

47.  "Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" 

48.  And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days. 

 At this point, the first sermon preached to Gentiles is cut short. The Holy Spirit falls on them, as He did upon the Galileans on the day of Pentecost, except this time, He comes without the need of an arrival of a Jewish feast day. This is typical around the world that, when the gospel is preached to the Gentiles, it comes freely without the Mosaic Law (v. 44). As Paul taught, God gave to Abraham and to his Seed, speaking of Christ, a promise 430 years before the law. Galatians 3:17 is a verse rich in grace and faith, of which we should spend time in meditation. “The law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ.”

 Paul writes to the Romans that faith accounted for Abraham’s righteousness, before the covenant of circumcision: “How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.” Then, Paul writes that the promise given to Abraham was also for those, who are of the same faith as Abraham: “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law (the Jews), but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham (the Gentiles), who is the father of us all (Jews and Gentiles)” (Ro. 4:16). Paul writes also that all these things written in Genesis, were not written only for Abraham, but for all believers, Righteousness is imputed, it is accounted, simply, it is given to them: “Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us” (Ro. 3:23 & 24).

 This is the explanation, given later by Paul in Romans and Galatians, for what took place in these Gentiles in Caesarea. It happened to Cornelius and his guests, as they listen to Peter, preaching Christ by the word of God. Because justification by grace through faith occurs in the inner man therefore, the Jews from Joppa, or anyone else for that matter, were not able to observe, when this occurred. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Ro. 10:17). These people have ears of the heart and because that is so, through the word of God, faith comes to them. They are uncircumcised, not under Jewish law, but by the grace of God, because they believe, they are forgiven, justified, and made righteous.

 Almost simultaneously, something visible and audible takes place before Peter’s eyes and ears, as well as those of the Jews from Joppa, who accompany him. They are astounded that Gentiles are baptized into the Holy Spirit and receive the enduement of dynamic power. It is visibly manifested through their bodies (v. 45). Those, who teach that the Holy Spirit was only outpoured once on the day of Pentecost, should be willing, at least, to admit that He is poured out the second time here in Caesarea. Actually, the same event happened already to the Samaritans in chapter eight and we will see it happen again in chapter 19 to Ephesian believers.

Similarly to what occurred on the day of Pentecost to the 120 Galileans, the Caesareans began to speak in tongues. As on the day of Pentecost, they did not preach in tongues, but magnified God in an ecstasy of praise (v. 46). Obviously, the Gentiles have been transformed and wonderfully converted, so Peter commands that they should have a baptismal service (v. 47). God’s work is moving rapidly and in a matter of a few hours, these people are born again, baptized in the Holy Spirit and water baptized. Peter is asked to spend a few days with them, giving an opportunity for him to teach more about the walk in Christ. Fellowship is also a rich experience in mutual sharing and certainly, it is a special privilege to have Peter there to tell of his personal walk with Christ on earth.