Acts, 9:32-10:22
Vern Peterman · Apr 17, 2005
Acts (2005), No. 15
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826232441399

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

This last time we were taking a look at Acts 9.32-22, and kind of filling in a gap there, and we had some questions before us there. So, here's situation Peter. This passage is between Paul's conversion and the bringing of the gospel to the Gentiles. Here's Peter. He heals Aeneas. And what does he say about healing? Why would Peter say it in this way? And why was it important? How is it unlike a magical incantation? So here's Peter. He heals this fellow. How is this different from just a magical incantation?

Say the right words and you're there. Ah! Important distinction. Isn't that interesting? He doesn't go and say, you know, I'm doing this or, you know, by the power invested in me by, you know, none of that. It was Jesus heals you. Okay. He's definitely giving the Lord the credit, wasn't he? Now, how's that different from a magical incantation? She's right on the spot with that one. How's that different from a magical incantation? What are you looking for if you're doing an incantation?

Yeah, you're looking at, hey, I know the right words to say. And Peter's just pointing straight to the Lord with this. This is the Lord's doing. This is the Lord that's accomplishing it. It's not because I know the magic words. It's not because I've got some special powers. This is the Lord's accomplishment. It's His doing. Okay, how about let's look on the next one there. Tabitha is raised to life.

Typically, It would have been the normal thing for mourners to go about and matter of fact what they would do in that culture is If you didn't have enough mourners, you'd hire some Yeah, you'd hire some extra mourners That shows up. I think for example in Mark chapter 5 Where Jesus is going in all she's just sleeping and the mourners start laughing.

Okay, so they'd hire extra mourners here That would have been typical Why doesn't Peter join in and start wailing aloud with them? Wouldn't that be sympathetic and joining with them emotionally? Why doesn't Peter just join in and start wailing with them? Why would that be his response?

Yeah, God's got something else in mind here. The wailing has to do with the finality of death, right? And he's looking at it with a whole different perspective. No, God's going to do something different. And so, joining in and being sympathetic and empathetic with the wailers wasn't the program for Peter here. He was going to be carrying out something quite different. I think Christians probably have a different perspective on that than we do. Paul writes and he says, don't weep as the pagans do. Don't weep as the Gentiles do. It doesn't mean don't weep, but our sorrow is not the same. Our sorrow is not the same. My brother some 13 years ago died of colon cancer. He told me, I went to visit him just some days before he died. He died New Year's Day. This was around Christmas time.

I went to see him. He said, Vern, I'm ready for whatever's next. I got the guitar out and we sang a few songs together. He said, I'm ready for whatever's next. The thing that's neat is, did I miss him? Yeah, I miss him. But it wasn't a goodbye forever. And that changes the whole perspective. Certainly that's not exactly like Peter's case here. But Peter also was in a similar situation. No goodbye between believers is forever. No goodbye is permanent. But also the Lord's got a specific thing that he wants to do in her life. And it's a validation that we have recorded for our benefit.

Peter raised Tabitha. And then we have a story later on of Paul, who in the sequence that we've got now, has just become a believer. Paul will raise Eutychus, so we'll read about that later. Okay. Now, question three. Why would the Lord provide miraculous revelations to both Peter and Cornelius to bring the two together? Remember, what's happening here is the stage is being set for Cornelius and Peter to meet. Peter's where? Remember where Peter is? Joppa. Yeah. He's in Joppa. Peter's in Joppa.

That's to the south of Caesarea. And here's Cornelius up in Caesarea, Roman military base, basically. It is kind of a new city, relatively speaking, that Herod had built, Herod the Great, and put together. And here's Cornelius at this Roman military base. He's a centurion, which would put him kind of at a high status. Centurions were paid something like 16 times as much as the standard foot soldier, so paid well.

So here he is up in Caesarea, and the Lord gives a vision to both of them. Why would the Lord provide that miraculous revelation to bring both of them together here? This is at least rare in scriptures, if not unique. What is so special about this instance that's unlike any other? Why does it require a revelation to Cornelius and Peter to pull this off? Why does Peter receive a vision that focuses upon food rather than directly on the interaction with the Gospels, with the Gentiles, with regards to the Gospels? Thoughts there? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah? How many centuries, approximately, had it been since the Mosaic Law had been given? Yeah, but roughly 15 centuries had gone by. That's a long time, folks.

You don't mix with these people. And what had happened between the Testaments had only served to tighten the whole thing up one more notch. You absolutely don't even go in their house. Nancy and I had some Jewish neighbors, about two houses over, and the lady's name was Lita. They were from Iran, and we wanted to show some friendliness, and so Nancy wanted to invite her over for tea.

That can't be too bad. She says, I'm sorry, I can't come to your house for tea. angry or spiteful or anything, but I can't come to your house for tea. It's as if you've had something that's not kosher in your dishwasher, and then that blew non-kosher particles onto the dishes that you're serving me tea with, then I'd be contaminated. So I can't come to your house for tea. So here's 15 centuries of don't even don their door.

And Peter's supposed to go into Cornelia's house. Then here's the other angle on this thing. Cornelius is a Roman officer, a centurion, well regarded, high status, but why should Peter, a Jew, listen to him? The centurion can make Peter carry his armor for a mile, carry his stuff for a mile. Why should Peter listen to this Roman officer? So, what did you have here? What did you come up with?

It's a major obstacle. That's true, right? Major obstacle. Who was continually at prayer? Both of them were continually at prayer. Okay. Yeah, this is interesting. The Lord took special steps for each of them But it began with them initially having communication with the Lord to start with. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. It wasn't because they were heading off in entirely different directions with regards to the Lord. So there was a starting point where they were willing to see what the Lord had in mind for each of them. Good. Good point. Anything else on that one? How about the question there, why? Why?

Because Peter wasn't going to go to Cornelius' house and just start eating. Why did the Lord put the focus on food? There's this food coming down three times. Peter says, no, I don't eat that stuff. Probably stuff you and I would enjoy. But Peter says, I don't eat that stuff. Why that? Why would there be that? Instead of focusing on, hey, you're going to go to Cornelius' house What's the deal? Pardon? What's interesting, and you're right, he would definitely get hung up on the food issue.

Here's how the Jews reasoned. See, there really wasn't any law that said don't go into a Gentile's house. But the way they reasoned was like this. There are things that as Jews, you know, we're not supposed to touch, right? There are things we're not supposed to eat. And the Gentiles, you know, might have some things that are, you know, vile and offensive and whatnot. And so by your entering, you know, the house, you're putting yourself at risk. You might be ceremonially unclean. And so just don't even go in there. Some of the rabbis at the time said, woe to him who goes into the house of a Gentile. Just don't even do it.

So you're right. It was looking at the issues, because that was really the law. The law didn't say go into the house of a Gentile. That was added on with tradition. The law said, don't eat this, don't do that. So what did the Lord do? The Lord went right to the core. This is where we've got the actually Mosaic law. not just tradition to contend with. Yes? Yes. How about that?

God had shown, in other words, Peter got the point. This was not, in Peter's mind, just about food. He got the point that the Lord was showing him the food as a indicator of the broader issue. That there is no barrier. Yeah, very good. Yeah, that's ultimately, it's clear, it's clear that Peter gets it. Peter is not just saying, well, the food's okay, but everything else is still forbidden. He definitely got the message. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, yes, excellent point.

When we went through Ephesians 2, that was one of the things we saw, is the law was the thing that was a dividing wall between the Jew and the Gentile. When Christ died on the cross, a lot of us are quick to recognize, oh, the Lord died for my sins. But much more slow to catch up with the idea, Christ died on the cross to put the law to death with regards to the church. And you think about that, we see Christ on the cross, oh there he is taking my sins. Yeah, he is also taking the law.

Colossians 2.14 says, our debt of violations of the law and all the commandments with it were nailed to the cross. So yes, very important point. There was this wall, and the Jews saw it, and the Gentiles saw it. Just like Nancy saw with her friend Lita there.

I can't come in your house. I can't come have tea with you even. You might have had bacon the morning before and washed them in the same bowl and had little bits of bacon left on your teacups. So, I'm sorry, I can't. Yeah. Yeah. Number one, there was an incident where the situation came over. I mean, the mindset still initially was the same way as what I mean. So maybe that's a situation. And Nancy came over and said to her parents, well, we hear that you're not free. And she said, that's right. And they were having some kind of gathering in the house. It was a holiday. And there was a problem with the officer or something. And they asked her if she would come over.

Yeah, yeah Right, yeah Yeah See, the law says you cannot boil a kid, a baby goat, in its mother's milk. That's what the law says. And so what they'll do is they'll say, well, you can't eat milk and meat within six hours of each other. That's what they determined to get really separate, you know, from that law.

Because the Pharisees' idea is, let's build a fence around the law. So extra rules. Now, so then, because you can't have milk and meat within six hours of each other, you also have to have separate plates and silverware and everything to fit that because you can't possibly have them on the same eating utensils. So they'll have all sorts of things like that to keep things separate. To us it's just kind of mind-boggling. But that's the way the pharisaical mind goes.

It starts drawing a fence around the law and pretty soon, and there's already 613 laws 365 of them are don'ts. Don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, don't do that. And so what they do is they come up with a half dozen more laws to make sure you don't break the ones that you got. For each one. So a gazillion laws.

Yeah, if you're an observant Orthodox Jew, you're still under the bondage. The odd thing is that there are some things that they can't do. For example, they can't do the sacrifices. So they say, well, a prayer is equivalent. They'll do things like that. But on the other hand, they'll go way out of the way to make sure that they don't possibly break it. You don't want to work on the Sabbath so we have it defined how much you can lift. We have it defined how many steps you can take. So all that's defined.

And all that separated the Jews and the Gentiles. The Gentiles would go nuts. They'd be in the marketplace, and they'd say, hey, look at this fine piece of clothing. I'll sell you the clothing. And the Jew's asking, is it made with mixed fabrics? The Gentile says, yes. And the Jew says, no. So it's one step to another.

I can't sell you anything, unless it's extra dishes. And I can't sell you anything. There's a bunch of stuff. You want to buy some crab meat? All the things that we would say, no problem, They would say that's horrible. You know can't can't do it. So it was a constant offense Let's uh Let's move on to the next one here and and this I say the handout disappeared.

So we'll wing it I'll get the handout to you next week somehow Either we'll find it or print some more anyway Now we're going to step into this situation here's Cornelius and Peter and Cornelius has sent three guys down to go get Peter, and get this, three Gentiles have come down to meet Peter, and Peter's staying at the house of Simon the Tanner in Joppa, and Peter has them spend the night there.

He has them spend the night there, and then they travel up to Caesarea. As they're traveling up there, what's interesting is Everything is kept to the point where you've got sequential order and even the times. You know, this hour, this, this hour, this, you know. And so we've gotten some sequence and some time and the next day and all this kind of thing. It's all laid out real clearly. And occasionally you see that in acts, but this is kind of extraordinary. And you get the impression that this is such a momentous event and also such a challengeable event. That it kind of, they want to watch it real carefully, record everything. Because we want to be able to testify how this came off, how this happened.

Then, Peter gets there, and what happens? He goes into the house of Cornelius, and he's got some other Jews with him. We find out in the next chapter, there's six of them, six Jews with him. And so Peter and Cornelius each briefly recount how it is they came together. There's Cornelius and his household, and he's got a bunch of relatives and friends gathered there. And then there's Peter and six Jews with him.

And each of them recounts how this came about. Peter says, I had this vision and, you know, the food, and I realized that, no, the Lord is not put these divisions between us here in the church. And Cornelius recounts how the Lord had conveyed to him, go have Peter come from Joppa, the house of Simon the Tanner. So each of them recounts how this happens.

And then Peter begins explaining the gospel to the Gentiles there. Let me grab this since we don't have the handout. Okay, so here's Peter, and he's talking to the household there, Cornelius' household. And then, if we look in Acts 10, verse 43, he says, to him all the prophets witnessed that through his name whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins.

And then something happens right then. But before we do that, we want to... What's Peter just telling them? What's Peter just revealing? Yeah. He says, what's the critical issue? What are you supposed to do? Eat the right things? Not eat the right things? Not eat the wrong things?

What's that? Believe. Yeah. This is the bottom line. Believe. Okay? Bottom line. Believe. Believe anything? Believe something? Be people of faith. Is that what he's saying? No, what's he calling for? What's the rest of the story? Yes, believe most certainly. What else? In him. Ah, there's a direction. There's a direction. Believe in him.

And then what happens? Receive forgiveness of sins. Let's talk about how the people of that day would look at this. The forgiveness idea goes like this. People were looked upon as being held in bondage, as if like a captured people, held in bondage. And the only way to be released in that bondage is payment of a ransom price.

And forgiveness of sins isn't God just saying, Oh, that's too bad. I just, I won't hold it against them anymore. It's the price of the ransom has been paid. God's justice would not allow for him to just kind of get gushy hearted and say, Oh, that's too bad for them folks.

The price had to be paid. So when we believe in Him, we're trusting in that payment to release us. Those who would believe, yes, the price has been paid, the jail door is open and you can walk free. That's forgiveness of sins. You're trusting in the payment on your behalf by somebody else.

An example that we've used in the past is, let's say that Vernon owed $10 billion. And they say, hey Vern, you're in a clink until that $10 billion gets paid. Well, Vern's going to have a problem. I don't have $10 billion, folks. You probably know that. But anyway, I don't have the $10 billion. So what's going to happen is I'm not going to be able to do anything unless somebody else pays it.

So what happened is the Lord said, OK, I'll pay it. I'll write out the check. Instead of ten billion dollars, it was the price of his perfect life. Paid on our behalf. With that, all I've got to do is believe, yes, he's paid it. Yes, the door's open. Yes, I can walk out. Then I'm free. My sins are forgiven. Forgiven not because God just got gushy-hearted, but because the price has been paid. The cost demanded by justice has been paid. And that's what he's looking at now. As soon as he says this, I mean, he just lays it out there and look at what happens.

Verse 44, while Peter was still speaking these words, did they believe? Was he looking at hard looks and skepticism? No. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word. Why? The Lord said, OK, now is the time. I'm just going to drop my Holy Spirit on these folks. Is that what happened? What took place here? They believed. Yeah, it's that simple.

He said, he who believes has forgiveness of sins. That, to use the analogy, that $10 billion price tag. It's hopeless. If it's up to Vern to pay it, it isn't happening. That price tag was paid by Christ. All it is, is the price has been paid, the door is unlocked, it's been opened, walk out. Do you believe that you can walk through the door, walk out? Yeah. It's as simple as that. It's as simple as that. The price has been paid.

One of the things we find as we start to compare these situations, here are the Jews in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 2. We have these evidences here with the Gentiles in Caesarea. Notice that the speaking in tongues was in common. That you see here in the rest of the chapter. The Spirit received upon believing was something that was also there. Notice a lot of the rest of the things weren't there particularly, at least as described. Do we see a description of the sound of wind or tongues of fire? No. Don't see it happening. Laying on of hands? No, none of that. Waiting around? It didn't seem to be. This was a different event, wasn't it? It was a different event. And yet there were things similar to it.

And as we'll see later on, Peter even tells the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, what happened to them, these Gentiles, there at the house of Cornelius, was like what happened to us back at the beginning, Acts 2. And so he's pointing back to that event. So it's interesting to look at these accounts and see quite a bit of variation there.

By noticing the variation, one of the things that you'll see is we can't use Acts directly to tell us what the doctrine is. We need to look at the epistles to confirm, to give us the objective statement of what's happening. Because these are transitional events. It was not Luke's intent that this be some sort of a comprehensive statement of every single thing that happened. We don't know if some of these other things might have happened or not, but it's not recorded. It wasn't Luke's intent that we have that.

We're to look to the epistles to give us the doctrine, the understanding objectively of what is true of believers now. Rather than trying to deduce from looking at these and notice the variation, what's true of believers now. Can't do it. We need to look at the book of Acts and continue to judge it by what we see in the epistles, realizing it's a time of transition.

Very important that we take a look at that. I don't have the question, because, boy, let me say the whole thing lock, stock, and barrel has disappeared, but one of the things that we see here, verse 47, Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?

What happened on the day of Pentecost? Did they do the same thing then? They had 3,000 that were baptized because they had the ritual baths available right there in Jerusalem. And so 3,000 were baptized that day. Here, baptism as well, water baptism. Notice that they believed, and that was the point of change. Baptism was a subsequent expression of what had taken place. It did not affect the Holy Spirit's coming. It did not bring about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, in this case or any other. And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.

Then they asked him to stay a few days. Oh man, here's a guy, he's all ready. walk through the door of the house of Gentiles. To stay for a few days, what does it mean he's going to do? He's going to eat there. He's going to hang around Gentiles. What might they eat? Heaven sakes. There's no way he could remain kosher. Isn't this an amazing thing?

Here's Peter. He had just told the Lord shortly before, Lord, I don't eat that stuff. I don't touch it. Not me. No. He says, I get the point, Lord. I get the point. No longer is this the issue. We are in the church where the law does no longer apply. We'll be taking a look at the law a little bit here. Let's ask a few questions here.

Why do you think that the Lord had Peter be the one to introduce the gospel to the Gentiles when Paul is supposed to be the apostle to the Gentiles? For one thing, Paul wasn't actually on the scene yet. Yeah, Paul was a believer, but Paul was still kind of doing some growing up, wasn't he? Yeah. And certainly Paul wasn't here. Paul wasn't in this mix. Yeah. Okay, good. Any other thoughts on that? Yeah.

And along with that, because that's an excellent point, what kind of radical reversal had Paul just made? So here's Paul, he was on his way to Damascus to see that Christians were killed, or at least put in prison. He even made the point later on in Acts, I pursued them to the death. So here's Paul, he's on his way to Damascus to see that those Christians are put out, and now he makes this radical reversal that he's suddenly a Christian.

Would it possibly be a little hard to believe if he's all of a sudden going to say, oh, by the way, the Gentiles are part of this picture, too? Yeah, it'd be a little tough. Peter could come along and more easily make it believable and understandable to the rest of the people, right? Here's another thing, too. If Paul came along and did that, you've got the rest of the apostles you've got to bring along in this picture, too. And real easy for the rest of them to just say, this guy's a little bit off the wall.

If Peter did it before Paul came on the scene, then to have Paul come alongside and then be the apostle to the Gentiles, it would be already a matter of the two of them, even if the others weren't yet convinced, and they were, but even if the others weren't yet convinced, making connections with the Gentiles. Now, let's think of something else. What is it that the disciples don't yet, or the apostles even, don't yet know? What do they not yet know at this point in time? The Gentiles have just become believers. What do they not know?

Pardon? Well, they seem to use the word church, so they do have the church, but I think you're on to something. There is a recognition that there is this thing called the church, and it's only seven Jews have gotten the picture now. That there is something different going on here and the law doesn't apply. I assume that the other six Jews stayed with Peter as well.

So what do they not know yet? Pardon? They have no idea that they've been identified with Christ yet from anything that we can see. Isn't that something? They have no idea that they've been identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. That's not on the radar screen. Good. What else?

Where have the disciples, up until the persecution of Stephen, where have the disciples been hanging around? Jerusalem, yeah. And as a matter of fact, remember they were released The apostles were released from prison, and where did the angel tell them to go? Go to the temple. So they've been, up until this point, still seeing themselves as a Jewish group, and centered around the temple. And some things have taken place. The persecution of Peter has kind of tended to shove them out and away.

But that's still young. That's still pretty young. trying to get within their own mind the idea that this isn't just a Jewish thing. Alright, yeah, good. What else do they not know yet? Yeah, this is an idea that's just been introduced. We're talking something, as of the closing of that chapter, we're talking about something that's a few days old.

And only about seven Jews have gotten a picture, and only one of them is an apostle. You see how young this is? I mean, this is a point where it's just starting to dawn on them. You ever have one of those aha moments? This is like a massive aha moment. Because here's Peter and six other unnamed Jews who are just having their eyes opened. They're beginning to see something that's like, Well, you know what, the one there in 45, it says, all the circumcised believers who came here were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured on them.

Amazed is to be knocked off your feet. Yeah, yeah. There are many places, and this is one of them, where the English translation is understatement. Yeah, blown away. Knocked off your feet. Just totally pushed back. You've been told as a Jew for 15 centuries, you know, hey, don't eat with these people, and in recent centuries, you know, don't go in their house, you know, don't wear the clothing that they wear, don't do this and don't do that with them. And then all of a sudden, they're part of the same body and the same position, all they have to do to be in Christ, which they don't understand yet, is to believe. All he understands is forgiveness of sins, but what all that means.

See, we've talked in Ephesians about our position in Christ. We've been going on for over a year, but it's been three chapters, and we've talked about the first part of Colossians. All of what we've studied, they still don't understand yet. We've been spending a year studying what they don't understand.

All they know is you believe, you have forgiveness of sins, Somehow this is a Jewish thing one step beyond. And they've got seven Jews who now are beginning to get their eyes open that there's something much bigger happening here. A little bit differently than what we'd anticipated. And all that we've been studying in the main service for the last 16 months almost, totally new.

Hadn't even heard of it. We've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. You're seated with Christ, huh? They've never heard of that. It's all brand new. So they have yet to learn that. Can you imagine that? Even the apostles themselves have yet to get that in their mind. And we have just a little crack in the door open in the minds of seven Jews there in this Roman military-based city. 50,000 people. Yeah? Yes, yes. Ah, excellent point. What did Jesus say in John? There are other sheep, okay? I think it's John chapter 10. There are other sheep who are not of this fold, okay?

Yeah. So here's an amazing thing and now Peter who has heard that is now starting to get the picture. Imagine the wheels are turning. If you're a Jew and that's the way you've been brought up and all of a sudden you're standing in the house of a Gentile and what happened to a bunch of other apostles with you roughly a little less than a decade before is happening right in front of you and the Gentiles and all you said was if you believe in Him you'll have forgiveness of sins. And then they saw something happen.

There's nothing in there that tells Peter in advance to be warned this is what's going to happen. So this guy is just astounded. He just had no idea. Ever get up in the morning and have your day turn out real different than you thought? Peter had had one of those days. This was a real different day than what he'd expected.

It had already gotten a little stretched, but boy, this was way beyond what he was anticipating. See, Peter, I'm sure he stayed around for a few days and had a lot of things to tell. Peter himself had a lot of things to learn. Peter himself had lots of things to learn, and it's neat to see.

Okay, now, let's think. Peter doesn't yet know All the things, his position in Christ, basically. All those things. That he's in Christ. That he's been identified with Christ. All that's brand new stuff. Okay? Does he yet know how these Gentiles are going to be reached? No. No, I mean, the idea that they're going to be reached in the way they are has just come upon him. He still doesn't know how this is going to happen. God, how are we going to pull this off? He doesn't know that yet. Not understood. So this is amazing stuff. We're starting to see just a little bit of realization when a whole lot more is yet to come. Can you imagine what this was like for these guys? How much had changed in the last decade and a little bit more for Peter?

So he told the Lord, Lord I'll stand with you to the end. And he's thinking we're going to come in and push the Romans out. And then to learn, after denying the Lord three times, no, that isn't what's happening at all. The Lord's going to be crucified and then resurrected, and then we're going to be sent around to spread the gospel.

Just a very different story. And now, after some time has gone by, to see, hey, wait a minute, the Gentiles are going to get the gospel by believing directly? I mean, this is one radical revelation to the next. This must have been a mind-boggling experience for the gay. It's amazing to look at. Let's go ahead and close our time in prayer.

Lord, as we look at this passage, we see you working in marvelous, momentous ways. Ways that the only seven Jews saw out there and some untold number of Gentiles began to see that very day. We see now amazing things and yet we We know that there are things yet to be revealed to us, things that we have yet to understand, so much so that eternity will not be long enough. And Lord, we thank you for the ways you've blessed us and for what you have revealed to us and what we do know because of your word, because of your Holy Spirit ministering to us with the truth. We just thank you for that in Jesus' name.