Peter and Cornelius - Darren Rowse

[SPEAKER_00]: Well good morning everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you've got your bibles with you, uh, open up to Acts 10, um, before we get into the book of Daniel, the epic journey that's ahead of us, we're going to continue our series, which we're kind of coming in and out of this year, uh, through the book of Acts.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're at Acts 10.

[SPEAKER_00]: Acts 10 is just over a third of the way through this story.

[SPEAKER_00]: This story takes place from the time that Jesus ascends to heaven and it tells the story of the early church.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it actually takes place over a 30 to 35 year period.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't feel like it when you're reading acts.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you've read it through acts, you feel like, oh, it's one thing after the other.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there's actually quite a bit of time going place between these stories.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Acts 10, most of the scholars that have read this week and have read way too many, it's usually between seven to 10 years, we think, that this particular story happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: So 10 years, let's just say it's 10.

[SPEAKER_00]: How's it going for the church at this point?

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, 10 years before this point, took His disciples aside, outside of Jerusalem, to a hillside, and He says to them, you will be my witnesses.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will be my witnesses.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Jerusalem, in Judea, which is the region around Jerusalem, in Samaria, it was a bit of a cross-cultural thing that would have challenged them going to the Samaritans and to the ends of the earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: So how are they going?

[SPEAKER_00]: Seven to ten years in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Jerusalem, yes, they did that pretty much immediately.

[SPEAKER_00]: Acts 2, we see Pentecost happens, Peter stands up in Jerusalem in front of thousands of people and is a witness to Jesus straight away.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jerusalem, they've done that pretty well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Judea, yes, as the church was persecuted, they scattered and they scattered across the region.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they took the gospel with them and they preached the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: They lived the same kind of life that they lived when they were with Jesus in Judea.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Samaria?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we're seeing Philip in Samaria preaching.

[SPEAKER_00]: To the end of the earth, well, to this point, there's only been one little glimmer of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the story of Philip and the Ethiopian, X-Aida, I think, where Philip brings the Ethiopian to Christ and the Ethiopian goes back home to Ethiopia.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, yes, sort of, but there's only one little glimmer of the ends of the earth so far.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder how the apostles were feeling at this point.

[SPEAKER_00]: In a Jesus' final words to them, this mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: They'd seen the progression.

[SPEAKER_00]: It starts amazingly like an explosion at Pentecost.

[SPEAKER_00]: And things kind of went out, but have they really fulfilled this mission that they were given?

[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder whether they were starting to wonder whether it would happen in their lifetime, whether it was something that was them that they were going to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: That I think is the context for Acts 10 that we're going to look at today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Acts 10 is a story of two men who are in two different cities they've never met before.

[SPEAKER_00]: and they're both very different from one another but they're both in this particular passage doing the same thing, they're both in prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're both waiting on God for different reasons.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first one we're going to look at is Cornelius and he lives in a city called Caesar Reya.

[SPEAKER_00]: a Roman city, a city that's built to impress a Greek and Roman architecture and a pantheon of gods that worshiped in that city.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a small Jewish minority in the city, but it's largely a Roman city.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a centurion, so he is the commander of 80 to 100 men in the Roman army, a volunteer regiment.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has wealth at scene, he has servants, he has a household that can fit a lot of people in it, we find out a little later on.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Cornelius is no ordinary Roman centurion.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's actually described in this passage as being devout and God fearing.

[SPEAKER_00]: which hold he gives generously and he prays regularly.

[SPEAKER_00]: What is being described in this passage is what the Jewish people would call a God-feera.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a class of people, Gentiles, not of the Jewish faith, but someone who had rejected the Pantheon of God's that was worshiped and had decided, it was at least exploring who this God was, the God of Israel.

[SPEAKER_00]: They would be typically worshiping the God of Israel, but not fully converted.

[SPEAKER_00]: To be fully converted is pretty confronting and it means a big step.

[SPEAKER_00]: It means circumcision.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he hasn't gone that far yet, he's devout, but he's not fully in and perhaps for good reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would think.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not quite through the door yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this is Cornelius that we meet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our verse three, I'm gonna pick up the story.

[SPEAKER_00]: One day at about three in the afternoon, which is the Jewish time of prayer, he has a vision.

[SPEAKER_00]: So in the context of prayer, it seems.

[SPEAKER_00]: He distinctly sees an angel of the Lord who came to him and said, Cornelius.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cornelius stated him in fear, what is it Lord he asked?

[SPEAKER_00]: The angel answered your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now send men to Jopper to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is staying with another Simon, the Tanner, whose house is by the sea.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of the attendants and he told them everything that had happened and sent them to Jopper.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, perhaps some of us see ourselves in Cornelius.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is a man who is on a search for God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is someone who is praying to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yet he's not fully in.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's kind of looking at the Jewish community, perhaps, and wondering, how should I go in?

[SPEAKER_00]: How would I be accepted there?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's on a search, but he's not quite there yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: The second person we're going to meet in today's story is Peter.

[SPEAKER_00]: Peter is a more familiar character if you've been in church because you've probably heard about him quite a bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's had quite the journey so far.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is a disciple of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: A man who spent three years with Jesus starting a fisherman and being taught to fish for men.

[SPEAKER_00]: Since Jesus' ascension, he's been a leader in the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Spending considerable time, we read in Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's been a witness in Jerusalem and he has been traveling around the regions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even in the chapter before, we find him going into the regions around Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_00]: He heals a man who has paralyzed, he raises a woman from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he has been continuing the mission and ministry of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in this story, we find him staying by the scene in a place called Jopper, in the house of another Simon, a man who is a tanner, someone who works with Leather.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jobah has a history.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually mentioned several times in the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_00]: Most famously it's the same port that Jonah ran to when God told him to go and preach to the Gentiles in Nineveh.

[SPEAKER_00]: So centuries later, we find another holy man praying in the city of Jopper, and he's about to be asked to go to the Gentiles again, so there's some parallels between those stories.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now some of us this morning perhaps see ourselves in Peter, perhaps we see ourselves in his journey that we know which is a rollercoaster ride isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: His faithful, he is zealous, he goes after things, he says things as they are, he's following Jesus to the best of his ability, but he is someone who is living with the commission of Jesus to go into all the world,

[SPEAKER_00]: and be a witness and perhaps that's weighing a little heavily upon him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we'll pick up the story in verse 9, about noon the following day, as they, the messengers who come nearly ascent were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: He became hungry and wanting something to eat and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.

[SPEAKER_00]: phrase can also be translated.

[SPEAKER_00]: He fell into a deep sleep.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you've ever fallen asleep while you're praying, you're like Peter.

[SPEAKER_00]: He saw heaven open up, and something like a large sheet was being let down to Earth by its four corners.

[SPEAKER_00]: It all contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds, and then a voice told him, get up Peter, kill and eat.

[SPEAKER_00]: Surely not Lord, Peter replied, I have never eaten anything impure or unclean, the voice spoke to him a second time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.

[SPEAKER_00]: This happened three times and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: To feel the shock of this particular vision, you need to know that the sheet is full of animals, that the Jewish law said, God's people must never eat.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Peter has kept the food laws for his whole life, and they were not just about diet.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were about identity, and they were one of the clearest markers that separated God's people from the nations around them, which makes this voice and what it said confronting, kill and eat.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice, Peter's response.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of an oxymoron of a response.

[SPEAKER_00]: No Lord, surely not Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can say no, and you can say Lord, but try saying both in the same breath and meaning it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's exactly what comes out of his mouth three times.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it's stubbornness, Empida.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's conviction, and that's the tension that he is feeling as he gets confronted with something that seemingly goes against his identity.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we have two men, both praying in two different cities, two visions, timed very well to the hour.

[SPEAKER_00]: And neither of them are looking for each other, but God has an agenda and he's dulled telling these men together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Peter is turning the vision over in his mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: The text says he is still puzzling what the vision means when the answer arrives at the gate.

[SPEAKER_00]: And while he's up on the roof wondering what it all means, Cornelius's men show up at the gate and they're asking for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Holy Spirit speaks to Peter.

[SPEAKER_00]: While Peter was still wondering about the meaning of the vision, the man comes.

[SPEAKER_00]: and they called out asking if Simon, who was known as Peter was staying there, and while Peter was still thinking about the vision, the spirit said to him, Simon, three men are looking for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So get up, go downstairs, do not hesitate to go with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: for I have sent them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Peter goes down and he hears the man out, perhaps feeling a little uncomfortable by these gentiles coming to his home and what they're asking him to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: He hears about Cornelius, a righteous and God-fearing man who is said to have been respected by the Jewish community.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's been told to send for Peter.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to hear what Peter has to say.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unlike Jonah, Peter does not run from Jobah.

[SPEAKER_00]: And notice what he does instead.

[SPEAKER_00]: He invites the Gentile men, these messengers, to stay as a guest for the night.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not the dumb thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is crossing a boundary.

[SPEAKER_00]: Already the meaning of the vision seems to be taking root in Peter's mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: This must have really stretched Peter, and I kind of wonder whether that night as he was trying to go to sleep with the Gentile staying as he's guessed.

[SPEAKER_00]: What he was wrestling with, what he was actually thinking through, perhaps he was remembering times where he was with Jesus and watched him.

[SPEAKER_00]: interact with people like these Gentile men.

[SPEAKER_00]: For example, in Matthew 8 when Jesus was interacting with a Roman centurion, where Jesus was willing to go into that Roman centurion's house.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the Roman centurion said, no, he actually said, no, you shouldn't come.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus said, I've never seen faith like this man.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder whether Peter was confronted with that reminder of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that may be informed the way he went the next day.

[SPEAKER_00]: As we see him setting off for Caesaria, with six believers, we find out in chapter 11 that Peter took six believers with him, which perhaps tells us a little about how he was feeling.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nervous, maybe wanting some moral support, maybe wanting some witnesses for what was about to happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: The following day in verse 24, we see that he arrives in Caesaria, and Cornelius was expecting them.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Greek there expecting them actually has a layer of anxiety to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cornelius is anxiously waiting for Peter.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Cornelius was anxiously waiting, and he had called all his relatives and close friends together too.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he was nervous, Papsoon and some moral supporters well, but he wanted them to be involved in this encounter.

[SPEAKER_00]: As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence.

[SPEAKER_00]: The same word reverence can be used for worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Peter makes him get up.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, stand up, I am only a man myself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I don't know if you can kind of see in this story there's some real anxiousness and awkwardness in this moment, in this meeting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cornelius is anxiously waiting.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's no doubt aware that what is asked this Jewish man to do by coming to his home is not the done thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he puts his foot in it by falling at Peter's feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Peter refuses the reverence.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is an awkward moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no getting over that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Peter himself is no doubt anxious too.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's been summoned to a Gentile's house and not just any normal Gentile, a Roman centurion.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he does what only Peter can do.

[SPEAKER_00]: He names the elephant in the room.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, what's on his mind?

[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 27, while talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people and he said to them, you are well aware that it is against the law, our law for a due to be associated with a or visit a Gentile.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God has shown me that I should not call anyone in pure or unclean.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when I was sent for I came without raising any objection.

[SPEAKER_00]: So standing in a crowded Gentiles house, Peter says out loud, what the vision actually meant.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's finally realized what God was trying to show him in this vision, that it's not about food, it's about people.

[SPEAKER_00]: The food laws had drawn a line around who you could eat with, who's home you could enter, who you could share life with.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when God said no food is unclean, he was actually saying much bigger, no person is unclean.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then what Peter does next is interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: He asks Cornelius a question.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, why may I ask why you send for me?

[SPEAKER_00]: It might seem like a logical question, but Peter already knows the answer to this question.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's been told by the messengers quite clearly why he is coming.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's been told about the vision.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's been told that Cornelis wants to hear from Peter, but Peter asks Cornelis the question again.

[SPEAKER_00]: He gives Cornelis the floor.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't walk in with a sermon and a lot straight into what Cornelius needs to hear.

[SPEAKER_00]: He asks a question, invites Cornelius to share.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he hears the story again in Cornelius's words.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the third time we're actually hearing this story in this short passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: We hear again about the angel, the vision, the instructions to stand for Peter.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Cornelius says something in verse 33, which I think is so beautiful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cornelius says, so, I sent for you immediately, and it was so good of you to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we are all here in the presence of God, to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.

[SPEAKER_00]: This outsider, this gentile, knows that this is being done in the presence of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's aware of God's presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: and he has such a beautiful posture.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a posture of skepticism.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's hungry.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can see it in these verses.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a room full of people who is aware that God is present and they're leaning in.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're waiting to hear.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever this stranger from Joppa has to say, that's hunger.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, having been invited to share, Peter begins to speak and he begins

[SPEAKER_00]: slightly surprising way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not by telling Cornelius what he needs to know, but by telling everyone what he himself has just realized.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Peter begins to speak.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cornelius, a Peter doesn't start by saying, let me explain what you need to know.

[SPEAKER_00]: He begins by saying, I now understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is now sharing his own conversion experience from this moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: What God is teaching him, I love that in the middle of this story of evangelism, Peter is learning.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the middle of this story, where he's about to proclaim the gospel, the gospel's been proclaimed to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is being taught by God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's having his faith expanded, even as he seeks to expand someone else's.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so then Peter begins to share the gospel message.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a relatively short and simple sharing of the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it has a lot of the patterns that we see in many of the other sermons in Acts.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may remember we looked at the sermon he preached at Pentecost.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you'll see some familiar things in this sermon from then.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is how he begins.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you know the message God sent to the people of Israel announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ to his Lord of all.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know that what has happened throughout the province of Judea beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached.

[SPEAKER_00]: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who are under the power of the devil, because God was with Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are witnesses of everything He did in the country of the Jews and the

[SPEAKER_00]: by hanging him on a cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen, by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: He commanded us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living in the dead, all the prophets testify about him.

[SPEAKER_00]: That everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's worth saying that it seems Cornelius already has some knowledge and awareness of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just says, twice, you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: He seems to be building upon knowledge that Cornelius already has of the person of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: As a Roman century, and he was probably aware that Jesus had taught and healed people and gathered large crowds quite near to Caesaria.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he was aware of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Peter is building upon the knowledge that Cornelius already has.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's joining the dots for this man who is on a search.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things I notice about this particular sermon of Peter is how much God is the subject of this sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is there front and center, but God is the one who is doing all the action in this sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is, he sent, he anoints, he was with Jesus, God raised Jesus, God chose, God appointed Jesus as Judge.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's this repetition of what God is doing, God does, God does, God does.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is there, central in it, but God is the one who is active here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I wonder whether Peter has chosen to structure his sum in this way because he's aware that Cornelis already knows God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's already praying to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he starts there where Cornelis is already at.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he takes him on a journey and he finishes with a sentence that I think would have stunned Cornelis.

[SPEAKER_00]: We might gloss over it, but I think this would have meant so much to Cornelis.

[SPEAKER_00]: All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

[SPEAKER_00]: as someone who's grown up in the church, that word, everyone, I kind of glossed over it, but it struck me this week, how much that word was good news to Cornelius.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've been brought up, those of you who've been brought up in churches with this verse on the tip of our tongues.

[SPEAKER_00]: For God's, I love the world that he gave his one I know and we son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

[SPEAKER_00]: We get taught very young that Jesus came for everyone, but Cornelius is someone who has been kept on the outside of being one of God's people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Despite his devotion, despite his God fearing, despite his good works, despite his prayers,

[SPEAKER_00]: He's been respected by the Jewish community.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's been tolerated by them, but he doesn't want to be respected.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't want to be tolerated.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to be welcomed in.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to be included.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to be loved.

[SPEAKER_00]: Antirite paraphrases pitted message in this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says that what Peter is saying to Cornelius is this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cornelius, the God whom you have worshiped from afar, has done all of this as part of his global plan to set everything right at last.

[SPEAKER_00]: At every stage, Jesus is in the middle of it all.

[SPEAKER_00]: God has thus fulfilled the purposes for which He called Israel in the first place and you can eat Cornelius.

[SPEAKER_00]: And everyone,

[SPEAKER_00]: Everywhere who believes this message, we'll receive a welcome at once without more ado into the family whose home has written in shining letters above the door, the wonderful word for given.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cornelius, this is for you, everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: The very next verse says,

[SPEAKER_00]: While he was still speaking, the very words he just said, everyone is welcome.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every one of them in the room who heard that message, the Holy Spirit came on them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the circumstances believers who had been with Peter were astonished at the gift of the Holy Spirit who had been poured out even on the Gentiles.

[SPEAKER_00]: For they heard him speak in tongues and praising God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Peter said surely, no one can stand in their way of being baptized with water.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've received the Holy Spirit just as we have.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he ordered that they be baptized in the

[SPEAKER_00]: and they asked him to stay with them for a few days.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice what Luke is really careful to tell us that the Holy Spirit interrupts Peter the preacher, mid-Sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit fell while Peter was still speaking.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before anyone put up the hand at the end with an altar call before any of them said, I believe,

[SPEAKER_00]: the Holy Spirit fell on them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love this picture of Peter obediently speaking and the Holy Spirit working in the people's hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Such a beautiful picture and perhaps it's a for me a one to some of us in the room today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever had that experience when someone is speaking about Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps a story of a friend, perhaps a testimony

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe even while the preacher's preaching, someone is speaking about Jesus and something wakens up inside of you, a spark, something comes alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: If that's happened to you, if that's happening to you, that's the Holy Spirit at work, can I encourage you to pay attention when that happens?

[SPEAKER_00]: The Jewish believers who came with Peter can't argue with what's happening right in front of their eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: This moment is often called the Gentile Pentecost and the name fits really well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Seven to ten years after the first Pentecost in Acts through the same spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: is falling upon people who are never supposed to qualify for it and yet the spirit is doing his work and they are responding in the same way as in Acts 2.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are praising God in words they've never been taught.

[SPEAKER_00]: The believers understanding of who God has a heart for is being stretched in this moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Peter's mind is literally being blown.

[SPEAKER_00]: and Peter immediately sees that this is God at work and asks who can stop them from being baptized.

[SPEAKER_00]: And no one could come up with any reasons and so they were.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were baptized at that very moment in that day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Later back in Jerusalem in the next chapter we find Peter has to explain himself to Jews who were less than thrilled that he had gone into this Gentile man's house and that he had eaten with him and that he had baptised them and Peter tells the story again we have almost exactly what we've heard again in chapter 11.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Peter adds a line in this retelling.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says,

[SPEAKER_00]: beautiful statement as astonished as he was, as uncomfortable as he was.

[SPEAKER_00]: He saw God at work and rather than standing the way he wanted to participate in that.

[SPEAKER_00]: love how Tim Keller puts it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, isn't it great to be a part of a faith in which the evangelist converts the converts, but the converts convert the evangelists?

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's what's happening in this story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Peter is being converted.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's having the lights go on as much as Cornelius is in that moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: To wrap up this morning, I kind of want us to just ponder a simple

[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps you see yourself in Cornelius, or maybe it's Peter, or maybe it's a bit of both.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe one of the believers who stood there astonished, I want to speak particularly to those of you this morning, who are exploring faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you see yourself in Cornelius and you see the search that he is on, and that resonates with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you see his sincerity, you see his devoutness, you see his prayers, you see his generosity, his attempts to lead a good life, but you're not quite sure whether you're fully in.

[SPEAKER_00]: If that's you this morning, I've been praying for you this week and I want to say two things to firstly, you are so welcome in this community.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are not alone in your search in this community.

[SPEAKER_00]: We always have explorers here and we love them and we want to welcome you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But can I encourage you

[SPEAKER_00]: that God sees your search.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what I felt him put on my heart this way, that he sees your search and your prayers, and your attempts at a good life and your generosity, he sees your sincerity, but he wants to invite your deeper.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to invite his old deeper.

[SPEAKER_00]: But particularly you, and ultimately the way he does this is through what we see preached about in this particular sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's through the person of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice how God invites Cornelius to go deeper in this story.

[SPEAKER_00]: The angel that appears to Cornelius doesn't preach the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: It tells Cornelius to send for someone who knows Jesus and who can explain it to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So my encouragement to you if you're exploring faith today is quite simple.

[SPEAKER_00]: Keep putting yourself in the room with people who know Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're here today, so you've already done it once.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it means coming back again next week, or maybe it means talking to the person who brought you here and asking them the questions that you have.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe it means coming up the front after our service and talking to one of our prayer team.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe it means coming to an alpha next time we run it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what it means, but keep putting yourself in the room with people who know Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: and keep leaning in, like Cornelius does in this story.

[SPEAKER_00]: I get that it can feel awkward.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's weird to come to a room like this and do what we do and be a part of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I get that it's awkward.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cornelius felt it was awkward too.

[SPEAKER_00]: We watch him waiting anxiously and then putting his foot in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He bundles through that first awkward conversation but he pushed through that awkwardness because it matters.

[SPEAKER_00]: It mattered to him and it changed everything for him and his family.

[SPEAKER_00]: So lean in, lean into the message about Jesus, stay open.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as you explore Jesus, stay open to the possibility that the Holy Spirit wants to awaken something in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for those of us who are followers of Jesus, I want to speak to us as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice what I've just asked the explorers and our myths to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: and put themselves in the rooms with people like us, which raises the uncomfortable question, what will they find when they get in these rooms?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are they going to find people who rush off?

[SPEAKER_00]: You just talk to each other, or they're going to find people who genuinely want a journey with them, because this story only works when both men move.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cornelius sends a pedagose.

[SPEAKER_00]: If God is nudging Cornelius, type people towards us and I believe He is, I spoke with three after this morning's nine aim service, then we'd better answer the knock at the gate.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've been given the same commission as the early church to make disciples, to be your witness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that commission can sit heavy on us, especially when it feels so big and we don't know where to start.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to encourage us with one simple thing in this story that just speaks to me every time I read it, that we are not the missionaries, God is.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is the one doing mission in this story.

[SPEAKER_00]: He sent the visions.

[SPEAKER_00]: He prepared Cornelius as heart before Peter even arrives.

[SPEAKER_00]: God pours out his spirit while Peter was still mid-sentence.

[SPEAKER_00]: Peter plays a part, yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: But his part was to be available and to go where he was not to go and to say what he was invited to say.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our job is not to convert everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our job is to play a part in what God is doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's converting work.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so my challenge to those of us who are followers of Jesus this morning is simple.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's to go to the place that Peter was in when the vision came to Peter.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where was he?

[SPEAKER_00]: He was on a roofpray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Spend some time this week in prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pray that God would reveal.

[SPEAKER_00]: who he's working in the life of, who he is nudging you towards.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't just pray from a distance, Cornelius needed Peter to show up to come into his home.

[SPEAKER_00]: If God is showing you your Cornelius, and I believe he will, when we pray in that way, step into the orbit of those people, not with a sermon, not with a three-point plan, but with a conversation, with hospitality, and within the invitation to share.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when that conversation opens up, as it did with Peter, join in what God is doing, and trust that the Holy Spirit,

[SPEAKER_00]: we'll fall on that person and do a work in that person.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I guess what I'm really saying today to all of us is that nothing in this chapter happens until two people move.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was an angel, there was a vision, there was a voice from heaven, God was moving, but the story hinges on a Roman soldier taking a step and a fisherman walking

[SPEAKER_00]: God does the heavy lifting, but the two people are moving as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so He invites us to move as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to invite our band up now.

[SPEAKER_00]: In a moment, we're going to sing a song about the blood of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Basically, it's a song about the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: The cross is what opens the door.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cornelius couldn't pray his way in.

[SPEAKER_00]: He couldn't give his way in.

[SPEAKER_00]: He couldn't earn his way in.

[SPEAKER_00]: The door was opened for him through Jesus sacrifice on the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this morning as we sing about that, sing as one who is invited in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray together.

[SPEAKER_00]: We just stand with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wanna pray for us all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, God, we thank you that this story shows us so clearly that you are moving active God, you are a God who is on a mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before we pray our prayers, you were preparing away.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before we knocked you were opening doors.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before you were Peter showed up in Cornelis's

[SPEAKER_00]: in Cornelius's life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the same way you've been working in each of our lives, even before we were aware of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be spirit with thank you that you are at work.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even this morning as we've talked.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've a sense this morning that they even as I've bummed through my sermon today that you have been quietly awakening things in hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: on a pray for every person who's felt something stir today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Spirit, we are fanning to flame the sparks that are there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't let them fade on the drive home and the business of our week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Keep drawing us to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Keep pointing us to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Father, for those of us who've been following you, we use show us where you're at work in the lives of the people around us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We, you reveal to us who you want us to come alongside.

[SPEAKER_00]: We help us to love as you love, to show hospitality and care and friendship.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we open opportunities for us to join in your work.

[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for what you are doing in our midst today, and we thank you for what you did on the cross that makes it all possible.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, name we pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's worship.