b,c-33 Peter does something shocking

Good morning. We are going to proceed into this passage, Acts of the Apostles, actually starting with 23 B and C, that is the last half of it, then on into 24 through verse 33. And just as I've been going through this, this has been quite an adventure and learning experience for me, looking at things afresh and just investigating different things.

You have on the front page of your handout a map. This is one that we have not previously presented. It shows that this is a map of Israel during the New Testament times. And so this is from the south end up to the north above the Sea of Galilee. And then particularly on the coast, we're going to zero in on this part of it from Joppa on the south end to Caesarea in the middle. And so the part we'll be looking at looks like this. Key in this is Joppa at the south end. of the area of our interest here for this morning study.

And then Caesarea at kind of the middle portion of it. Caesarea was like Joppa on the coast, about 30 miles to the north. It says the Plain of Sharon, it basically was, this is all beachfront area and so pretty straight, generally flat land in that area between them. So it wasn't a lot of climbing up and down hills and that sort of thing.

Joppa would have been prominently Jewish in its ethnic makeup and as we'll see Caesarea prominently Roman in its makeup. So different in that regard as well. So we'll take a closer look at that. But just so you can kind of keep the big picture as to where things are.

Here is an aerial photo of Joppa. This is, of course, an aerial photo as it is now. I don't have any aerial photos from New Testament times. I just am not sure quite how to get those. But what we can show you is this is where Simon the Tanner's house most likely is located here. So you see that, the evidence that we have points to that being the location.

Next is the ancient port of Joppa. Excuse me, I'll go back to it here. The ancient port of Joppa here, this is the place where Jonah would have gone to try to get away from the Lord's assignment to him at Nineveh. And so it'd be a part of the existing port facilities, but slightly shifted. And so the account, as we've started in the chapter, would go like this.

First you would have Cornelius. He was a centurion of the Italian cohort stationed there in Caesarea. And he was one who was known, even among the Jews, for being a God-fearing Gentile. And that doesn't mean he was a Jew, it doesn't even mean he was a Jewish convert, but it means that he in some degree observes, and we'll talk more about what that means as we go along. He was in Caesarea Maritima, as it was called, or Caesarea by the Sea.

This is looking to the north, and we're going to return to this photo, or rather artist rendering. This is what it would have looked like. The archaeological excavations started before I was born, continued on, and by the way, it was the Italians, so Romans, who continued the excavation in the early 60s. And then starting in the 80s, more of the seaside excavation began to take place, underwater excavation and that sort of thing. So there's been a good deal of archaeological work being done, and all of it is consistent with what the New Testament describes.

So this is looking to the north, which means at the south end here, which we'll be looking at, this is what Peter and his companions would see as they came in. But we'll get back to that. The next part, of course, is Cornelius as he's there praying and that sort of thing.

An angel appears to him, a rather shocking and stunning appearance. It says that Cornelius was very afraid. That's amazing for a guy who had Very likely lead soldiers in battle. Amidst the battle and yet sees one angel and he is very afraid. So here he is and he has this brief interaction with the angel.

The angel assigns to him, go send for Simon who is called Peter at the house of Simon the Tanner down in Joppa, which is in the houses by the sea. So it's seaside as opposed to farther up into the town. And so Cornelius makes an assignment to one of his devout soldiers and to two of his servants in the household to go down and look for Peter to fetch him and invite him to come back.

And that they do. They make a trip. And the timing of things, it appears that they were booking. They were really hauling. Either they walked all night, or if they did take a rest, they made very good time in between. But nonetheless, they came up to the gate, probably wanting to be respectful of the fact that there were Jews inside. They came up to the gate and asked if somebody could tell where this guy, Simon, who was called Peter, was. And of course, Peter had been having a time up on the rooftop. a vision from the Lord with various kinds of forbidden foods, and the Lord had finished it off by telling Peter, through the Holy Spirit, not the vision, but through the Holy Spirit, there's some guys down here at the gate who are calling for you, go ahead and go with them, don't hesitate to do so. So he goes down from the top of the roof, meets with these two servants and the devout soldier, and kind of gets the initial story as to why he's being sent for.

And then he does something rather surprising because Jews would not ordinarily have done that. He invites them to come in and be his guests at the house of Simon the Tanner. That would typically not have been done, but he does that. And as we'll see shortly, he does more.

So here's Acts 10, 23 BC and 24. So on the next day he got up and went with them. And some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And on the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. So let's step through that. So this is after the next day, after two of Cornelius' servants and a devout soldier had come, then he went away with the two servants and the devout soldier, again all Gentiles, right?

And then some of the brethren. So we learn not from this account, but because in fact there are two recountings of what took place here, and in the second recounting, Acts 11-12, as we'll see, six fellow believers in Christ. These were Jewish believers in Christ. So the number is given there in Acts 11-12. All we know from here is some of the brethren, but we know from Acts 11-12, six of them. So here's Peter and six other Jewish Christian believers, believers in Christ, who are going along with these three Gentiles sent from the house of Cornelius to go back to Caesarea.

And so this is about a 30-mile trip on foot, a fairly simple and direct trip in this case because it's right along the seashore. And then this is Caesarea going into the Roman military colony. Now there were in fact Jews there, so going into Caesarea was not itself the problem. As we'll see later, this is going to be a place where a lot of Jews go, even though they're a minority. but it is a Roman military colony. That's the main presence.

I guess what I would think of is we can think of here in the Denver area, we have and have had military installations in different parts here. What you have is those military installations have a significant impact on the area around them, and that would be somewhat comparable here. We have military bases, and we have people, even if they're not in the military, who are or have worked there, related to the military. people who passed through with various military assignments. So that's something that we can in some degree relate to. Caesarea was a new city, only developed in a few decades before, and so a fairly new Roman colony.

And then waiting for them, that is Peter and the two servants and the devout soldier, and he called together his relatives and close friends. So think about this, he's got those of his household, he's got other relatives, meaning extended family, and then his close friends. So he's gathered together quite a group here. And just to kind of get a sense of what is this like for Peter and the Jewish guys who are along with him, fellow believers, but of all Jewish background and upbringing, what is it like? Here is from the Book of Jubilees, which is outside the Bible, but gives you a sense, because it's a Jewish writing, what would be the Jews' thoughts. And so here's Book of Jubilees 2216, you have it on page 2 of your handout as well.

Separate yourselves from the Gentiles and do not eat with them. and do not perform deeds like theirs and do not become associates of theirs because their deeds are defiled and all of their ways are contaminated and despicable and abominable. So these people are terrible, awful, stay away from them. Don't touch them, don't eat with them, don't go in their house. So imagine if you wouldn't brought up with that.

We're going to continue on with that, but just to kind of frame the thinking, this is a really radical change for Peter and his Jewish friends to accommodate. Let's see how they do. One of the things that's key here, and we keep bringing this up and I keep seeing how important it is, with regards to facts, faith, and feelings. So we have here, like the train and the tracks, our faith is to be in the facts. What do we mean by that? Our faith and trust and confidence are to be in the facts revealed by Scripture. Emotions and experience and cultural background, all that takes a back seat to our faith in the facts.

That's what these men who are going along with Peter and Peter are having to do. They're having to do the right thing regardless of how it feels. See that? Have you ever been in that experience? You know you're doing the right thing, but it sure feels uncomfortable. Ever been there? That's what they're doing. It feels really, really uncomfortable. It's like something they've never done before in their entire lives.

So, faith in the facts is like the train in the tracks and the feelings, and I could add to that experiences, culture, everything else follows. It does not lead. Our culture has been telling us for decades. particularly since about World War II, and telling us for decades to put our trust and feelings and experiences. So Peter travels along with six Jewish believers in Christ.

They had quite a change of view to absorb here. To have asked three Gentiles to stay with them, of course, was a very bold move. And then for them all to go together, and by the way, they walked all night, which doesn't appear to be the case, or they actually stayed together somewhere, maybe even had been camping. Can you imagine that? Camping together along the ocean shore, maybe next to a creek or a river coming into the ocean there. each step of the way, knowing that they're not only traveling with Gentiles, who they've been trained their whole lives don't associate with these people, and also they are planning to enter the house filled with Gentiles. Imagine the mindset as they're traveling. Here is Peter who is told, go with these guys without hesitation. All the feelings inside may very well have been telling him, hesitate. Right? But regardless, what is Peter doing? He's following the direction of the Holy Spirit. Period.

So now in Caesarea, Caesarea had been the dream of this maniac, Herod the Not-So-Great, as I call him. By the way, there was a Christian conference. It was partly a bunch of Christian psychologists and psychiatrists and a bunch of Christian historians. They met together and concluded that Herod the Great was a paranoid schizophrenic. So he was a freaky guy. But this was his dream, and he named the place after Caesar, hence the name Caesarea.

It was a port city protected as you can see in some of the pictures by a harbor that was kind of walled so it had some protection and then on land it also had walls and then limited number of gates. That's what you'd have in order to have significant military protection. So it was a protected military base with port facilities protected on both the port side and on the land side. with lots of Roman soldiers stationed there. It was primarily a Roman military colony with a large number of Jews and those from other ethnic groups present as well. So there's a large number of Jews there. We'll talk about some of them as it relates to the book of Acts shortly here a large number of Jews there and there were a large number of others of typically Greek-speaking background as well, but the primary population was Supporting this as a military base similar what we would have we have you know people even among us here who have worked or are working in at one of the local military facilities, and we have others nearby, and it would be the same thing here. You still have people who have to provide food and clothing and all the other things, even if they're not related to the military directly.

By the way, this was also home base for Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate came to Jerusalem to do his various judgments and whatnot at intervals, but stayed most of the time here. But by this time, Pontius Pilate had been deposed. About the end of 36 AD, Pontius Pilate was yanked out of being the governor.

And by the way, that was also about the same time that Caiaphas ended his high priestly duties, so both of them out about the same period of time. So by the time this event here is taking place, Pilot out. Marcellus is the guy who steps in his place, and Caiaphas is out. So both of those guys are out, so enough time has transpired that that's no longer the case here. Here is the Roman aqueduct that they would have walked by. It supplied water to Caesarea, and in the end, they ended up putting in several different aqueducts in order to make sure they had enough capacity.

But this would give you an idea what Peter would have walked by these. They just would have been a few, you know, 20 centuries younger, that's all. So, at any rate, that gives you an idea what that looks like. Here's the Roman amphitheater that he would have walked by as he came in the south end, and so would have seen that. And by the way, this Roman amphitheater was a place where they found, kind of buried in it, an inscription that had Pontius Pilate's name on it. So very interesting. So here's Acts 10, 25 through 27.

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. And as he talked with him, he entered and found many people assembled." So imagine, here's the pivotal moment. Here's Peter. Imagine, was Peter operating according to his emotions? The natural emotions may even have been as serious as just revulsion.

What did he do? He put his faith in the spiritually revealed facts. He didn't follow his emotions. It doesn't even say what their emotions were, we can only imagine, but he followed what the Lord told him and revealed to him. That's our call as well, isn't it? We're called to follow what the Lord says and not go according to emotions, not go according to experiences.

So then the next thing, here is Cornelius who falls at his feet and worships him. The custom in those days was to bow to someone who was greatly superior. So that would have been what this indicated, not that it was necessarily worshiping him as a god, but greatly honoring Peter's superior authority, which is something considering this guy was a commander of probably about 80 soldiers. under his command as a centurion. But nonetheless, he bowed to Peter as one who was greatly, greatly higher in authority than he. So Peter raised him up. Can you imagine Peter picking him up and saying, along with his physical actions, get up. But he says, stand up. I too am just a man. Stop worshiping. Stop bowing to my supposed supreme authority. Why? Because we're both men. We're both, and that's not referring to males necessarily, but just simply a human being. And as he talked with him, that is Peter with Cornelius, he entered, and by the way it's the second time he entered it says, And what that means is he entered further in. He'd gone in further still and found many people assembled. Now the indications we have, we have those of Cornelius' household It's between his wife and, you know, having sons and or daughters. We don't know any specifics on that.

And also, by the way, the slaves would be considered of the same household. So that would have been them. It talks about others. So this would have included extended family beyond that, you know, other Cornelius brothers and friends and, you know, things of that sort. all gathered and they would all be Gentiles. And very likely a great many of them from Italy. So Roman. Roman Gentiles.

They found many people assembled. We don't know how many. I wouldn't be surprised if the number was somewhere in the dozens. Somewhere in the dozens all totaled. But imagine putting yourself in Peter's place here Here he is going into the house of Cornelius. He had been a lifelong Jew, raised in Israel with the law of Moses and all the traditions of the Jews drummed into his head for years.

Imagine, here's Peter fishing. He goes out, catches a bunch of fish in the net. Can he eat all of the fish? No, he cannot eat anything that, for example, if it doesn't have fins and scales, he can't eat it. So no eels. So he'd have to go through everything and separate it out. and he'd have the eels and, you know, any kind of crustaceans or, you know, anything else that didn't have fins and scales would go into the things you could sell to the Gentiles. But you certainly, certainly wouldn't even think of eating it, right?

Not even close. And Peter invites three Gentiles to stay at the house of Simon the Tanner, and then he goes with these three Gentiles and invites six other Jews to go along with him, and then they actually enter the house of the Gentile Cornelius, which Peter and all the others have been told their whole lives, never, ever, ever do this. But guess what he does? Exactly that. What he's been learning his whole life, never do this. That's exactly what he's doing.

Acts 10.28, And He said to them, You yourselves know how unlawful... By the way, this word unlawful doesn't mean just against the law. It has a sense of revulsion built into it. How revolting.

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 and unclean." So you yourselves know, now these are Gentiles living in Israel. They're all well informed of how the Jews are going to behave.

And it's not just food things, and we can't go in your house. Nancy invited a neighbor lady from two houses over that was Jewish to come over and have tea, and the guy says, sorry, can't do that. Can't do that. You might have had bacon for breakfast and washed it in the same water with this cup, and I just can't do that.

You yourselves know. You've been well informed by this. That's why these Jews behave this way. That's why they won't eat with you. That's why you can't eat with them. That's why they won't buy your clothing because you mix fibers. Don't even offer it. They won't do it. You can't even think of it.

It's unlawful. It's against not just the law of Moses, but all the piled up Jewish traditions. for a man who is a Jew to associate with one who is a foreigner." This word means one of another nation. There is the nation of the Jews, and one of another nation, or of all the other nations. That's the foreigner.

Or even to visit him, even momentarily. I'm not supposed to step into your house. Just for a minute. Not supposed to happen. You came and visit. Would you like some tea?" Absolutely not. Right? Absolutely not. God has shown me through two things. One, a vision that he had, and he told the Lord three times, Oh, I don't need that. And the Lord said, Yes, you do. Right? I don't need that. Yes, you do. Lord, I don't need... Yes, you do. Now, go with these guys. I should not call any man unholy or unclean."

Acts 10.15, what God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy. No longer. But my... But, but, but, but... No. No longer.

Acts 10.29, that is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for. So I ask for what reason you have sent me. So this is the thing that's real curious here. That is why, because God said so. Right? Because God said so. And for what reason you have sent me?

Peter was told by the Holy Spirit, go with these guys without any hesitation. Was it explained to him? Peter, this is why you're going with these guys. It was not. And even when he asked, The two servants and the soldier, what's the reason that you've come to get me? He really didn't get a full explanation then. And so now, he's asking Cornelius directly, face to face. But notice, he didn't wait to get answers before he did what the Lord said.

This is very important for us. Do we wait until the Lord's answered all of our questions before we do what the Lord says? Will the Lord always answer all of our questions about everything in advance? No. We go on faith on what the Lord has revealed, anticipating that He will reveal what He wants us to know at the right time. But we don't wait until we get all the answers. We don't wait until we have revealed to us, here's what the Lord has in mind. We don't wait for that.

So Peter was told about this vision and by the Holy Spirit he shouldn't hesitate to go, but that's all he was told. Peter wasn't told specifically why he was to go to the house of Cornelius. Can you imagine? We're traveling 30 miles, and I'm going to invite these Jewish guys along, and I'm going to go along with these Gentiles. Why are we going there? Not quite sure. Not quite sure. But I just know God wants me to do this. Can you imagine having feelings of, oh boy, this is really uncomfortable. But I know God wants me to do it. Do we hesitate until we feel comfortable? No. We act on the basis of faith in what God has clearly revealed, not on feelings and experiences, even if it's feelings of revulsion. And the three who were sent to him did not provide a complete answer. So Peter then asks Cornelius himself.

Here's Acts 10.30 and 31.

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. This four days ago, that was what was first recounted to us in Acts 10, 1 through 3. During the ninth hour, which would have been three o'clock in the afternoon, this man, as he describes, was an angel. He said to Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.

So these alms are gifts to the Jewish people, as we saw in the earlier description. And remembered doesn't mean that God forgot. Oh, heaven sakes! I forgot Cornelius! Right? That's not what God's doing here. This remembered means simply that it comes in central focus in the Lord's looking at things, not that God's forgotten, suddenly recalled something He'd forgotten.

One of the things that comes out of this is we're going to see, we've seen one accounting of it, we're going to see Cornelius then give his second account, and then later in chapter 11, we're going to see Peter give another account of these same events. One of the things that's important for us to look at, because this is part of a bigger principle in Scripture, there are numerous places, including Acts, where there are multiple accounts of the same event. Differences in those accounts do not mean the accounts are unreliable. That's very important. Differences in the accounts do not mean the accounts are unreliable. So, they in fact underscore their reliability and add critical details.

Here's Acts 10.32, which recounts Acts 10.5 and 6.

Therefore send a job and invite Simon, who is also called Peter, to come to you. He's staying at the house of Simon the Tanner by the sea. So this Greek word here is used by Dr. Luke, the author of Acts, only in the book of Acts, and only four times as I recall. It's not the exact same word as the angel used. So this is a Dr. Luke specific term. Therefore send a Joppa and invite Simon who is also called Peter to come to you. He's staying at the house of Simon the Tandor by the sea.

So this is the recounting that's coming out here in Acts 10.33.

So I sent for you immediately and you have been kind enough to come. Now then we are all here present before God to hear all that you have been commanded. by the Lord. So this is what I sent for you immediately, and that's four days earlier, and in fact you did. You've been kind enough to come these 30 miles, and we're all present here, that is the household, the extended family, and close friends, those are all included here. And then before the God, this is a definite article, the God, to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.

And also, here is active. That's a key principle. This verse is part of a pattern. By the way, I'm well accustomed to seeing this. There's no problem, you know. If you need, well, anyway. So anyhow. It's very common in the New Testament, actually, though we tend to think of, okay, I'm going to go to church, and it's kind of a passive activity because we sit down in the pew, and I know Bruce is talking to people about this. Anyway, so as you look at here, In the New Testament, it's very interesting.

This word, and just about every other place I've found, I've yet to find an exception to it, but I don't want to claim it's universal, to hear and to learn in the New Testament is always active voice. From anything I've seen so far. I'm not done looking. But from anything I've seen so far, it's a key thing. Learning and hearing in the Bible is active voice. That is, it's not seen as a passive activity. One of the things here, this passage here is just the beginning.

As we go through the book of Acts, we're going to see some things that are kind of amazing stuff, neither the law of Moses nor any part of it, such as the Ten Commandments, nor any principle of law has any direct application to us in the body of Christ. Christ died on the cross in order to make that absolutely, totally, completely true for each one of us who believes. So we're not here to beat people over the head with the Ten Commandments or the law. If you want to do that, I can't help you. You have to go somewhere else. We won't do that.

Another question we're going to come up with as we go through the Book of Acts is how long is three years? There are actually two places relative to the Book of Acts where the Apostle Paul writes or talks about three years. And so is that 3 times 365 or something else? We will be taking a look at that. Including questions like, where was Arabia back then? And why does Dr. Luke never mention any of Paul's letters? Fascinating. Do we need to synchronize our sundials?

The other thing we're going to see as we go through the book of Acts, Caesarea was the chosen home of Philip the Evangelist, who was married, had four daughters there. Peter came to Caesarea here, and he's actually, we're going to see, come back again in chapter 12. Saul, later to become the Apostle Paul, is going to spend a little more than two years here. Here in Caesarea, as a matter of fact, that's about the location right there where Paul spent two years. And before that, he'll go through Caesarea on the way to Tarsus.

So fascinating. This is the place we keep coming back. So if you see Caesarea show up again, that's why. We're going to see Peter's going to come here again. Paul's going to come through here twice. So anyway, so there was Paul's home for two years and a few more months on top of that.

Peter's going to tell these Gentiles the gospel that must be believed in order to be saved. Christ the Son of God died for your sins and was buried and rose again. Peter's going to see that upon their belief in the gospel, the Holy Spirit is given immediately to each one there.

This will reveal the pattern of tongues in the book of Acts, and the tongues pattern in Acts is actually one of the best kept secrets. And we'll talk about that two weeks from now when we talk about this again. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this passage. You're in the process of not only teaching us, but you're in the process of teaching Peter and those with him. And you will soon be teaching others that Peter will see shortly. And we'll see that as well. And so we just ask that you continue to teach us as we step our way through this phenomenal and amazing book. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.