you you If you're able, please stand with me and let's hear the Word of God. It comes to us today from the Book of Acts, Chapter 10. This is the Word of God. Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, a devout man. and one who feared God with all his household and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. About the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, Cornelius, and fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, what is it, Lord? And he said to him, your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter. He is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea. When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants. And after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. 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. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat. But while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance. And he saw the sky opened up and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground. And there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him. Get up, Peter. Kill and eat. But Peter said, by no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean. Again, a voice came to him a second time. What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy. This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky. 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. And calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the spirit said to him, behold, three men are looking for you. But get up, go downstairs, and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them myself. 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? They said, Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man, well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you. So he invited them in and gave them lodging. And on the next day, he got up and went away with them. And some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied them. accompanied him. On the following day, he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter raised him up, saying, stand up. I, too, am just a man. As he talked with him, he entered and found many people assembled. And he said to them, You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him. And yet, God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean. That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent forth. So I ask for what reason you have sent for me." 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, and he said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms have been remembered before God. Therefore, send to Joppa and invite Simon, who is also called Peter, to come to you. He is staying at the house of Simon the Tanner by the sea. So I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. Now then, We're all here present before God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. Opening his mouth, Peter said, I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality. But in every nation, the man who fears him and does what is right is welcome to him. the word which he sent to the sons of israel preaching peace through jesus christ he is lord of all you yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all judea starting from galilee after the baptism which john proclaimed 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. We 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. God raised him up on the third day and granted that he become visible, 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. And he ordered us to preach to the people and solemnly to testify that this is the one who has been appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. of him all the prophets bear witness that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins." While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. 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. for they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit, just as we did, can he? And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days. Now the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, saying, you went to the uncircumcised men and ate with them. But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them an orderly sequence, saying, I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky, and it came right down to me, and when I had fixed my gaze on it and was observing it, I saw the four-footed animals of the earth, and the wild beasts, and the crawling creatures, and the birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, get up, Peter, kill and eat. But I said, by no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth. But a voice from heaven answered a second time, what God has cleansed no longer consider unholy. This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into the sky. And behold, at that moment, three men appeared at the house in which we were staying, having been sent to me from Caesarea. The Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. These six brethren also went with me, and we entered the man's house. And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here. And he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household. And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them. just as he did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how we used to say, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. 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? When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, well, then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. This is the word of the Lord. All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Amen. Paul gets the award for longest passage read this year. I'm glad he loves me. That's a long one to give him, but he does so well. Well, if you have your Bible, I would invite you to take it and turn with me to the 10th chapter of the book of Acts. Acts chapter 10. Let's have a word of prayer as we come to the Scripture today. Father, how grateful we are for your Word. Paul instructed Timothy that he should give himself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching. We pray, O God, as the Scripture has been read, that you would indeed instruct us, that you would, by your Spirit, exhort us to conform to what we find in the text. We ask, O God, your blessing on your word read and your word preached for the praise of Christ and the good of our souls. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, we continue today our look through several chapters in the book of Acts, considering this broad title of the restoration of Israel and the Gentile mission. We have, up to this particular point, only been dealing with the restoration of Israel. Today, we encounter the beginnings of the Gentile mission. Before we look in Acts chapter 10, I want to take you back to Acts chapter 9 for just a moment in verse 31. We have been in Acts chapter 1 and 2 seeing the day of Pentecost. the reestablishing of the 12 leaders of this new people of God. We've seen the Spirit of God poured out upon these believers in the last days according to the prophecy, the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy in Joel chapter 2, along with the prophecy of others such as Isaiah and Ezekiel. We've seen the Lord Jesus Christ as the reigning King of David, the Son of David, David's greater son, his greater Lord. installed on Zion, the holy hill, ruling from the heavenly Jerusalem over his people. We've seen these glorious realities of this restoration of this people. We've seen the gospel spread in that southern kingdom region of Judea. We've seen the gospel spread into Samaria, that region that in the Old Testament days was the picture of the northern kingdom that had been dispersed. And I want you to notice something in Acts chapter 9 in verse 31. It says, so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up and going on in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. It continued to increase. This putting together of Judea and Samaria in the Bible in such close proximity is unique to the author of the book of Acts, Luke. Judea and Samaria are referred to in such close proximity back in Acts chapter 1 in verse 8 where he says that you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth. We see this joining together of Judea and Samaria back over in chapter 8 in the first few verses where it speaks about Saul, who later becomes Paul, who is overseeing the death of Stephen. It says that on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. And we see here again the gospel going out from that original circle that Jesus points them to out into that next phase or the next circle of Samaria. And we see again Judea and Samaria kind of being used together. And then we find again here in chapter 9 in verse 31, we find Judea and Samaria grouped together along with Galilee, that region just to the north of Samaria around the Sea of Galilee. And notice we find as the gospel has spread throughout these various regions, as we've gone through that first phase and that second phase of restoring the southern and northern kingdoms back together, we find that they now enjoy peace. Don't move past that too quickly because If you were an Old Testament believer, if you were an Old Testament Jew, if you lived in the southern kingdom of Judea or the northern kingdom of Israel in the days of the Old Covenant after Rehoboam, after the time when the northern kings followed Jeroboam and the southern kings followed Rehoboam, you would not characterize the relationship between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom as a relationship of peace. It was anything but peace. It was constant animosity. I was describing this to my kids yesterday, or I guess it was the kids. Maybe I was talking to somebody else. I was talking about the days in America in the 19th century. If you lived in the North or lived in the South, you wouldn't talk about the relationship between the North and the South as a relationship of peace. Isn't it wonderful? We're living together in such peace. Let's have a war. That peace was not there. And in the days of Israel, in the days of the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel, there was no peace. I mean, occasionally, occasionally you'd get like, you know, the king of Assyria or whatever, pressing down upon the northern kingdom. And he'd make an appeal to the southern king or whatever and say, Hey, come join with me and let's get into battle here. And that was always kind of a bad idea that never really worked very well. Every now and then they would say something like, well, of course we're brothers, we'll fight together. But you know what brothers do? When I say fight together, I mean we'll join together and fight against an enemy. But you know our brothers do. They often fight together, like against each other, that kind of together. Peace was not the way to describe the relationship between Judea and Samaria, even when we come to the time of the New Testament. We mentioned last week the deep animosity that existed in the hearts of the Jews in the south with the Samaritans in the north. They had, as Jesus says in John chapter 4, they had no what? They had no dealings with Samaritans. But here we see in John chapter 9 verse 31, Judea, Galilee, Samaria enjoying peace. The church is being built up. they're going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit and it continues to increase. I read that because that's the picture of the relationship between Judea and Samaria and Galilee and the church in that region before we move into Acts chapter 10. There's peace, there's joy, there's comfort in the Holy Spirit, there's an increase, there's growth. I mean, in many ways, if we were to back up to chapter 8, verse 1, where this great persecution began against the church, one would think in Acts chapter 8, verse 1, everything's over. But in fact, by the time we get almost to the end of chapter 9, what have we seen? We've seen growth. We've seen the spread of the gospel. We've seen the unifying of the North and the South back together. But that's not enough, because Jesus said, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and what? To the uttermost part of the earth. Sometimes when we're reading the book of Acts, if we were asked the question, where is the Gentile mission in the book of Acts? Many of us would probably just respond with, well, that's Paul. That's what Paul did. He was the apostle to the Gentiles, right? He has the first and second and third and different missionary journeys where he brings the gospel all the way into Europe and ultimately he goes to Rome. But the Gentile mission does not begin in the book of Acts with the apostle Paul. The Gentile mission in the book of Acts begins with Peter. And that's just a little different way of thinking about the book of Acts. In fact, in chapter 9, in chapter 9, verse 32, it says, now as Peter was traveling through all those regions, he came down, et cetera. Chapter 9, verse 32, all the way through chapter 12, verse 19, these are the journeys of Peter. Right in the middle of his journeys is a long section, 66 verses. You just experienced it as Paul read it and thought, Oh man, you know, why did he have a stand today? We could have sat for that. Now let's stand. You know, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, they stood for like six hours and listened to the law being read. All right. So, you know, whenever you feel like complaining about a long time, just think about Ezra. Think about all those guys, six hours. And maybe it was raining, who knows, you know? Our little comfort American world we have. But 66 verses of Luke's attention are given to recounting this missionary journey of Peter. It's no insignificant amount of space. in a book of 28 chapters to give almost two chapters to this first movement of the gospel into Gentile territory. Well, being established in peace, the restored Israel is now poised for its mission to the nations. And this indeed has always been God's plan, to restore his people Israel and then through them to carry the light of the gospel to the nations of the world. We see this here initially in Acts chapter 10 and 11. Now, we've had the whole text read, and we are not going to go through the text verse by verse and line by line. But let me take your attention to the end of the section. I want you to turn, if you would, to Acts chapter 11, verses 17 through 18. Acts 11, 17. and 18. This is, we might say, the conclusion of the matter. You know that wonderful therefore? All right, we've said a lot of stuff, and now therefore, light of all the things that we've said, here's the conclusion. I want to use these two verses to kind of cover the whole of the 66 verses. Let's see if we can do that. I think in this small portion of the text, we have four thoughts that I think will help us pull together all the other sections that we've seen. And if you're taking some notes, there are, in the back of the bulletin, a little outline for you, and we'll talk about that in a moment. Let's just take our attention to verse 17. 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? When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, well then, God has granted the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. In this brief text, I find four things that I want to bring out about Israel's mission in the New Covenant to the Gentiles. We notice first, now if you're writing these four things down, you're going to kind of get them out of order, so you might look at the outline in the back because the way they appear in the text is in the order I'm going to give. but then we're going to rearrange them just a little bit, but I want you to see them coming from the text. Peter first concludes or makes a concluding statement about the provision of God. Therefore, if God gave to them the same gift he gave to us also after believing. Peter refers to a provision that God has made. He has granted something to Cornelius and to his household that he also had given to Peter and other believers. Therefore, if God gave to them the same gift as he gave to us also after believing, that is about the provision of God. The second thing we're going to note in here is something about the preaching of Christ. After believing what? After believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God's way? We see something here that the preaching of Christ, the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, is preaching of Christ that they might believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the third point I have that I see as the text is unfolding here, is something in regard to the preparation of the preacher. And I kind of gave it away when I read that last statement by Peter, when he asked the question, who was I that I could stand in God's way? Now, in fact, early in the narrative in Acts chapter 10, Peter is doing just that. He is standing in God's way. Remember when God says, rise, Peter, kill and eat? Peter says what? Of course. No. Peter says what? No. All right. Well, we're going to talk about that. Well, Peter needs some work done on him before he's ready to go on the mission. All right. So the provision of God, the preaching of Christ, the preparation of the preacher, and finally, and fourth, what I would call the praise of the church. When they heard this, they quieted down. They glorified God, saying, well, then God has granted the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. Now, what I'd like to do briefly is take these four things, and I want to rearrange them in the order that you have them on your note sheets there at the back of the bulletin. So I'm going to begin on your bulletin page 10, all right? Page 10. Because the first thing that I think is important that we note is the preparation of the preacher. And the reason I'm rearranging this is because this is the way the text begins if we go back to chapter 10. Chapter 10 verses 1 to 33 address the issue of the preparation of the preacher. Peter has to get out of the way. This is not the first time that we've seen Peter kind of, you know, opening mouth inserting foot, right? Peter has a way of doing this all the time. Well, Peter is a Jew. Peter may have, at this particular point in time, as the others in the church seem to have done, he has overcome the problem with the Samaritans. Think back to chapter 8. Remember chapter 8 in verse 14, the apostles, they hear in Jerusalem that Samaria has received the word of God, and they send who? They send Peter, and they send John. And there's no problem with this. This is just fine. They seem to overcome the obstacle between Jew and Samaritan with relative ease. It's not a huge problem. But the disconnect between the Jew and the Gentile, this is a higher hurdle to jump. In fact, in Acts chapter 10 and 11, when Peter does seem to initially overcome the problem, we find Peter later on, don't we? In the book of galatians in galatians chapter 2 peter says there was a time when when or paul says there was a time when peter came to antioch or peter was an antioch eating with the the believers and men from jerusalem from the circumcision party come up And what does peter do when he's sitting there eating with the gentiles? peter squirms peter gets up peter moves So Peter still hasn't quite overcome all of his problems with the idea of Gentiles being included within the people of God. But here, initially, Peter has to have some issues addressed. He has to have some things overcome. This happens through a series of events, namely, a vision that he is given. A vision he has given of a sheep falling down out of the heavens, containing various animals that would have been unclean for a Jewish man to eat. You can go back into Leviticus and Deuteronomy and see these various regulations that a Jew would have had to eat certain things and only certain things, and he couldn't eat these other things. And when this sheep comes down out of heaven, and there are four-footed animals, there are crawling creatures of the earth, birds of the air, Peter says, hmm, I don't think so. But God tells him what? Get up, Peter, kill, and eat. And Peter says, by no means. You almost hear Paul there, can't you? All right, I don't know if it's Megenotah, the text that Paul often brings out when he says by no means. But here he says, by no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy or unclean. Again, a voice came to him a second time. But God is cleansed, no longer consider unholy. And this happens three times. Peter seems to be one of those kind of guys that needs at least three knocks on the head to get his attention, all right? You know, he denies Jesus three times, has to be kind of reinstalled three times with feed my sheep. And here again, it takes Peter three times to get the point. Well, Peter eventually does get the point and he is called to Cornelius's house and he obediently goes. Now, it may seem at first glance when we read in verse 28 that this is a rather rude way to go into somebody's house. You understand and know it's against the law for me to be here. I'm not really supposed to be here. You're not the kind of people I'm supposed to associate with. Well, he's not trying to be rude in verse 28. He said to them, you yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him. He's not trying to be rude. He's simply trying to be matter of fact. He's trying to be clear. He's trying to let them know, look, I am here by no small amount of preparation by God. God has done what? Look what he says in verse 28. God has shown me. that I should not call any man unholy or unclean." Peter somehow, in the midst of all this, he's made the connection between the sheet and the animals, and he's made the connection between the lesson that he needs to learn and the people that he's supposed to go and see. This is why I came. He says, without raising any objection when I was sent for, so I ask for what reason you have sent for me. Now you might hear that and go, That doesn't sound quite honest, Peter. I mean, because you did some pretty bold objecting earlier. No, he says, I didn't object when I was sent for. Because by the time the men got to the house and knocked on the door, God had already knocked on his head, I suppose. God had already convinced him that he was supposed to go. When they go, don't raise any kind of an objection. Go with them. So we see here that Peter, And in some sense, Peter is somewhat representative of the church as a whole. Peter has to learn something new. Peter has to learn a new way to relate to the Gentile. Peter has to see that God is not a God who is partial. God is not a God who takes sides, if you will. God is not one, he says in verse 34, to show partiality. This is something about the preparation of the preacher. Let me mention something about the preaching, the preaching of Peter, the preaching of Christ in verses 34 through 43. This is a Perhaps it's a summation by Luke. We don't know exactly how long the sermon was. But even if it's an exact replication of the sermon, the sermon seems to have all the essential characteristics that it needs to have to be a gospel sermon that proclaims the Lord Jesus Christ and his death and his resurrection. It proclaims his lordship. It proclaims his life. It proclaims his death. Proclaims his resurrection. Proclaims that he is the one appointed by God to judge the living and the dead. It proclaims that he is the one that all the prophets pointed to, that men were to believe in. The preaching of Christ, and we're going to come back to this in just a moment when we make some points of application, the preaching of Christ in Acts chapter 10 is very similar to the preaching of Christ in Acts chapter 2, which is a much longer sermon by Peter, but it seems to have all those essential elements of the proclamation of the gospel. So we move from the preparation of the preacher and the preaching of Christ to the provision of God. Notice in chapter 10 in verse 44. Verses 44 to 48, I give the picture of what is happening by God. When Peter is preaching, when Peter is speaking, the Holy Spirit does what? The Holy Spirit falls upon the hearers. falls upon these new believers. It's like a little Pentecost for the Gentiles. And what's interesting about that is you have this Pentecost moment in Acts chapter 2, but you have another Pentecost-type moment in Acts chapter 8, when the Spirit of God falls upon the Samaritans. And here we have a Pentecost-type moment again in Acts chapter 10, when the gospel goes to the Gentiles. Luke wants to highlight here that this is the work of God. The Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. Again, this emphasis on what God has done. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues exalting God. Peter said, surely no one can refuse water for these to be baptized who have received. Another kind of an expression that points to what they've obtained from God. They received the Holy Spirit just as we have as well, and he orders them to be baptized. So here we have the provision of God. Lastly, we have what I would call the praise of the church. Now the praise of the church doesn't come to the end of this section in chapter 18 or chapter 11 in verse 18. It's prefaced by Peter kind of rehearsing again what's happened. He tells the story, it's a little briefer this time, but he tells again the story of what's happened, how he saw this vision, how Cornelius calls him, he goes to Cornelius' house, and while I'm speaking, the Spirit of God falls upon the church. Now, I hurriedly ran through that, all right? And there's a reason, because what I want us to do is I want us to see something about these four aspects of this gospel advance, if you will, into the Gentile realm. Looking at the preparation of the preacher, the preaching of Christ, the provision of God, and the praise of the church. I want us to see these almost two chapters not just as a historical event, I mean it happened, it is a historical event, but this is a historical event with abiding significance for the church in every age. We're crossing now from that idea of the restoration of Israel, the southern and northern kingdoms, Judea and Samaria, into this idea, this realm, if you will, of the Gentile mission that is really going to occupy the remainder of the Book of Acts. And it continues to occupy the Church's attention even today in this age. Preachers need to be prepared. Christ must be preached, God must continue to provide, and the church must continue to praise. I want you to think about these four things as it relates to the church and her ministry today. The first two of these deal more with the preacher and the second more with the church, but in all, they all do address the church as well. First, the preacher of the gospel must ever guard against the likely possibility that he himself may be a hindrance to God in the communication of the gospel of truth. Let me say that again. These are each rather kind of wordy statements, and I just want to make sure you at least hear them. You don't have to write them down, but just kind of listen with me. The preacher of the gospel must ever guard against the likely possibility that he himself may be a hindrance to God in the communication of the truth. This is exactly what Peter was addressing or confessing, we might say, here in Acts chapter 10 and Acts chapter 11. Peter says, when he objects to God, by no means, Lord, I've never eaten anything unholy or unclean. Peter is addressed back in Matthew chapter 16 for the idea of being a hindrance. And I want you to look there, if you will, turn to Matthew chapter 16 for a moment. Matthew 16. Matthew 16 verse 21 Now we all remember peter and his wonderful statements that he has made earlier in matthew chapter 16 Uh where he confesses that jesus is the christ the son of the living god jesus says in johns matthew 16 17 blessed are you simon barjona because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my father who is in heaven I also say to you that you're Peter upon this rock. I'll build my church." It's a glorious statement about Peter. People love to focus on that particular aspect of Peter's confession. But in verse 21, this great Peter, this Peter who makes this amazing statement earlier, has these wonderful promises made to him. In verse 21, Peter begins to blow it. From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, God forbid it, Lord. This shall never happen to you. But he, Jesus, turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's." Just let that sink in for just a moment. Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, looks at Peter and says, you are a stumbling block to me. We can quickly kind of move past that. And we can say, oh, God has his way. God is sovereign. God rules. All God's will will be completed. God will accomplish all of his holy purposes. God works out all things after the counsel of his will. All these things are true. But on a human level, just looking at things on this horizontal plane, Peter is addressed as a what? He's addressed as a stumbling block and a hindrance to the lord jesus christ to complicate a mission To go to jerusalem and to die and to be buried and be raised again Now obviously peter doesn't accomplish his plan and peter is stopped short and jesus reproves him And the rebuke that peter gave to jesus, you know when it comes to jesus's rebuke of peter Jesus's review computer obviously wins that would be like the trump card if you're like a dominoes player All right, you know somebody plays that that great double six down But you know, it doesn't matter because somebody else has trumps and they just take you out You really have to assess your audience when you preach and i'm thinking right now. There are zero domino players in our congregation domino players ever Oh It might be the bingo hall i'm not sure but uh Oh, that's the Catholic church. All right. Well, so you get the idea. Maybe spades. Maybe that's what we should talk about. Kids play spades sometimes. But here on a human level, on a human level, Peter is assessed as being a hindrance, a stumbling block. Notice what it says back again in Acts chapter 11. Peter finally did come to realize who was I in verse 17, that I could stand in God's way. There is an implicit confession here that Peter is saying, I thought I could. I thought I could stand in God's way. Peter has this problem with pride, doesn't he? Peter has this problem with thinking far too highly of himself. And I am a preacher. And I know many preachers, and pride is a problem with preachers. And we must be ever cautious. We must be ever cautious and guard against the likely possibility that we might ever seek to be a hindrance in the communication of the truth of God to his people, because we think sometimes we just know better. This is something that preacher and church must ever guard against. Peter needed to remember God's impartiality. God does not judge on the basis of what men judge other people on. God doesn't judge on the basis of economics, or race, or gender, or culture, social status. But we judge on all those things, don't we? God does not see what as man sees. Remember, remember Samuel. when he goes to Jesse, and he's got to pick the new king. It wasn't just a problem with Samuel. It was a problem with Jesse, too. And it was also a problem with his brothers. They all had pride. They all judged on the basis of externals. Samuel said, do you have some sons? Yes, here are my sons, my strapping boys. And the strapping boys line up, and the strapping boys, you know, they line up with one another. None of them sits there and says, but dad, what about Davey? None of them say that. Why? Because none of them think David should be considered either. And Jesse doesn't say to Samuel, oh, wait, we got to get the other kid. Why? Because he doesn't think Samuel would be interested in David either. And after God makes clear all six of those boys are not the boy, Samuel knows it's supposed to be the son of Jesse. So he says, do you have another boy? Somewhere. Can you imagine the disappointment on all the other boys' faces? It's like the 11 sons of Jacob, you know, Joseph. Peter has to remember God's impartiality. Every preacher must remember that God is impartial with the gospel of grace. It's not based upon any kind of human estimation. Peter needs to remember God's generosity. God hasn't just been generous with Peter, and he hasn't been generous with Peter because Peter was Peter. He was generous with Peter in spite of Peter. He forgot. He forgot the age-old declarations of the prophets. It was not because you were more righteous than any other nation in Israel that I chose you, but to make a name for myself. Ezekiel 16 says when I found you I found you like an abandoned baby with an umbilical cord not even cut still in your blood and I said to you live a Preacher needs to remember God's impartiality and God's generosity. He needs to remember God's forbearance. I God has been forbearing and patient with the nations of the world. But now, Genesis 17, Acts 17, Paul at the Areopagus, he says to what? Now he commands all men everywhere to what? To repent. God is forbearing, so must the preacher be. And God is gracious. And Peter forgot. You know, we might say poor Peter. We might feel bad for Peter. We can understand Peter. He forgot. He forgot about the grace of God. You know, it's so amazing, is it not, that you can be lavish with the grace of God yourself and forget to give the grace of God to someone else. You can just forget. A preacher can't forget. The preacher of the gospel must ever guard against the likely possibility that he himself may be a hindrance to God in the communication of his truth." In other words, the preacher needs to be what? Prepared. He needs to be worked on. I take comfort from Peter blowing it when I blow it, but I take more comfort from the fact that my God is generous and gracious and forbearing with me when I blow it. There's a second thing here that we need to remember in every age, not just that the preacher has to be prepared. It is that in the preaching of Christ, men must labor tirelessly to keep the main things the main thing and promote its freeness to all who hear. Peter reminds us in his sermons, and the sermons of Peter are good sermons to study. Acts chapter 2, you can look at Acts 4 or whatever, you know, Peter goes in and talks, I think that's before the Sanhedrin, but then maybe that's 5, I think it's 4. But here again, in Acts chapter 11 or 10, we see this wonderful sermon by Peter. And in it, every time we see Peter preaching, every time we see Paul preaching, Every time we see the apostles opening their mouths and declaring Christ, they are so clear. They keep the main things of Christ, the main things. Peter or Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, I delivered to you as of first importance that Christ died according to the scriptures and that he was buried, that Christ was raised according to the scriptures and that he appeared. Those two great central truths to the gospel the death and the resurrection of christ Now when paul says in first corinthians 15 verse 3 that I delivered to you as of first importance He's not speaking in terms of chronology He's speaking in terms of principles or first things or first principles. This is the, this is what's the most important. It's not that Paul never talked about anything else. You know, every sermon was two points in a poem. You know, he wasn't a Baptist, so I don't guess he wasn't a Baptist. Baptists are three points in a poem. I have four points. I don't know what that says about me today, but it wasn't that every sermon just had two points. Okay. Your point one, Jesus died. Point two, Jesus was raised and now we'll go home. It's not just that's all they ever said. But when you could sum up the message of what this man preached about, it was a message that focused on those essential matters of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's just make our way through the sermon. Look what happens here in Acts chapter 10. Peter preaches Christ. And what does he preach about Christ? Notice in verse 38. 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. We are witnesses of all these things he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. We might sum this up and say that Peter preached a faithful representation of the active obedience of Christ. He is one who went about doing good. Whenever you saw Jesus, he was just doing good. He was healing people. He was caring for people. He was teaching people. He was being faithful to the Father, obeying the Father at every point, always keeping the law. From the very beginning of his initiation into his public ministry, when he told John, it is necessary for us to do this, that we might fulfill all righteousness, to the last moment on his cross, when he said, into thy hands I commit my spirit, Jesus always was doing good. Jesus was always doing righteousness. Why? For him? He could have done that in heaven. He could have done that with the Father. He could have done that and never left the Father's side. But he comes into this world and humbles himself and becomes obedient. Why? For you. For me. We speak of it as the active obedience of Christ. You might remember that story by J. Gresham Machen who telegraphed John Murray right before he died and said, I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. There is no hope without it. Do you realize that if Jesus had not come to this earth to do good, the good that you could not do, then you could never have everlasting life. Jesus just doesn't come as an exemplar. Jesus just doesn't come as someone to do some good stuff so you can see what it looks like when people do good stuff. Jesus comes to do the good stuff for you who could not do the good stuff that God required. Secondly, if we look at this brief representation of the preaching of Peter, it says, they also put him to death by hanging him on a cross. Here's emphasis in Peter's preaching of the passive obedience of Christ. He receives in the incarnate state, he receives the suffering that we were due. He does the obedience that we could not do. He dies the death that we could never bear. Peter also preaches in verses 40 to 42 about the resurrection and the lordship of Christ. Notice what it says in verse 41, verse 40, excuse me, God raised him up on the third day and granted that he become visible, 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. And he ordered us to preach to the people and solemnly to testify that this is the one who has been appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. Peter preaches about the act of impassive obedience of Christ. Peter preaches about the resurrection and the lordship of Christ. And notice, he says here in verse 42, that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. He says something similar to this, but in a different way. Earlier in the text, back up in verse 36, he says that we are preaching peace through Jesus Christ. And then parenthesis, at least it has a numeric and standard. He is what? He is Lord of all. I think those ideas, he is Lord of all. He is the one appointed to be the judge of the living and the dead. They go, they go together. Peter here preaches on the obedience, active and passive of Christ. He preaches on Christ's resurrection and his Lordship. There's one final thing about Christ, the preaching of Christ in Peter's preaching. Notice what it says in verse 43. What is this? Peter, in the preaching of Christ, preaches that Christ's work is available to all who hear its message. This is what we often call the free offer of the gospel. When Peter preaches Christ, he doesn't preach a Christ that will only save some. Now, we know in the glorious elective providence of God, God chooses his people from before the foundation of the world. And the number of the elect cannot be increased nor diminished. But this does not mean that when we preach Christ, that we should say something like, if you're elect, you can come. If you're not, stay away. We just don't say things like that. Who the elect are in an assembly such as this, that is something God alone knows. That is part of what we call the secret will of God or the decretive will of God. We cannot see it. It is the revealed will of God that is our determiner for action. And Peter here says, of him all the prophets bear witness that through his name everyone who believes in him receives the forgiveness of sins. And I would say to you today that if you will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved. And you receive in being saved the forgiveness of your sins. I don't have to argue about election. Election is just true. I don't have to argue about God's sovereignty. It's just true. What I have to do, though, to be a faithful preacher is to plead with all people who hear the gospel to come to Him, believing on Him for redemption. Believing on Him for the forgiveness of sins. Number three. Not only must the preacher be prepared, not only must the preacher preach Christ, the church, number three, And this is longer still, so if you're taking notes and you're writing this down, I'm sorry. But anyway, it's just long. But I'll encourage you to try. Just stay with me. The Church must ever remember that in the provision of God, in the granting of His Spirit to every believer, He manifests clearly to them all that He is no respecter of persons, And there is never to be allowed in her midst, in the church's midst, in any way a spirit of partiality that would permit distinctions where God has said there are to be none. Now, I want to read that again. I want you to kind of follow that, and then we're going to say a few things about it. The church must ever remember that in the provision of God, in the granting of his spirit to every believer, He manifests clearly to them all that he is no respecter of persons. And there is never to be allowed in her midst in any way a spirit of partiality that would permit distinctions where God has said there are to be none." The church must believe that God is without partiality. But that's only one part of that. The church has to actually practice impartiality. Do you see the difference there? It is one thing, if I was to say to a church, do you believe God is impartial? Oh yeah. Do you practice impartiality? So the church that James writes to in James chapter two would probably agree that God is impartial. And then when a rich man walks in, he'll be a good tither. If we could just get that one, 10% of his income, that would be really nice. Even if he was just one of those grace givers, an offering would be nice from him. When the rich man walks in and we say to the poor man, you sit on the floor by my feet, and we say to the rich man here, you sit here in this place of prominence, we have become what? We've become judges. We have become partial. when it happens with money, when it happens with race, when it happens with gender, when it happens with anything. All people are welcome to come and what? Worship. They may not feel comfortable, they may not really want to stay, but we are not to be what? Partial. Notice what happens. in this section here. In chapter 11 verse 17a, therefore if God gave to them the same gift he gave to us also after believing. God gives the same gift of the Holy Spirit in this narrative to who? Everybody. Everybody that believes. He gives it to Peter, he gives it to Cornelius, He's already given it to the one in Peter's entourage. Peter has six other people with him. There's seven that are gonna bear witness later when they go back to Jerusalem. There's seven men that have already received the Spirit of God. And Cornelius and his household and his slaves and whoever he's got, they're what? They're all right there. And they all receive the same gift. Not only that, God gives it, look back up in chapter 11 and verse 15. God gives it to them in the same way. And as I begin to speak the holy spirit fell upon them Just as he did upon us at the beginning to mark that word just as Turn back to chapter 10 verse 47 Chapter 10 verse 47 it says Surely no one can refuse water for these to be baptized to receive the holy spirit. Just as we did jump ahead to chapter 15 Acts chapter 15 verse 8. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. Very interesting little phrase, just as. And it occurs three times, all with reference to the same event of the Spirit of God falling upon Cornelius and his household, just as he gave it to the Jews. God gives the same gift to all. God gives it in the same way to all. God's character is considered impartial in the narrative. Acts chapter 10, verse 34, this is where we find the actual statement, God is not one to show partiality. I don't have time to do this, but you can look up Romans chapter 2, verse 11, Galatians 2, verse 6, Ephesians 6, verse 9, all of these texts point out the truth that God is not partial Thus chapter 11 verse 12 We are not to what we are not to make distinctions notice what it says in chapter 11 verse 12 The Spirit told me to go with them. This is this is Peter recounting what the Spirit of God told him earlier about these men from Cornelius and The Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. Now, I know I made that switch to the New American Standard a year ago, and I've really been happy with my switch to the New American Standard. And if you've switched to the New American Standard, breathe easy, I'm not switching again. But I don't like what they did here. Because it's just wrong. Without misgivings. What is that? Who is misgivings? I've never met her. Without misgivings. means literally without distinctions, without making distinctions. Now what's interesting about this, turn over to Acts 15 verse 9. Acts chapter 15 verse 9, let's get a running head start, verse 8. And God who knows the heart testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit just as he also did to us and he made No misgivings. It doesn't do that here. No. It says what? He made no distinction between us and them cleansing their hearts by faith. Here it translates the same text as no distinction. I don't know why it does that. Misgivings in one text, no distinctions in another text. Just translate it. No distinctions. In other words, God made no distinctions. We are not to make what? Any distinctions. Maybe you sit here and you think, well, do we do that? I don't have any particular thing in my mind where I'm thinking we do this. Is it possible for us to do this? Absolutely. Do churches do this? Absolutely. Number four. We've seen the preparation of the preacher, preaching of Christ, the provision of God. One final thing, the praise of the church. When preaching is done in such a manner that it works with God and not against God, when the first principles of Christ are kept in the chief place in the preacher's proclamation, and when the church's Delight and support for the free unhindered impartial manifestation of god's spirit giving generosity is in their midst Then the response of the church will be that found in acts at the end of acts chapter 11 and verse 18 The response regarding the inclusion of the gentiles notice what it said Verse 18 they quieted down and they glorified god Literally here, quieted down means they became silent. Now, in the context, the ones that became silent most likely were the objectors, because you might recall back up in chapter 11, around verse, I think two, there were some of the circumcision party that took issue with him saying. Remember, because a Gentile could not be saved, in the minds of some Jews, a Gentile could not be saved as a Gentile. A Gentile had to be circumcised and become what they call a proselyte and become technically a Jew. Then they could be saved. They didn't have this problem with the Samaritans. We were circumcised. But they did have this problem with the Gentiles, because the Gentiles were not circumcised. The Samaritans were circumcised, and Samaritans were fairly concerned with legal matters. But the Gentiles were not. What do you do about the Gentiles? We've got to make them Jews. No. Peter comes and says, look, God is impartial. God does not judge on externals. God has given them the same spirit we had in the same way to all of them. He is not partial. And when they finally realized that, and they finally heard that, they became silent. They quieted down. and they gloried in God. God, that is, who poured out his Spirit on all flesh. God it is, and she will praise God for the sending of that very Spirit, and she will praise the Spirit for his coming. Israel in the New Covenant receives a paradigm shift when it comes to preaching. Israel in the new covenant recovers the free and unhindered preaching of Christ and she's going to need this She's going to need this this unhindered aspect of the preaching of Christ as we make progress in the gentile mission Or the gentile mission will go nowhere I looked at my kids last night at supper. I said and you're a what? And bethy said i'm a gentile That's right If they hadn't figured this out We wouldn't have been sitting there having devotions around the table It would have been kept. It would have died. Now, obviously, again, we're talking on a human level. God has his plan. But Israel in the New Covenant here receives this shift, this paradigm shift regarding preaching, recovers the free, unhindered preaching of Christ, and embraces an old, but now a new vision of God as being impartial. The idea that God is impartial is as old as the Bible. God has never been partial. But it's now given new clarity in the New Covenant. And finally, Israel in the New Covenant here remains silent. Silence is all objections and glories in a God of grace. We need this. We need to embody a kind of preaching that will guard against being a hindrance to the furtherance of the kingdom. We need a picture of the preaching of Christ where we are very clear with men about what it is they need to know about Christ. We need to understand and know that God himself is the one that pours out the Spirit of God on all flesh, on us even today. Now, we don't have the same types of manifestations that happen, and this is a whole other study, a whole other discussion of things like speaking in tongues and all these kinds of things, laying on of apostolic hands, and we don't have that like they had that in the days of Scripture. But if you don't have the Spirit of Christ, Paul says you're what? You're not of Christ. The Spirit of God falls upon every believer in every age. The manifestations may be somewhat different from age to age, But every age, every believer possesses the spirit of Christ. And the church needs to also adopt the idea and the understanding that when the spirit of God does come and he does fall upon men for their redemption in an impartial way, all glory, all praise, all honor here at the end of our text is to be given to God. They glorified God. this needs to be the response of the church today as well. Let's pray together. Father, we pause and ask that you would help us to not simply see the historic reality of such a text. It's a wonderful narrative about Peter and how he goes to the home of a Gentile and brings the gospel. I pray that we would see in such a passage great importance and pressing truths for us in every age that we would ever guard as preachers of the gospel against any hint that we might be a hindrance to your work. We would pray, God, that you would help us as we preach, and as maybe for those who aren't preachers, but those who hear preaching and want preaching and love preaching, that we would demand a clear presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that when we preach Christ, that we should make sure that we preach a Christ who has come and lived for us and died for us, and been raised for us, and is exalted and enthroned for us, and is one day coming again as the judge of the living and the dead. Help us not to lose sight of his obedience and his suffering on our behalf. We pray God that you would help us to keep in mind that not only are you a God who is impartial in your provision of your spirit, but that that same spirit of impartiality should pervade the way we do ministry in our church. And Father, we pray that as we contemplate the glories of the gospel spreading to the Gentiles, that our hearts would be filled with praise, that we would be a thankful people, that we will be a people who seek to glory in God. Bless you for this Text and we bless you for the progress of the gospel to the Gentiles and we stand here and confess today That we indeed are the product of that great progress of the gospel We're so grateful the gospel reached us We pray Oh God that you would by your grace and for your glory that you would cause it to reach even more use us for that use us for that purpose of the kingdom and to spread the knowledge of the glory of God for all peoples to see and to savor. We bless you for the day you've given to us, the time here together. We pray, God, that as we come to partake of the Lord's table, that the gospel itself would be to us sweet and precious, and we would taste and see of your goodness and your impartiality, let us hold the bread and hold the cup and just ponder what it would be like if we had a God who was partial. For there would be no cup and there would be no bread. There would have been no Christ given for us. But God, because you have a heart and a longing for men from every tribe and tongue and language and nation to surround your throne, We have a cup to take. We have bread to hold, a cup to drink, bread to eat. Father, help us contemplate the Lord Jesus Christ and how he, being very God of very God, is also impartial. He has come to us. He has rescued us. He's had mercy on us. He has gone about doing good for us. He has been crucified for us. He has been raised for us. He is seated for us, and he is one day coming again for us. I pray, O Lord God, that you would help us as we partake of the cup and partake of the bread this day. Help us to remember Christ, our Savior, our Lord, our King. In his name we pray. Amen.