Good morning, church. Good morning, visitors. Welcome to you guys. My name is Randy Rucker. I'm one of the elders on staff as a pastor at Great Commission Church. We've been in a series for the last three weeks or so called Arise and Go, Following the Spirit to the One. We're going to continue that today, so pray with me. Father, I thank you for many have told me that they have been praying for me today. And like Paul who said, I'm convinced that through your prayers and the supply of the Spirit of God, those two things, Lord. Thank you. Lord, I have confidence in your word. I have confidence in your spirit. I do not have confidence in myself or ability to do this. And so, Lord, what an opportunity for you to shine, to give me grace. Lord, I pray that you would bless the hearers. I pray that Christ would be exalted. I pray, Father, that you might draw men and women, boys and girls, to yourself through the proclamation of the message. In Jesus' name, amen. So we're going to look at a story in Acts 10. You can turn there if you want to hear at least a few Bible pages flipping. Otherwise, you'll be scrolling to get there. So we're going to look at this story in Acts 10. It's a real account. It's a real story. It's a fairly long chapter, so I'm not going to go to every verse, obviously. But rather than pulling a few verses out of it, what I'm going to do is walk us through it and see what happened and then make observations and application along the way. Does that sound okay to you all? A little bit better because I don't have a plan B. So Luke tells us this story in scenes, like a well-directed movie, where some people are introduced on this scene and then some other people, while they're doing something, there's other people doing something somewhere else, and then eventually God brings them all together for the conclusion of that. So the story begins in Caesarea, a coastal port city on the Mediterranean Sea, with a man named Cornelius. It's a beautiful city, by the way. Even today it's beautiful. So I've seen. I haven't been there. Luke tells us that Cornelius was a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment. He's a Roman soldier. He's experienced. He's a career military guy. He'd be very well respected. More importantly for what happens later, Cornelius is a Gentile. Luke describes this man in verse 2. He was a devout man and one who feared God with all his household. He wasn't a polytheist. He feared the one true God. He gave generously to people in need, and Luke says that he prayed to God always. If you knew Cornelius, you'd probably like him. In fact, you'd probably hope he was your neighbor. Here's a man who believes in God. He prays. He's generous. Apparently his faith had affected his household. He's sincere, and we find out in just a minute that God notices him. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon, he has a vision. An angel of God appears to him and calls him by name, Cornelius. And he does what we see every time in Scripture, it seems, when an angel appears to someone, they have the same reaction. They're terrified. He's afraid because they're great beings. He says, what is it, Lord? And notice that it's not capital L-O-R-D. It's little L-O-R-D. It just means he knows that he's in the presence of someone greater than he is. He's not a messenger. He's not God himself. He's a messenger from God, this angel. So the angel tells him, your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God, Acts 10.4. So think about that for a minute. God knows this man. He knows him by name, sends an angel. God's aware of his prayers. God's seen his generosity. He's already at work in Cornelius' life in what we would call just common grace. What is this man lacking? He seems to have it all, right? But Cornelius needs something. The angel tells him to send men to Joppa and find a man named Simon Peter. He's staying at the house of Simon the Tanner. Send for him, and he will come, and according to verse 6, he will tell you what you must do. He's going to tell him something he has to do. Now, this is interesting. There's an angel standing right there talking to Cornelius, and he came from God. Why not just tell him? Why does he have to get somebody else? So I just think it's interesting. Why send men all the way to Joppa to find Peter, and then Peter have to come all the way back? And it's certainly not because the angel couldn't speak. He's speaking to him. So keep that question in mind. Put that on the sticky side of your brain and just leave it there for a little bit, and we'll get back to that. But keep that question in mind. Why involve Peter in this? [00:40:00 - 00:48:00] Why didn't the angel just simply tell him? We'll come back. So Cornelius, I wish his name was shorter. I wish his name was Bob. Cornelius opens immediately. He obeys immediately. He calls two of his household servants. He sends a soldier with him to accompany them and tells them what happened. He tells them, and then he sends them to Joppa. And by the way, he's not telling them to go across the street or down the street or across the neighborhood. It's 35 miles away, and you've got to walk. It is along the beach, though, however, the whole thing. So these three men start toward Joppa. It's going to take them a couple of days. Cornelius has no idea what God is doing there in Joppa, and he doesn't even know this man named Peter. And Peter has no idea that these guys are headed his way, but God does. So we're already into scene two. Scene two is Peter in Joppa. While those men are taking this 30-plus-mile trip, he changes scenes, and we're in verse 9 and following now. It's the next day, about noon, and the camera switches scenes. So we're in Joppa with Peter, and Joppa is also a seaside city with a large Jewish population. So Peter goes out on the flat rooftop, and it says he went there to pray. And has this ever happened to you? Instead of getting up on the rooftop and praying, he begins thinking about food. You ever get distracted when you try to do something spiritual and like, oh, man, I need to rearrange my books on the shelf, or I need a cup of coffee, or I need a snack. I'll get back to this. And then you know how it is. Is that just me and Peter, or is that y'all too? Okay, all right. So while someone's preparing the food, Peter falls into a trance, and he has a very clear vision, and that vision is in verses 11 to 15. He sees the heavens open, and he sees what looks like a giant sheet come up. I'm picturing it like a giant laundry bag or something. It's tied at the four corners, and inside it, when it gets to the ground, he sees it's just full of all kinds of animals and creatures, creeping things and birds and so forth. And he hears a voice, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. Now, our sermon is called Arise and Go, not Arise, Kill, and Eat. But we will get there. He will go. So Peter's been a follower of Jesus for probably close to 10 years now. He has seen the risen Christ. He's preached at Pentecost. He's seen lives transformed by the message. But Peter is still Peter, and you are still you, saved person. But is he a profoundly changed man? Has he been given eternal life? Has he made new in Christ? Answer to all of that is yes, but he's not a perfected man. You've heard of that old blasphemer, former slave trader John Newton. Does that ring a bell with many of you? He became a Christ follower later in life, eventually became a pastor. He's the guy that wrote the most often sung Christian hymn in English ever, Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound, that saved a wretch like me. That's John Newton. These words are attributed to him. I am not the man I ought to be. I am not the man I wish to be. I'm not the man I hope to be. But by the grace of God, I am not the man I used to be. Peter could have said that. In fact, if I'd said at the beginning of this, hey, we're going to look into a passage of Scripture today that talks about one of God's apostles, and when he hears a word from God, his first reaction is, no, Lord, who would y'all guess that it was going to be? Everybody knows it's going to be Peter. He has a habit sort of doing this. Like when Jesus said, I've got to go to be crucified, Jesus said, no, you don't. Not on my watch, Lord. I'll go up there and die with you, but that's not going to happen to you. That's Peter. You've got to admire his heart and his courage, though. So his actual words are, in Acts 10, 14, he says, not so, Lord. Not the best way to start off your conversation with the Lord. Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean. And we need to be fair to Peter here. The distinctions he's making between clean and unclean animals, it wasn't really a man-made religion or man-made religious views or preferences. They were a part of the law of God given to the nation of Israel. And Peter had lived that way all his life. But Jesus has come. And Jesus died and he rose again. And he's the new lawgiver. And a lot of things have changed. And Peter is learning how big some of those changes were. He says, I have never. There's maybe a little pride in Peter saying, I have never done that. Never will. Have you ever said something like that to God? Like, I would never do that. Or, I've never done that. No, Lord, I don't go there. So Peter doesn't understand fully yet what God's doing. Here's the point. Mature believers, no matter how long you've been a believer, you still have blind spots. You still haven't graduated from grace. You're not perfected. What God has cleansed, this is what God tells him. The voice answers him. What God has cleansed, you must not call common. Acts 10, 15. This vision of the sheep coming down, the animals in it, the voice, all that, that happens three times. Each time Peter's response is the same. And even after the third time, Peter still doesn't completely understand what's going on. Verse 17 says that Peter wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen meant. What does this mean, Lord? Why this? And notice the timing. No coincidence. It's just not happening randomly. While he's standing there wondering what the Lord is telling him, what it means, the men that Cornelius sent have now arrived and are at the gate surrounding the house. And they've just finished their journey, standing at the gate. And remember, Peter doesn't know they're coming. He's still trying to figure out what's going on. He doesn't know Cornelius. He doesn't know there's a Roman centurion 35 miles away waiting to hear what he has to say. But God does. While Peter's still thinking about the vision, the Spirit says to him, Behold, the three men you are seeking, excuse me, three men are seeking you. Arise, therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them. Hey, there's our arise and go. You'll see it there. Arise, therefore, go down and go with them. Don't miss the phrase, for I have sent them. Wait a minute, didn't Cornelius send them? I mean, we just read it that in Acts 10, 7, 8, Cornelius calls them together and sends them to Joppa. But God says, I have sent them. So which is it? It's both. God sent them and Cornelius sent them. He's working all things together. So we're beginning to see some of what Cornelius and Peter couldn't see, that God is working on both ends of this trip, bringing people together who under normal circumstances would never have been together. Peter goes downstairs. He meets with the men. They tell him about Cornelius, and they brag on Cornelius a little bit. They describe him as a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, which I find remarkable that a Roman centurion would have a good reputation among the Jews, as you understand that the Jews were under Roman rule. It's almost as if they wanted to say to Peter, he's a good man, so he deserves you to come to his house. He's a Gentile, but hey, he's a good man. And they tell Cornelius, [00:48:00 - 00:56:00] They tell Peter that Cornelius was divinely instructed to send him to hear words from him. So Peter invites them in. And get this, it's not Peter's house. He's staying at somebody else's house, and he invites these three strangers into the house, and they spend the night. Ladies, what would you think of that? How rude, Peter. You can't invite somebody, outsiders, strangers, to come into your house and spend the night. It's not your house. Anyway, that's Peter's Peter. I love him. But he invited these Gentile men into the house, and so something is already changing in Peter. The next day, he gets up, he goes with them, and his first response had been, not so, Lord. He still didn't understand everything that God was doing, but when God makes clear what he wants Peter to do, he gets up and he goes. And God's not finished showing Peter what all that means. Scene three, Peter goes to Cornelius. And just like we saw a scene where they're on their way to Peter's residence, now we've got them, Peter and the three guys that came from Cornelius, and now I think six other men are now coming back down to Caesarea. So while Peter's on his way, Cornelius is getting ready for him. Verse 24 tells us that Cornelius was waiting for them, and he had called together his relatives and close friends. Think about it. Cornelius still doesn't know exactly what Peter's going to tell him. Maybe this just flashed across my mind. Maybe he thought, hey, I have such a good reputation. Maybe they're going to come give me an award or something. Maybe they're going to recognize me in some way. I mean, why else would they come? I don't know. I'll leave that out. It's too late. He still doesn't know what he's going to hear, but he believes that he has something to hear that God has told Peter to tell him. And if I, Peter's, I mean, Cornelius is thinking, if I need to hear this, I want everybody to hear this. He has influence over his family with other men. He gathers his friends, close friends, and the relatives, and they're all waiting for Peter. And when he comes into the house, Cornelius meets him and falls down at his feet and worships him. Peter won't have anything to do with that. He says, he pulls him up and says, stand up. I myself am also a man. In other words, get up, Cornelius. I'm just a man too. Peter goes inside and finds, as Luke put it, many who had come together. So stop and think again about what Peter is doing. We don't necessarily fully appreciate this distinction, but Peter's a Jewish man. He's walking into the home of a Gentile, a Roman officer at that, and the house is full of Gentiles. Rome has been ruling over Israel for about 70 years now. And Peter knows how unusual this is. In fact, he brings it up. Verse 28, you know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. Really, Peter? You're going to lead with that? You're going to open up with, you know, I'm really not supposed to associate with your kind. How to win your audience over, right? I'm really not supposed to associate with you guys. I'm sorry. And he says, but God, but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Ah, now we know what the vision was about. Peter thought it was about food. It's about men. It's about people. He said, I think there's something we probably need to let bother us a little bit here. Because I wonder if there are people that you have or I have in my mind put into a category without really saying it out loud. People we don't associate with. People we don't particularly like. People whose background or lifestyle is different from ours. Who may look different, talk differently, vote differently, live in a different part of town, or just make us feel uncomfortable. Anybody like that in mind? Maybe, let me pull that. If we were completely honest, we just really don't want to fool with. Too much trouble. Have you ever said, no, Lord, I don't go there. I don't associate with those people. I mean, I've seen people divide over whose team you rooted for yesterday. Oh, you're one of those fans? Oh. So be clear, God's not telling Peter that sin doesn't matter. He's not saying these people are unclean in that sense. That's not the point of the passage. He's showing Peter that there's no class of people to whom the good news of Jesus Christ is not to go. The gospel is for all people everywhere, all the time. Peter had to learn that, and I suspect some of us do too. So Peter says, God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. In verse 29, Peter says, therefore, I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. Well, wait a minute. I came as soon as I heard. Didn't he hesitate? I just find that kind of funny. It makes me smile. I just had to smile at him saying, I came without objection, because he did have some objections. Well, eventually he came. So he's here. He got up and went. Cornelius now tells Peter his side of the story about the angel, about praying earlier, and instructions to send for him. And Cornelius says in verse 33, so I sent to you immediately. Cornelius' obedience was immediate. I sent to you immediately, and you have done well to come. Now, therefore, we are all present, therefore, before God to hear all the things commanded to you by God. They're ready. What's he going to say? So picture it. He's got his immediate family, his additional relatives in the house, his close friends are there, all the members of his household. That would include his servants, employees, military attaches assigned to him. It's a crowd. It's a crowded place. And because of his influence, they believe that they are sitting there in the presence of God to hear something God wants them to hear. And here's one detail that Luke doesn't give us here in chapter 10, but he does in chapter 11. In 11.14, Peter is actually defending his actions of going into this Gentile's house to other Christians who are Jews who accuse him and say, Peter, we know you did it. Fess up. You went into a Gentile's house. We know it. They haven't understood yet the freedom of the gospel either. So he says this in verse 14. He says that Peter will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved. Try that the next time you invite somebody to church. Hey, I want you to come because you can hear words by which you must be saved. That changes the way I picture the room. They aren't gathered just because Cornelius has a guest speaker coming or interesting person coming. They're waiting for words by which they can be saved. Good men still need the gospel. I like the word saved. Do you all like this word saved? The Bible says that we need to be saved. Salvation is a big, big, heavy-laden word. It's a good word. It's a Bible word. It's a Jesus word. Jesus is named Jesus for crying out loud. You shall call his name Jesus for he shall save. [00:56:00 - 01:04:00] His people from their sins, Jesus said of himself, I came to seek and to save that which was lost. Salvation is richer, fuller than we sometimes think. We need to be saved from the guilt of sin, from the penalty of sin, from the wrath of God that our sin deserves. And God saves us into a relationship with him, puts us in Christ, adopts us into his family as true children of the Father, and ultimately to be with him forever. It's a big word. He was a good man, Cornelius. He was devout. He feared God. He prayed. He gave generously. He had a good reputation. Man, it's like, well, what does he lack? I mean, he sounds better than us, doesn't he? Remember, the best man is still at best only a man. Remember, the best man is still at best only a man. All have sinned, the Bible says. There's not a just man in all the earth that sins not. Cornelius still needed to be saved. So here they are. God's been working in Caesarea and in Joppa. You know the story now. The angel came, all this stuff, back and forth, back and forth. Now Cornelius has gathered his whole family, and everybody's waiting to hear, well, what are the words by which they can be saved? Remember, I think a couple of weeks ago, Trevor, I think he attributed this to St. Francis of Assisi, but he said, preach the gospel every day, and if necessary, use words. Can I just tell you, you can't preach the gospel without words. You can't live a good enough life that somebody's just going to look at your life and say, oh, I know how to be saved. No, it has to be. It has to be communicated in words. So what did he tell them? And maybe more importantly for some this morning, do you want to hear the words by which people can be saved? Yes? No? Okay. The words by which they will be saved. Here's what Peter says. He opens his mouth. Verse 34 says, Then Peter opened his mouth and said, I'm not going to read his whole sermon, even though it's a lot shorter than the one I'm giving right now. His sermon got over. He got interrupted by God. But notice what Peter talks about. He talks about Jesus. No surprise there. God saves through the gospel of Jesus Christ. He tells them about Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who are oppressed by the devil, Acts 10.38. And Peter says, we were witnesses of all the things that he did. Peter really could say that. He hung out with Jesus for several years, heard him preach, saw him teach, saw him heal, saw him deliver people from the devil, performing all those miracles. And now he's standing in this Gentile's home telling them about Jesus, the Jesus that he knew and followed. And then he tells them what happened to Jesus. Verse 39, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. And there it is. The central event of human history he's telling them about. He's talking to Romans who invented crucifixion, by the way. This Roman soldier, he might have been involved in some crucifixions. So if you ever want to understand what God thinks about your sin, our sin, my sin, and the evil that it is against him, you look at the suffering substitute of Jesus. Look at what God was willing to put his son through in order that sinners be forgiven. He counts Jesus guilty and treats him accordingly. And the Bible says, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. It says, he crushed him. The Father crushes him. What people could see was, oh, here's another criminal being crucified. They could see all the physical sufferings, what man was doing to him. What you couldn't see, what was God doing to him? That's what matters. What's God doing to him? He's counting him as guilty, treating him as if he's guilty, abandoning him as if he's guilty. Oh, but how awful must our sin be if this is what it took to save us? Think about it. Is it that bad? Yes, it's that bad. But then if you ever want to begin to understand the breadth and length and height and width of the love of God, look at that cross. Look at that cross. Look at that man's suffering. Look at the bleeding Son of God stretched out and crying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's forsaken him because he's making him guilty in the place of sinners. Why? So that guilty sinners like you and me could be made right with God. There is no work that can overcome or tilt the scale in your favor when the death of the Son of God is on one side of the scales. What are you going to put over here? What? What? Cornelius has, he prays, he gives, he's generous. You don't match that against Jesus' death. This is the grace of God. He was the substitute. He was the sacrifice. He took upon himself the judgment of our sins that we deserve and he paid his penalty in our place for everyone who will ever trust him. This is what Jesus was doing in his dying. Can you see it? Do you see it? Do you see him dying in your place? Do you now believe on him? Peter says in verse 40, him God raised up on the third day. The one who died for sinners, he didn't stay dead. God raised him up. He raised him all the way up. He's seated at the throne of heaven. Peter says we are witnesses. We ate and drank with him after he came alive again from the dead. And Peter says something that perhaps we don't talk too much when we talk about the gospel. Verse 42 says that Jesus is the one ordained by God to be the judge of the living and the dead. The Jesus who died and rose again is now exalted in heaven. He's Lord of all, judge of the living and the dead. He is the Lord of salvation. He has it in his hands. He has eternal life in his hands. He can give it to you. And if you get it, you get it from him. Nowhere else. Verse 43, to him all the prophets witnessed that through his name whoever believes in him will have remission or forgiveness of sins. So there's a thread running through this story that I just noticed as I was reading through this repeatedly. I don't want to miss it. I don't want you to miss it. But it's the word words. The word words. Cornelius was told at the beginning of the chapter to sin for Peter because Peter had something to tell him to do. And the messenger said he was to hear words from Peter. And in chapter 11 we learned that they would be words by which you and your household would be saved. Peter is standing in Cornelius' house speaking those words about Jesus Christ. And that's what happens every time the gospel is preached. [01:04:00 - 01:12:00] People hear the message God has given about his son. He's given a testimony, a record concerning his son. And God himself works through that message, through hearing it. Faith comes by hearing the word of God, the message. And these words come to us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Trust him. There's probably not a person in the room who hasn't heard of Jesus and doesn't believe on him in some sense. Some sense. You may know, yeah, he's the son of God and he lived, he died. That's not what this exactly is saying. Are you trusting him? Are you relying on him? Do you see him dying in your place? Put the whole weight of your soul on him. He came to seek and save the lost. He came into the world to save sinners. Isn't that you? Aren't you one? Will you run to him? If you see your need for a savior, if you see your need for him, that's the only qualification that you have to have. If you don't think you need a savior, you're not going to call on him. You're not going to come to him. But if you do need a savior, you won't try to make yourself worthy. You just trust him. Trust that what he did when he died is enough. It's enough. And God is satisfied with what Jesus did. You ought to be too. He can forgive you. He can give you eternal life. So apparently Cornelius and the others believed because Peter doesn't even get to finish his sermon. He gets about, if you read it, I think it probably takes about three minutes. Maybe not that long. And verse 44 says, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word. They believed. And they were changed that day. God interrupts his sermon. That would be okay, wouldn't it? Y'all probably say, yeah, I wish you would have interrupted yours. It was really short. So I want to go back to the question. Y'all still got this question from earlier? Y'all remember it? Anybody remember it? Leah says she remembers it. Oh, she saw the notes. Cheater. So the question was in the beginning, why did Peter have to get involved? Why all the trouble? What is all this trouble that God went to, call it like that, to give this man a vision of an angel, send these men walking for a couple of days, have Peter on the rooftop and all that stuff coming back? Why? Because 2 Corinthians 5 helps us to understand this. And this passage has been working its way into my soul over the last couple of weeks, and I'm encouraged by it, and I hope it encourages you, believers. Paul says that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Reconciliation just means to put two parties that are at odds together, bring them together to make peace. We're at odds with God. Our sin has separated us from God. And God has given us the ministry of telling people how they can be reconciled to God. He has given us this ministry. It's a gift and a privilege to tell people the gospel message. Paul says, now then, listen to this, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. Oh, it's not just you when you're sharing the gospel. It's as though God himself is appealing to somebody through you by sharing the message. That gives me hope because I can't change anybody. But that's the answer to the question, God has entrusted to people, not angels, this work, this ministry, this gift of sharing the gospel with lost sinners. And when we appeal to sinners to trust in Jesus, God is at work through the message. So he goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 5.20, Paul, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God, be right with God. That was Peter's privilege. Church, that's our privilege. There are people all around us who need to be reconciled to God, but no one's born that way. People we naturally like and people we'd rather not fool with, but we don't get to decide who's worthy of hearing it, do we? We weren't worthy. We're not worthy. Paul tells us how reconciliation is possible. Love this verse, one of my favorites in the whole Bible, for he, that is God the Father, made him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So if you're here this morning and you've never trusted Christ to save you, never asked him to save you, never believed on him for salvation, then I'm saying to you what Paul said, I beseech you, be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. That's the only way. You may know exactly why you came this morning. Maybe somebody kept inviting you. You finally said, yeah, if you'll quit inviting me, I'll come once. Or maybe your wife says, hey, Dad, won't you at least come to church with us? I don't know if anybody's like that in here or not. I'm making this up. But what I'm saying is that whatever reason you came in here for, God was ahead of you saying, you're going to hear the words by which men can be saved today. You're going to hear it today. And I think you have, Lord willing. And if you need clarity about what Jesus actually did and what he said about how to know him, then mark it on a card or something and let us get back with you about it. And for those of us who already know Christ, who's God sending you to? Who have you been kind of like, well, there's this kind of crusty fella at work, but golly, he might get saved and actually might come to our church. That'd be great. So God is still sending people to people, giving us the ministry of reconciliation to speak the good news of Jesus Christ to sinners, knowing that God himself works through that message as though God were pleading or making his appeal through us. I appreciate your attention. Pray and we're going to get to see someone be baptized who I've been praying for since he was about this big. So let's pray.

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