It is Tuesday and in our reading of the New Testament in a Year, we come to Acts 10:1-23. It’s a fascinating story that forever will change the story of the spread of Christianity throughout the whole world. We’re reading the first part of it today and will finish it over the next two days, so take it slowly and comprehend all that is going on. Come back afterward and we’ll look at it again.
Peter has played a prominent part in the early story of the Church. Jesus (Matthew 16) had told Peter that he was going to build his Church on the confession of Christ as Lord and that Jesus would give the “keys of the Kingdom” to Peter, and the other Apostles - keys open doors, and the Kingdom doors were to be opened so that all may enter in.
To this point in the story of the early church, the Gospel had begun in Jerusalem, spread out into Judaea, and of recent been proclaimed in Samaria. Peter had borne witness to the Gospel in Samaria but only came to confirm it after the Gospel was received through the preaching of Philip (Acts8). The church began as a segment of Judaism and to this point was still mainly dominated by converted Jews. The last ethnic, racial, and cultural barrier was the distance between Jews and Gentiles. God began to work to tear that barrier down with two individuals - a Roman Soldier, a Captain, named Cornelius, and the Apostle Peter.
Cornelius is introduced as a Centurion, a Roman soldier who commanded a group of 100 men. He was stationed in Caesarea, a port city built by King Herod in honor of Caesar Augustus, which is about 32 miles north of Joppa, where Peter is staying with a tanner, also named Simon. Cornelius, according to Luke, was “devout and God-fearing”. Most Romans were pagans, with multiple deities they usually paid no attention to unless something in life went wrong. They had little or no knowledge of God that had revealed himself to the Jews, and of Jesus Christ, born a Jew. Cornelius was an exception. God had drawn him to himself and one day at the Jewish prayer time of three in the afternoon, God sent an angel to him to speak his name, “Cornelius”. We love the idea of an angel, but Cornelius’ response is the typical response of all human beings in Scripture who see angels, “Cornelius stared in fear” (vs. 4, the ESV translates the word as “terror”). The angel acted as a commanding officer telling Cornelius that he wanted him to send his men to Joppa and fetch one named Simon, staying with a tanner named Simon, by the sea. No question of what was being asked, and no question of who he was to find, and no question of where to find him. God gave Cornelius everything he needed to know to complete his task. God does not reveal to him “why” he is to do this, except to tell him that he has observed Cornelius’ faith, his acts of serving, and his prayers - all of which give Cornelius some idea that this indeed is God who is commanding him through the Angelic vision. Like a good soldier, Cornelius obeys. He immediately called in both servants and a trusted soldier, and after telling them what had just occurred, he sent them to Joppa on a mission to find Peter.
The distance is about a day’s plus journey if walking. Luke shifts the focus to Joppa, where it is around noon the next day. We deduce that Cornelius had his three men on horses and they had ridden the better part of the night in order to arrive in less than 24 hours. Peter is relaxed in his seaside getaway. Two mighty miracles had just been done that opened the door of the Gospel in the western part of Israel even more than before. He was the talk of the town after the raising of Dorcas (Tabitha) from death. It was not an unusual thing to see Roman soldiers in Jewish towns, but not a welcome thing either. It is hard for us to get our heads around the cultural distance that existed between Jews and their Roman overseers. The Jews hated the Romans, and in general, the Romans despised the Jews. The Romans in Israel were predominantly soldiers, tasked with the job of keeping order over their conquered territory; and the Jews saw the Romans as oppressors and prayed they would someday be gone, and sought ways to obstruct their rule over them.
The barrier was not just political, or military, but also one of religion, faith, and belief. Romans were polytheistic, believing in multiple gods - gods of nature, gods of weather, gods of the land, and gods of the sea. They had gods for sex, gods for health, gods for prosperity, and gods for their power. The Jews saw their “gods” as nothing more than idolatrous substitutes - no gods - just man-made so-called deities. Jews knew the one “true God” - Yahweh - who revealed himself to Abraham, Moses, King David, the Prophets. The early Christians in the Church knew that God had sent his Son, Jesus into the world and that in Jesus’ death, a perfect sacrifice for Sin had been made and now all who put their faith in Christ could be saved. They knew from their study of the Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, and that faith in Christ had opened the door for the coming of the Holy Spirit. They lived, worshiped, and grew in their faith - but as Jewish Christians. Those early Christians still had their Jewish roots, and in spite of the truth of the Gospel, they still resisted anything not Jewish - including being among Gentiles.
That day, at noon, Peter came to the rooftop to pray. The Mediterranean Sea is to his west, but Peter is on his knees facing the east, towards Jerusalem, lost in prayerful thoughts of God and of Jesus who commissioned him and is ascended to the Father’s right hand. We don’t know what he is praying for certain, but Jesus had taught him to pray: “Father, you are in heaven, and your name is holy. Lord, please may your Kingdom come, may your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven...”.
Who knows that he did not get to this point when all of a sudden the heavens are opened before him. Peter is caught up in another space and time, seeing what is unseeable to all others. He sees a sheet lowered from the sky and inside of it are all sorts of animals, reptiles, birds, and then as he hears a voice speak: “Peter, rise up, kill and eat”. The words that follow from Peter don’t make sense on the one hand and make perfect sense on the other hand - “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” Peter is a practicing Jew when it comes to Old Testament laws on what is permissible to eat and what is not. He says, “Absolutely NO...LORD”. Can we say “NO” and “LORD” together? He did.
Peter is reacting as if this was a test, and so he leans back on what he believes to be the truth - “These things are never to be eaten - God you commanded that”. The voice again speaks: “Do not call anything unclean, or impure, that God has called clean.” The voice speaks those words three times - then silence, the sheet of animals, birds, reptiles disappear - and once again Peter is all alone on the roof.
It is Noon...and God began this event, 21 hours before in Cornelius prayer time... Then God spoke to Cornelius, now he’s speaking to Peter. God gave Cornelius specific instructions to find Peter, and all night his servants and soldiers have been riding to find Peter... ”he’ll be at a tanner’s house, a tanner named Simon”. It doesn’t take long after riding into Joppa that they make an inquiry and discover where Simon the Tanner lives.
On the roof, Peter is caught up in a God-interrupted vision, and God has told him that when something is called clean by him, do not call it unclean. It’s a little after Noon when the three emissaries of Cornelius ride up to Simon, the tanner’s house, and ask if Simon Peter is there. Simon Peter is up on the roof...thinking, praying, wondering what just happened and what it all means?
The Holy Spirit interrupts his thoughts and speaking in specifics, says to Peter, “there are three men downstairs looking for you...go with them...I have sent for them.” As Peter heads down the stairs I’m sure his mind is a whirlwind of thoughts - “what is it that is going on here, Lord? Why are three men looking for me? Why do you want me to go along with them?”
As he walks through the doorway, there in the courtyard stands three Gentiles...a Roman soldier and two household servants.
"Gentiles... Gentiles..."...his thoughts intersect with the words he heard: “don’t call unclean what I have called clean...”. The words, vision, are still fresh in his mind and, at that moment...that singular moment of time...all of history in relation to the Church is about to change forever.
Peter asks them “why have you come?” The words begin to flow...Cornelius, a God-fearing man, an angel, a vision, go get Peter to bring him here so we could hear what he has to say... “Aahh”... Peter says, “come in, you are my guests”. One barrier has just fallen, the other is yet to come.
It seems so easy for us to read it all and forget how deep the gulf was between Jew and Gentiles. It is not God who created the distance. God had spoken to Abraham and told him that God would bless him, and his family after him, and all generations after them...they would be His people and through him and his people, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
The Jewish people that followed and hung on to that promise came to believe they were special, better than all of the rest of the nations...and of course, Old Testament history bore out the pagan nature of the rest of the nations. Still, God’s promise to Abraham, which was repeated by Moses, kept going through to King David, and his Son, Solomon in the construction of the Temple. It was further conveyed to and through the prophets who heard God say that God had a tent large enough to hold “all of the people of the earth”.
Yet the Jewish people had grown to despise the Gentile nations and instead of finding a tent door opened to them, they closed it...sealed hard and fast and refused to believe the Gentiles were worthy of God. It was a separation that was deep and wide. It had become hardened, to the point that any Jew keeping company with a Gentile was ostracized from the Synagogue and even His family.
Peter said, “come in, you are my guests”. Jesus is building HIS church, and everyone must adjust to who he invites in.
Peace
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