Acts 11:1 The apostles and brothers throughout Judea soon heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers took issue with him 3 and said, “You visited uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
4 But Peter began and explained to them the whole sequence of events: 5“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision of something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came right down to me. 6 I looked at it closely and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7 Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat.’ 8 ‘No, Lord,’ I said, ‘for nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into heaven. 11 Just then, three men sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12 The Spirit told me to accompany them without hesitation. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s home. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will convey to you a message by which you and all your household will be saved.’
15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as He had come upon us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, as He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 So if God gave them the same gift as He gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder the work of God?”
18 When they heard this, their objections were put to rest, and they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”
There is a story about a man who owned a mule that needed to be trained before it could become a work animal. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with mules, they are INCREDIBLY STUBBORN!) So the man advertised, and soon an experienced mule trainer came out to his farm. The very first thing the mule trainer did was to pick up a large piece of wood and hit the mule on the side of the head!
“Wow!” said the mule owner, “what did you do that for?”
“Oh, no problem,” answered the mule trainer. “That was just to get his attention. Now that I have his attention, I can begin training him.”
Reading the book of Acts, it seems that the Apostles were a whole lot like that mule. Jesus had already given them their marching orders: “you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” But somehow, even as Jesus was saying these words, the disciples must have been thinking about all the JEWS, rather than all the various peoples throughout the earth. Even when the day of Pentecost came and Peter preached and 3,000 people became Christians, the disciples still had a very limited view of things. It took this incident with Cornelius and his household and friends to get the attention of the disciples.
Peter had had a wonderful time in Caesarea with Cornelius and his household, teaching them and praying with them. Peter probably almost floated back to Jerusalem on a cloud of glory …. and then his fellow Jewish believers began to grill him. “Peter, what have you done? Have you lost your mind? You have defiled yourself! What were you thinking?” It’s likely that Peter faced these and many other questions. There were probably some disciples who were even a bit jealous of Peter who thought, ”O. K., Peter has really blown it now! Perhaps it’s time for new leadership.” But then Peter told the whole story.
God was so smart! Had Peter only given his critics theological arguments, even had Peter quoted Jesus, there might have been people who would have argued. But God had already forestalled any critics by giving the Holy Spirit to Cornelius, his household, and his believing friends. Once God had spoken so decisively, the only thing the believers could say was, “All right! God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”
There are many interesting things about the story of Cornelius and his friends. Peter didn’t even get to give his entire message, let alone ask his hearers to confess their sins. The only person in that group about whom we know anything is Cornelius. It’s possible that some of the other people turned up at Cornelius’ house out of curiosity and not out of a heartfelt dedication to God. But God sent his Holy Spirit on the whole gathering.
Perhaps you have come out of a situation in which one or both of your parents were perfectionists. You may have spent much of your childhood trying to live up to impossible standards. Unfortunately, most of us transfer our view of our fathers over to our view of our heavenly Father God. This leaves many people struggling to become good enough for God. But the good news is that NONE of us is good enough! The Bible says that “All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
Why is our sin good news? The good news is that Jesus Christ came as a man and suffered, bled, and died a shameful death on a cross for our sins. But God raised Jesus from the dead, defeating death for all time. The good news is that we don’t have to clean up our acts before we can come to God. God runs “come as you are” parties; God just wants us to turn to Him and He will clean us up.
PRAYER: Father God, we confess that we have sinned and that nothing we can do will be good enough to earn our way into heaven. But Lord, we thank you that because Jesus suffered, bled, and died for our sins, you have made a way for us. All we have to do is to accept what Jesus has already done for us and dedicate our lives to you. Please help us to do this and to follow hard after you all the days of our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of Jesus. Amen.
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