START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Acts 10:34-43
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OBSERVE:
This is a specimen of some of the first preaching in the early church. What is extraordinary about this is that it is one of the first sermons preached to Gentiles. Prior to this, the Gospel had been shared with disciples and the crowds that gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, to believers in their homes, to sympathetic worshipers in the temple, to hostile officials and angry mobs, almost all of whom were Jews.
Then the Gospel began to spread to Samaria, and then to an Ethiopian eunuch. Now, Peter must overcome his bigotry and exclusivity and go into the home of a Roman Gentile.
Truly, the command and the promise of Jesus to the disciples just prior to his ascension is beginning to come to pass:
“…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
This is the context: Peter has gone toward the Mediterranean coast of Judea, preaching and healing in Lydda and Joppa. He was a guest of Simon the Tanner in Joppa when a strange vision from God appeared to him, which gives him the message:
“What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (Acts 10:15).
At that very moment, messengers from the Centurion Cornelius (stationed with the Italian Cohort of the Roman Legions thirty miles to the north in Caesarea), arrive at Simon’s house asking for Peter. Cornelius has sent his messengers because he also has experienced a vision in which an angel has instructed him to reach out to Peter.
Based on his own vision, Peter accompanies them back to Caesarea, to the house of Cornelius, which is the setting of this message.
The message is an important example of Peter’s preaching:
- It illustrates that the Gospel is beginning to spread to the Gentiles.
- It includes the essential kerygma of the early church, which is the basic proclamation of the Gospel.
- It reemphasizes the commission to take the message to the world.
- Peter makes clear that this Gospel is the fulfillment of the revelation of God to the Jews in the Hebrew Bible.
Peter confesses that he himself has undergone a kind of “conversion” when it comes to being open to non-Jews. He sees now that God’s covenant is not exclusive but inclusive, even of the Gentiles:
I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
However, Peter quickly adds that this Gospel has come first to Israel:
You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.
Notice that Peter makes clear that the Lordship of Jesus is universal:
He is Lord of all.
Then Peter focuses on the earthly ministry of Jesus, of which Peter and his fellow disciples were all witnesses:
That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem.
As we observe Baptism of the Lord Sunday, we note that Peter is interpreting the baptism that Jesus received from John. John’s baptism was the outward sign that Jesus had been anointed with the Holy Spirit and power. The baptism in the Jordan was the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry.
But at the heart of Peter’s message is the cross and the resurrection:
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
Note Peter’s distinction. Not everyone saw the risen Christ, but those who had been chosen by God as witnesses. Because they were witnesses, they had been given an apostolic authority and commission to preach the Gospel:
He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.
Peter closes by reminding his Gentile audience again that this message about Jesus that is now offered to them was revealed first to the Hebrew prophets. The universal message of the Gospel is the forgiveness of sins through Christ:
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
APPLY:
Because of the passage of time and the differences in modern culture, we can sometimes forget just how radical it was that Peter consented to go to the home of a Gentile — who also happened to be a member of the hated Roman army!
Imagine being called upon to go to the home of a military officer in communist North Korea, or a member of the radical Islamic group ISIS, and we may catch a glimpse of how difficult this was for Peter.
However, God’s vision to Peter was very clear — God has no partiality, and anyone who has faith in the crucified and risen Christ will be forgiven, no matter what their race, ethnicity, or culture.
The message of Jesus Christ is eternal and universal— his offer of salvation is offered to all who are willing to repent and turn to him in faith.
RESPOND:
When I preach the Gospel, it is vital to me that I include a few key ingredients that seem to me to be embedded also in Peter’s message.
It is important to me that I let people know how Christ has impacted my own life. Peter does that.
But even more important, Peter proclaims the forgiveness of sins and faith in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead. I really strive to make sure that the message of Christ is conveyed in every sermon I preach no matter what my text may be and how many other issues I may address.
John Wesley once wrote:
We are not ourselves clear before God, unless we proclaim him [Christ] in all his offices.
Although this seems like an old-fashioned way to speak, Wesley really is on to something. Wesley also says that it is by faith that we:
receive Christ; that we receive him in all his offices, as our Prophet, Priest, and King. It is by this that he is “made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”
What this means to me is that Jesus guides us into all truth as the Prophet who is our source of wisdom — that’s why we read the whole Bible, because it reveals the whole counsel of God. As our Priest, Jesus reconciles us to God through his sacrificial death on the cross, and continues even now to pray for us as our High Priest. And as King, Jesus is the risen Christ who rules over us forever, fulfilling his law of love in us as he restores his image in us and brings in his everlasting Kingdom.
Lord, help me to clarify the message you have revealed to us so that I can claim it by faith and, like Peter, do the very best I can to proclaim the Gospel so that others might also come to Christ and be strengthened in faith. Amen.
PHOTOS: “Peter Baptizing the Centurion Cornelius” by Francesco Trevisani is in the Public Domain.
SOAR Lectionary Bible Study 