Baptism Sunday | Acts 10:30-48 | An Obedient Response

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

In a few moments, we're going to hear from several individuals as they participate in baptism in our presence.

But before we do that, I want to spend a few moments in the book of Acts in chapter 10, just to prepare us all and remind us of what we are about to witness, maybe to hear a challenge for ourselves, maybe to be reminded of that place and that time when we followed the Lord in obedience and were baptized ourselves.

This is a special, special gathering.

And I want us to make sure that we understand what it is that we're going to be witnessing this morning.

In Acts chapter 10, it's a familiar passage to most Christians about a man named Cornelius, who was a Roman soldier.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

We don't know much more about Cornelius than that.

He could have been from Rome.

He could have been from Italy in general.

He could have been from elsewhere in the Roman Empire.

We don't know.

He most likely spoke Greek, just as the general trade language of the Roman Empire, but he was probably at least bilingual, having at least one other language, his home heart language.

Maybe he was conversant in more languages than that, being a centurion.

We don't know.

We know he was with his family, his family was with him.

And we know that he was what the Jewish people called a God-fearer.

That is, he worshipped the Jewish God.

But he was not Jewish.

He had not taken the step of converting to Judaism.

Now, if you have your Bible, I'd like to pick up reading in verse 30 of Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

We're not going to read the whole account.

But in Acts chapter 10, verse 30, Cornelius is speaking to the Apostle Peter.

Acts 10:30

And he says, Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour.

And behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing.

That's code for an angel, right?

And he said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms have been remembered before God.

Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter.

He is lodging in the house of Simon a tanner by the sea.

So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come.

Now therefore, we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.

Talk about being put on the spot.

Peter, preach, Peter, go.

So Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly I understand that God shows no partiality.

But in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all, you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.

He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

And we are witnesses of all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

Sounds great, right?

This itinerant, miracle-working preacher that everybody wants to have a part of.

And then there's the next sentence.

They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.

But God raised him from the dead on the third day and made him to appear, not to all people, but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

There's your proof of the resurrection.

Not did he just appear, but they sat down, they touched him, they ate with him, they drank with him.

This is a real thing.

And then he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.

So if you are present this morning and are living or dead, he is your judge.

To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

Now, while Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.

And the believers from among the circumcised, or the Jews, who had come with Peter, were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.

For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God.

Then Peter declared, Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?

And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and they asked him to remain for them for some days.

So the Roman soldier, Cornelius, believed in the Jewish God, and his life demonstrated that belief.

But what he did not know prior to speaking with Peter was that God had visited his people.

He did not know that.

So God himself acted to provide Cornelius with that message of saving truth.

God sent an angel to Cornelius, instructing him to send for Peter.

And Peter would then deliver the message by which he would be saved.

We see that down in chapter 11 and verse 14, where Peter is recounting what happened later.

And he said he preached to them the message by which they would be saved.

At the same time, God prepared Peter to speak to Cornelius.

That was a major event.

As you remember, Peter was a Jew, and Cornelius is a Gentile Roman.

According to Jewish customs, those don't mix.

Peter wouldn't even be able to enter a non-Jewish home, nor could he eat food by a Gentile, prepared by a Gentile without defiling himself as a Jew.

There's simply no way that a righteous Jew would be willing to put himself in that position.

But Peter was no regular, normal, typical Jew.

He's a Jewish Christian.

So God caused Peter to see a vision.

You remember the sheet coming down from heaven, filled with all kinds of animals, and God said, Peter, get up, kill, eat.

And Peter said, Absolutely not.

Never would I defile myself.

But God told him what God has made clean, do not call common.

Peter was commanded not to see distinctions between unclean animals in the Jewish law and clean animals in the Jewish law.

And very soon Peter discerned that that instruction was not to be applied just to what they ate, but to the people with whom they associated and to whom they delivered the good news of Jesus Christ.

Because just as that vision ended, there was a knock on Peter's door, and it was the guys sent from Cornelius.

So when Peter arrived at Cornelius' house, he says, Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

See, we have this issue in the book of Acts where it begins by Jesus saying that you're going to be my witnesses to all the world, starting in Jerusalem and then Judea and then Samaria and then to the rest of the world.

By the end of the book of Acts, we get to Rome, which is the headquarters of the rest of the world.

By the time we get to the book of Revelation, we see an innumerable number of people standing in God's presence from all nations, all languages, all praising God.

So we have to get from just Jewish people in Acts chapter 1 to all over the world in Revelation.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And so it's important that Peter understand that the good news of Jesus is impartial.

It doesn't distinguish people, it brings them together.

See, the Jewish mindset at the time was that God's grace was limited to God's chosen people, Israel.

So you had to convert to Judaism if you were to receive God's grace.

But God showed Peter that everyone needs God's grace.

And he is willing for all to receive it.

For everyone to receive it, the good news, the gospel of Jesus must be impartial.

That means that race doesn't matter.

Not Jewish, not Gentile.

It means language doesn't matter.

It means location doesn't matter.

It means status doesn't matter.

Everyone needs the gospel of God's grace in Christ.

So in this account, God's good news through salvation was taken both to Jews and to Roman Gentiles.

Every nation needs the gospel.

Every people group, every social class.

Jews, though, despised Gentiles.

And among those Gentiles, Roman soldiers were the worst of the worst.

How do you deal with God saying, I want you to go tell the Roman soldiers about me?

Friends, God doesn't limit his good news to just a select few.

You and I need the gospel.

We need the good news that Christ died for our sins to give us peace with God and forgiveness of our sins.

It doesn't matter if you have a great job or no job.

It doesn't matter what nationality you are, where you are from, or what you think about yourself.

God is not biased nor partial.

His saving grace is for you.

But that good news needs to be received.

In chapter 11 of the book of Acts, Peter returns to his home church in Jerusalem and tells them all that God had done.

He talked about his vision and the encounter with Cornelius, and look at what he says in verse 13.

Chapter 11, verse 13.

He told us, that is, Cornelius told us, how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter.

He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.

So Cornelius expected to hear something.

And he was ready to receive whatever he heard from Peter.

That's why he stood there and said, All right, Peter, preach whatever God's given you to say, preach.

So what did Peter do?

He told them the good news of Jesus.

God sent a message of peace and forgiveness through Jesus, accomplished on the cross, and that message was conveyed through speech.

Someone spoke so others could hear.

God sent Peter to share by his voice what Jesus did on the cross because people need to hear the good news of forgiveness of sins.

That's what Romans chapter 10, verses 9 and 10 is all about.

Romans 10:9

How can somebody hear unless somebody tells them?

How can somebody tell them unless somebody goes?

People can't hear unless you and I tell them.

That's exactly what happens here in Acts 10.

God sent Peter to deliver the message of forgiveness in Jesus.

And so Cornelius, his family, and his guests all accepted it.

They accepted the truth of peace with God through the forgiveness of sins made possible by Jesus' death on a tree.

Cornelius needed to hear that message.

So did his family, so did his friends.

You need to hear it too.

And your loved ones need to hear it as well.

Everyone must take it in.

We must listen with our ears and truly receive it into our hearts, minds, and souls.

So what then?

What comes after hearing?

Well, the Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing.

And that's what we see here.

In verse 44, it says, While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.

They heard and received the message of Jesus, and then they believed.

You might say, though, how do you know they believed?

It doesn't say that.

Well, if we look down at chapter 11 again, and Peter's recounting of what happened, look at verse 15 of chapter 11.

It says, Peter's speaking, he says, As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.

And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us, when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?

Peter says that just when we believed, we received the Holy Spirit, so these people believed and they received the Holy Spirit.

There are two kinds of baptism.

One we call spirit baptism, and the second we call water baptism.

Spirit baptism is not something we do.

It's not something that you can choose to participate in.

It's something that God does to you when you hear the word, you receive it, and you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You are placed into God's family, you are baptized into Jesus through the faith and trust in the gospel message.

Peter was sent so that they could hear that message and receive that gift of the Holy Spirit.

When they heard, they believed.

And so they were baptized in the Holy Spirit.

In the Bible, we never see anyone belonging to God's people without first exercising faith in the message of Christ in the cross.

They hear the message, they receive it, and they respond by believing in Christ.

That's one of the reasons we don't baptize infants here at faith.

Scripture makes it clear that becoming a part of God's family happens when someone responds to the gospel with faith after understanding it.

Infants are not able to understand or react to the message.

Now, if you were baptized as an infant, I'm sure it was a very special time for your family.

Different denominations have various views on what occurs during infant baptisms.

And whatever the purpose was for your family, I'm sure it was significant.

But in the New Testament, baptism is given to those who are old enough to understand and believe the good news of Jesus Christ.

And that baptism, then, is the gospel on display.

Peter realized that a defining trait of a true Christian was clear in these individuals.

The Holy Spirit came into them and lived in them.

He could see that God was doing that.

And so Peter's response was: can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people?

God gives his spirit to his children when they believe.

It isn't usually as dramatic as it was for these people.

Still, everyone who believes in Christ receives the Holy Spirit.

And Peter responds to that by saying, expecting, anticipating there's going to be a baptism.

They're going to demonstrate that faith in Christ through water baptism.

And so in baptism, those who believe the proclaimed message that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again have trusted in him, have received the Holy Spirit, and their inward faith is now put on display to all who are there, showing that they have received new life in Christ.

Every Christian should follow the Lord's command and be baptized.

But it doesn't save you.

It's going to get you wet.

It proclaims that you have already been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ Jesus.

Baptism shows what the Christian receives in Jesus: the forgiveness of sins by dying with Christ and being raised to new life in him.

Cornelius here heard and accepted the good news of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.

And then he was baptized as a sign of his faith.

So there was an understanding that when you come to faith in Christ, you show what has happened on the inside in an outward, public way.

And that's what we get to see this morning.

We have several individuals that were privileged to witness.

Take this step of obedience today.

Each one is going to share how they heard, received, and believed the good news of Christ before they go under the water to represent dying with Christ and being raised to new life in Him.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we pray for these individuals by first giving thanks to you for your wonderful work of grace.

Amazing grace that saves wretches like us.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to take on human form.

You, the eternal one, stepping into time and space and dying a death on the cross so that we may might be made right with God.

Thank you for these individuals whom you've drawn to yourself, made to be a part of your family and given them your spirit.

May you encourage them and embolden them and strengthen them now as they display that before us.

Cause them to go from this place to speak boldly of that faith and that good news to all who will hear.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.