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34 Peter began to speak: “I really understand now that to God every person is the same. 35 In every country God accepts anyone who worships him and does what is right. 36 You know the message that God has sent to the people of Israel is the Good News that peace has come through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lord of all people! 37 You know what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after John preached to the people about baptism. 38 You know about Jesus from Nazareth, that God gave him the Holy Spirit and power. You know how Jesus went everywhere doing good and healing those who were ruled by the devil, because God was with him. 39 We saw what Jesus did in Judea and in Jerusalem, but the Jews in Jerusalem killed him by hanging him on a cross. 40 Yet, on the third day, God raised Jesus to life and caused him to be seen, 41 not by all the people, but only by the witnesses God had already chosen. And we are those witnesses who ate and drank with him after he was raised from the dead. 42 He told us to preach to the people and to tell them that he is the one whom God chose to be the judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets say it is true that all who believe in Jesus will be forgiven of their sins through Jesus’ name.” ~ Acts 10:34-43
Today, we return to our study of Acts 10 where we will witness for the first time in the New Testament a Gentile family trusting the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Learning to trust the Lord more and more is a process and He knows that about us more than we do. As time goes on we all learn of the loving heart of our Creator and Friend who deals with us with such patience. I truly love the words of Thomas Merton whose words have aided me down through the years in my relationship with God. He said, “The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”
In v.34-35 of today's passage we read, "34 Peter began to speak: 'I really understand now that to God every person is the same. 35 In every country God accepts anyone who worships him and does what is right.'"
Peter had arrived at Cornelius' house in Capernaum which was where the Lord Jesus headquartered his ministry for 3 and 1/2 years. Capernaum is to this day a city by the Sea of Galilee. When he arrived at Cornelius' house, Peter was prepared to respond biblically to Cornelius' previous request. Peter was prepared and equipped because he himself had wrestled with God regarding the subject. The Lord works in this very same manner with us. He teaches us, then we are positioned to teach others with authority. It is only as we walk with Him through their valleys of life that we are able to walk with others through their valleys.
Here Peter uses a word that is only found once in Scripture. The word is translated here as a phrase, "to God every person is the same." Some translations use the phrase "no partiality." This is a contraction of two word, one meaning "the face" and the other meaning "to receive." Thus, this one Greek word means "an accepter of a face." Through the previous vision about the sheet coming down from heaven three times with the unclean animals in it, Peter had received this message from the Lord Himself. The he would the acceptor of any face that comes to him.
This was not an easy lesson for Peter to learn because time and again he had been warned about intermingling with Gentiles to some degree or another. Everyone who has received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, God accepts into His family. The evidence that we have been born again is that we worship Him, and that which we worship defines us. So the second evidence is that God expresses His righteousness through those who worship Him and worship is just not a Sunday morning thing.
In v.36-38 of today's passage we read, "36 You know the message that God has sent to the people of Israel is the Good News that peace has come through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lord of all people! 37 You know what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after John preached to the people about baptism. 38 You know about Jesus from Nazareth, that God gave him the Holy Spirit and power. You know how Jesus went everywhere doing good and healing those who were ruled by the devil, because God was with him."
Peter now shares the gospel of peace through Jesus Christ with Cornelius and his family and friends. In essence it is God in Christ Jesus who preached the Gospel. The Lord Jesus is the means by whom God delivered this good news of forgiveness of sin. The message that God in Christ preached through His cross is a single, unified message that is applicable to all people. The message is that the Lord Jesus Christ came to this world proving Himself to be God incarnate through His many good deeds.
In v.39-41 of today's passage we read, "39 We saw what Jesus did in Judea and in Jerusalem, but the Jews in Jerusalem killed him by hanging him on a cross. 40 Yet, on the third day, God raised Jesus to life and caused him to be seen, 41 not by all the people, but only by the witnesses God had already chosen. And we are those witnesses who ate and drank with him after he was raised from the dead."
Peter explained that those who were with the Lord Jesus now stand as witnesses to His death, burial and resurrection. Despite having been clearly presented to the Jewish people as their Messiah, they rejected Him. They killed Him by hanging Him on a tree. The note concerning those who ate and drank with the Lord Jesus was first documented in the gospels, and then it is repeated in this book of Acts. The Lord Jesus physically and bodily arose from the dead. It is rather incredible to believe that there are people who claim that He did not rise as a physical being even though they claim to believe in the Bible. After His resurrection the Lord Jesus appeared to and spoke with the two as they walked on the road to Emmaus. In that discussion the Lord Jesus revealed that all of the Old Testament was written about Him.
In v.42-43 of today's passage we read, "42 He told us to preach to the people and to tell them that he is the one whom God chose to be the judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets say it is true that all who believe in Jesus will be forgiven of their sins through Jesus’ name."
Missionaries exist not to extend Western culture to other cultures. No, missionaries are sent out because we believe every person on this planet will face the judgment seat of Christ. The truth had to be substantiated and thus the Lord Jesus fulfilled and satisfied the truth on our behalf. In doing so, the Lord Jesus redeemed us which the is greatest news ever because we were destined to an eternity in Hell. The Lord Jesus substantiated the truth and He redeemed us because it was God’s delight to save a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. This is why we go out and share the gospel with others. And, every man, woman, boy and girl must make a choice between God’s truth and the devil’s lie. This why our presentation of the Gospel must come out of a heart that is personally engaged with God. The truth offered in authenticity is much more believable in the end.
