Acts 10:25-48

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Acts 10:25-48

“And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. 26 But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man. 27 And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together. 28 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 come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. 29 Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me? 30 And 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, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. 32 Send therefore to Joppa and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the sea side: who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee. 33 Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. 34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: 35 but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. 36 The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) 37 That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; 38 how 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. 39 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: 40 Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; 41 not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. 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 quick and dead. 43 To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. 44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. 45 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. 46 For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, 47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.”

Introduction

[Audio version: http://resources.ccphilly.org/SPM606]

“Peter is at the house of Simon the tanner, he has gone on to the roof to pray, as he is up there he has received a vision from God, a great sheet coming down from heaven with all manner of four-footed creatures and creeping things, and fowls of the air and so forth. And the Lord’s voice to him has said “Peter, kill and eat.” And of course his answer ‘Not so, Lord, I’ve never eaten anything unclean,’ and the Lord said to him ‘Don’t call that common which I have cleansed.’ And this process takes place three times. And after the third time, while Peter’s there thinking about all of this, it says, and the Holy Spirit then speaks to him. Now it’s remarkable, again, the Holy Spirit didn’t speak to him about ‘Hey, Peter, if I let down a sheet from heaven, would you’ no, that actually happens because he needs to see that, because he’s going to go to the house of a Gentile, and God needs to make abundantly clear, this is something, he falls into a state of ecstasy, it says while he’s praying, his eyes are open, he’s not delirious, this is something that God puts in front of him with a vision, he sees this, it’s supernatural. And then the Holy Ghost speaks to him, and he recognizes the voice of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost says ‘Peter, there’s three guys coming right now, sending for you, Gentiles, they’re coming to the house, they want to talk to you. I want you to go down, and I want you to go with them, nothing wavering.’ So, the Lord is breaking down all of these barriers. He’s going to take Peter 30 miles north, along the coast from Joppa to Caesarea, and he’s going to take him there to the house of Cornelius, who is a Centurion, who was a Gentile. And he’s going to witness the Gentiles coming into the Kingdom. It’s interesting, because Phillip lives there in Caesarea, but the Lord decided that Phillip would not be the one, Peter would be the one as it were that would open the door to the Gentiles. Peter would be the one to go back to Jerusalem and be questioned about it, and give the testimony to the Church in Jerusalem which they would receive and believe. So the Lord has been setting this up, from the healing of Dorcas and so forth, all along the line to his staying in the house of a tanner, no doubt seeing the wine skins hung there, remembering the Lord said ‘You can’t put new wine in old wineskins,’ just the things he must be musing over now, this vision from heaven, and then this instruction from the Holy Spirit, he knows his voice well enough, the Spirit says ‘I want you to go.’ This is verse 19 now, “While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.” (verses 19-20) nothing wavering, don’t delay, go with them, in other words, don’t be hesitant, “for I have sent them” the Spirit says, ‘I’ve sent them.’ “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 ye are come?” (verse 21) Now this must be extremely supernatural for these Gentiles, ah Cornelius came to them and told them, it says he explained, he exegeted the whole thing, he told them ‘Look, I was praying, and an angel from heaven came, and told me to send to Joppa for one named Simon Peter to come and he will tell us what is still necessary in our beliefs, what we need, what we’re lacking,’ and he explained the whole thing to them, and then it says ‘Then they went,’ they must trust Cornelius in a remarkable way. When they get to the house, Peter comes down off the roof, whose stairs are on the outside of the house, as they’re coming up, here comes this man walking down, and he says ‘I’m the one you’re seeking.’ That must have freaked them out. He said “I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come? And they said, Cornelius the centurion,” now listen, what great respect they have for the man, “a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.” (verses 21b-22) that must be the way Cornelius explained it to them, “an holy angel,” he must have had a tremendous sense of the presence of Heaven. ‘He was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words, raima, from thee, living words, to hear living words.’ Now, Peter, I’m assuming, he’s never been in the house of a Gentile before, never been. And he’s hearing about this angel from God, this holy angel came to Cornelius the Centurion, but he’s a just man, a good man, he loves the nation, he’s respected of the Jews. And he, the angel, said that you should come to his house. And doors are opening up, walls are breaking down. It says “Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him.” (verse 23) He lodged them for the night. Now here the walls are breaking down, you have a tanner first of all that nobody ever stayed with, because they were considered unclean. Again, if you married a tanner and found out afterwards he was a tanner, you had legal grounds for divorce. They had to live at least 50 paces outside the city and downwind, ah, dead animals around all the time, here’s Peter staying in the house of Simon the tanner, and now he’s got a bunch of Gentiles there, this is one big happy family man, all the walls are coming down, this would never have happened. And Peter no doubt, in a great way, under conviction of the Spirit, because “he lodged them,” “And on the morrow after Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him.” (verse 23b) Now we find out in chapter 11, verse 12, the “certain brethren” are six men, so there’s six Jewish men, which are believers, converted to Christ. There’s Peter, that’s seven, and there’s these three Gentiles, there’s ten of them, and they’re walking to Caesarea, which is a two-day journey, it’s a little over 30 miles. And what were the conversations like as they went? Was it Peter and the Jewish men, ‘Now tell us about this Cornelius,’ and they must have heard more about his character, the kind of man that he was, it says that he feared God with his entire house. He must have known about some of the things attached to Christ, he knew about the Jews, he had turned from the Roman pantheon, paganism, and he had turned to monotheism, he was a good man, he was a just man, they must have told him. And they must have said ‘Now, we’re amazed, the word came to him, Heaven knows who you are, Simon Peter, angels know your name, they know who you are, tell us.’ I wonder if they talked of Jesus on the way, I wonder what that conversation was like, I wonder if these three heard, you know, got a foretaste what the message would be when they got to the house of Cornelius. Just imagine, I’d like to have a tape of that two-day conversation, walking along the beach there, as they come. And it says “And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends.” (verse 24) Now we’re going to read there were many of them. We not sure, are there 50 or are there 100? Again, this is going to be the Gentile Pentecost, this is going to be the opening of the door to the western hemisphere, this is going to determine our sitting here this evening, this is going to determine the course of human history, this meeting at the house of Cornelius. [And don’t forget, as I mentioned before, Cornelius was the essential key that showed both Paul and the Jerusalem church just what type of Gentile they were to evangelize to, witness to, and that is ‘the God-fearing, devout Gentile,’ the type of Gentile that already, in many cases, worshipped in the Diaspora synagogues, worshipping the one True God of the Bible. These God-fearer Gentiles understood the Hebrew Scriptures, and many of the key prophecies that Paul would use to reveal the real Messiah to them. Cornelius was that identifying key.] He had called together his kinsmen and his friends, “And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.” (verse 25) Now, it seems that he’s acting out something in his own culture, paying homage, this would happen if he was in front of Caesar, this would happen if he was in front of someone he really revered. But this is a Centurion, this is a man whose in charge of 100 men, and of The Italian Cohort, this is a man whose a select man, a remarkable man, this is a man whose base pay is 16 times that of the enlisted man, ah, base pay. This must be a nice home that he comes into, Peter, the first home of a Gentile, he comes in and this man falls down to do homage. And Peter’s going to say to him, “But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.” (verse 26) ‘Don’t kiss my toe, you might start a really weird trend.’ Of course Cornelius has been waiting, he’s been longing, we’re going to find that out, and as Peter comes he thinks ‘This is the man who Heaven recognizes, this is a man that angels know his name.’ You see, this is a very strange culture, because Rome was trying to enforce at this point in time that Caesar was God, that man was God. Peter’s going to tell him, ‘No, God became a man, it’s the other way around.’ And for Cornelius these things all need to get straightened out. So Peter knows you’re never supposed to bow down in front of a great image or another human being, he grabs him and stands him up, saying ‘Hey now, I’m just a human being, just like you.’ “And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together.” (verse 27)

Peter Asks Cornelius Why He Was Sent For, Cornelius Answers Peter

“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 come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” (verse 28) Isn’t it interesting, the vision of the sheet is becoming more and more clear to him, what God was trying to say to him. He said that God has made me realize that no man is to be called common. “Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me?” (verse 29) all of these people sitting around, of course now. Cornelius is going to speak up, and Cornelius says, “And 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.” (verses 30-31) this is the way he describes the angel, his first impression. The angel’s clothing is glistening, it’s sparkling, it speaks of the way the light was shining from his raiment. ‘This angel stood before me in this glistening, shining clothing,’ “And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.” (verse 31) Now, this is very interesting. The Greek says, it’s not just “thy prayer,” there’s a definite article, the Greek says “your, the prayer is heard.” It means there was a specific prayer. This is a man that says “he prayed always,” he prayed in all things. Listen, it says this is a man, that when we first meet him, we’re told he’s a devout man, it means he’s religious, we know he’s a monotheist, he’s turned to the God of Israel. He’s one that fears God, with all of his house, he’s infected his family, his wife and so forth. [Comment: When used in the Book of Acts, Luke is using the term “God-fearer” and “devout” to describe a class of Gentile who had come to recognize the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Torah, and the term “God-fearer” or “devout” was the Jewish term used at the time to describe this kind of Gentile. Oskar Skarsaune in his work “In The Shadow Of The Temple” explains this is a particular Jewish term for those whom the Jews in the Diaspora synagogues had evangelized to, so that many of these God-fearer, devout Gentiles were actually worshipping in the synagogues along with the Jewish members. According to Oskar Skarsaune it is apparent that the prejudice against Gentiles did not exist outside of Jerusalem and Judea. A strong anti-Gentile prejudice would have been dangerous for the Diaspora Jew, living as it were among the Gentiles.] He gives much alms to the people, that’s to the people of Israel, “and he prays to God in all things, always.” But in the middle of all that, it was his prayer. Look, for you and I, as we sit here, there’s a difference between our praying and our prayer. You know, I start the service here and I pray at the beginning of the service and when services are over I pray. When I’m at the table with the family I say grace, I pray. When you pray before the service or after the service, you want to make sure, if you’re the pastor that you don’t repeat your sermon, it’s not like sermon-2, shrink your sermon down in the prayer, make your point one more time, people know you’re being phony, you never want to be disingenuous when you pray, you want to be honest. But there’s a difference between my praying and my prayer. What is my prayer? What is your prayer? There’s something that hangs on my heart continually, in regards to Heaven, that’s my prayer, that’s my prayer. It’s something that is always there, saying, ‘Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit, I don’t feel like I’ve arrived, Lord, your calling is on my life, and I don’t know everything that means, Lord I am still in so many ways such a carnal man, there are so many things still in my life that are not reflective of Jesus, Father, reveal yourself to me, pour your Spirit out on my life, pour your Spirit out on Calvary Chapel Philadelphia, pour your Spirit out on the Church in the city of Philadelphia and America, that’s my prayer, that’s my prayer.’ I have praying in my life, and I have to do that, and I love to do that, but there’s a difference between our praying and our prayer…what is the thing that burns in your heart. If there’s nothing burning there, you need to get before him. He says ‘Your prayer, your the prayer, the specific burden of yours, Cornelius is heard.’ Cornelius no doubt was crying out, ‘God, I know you’re there, God, I’m tired of the Roman pantheon, God, I know you’re real, God I see reflected in this Jewish nation standards and morals, ethics and things that Rome knows nothing about, God I know it’s right to give to the poor, I know it’s right to lead my family the right way, I know it’s right to seek you every day, but there’s still something missing God, there’s something still I don’t have hold of.’ Because back in the beginning of the chapter when the angel appears, and he says ‘Go find this Simon Peter,’ in verse 6 it says ‘he lodges with Simon the tanner, whose also by the sea side, he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do, the Greek is “he will tell you what is still necessary for you to do.” That no doubt was attached to his prayer ‘What thing am I lacking, what is it God that I don’t have ahold of yet? I know this is not complete, I’m still longing, there’s something that I don’t see.’ And the angel says ‘your, the prayer has come before God, and he has your alms brought in remembrance, in his sight, what you’ve done in regards to the less fortunate,’

Peter Starts His Sermon, Gives Them The Simple Gospel of Christ

“Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the sea side: who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee.” (verse 32) he says this is what the angel said. Now, isn’t it interesting, the angel didn’t preach the Gospel to Cornelius. You’d think if God really wanted to get it across and start something, you know, the angel could never do that. Christ didn’t die for angels. There’d be no truth, there’d be no pathos, there’d be no…Peter denied Christ three times, Peter who was so familiar with his humanity could certainly talk about the forgiveness there is in Jesus Christ in a remarkable way, but the angel has no place to do that, couldn’t do that. So he calls for this one, ‘you get this Simon whose living with the tanner, you get him to come,’ and then he says “Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.” (verse 33) ‘Immediately therefore’ now I guess so, that’s what you do if an angel appears to you at 3 O’clock in the afternoon and tells you to send for someone. We’re basically saying ‘It’s great, we’re so glad that you’re here.’ “Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.” (verse 33b) he realizes God set up this meeting, “to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.” ‘We know you’re his mouthpiece, we know he sent you here to say some specific things to us.’ Human history is poised at this time. The next five minutes will change the course of western civilization. So again, in five minutes, Peter’s not even going to get, we don’t know if this would have been a three-point sermon or a five-point sermon, he’s not going to get passed point one and the Holy Spirit’s going to interrupt him. Peter must look at all these people, are there 50 or 100, we don’t know. “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.” (verses 34-35) That’s “and Peter opened his mouth,” that’s kind of consistent with Peter, but the idea is, now he’s going to say something of great import. Literally “it’s no accepter of face, or face value.” ‘I’m beginning to perceive that God doesn’t respect a Gentile above or below a Jew, God doesn’t respect a European or an Asian or an African or a Latino, he doesn’t respect one above another, God is not a respecter of persons, he does not do what we do, he’s vastly different.’ Man looks on the outward appearance, God looks upon the heart. And he said ‘I’m coming to realize that God is no respecter of persons, he doesn’t take people at face value.’ By the way, if that’s who God is, and we’re his children, neither should we, there is no room in the Church for any form of racism or prejudice, that was common amongst the Jews and the Gentiles of this day, because our Father is not like that at all. “But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” (verse 35) Now Peter’s realizing, hey, you know he’s probably heard of the Ethiopian eunuch by now, he saw in Samaria those that were coming to Christ, he started to realize in every nation those who turn to him are saved, he says, are accepted with him. Obviously no one’s saved by just working their own righteousness, it’s not his point. “The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) that word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;” (verses 36-37) Now “the word” the raima that he sent, the Living Word that he sent unto the children of Israel, preaching, is from the word “evangeliso” it’s the good news of Jesus Christ, what that word “preaching” specifically means is that which brings peace, and that is by Jesus Christ, and he says “he is Lord of all.” That both affirms his deity, saying he’s Lord of the Gentiles and he’s Lord of the Jews, he’s Lord of all. And Peter’s beginning to realize, one of the broadest promises in the Old Testament was made to Abraham, and it says ‘Through thy seed shall all nations be blessed,’ all nations. In Hosea the Lord there had said, let me find Hosea, I don’t have a computer printout or anything, and no doubt Peter, as we listen to him, is very familiar with Scripture. God had said through Hosea, ‘Yet the number of children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which can not be measured for number, and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, you are not my people, there it shall be said to them, you are the sons of the Living God,’ and re-affirmed in chapter 2, ‘…and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy, and I will say to them which were not my people, thou art my people, and they shall say Thou art my God.’ There were enough inferences in the Old Testament, you find them in Isaiah, that God would save the Gentiles. Now here is the problem in the chapter, as this goes on, we’re going to hear those that are with Peter were astonished when the Holy Spirit fell on these Gentiles. Because they had come to the point, no doubt, where they were accepting the fact that God was going to save the Gentiles, what shocked them was, that the Gentiles didn’t have to become Jews to be saved. That was where the stumbling point was. And Peter’s going to say to them, ‘You only need to believe and you’ll receive the remission of sins,’ and the Holy Spirit’s going to interrupt him right there, that’s where Peter’s stopped, right there. He didn’t say anything about baptism, he didn’t say anything about circumcision, he said you need to believe to receive the remission of sins. And when the Holy Spirit falls on this group it says the Jews that were with Peter, they’re astonished. Because the Judaizers are going to go and they’re going to follow Paul, his ministry, and they’re going to say ‘This guy’s teaching that you throw out the Law of Moses,’ which Paul wasn’t doing. But Paul is teaching that you’re not saved by keeping the Law, because the Gentiles did not need to be circumcised, they didn’t need to keep the dietary law, that was the stumbling point, the Jews to a point were beginning to accept the fact, that yes, Gentiles could be saved, but what they couldn’t comprehend was that they didn’t have to become Jews to be saved. [There is a giant debate about Law & Grace and which elements of God’s Law still apply and which ones have been abrogated (cf. Hebrews 10), and even Pastor Chuck Smith has remarked that we as humans can’t see it from God’s perspective. While he admits himself the Ten Commandment Law of God is not done away, and Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-19 that one pen stroke was will not pass from the Law, and those that teach otherwise are in serious trouble. For a more complete discussion of this difficult to define doctrine, see https://unityinchrist.com/whatisgrace/whatisgraceintro.htm] And that’s where this all changes here in this chapter. So, he says to him, “The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) that word,” that raima, that Living Word, “I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;” (verses 36-37) we’re going to be told in Paul, in his presentation in chapter 26, verse 26, he’s going to say to Agrippa ‘That this thing was not done in a corner, you know about this,’ the whole area had heard about the ministry of John the Baptist and of Jesus Christ. Multitudes have followed him. The question was, did he really rise from the dead, or did the report that the Jews put forth, that somebody came and stole his body, did that really happen? But the whole thing was news in the area, they heard that. And he said “ye know, which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; how 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.” (verses 37-38) You’ve heard about these things, Peter’s saying. “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:” (verse 39) ‘We are witness of all things that he did,’ Peter’s saying, ‘We were with him in the storm on the sea, we were with him when Jairus’ daughter was raised from the dead, we were with him at the transfiguration, we were with him when he cleansed the lepers, we were with him when he healed the man that was let down through the roof, we were with him on the entry into Jerusalem when they were laying down palms in front of him, we were with him when he cleansed the Temple, we were with him, we were witnesses of the things that he did.’ “whom they slew and hanged on a tree” now he’s being very diplomatic here, hanged on wood literally, it’s used I forget how many times, but it’s speaking about crucifixion, the Jews didn’t hang him, the Romans hung him on a cross, but it was at the behest of the Jews. But he’s being diplomatic here, because he’s talking to a Roman Centurion and his family, he’s not saying that you Romans hung him on a cross, he’s not doing that. He’s saying ‘whom the Jews hanged on a tree.’ They knew about the crucifixion, and this is what he says, “Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.” (verses 40-41) Now, he says we’re his witnesses in regards to the resurrection, he said ‘not everybody, but people that he chose to be his witnesses.’ Paul, of course, in his great statement in 1^st Corinthians 15 is going to say “Moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory where I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain, for I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins,” is that confusing? Christ died for our sins, Paul says that’s the good news. “He died for our sins according to the Scripture, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures, and he was seen of Cephas and of the twelve, and after that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto the present, some have fallen asleep, and that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and then last of all he was seen of me also, as one born out of due time.” Paul says, we’re all aware of this. John, in his first letter, describes it this way, ‘That which is from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, which our hands have handled of the Word of Life. For the life was manifest, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us, that which we have seen, and heard, declare we unto you, that you may also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” and he goes along to explain the process. And he says “Herein is the love of God manifest, not that we loved him, but that he first loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Huge statement. I have a book “The Apostolic Preaching Of The Cross,” and it goes back to the apostles and church fathers, and breaks down their message, and that they preached that the wrath of God was satisfied on his own Son, bearing the sin of the world, on the cross, that there was a just payment, a judgment that had to be undertaken, that the balances of justice in eternity had to be settled, and that Christ not only bore our sin on the cross, but the part of it we never saw and couldn’t be seen with the human eye, was that somehow in those few hours of darkness, he came under the wrath of God, when he cried “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” he was separated from God. Some eternal thing took place there that we can hardly understand. John talks about it. Here Peter is going to bring us to that very same point, he says, ‘He wasn’t seen of everybody after his resurrection, but to witnesses chosen,’ Paul said ‘Well there’s 500, most of them are still alive,’ Paul when he writes Corinthians. Now he says this, “even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.” that’s not speaking of a singular experience, the grammar in the Greek doesn’t allow that, what he’s saying is, ‘He revealed himself to us after his resurrection, who did eat and drink with him many times, after he rose from the dead.’ In other words, it wasn’t just a situation in Luke, where Luke describes Christ appearing and saying ‘Do you have anything to eat here?’ and they give him some bread, fish and some honeycomb, what Peter’s saying is there were numerous times, between his resurrection and his ascension during those 40 days, when we sat and ate with him. Just imagine what that was like. How many times, out of 40 days? If it was 10 days would that blow your mind? If it was half the days, if it was 20 days, I think it may have been even more than that, because it says 40 days he instructed them in regards to the things of the Kingdom. He fellowshipped with them in his resurrected body, and he said it was after he was raised out from among the dead, when he sat and ate and drank with them many times. How amazing, how amazing.

Peter Is Telling These Gentiles That There Will Be A Final Judgment

“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 quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” Verse 42 to 43 he brings it now the point, he brings it to what he wants to communicate, and it says, “he commanded us” verse 42, he didn’t suggest, Peter says, “he commanded, he gave us a charge,” there’s authority there. “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 quick and dead.” the quick and the dead is the living and the dead, the English word [from 1611AD] is “alive,” the living and the dead. What he says here, it is ‘he commanded us, that we should proclaim and testify to the people that he is the One who has been chosen by God to execute the final Judgment, he will be the Judge of the living and the dead.’ Peter is saying to these Gentiles, there will be a final judgment. Jesus told us in John chapter 5, ‘the Father’s committed all judgment to the Son, there’s a day when all that are in their graves will hear his voice and arise, some to everlasting life, some to everlasting shame and contempt.’ [Comment: “everlasting shame and contempt” is translated in the King James as “damnation,” which is a poor rendition of the literal Greek, which is the word “krisis” which means “decision,” it’s a resurrection of decision. The greater body of Christ has many interpretations about this verse and their doctrines about heaven and hell vary a bit. To see some of those interpretations, see https://unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm] Peter says the part of the message that we are to proclaim is, the He is the One that will execute the final Judgment, he is the judge of the living and the dead. It doesn’t matter what Hollywood says, it doesn’t matter what they try to legislate, they’re not going to stop the final Judgment. It doesn’t matter what our current morality says. And again, we are warned, I’m just aware of this all of the time, in 1^st Timothy, chapter 4, 2^nd Timothy chapter 3, that the Spirit speaks expressly, now when we read that, the Spirit wasn’t saying those things to Timothy, Timothy had a lot of instruction, but the Spirit said ‘Timothy, specifically, in the very last days,’ those things then are written for us to take note of. There will be doctrines of demons, there will be departing from the faith, and he boils it down after all of the selfishnesses and pleasure seeking of man, ‘because they will be holding the form of religion and denying the power thereof.’ Listen to me, years ago, when we first started the Bible study and the church [CC Philly], when we first started to grow, you know, we would look around, we would see some things, we would think ‘Well, you know, we don’t agree with this, the health & wealth, blab it & grab it doctrines, that wasn’t us, we were teaching the Bible, we didn’t believe everybody’s supposed to prosper, everybody’s supposed to be healthy,’ We didn’t believe the Bible agreed with that. There were certain things we saw, well we thought ‘These guys over there, well they’re stretching the Scripture in their position,’ [and those that do this, and it’s usually in the gray areas of interpretation, where any legitimate church group or denomination can be wrong in an area doesn’t make them false Christians, it just makes them off in that particular area of their beliefs. When we all get to the Wedding Feast of Jesus Christ talked of in Revelation 19:7-9, we, no matter which part of the Body of Christ we came from, will all learn where our doctrinal interpretations have been wrong and where they have been correct. Disagreement in secondary areas of belief does not bar one from entry into the Kingdom of God, but lack of belief in Jesus Christ being the divine Son of God, who was the pre-existent One, YHVH, the Great I AM (cf. John 8:58) will bar one from the Kingdom, and lack of belief in his atoning power of forgiveness of sins will bar one from the Kingdom.] Now we’re hearing things we never dreamed we’d hear, things like that Jesus did not accomplish atonement, his death on the cross, we never dreamed that we would hear inside the Church. Let me say something, Hollywood is no threat to us, Washington can never legislate away our power, because it comes from heaven, it’s of the Holy Ghost. Again, the greatest threat are the things going on under the roof of the Church, or what the banner of the Church or what calls itself the Church. For anyone in the Church to be saying ‘Jesus did not pay for the sins of mankind on the cross, that’s divine child-abuse, a God of love would never punish his Son,’ that’s what’s going on out there. That to me is, first of all, it’s blasphemous, first of all, and I can’t believe, but look, where does that come from, how can they do that? Well the way they can do that is because they throw inerrancy out the window, there’s no longer the Word of God, and it doesn’t mean what it says, word for word. Jesus said ‘Heaven and earth is going to pass away, and not one mark, exclamation mark from God’s Word is going to pass away.’ (cf. Matthew 5:17-19) not one mark. Do we believe that? He says literally not one yod, not one tittle will pass away. Listen, he has a little debate with the lawyer, and a lawyer is not the same thing in that day as in our day, but it was in regards to the scribes, the lawyers in regards to the Law of God. And he says ‘Master, what’s the greatest commandment?’ he says ‘You know, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind,’ the lawyer, scribe says ‘You’ve said well,’ it says Jesus perceived this guy had asked in genuineness. He asked him then, ‘What was David, what was the prophet saying ‘When the LORD said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand,’? David said, the LORD said, Jehovah unto my Lord, who is David’s Lord? he said. Listen, the Lord said to my, that “my” in the Hebrew is a yod, it’s just a mark, Jesus said not one yod, not one tittle will pass away. Jesus has a little debate with a scribe, an expert in the Jewish law, and that argument stands or falls on a yod. [comment: It wasn’t the Jewish Law, let’s get one thing straight, if it’s in the Torah, it’s God’s Law, which he gave to the 12 tribes of Israel, 2.5 of which are now composing the nation of Judah, living in the land of Judea. If it’s in the Midrash or Mishna, then it’s Jewish law, extra things they added to God’s law, which God said not to do, things like the Kosher laws that said not to mix milk or dairy products with meat. That is Jewish law. The actual Biblical kosher laws are found in Leviticus 11, and are a part of God’s law. Paul said the sacrificial part of God’s laws have been abrogated by the very sacrifice of Jesus Christ (cf. Hebrews 10). As far as can been seen in the Bible, those are the only laws within the Torah that have been abrogated, and God backed up Paul in what he wrote in Hebrews 10 by having Rome destroy the Temple in Jerusalem which eliminates the ability to observe the sacrificial laws within God’s Torah Law.] Paul when he talks about the promise to the Gentiles in Christ, he says ‘Through thy seed shall all nations be blessed’ (Genesis 22:18) in Galatians 3:16, it says “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” it’s not a plural. The argument stands or falls on whether it's singular or plural.

A Diversion Into What Some Publishers Are Doing To God’s Word

Now look, I left Acts didn’t I, there’s a whole industry today, supposedly making the Bible easier for us to understand. [I’m laughing. Even though this website’s whole purpose is to help nurture those within the greater Body of Christ in the Word of God, the Bible is not easy for the ordinary person to understand, without the indwelling Holy Spirit, who leads and guides us and grants us understanding of what we read in the Bible (cf. 1^st Corinthians 2:9-13) ] And they’ll hand us a translation that’s neuter-gender, they hand us a translation where thousands of singulars have been changed to plurals, and what happens when you read that text, it no longer bears on your heart as though God is speaking to you as an individual. It’s done for the sake of publishing, it’s done for the sake of money, but it’s done. You know, you should have, as far as I’m concerned a King James or a New King James [which the liberal translators Wesley and Hort got some of their influence into, so be careful], or a New American Standard [again, Wesley & Hort influenced with liberalism], or an NIV [ditto]. There are translations out there, The MESSAGE, it ain’t this message [he’s probably holding up his King James Bible]. In the King James Bible the Lord [and LORD] is in there over 7,000 times, in the MESSAGE by Eugene Peterson it’s in there 71 times. That’s a number of deletions. The problem is, if the authority of “this” [again, holding up his Bible] is being undermined, everything else falls apart. Because “this” is the Word of God, and it gives clear testimony that Jesus of Nazareth was of the tribe of Judah, was born of a virgin, he lived, he was crucified, he paid for the sins of mankind, he rose from the dead on the third day, he ascended into heaven and he is returning in power and great glory, and he will subdue this rebellious world and rule it with a rod of iron. [Comment: Pastor Joe just gave the simple, five-point Gospel of Christ, Gospel of the Kingdom of God. That is the simple Gospel given by Peter and Paul in the Word of God. It is the very same Gospel Jesus said we in the Body of Christ would get proclaimed to the world in Matthew 24:14. See https://unityinchrist.com/misc/WhatIsTheGospel%20.htm] And there will be equity and there will be justice. But when we throw the authority of this Book out the window, and you treat it like you can do whatever you want with it…and look, for me it’s just something, it’s because I love it, I’m a bit jealous over it…you know, I want a literal translation of the Hebrew and Greek [in English, the old King James is probably the best I don’t want dynamic equivalents even]. When you translate from Hebrew or Greek, if you stick to the Hebrew and Greek text when you translate, you’re giving a literal translation. If you defer to the language you’re translating into, you give a dynamic equivalent of what the Hebrew and Greek mean, you say what God’s trying to say, I don’t want somebody telling me what God’s trying to say, I want somebody telling me what God said, and if it’s confusing God can straighten it out for me. If you do that in biology, ok, in biology, now the Word of God, it was the Word by whom all things came into existence, all other languages based on that, if in biology you change one chromosome, you know what you get? You get something deformed. You need a literal translation every time, of the DNA, and the gene, to get health. You change a chromosome, you have major problems. So I don’t want them doing it with this [the Bible], which is a more perfect Word, and telling me what God’s trying to say, give me a break, just tell me what he said. Give it to me word for word, literal, and I’ll sit alone with it, and he’ll deal with me. ‘Well I don’t understand it because it says “Thou.” You do so, I’ll say, you know exactly. Look, get a translation, they have equivalents (in the NIV), but they did a good job, at least it’s a translation. The New American Standard, at least it’s a translation, the English Standard Version, that’s a good translation, it’s a literal translation. Have a translation. If you want to read Phillips, that’s good [no it isn’t, but for a modern translation I’d really rely on the Stern’s translation]. If you want to read the Amplified Bible, it’s good. If you want to read the Living Bible, at least it’s honest, it says it’s a paraphrase, not a translation. But if you want to read the MESSAGE, read it, but understand it’s not a translation. Have a translation. [Comment: One of the major reasons I use Pastor Joe’s sermons for transcriptions for this site, with his permission of course, twice given to me by him in person, is that he exclusively uses the King James Version, and expounds very clearly on what it means. In spite of its archaic language, it is very accurate.] Because Peter says here, and this is the doorway to the Gentile world, listen to it. It was sufficient then, it is sufficient now [i.e. the Gospel, as expounded by both Peter and Paul, and outlined and expounded on in that link https://unityinchrist.com/misc/WhatIsTheGospel%20.htm]. “He has commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.” (verse 42) he’s going to be in charge of the final judgment, and “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” (verse 43) we’re told in Revelation 19:10 that the testimony of Jesus is the very spirit of prophecy, “to him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” “Whosoever” and every Gentile in the room just took hold of that when Peter said that word, “whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission” the sending off, the dismissal, the putting away ‘of their sins.’ Jesus is the final judge, and in the final Judgment he going to judge the quick and the dead. That’s pretty sobering. But here’s the good news, on the other hand, ‘whosoever turns and believest,’ doesn’t have to meet him there, we can meet him today, as Saviour, not meet him as judge at the Great White Throne, but meet him as Saviour and Lord.

The Holy Spirit Interrupts Peter Almost Before He Can Finish The First Point In His Sermon

“Whosoever believeth will receive the remission of sins.” “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.” (verse 44) Peter gets interrupted here. I know Peter had more to say. He was going to continue his sermon, I know that, I’m a preacher. He had things lined up, ‘Believe me, I denied him three times, and he still came,’ he just had great points he was going to make. All he got to say is ‘God has commanded that we should let the world know there’s going to be a final judgment, he’s in charge of it, and in the mean time, anybody who turns to him and believes in him will receive remission of sins,’ and the Holy Ghost falls! The Holy Ghost interrupts Peter. You know Peter was interrupted by God the Father, Peter was interrupted by Jesus, and Peter was interrupted by the Holy Spirit, he’s the only human who was interrupted by everybody in the Trinity at some point in his life. Here the Holy Spirit falls, because he wants to stop it there, because their hearts have taken hold that there is a final judgment, you know, Cornelius is hanging on every word, you know, the angel comes, says ‘send for this man, he’s going to tell you what’s necessary.’ And now Cornelius hears, and so does everyone with him, ‘whosoever believes in Jesus is going to receive the remission of sins, he’s risen from the dead, he’s in charge of the final judgment, he is Lord of all,’ and their hearts are aflame, and there’s genuine faith gendered. And in light of that it says “As Peter yet spake these words” remata, here it’s not logos, it’s raimna, he’s actually speaking living words of life, it says, as he’s doing that the Holy Ghost fell on all of them. And then it tells us what they heard, they heard the logon, the Word of God. Isn’t it interesting. “And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (verse 45) Now they were staggered, not that the Gentiles got saved, but they got saved without becoming Jews, “that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Peter must be thinking ‘Hey you know, I preached this and didn’t even realize what I was saying.’ Peter said “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” (Acts 2:38-39) He had been filled with the Holy Ghost when he preached that (in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost), and he’s learning what his own sermon meant at this side. And the Spirit now has fallen on the Gentiles, and it says the Jews are astonished when they see that God’s given the same gift, “For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.” (verse 46) ‘they heard them continually speaking with tongues, and magnifying God.’ They see what happened on Pentecost happening in the house of Cornelius. Were there 120 here? there may have been. There are many people, we’re told. You have to realize the import of this. And as Peter and these six Jews stand there all of a sudden, the whole room, saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and they’re continually and in different languages, speaking and magnifying God. Look, remember that. We’re told, in Corinthians ‘he who in an unknown tongue doth give thanks right well, speaking unto God, not unto man.’ I know if you’ve grown up in he charismatic church, I have, you’ll hear somebody in the middle of the service, wailing out, you hear them go through the tongues, and somebody else saying ‘My children,’ thus and thus, that’s not a translation of the tongues, because the tongues are speaking to God. ‘He who speaks in an unknown tongue speaketh unto God, Paul says, and doth give thanks right well.’ So, in the early days in Calvary somebody would say ‘That’s not a translation, you just hold that, it might be a prophecy, but we’re gonna wait, if somebody here can translate, fine, but if not, you’re not to do it, because Paul says not to do it unless there’s somebody with the gift of interpretation.’ But these Gentiles now, the Holy Spirit falling, like he had fallen on the Day of Pentecost, and they are witness to that, and that word needs to get back to the Church in Jerusalem for the apostles to say we believe it, we understand it, we see that the Gentiles are being brought into the Body of Christ, without becoming Jews, God hath made the two one. This is the open door for you and I who sit here this evening. God is just as willing to pour out the Holy Spirit on your life and on my life that he was on Peter or John or James. We see Peter getting up to speak in chapter 4, verse 8, he’s filled afresh, we see them pleading with God in 4:31, it says they’re all filled afresh, again. There isn’t any reason for anyone in this room who wants to be filled afresh with the Spirit not to be able to be filled afresh. He’s no respecter of persons, he’s the Lord of all, he’s your Lord, he’s my Lord. But remember, in regards to tongues, Chuck used to say “the steam is not in the engine just to blow the whistle, it’s there to move the train.” “Those who are led of the Spirit are the children of God.” Here, a demonstration resembling Pentecost, so the word can get back to the Jerusalem Church. “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 he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.” (verses 46b-48) And I’m sure during those days Peter introduced Phillip to this new Gentile church in Caesarea, where there were always 50,000 to 70,000 Romans living there, plus Jews, 236 acres inside of a wall, a huge Roman city, Caesarea by the Sea. [I’m sure Phillip was part of a Judeo-Christian church in Caesarea, and Cornelius and his whole crowd became members of that congregation. See https://unityinchrist.com/history2/index3.htm] Ah, you have friends who believe in baptismal regeneration, you’re not saved until you’re baptized? it says right here, if you believe in baptismal regeneration, it fails the text, not only does it fail the test, it fails the text. [i.e. God won’t be put in a doctrinal box. While the early churches of God used baptism as their way of accepting Yeshua haMeschiach into their lives and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, God will not be put in a doctrinal box, as myriad millions of believers have come to Christ via the “altar call” and Pastor Joe has witnessed this occurrence thousands of times in his own congregation. For a good discussion of the subject on baptism, see https://unityinchrist.com/baptism/What%20is%20Baptism.htm] Because they’re saved, and after their saved they’re baptized. So don’t let anybody tell you that you have to be baptized to be saved. Here they are, saved listening to the word being preached, faith engendered in their hearts, they trusted Christ, then indwelt, filled with the Holy Spirit simultaneously, and then Peter says, ‘Look, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be baptized,’ after their salvation then they are baptized, interesting process. [I came into the Body of Christ via a Sabbath-keeping Church of God which trace their roots back to these early Judea-Christian churches of God in Judea and Asia Minor, and they followed this practice of being baptized as their way of accepting and asking Jesus Christ into our lives, and many members did receive the Holy Spirit at that point, but a lot of us upon reflection and looking back into our lives, saw that this regeneration took place some time prior to our own baptisms. I see this was true for me, and a close friend of mine who came into the Body of Christ via this same Sabbath-keeping Church of God noticed this as well, looking back into his life. By the way, this person has family roots going way back into the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God that grew out of the 1600s Colony of Rhode Island, the Burdick family, which contributed quite a few pastors into those churches. Click on that link about Baptism, it goes into the subject of baptism and how the practice got seriously corrupted in the middle of the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries AD, being one of the major reasons the practice was abandoned by those becoming serious believers in Jesus Christ.] Now look, if you read ahead, what’s going to happen is Peter’s going to start to take some heat for this. And the church in Jerusalem is not going to be happy with everything they hear. And it will cause division, please listen, in the church in Jerusalem. Some will listen to Peter and realize, yes, the Gospel in fact has gone to the Gentile world, and God is gathering us all into one Body. Some of the Jewish believers will be stumbled. Some of the Jews who have joined the believers, who have themselves never been born-again, will go on a campaign and become Judaizers and begin to persecute this theology throughout the Roman world. [Yes! Pastor Joe has come to the same exact doctrinal-historic conclusions I came to see, in my expository study on Galatians, where the apostle Paul describes just who these Judaizers were. See https://unityinchrist.com/galatians/Galatians1-1-24.htm for an excellent historic analysis about these Judaizers.] But there will be those that will struggle over it. It’s that simple, look, it shouldn’t surprise you, how many of you have relatives that are Roman Catholic, or Baptist, my mom was Lutheran, my dad was Catholic, they couldn’t believe it when me and my friends got saved. My mother was never more Lutheran than she was after I got saved, because [before he was saved] I was taking drugs, I was waiting for flying saucers, I was on astroplains, they didn’t know what was next, then I came home talking about Jesus. The only thing they were happy about was I started eating meat again, I had been a vegetarian for years. Then they told me ‘You’ve been a vegetarian for years, if you eat meat you’ll get sick,’ I said ‘Oh ya, well the Bible says I could say grace,’ so I said grace and had a couple of hot dogs and a ham sandwich, I felt great, there was no problem at all, you know, I wasn’t under the law anymore, so I became a carnivore again, it was wonderful. But my mom saw that didn’t change. The first thing, they were very offended… ‘you guys, all you do is this Jesus thing and you’re going to heaven, and we’re not going to heaven?’ you know, it was very offensive, ‘It’s easy for you and your weirdo friends, you were this, you were that, you were with those flying saucers, you were in the astroplains, you were dropping LSD, now it’s Jesus, what is it going to be next week?’ But my mom told me years later, she said “I saw the change, and after you started with the Jesus stuff, it never went away. And we watched, and we were amazed,” and she came, my mom got saved, my dad got saved, my sister, all my kids, my grandkids. You better not mess with my grandkids is all I gotta say, because there’s still enough Rambo in me, I can take care of things. Pray for me, there’s parts of me that still need to get saved. Isn’t it great to be saved by grace, isn’t it great to know that Jesus paid for our sins on the cross? Isn’t it great to have the guilt of our sin removed? But some Christians struggle, really need to deal with that. And let me speak to you this evening, just very quickly, we’re overtime by three minutes, that’s not bad. Let me make my next closing point. If you have been a prodigal, if you’ve been away, listen, sometimes it’s hard for you to believe, because you’ve sinned against Light, that his forgiveness and his love is as effective, as powerful as it was the first moment you overcame, and it is, and it is. Because for any prodigal that comes genuinely, the Father, Jesus says, comes running to throw his arms around them, weeping, to embrace, and he puts the ring of the heir back on the finger, and he puts a fresh garment, a rope of righteousness, and he invites him back to the feast again. I’m rejoicing this evening in the fact that my sins are paid for, once and for all, and that God works in my life not because of me but in spite of me, it’s a wonderful thing. If you’ve been away, and you’re struggling, you need to believe that his power is unlimited, there is no Red Sea that he can’t part, there’s no giant that he can’t slay, there is no prodigal that he can’t receive afresh. And it says if we’re faithful and confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse. Amen? Let’s stand, let’s pray, we’ll sing one last song…[transcript of a sermon on Acts 10:25-48, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]