Jews and Gentiles Saved by Faith. Acts 10:9-43
Sometimes we just don’t grasp
how remarkable this is because we are coming at it from the situation as it
existed in the first century where the church up to this point has been
primarily Jewish, and if you were Jewish you were somewhat secluded. You were
separated from the Gentile culture and society around you. You could have
Gentiles under certain circumstances have Gentiles in your home as guests but
you could not go to the home of a Gentile. There was a very strict observance
of this separation between the Jewish community and the Gentile community, and
the grace of God was for the Jews, not really for the Gentiles even though a
Gentile could come into the synagogue as a God-fearer, like Cornelius. Early
Judaism, after the fall of the temple in the first century and in the first two
or three centuries preceding Christ, was a religion that reached out and sought
to bring in converts. It was involved in missionary activity, not in the same
way that the church is or to the degree and intensity of the church, but it was
nevertheless a part of Judaism. This is why they had three or four different
levels of converts, because they were seeking converts to Judaism. This was
part of the Abrahamic covenant, that the Jews understood that the promise of
God to Abraham was that they should be a blessing to all peoples. They
understood that within the Old Testament context of bringing people into the
Jewish fold, as it were.
So when we look at this chapter
we have to put ourselves in the place of the first century apostles and first
century Christians, who even though they had some sort of theoretical
understanding of reaching out to Gentiles that Christ had died for all,
including Gentiles, it was still very strange for them. Even though Peter goes
through these events in Acts chapter ten it is not long before the events in
Galatians chapter one occur when he goes to Antioch and instead of going to
dinner with the Gentiles and eating, for example, lobster and fried catfish for
dinner he isolated himself and only ate with the Jews and stayed among the
Jews. He sort of fell back into his former manner of life. It was the habit
pattern and it was difficult for them to break. It was cultural and habitual, it
wasn’t just a matter of a spiritual issue, and so they were having to learn
this transition. What occurs here in Acts chapter ten is revolutionary from
their perspective.
We look at the description of
what takes place in chapter ten as God coordinates Hs revelation to Cornelius
and to Peter. Here is a principle that is so important to understand. When God
revealed anything in private in the Scriptures, to a prophet or anyone else,
there is always external objective confirmatory evidence. You never have people
saying “God appeared to me” and you just take their word for it. There is
confirmation of it, a validation of the claim. There are qualifications given
in the Old Testament for anyone who claimed to speak for God or who claimed to
be a prophet. All of his predictions had to be one hundred per cent true. If it
was not one hundred per cent true they faced the death penalty because they had
misrepresented God and that would mislead people away from the truth. The
visitations, whether they were a theophany where God appears to speak to an
individual or whether it was a Christophany such as when Christ appeared to
Paul in Acts chapter nine, or whether it was a dream or a vision, there is an
objective aspect to it in that what is revealed can be validated or verified.
Here we have a situation
where Cornelius has a very specifically described vision in terms of its time
and the circumstances during the ninth hour, which is about the time of prayer,
an angels calls to him and informs him that his prayers had been heard, and
instructs him to send a delegation down to Joppa to find Simon Peter. Simon
would then come back and they were to bring him back to Caesarea. That happened late in the afternoon and so they probably didn’t leave
until the next day, and it would have taken most of that day to travel down to Caesarea. Acts 10:9
NASB “On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the
city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.” Peter’s
vision was timed to fit with the arrival of this delegation from the north. The
sixth hour is about noon and he is getting hungry. He falls
into a trance. This is the Greek noun ekstasis
[e)kstasij]
from which we get our English word ecstasy. It is not describing the sort of
outer-body experience that is had in some kinds of meditation techniques;
neither is it describing the kind of ecstatic experience that the mystic
religions would induce by various artificial means. The pagan and human
viewpoint thought is not the same kind of thing that happens when God reveals
Himself in Scripture. Throughout Scripture we see that the way God does things
is always different from the way the world’s religions do things. So this is a
term for simply having a vision, as opposed to a dream, because Peter would be
wide awake and conscious during this part of the day.
The text makes the point that while he is
in the state of advanced hunger God lowers the sheet and there are all manner
of beasts in it, and God addresses him. Acts 10:13 NASB “A voice came to
him, ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat!’” the word for “kill” is thuo [quw] which is more frequently used in terms
of making a sacrificial slaughter. It is not typically a word simply for
butchering an animal to eat, so there is a certain ceremonial overtone to the
word that God uses here. It reinforces the fact that many of the beasts and
animals and birds that are on the table cloth are identified as unclean in the
Old Testament. And yet the word that God is using is a word that implies making
a sacrifice; and yet, you would never sacrifice an unclean animal in the Old
Testament. So God is making a point of the fact that what is going on here is a
major shift in what God requires of His people. Under the Mosaic Law there was
a specific dietary requirement.
We frequently run into people today who
are on various forms of diet and there is always someone who comes along every
few years and they have a biblically-based diet. They try to argue that the
diet that is there in the Mosaic Law is the healthiest of all diets and that if
we would only follow that diet then we would live longer, be healthier, and all
of these other things. What they are assuming is that the diet that is there is
given for health reasons. There may have been a health benefit or secondary
consequence to the diet but physical health benefit had nothing whatsoever to
do with that diet. The reason that we know that is because when we get to Acts chapter ten here God declares
all of these animals to be clean and nothing has happened agriculturally, biologically,
ontologically, genetically or culinarily to change anything. They have not
suddenly learned to cook pork so that the meat is well done to kill off any
bacteria. It is a decree from God that it is now clean. Why? Because there was
the lesson that was taught in the Old Testament through the diet to teach that
sin impacted everything, and some animals are associated in some way with the
curse, with death, so that animals were scavengers, unclean. That was the
penalty for sin, so you didn’t eat catfish, lobsters and shrimp because they
feed off of carrion and what was on the bottom of the ocean, off the
consequence of the penalty of sin. So there was to be this separation from sin
and anything that has been touched or affected by sin. This is why a woman
after she gave birth, certainly not an immoral act, was considered ceremonially
unclean for a specific period of time. It had nothing to do with the fact that
it was unhealthy or any other factor, it was simply that part of the curse of
Genesis 3 was that a woman would experience increased pain and suffering in
childbirth. So the act of childbirth has been impacted by the judgment of sin
in Genesis 3 and people need to have a little visual aid to remind them of
these things. The diet was the same thing. The animals considered to be unclean
were unclean because in some way something about them, their eating habits,
whatever it might be, were somehow affected related to the impact of sin.
So Peter as an observant Jew, although he
is beginning to wake up to grace in the sense of realisation of the
dispensational distinctives—that the law is no longer in effect because he is
living with Simon the tanner, a man who would be unclean every day until sunset
because of his work. He is somewhat prepared for this but it still comes as a
surprise and a bit of a shock. We don’t always capture things right away when
we learn them or are exposed to correct ideas, and it doesn’t mean we are slow
or dense, it just means we are human and we have to assess what we are learning
and integrate it with what we have already learned and what is in our
background. Peter is told to rise, kill and eat. Acts 10:14 NASB “But Peter said,
‘By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.’” The
word “unholy” there is the Greek noun koinos
[koinoj]
in the accusative singular feminine here, and it means that which is common,
not in the pejorative sense but in what is just an every-day, ordinary contrast
to that which was set apart to the service of God. That which was set apart to
the service of God is distinguished from that which was common or for every-day
use. This was true of eating utensils in the home, it was true of all of the
utensils that were used in the tabernacle or the temple; they were sanctified,
set apart to the service of God. This is why the land of Israel is
called the holy land. Holy doesn’t mean pure; holy means set apart. And that is
the only piece of real estate in the world that God has set apart for His use,
for His people, and Israel
will belong to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for all eternity.
That is why it is called the holy land. It is a special land because Gods has
decreed that it is to be set apart for the Jewish people, for a temple, and for
a place where in the future once again all worship will be restored to Israel.
All the nations will come to the millennial temple and worship there. That is
not true today. Jesus made that clear to the woman at the well in John chapter
four that there would be this period when people would not focus on one spot as
the center of worship. We also know that there is a clear indication in
Scripture that that is for a temporary period when the church is here during
the church age, the present age.
Peter is struggling with this concept of
what is profane versus what is holy and set apart to God and cleansed as
opposed to unclean. God instructs him three times to eat, and then we are not
told that he ate, we are told that the table cloth with all of these animals
ascends to heaven. Peter is left there to contemplate and think about what he
has just seen. The third scene in this episode is describing the arrival now of
the delegation that Cornelius sent. Acts 10:17 NASB “Now while Peter
was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be,
behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for
Simon’s house, appeared at the gate; [18] and calling out, they were asking
whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. [19] While Peter was
reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Behold, three men are
looking for you.’” The point has been made that whenever God does something in
private He always has confirmatory evidence. There was the original vision of
Cornelius up in Caesarea
to send these men down to Joppa. When they arrive God gives a corollary vision
to Peter, telling Peter that these men are going to arrive and they want Peter
to go with them. So there is confirmatory evidence on both sides. How the
Spirit told him we don’t know. Was is audible? Was it just inside of his head?
We don’t know. [20] “But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without
misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.”
Acts 10:21 NASB “Peter went down
to the men and said, ‘Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the
reason for which you have come?’ [22] They said,
‘Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous …” Here he uses the term dikaios [dikaioj] which is the same term as for
righteous or righteousness in Romans, but here it doesn’t mean righteous in a
divine sense, in a sense of imputed righteousness, because that would indicate
that he was already saved. He is just in that he is living his life as much as
possible in accordance with the stipulations of Judaism, a just life in
relative human justice, and he fears God. Remember, fearing God is the
beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:4). Fear of the is a term that does not
necessarily mean that a person is a believer yet. It expresses though and
identifies his positive volition. Positive volition is a term that is used to
describe the unbeliever’s (it can describe the believer too) desire to know
God, to know more about God. And because the unbeliever through general
revelation, through his conscience, has come to understand that there is
something greater than himself, he wants to know more about that. So God will
give him more revelation, and this is what has happened with Cornelius. God is
in the process of giving Cornelius that increased revelation so that he can
come to the knowledge of the truth as he so desires. “… and God-fearing man
well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews …” He is well respected. He
takes that which he has made and uses that to aid the poor among the Jews and
he has a great reputation. “… was {divinely} directed by a holy angel to send
for you {to come} to his house and hear a message from you.”
Acts 10:23 NASB “So he invited
them in and gave them lodging [overnight]. And on the next day he got up and
went away with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him.”
So he has this group of observant Jews who are really curious at this point
because they are getting ready to go to the home of a Gentile, which they have
never done. They have never been inside of a Gentile’s home because that has
been completely prohibited in the past. [24] “On the
following day he entered Caesarea.
Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and
close friends.” Remember that we read in verse 2 that Cornelius was “a devout
man and one who feared God with all his household.” So he brings all of his
family together and all of his servants in order to hear what Peter has to say.
Acts 10:25 NASB “When Peter
entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped {him.}” What
Cornelius is doing isn’t an act of worship per se. This was a typical way in
which a Roman would prostate himself before someone of great respect. It was
not necessarily an act of worship towards God. The word for worship simply
means to bow the knee or to bend down. [26] “But Peter raised him up, saying,
‘Stand up; I too am {just} a man.’” This is a great verse to go to in terms of
those who wish to affirm that those who have descended from Peter are the
vicars of Christ and are due special honour and respect—speaking of the popes
of the Roman Catholic Church who claim to have a direct lineage through
apostolic descent from Peter. But Peter shows tremendous humility here and does
not wish any kind of special distinction or honour.
Peter began to talk to him and everybody
is crowding around and wanting to hear what Peter and Cornelius are discussing.
One of the things that Peter points out is that it is completely out of line
and unlawful for a Jewish man to come into the house to enjoy the hospitality
of a Gentile. The term “foreigner” [NASB] is ethnoi [e)qnoi] is a term for Gentiles or
national ethnicities, and here it would be more clearly translated “not to go
into the home of someone who is a Gentile.” [28] “…and {yet} God has shown me
that I should not call any man unholy [common] or unclean.” He is using this is
a technical, ritual sense because the Mosaic Law had distinguished the Jews
from everybody else. The Jews were hagios,
set apart; they were not common. They were set apart to God while the Gentiles
were common in the sense that they were not set apart to God and had not been
placed in a unique or distinct relationship with God with a distinct covenant.
Only Israel
has a specific covenant with God.
Acts 10:29 NASB “That is why I
came without even raising any objection when I was sent for. So I ask for what
reason you have sent for me.” Notice he is completely oriented to God’s
authority, he follows God’s command. [30] “Cornelius said, “Four days ago to
this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour; and behold, a man
stood before me in shining garments, [31]
and he said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been
remembered before God.” He is describing his vision as the angel appeared to
him and how the angel instructed him to send a delegation to reach Peter.
Notice that verses 30-32 are pretty much
repetitive to what we find initially described in vv. 3-6. When Peter goes back
to the Gentiles in chapter eleven, vv. 1-16, he is describing in detail what
has already been covered in the last part of chapter ten. If we read through
this and read the story as it happens then we read the individuals involved in
it recount all the details of the story again. It is one of the most repetitive
sections in Scripture. We ought to ask the question: Why does God repeat
Himself so much in these two chapters? Because this is so foundational to the
transition from Israel
to the church and understanding the importance of this. We find no other event
in all of Scripture that has this degree of redundancy and repetitiveness. So
we should really pay attention because there must be a reason that God the Holy
Spirit wants us to realise how important this is.
Then we have the next scene. Acts 10:34 NASB “Opening his
mouth, Peter said: ‘I most certainly understand {now} that God is not one to
show partiality.” Literally he is saying God has no favourites among men. He is
not making a distinction in terms of salvation. There never was in the Old
Testament. There were a number of Gentiles who were saved in the Old Testament,
there qs not something special about Gentile salvation. Ruth, the Moabitess,
was a Gentile. Naaman, the Syrian General at the time of Elisha became a
believer, and the greatest example of God’s blessing to the Gentiles in the Old
Testament is when God sent Jonah to the Assyrians to warn them that while they
were so reprobate that there was always hope if there was spiritual change. Political
change is just window dressing. If there is no cultural change then it is just
a change of window dressing, from one cosmic viewpoint to another cosmic
viewpoint.
What we have here is just the continued
blessing to the Gentiles, but now it is on steroids; it really expands out to
the whole world. Acts 10:35 NASB “but in every
nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.”
This is a verse that has a problem for some people because they think that this
is stating that on the basis of works righteousness someone is accepted by God.
That ignores the context. The context is talking about a man with positive
volition. Cornelius was described as a just man, one who feared God and had a
good reputation. But he wasn’t saved yet. We know that because he hasn’t
believed. It is clear that by verse 43 Peter is saying that there is only one
way to have forgiveness of sins and that is believing in Jesus; not by works
righteousness. But those who fear God and are trying to live for God before
they are saved are expressing positive volition, and God will honour that and
bring someone to them who will explain the gospel. In Acts chapter eleven as
Peter is recounting this episode to the Jews back home, he said, v. 15: “And as
I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as {He did} upon us at
the beginning. [16] And I remembered the word of
the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized
with the Holy Spirit.’ [17] Therefore if
God gave to them the same gift as {He gave} to us also after believing in the
Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” What is the key
verb? They believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. So Peter is recounting the coming
of the Holy Spirit on Cornelius and his family and indicating that this comes
when they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So “believe” is still central to
salvation. Acts 10:35
isn’t talking about justification and regeneration. Peter is just saying that
in every generation God has brought the gospel to those who want to know about
him, those who are positive.
Acts 10:36 NASB “The word which He
sent to the sons of Israel,
preaching peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)— ” He is connecting
this back to Israel
and the prophecies related to the Messiah, but he doesn’t go into detail; he is
not talking to Jews. If we go back to when Peter was talking to the Jews in
Acts chapters two and three we see that he goes into more detail, he cites Old
Testament passages and talks about how Jesus fulfilled those prophecies
specifically. But now he is talking to Gentiles who don’t have the frame of
reference of Torah knowledge that a Jewish audience would have. So he just
summarises the information rather than quoting the verses and dealing with the
detail. [37] “you yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the
baptism which John proclaimed.” He assumes they know something
about the life of Jesus because this word has spread all over for one reason or
another during the previous six or seven years, but it has been about four or
five years since the crucifixion.
Acts 10:38 NASB “{You know of}
Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power,
and {how} He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the
devil, for God was with Him.” He doesn’t go into the specifics of
why which are given in the Gospels, that this was part of the prophesied
credentials for the Messiah that would give indication to the Jews as to who
the Messiah was. [39] “We [the apostles, Acts 1:8] are witnesses of all the
things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They
also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross.” Luke is
connecting this event back to that Acts 1:8 mandate. [40]
“God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible.” Notice
that Peter describes a lot of details here that aren’t necessary to believe to
be saved. The point is that he is describing everything related to Jesus and
His death, burial and resurrection, he is not giving just a narrow gospel
presentation. He talks about all the things historically that happened that
confirmed Jesus in terms of Hs person and His work, and that would include the
resurrection. He appeared to many people, but He didn’t appear to everybody;
God was selective in who Jesus would appear to. God chose those who would be
effective witnesses. [41] “not to all the people, but to witnesses who were
chosen beforehand by God, {that is,} to us who ate and drank with Him after He
arose from the dead.” This is saying that out of all the believers
Jesus only appeared to a select few, and those God selected were those who
would indeed carry their witness forward in terms of the Acts 1:8 mandate.
Acts 10:42 NASB “And He ordered
us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify [martureo] that this is the One who has been appointed by God
as Judge of the living and the dead.” John 5 tells us that the
Father is going to delegate to Him all judgment. [43]
“Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who
believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” That is the narrow gospel
presentation. At the instant a person believes—no invitation to walk the aisle,
invite Jesus into your life, etc. At that instant the people who are there
listening to him are saying in their minds, “This is true.” So instantly there
is a reaction. [44] “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy
Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. [45] All the
circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the
Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.” The Jews there who were
listening were just absolutely amazed that the same thing that had happened to
them at Pentecost is now happening in front of them and the Holy Spirit coming
upon these Gentiles. The word “pouring out” is also used in 1 Corinthians 12 to
describe the baptism by the Holy Spirit, so that connects these events. This is
the same as what happens to any person now at the instant they trust in Christ.
The reason there is a delayed reaction here with these Gentiles is because it
is a transition period and in Acts each member of different ethnic groups is
going to be brought into the body of Christ through the baptism by the Holy
Spirit in the presence of an apostle, showing the apostolic foundation and
unity of the church.
Acts 10:46 NASB “For they were
hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered” In 1
Corinthians 14 Paul says that the purpose for tongues is to be a sign of
judgment upon the Jews. This goes back to Isaiah chapter twenty-eight, talking about
the fact that a sign of judgment on Israel
would be that they would hear Gentile languages in the temple. Many people get
confused and think that the reason for tongues was for evangelism. It never
says that. It is not for evangelism here, they are already saved because of the
evangelistic message of Peter. It wasn’t for evangelism on the day of Pentecost
because there it says they simply described the miraculous works of God. There
are always people who say that would include the gospel. Well it is a generic
term. Every generic general phrase is going to include the gospel if you want
to push it like that, but that is inane! The only purpose the Scripture says
for tongues is a sign of judgment. Why? Let’s think biblically. God restricted His
work to Jews from Genesis chapter twelve on. That means God is giving His
revelation through the Jewish language, through the Jewish people, because they
are the people that He has determined to work with. But what happens when they
reject the Messiah? They are going to come under divine discipline. And so God
as a sign or warning of judgment is that they are going to start hearing the
message of God in a non-Jewish language. They are going to hear it in a Gentile
language. That is the sign that God is not working directly through them
anymore. That is the whole point. It is not what they said, it is that is was
said in a Gentile language. Because that is giving an indication that there is
a shift away from God’s focus on Israel
and blessing the world through the Jews. He is shifting to the church.
So the focus in all of these passages is
never on what they said. Both here and in Acts chapter two it uses the most
general phrase possible that they just praised God, they spoke of the wonderful
works of God. If the Holy Spirit wanted us to read that and say they were
witnessing He would have said that. He is very good at being precise when He
needs to be precise, but when He doesn’t want us to narrow the focus He uses
more generic terminology because this goes to the very purpose of tongues. Now
there are Gentiles speaking in tongues (Gentile languages), there are Jews
present; and so this astonishes them and within 48 hours this is going to be
travelling all over Israel.
God is giving this revelation through Gentiles, not Jews. Those who had a clue
as to what was going on would understand that this was a fulfilment of the
Isaiah 28 prophecy, that this was an indication of judgment.
Peter answers. Notice he doesn’t wait and
say to wait until everybody really got it clear. Acts 10:47 NASB “Surely
no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy
Spirit just as we {did,} can he?” Receiving the Holy Spirit was
just the result of something else—belief in Christ. Because they believed in
Christ they should be baptized immediately, and so they were. They are baptized
in the name of the Lord. The language goes right back to Matthew 28:19, 20. [48]
“And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they
asked him to stay on for a few days.” Then we see that Peter goes
back to Judea
in the next chapter and he has to explain himself when he gets back home.
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