Word of Salvation – Vol.53 No.31 – August 2008

 

The Conversions of Cornelius and Peter

A Sermon by Rev John De Hoog
on Acts 10

Scripture Reading:  Acts 10

Suggested Singing:  BoW 104a; 402; 386

Dear Congregation.

The story of the conversion of Cornelius is one of the keys to understanding the whole book of Acts. Let me explain what I mean. The story is told three times in Acts. In Chapter 10 Luke simply tells us the story. In Chapter 11:1-18 Peter tells the story to the church back in Jerusalem. Then later, in Chapter 15:7-11, the events are recalled at the Jerusalem Council.

The only other event that’s told three times in the Book of Acts is the conversion of Saul. Saul was converted specifically to be the apostle to the Gentiles, i.e., non-Jews. Cornelius was the first fully Gentile convert. The conversion of Saul and the conversion of Cornelius are the beginnings of the mission to the Gentiles, and are recorded three times by Luke. Luke is the only Gentile writer of Scripture, and he is writing to another Gentile, a man named Theophilus. The pattern becomes clear, doesn’t it? The inclusion of the Gentiles in the church is a major theme of the Book of Acts.

I have centitled this sermon, “The conversions of Cornelius and of Peter”. The great point of Acts 10 is not really the conversion of Cornelius. The great point is the conversion of Peter. I don’t mean the conversion to salvation of Peter, but the conversion, the radical reorientation of Peter’s thinking. And of the church’s thinking. The big story here is this new possibility: Gentiles, non-Jews, coming into the church!

Luke tells the story in six scenes.

Scene 1: Cornelius receives a vision (10:1-8). In his vision, an angel commands Cornelius to send for Peter, and he does so immediately.

Scene 2: Peter receives a vision (10:9-16). A sheet is let down by its four corners. The animals in it represent all the animals of the earth, clean and unclean. Peter is commanded to get up, to kill, and to eat! Peter is horrified by the command — even the sight of so many unclean animals turns his stomach. The voice in the vision explains its meaning — do not call anything impure or unclean that God has made clean.

Scene 3: The pieces begin to fall into place for Peter, and he goes to Cornelius’ house (10:17-23). Peter is puzzled. What is the point of this vision? The answer comes immediately. God perfectly dovetails all the details. While Peter is praying and receiving his vision, Cornelius’ men are approaching the city. While Peter is perplexed about the meaning of the vision, they arrive at his house. While Peter is still thinking about the vision, the Holy Spirit tells him that these men are looking for him and he must go with them. Nothing is left to chance. God is completely in charge; God is directing and coordinating all the details. God has a very important purpose in all of this.

Scene 4: Peter and Cornelius share their visions with each other (10:24-33). The party of ten arrives at Cornelius’ house — Peter, Cornelius’ men, and six of the Jewish Christians from Joppa. Verse 27 says, “a large gathering of people” has come to Cornelius’ house. Peter and Cornelius share their visions with each other. As Cornelius tells his vision, Peter understands at last. God means to save Cornelius and his household! Peter must preach the gospel to these Gentiles!

Scene 5: Peter declares the message about Jesus Christ (10:34-43). Peter’s conversion is complete, and Cornelius’ conversion is about to be complete. Peter goes on to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Peter says in verse 34 that “God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”  And he goes on to explain the gospel.

Scene 6. God sends the Holy Spirit. Peter cannot finish his message, for God “interrupts” him, if that’s the right word. Peter doesn’t get to finish his sermon. Verse 44: “While Peter was still speaking these words…” — before he can even finish what he is saying — “the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.”  In 11:15, when Peter is telling the church in Jerusalem what had happened, he says, “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning.”

Peter can only get out the bare bones of the gospel message, and even as he is speaking, even as he feels he is only just beginning to tell the message, the Gentiles in that room — Cornelius and his family and friends — begin to speak in tongues and praising God. How magnificent! God pours out his Holy Spirit on these Gentiles just as God poured him out on the Jews on the Day of Pentecost. God promised to pour out his Holy Spirit on all nations one day, and now that promise is beginning to come true. Peter and his companions are astounded. Verse 45: “The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.”

Peter quickly comes to the inevitable conclusion. Since God has accepted these Gentiles who have believed in the name of Jesus Christ, so must the church. And so they are baptised in the name of Jesus Christ.

[Pause]

Now I’d like to draw two points of application from Acts Chapter 10.
1. Nothing stops you from coming to God except your own righteousness.
2. Do not wait for special prompting and preparation before you share the gospel.
First point.
Cornelius has been held up as a poster boy for what is called “the Inter-Faith Movement”.  These people say that Cornelius is the great example of someone who was right with God without Jesus.

In 1986 the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie, said in a lecture that, “All the centuries that the Spirit of God had been working in Christians, he must also have been working in Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and others.”  This means that Christians should look to these other faiths to perceive other aspects of God which may enrich and enlarge our Christian understanding.

One of the main texts of Scripture they use is Acts 10:34-35. Peter says, “I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”  An Anglican Consultative Committee on Inter-Faith Dialogue wrote these words in 1986: “This passage is perhaps the most powerful pointer to the inclusiveness of God’s saving activity.”  It said that this passage contains statements which are “important clues for a Christian understanding of the status before God of those who are not Christians in our day.”

Let me outline the argument.
1. Luke describes Cornelius in Chapter 10:2 as follows: “He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.”
2. In Chapter 10:22, his own servants describe him like this: “He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people.”
3. In verse 4, the angel says to Cornelius, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.”  Cornelius’ good works have been accepted by God as a sacrifice.
4. In verse 35, Peter concludes that, “God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”

Here’s the argument: Cornelius was not a Jew, neither had he become a Jewish convert who had accepted all the Jewish rules about circumcision and the food laws. He was simply a Gentile seeker, and his prayers and good works were acceptable to God. So when Peter says that God accepts people from every nation who fear him and do what is right, he means that Cornelius was already one of God’s people, already justified in God’s sight before Peter came to visit him. In fact, devout and holy people from all kinds of religions are accepted by God, just as Cornelius was. To say that God accepts only Christians is to accuse God of favouritism, the very thing Peter says God does not show here in this verse.

These kinds of arguments fit in so well with the world view of most people today. Fundamentalist Christians are too intolerant! We must allow people personal choice. Garry Bouma, an Australian sociologist, writes as follows: “I know of Anglicans who consult their horoscope, Catholics who do Tai Chi, Atheists who wear crosses, Baptists who meditate, some Vietnamese immigrants who see no conflict in being Catholic and Buddhist at the same time, and Jews who seriously practice witchcraft. Spirituality has become an area of self-directed and self-assessed activity. Brand loyalty is in free-fall decline, product sampling is rampant and vast amounts of advice on how to do it are available on the web, in bookstores and newsagents.”

This is the world we live in. One religion need not exclude another! A bit of Christianity and a bit of Buddhism might work quite well together!

How should we respond? Does this passage from Acts really teach the acceptability of all kinds of religions? Listen to Peter’s words again. He says in verses 34-35: “I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism, but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”  Now see how Peter goes on. “And so, Cornelius, I congratulate you that you have found the truth through your own searching. Isn’t it wonderful that God has accepted you and that he has accepted me and that we have found God via different paths. I don’t need to preach the gospel to you; you don’t need to hear the message about Jesus, because, after all, Jesus is only one path to knowledge of God. This is the good news, Cornelius!”

[Long pause]

The Inter-Faith people forget one thing. What does Peter do for Cornelius? He preaches the gospel to him! Cornelius may well be a devout and God-fearing man, someone who prays to God regularly and gives generously to the poor. He may well be righteous and well-respected by all the Jewish people. But is that enough? No, for this devout, God-fearing, generous, upright and sincere man still needs to hear the gospel; he still needs to repent, he still needs to believe in Jesus to be saved. Why did God go to all the trouble to get Peter to Cornelius’ house? Peter’s task was to preach the gospel! And it was only after Cornelius had heard the message and believed in Jesus that God gave him forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit and eternal life, and only then was he baptised and received into the Christian community.

There is a real sense in which this passage teaches just the opposite of what the inter-faith dialogue people want it to teach. If anyone was ever a candidate to be right with God without knowing Jesus, surely Cornelius was the man! Luke is at pains to emphasise over and over all his good qualities — devout, God-fearing, generous, sincere, well-respected. But even such a prime candidate and wonderful person as Cornelius had to hear the message of the gospel and repent and believe in Christ. We can marvel at the way the Holy Spirit prepared Cornelius and made his heart open to the gospel and ready to receive anything that Peter had to say. But this passage is very clear — the message of the gospel was still what he had to hear; there was no other way for him.

So what is Peter saying in verse 34? “God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”  Peter is saying that Cornelius’ Gentile nationality is completely acceptable to God. Cornelius does not need to become a Jew. But as he goes on to preach his sermon he also says that Cornelius’ righteousness is not acceptable to God. Cornelius does need to become a Christian.

Here is the crux for us today. Your external characteristics are all acceptable to God. You are acceptable if you are white, you do not need to become black to be acceptable to God. You are acceptable if you are rich, you do not need to become poor to be acceptable to God. You are acceptable if you are a member of the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia, you do not need to become Baptist to be acceptable to God. You are acceptable if you have been brought up in a Christian home, you do not need to have had a background in homelessness, drugs and violence to be acceptable to God. You are acceptable if you are a respectable accountant, you do not have to be a former prostitute to be acceptable to God. Only know that your own righteousness is not acceptable to God. That is the one thing God cannot accept about you. You have to have faith in Jesus Christ to be righteous, to be right with God.

Think about it. The basic message of the gospel is a radical message. Nothing stops you from coming to God except your own righteousness. It’s a shocking statement in a way. Let me repeat it. Nothing stops you from coming to God except your own righteousness. The thing that stops you from coming to God is trying to come to God by yourself. The rightness that you construct for yourself is the chief barrier.

This is just the opposite of the way we think! Remember the rich young ruler. What a prospect for the church! Young, rich, talented, an aristocrat, a fastidious keeper of the law, serious about religion, asking Jesus about the way to be saved. What would we do if such a young man came to us? And Jesus turns him away! Why? Because the rich young ruler asked that basic me-centred question, “What must I do to be saved?”  What further task must I perform to be right with God? It was his own righteousness that stood in the way of his salvation.

It is our own righteousness that we must give up if we are to be saved. For nothing we can do is ever good enough. We must give up trying to save ourselves and trust only in Christ’s saving work.

But that’s so hard, isn’t it? We want to justify ourselves, we want to say to God that we are willing to do some good so that we will be acceptable to him. Let me repeat: The single thing that stops you from coming to God is your own righteousness. Your do it yourself attitude, your own deserving work; that’s the main thing that gets between you and God. To be acceptable to God, you must confess that you are not acceptable to God, and you need a righteousness that is a gift from God — the righteousness of God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Don’t wait until you are better, you will never be better. Come to Jesus Christ now.

So the first point of application: Nothing stops you from coming to God except your own righteousness.

Now very quickly, the second point of application: Do not wait for special prompting and preparation before you share the gospel.

A very obvious feature of this story in Acts 10 is the absolute sovereignty of God in all the events. God is completely in charge; nothing is left to chance. The details of Peter’s vision and the arrival of Cornelius’ men in Joppa are perfectly dovetailed, as we saw earlier. As soon as Peter has spoken the bare bones of the gospel, and long before he can finish his sermon, God intervenes and baptises these Gentiles with the Holy Spirit. In every way God makes it very obvious that this is from him. God is clearly directing the church in this way.

But even though God is completely in charge of the whole process that leads to Cornelius’ conversion, he still gives Peter a very important responsibility and expects Peter to carry it out. Peter has an important role to play — he must preach the gospel to Cornelius and his household.

Now the application of this fact to us is by way of contrast. Because of the very unusual situation, Peter needed to be especially taught, directed and commanded. He needed an amazing vision, repeated three times over for emphasis. He needed a direct word from the Holy Spirit: “Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”  He needed Cornelius to tell him the vision he had received. He needed God’s amazing intervention in sending the Holy Spirit in a dramatic way while he was still preaching.

But here’s the rub. We do not! We do not need such prompting. We do not need any of these experiences of Peter’s to go out and preach the gospel. Do not think you must wait for some amazing and unusual impulse from God before you will share the gospel with other people. God has taught the church this lesson about all people. He doesn’t need to teach it to us over and over again.

Mmm, I wonder if the gospel is suitable for my friend at work. Mmm, I’m not sure. Maybe I should wait for a special prompting — a dream or a sign of some kind. No, we don’t need such things any more. God has taught us this lesson. The gospel is for all.

He taught us this lesson through this conversion experience of Peter’s, and through the subsequent history of Paul and Peter and through the rest of the New Testament. God required Peter’s faithful obedience in this test case, in this paradigm shift for the church. But we don’t need this kind of prompting now. The gospel is for all.

Here then are two things to learn from Acts 10:

1. The wonderful message of the gospel can be summarised in the following way: Nothing stops you from coming to God except your own righteousness. So don’t wait until you are better, for you never will be. Don’t wait to construct your own righteousness; that will never succeed. Hear God’s call, and come to Christ today.

2. Do not wait for special prompting and preparation before you share this gospel message with others. Our commission is clear; we can simply go out and tell this message to others.

Amen.