October 18, 2026 - The Way - Acts 10:1-11:18

Welcome to the Fourth St.

Thomas Lions Church Sermon Podcast.

I'm Aaron Peters, the Executive Ministry Director.

We're so glad you've joined us today.

Our desire is to become a community of people who practice the way of Jesus together and through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live on a mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us.

Each week we gather as a community to worship, learn from God's Word, and be encouraged in our walk with Christ.

In this podcast, you'll hear the latest message from our Sunday service.

Whether you're listening from right here in Fort St.

John or from afar, our prayer is that God will speak to your heart and strengthen your faith.

Let's lean in together as we hear today's sermon.

All right.

Today's reading is from Acts 10.

Uh looks like verse 1 to 11 to 18.

Oh, I didn't do that right.

Anyway, here we go.

Um, Cornelius of Vision.

There was a man in Carissa named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment.

He was a devote man and feared God along with his whole household.

He did many charitable deeds for the Jewish people and always prayed to God.

About three in the afternoon, he distinctly saw a vision of an angel of God who came in and said to him, Cornelius.

Staring at him in awe, he said, What is it, Lord?

The angel told him, Your prayers and your acts of charity have ascended as a memorial offering before God.

Now send men to Jobah and call for Simon, who is also named Peter.

He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.

Then the angels who spoke to him had gone.

He called two of his household servants and a devote soldier, who was one of those who attended him.

After explaining everything to them, he sent them to Jobah.

About noon the following day, they were on while as they were on their journey and approaching the city.

Peter went up to 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 the 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've never eaten anything impure or unclean.

The voice spoke to him a second time.

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, the 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-faring 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 are 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 was sent for you, 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 three 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 he accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.

You know the message of God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of all.

You know what has happened through 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 them.

We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

They killed him by hanging him 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 from the dead.

He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of all the living and the dead.

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

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.

The circumcised believers and who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the 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.

I looked into it and I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds.

Then I heard a voice telling me, Get up, Peter, kill and eat.

I replied, Surely not, Lord, nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.

The voice spoke from heaven a second time.

Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.

This happened three times, and then it was pulled up to heaven again.

Right then, three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying.

The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them.

These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house.

He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, Send to Joppa for Simon, who is called Peter.

He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.

As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning.

Then I remembered what the Lord had said.

John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

So if God gave them the gift he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God's way?

When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, So then, even to Gentiles, God has granted repentance that leads to life.

This is the word of the Lord.

Well, good morning.

Again, my name is Darren Schmellach.

I'm part of the preaching team here.

I also have the privilege of being part of the team going to the Middle East.

As I said before last time I spoke, I love the book of Acts.

And I really love this story.

But it's probably not for the reason you might think.

You see, I love this story because it's about a man named Cornelius.

And you see, my grandfather, my mother's father, his name was Cornelius.

And until I had read this story in the Bible, I had never ran into that name before.

That was the first time I realized my grandfather's name was in the Bible and as a little boy.

I thought that was pretty cool.

And like Cornelius in the Bible, my grandfather was a devout and godly man.

Or at least that's how I remember him.

I probably am biased.

My grandfather was a tough boy.

He farmed a bit.

But uh he was an old school logger.

And when I say old school, I mean 1930s on Vancouver Island, the big trees, the cross-cut saw, axe.

Um I have a photo of him at home, him and another man, and they're standing at the end of the tree that they just cut down with a saw, and it's like way, way over their heads.

And they both look like pretty, pretty solid boys in the picture.

See, they used to shorten my grandfather's name to Corney, and I thought that was funny.

So one day I was sitting, I was about eight, nine, something like that, and I was sitting with two of my uncles, and I told them I thought grandpa's name was funny.

I said, Does anybody ever make fun of grandpa's name?

And my uncle Earl sitting back and went, we wouldn't do that.

My other uncle said, ah, I said, nephew, that's not a good idea to be like that disrespectful.

It's not a good idea to be disrespectful to a logger named Cornelius.

It probably would be less of a good idea to be disrespectful to a centurion named Cornelius as well.

A commander of a hundred people.

That's a formidable force in its day.

Yet when he meets Peter, he falls at his feet in reverence.

Peter tells him, get up that he's just a man.

The centurion was a devout and godly man.

And yet he still needed to be saved.

This story is about Cornelius.

And it's about Peter.

And it's about the Holy Spirit.

And it's about us.

Let's bow our heads and pray.

Father, we just open our hearts to you as we dwell, delve into the word.

Please unpack these verses, we pray.

In Jesus' name that you would open the door of our hearts to hear the message you have for each of us today.

We pray that you would speak to your children, that you would minister grace, that you would nourish our souls, and that you would feed us and guide us.

That you would lead us into all truth and show us, Lord God, how to apply this truth to our lives.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

But I have a plane to catch.

So you're lucky.

But I am lengthy today, I won't lie to you.

See, the book of Acts is largely largely about the leading of the Holy Spirit to empower and to enable the believers to go and do what we were called to do, which is to share the gospel.

And this may be one of the most important stories in the Bible.

And I say that because in just a chapter and a half, Luke says it three times.

And I think he does that just to drive its importance home.

You see, up until this point, the gospel has primarily gone out to the Jews.

It's also gone out to the Samaritans, they being half Jews.

But it really has not gone out to the Gentiles.

And there's a good reason for that.

You see, the Jews struggled with the belief that Gentiles could or even should be saved.

The Jewish nation had been given the honor to be God's chosen people amongst all the people on the earth.

They had received the law of God through Moses and through other prophets.

God's desire for his people is that they would live differently from all other nations, that they would live apart.

To be set apart to be a holy people.

Sorry.

To be set apart to be a holy people.

In the book of Deuteronomy, we read this verse.

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

Out of all the peoples on the face of this earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession.

Again, like I said, holy means to be set apart.

A holy one is someone who is set apart.

It means someone who's living differently from the rest of the world, and that's what God wanted his people to do.

The idea being that that would attract attention to the Gentile nations and bring them into a worship with the one true God, eventually leading them to the promised Messiah.

But you see, the problem lied, the problem lies is that Israel misinterpreted that understanding of what it meant to be a holy nation.

Rather than seeing the Gentile nations of the world through the eyes of God, through compassion and mercy, they saw the Gentile nations as something less.

They regarded them as something unclean or even defiled.

Peter.

Peter plays an important role in this story.

And Peter is a Jew.

Instilled in him are all the ideas and thought patterns concerning the Gentiles that the Jewish people held, most of which would have been negative.

But now God's calling him to reach the Gentiles for Jesus.

And the truth of the matter is, if the Jewish nation had been paying attention, they'd have seen that God had always desired to include the Gentiles in his redemptive plan.

We can take a sneak look into the book of Isaiah, chapter 49, verses 5 and 6, where when God is speaking, he says, This He who formed me in the womb to be a servant, to bring back Jacob to him and gather Israel to himself.

Isaiah 49:5

For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and God has been my strength.

He says, It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.

That is a reference to the Messiah.

That message is repeated again in Zechariah.

It says it this way many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people.

God called the nation of Israel to be a light to the nations, to bring the Gentiles into the family of God.

But they had misread it.

You see, the Jews did think that a Gentile could become a Jew or could become saved, but they'd have to become a Jew first.

They would need to come under the law and submit to all its rules and regulations.

Then and only then they would have a promise or a chance at salvation.

But Jesus, on his earthly ministry, he did begin to try to correct this thought.

John chapter 10 says that Jesus said, I have other sheep that are not of this pen, and I must bring them also.

John 10 · chapter mention

And they too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

God's intention is that there will be one flock.

There's only one shepherd, which is Jesus.

The flock will be one, not Jew or Gentile.

And that's where we are today.

In the body of Christ, being a Jew or a Gentile doesn't mean much.

We're just children of God who've come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Or at least that's where we should be.

And Peter is yet to fully understand this.

But his heart is being prepared for what God wants to do through him to reach the Gentiles.

So our story begins with Cornelius having a vision with an angel.

Verses 1 and 2 tell us quite a bit about Cornelius.

We've already talked about it somewhat.

We learned that he was a centurion, which means he was a man with authority.

Centurion typically had a hundred men under him, and he was part of the Italian regiment, which again means that he's just part of a larger detachment.

He was a devout man who feared God, and from his devotion came generosity.

It says he was a generous man who was involved in a lot of charitable giving.

And he was a man who prayed regularly.

Devout, generous, and a man of prayer.

He was a good man.

And if we skip down to verse 22, we found out that he was well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation.

A lot of people seemed to know him and held him in high regard, and that's pretty rare.

I also think it's safe to say that he cared about other people.

And I think this is evident because we zipped into chapter 11, and we know that when Peter came and talked to him, sorry, I made a mistake there.

But we know that he cared about other people because when Peter got to his house, the house was full of all his friends, his family, and acquaintances.

He wanted people to hear the same message that God was going to give him through Peter.

You see, the Romans were essentially pagans.

We can't say they weren't religious because they had a multitude of gods.

Gerald Sitzer points out in his book Resilient Faith that they had a high interest in foreign religions and in philosophy.

But even so, most historians point out that they lived a lavish and immoral lifestyle.

So what we learn about Cornelius really sets him apart from his countrymen.

Cornelius was a man who believed in the one true God.

And because he opened his heart to the Lord God and worshipped him as such, God now was going to fill in some gaps.

As I said, Cornelius was a good man.

But being good isn't enough.

You can't be a good man and go to heaven.

If you could, you would think the angel just would have said, Hey, hey, Courtney buddy, you're doing good.

Just need a few pointers, and you're on your way.

But that didn't happen.

Amid all the wonderful things that he is, Cornelius is lacking.

He's lacking the knowledge of a savior and the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

And God is going to use Peter to fill him in.

Peter.

He's quite a character.

His name is originally Simon.

Christ changed it.

He was a fisherman.

I think that's a plus.

He was bold.

But he was impulsive and he was brash.

He often acted and spoke before thinking things through.

He had some major failures.

He stepped out of the boat in faith and began to sink.

He denied Christ three times.

Yet he was chosen to lead the church.

He was chosen to lead the church and he was chosen to go to Cornelius, this good man, and tell him the way to be saved.

We've already established that Peter was a Jew and that he'd be well acquainted with Jewish laws and customs.

Especially with association with Gentiles and dietary laws.

See, the law of Moses had many aspects.

It contains Things like the moral law, you shall not commit murder.

There was a ceremonial law, you know, keep the Sabbath and observe certain feasts, things of that nature.

There were parts of it that were like civil law, how to treat your brother, your sister, and how to live peaceably with your neighbor.

But there are also these dietary laws.

They were told there were some animals that were forbidden to eat, and they followed it very strictly.

But God gives Simon an adjustment on how he is to relate to this whole thing.

Because while he's praying, he sees a vision.

He sees this sheep being let down from heaven by its four corners with all kinds of animals that were forbidden for Jews to eat.

And when Peter hears this voice of the Lord saying, Get up, kill, and eat, Peter objected.

Maybe he thinks it's some sort of a test.

He says, Not so, Lord, I've never eaten anything that was forbidden for a Jew to eat.

And that's when he heard the Lord say, Don't call anything impure that God has made clean.

The Lord is challenging Peter on these restrictions to prepare his heart to bring the message to the Gentiles.

But Peter's Jewish dietary restrictions don't die easy.

For Jews, this was hardwired into them.

These were commands that were entwined in their culture, given through Moses.

Taught for centuries that there are some things you just plain don't eat, period.

And when God overturned that, which he did, that would have been a very difficult thing to accept.

I think what I find odd even to say is that there are Christians who observe dietary regulations.

I've sat and talked and prayed with people who feel that you still have to keep them.

But if the disciples had been listening, when Jesus taught about food, they would have realized that it was being overturned.

Chapter 14, the book of Matthew, when Jesus was teaching, he said, nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them.

Rather, it's what comes out of a person that defiles them.

Whatever goes into the person from the outside, that means whatever goes in through the mouth cannot defile them, since it enters not his heart, but his stomach and is expelled.

Thus he declared all foods clean, and that means permissible.

The Jews believe that if you ingested an unclean animal in any way, it would defile you.

And Jesus corrected that mistaken notion.

People were judging Christians by what they ate or what they didn't eat.

Paul gives instruction in the book of Colossians.

He says, therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink.

It's not about food or drink, he says.

In fact, don't let them judge you about anything, even with regard to religious festival or a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

Paul says, Look, these are a shadow of the things that were to come.

The reality is found in Christ.

Jesus said, I've not come to abolish the law.

I've come to fulfill it.

Jesus fulfilled the law.

So he says, Don't let anyone judge you by any of those things.

The fact that God overturned the food laws from the Old Testament causes a lot of people to ask the question, well, if he was going to overturn them, why did he ever instigate it in the first place?

If he was just going to do away with them, what was the point of ever having them?

There's a lot of people who have ventured to guess.

It's funny though, because God never actually really fully explains it.

That's actually somewhat of a trait of God that really bothers me.

He doesn't feel obligated all the time to actually tell you what he's up to and why he does things.

But you know, I think one of the main reasons that God gave Israel not just dietary restrictions, but frankly all the restrictions, is he gave them because he was teaching them to discern the difference between holy and unholy.

Between good and bad, right and wrong.

Similar to when you teach a child.

There are certain restrictions that we give children that you don't have to give an adult because they can reason through them.

But when somebody's a child, you must teach them what's right and what's wrong.

And I think God wanted to do that.

And we can get a glimpse of that from Leviticus 10, where God instructed Israel.

He told them outright, you were distinguished between the holy and the common.

Between unclean and clean.

God wanted them to learn that there's a difference between the two.

So he gave them those laws.

He gave it so that knowing the difference would begin to get into their heart and in their mind.

And it obviously did.

It got into their hearts and minds, but it went way overboard.

And it became legalism.

They began to create rules that God never told them or gave them.

Do you guys know that?

When Peter came into Cornelius' house, he said, you guys are well aware that it's unlawful for a Jew to enter the house of a Gentile.

That's one of the ones that God never told them to do.

That wasn't under the law of Moses.

God never said you can't go to the house of a Gentile.

That was not part of the law.

He just told them to be holy.

They came up with rules along the way, and that turned out to be a problem.

So God gives Peter this elaborate vision that he might learn that his concern is not just about animals, but about people.

Because the Jews looked at Gentiles the same way they looked at unclean animals.

Peter begins the message.

Peter begins to get the message.

And when the men, Cornelius sent, came, he went with him without hesitation.

And he entered Cornelius' house.

And then, verse 34, he began to speak.

He says, I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism.

You know, we live in a nation that promotes diversity.

So for many, that God shows no favoritism would be a no-brainer.

But all men being created equal is not Jewish thought.

Again, as we've already seen, it was the opposite.

They were raised to believe that God shows partiality.

For Peter to make this switch would have been difficult.

It would have been absolutely mind-blowing.

It's one of the most radical changes that he probably could have gone through.

Peter goes on to say in verse 35, he said, but God accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what's right.

Peter is getting the message.

And he continues in verse 36.

He says, You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

He's Lord over all creation.

He's Lord over mankind.

He's Lord over the universe.

He's proclaiming that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh.

And then Peter begins to share the gospel message.

Verse 37, he says, 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, healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

And we are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

They killed him, hanging him 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 from the dead.

He commanded us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.

All the prophets testify about him.

That everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

And that is a beautiful proclamation of the gospel.

You see, he's telling Cornelius, Cornelius, you're a good guy.

God himself sent an angel to affirm it.

But you need to be forgiven.

You still need forgiveness because good people just aren't good enough.

It doesn't mean that God doesn't appreciate the good things that we do.

He does.

But a person can't be good enough to save themselves.

Salvation is not based on personal goodness.

The Bible says that our righteous acts in God's sight are like filthy rags.

Again, God does appreciate the good you do.

But when we compare them to his holiness, they fall short.

We're not compared to one another.

God is the standard of holiness.

We're compared to him.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

So all of us must be forgiven of our sins.

But all can be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.

God sent his son to pay for your sins on the cross so that you could be forgiven.

And by putting your faith in him, your sins will be wiped out.

And that's what Peter is clearly saying to these people.

And that is when the Holy Spirit enters our story.

He enters the story when the gospel is being shared.

The Holy Spirit.

Third person of the Trinity, through who God acts and reveals his will, empowers individuals, and discloses his personal presence.

He's the advocate, he's the comforter.

He was present at uh at the creation of the world.

He reveals truth and convicts people of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

Well, he's God.

And the Holy Spirit shows up in this story in a very powerful way.

Again, we read verse 44, it said, While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.

And the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.

For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Does this sound familiar?

It should.

Beginning of the book of Acts, I think Dan preached on Pentecost.

You see, Jesus told Nicodemus in his earthly ministry, he said, you have to be born again.

You have to be born again by the Spirit.

Paul says in Titus chapter 3, you must be reborn by the Spirit.

Titus 3 · chapter mention

And here, Luke showing us that conversion is not a matter of will or turning over a new leaf or even a three-step program.

But rather, it's spiritual transformation by the Holy Spirit.

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 the Gentiles.

For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

And that is when it really dawned on Peter what God was trying to teach him.

And we know this because in chapter 11 he recapitulates the entire incident.

When he's back in Jerusalem, he explains to some critical believers on what happened to Cornelius.

He tells them the Holy Spirit came on them just as it came on him and them in the beginning.

The beginning being a reference back to Pentecost.

At Pentecost, while the gospel was being preached, people began to speak in tongues and praise God.

You know, there are several places in the book of Acts where people are converted.

But there's only two places where this happens: Pentecost and this time.

It didn't happen when Paul was converted.

It did not happen when the Ethiopian eunuch was converted by Philip.

Nor is there any record of it happening anywhere else where there were conversions.

There are several times when the Holy Spirit comes down.

Came down on Paul, but there was no speaking in tongues.

It came down on the apostles at the end of chapter 4, same thing, no speaking in tongues.

But this time they were speaking in tongues.

And why?

Again, to drive home to Peter and other circumcised believers, so they all realize that God shows no favoritism.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down on the church, a baptism of the Holy Spirit, a baptism of fire.

There was tongues of flame on everyone's forehead, and when they opened their mouths to speak, the gospel heard them in their own language.

And that was the speaking in tongues miracle.

They all heard in their own language.

In essence, God was saying, there's no language, therefore there's no single culture that is more appropriate to others to convey my truth or to have my truth conveyed to.

In the very beginning of the book of Acts, God says to the disciples, He said, I want you to go to Jerusalem, to Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

I want you to bring in all nations.

And here, at Cornelius' house, God gives the Gentiles their own little Pentecost.

And it was for them.

But it was for Peter.

Because despite the fact of who Peter was and what he had experienced, he still was not living out Pentecost.

He was not living out the gospel.

He still was not living out salvation by grace alone.

No one is saved by who you are, nor are you saved by your record.

That means everyone's equally a sinner, but it also means everyone's equally loved.

There's no unclean group.

There's no unclean race.

The Holy Spirit surmounts racial barriers, religious barriers.

He surmounts distasteful people.

He surmounts the dregs of society.

He surmounts addicts, criminals, murders, homeless.

You name it.

Salvation came through the words of the gospel while Peter was still speaking.

While he was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came.

And the words were simply the gospel message.

Peter tells him Jesus lived a perfect life of service for God and for man.

Secondly, he says that Jesus died and took the curse.

He died on a tree.

We read the cross, which means it was a cursed death.

Jesus lived a perfect life that earned a blessing, but at the end of his life, he took a curse.

He took the curse for us.

And how do we know he took the curse for us?

How do we know that he just didn't die?

The answer is in the last part of Peter's words.

That after the resurrection, they saw him.

Peter said, We ate and we drank with the resurrected Jesus.

And that's how we know his death wasn't just a death.

It was a death for you.

If it would have been a hallucination, then it wouldn't have happened.

He wouldn't have eaten with him.

He wouldn't have drank in front of him.

You know, I kind of want to give a challenge.

This isn't part of it, but maybe this week, I challenge you, just look up on the internet.

It's a good place to go.

There's a man named Frank Turek and another fellow named Wes Huff.

There's quite a few.

Look up proofs for the resurrection.

These points will come up.

We're supposed to be able to give an answer for our faith in any time, and I think that would be a good exercise.

You see, Jesus talked about a baptism of fire.

We find that in the book of Luke, chapter 9.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

The disciples were going through Samaria.

The Samaritans wouldn't let them stay anywhere.

They were cold and hostile to Jesus and his disciples.

So disciples asked Jesus, said, Do you want us to call down fire on them and destroy them?

Why would they do that?

Because they knew Jesus was a prophet and more than a prophet.

And they knew the story of how Elijah, the prophet, when the soldiers of Ahab tried to arrest him, that he called down fire and destroyed them.

If that happened for Elijah, then surely Jesus, who is greater, the same should happen for him.

But Jesus rebuked them.

And then a few chapters later, he says this.

Luke 12.

He says, I've come to bring fire on the earth, the fire of God's judgment, and how I wish it was already kindled.

I've come to undergo a baptism, and how crushed I am to see it completed.

When the soldiers came to get Elijah, fire came down on the earth, the fire of God's judgment.

But when the soldiers came to get Jesus, nothing happened.

Why?

Because on the cross, Jesus took the fire of God's judgment.

Jesus took the punishment for sin so we could experience God's love and the power of resurrection.

Tim Keller put it this way.

He said, on the cross, Jesus Christ was baptized.

He was immersed into God's absence so that we who believe in him could be immersed in his presence.

Jesus got the baptism of God's judgment so that we could have the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

When you realize that God's judgment came down on Jesus for your sin, that's the moment God's power and love take root.

And it's only when you realize the fire of God's judgment came down in Jesus for you that the full extent of God's love, power, and grace will come down on you.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit came down when they heard the words and when they were cut to the heart.

And that's when it comes down on us.

Us.

As we conclude, let's talk about us.

You know, sometimes you can be saved and have a relationship with Christ, and it still doesn't feel quite right.

I'm going to ask you a question today.

Are you one of those kinds of people who look at yourself and you feel guilty, inadequate, and unclean?

You know, God was saying to Peter, don't call anyone unclean.

What he's saying is don't look, what he's saying is don't look at that person or race your group and say they're unclean.

But what if you're saying that to yourself?

What if you're saying I'm unclean?

What if you hate yourself and you're down on yourself all the time?

We're not saved by our past life.

The truth is we're saved completely by grace through faith.

And that's a truth that you need to grasp.

You need to take that in to understand that God pursued you and you wouldn't even want him unless he was pursuing your first.

So what value does that put on you as a person?

You know, do not call unclean what God has made clean, including yourself.

And if that's you today, I'm gonna ask, invite you to be brave today after service and come forward for prayer.

If that's uncomfortable, then I encourage you to ask someone who's sitting next to you or beside you and have them pray for you.

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how Christ really sees you.

You know, the best parts of this story is that although Cornelius needed to hear the gospel to be converted, Peter needed Cornelius to see where the gospel had not penetrated his life.

How about you?

Is there someone in your life, or is there a social barrier or a racial barrier where the truth of the gospel has not fully taken root?

Because Christians, especially those who have been a Christian a while, or those who come from a heritage of faith, can be very susceptible to a self-righteous, clean, unclean attitude.

And that can cause us to be an obstacle to other salvation, an obstacle to the gospel.

I'm gonna challenge all of us today to pray about that.

Just right now at the moment, is God saying, there's part of your life I've not been able to penetrate.

Ask God where the gospel has not taken root in your life.

You pray on that.

Meditate it this week.

You know, if you want to follow Jesus, then we need to follow him out to the uncomfortable places.

Because that's where he loves to go.

He loves to be with the poor, he loves to be with the oppressed, he loves to be with the needy, he cares about them.

Jesus wants us to be on mission with him, and that means caring for those around us that are hurting, caring about people at the margins, caring about people who are next to us.

To follow Jesus is to show love to the person next to you, no matter their social standing, no matter who they are.

We have to love people that other people don't love.

And lastly, maybe you don't know Jesus at all.

Maybe you don't know him as your Lord and Savior.

Or maybe you're just unsure about him.

So I'm gonna encourage you to do the same.

To ask someone here today or approach one of our pastors and ask them to pray with you.

Ask God to reveal himself to you in a very powerful way.

As the worship team comes up, let's let's pray.

Thank you, Father, for the gospel message.

Thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit.

And show us, Lord, is there anywhere in our lives that the gospel has not penetrated?

So we can surrender all to you.

In the name of Jesus we pray.

Amen.