Acts: Gospel Conversion to the Weary, Needy, and Moralistic

Before Eastern Lint, we're studying our way through the book of Acts.

We are up to Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

I'm excited to share with y'all the story of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

Nathan read the beginning of Acts 10.

We're going to jump into verse 29.

It's after Peter has arrived here at Cornelius who had sent for him.

And so verse 29, Acts 10, 29, so when I was sent for, as Peter speaking, I came without objection.

I asked then why you sent for me.

And Cornelius said, Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and 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.

So a few points to make sense of this, Acts 10, as we go through it.

Point number one, gospel conversion.

And that's what we're seeing in Acts 9, the conversion of Paul, and then now Acts 10, the conversion of Cornelius is conversions.

Point number one, gospel conversion comes through God's pursuit, God's pursuit of our lost and weary hearts.

In 2018, Kim Kardashian, she was at New York Met Gala, I'm sure you remember it.

She took this picture.

She was wearing a gold Versace dress.

She took this picture next to a gold Egyptian coffin.

Didn't think it was that big of a deal when she took the picture.

She put it out there on the internet.

The thing goes viral.

Now what the Met did not know, the Met who owned the Egyptian, they sort of thought they owned the Egyptian coffin, was that this first century, first century BC coffin had been stolen and belonged to Egypt.

So, but this picture goes viral, and one of the thieves sitting in the Middle East, who never got paid for being in that gang of people who dug it up out of the ground during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, he never got paid.

And so he sees this picture and he's mad because he never got paid, and so he tips off the New York DA who oversees art theft.

And sure enough, this coffin had been dug out of the ground, smuggled to the UAE, then to Germany, fake documents drawn up to make it look like it had been exported legally in 1971 out of Egypt.

And then the coffin goes to an art dealer in France.

The art dealer sells it to the Met for$4 million.

The thief never got anything.

He's upset.

And so, sure enough, the story comes out, and the Met, kind enough, sends it back to Egypt.

And here it is now in Cairo, this gold coffin, which a priest, I'm sure his shirt was tucked in, is inside the coffin.

Now, what I love about this story is it's interesting, right?

It's kind of an interesting story.

But what I love about it is just like the many conversions that this coffin goes through, right?

It's a forgotten coffin in the ground, and then it becomes a smuggled good, and then it becomes expensive artwork, and then finally it becomes priceless cultural artifact, right?

Converting from one thing to another thing.

And yet it's still sort of who it was.

So Peter says to Cornelius, why did you sin for me?

Why did you sin for me?

Cornelius says, Well, I had a vision, so I sent for you.

Pretty simple.

In other words, God sparked in me, right?

Cornelius had the vision and then he sent, right?

So God sparked in me the desire to seek.

And that's profound.

See, your desire to seek and my desire to seek God, or even our wrestling with God's absence, is a sign of God's pursuit of us.

Pastor and author Tim Keller says even a sense of God's absence is a sense of God's presence.

You can just chew on that.

Let me know what you think about that.

Even a sense of God's absence is a sense of God's presence.

See, God's on a mission to bring Cornelius home, to convert him, to have a conversion, to move him from one thing to another thing.

British pastor Martin Lloyd Jones, we looked at this definition and thought about conversion when we studied Acts 9 weeks ago before Lent.

Conversion is the first exercise of the new nature in ceasing from old forms of life and starting a new life.

It is the first action of the regenerate soul in moving from something to something.

As we mature in the Christian faith, probably what you're discovering, or you will soon, is that so much of that big decision making you were making about you're going to give your life to God and walk the aisle and give your life to Christ, all of which is really important, maybe huge marking moments for you, right?

All of that is by God's grace and mercy to us.

See, the activity of God's grace through the Holy Spirit reveals our need of Christ.

Our seeking is a result of his seeking.

Here's what we said when we studied Acts 9, to get a little technical, nerd out, just a little bit.

Regeneration, God's grace to us, our soul being regenerated.

Regeneration is the implantation by the Holy Spirit of new life in the soul.

Conversion, many of you maybe have a conversion experience.

Conversion is the experience of that regeneration as repentance and faith.

And what that means is it means our pursuit of Him is always rooted in His pursuit of us, which is amazing good news because it pulls out pride and it pulls out anxiety.

I heard this 18th-century Lutheran hymn this week.

Lord, 'tis not that I did choose thee, that I know could never be, for this heart would still refuse thee, had thy grace not chosen me.

Now back to verse 31, Acts 10, the angel said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms have been remembered before God.

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

So point number two is gospel conversion is a transformation out of moral merit and religiosity.

And here's how we see this.

Cornelius, he's praying, he's giving money away, he's doing everything right.

And God says to this guy who has the righteousness report, he has it.

He's like Paul in chapter 9, and now he's the Gentile in chapter 10, but he still is doing everything right, and to him, God says, Yeah, you, even the good, moral, religious person, you need a conversion.

Here's how we can think about it morality, which we're all for.

We are all for morality.

Morality, right?

Keeps us from destruction, keeps society going forward.

Morality is the goodness of what is true and right.

We are moral people.

We are for morality.

But moralism, that's something different.

Moralism is trying to be loved and accepted by God or worthy as a person by the record of your own morals.

So some call this works righteousness, some people call this a performance-oriented life.

It's the long list of moral expectations, the to-do list piled onto you once you become a Christian, as if if you do all of it, keep all of it, maintain all of it, then on a Tuesday morning, then you're okay with God.

Then God can love you or keep loving you, and you're making him happy.

And in this way, moralism is all over churches, and it is exhausting.

Moralism usually turns us prideful, judgmental, self-righteous, lacking compassion, and ultimately exhausted because we are not perfect.

We're not always moral.

And in this way we see that both the rebel and the religious need a conversion.

Both of us are burdened, exhausted, and in need of Christ's full forgiveness and full righteousness to us.

As we say, he who knew no sin became sin, that we might become the righteousness of God.

Now, if we jump back to when Peter arrives at Cornelius' house, now remember Cornelius is a Gentile.

I don't want to skip over that.

This is quite the moment in the book of Acts where the gospel is extending beyond the Jewish people, extending to people that the Jewish people actually despised.

They thought Gentiles, non-Jews, were dogs that were despise, lesser than, to be avoided.

And God is just leading this revolution out in the book of Acts to welcome the outsider.

Point number three is that.

When Peter walks into that house, Cornelius bows down, almost worshiping Peter.

And Peter said, No, no, no, no, no, get up.

You know, like don't worship me.

Don't misread this.

Acts 10, 26.

But Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up, I too am a man.

And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered, and he said to them, You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation.

Right?

So there's the cultural reality.

And Peter says, But God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.

So when I was sent for, I came without objection.

I asked then why you sent for me.

Theologian John Stott, he wrote this about this passage, these exact verses.

Says, Peter had just now repudiated both extreme and opposite attitudes which human beings have sometimes adopted towards one another.

He had come to see that it was entirely inappropriate either to worship somebody as divine, which Cornelius had tried to do to him, or to reject somebody as if unclean, which he would previously have done to Cornelius.

Peter refused both to be treated by Cornelius as if he were God and to treat Cornelius as if he were a dog.

That's amazing.

That's an amazing revolution of how we view the other and the next person.

When Peter began to tell Cornelius about God's love for him, provision of Jesus as the final sacrifice.

Peter began that by saying in Acts 10, 34, so Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly, I understand that God shows no partiality.

Now that word partiality is a very long Greek word.

I'm not going to attempt to impress you with.

It means favoritism.

It means favoritism.

Last Sunday we celebrated Easter and the other wonderful holiday of Master Sunday.

It was a double holy day, wasn't it?

It was a praise God day all day.

Years ago, Christy and I went to the Masters, amazing grass, right?

It's just all perfect, every little blade.

Just so beautiful.

It's amazing, amazing pimento cheese sandwich.

A lot of walking in crowds.

But a lot of like limitations.

Like I was like roped and herded and like limited.

Like there's whole areas I couldn't go in.

I had a lanyard on, which makes me feel very powerful, but lots of people had lanyards on.

There's a whole other group of people who had on green jackets.

That was different.

That was different.

Only the winners and the members have on a green jacket.

They go wherever they want.

They're not roped off behind the robes.

I don't like being roped off.

Augusta is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world.

There are only about 300 members.

So just 300.

It's not for everyone.

And all these people, they've all done something.

They're impressive people.

You don't get into this small group of 300 just in any way.

I mean, these are impressive people.

So in that way, Augusta is designed perfectly and properly as a private golf club.

It's exclusive, it's limited, it's designed properly.

But in that way, it's also the antithesis of God's heart.

And operates completely the opposite of how a church operates.

Which around the world, this morning, this is the insanity of church, just opens its doors.

Anybody can come.

We're going to provide all sorts of services and ministry and counseling, and there's no invoices being sent out, and just somehow it's going to get paid for by the generosity of the people, and anybody can come.

Not a gathering of the impressive, it's a gathering of the weary and the thirsty.

See, in God's economy, your need is all that's required.

Which is great because it turns out that even Augusta members, maybe there's one here.

I don't know.

You can invite me next year.

Go into the other areas, the mystery of those other areas.

Even Augusta members are human beings.

Which means that they feel guilty.

They feel shame.

They lack peace.

They feel like they're never enough.

They need some sort of wholeness and joy and contentment outside of themselves.

Right?

They too are exhausted, just like me and you, just all people, from either our rebellion or our moralism.

Right?

We're either the criminal or we are Cornelius.

We all need a conversion.

Everybody needs a conversion.

We all need to hear Jesus say, Come to me, all you are weary, and I will give you rest.

Acts 10, verse 44.

Acts 10:44

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

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

There's that revolution of the gospel extending out of the Jewish people to all people.

Verse 46, 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.

Then they asked him to remain for some days.

Point number four, a little bit of a long point here, kind of a summary point.

Point number four.

Conversion is by God's initiative, like we talked about at the beginning, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, verse 44, in the hearing of the word, verse 44, resulting in praise to God, there in verse 46.

Now we covered speaking in tongues back in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

I'm not going to redo that for another 15 minutes.

But tongues here is combined with praise, teaching us that there's no language, there's no culture, there's no people that is God's preference.

Which means God is for us and all of our preferences, and we have a ton of them, and they're in full operation this morning right now.

And God is also for that culture and that person and that people group, of which is the opposite of our culture.

And he's for them.

Isn't that amazing?

That is amazing.

Now, the implication of our conversion, as we see here, these people are converted, not of themselves, but of God's converting power in them.

And out of that comes praise.

Because we all find something for our ultimate joy, our ultimate value, a saving.

We're all, we're all, we all have a savior.

And they understand Jesus, God's grace to them, to be their Savior, and they praise, right?

The heart of the converted agrees with Psalm 63, 3.

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

I grew up hearing conversion stories all the time.

In the church I grew up in, we had testimonies.

Did you have testimonies in church?

Maybe in the church you grew up in, you had testimonies.

That was just part of the service.

You had a testimony kind of every week, and testimonies all over.

Every club I went to, we had testimonies.

I was an FCA in high school, fellowship of Christian athletes, and we always had testimonies.

And this one week a guy from the Mafia came.

You know, really good testimony.

Powerful, mafia minister is what it was called.

Anybody ever hear the mafia minister testimony, map, good pastor stuff, you know, like the mafia minister.

I still remember it.

It's been 25 years or so since I heard the mafia minister.

He was in the mafia in New York.

And then he gets converted.

He becomes a Christian, gives his life to Jesus, and he realizes, well, I probably shouldn't keep doing all this.

And so he goes to his boss and he says to his boss, I went out.

I went out of the mafia.

Well, apparently you can't just get out of the mafia.

And so the boss puts a hit out on him.

That's like that's the kill him, by the way.

The kill him.

But before the hit can happen, somebody kills the boss.

Which means now the hit put on him is void and he's set free.

You know, give your life to Jesus.

And like we all are like, I'll give my life to Jesus again.

We all did it.

It's all over again.

It was an amazing conversion story.

Now, just a short time after that, I was in church, and we had testimony time in church, and somebody came up.

This 40-year-old guy, you know, I thought he was so old, a real old guy, he got up, sharing his testimony, and boy, whoo, it was a doozy.

And he goes into it, and it's like he's a horrible addict and thief and affairs.

I mean, it was quite the tale of debauchery.

He is really getting us going.

We're like, you know, wow, God has really done something here.

And just about, you know, he really has us going, he just sort of stops.

I mean, it's been a long time ago.

I still remember this testimony, just like the mafia minister.

And he just looks down and he goes, I'm I'm just kidding.

None of that's true.

And he's like, I was I'm just like a really normal, boring, like upbringing, just like a good kid.

Like it, and he said, I'm just a good kid and I needed Jesus.

And uh, yeah, I still gave my life to Jesus.

And that was it.

I still remember that, that testimony, also.

And he just sort of sort of smiled and prayed, and that was it.

It was kind of awkward, just like this moment is, and but it was it was what it was.

Still remember it, 25 years.

Now it's possible you're the mafia guy, like you're the criminal, you're the rebel, you've ran and gone off to foreign countries.

Now it's also possible you're the boring guy who gave his testimony in church.

You're Cornelius.

Like you're a good person.

Like you're really good.

You're a good person.

And the point is we all need a conversion.

The criminal is using his escapism and his rebellion to try to save himself.

Cornelius is using his goodness to try to save himself, and none of it works.

We're all still left, not quite able to secure forgiveness or joy or wholeness.

Can't ever secure that relationship with God except for God's grace to us.

And so we all need a conversion.

And the good news is that our conversion is the fruit of God's gracious, regenerative power to us, outside of us, given to us.

Our pursuit of Him is always rooted in His pursuit of us.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace and mercy to us that you love and save both the criminal and the religious.

And many of us have conversion stories.

Some of us like a criminal, and then many of us like Cornelius.

And many of us have converted from the criminal to be Cornelius, and we are in need of a gospel conversion.

A saving and a power, a security that is outside of us, given to us by God's grace to us, that we are your children, fully forgiven, fully righteous, secure in you with an identity beyond our performance by your grace to us.

And would you this morning call your children home?

Help us to remember more that we are more than our performance, and we are more than our rebellion.

That in Jesus we are the full forgiven, fully righteous children of God.

I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.