Peter and Cornelius (Acts 10) // On mission with the risen Jesus

So this morning's readings taken from Acts chapter 10 and can be

Acts 10 · chapter mention

found on page 1103 in the Pew Bibles at Caesarea there was a

man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian

Regiment. He and all his family were

devout and God fearing. He gave generously to those in

need and prayed to God regularly.

One day at about 3:00 in the afternoon, he had a vision.

He distinctly saw an Angel of God who came to him and said,

Cornelius. Cornelius stared at him in fear.

What is it, Lord? He asked.

The Angel answered. Your prayers and gifts to the

poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.

Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon, who is

called Peter. He is staying with Simon the

Tanner, whose house is by the sea.

When the Angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two

of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his

attendants. He told them everything that had

happened and sent them to Joppa about noon the following day.

As they went on their journey and approaching the city, Peter

went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted

something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell

into a trance. He saw heaven opened and

something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its

four corners. It contained all kinds of four

footed animals as well as reptiles and birds.

Then a voice told him, Get up, Peter, kill and eat.

Surely not, Lord, Peter replied. I have never eaten anything

impure or unclean. The voice spoke to him a second

time. Do not call anything impure that

God has made clean. This happened three times and

immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the

men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and

stopped at the gate. They called out asking if Simon,

who was known as Peter, was staying there.

While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the spirit

said to him, 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. Peter went down and said to the

men, I'm the one you are looking for, why have you come?

The men replied, We have come from Cornelius the centurion.

He is a righteous and God fearing man who is respected by

all the Jewish people. A holy Angel told him to ask you

to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.

Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.

The next day Peter started out with them and some of the

believers from Joppa went along. The following day he arrived in

Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and

had called together his relatives and close friends.

As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at

his feet in reverence, but Peter made him get up.

Stand up, he said, I am only a man myself.

While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large

gathering of people. He said to them, You're well

aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or

visit a Gentile, but God has shown me that I should not call

anyone impure or unclean. So when I said when I was sent

for, I came without raising any objection.

May I ask why you sent for me? Cornelius answered.

Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour.

At 3:00 in the afternoon, suddenly a man in shining

clothes stood before me and said, Cornelius, God has heard

your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor.

Send to Joppa for Simon, who is called Peter.

He is a guest in the home of Simon the Tanner, who lives by

the sea. So I sent for you immediately,

and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the

presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has

commanded you to tell us. Then Peter began to speak.

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. You know the message God sent to

the people of Israel announcing good news of peace through Jesus

Christ, who is God, Lord of all. You know what has happened

throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee

after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus

of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went

around doing good and healing all who were under the power of

the devil. Because God was with him.

We are witnesses of everything He did in the country of the

Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him

in a on a cross, but God raised him from the dead on the third

day and caused him to be seen. 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 in the dead, He

commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is

the one whom God appointed as Judge of the living in the dead.

All the prophets testify about Him, that everyone who believes

in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.

While Peter was speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on,

only heard the message. The circumcised believers who

had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the

Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles, for they heard

them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Then Peter said, surely no one can stand in the way of their

being baptized with water. They have received the Holy

Spirit just as we have. So we ordered that they be

baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and then they asked

Peter to stay with them for a few days.

It's quite good actually. When you come to a bit of

scripture like this, actually any bit of the Bible, it can be

really helpful to just ask the question, if I had to, what is

the tune or the melody I would have playing as this bit of

Scripture is read out. I didn't ask musicians to play

and choose that tune, but actually it's a, it's a useful

question to ask what's the, what's the tune, the soundtrack,

the feel of this bit of the Bible?

How are we meant to feel when we have it read out?

So is it a passage encouraging us with the love of Jesus?

Is it gently leading us to him? Is the soundtrack sort of quite,

quite warm and comforting? Is it a passage that exposes our

need of forgiveness? Is it is it quite, quite

stirring, quite quite difficult music to expose us, maybe even

sad or mournful? Is the passage calling us to

action to get up and start serving God in the world?

Is it the sort of music you've had playing in the gym?

As you can see from my physique, I go there a lot and maybe it's

things that I know the rocky theme chin I would sort of have

if I'm really want eye of the tiger or something like that.

But what is the tune or melody of this bit of scripture?

And I want to suggest that the the soundtrack to Acts chapter

Acts 10 · chapter mention

10 is 1 of astounding joy and celebration.

Again, we can read bits of the Bible or maybe with the same

sort of tone of voice, but actually the the feel here is

one of just celebration like Vandal's Hallelujah course

Messiah or celebrate come on good times.

That's Rakul and the gang. I got that wrong.

Celebrate good times. Come on, let's celebrate 1980

very good song or whatever song gets you in the mood to

celebrate. But it's this is a red letter

day in the history of the early church.

It is a key moment in salvation history and look as he records

this for us just goes into all the detail lovingly telling you

it's like we have a proud parent who wants to tell you everything

about their child. And I see the detail here is

about Luke celebrating what God has done through Jesus in the

world. Because this is the moment when

the Apostle Peter and and with him the whole early church have

their eyes finally opened by the living God to his saving

purposes for the whole of humanity.

Like the message of Acts 10 is that God is bringing people from

every nation together into the church simply through faith in

Jesus. Is that God can make anyone and

everyone clean through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus

in our place. This is a huge message in the

book of Acts because up to this point we might forget it

sometimes, but the early church was made-up to chapter 10,

almost entirely of Jewish believers.

Now, these Jewish believers came from all over the Roman Empire.

They would have spoken different languages, they had different

traditions. But up to this point in the book

of Acts, if you were a follower of Jesus, you were almost

certainly a Jewish believer first.

You could either trace your ancestry back to ancient Israel,

but that's whether you were Jewish or Samaritan, or you were

a Gentile who had converted to Judaism.

You've been circumcised. You're now observing the Law of

Moses. Before this bit of Acts, Acts

Acts 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10, the early church was an exclusively Jewish movement

of men, women and children following Jesus.

But from this point onwards of the conversion of this Roman

centurion Cornelius, the message of Jesus finally breaks into the

Gentile world. You no longer had to be Jewish

to belong to the early church. All that mattered was simple

faith in the saving work of Jesus.

Jewish people and non Jewish people could now be one through

their shared faith in Jesus. It's a huge moment in the

history of the church. So actually Luke spends a lot of

time in it. Actually, he actually records

this moment for us twice. We've got chapter 10.

We're looking at this week, next week.

Chapter 11 kind of goes over this event again.

He also refers to it in chapter 15.

He's determined that his readers do not miss the significance of

what is going on when Peter went into the home of the Romans,

Cornelius and shared the good news of Jesus with him.

It's even possible that Luke, the writer of Acts, was himself

a Gentile believer from a non Jewish family and background.

If that is the case, this is deeply personal for Luke.

He's saying this is the moment that people like me are fully

welcomed into the Church of Jesus.

And it's a fairly long passage. We're going to try and speed

through it before we pause at the end to think through what it

all means for us today. So First things first, we need

to meet this Gentile believer, Cornelius.

That's verses 1 to 8. And according to verse one,

Cornelius lives in Caesarea. That was the capital of 1st

century Judea, the official seat of the Roman government.

It's an important place and he is an important man.

We learned that he's a Roman centurion.

He's a high-ranking soldier, part of the Roman army that was

occupying Judea at this time. And we need to see actually

really clearly Luke wants to show us Cornelius is a real

person. If you look over verses 1 to 8,

again, there's loads of verses that have the feel of an

eyewitness account. So verse 3, the Angel appeared

to Cornelius about 3:00 in the afternoon.

Luke wants us to know the time of day this happened.

Cornelius distinctly saw the Angel.

Look, it is the number of servants sent by Cornelius to

invite Peter into his home. And see, there's actually a

strong argument that every time an actual name is used in the

Gospels or in the book of Acts, there's a strong possibility

this was someone that the writer spoke to to get their account.

This was an eyewitness Luke has spoken to.

Cornelius may have been one of those eyewitnesses.

He would have been well known to the early Christians in Luke's

day. Maybe Cornelius was still alive

when this bit of Acts was written.

He might have been well known. They might even have cheered

when Cornelius name appeared. Cornelius, it's you.

You're in Acts. This is a big deal for the early

church. And Cornelius was a member of

the early church. He joins at the end of this

passage through faith in Jesus. So he's a centurion.

He's a real person. We're told he's a God fearer

along with his whole family. So Cornelius is Roman, but he is

drawn to faith in the God of Israel.

He may be being brought up with a pantheon of gods the ancient

Rome worshiped. But when Cornelius heard about

the God of ancient Israel, he wanted to know more.

It sounds like he would have gone along to the synagogue

occasionally. He would have heard the Hebrew

scriptures taught. But crucially, Cornelius was not

a convert to Judaism. He wasn't circumcised.

He didn't observe the Law of Moses or the additional laws the

Jewish religious leaders instilled.

And so actually, at bottom, Cornelius is unclean.

He is unclean in the eyes of Jewish believers.

Without God intervening here, Peter and his fellow Jewish

Christians would never have gone into Cornelius home and shared

the gospel with him. Cornelius was unclean, an

outsider, excluded from the people of God.

Until that is, the living God breaks in to Cornelius life.

Again, we need to see here when we read over this bit of Acts,

there's little big names featuring the Apostle Peter,

Cornelius, the first fully Gentile convert in Acts.

But throughout this passage, we need to see God is taking the

lead. The living God is leading his

people on mission here. God speaks to Cornelius through

an Angel, tells him to send for Peter.

God speaks to Peter through a vision, tells him to go to

Cornelius's house. God sends his spirit on

Cornelius and his friends to confirm they are now trusting in

Jesus and part of the early church.

The living Godfather, Son and Holy Spirit is taking the lead

here. We need to see that to really

get what's going on. So first of all, God speaks to

Cornelius verses 1 to 8. He sends an Angel that's

literally a messenger from heaven to speak to Cornelius and

to tell him to send for Peter. See, the living God wants

Cornelius in his church. He wants Cornelius to hear the

good news of Jesus and find new life through faith in him.

I think it's a striking here, right?

The way through Acts and maybe here particularly, we see our

God is a missionary God. He wants people in his church.

He takes the lead. He leads his people on mission,

and that is good news. If you're a follower of Jesus

here today, God wants to lead you, lead us on mission to

people he wants in his church. And amazingly here we learned

that that the God speaks to Cunelius through the visit of an

Angel and a vision. And it's really exciting to know

that actually Fast forward to today, God still speaks through

angels and visions today. There are plenty of reports

around the world of people dreaming of angels, dreaming of

Jesus himself, and being drawn to faith in Jesus through those

dreams and visions. According to mission agencies,

many of these visions take place in countries that are closed to

the gospel. Muslim countries like Iran that

we prayed for, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, where people like

Cornelius, God fearing people, need to hear the good news of

Jesus. And as with Cornelius here,

these visions form part of a process.

They don't do the whole work. Cornelius's vision leads him to

call for Peter to hear the gospel from him.

And and similarly today, when people have these visions,

dreams of Jesus, actually further down the line, they

still need God's people to explain the gospel to them.

They need God's Word to lead them to Jesus through the power

of the Spirit. But it's a reminder God is still

reaching out to people that maybe even human believers can't

reach out to, and he's wanting them in his church.

He uses a wide variety of methods, including angelic

visions to accomplish his goal. So Cornelius calls to the

servants and a devout soldier, he sends them to Joppa to find

the man the Angel told him about.

Verse 9 again, look at the eyewitness detail here about

noon the following day. Looks like he's slowing down.

This is exactly when it happened as Cornelius his men were on

their journey and approaching the city.

So it's about a 30 to 40 mile walk from Joppa.

From Caesarea to Joppa it's about a day's journey and as

they enter Joppa, Peter decides to go up on the roof.

Peter went up on the roof to pray.

Verse 9, if you were here last week, we saw Peter in Joppa

continuing the ministry of Jesus, healing the sick, raising

the dead. Peter clearly is a messenger of

Jesus with Jesus authority on earth.

And so Peter as an apostle is able to lead the early church

into this next phase of mission. And God speaks to Peter here.

We're told Peter's hungry, waiting for lunch.

He falls into a trance and he sees a vision from God that

would transform the church and change the course of history.

Verse 11 and 12, Peter saw heaven opened and something like

a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.

It contained all kinds of four footed animals as well as

reptiles and birds. It's such an astonishing vision,

it's really hard for us to visualize it.

This is kind of the best picture I could find online.

But actually in a sense it's just mind blowing to try and

picture what this vision is about.

A large sheep from heaven full of all kinds of four footed

animals. Some of them would have been

clean for Peter, some of them being kosher foods for him.

Others would have been unclean, forbidden for Peter to eat.

And in verse 13 a voice told him, get up Peter, kill and eat.

Surely not lowered. Peter replied.

I've never eaten anything impure or unclean.

The voice spoke to him a second time.

Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.

This happened three times and immediately the sheet was taken

back to heaven. I know there's so much that we

could say about this vision, but for our purposes this morning, I

want us to see it is vivid and memorable.

It's repeated 3 times so that even Peter cannot miss what God

is saying to him. And what is God saying?

He's saying do not call anything impure that God has made clean

and in case we think God's main concern is about clean and

unclean foods. Verse 17 the minute the vision

finishes, Cornelius's men arrive and verses 19 to 20 the Holy

Spirit speaks directly to Peter and tells him do not hesitate to

go with them for I have sent them.

This vision is primarily about people God looking for

worshippers from among the Gentiles.

The Holy Spirit speaks directly to Peter and commands Peter to

take the good news of Jesus. To this man Cornelius and his

home, how do we understand a vision like this?

Actually, I'm convinced there's a really profoundly wrong way of

understanding this vision that can lead actually to pride and

self righteousness on our part. It's possible for a Christian to

read this vision saying, going great.

Finally, through this vision, those backward early Christians

realize just how racist they'd always been, and they finally

come around to seeing things the way we see them.

That doesn't matter where you come from, that all races are

equal in God's eyes. Finally, those foolish early

Christians are thinking like 21st century Christians.

Honestly, that's a really profoundly wrong way of

understanding this vision. Because if you read it that way,

we end up looking down on Peter and the early church.

We feel smug about ourselves. We act if we wouldn't have

needed a vision like this to lead us on mission.

The truth is we need God to lead us just as much as Peter needed

God to lead him. That's your attitude presumes

that some of the values we hold dear today, values like racial

equality, are just obvious and self-evident, and we're very

clever to have come up with them.

But actually the value of racial equality is 1 we've inherited

from the Christian gospel, from the word of God.

It's the value we've inherited from passages like Acts chapter

Acts 10 · chapter mention

10. And the fact that so many non

Christian people hold it dearly just reminds us how deeply

Christian western culture is. Peter needed God to break into

his assumptions, and we equally need God to break into our

assumptions. See, thanks to the saving work

of Jesus, God can now make anyone and everyone clean and

acceptable to him simply through faith in Jesus.

And that's what Paul, that's what God emphasizes to Peter.

Sorry, He says, God has made clean what was once unclean.

He doesn't say, Peter, you've been completely wrong all these

centuries, you Jewish people, there's no such thing as clean

and unclean. Everything's fine.

He says, no, don't call impure what God has made clean.

Those unclean and clean laws in the Old Testament point us to a

vital truth, that we are all of us naturally unclean in God's

eyes because of our sin and our selfishness and our refusal to

love him and love the people around us.

We are all unclean left to our own devices.

That's what those food laws pointed to.

And what this vision says is that God has made a significant

life altering change. He has made clean what was once

unclean. It took a saving work of God.

It took the Son of God becoming one of us, living the life we

could not live, dying the death we deserve to die, and rising

again to make us clean if we put our faith in him.

God has made us clean through faith in Jesus.

That's the heart of this vision, and that's the heart of the

message. Peter is then told to take to

Cornelius. And I love the patience of God

here. This vision happens three times.

Peter, have you got it yet? Have you got it yet?

Have you got it yet? We're going to hear next week

how this vision is told to the whole church in Jerusalem again,

because we need to grasp the implications of God's saving

purposes for the world through simple faith in Jesus.

So God speaks to Cornelius, God speaks to Peter, and then God

sends Peter to Cornelius and at this particular moment in this

particular home in Caesarea with this particular individual

Cornelius, that God's saving global purposes that were there

right from the beginning. Finally land in human history.

Again, Sunday Club will know this better than the rest of us.

The book of Genesis is all about the global saving purposes of

God. The God he made the whole earth

cause Abraham to follow him and he wants to bless all nations

through Abraham. But like human beings throughout

history, we we, we shrink that we twist what God says to us.

And actually, they need this moment in Peter and Cornelius's

lives to show them that the good news of Jesus is for everyone

and anyone who will trust in him.

So look at verse 25. Peter arrives at Cornelius's

house and Cornelius falls at Peter's feet in reverence.

He does what a good Roman would always do with their superiors.

Right from the outset, Cornelius has a lot to learn about the

freedom that Jesus has won for us that Peter gently corrects

Cornelius verse 26. Stand up, He said.

I'm only a man myself. Peter discovers that Cornelius

has got a large gathering of people, verse 27, to come and

hear what Peter says, and Peter introduces himself by again

looking back to that rooftop vision.

Peter said to them, You're well aware it's against our law for a

Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile.

But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or

unclean. So when I was sent for, I came

without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?

Cornelius describes his vision, he invites Peter to speak, and

Peter proclaims the good news of Jesus to the Gentiles.

And what is that message? Well, actually this is the

fourth sermon of Peters that we have recorded in Acts and it's

pretty much exactly the same as the ones he preaches to Jewish

believers. His message is all about Jesus,

his life, death and resurrection in our place.

And that's a key part of the message that Jewish people and

Gentile people are saved on the same basis.

Jesus saving work in coming, becoming one of us.

Sir Peter's message, it's about a person, Jesus Christ, who is

Lord of all verse 36, his life travelling around Judea, doing

good, healing all who are under the power of the devil.

His death 1st 39, they killed him by hanging him on a cross or

a tree. Now if you were a Roman, that

was a deeply shameful death. A Roman citizen like Cornelius

would never face that death. He wouldn't even speak of

crucifixion. It was shameful for Jewish

people. Why does Peter and the early

Christians keep banging on about this shameful death?

Because it's at the heart of how we are made clean.

Because Jesus became sin for us. He endured God's wrath for us.

He became a curse for us in our place so that we can be washed

clean. Verse 40 Peter then proclaims

Jesus resurrection. God raised him from the dead on

the third day, caused him to be seen.

Peter says I'm one of the witnesses and then he offers

Cornelius a gift. Verse 43, Everyone who believes

in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

How do you get that gift, Cornelius?

Believe in him. Believe in him.

Cornelius didn't have to do anything else but to put his

faith in Jesus, to trust completely in what Jesus has

done for him rather than anything that Cornelius has done

for Jesus. And that's what Cornelius and

his friends choose to do. They believe in Jesus.

Actually, I love the detail. Verse 44, you get the impression

Peter hasn't finished his message yet.

He's kind of just getting going while Peter was still speaking

these words. Verse 44, like some preachers

you might know, he he likes talking at length.

But here Cornelius and his friends, they've heard enough.

They've heard enough and they put their faith in Jesus and God

responds to their faith, verse 44, by sending them the Holy

Spirit. The Gentiles are welcomed into

the church by the coming of the Spirit and through baptism.

Verse 44, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy

Spirit came on all who heard the message.

The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were

astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out

even on Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and

praising God again. It's, it's a celebration again,

in case there's any doubt for Peter and the Jewish believers.

God the Holy Spirit comes on Cornelius and his friends,

visibly, powerfully, unmistakably, just as he had

done on the day of Pentecost and Acts 2.

The Holy Spirit came on all. He heard the message.

Luke tells us he comes to live with them and in them in

response to their faith in Jesus.

And verse 46, they began speaking in tongues and praising

God. This is unmistakable.

God is welcoming the Gentiles into his church just in passing.

That speaking in tongues reference verse 46.

It seems to be different to the experience in Pentecost where

Peter and the other apostles were given the ability to speak

different human languages that others would hear.

This seems to be closer to the experience described in one

Corinthians speaking in a language given by the Holy

Spirit that requires the Holy Spirit to interpret it.

And it's important to note that that tongues don't always

accompany someone coming to faith in Jesus.

In Acts, only a few moments where you hear this described

and later the Apostle Paul in the 1st letter, the Corinthians

makes it clear not every believer is given the gift of

speaking in tongues. That's one Corinthians 12, verse

10 and verse 30. But the gift of tongues plays a

huge part in Acts 10 because the the Jewish believers need to see

with an Eddy shadow of a doubt. Gentile believers are now washed

clean and welcomed by God into his church on exactly the same

terms as Jewish believers. Verse 47.

Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with

water, says Peter. They have received the Holy

Spirit just as we have. So Peter order they be baptized

in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay

with them for a few days. This is a red letter day in the

history of the church and for every non Jewish believer in

this room, it's the day that without any shadow of a doubt

God demonstrated we are welcome in His church through simple

faith in Jesus. It's from this point onwards in

the book of Acts that the work of mission to the end of the

earth really begins. So as we as we prepare to leave

this passage, what difference does Act 10, Acts 10 make to us

as individuals and as a church family?

It's an amazing moment in church history.

What difference does it make to us today?

And the first thing we need to see here is that God can make

anyone and everyone clean through faith in Jesus.

It's kind of hard for us to grasp just how vast the dividing

wall was between Jew and Gentile in the 1st century.

Here's how the Apostle Paul puts it.

In Ephesians 2, he writes to merely Gentile believers.

Remember that once you were separate from Christ, excluded

from citizenship in Israel, foreigners, the covenants of the

promise, without hope and without God in the world, the

situation was hopeless, says Paul.

But Paul's writing in a post Acts 10 world and a few verses

later he says this to the Ephesians.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been

brought near by the blood of Christ.

It's the blood of Jesus that enables this to happen.

It's the love of Jesus that welcomes us into his church.

Like, I don't know how you feel this morning, how clean or

unclean you may feel. Maybe you're someone who feels

drawn to this Jesus, just as Cornelius was.

You're intrigued by him, drawn to him, but you've never quite

put your faith in him. Acts 10 says if you do that, you

will receive the forgiveness of sins, God the Holy Spirit living

in you, and you will be washed clean and accepted by God.

Anyone and everyone can be made clean by God through the saving

work of Jesus. And maybe you're already a

follower of Jesus here Today must be one of those weeks where

you don't feel very clean. You don't feel very welcomed by

God. Maybe you're struggling to see

what he's doing in your life or the lives of people you know.

Maybe you died. Does God really love me?

And Acts 10 is here to show us that the life, death and

resurrection of Jesus reconciles us to God and brings us into

God's people. We can rejoice in the life,

death and resurrection of Jesus for us, not on things we do, not

anything we deserve, but what Jesus has won for us.

This chapter reminds us the power of the gospel to transform

anyone who trusts in Jesus. So we need to receive that.

And we need to pray for opportunities to share that same

life changing gospel with the people around us.

I'm going to be encouraged actually in Acts 10 that God

takes the lead on mission and we need to follow His lead in every

member of the Trinity is at work.

In Acts chapter 10, do we see that God the Father makes us

Acts 10 · chapter mention

clean through the saving work of God the Son, Jesus.

And God, the Holy Spirit confirms that by coming and

making His home with everyone who trusts in Jesus.

We are on mission with the risen Jesus.

The living God is with us. He wants to lead us on mission.

So the question is the invitation, the challenge?

Are we listening to God's lead? Are we asking God, show me

individually, show us corporately, who are the people

you want us to proclaim Jesus to through our lives and through

our words? Do we believe that God wants to

save people even more than we do?

And he is fully able to lead us on mission as we humble

ourselves before him, as we ask him to lead us.

Our God's a missionary God. He loves people from every

nation under heaven. And he wants to call each one of

us to play our part in making disciples for Jesus individually

in the places we're in each week, corporately, in this part

of Leicester, this Clarendon Park area.

Who are the people we are being called to proclaim Jesus to?

I think the big reason why this is a celebration passage is we

get to rejoice that we are all one in Christ.

We're not alone in living for Jesus.

God is with us and we are with each other.

Again, if this has been a challenging week for you, if

things are hard in life at the moment, if things feel uncertain

and complex, remember that God has not left you alone to walk

through this world. He has welcomed you into the

family of His people. You have Christians around you

who will pray for you. You're called to love you.

And often we don't quite know what that looks like.

But we are one in Christ. That's what Acts 10 tells us.

And because of what Jesus has done, we want to love one

another the way He first loved us.

The church is open to everyone and anyone who puts their faith

in Jesus. And when we do that, we are

united to each other, united to God.

But united to each other, God has made us clean through Jesus.

God is leading us on mission through Jesus.

And God calls us to love one another and spur one another on

in our mission for Jesus in this world.

Acts 10 is a passage full of joy.

We get to benefit from that joy not because we deserve it, but

because God has made us clean through the saving work of

Jesus. Let's pray together.

Let's, let's pray. Father God, we thank you that

you are not content to have your people without us in it.

That, Lord, your love for the world far surpasses the love we

have even for the people around us.

That, Lord, you are a missionary God, committed to calling people

into relationship with yourself through the saving work of

Jesus. Father, we thank you that

because of Jesus saving work, Your Holy Spirit comes and lives

in US and equips and empowers us to live for you, to serve you,

and to love and serve each other as we depend on you.

Thank you that one day, if we are trusting in Jesus, we will

meet Cornelius and rejoice that we've heard his story.

We will meet Peter and rejoice that he was used by you in this

moment. And we pray that in that moment,

when we are with your people in the new creation, you might

bring to mind ways you've called us to play our part in your

mission. You will bring to mind ways you

used us in all our imperfections and frailty to be witnesses for

Jesus in this world, to build your church because you love to

gather people from every nation through faith in your Son Jesus.

Show us the part you'd have us play today in the days to come.

Show us that individually. Show us that corporately.

And thank you so much that because of Jesus, we are now

welcome to call you Father and to take our place among your

people. We thank you Father, for your

deep love for us in Jesus name, Amen.