The Conversion of Peter, Part I Lesson Twenty-seven Acts 10:1-23 We arrive today at chapter 10 in our study through the first 12 chapters of Acts. We have noted the conversion of several individuals in our trek through Acts the lame man, the Ethiopian eunuch, and in the last chapter, Saul. In today s passage we will study the conversion of Peter. You may ask Wasn t Peter already converted, saved? Well, yes. But, we are going to talk today about a different kind of conversion today. In discussing Philip s evangelistic efforts in Samaria in chapter 8, we noted the long-standing animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans. The animosity between Jew and Gentile was equally comprehensive and intense. The two had erected a nearly impenetrable wall. In Acts chapter 10, Luke tells us how God accomplishes the breaking down of this wall and brings about the unity in Christ. Verses 1 through 23 introduce to us the process God used to bring the Gentiles into the church. God has already been working on Peter to prepare him for this event. We learned at the end of last week s lesson, verse 43, that Peter stayed in the house of Simon the tanner a trade despised by any self-respecting Jew. We find in this passage that God prepares two people. We observed this sovereign work in chapter 8 when we studied Philip s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch. He prepared and sent Philip from Samaria to Gaza. And, he had prepared the heart of the Ethiopian who was reading Isaiah 53 just at the moment when Philip arrived. And, we see that pattern repeated in the passage before us today. First He prepares the Gentile, and then He prepares the Jew. The Gentile is Cornelius, and the Jew is Peter. I. The Vision of Cornelius (vv. 1-8) Cornelius lived in Caesarea. Caesarea was a military garrison where the home of Pilate existed, or any other procurator for that matter of Palestine, because the Roman government had their headquarters there. It was populated dominantly by Gentiles with only a minimum of Jewish populace. Augustus had given this city to Herod as a gift. Cornelius, it says, was "a centurion of the band called the Italian cohort." The
Acts Lesson Twenty-seven page 2 word Italian Band is interesting. The word band is cohort. A centurion commanded 100 men. A Roman legion had 6,000, and it was divided into ten cohorts, and each cohort would have 600 men. Each cohort had 6 centurions, and so Cornelius was one of 6 men who handled 100 men. Josephus tells us that there were five cohorts stationed in Caesarea, so they had a large contingent of Roman soldiers in that place perhaps around 3,000. Out of all of those, God selected this one centurion by the name of Cornelius. Look at verse 2. Cornelius s designation as a devout man is an interesting term. That means he was pious, religious. The term feared God became a technical term applied to Gentiles. There were three kinds of Gentiles in the mind of a Jew. One kind was just the plain, run-of-the-mill Gentile. The other kind was a God-fearer. This was a Gentile who had ultimately rejected his own religion - the immoralities and the idolatries of his own faith, and had come to the conclusion that the God of Israel was the true God. He actually began to pray to that God. He perhaps became involved in the worship in certain synagogues. He believed in the ethics of the Old Testament, but he had never been circumcised. He was not then a full proselyte. He was what they called a God-fearer. The third level of Gentile would be the proselyte who had come all the way to Judaism, actually gone through the act of circumcision, and fully identified himself with Israel and was considered to be a Jew in a spiritual sense. So here's a picture of a man who is a very religious man. Cornelius' religion was sincere and honest; he was seeking the true God with a true heart, but he was not saved. In verses 3-5, Cornelius receives instruction from an angel. Why did God not just send Cornelius, or send Peter to Cornelius? I believe it was in order to break the barriers down - that the Lord wanted Peter to lead Cornelius to Christ in Cornelius own home Verses 6 8 describe Cornelius s subsequent obedience. Cornelius must have been on pins and needles waiting for all this to unfold, but he obeyed immediately.
Acts Lesson Twenty-seven page 3 So, Cornelius is getting prepared. Meanwhile, at the same time, God is preparing the messenger, Peter, down in Joppa. II. Vision of Peter (vv. 9-19) In verse 9, we are given the second vision. "On the next day, as they went on their journey...this is the two servants and the soldier...and drew near unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour." That's noon. It's time for prayer then, too, and so Peter was going up on the roof to pray. Unlike us today, they did many things on the roof, and very many times, the houses were close together, and the roof was kind of a patio area to them. Now, God had some work to do on Peter. Peter began his career as a very sincere bigot, as were most Jews, and God had to set him straight. The gears in Peter s brain were beginning to turn, and things were beginning to come into focus as God had designed them. Remember Peter had made the trip from Jerusalem to Samaria to check out whether the Samaritans faith was real. So, he was beginning to get the idea of the gospel being not just for the Jews, but for the world; but he needed one other super kind of vision to try to get him over the hump of dealing with Gentiles. In verses 10-11, Peter goes up to pray and sees a vision. In the vision, he sees something like a sheet with four corners. Why does the precise historian Luke tell us its shape? What difference does it make if its round, triangular or have four corners? (I ll get to the significance of the four corners in just a moment while you think about it.) Four corners, all probably pulled together and tied with a rope, and the rope extending into heaven. This thing is lowered down, this big tarp with four corners tied. Verse 12 indicates the animals in it were clean and unclean. What does that mean? You may recall that in Leviticus chapter 11, God laid down some absolutes in terms of the diet of Israel. Have you ever wondered why God would make this distinction? Why did God make clean and unclean animals? God prescribe these dietary restrictions for this primary reason - to distinguish them from other peoples. Along with these dietary laws,
Acts Lesson Twenty-seven page 4 Sabbath Laws and circumcision, the Jews were set apart from all other people no matter where they went in the world. They were different! See Leviticus chapter 20:22-26. And so Peter, all his life had strictly followed these dietary laws. And seeing this whole bag full of all these mixed up animals was a terribly repugnant thing for him to look at. I might briefly point out that Israel began to think the barrier implied that they were intrinsically better than Gentiles, whom they called "dogs" (cf. Matt. 7:6; 15:26-27). They forgot that their separation had been due not to intrinsic holiness on their part, but to the grace and love of God. See Deut. 7:7-9. Verse 14: "But Peter said, 'Not so, Lord.'" You remember when the Lord was on earth, Peter made a career out of rebuking Him, and now he's no different. What could be more insane than saying no to Almighty God? He knows it is God; that is not in question. And yet, Peter tells God no! Has it ever occurred to you evidently it had not to Peter that you can t use no and Lord in the same sentence? It is either no and He is not Lord, or He is Lord and you never say no. What is the meaning of the vision? This vision has a specific meaning and a general meaning. Specifically, He is abolishing the Old Testament Jewish dietary laws. Why? What were those laws designed to do? They were designed to _separate_ the Jew from the Gentile. What is the body of Christ designed to do? Unify_ Therefore, this one social line barrier had to be removed for them to come together. The general significance is this: those clean and unclean animals represent Jews and Gentiles God is saying that these groups are going to be mixed. What does the tarp represent? The tarp or the sheet is the church. It includes Jew and Gentile, and the significant part of the vision is that it says, "And the sheet, when it was finished, was received up into heaven." And if the church mixed of common and uncommon, Jew and Gentile, is acceptable to God, acceptable enough to enter back into heaven, then it ought to be acceptable to us to allow Gentiles to come in. Now, having done all that preparation, verse 17 says that Peter acts. God not only prepares the receiver and prepares the messenger, but He ordains the
Acts Lesson Twenty-seven page 5 divine timing for just the moment. Before he could wake up, bang on the door, there the guys were. Verses 18 and 19 reinforce the truth that God has planned and is orchestrating this entire event. Now, one of the most fantastic meetings that ever took place in history takes place; we will study it next week. III. Lessons There are many lessons here. I m going to take the approach of only listing one primary lesson with two corollary lessons. The primary lesson is the God often asks us to do hard things_ What God asked Peter to do was hard. Peter had a habit of calling Jesus "Lord" and saying "No!" to him in the same breath! Peter and his words are surely a reflection of an inner struggle that we face ourselves. Peter was "inwardly perplexed" (Acts 10:17), and no wonder! Everything he had ever known about food since the day he was born was being overturned. Jews did not eat pork, and that was that! He was being asked to do something that went contrary to his upbringing, his ethnicity, and his "way of life. We are often under the impression that once we re saved, life becomes a bed of roses. Certainly there is comfort and joy and peace and satisfaction, but spiritual growth is difficult, hard. So, here is corollary number one: Peter was willing to change, grow To acknowledge that none of us is perfect; to acknowledge that none of us are fully spiritually mature; to acknowledge that none of us is perfectly conformed to the image of Christ is to acknowledge that we must change we must be in the process of growing. Right? While we remember the failures of Peter and his telling the Lord no ; the fact is that God gave Peter the keys and appointed Peter to preach on the day of Pentecost, to heal the lame man and subsequently preach to the gathered crowd in the Temple and later to the Sanhedrin. He used Peter to heal others including Aeneas and raise Dorcas from the dead. Why? Because though Peter had failed, Peter was willing to recognize his sin and consecrate himself anew.
Acts Lesson Twenty-seven page 6 He was willing to assume an attitude of growth. The second corollary is a theme we have seen repeated several times recently - Peter was willing to embrace someone different Back to the meaning of the sheet being not round or triangular, but with four corners. Why do you think that was the shape and that Luke recorded that shape? I believe the four corners of the sheet in the vision correspond to the 4 points of the compass The sheet's contents indicate the swarming millions that populate the earth. Cornelius, all his soldiers, all his servants, all the Roman people, all other nations on the face of the earth all mankind were bound up together in one bundle. And, praise God, (insert your name)_ is in that sheet! Notice what Peter said when he arrived: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right" (vv. 34-35). That is the only way you and I ever became Christians. If God had shown favoritism, we would not have been saved. Therefore, we must never show favoritism in our presentation of the message. The gospel is for all who will come to Jesus. Whenever you see yourself, not as the clean animal but the unclean animal, not as the attractive beast but as the creeping thing, as one who by the grace of God got into that sheet and is pronounced clean by the sheer grace of God in Jesus Christ, then you are ready to open your heart and arms to other people. And it does not make any difference who they are. God does not show favorites. If I got in, the gospel must be for everybody. Lesson Twenty-eight - The Conversion of Peter, Part II Acts 10: 24-48