Hi, I'm Matt Henry, and I'm the pastor at Missio Dei Fellowship in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Very thankful that you found our sermons, and I hope that they are a way of encouragement to you in your Christian walk. However, it's important for you to understand that this sermon was given in my church's context and for the people that God has entrusted for me to shepherd. So if you're in the Kenosha area, I would encourage you to come on a Sunday and worship with the body of Christ here. And if you're not in this area, these sermons are a great tool for supplementing your walk, but they are by no means a substitute for the local church. So you need to submit yourself to a faithful Bible teaching church and shepherd in your area. Thank you. Well, as I said, Acts chapter 10 is where we're at. If you haven't gotten there, please do. If you don't have a Bible, there should be a Bible under the seat in front of you nearby. It's a black one. Please take it. It would help you. And also, if you don't own a Bible, as always, take one. No one will stop you. We want you to have that Bible. Now we have invested, by way of introduction, a large amount of time to teach about the biblical view of war and the place of Israel and the redemptive work of God and what's going on there with Hamas. But now it's our opportunity to return back to Acts, and we are, as I said, chapter 10. What I find interesting, though not surprising, is that much of what I taught in Romans 9 through 11 last week—and if you weren't here, I would highly encourage you to get that. That's the one where I bring everything together. So if you missed it, you want to hear that. Much of what I taught last week in 9-11 of Romans is actually going to be played out for us right here in the book of Acts. So now you get to see what Paul says theologically in Romans 9-11, you get to see in a very practical story format in the book of Acts. So it's a very, very important issue. In fact, in chapter 10 is a key turning point for how God works. If you recall, the church was born in Acts chapter 2 when the people had gathered, and they were praying, waiting for the Spirit. And the Spirit fell upon them, and they were speaking in other languages. They were doing it in such a way that it caused all the other Jews in Jerusalem that were around the temple to wonder what's going on. And they began to speak to them. in their own language, and they were declaring to them the mighty acts of God." All of that brought about the outpouring of the Spirit that was promised in the Old Testament. It was the indwelling of the Spirit. For the first time, the Spirit began to dwell in people, and all of that was promised, and the church came into being. However, and I pointed this out last week as well, the church in the early days was almost exclusively Jewish. So for the first five years, you wouldn't find hardly any Gentiles in the church. They were all Jews. And so it had a very Jewish flavor, if you will. And all of that is because the gospel was about Jesus Christ. And it was to first the Jew and then to the Gentile. Paul makes this very clear in Romans chapter 1. We are to go to the Jew first. And then the Gentile. And then, with all of that, we saw the potential of this great ingathering of Gentiles by the command of Jesus, where he says that we are to go into all the nations, and preach the gospel and make disciples. We saw Jesus show the Samaritans grace with the Samaritan woman at the well. And remember, the Samaritans were hated by the Jews. They were half-breeds, basically. And that would be the description of them. They were despised by the Jews. And yet God brought grace to them. We see in chapter 6 of Acts that there became this problem with the Hellenist widows. The Hellenist simply means Greek-speaking. These were Jews who had come and some of them were widows. And a widow in that day always was in poverty, with few exceptions. And they had traveled from other countries. Remember, all the things we learned about Israel is that when they were in sin, God judged them, as he promised he would, and he would send them off into the other nations. And so they were dispersed. The fancy word is diaspora. They were dispersed around to the other nations. And not every one of them came back to the land when they had opportunity. built their lives and roots in these new nations. They lived there for generations. And so they were very much part of Syria or Jordan or wherever it was that they happened to be. And these people all spoke Greek as their primary language, not Aramaic, which is what the Jew in Israel would do. And so they came back to worship, and unbeknownst to them, God's grace would come upon them. They would hear Peter preaching. They would repent, be saved. And now they want to learn. They want to grow. They want to hear more. And so they're staying there in Jerusalem, but they're hungry. They have no money. They have no house to live in. And many of the Jews were treating them poorly and withholding food from them. So if you remember in Acts chapter 6, a big problem arose because some of them were going without food. And so that got resolved by having seven men full of the Holy Spirit who were godly, all of them with Greek names, meaning they were Hellenist Jews as well. They were sent with the task to oversee that and make certain that they were cared for. What was that? Well, that was an indication, again, of God's grace going back to the Gentile world. How? Well, because these widows and others would not remain there forever. Eventually, they were going to go back to their own countries, and with it, they would bring the gospel itself. Then, if you recall, Philip ends up bringing the gospel to the actual city of Samaria. In fact, it surprised the apostles so much that many of them were coming to faith that they actually sent apostles to go investigate. In other words, even though the apostles had been told that this was what God was gonna do, the apostles were still surprised. So I say that only because I'm always amazed at times how quick we are to forget things. And I remember the apostles forget them as well. And so I guess we should show each other more grace as well. And so they come and they see that the gospel is coming to these Samaritans in the city and they are rejoicing. Then you'll recall that Philip was sent by God specifically to a specific place where he would meet that Ethiopian eunuch who was reading the Old Testament scripture, Isaiah 53, which we just read today. And there he was able to lead that man to a saving faith in Christ. He was baptized. And so again, now the gospel goes into Ethiopia. As an aside, I didn't mention this, the first service, but I am preparing in the middle of April to go back to Ethiopia. and to help instruct and prepare a new set of teachings. There's a strong influence of the Pentecostal church there. And they, as a whole, deny a biblical view of the Trinity as well as they teach what's called baptismal regeneration, that you cannot be saved until you've been baptized. And so it creates all kinds of problems in Ethiopia. And so they've asked if I might be able to help them create up some instruction material that they then in turn can teach. So Lord willing, I will end up going back to Ethiopia. But it's really neat when I travel to Ethiopia, because I know that that's one of the places where the gospel first went into the world. And it was because of Philip and this Ethiopian. And then finally, we end up in Acts 9, where we find Saul, who will soon become known as the Apostle Paul, and he's on his way looking to imprison Christians. And instead, he ends up being saved himself. And it was there that we learn that God has appointed him to become the apostle specifically to the Gentiles. Well, with that in mind, Luke, in chapter nine, then leaves Paul for a moment, because very soon he's gonna focus almost totally on Paul, but for a moment he pulls back and he comes back to Peter. And in Acts 9.32, we find him traveling throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and what he's doing is strengthening the new believers. So he's dealing with both Jew and Gentile. He's bringing the gospel to those who have never heard it. He does some miracles as well, which is always cool. And then we left off with him staying with some guy named Simon, who was also a tanner. And so a tanner is one who would take care of animal skins and turn them into leather. Now, my point in that sermon, just to see if I can dredge it up from your memories from the last time I was in Acts, it was in October 8th, I believe, so it's been a while. So let me see if I can dredge this from your minds, is the point I made with that story about Peter was that here's Peter doing really amazing things. He's sharing the gospel, people are coming to faith, he's doing miracles, and we're all like, wow, I wanna be like that. But the real reality is that he was just being faithful. That is what God called him to do, and therefore he's being faithful to do that. But what is the reality for most of us is that we're all going to be more like Simon. we're all just gonna be the tanner. He wasn't asked to go out and perform miracles. He wasn't tasked to go off and preach the gospel all throughout the world. He was just simply called to be a tanner. He was supposed to take care of leather and do it to the glory of God. And yet, when Peter came into his area, he opened his home to the apostle, and he made room for him, and he fed them, and he kept him safe, and he kept him in a place where he could find rest. And my only point was this. Even though we all want to be like Peter doing really cool things, the reality is that we should strive to simply be faithful like Simon. Just where has God put us? What has God given to us? And then learn to share that and open that up to both the care of the saints as well as to the unbeliever. Well, today now we're in chapter 10. I'm going to read this in a moment, but it's a series of unfolding the events of chapter 10 all about this centurion named Cornelius. And what we have in this chapter is an opportunity to actually see how Romans 11 works itself out in real life. We see here God grafting in, like a wild olive tree, that's the Romans 11 imagery, and those are Gentiles grafting them into the promises given to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We're gonna be able to see how God changes how we are to approach the world around us by abolishing things that would keep the Jew and the Gentile separate. We're gonna see in this chapter how the gospel is for both the Jew and the Gentile, and the key elements of what is involved in sharing the gospel, and that God is now turning his focus upon the Gentile world, which is to our great benefit. And then finally, we're gonna be able to see how speaking in other languages, commonly known as tongues, was used to show evidence that the Gentiles were co-recipients of God's saving work. So with that in mind, let's read. Just follow along as I read down to verse 23. Hear now the word of the Lord. Now there was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, a devout man. A one who feared God with all his household and gave many alms to the 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 come in and said to him, Cornelius. And looking intently on him and becoming afraid, he said, what is it, Lord? And he said to him, your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now send some men to Joppa and summon a man named Simon, who is also called Peter. He is lodging with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea. And when the angel who was speaking to him had left, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants. And after he explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. And 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, and while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance and saw heaven open 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, crawling creatures of the earth, birds of the sky. And a voice came to him saying, rise up, Peter, slaughter and eat. But Peter said, by no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything defiled and unclean. And again, a voice came to him a second time, what God has cleansed, no longer considered defiled. And this happened three times. And immediately, the object was taken up into heaven. 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 lodging there. And while Peter was reflecting on the revision, the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men are looking for you, but rise up, go down, accompany them without taking issue at all. For I have sent them myself. And 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? And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man, well-spoken of by the entire nation of Jews, was directed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear a message from you. And so he invited them in and gave them lodging. The Lord bless his word. Now what we have here is a very simple outline. It's essentially broken down and controlled by these two visions, okay? So you have the vision given to Cornelius, and then we have the vision given to Peter. And so that's basically how we're going to flow. We're just going to let the text unfold, and I'm going to give you the necessary comments. First, we have the Cornelius's encounter with the angel, the first vision. Now, we actually have a lot of information in these first few verses about this guy named Cornelius. And each of these descriptors given to us help us understand this man until we can get a good picture of who he is and what he's like. First of all, little things, historically, is that he lived and was stationed in Caesarea. Caesarea, you may not know, but it's on the coast. It's about 30 miles higher or north from Joppa. Joppa was on the sea as well. And then about 30 miles north was Caesarea, a very important city. Caesarea was the capital of the Roman province of Judea. And as a result, many soldiers would be stationed there. And they were there so that wherever they needed to be sent in all of Judea to quell a rebellion or keep the peace or whatever, they were ready to go and do so. This city, you may recognize it by another name. It used to be known as Stratos Tower by the Phoenicians. And it was a very important harbor. There were very few good places where a ship could basically lay anchor and deal with the goods of commerce. And so this was one of the few places in that area where the ships could come. It was a natural harbor, but it wasn't that large. And then, later on, Herod the Great rebuilt it, and he did that around 9 BC, and he renamed it from Stratos Tower to Caesarea, which is the Greek rendering, and we call it Caesarea ourselves. It was a unique one, though, because now the harbor got enlarged. And the way that it got enlarged was because the Romans had developed something that nobody else knew how to do, and that was they learned how to put concrete in water and it would still set. And so they created a very large man-made harbor all out of cement. And if you know anything about the Romans and their cement, we still don't fully understand how they did it. But that stuff is hard, and it doesn't go away. And so anyhow, they made this very large harbor, and now it became a very important place of commerce. Gentiles, as a result of that, dominated the city. Even though it was in Israel, it was primarily Gentiles in there. And the Jew-Gentile tension tended to run very high. In fact, it ran so high that in AD 66, 20,000 Jews were killed in one hour. Get your head around that. No machine guns. No bombs, just swords up front and personal. One hour, slaughtered 20,000 Jews. These were men who were tough men. And all of this was augmented, the soldiers were augmented by the Syrians who hated the Jews and were happy to go and slaughter them. Now, Cornelius was a centurion. He was described as a centurion of the Italian cohort. All that means is that he was an Italian himself. As a centurion, he would oversee somewhere between 100 to 600 soldiers. It can actually dip all the way down to 50, so it wasn't absolutely certain exactly how many he oversaw. But he was a centurion of some note, and he was one who was highly respected. Now, you have to understand, a centurion didn't become a centurion by being a wimp. A centurion was the toughest of the tough. He was a hard soldier. He was a brutal soldier. He understood the tactics of the Roman army, and so he was put into a position of great trust. Now, you should understand that to be in a Roman legion required you to be a Roman citizen. You couldn't be. You could be in a different part of the army if you were not a Roman citizen. But to be a centurion in a Roman legion, you had to be a Roman citizen. You must understand that life was very harsh for these people. The demands on your body were extreme. And that was why they were so difficult to feed on the battlefield, because they trained hard, and they were hard, hard men. So they were rough people. They could also end up being very hard on the local people. Wherever they came, they were a people to be reckoned with, and they didn't allow you to play any games like we see happening here in America. But they also were people who brought money and commerce. And so they helped the local citizenry because they brought money with them and they could buy their goods. And so there is this constant tension of a love-hate between the Jew and the Roman soldier. Because on one level, they represented God's judgment because he was oppressing them with a Gentile nation, that's promise. On the other side, they appreciated them because they brought money and they helped feed their families. We also see that he was described as a devout man who feared God. Now, that idea of fearing God appears somewhat frequently in Acts. In addition, he's called a devout man, and the term is one who is either religious, meaning of any type. If he goes to any temple, worships any kind of God, he could be called devout, or it can mean godly when he worships Yahweh. And I think that's the one that we should understand, that he was a godly man. In fact, what he was was most likely an Old Testament believer. What do I mean by that? He is anyone who believed in the true God, Yahweh. but yet did not yet know who Jesus Christ was. And so this is why I've taught you, and I'll keep teaching you, the book of Acts is a transition. It's shifting from the Old Testament way of faith to now faith in Christ alone. And so here he's in that in-between time where he trusts and believes in Yahweh, but he's not yet heard of Jesus Christ and what Christ has done. So he doesn't know about his death, he doesn't understand his resurrection, he just simply knows that Yahweh is the true God and he believes Him and follows Him. Along with that, we see that he leads his household to be believers in God. Now this is worth noting because it affects a key issue relating to baptism and household salvation. The whole household would follow his lead. Why? Because he's the head of the home. This is something, again, in our world, we just don't get. We vaguely understand it, but it is just not understood or appreciated by us, the level of authority that the head of the household has. And in most parts of the world, this is supreme. In fact, if you go to Ethiopia, you will have no doubt who is leading the homes. It's the male. And as the man of the house, as the head of the household, it was his job to direct the whole household to go in one way or the other. And so when you would evangelize in those types of cultures, you would seek out the head of the household. and you would speak to him, and if he heard and saw and believed, then the others would be immediately predisposed to follow him because of the great respect that they would have for the head of the household. And so that's what he is. He's the head of the home, and it's clear that he is leading them to worship as well. And so it says, he is one who feared God with all his household in verse two. Now, what's going on here is that you have to understand the household. You and I, when we talk about household, we tend to think of a man and a woman, a husband and wife, and then we start adding kids to it. But that's not the household in the Bible. The household would involve everyone in there. So Abraham, he had many, many hundreds who lived with him. They were his servants and whatnot. And Abraham was the head of his household, and all of those servants and all those people who worked with him and for him, they were all considered his household. In the same way it would be here, a household would include all servants, all slaves, all employees. In fact, Roman soldiers, interestingly enough, were forbidden to marry. So it's very doubtful that Cornelius had children here. He certainly wouldn't have had a wife, or most likely, because it was forbidden for him to have a wife as long as he was serving in the Roman army. So what happened is that they tended to not have, they wouldn't have wives, they would just have a concubine, if at best, and that was something less than a wife, and they might have children then that would be there, but it'd be kind of, hidden from view and not talked much about. And then later, after they got out of the military, they would marry, usually, the woman. What you need to know then, however, is that the head of the household, he drove the direction. And that's so important. So who he worshiped, the household would worship. Who he followed, they would follow. And then we see that he practiced the life of a follower. What do I mean by that? Well, it says that he gave alms and prayed continually to God. Now this is interesting because it shows a focus that is both Godward in the prayer, and then horizontally, manward, through his almsgiving. The almsgiving was for the poor. Now in the Jewish world of religion, there were three things that you did as a faithful Jew. If you believed and followed Yahweh, you did this out of purity of your heart, but many were Jews that didn't believe, but they still practiced these things. You would pray. He would give alms, and you would fast. Those were your three things. And here we see him doing two of them, and that he was known for doing them. Now, we see that word continually. He prayed continually. And sometimes people start beating themselves up because they're like, well, I don't pray continually. I barely pray at all. But this doesn't mean continually in the sense of a nonstop. What it means is that it was a habit. It was a part of his life to be a man of prayer. And in the Jewish religious world, you did that three times a day. There were three set times in which you prayed, and two of them are mentioned here in our text. And so understand, when it talks about him praying continually, it means that it was his habit daily to practice these three times in prayer. Now, he may pray at other times, just like you and I will do all the time as a pastor. I'm given situations I don't know what to do with. People come and they say, Pastor, I need counsel, I need help, I have this, I have that. And I'm thinking, I don't know. And so, but I have to know, and so I will do, throughout the day I'll get an email, a phone call, I know a meeting's coming up, and it's just a simple prayer of, Lord help me, give me wisdom, I don't know what to do here. Or maybe it's a difficult situation and I'm already annoyed about it, and so my predisposition is to yell at the person, and I know that's not helpful. And so it's, Lord, give my heart a heart of compassion. Let me listen. Let me hear the person. Father, also give me wisdom as to when I need to speak more firmly to the person, maybe rebuke them. There's always those things, right? You as adults, hopefully you do that, as a husband, as a wife, as parents. You just don't know what you're doing. And so you oftentimes are seeking God's grace. After a meeting, maybe, you'll just lift up a word of thanks because you saw a person who's walking in faithfulness or repenting. Or you'll offer up a prayer that God might work in their life because you see them struggling. All of that's fine. But for the Jew, their primary world of prayer was in those three times. And that's what he was doing. He was practicing these three set three times a day set prayers. Now, the specific time that he was praying was at 3 p.m. in our timekeeping. It says on the ninth hour, the way they kept time is different than us. For us, that would be three o'clock in the afternoon. This was the most prominent time, so if you were super pressed, this was the one that you really tried to make certain that you maintained. And in fact, it's called in Acts 3.1, the hour of prayer. In verse 3, we were introduced to the first of two visions. And we have here in verse 3 an angel coming. And he gives him this vision. Now note, the angel knows his name. And then in response to the alarm in Cornelius, he comforts him. And you say, okay, what's the big deal? Cornelius is not the kind of guy that gets scared. Cornelius is the kind of guy that scares everyone else. Cornelius can take your head off and he's not gonna get in trouble. You don't mess with Cornelius. Cornelius is used to bloodshed. He's used to violence. He's used to difficult, frightening situations. And yet now an angel shows up, and if you remember anything that we've taught you about angels, angels are not friendly. Angels are not nice. They're frightening. They're always mighty men of war. And so here's this mighty angel that shows up, and he's like, whoa, this just took a turn that I was not expecting. And he knows him, Cornelius, and then he puts him at rest. Now, I want you to note that he says, What is it, Lord? And he says, your prayers, verse 4, your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now, some will take that and say, see, God is coming to you because you did the right things, and therefore, he's now visiting you. That's actually not right. Understand that Cornelius already was a man of faith. He was a devout man, a God-fearer. He believed in Yahweh. As a result of believing in Yahweh, he did these things. He didn't do these things to become saved. It was because he was saved that he did these things. He did the prayers, he did the alms. All of that was just natural for him. But he gives him instructions. and we see how very specific. There's nothing exciting or difficult here. He says, send some men to Joppa, find this guy named Simon, who's also called Peter, and this is where he lives. That's the whole vision. There's nothing exciting or mind-boggling about it. It's just simply saying, you don't know this stuff. I'm gonna tell you it so that you can act upon it. What I want you to notice, though, is that Cornelius doesn't know what's happening, God does, And even though you and I would have so many questions in our mind, notice what Cornelius does. He immediately does this. He immediately obeys. He calls for two of his servants, a devout soldier, so a fellow believer, verse seven, and he explains everything to them and he sends them. I want you to note that because it's something that we struggle with as people oftentimes. Cornelius does not want to ask questions. He doesn't see a need to ask questions. He doesn't see a need to debate. He doesn't need to understand. That's all he's got. And you and I would naturally have questions, right? We wanna know what's going on. Well, why do I gotta go see him? What's going on here? Wait, wait, wait. I can't just send some guys. They're gonna have questions. Cornelius was a man who was a military man. He's used to having orders given to him, and he's used to giving those orders and expecting them to be obeyed. And so he just simply obeys. With his military mindset, he says, these are orders, I need to follow them, and then he gives them to his others, and they immediately obey. I would say to you, just as a simple application here, that many here would have a much more peaceful life before both God and man if you just simply stopped asking so many questions. Just obey. Stop wondering why. How come? Why dad? Why mom? Why this? Why that? It doesn't matter. I said so. How many times have we gotten ourselves into trouble? How many times have we delayed because we feel that need to understand? Well, we don't need to understand. Nobody asks you to understand. You just need to go do it. And then when you obey, everything becomes much more clear. And that's what's gonna happen here. Cornelius doesn't know still. All he knows is an angel came, told him, go do this. And he's like, yes, sir. And he sends his guys and they go take care of business. You're gonna see a very different situation with Peter. We're more like Peter. And I would prefer that we learn to be more like Cornelius. So with that in verse nine, we come to the second vision. Peter. Now everything fades away, and the scene picks back up with Peter. He's up on the housetop in the sixth hour, and he's going to pray. This is the other time. So the men have started their journey. It's a 30-mile journey. They're going to walk. It's going to take about a day. And so this is a major thing that they got to go do. And they're gonna have to go there, they're gonna have to spend the night, then they're gonna have to walk back 30 miles. Can you imagine how many of you, what would we be saying if God asked us, all right, how far away is Milwaukee? That's not even 30 miles, that's less. You know, Waukesha. You know, Tim, I want you to go to Waukesha, I want you to go to this address. And you're like, I got questions. Shut up, just go. No questions. Don't be like Peter. You know, and then, okay, and then you're like, I gotta spend the night, and I'm gonna walk all the way back. And I don't even know why I'm doing this. And that's the scene that we have before us. Meanwhile, Peter is up on the house, and he goes through the roof, which is typical. They were flat roofs, and it would be cooler up there. And he is praying on what is called the sixth hour, and that is noon time. This is one of the other times of set prayers. And what they would do is they went up on the roof, usually, clean, and it was fresh, and it was refreshing for them. But then they would arrange themselves so they would be facing Jerusalem. This is very similar to what you see in the Islam, right? And they're going to face Mecca. Well, they would face Jerusalem, because that's where the temple is. And it was there that they would conduct their prayer. So when it says that It was the hour of prayer. It wasn't an hour of praying. It was that hour in which you would do your prayer. Does that make sense? It might take you 15 minutes, but that's when you did it. And he would be up there facing Jerusalem, because that's where the temple was, and that represented the presence of God among mankind. So even though he was a full believer, knew Christ, he would still conduct himself in the ways of the Jewish religion. Now to this day, you will find Jews praying three times a day. And to this day, they still face Jerusalem. but now they're anticipating the coming of their Messiah, which of course is sad because the Messiah came and they rejected him. But even there, they still face Jerusalem, they still anticipate the coming of their Savior, and he will come, and this is exactly what we looked at in Zechariah, where it says that they will look upon him whom they pierced and mourn. And he will come and he will set his feet upon the Mount of Olives and everything begins to take place. So they're still anticipating the Messiah, even though he already came, but he will return. And in that day, these people who worship in unbelief will finally have faith. Now, he's hungry. It's a little detail, but God makes certain that he gets hungry. So now he's thinking about food, so he says, hey, would you guys get some things together so I can eat? And while he's doing that, he has this vision that comes to him. He enters a trance, and he has a strange vision. And this vision is this massive sheet, and it's filled with all kinds of animals that he's not allowed to have, and it comes down from heaven. And so what's going on there? Well, it's simply God showing him that things are changing. So in Leviticus chapter 20, if you're doing your Bible reading, you finished that a couple of weeks ago, and you'll recall this. All Jews were taught the very specific rules for what are called clean and unclean foods. It's written here in verses 25 and 26 of Leviticus 20, you are therefore to separate between the clean animal and the unclean. Between the unclean bird and the clean, you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean. Now listen, here's the reason why. Thus you shall be holy to me. Why? For I, Yahweh, am holy, and I have separated you from the peoples to be mine. So the whole point about this food and the separating of clean and unclean is not because something is inherently bad. It's to make you different. It's to make you distinct and unique. And this is very important, very important. It doesn't mean much to you and I. We're not Jews. And so it's hard for me as I preach these things, because it's like, you're like, OK, but. So what? Well, if you were a Jew, it'd mean a lot. And it is. It's a major issue for Peter. It's interesting. Cornelius gets a vision. He's got no problem. Peter is just told, take and eat. And he's got all kinds of problems. You can see how much that his upbringing and his world that he lives within makes this very hard. I actually encountered this in a tiny way in Ethiopia. We were eating some food, and it was always beef. Some type of beef or goat. That's what you're gonna get if you're gonna get a meat. And so I missed pork. And so I asked my friend, Demeke, I said, you know, D, can we get pork? And his lips curled in absolute disgust like he was gonna throw up. He's like, we do not eat pork, it's unclean. I'm like, I'm not even gonna bother. I'm not gonna instruct them on this one. I got enough things I'm instructing them without having to change their food laws. But in Ethiopia, they still believe it's unclean and they would never touch it. You won't find it anywhere. It's just not acceptable. And it runs deep. It was what really shocked me was the utter revulsion that came over him when I just mentioned pork. It's like, it's just pork. And he was just ready to throw up. It was so horrible in his thinking. What we have is a change of ways with God. He's changing things. Why? Because his attention is now turning to the Gentiles. So this sheet is filled with all the animals that are forbidden for a Jew to eat. Now don't think the foods were somehow unclean in themselves, like they were filthy or bad or sinful. The issue of clean and unclean only has to do with your fitness for worship. And so you're unclean for a period of time and you have to do these certain things, then you're now clean and you can come in and worship to God. Too often, what we find are people who will tell you that if you eat this food, it's unhealthy for you, and therefore, it's ungodly for you to eat. I remember, actually, in Sunday school, when I was a young man in my early 20s, I was in a church, and I mentioned that my sister-in-law had made me liver. And it was good. And I was shocked by it, because my mom would cook it until it was shoe leather, and no amount of chewing or water could moisten that stuff again. It was horrible. It was vile. And so you would just put it in your mouth, chew it, then bring your napkin up, and you'd put it in your napkin, or you spit it into a cup if it was not clear, so you could just anything but swallow that nasty stuff. And so I'd never had liver. I hated liver. I ran from liver. My brother's like, hey, his wife, she's going to make liver. Do you want some? I'm like, no. He's like, no, no, Matt. It's not like mom's. It's good, actually. I'm like, eh. He's like, try it. Just try it. And it was like moist and tasty. And I was like. He's like, really, mom was a bad cook. And I'm like, she really was. I didn't know liver could be good. But I told that story to the women in the church, January Works, and she was so shocked. Oh, oh, no, you should not eat that. And she started expounding why it was bad for you and wrong and sinful. And along the way, she started trying to sell me Shackley vitamins and that that was better for my body and blah, blah, blah. And I was just like, where did all of this come from? It still exists to this day. People are trying to tell you, this is good, that's not. Look, you want to eat something, eat it and eat it to the glory of God. That's all I'm going to say on it. The whole purpose of these forbidden foods, though, in the Bible was to make Israel unique, separate, so that when the nations would come to them, that they would see a people who are not like everyone else. They live a different way, they do different things, and they worship only one God, the true God, Yahweh, and no one else. And so that was the whole purpose of these food laws. And now it's changing by fiat, but why? Well, to understand it means you have to understand the difference of Israel and the church. Israel was a come and see people. God did not call them to go out into the world with the gospel. They were not to go out and speak about Yahweh to all the nations. Rather, they were to function as a nation, and as a nation, they would be a witness to the world, as the nations came to do business with them and commerce. They would find out that the gates are locked every Saturday. And so there's no business that can be done on a Saturday, which is a Sabbath. That they find out that certain things are not allowed in Israel. You cannot bring these things in because they're forbidden. And that you have to function in a completely different way. Why? Because these are a unique people set apart for Yahweh. And so it was a come and see. The church, on the other hand, is a go and tell. Right? That's our mission. We are not a nation. And this is perhaps my biggest concern with the Christian nationalist movement, is this idea that we're going to make a Christian nation. That's not what our purpose is. Our purpose as a church is to go out into the nations, not get a cloistered little perfect group here in America or wherever we might try to do. The church is told to go proclaim, make disciples. No temple, no land is in view. It's a people who would ultimately be made up of every tongue, tribe, nation, and people, just like you. But that requires a change. And so Peter has to get over this major hurdle. So the command is simple. Get up, Peter. Eat. Not hard to understand, but it was very hard for him to accept. Now, if you remember, Peter is like you and I, perhaps. He was a man who had a habit of arguing with our Lord. He was always quick to tell him, look, you shouldn't be washing my feet. And then if you don't let me wash your feet, you have no part of me. Oh, then wash my whole body. No, I'm just washing your feet. I must go up to Jerusalem and die. You cannot die. I will die for you. No. In fact, you're going to deny me. I will not deny you. Trust me. Three times you're going to do it. And over and over again, Peter has this habit of fighting. And it just makes his life hard. This is a good example of it happening again. We have to want, we keep thinking that God has to clarify with us why he wants us to do something, and he doesn't give you the answer. Here, Peter says, I have never eaten this. And so in verse 14, he pushes back. He says, I've been a kosher Jew, a faithful life. I've never done this to defile myself, which tells you all you need to know about how he understood the food. The food somehow took on a life of its own. The restrictions in his mind were not meant to make him a unique people, but rather they were just in themselves the right thing to do. And so you would never do it. He didn't understand that they were designed to just separate you from the nations. And so they became an end in and of themselves. And any time that happens, error always follows. We do the same thing. A super simple example is how we can attach godliness to certain programs. When a church decides they're going to change a program in their church and how it functions, you will watch people who will leave the church. They'll get furious. They'll be angry. Why have you done that? How dare you do that? It's a program. It's designed to do something. It's designed to help you, let's say, Iwana, reach the children, right? That's what it's for. So what's the goal? To do Iwana or to reach the children? Reach the children. What's the program? Awana. At some point, we decide awana's not that good, so we get rid of awana and replace it with something else, and people have a cow. That's no different than what Peter's doing here with the food. He fails to understand that the food was designed to make him unique among the nations. Instead, he thinks that all by itself, it makes him special before God, and so he trips over it. And so God speaks again, and this time He gives them a rebuke. What God has cleansed, verse 15, no longer consider defiled. How many times did He have to tell them? Three times. This gives you a sense of how deep those practices ran in the heart of this Israelite. But it also emphasizes how serious God was about it. Because anytime you have three times something in the Bible, it's a superlative. So God is not just holy, and God is not just holy holy. But Isaiah says he is holy, holy, holy. And it's a way, it's a literary device to show you how holy he is. He is utterly holy. In the same way, three times God repeats this. And in that, basically by the way of two or three witnesses, he confirms it. He says it three times, and so Peter knows it's true. But let me tell you that Peter still struggled with this. Go, keep your finger here, and go to Galatians. Galatians, a whole book of Galatians is devoted to this very issue. So you, again, may think this is not a big deal, but it was, it was a huge issue. In Galatians, many Jews were now telling the Gentiles, you have to do these things to the men, they had to be circumcised. If they're not gonna be circumcised, then they're not truly saved, they can't be part of God's church. And Paul is just going postal on these guys. He deals with them in a very, very harsh way because of the great evil. But let's look at Galatians 2, verses 7 through 16. Paul says, but on the contrary, seeing that I have been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, meaning the Jew, just as Peter had been to the circumcised, the Jew, For he who worked in Peter unto his apostleship to the circumcised, also in me, also unto the Gentiles. So he's just saying there, God is the one who set Peter apart to be the apostle to the Jew, and I've been set as the apostle to the Gentile. And he says, recognizing the grace that has been given to me, James and Cephas, who is Peter, by the way, this guy just has so many names, James, Cephas, and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas, the right hand, a fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised." This will all be spelled out in Acts, where they actually had to examine Paul to make sure that he really understood the gospel. And once they understood that he was, and that he'd been called by God to go to the Gentile, they blessed him and sent him on his way. And they said in verse 10, only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I also was eager to do. Then it turns a corner. But when Cephas, Peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face. So first, we're getting blessed by Peter. Now, next thing you know, Paul is in Cephas' face. Why? Because he stood condemned. In what way, Paul? For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to shrink back and separate himself, fearing the party of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas, before everyone, if you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? We are Jews by nature, not sinners from among the Gentiles. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we, have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified." What's going on? Peter forgot. He forgot this vision. Peter is in Antioch, and he's hanging with the Gentiles. He's going to their barbecues. He's having pork sandwiches, and he's enjoying life. And then the Jews start coming in, And he immediately recognizes they're gonna look at him shocked and be angry, and so he begins to pull away. So yesterday, Peter was at your barbecue. Today, you invite him to come over to another barbecue, and he acts like he doesn't even know you. And you're like, what's going on here? What happened? You're an apostle, I respect you, I wanna fellowship with you. And then you find him over only with the Jews, and he's acting like he's never even seen you. And he's doing that. Now all the other Jews who are believers are following his lead, even Barnabas. And Paul's like, no, we're not playing this game. So he gets right in his face and he calls him for it. Go over to Ephesians, just a couple pages to Ephesians 2. Verse 11, now he's going to talk to the Gentiles. The Gentiles here are kind of feeling cocky, and they're also wondering exactly where is their place with the Jews. And so he deals with it. He says, therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who were all called to uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands. meaning, look, you're the uncircumcised, they're circumcised, but this is just an outward thing. Remember that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, the strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. He's like, remember, that was you. You were way away. Only God was only dealing with Israel at that time. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who made both groups one, broke down the dividing wall of the partition." What was it? The law. How did he do it? By abolishing in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances. For what purpose? So that he himself might create the two into one new man, making peace. That word new there, the Greek word there is a new thing, totally new, never seen before. He didn't make them Israel 2.0, he took the Jew and he took the Gentile and in Jesus Christ he combined them into something absolutely new we call the church. So here again, he's emphasizing, look, there is this barrier. You couldn't get over these food laws. All of these different laws that God established for Israel created a barrier between you and them, and you were unable to come and worship or hear or know, but now Christ has torn that down. He brings you nearby. Go over to Colossians 2. Verses 13 through 17. And you, being dead in your transgression, the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with him, with Christ, having graciously forgiven us all our transgressions. So he's describing these people before they were saved, they were dead in their sin, now they've been made alive with Christ. Having canceled out the certificate of death, consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us. He also has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed the rulers, the authorities, these are spiritual powers. He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them in him, in Christ. Now he's going to apply that. He says, therefore, if Christ has done these things, then therefore, no one is to judge you in food and drink, or in respect to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath day. Excuse me. Things which are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. How many times do we have that still today? There are some people who will not come to a Good Friday service. There are some people who will not come to an Easter service because, well, Ishtar, that's a pagan holiday and we don't do that. There are people who will not participate in Christmas. You don't wanna celebrate Christmas, don't celebrate Christmas, but don't. Don't tell others that they're wrong in doing so. No one, because of Christ, is allowed to judge you with regard to what days you keep or don't keep. Some keep none and some keep them all. And there are this arrogance where I am more godly because I do not celebrate Christmas. No, you're not. You're not any more holy. In fact, you don't even understand how much freedom you have in Christ. And this is what is happening here with Peter, is that he's still struggling to learn how free he is, that he doesn't have to keep these things anymore. You doubt me? Well, let's go to 1 Timothy 4, and I'll show you my famous cocaine passage. Those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, just find my sermon on this passage on Sermon Audio or on our website and you can hear my famous cocaine sermon. 1 Timothy 4 verse 1 down to verse 5. He says, the Spirit explicitly says that in later times, some will fall away from the faith. So these are people who are claiming faith in Christ, but in the end, they'll fall away from the faith. Why? Because they're gonna pay attention to deceitful spirits, the doctrines of demons. Now that sounds really bad stuff, like, hey, let's cut ourselves and offer blood sacrifices to Satan and let's kill and eat babies as a sacrifice, something wicked, right? No, it's boring. It's really boring stuff. What kind of stuff is a deceitful spirit and the doctrines of demons? Well, by hypocrisy of liars who have been seared in their own conscience, what's these doctrines of demons? They forbid marriage. They advocate the abstaining from foods, which God created to be shared in with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth." That's a doctrine of the demon. When you get told, you're not supposed to eat that, that's not good for you, that's not right. As a Christian, you shouldn't do it. He buys the temple of the Holy Spirit. That is literally a doctrine of the demon. And we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He says, no, it's to be shared. You're to be thankful for it. How? If you believe and know the truth. Why? This reason. For everything God created, everything, everything, God that exists, God created is good. Nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. Why? For it's sanctified, made holy by the word of God in prayer. Why do we pray before we eat? To give thanks and it sanctifies the food. Everything under the sun has been given to us and we can enjoy it. And what happens here and back in Acts 10 is that he's struggling with that because it's at odds with what he was raised in, but it was very much part of the life. But what's interesting to me now, back in Acts chapter 10 and verse 17, God never tells him why. He just tells him to do it. He tells him to obey. Again, that comes back to this frustration that at times all of us can feel where we are not going to tell you why, we're just going to say trust and obey. Now having called for obedience, we have the purpose becomes more clear. So in verses 17 to 18, the men show up. So all the while that this is going on with Peter, these men are faithfully just walking up the road from Joppa and they show up and they want to meet with him. So they show up, they're asking for directions, and now they're at the gate and they're calling out, hey, is there a Simon in here? Simon Peter, we need to talk with him. Now he doesn't know about this, because he's up on the roof thinking about the vision, and so the spirit tells him, look, some guys are down, they're waiting for you, go and talk to them. They're actually sent from him. It was sent to him by the Holy Spirit. Now these things are starting to make sense. Now he still doesn't quite know, but he realizes, oh. So he goes down and he's confronted with Gentiles. And so without the Spirit's direction, he actually may not have even received them. Why? Because they're Gentiles. And to have them come into a Jewish house will defile it. And you don't defile your house. So you're like, no, we can talk out here on the road, but you can't come in. But now the Spirit says, let him in. So he invites them in. And in fact, they're gonna spend the night, which is massive for him. You're like, it's just a night. No, it's huge. It's a life-altering event for him because you would never do that. And then in verses 21 to 23, we have that actual encounter. He says, hey, I'm the one you're looking for. Now, why have you come? And they say, well, there's this guy, his name is Cornelius the Centurion, a righteous, God-fearing man, well-spoken of by the whole nation of Jews. He was directed by a holy angel to summon you to his house to hear a message from you. That's a very full verse. But it tells him everything he needs to know. And so what does he do? He's like, oh, okay. He invites them and they spend the night with him. Now, on an aside, I do find this interesting. Whose house is he at? Simon the tanner. But who's the one inviting the men to spend the night? Peter. Now, husbands, I do not recommend this. You don't show up with a group of guys and say, hey babe, I told them they could spend the night. Right? We don't have any food. Where are we gonna put them? It doesn't matter, we'll put them somewhere. But that's basically what Simon does. He sits there and he realizes if they're sent by God, then we need to show them hospitality, they're invited in, and apparently Simon's good with this. But that's the spirit of Simon as well. Now we'll pick up the rest of this in two weeks, next week being Easter. The Lord willing, we'll pick it up and we'll then see how all of this unfolds in the rest of the chapter. Behind all of this, though, is, if you can appreciate it, is that everything I've been doing here is nothing more than what I spent 10 weeks preaching on about Israel, and how unique they are, and how different they are, and how God has worked with them. But now God is saving the Gentiles, and Peter's part of it. And so we see in this story how Jews are hardened toward the gospel, but the Gentiles were not. We see how the apostles had to go through a massive mind shift and they had to be led step by step by God so that they could see that things were new now. And that now it is called the times of the Gentiles, which is why you and I believe. And that they have to embrace that. And then we also learn in this, the kindness of God, because he is gonna pour his grace out onto this household of Cornelius and bring them into the fullness of their salvation in Jesus Christ. So with those thoughts in mind, let's pray. Father, I do ask that you'll help us, help us to appreciate what's going on here. There's so many things that we do without a thought that would just utterly horrify a faithful Jew. I pray that you would open up our eyes to maybe ways that we create barriers to our times with unbelievers, just like the Jew would. Ways that we resist going and sharing our faith where we're afraid to open our arms, our house, our lives to these men or women who do not know, and yet everyone here, Father in Christ, was because somebody came and shared Christ to them. Help us to see that. Help us to see that is our calling as well, that we'd be like Simon the Tanner opening his home, that we'd be like Peter learning and trusting God, that we'd be like Cornelius as well. All of these are things that we can do and learn to your glory. So help us toward that, I ask in your Son's holy name. Amen.