A Most Unlikely Meeting

"Be the New" series (Sermon 1, Part B)

This article is based on the first sermon in the “Be the New” series that I preached this past fall at Kuna Church of the Nazarene.

View this sermon below, starting at minute 22:14. Keep scrolling to read the article.

Meet Cornelius

There was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion in the Italian
Company a devout man who feared God with all his household. He gave generously to those in need among the Jewish people and prayed to God constantly. (Acts 10:1–2, CEB)

What kind of man is Cornelius? 

He’s a devout, God-fearing, man of prayer. He gives generously and prays constantly!

He’s also a Gentile — not Jewish and not considered one of “God’s people.”

One day at nearly three o’clock in the afternoon, he clearly saw an angel from God in a vision. The angel came to him and said, “Cornelius!” 
Startled, he stared at the angel and replied, “What is it, Lord?” The angel said, “Your prayers and your compassionate acts are like a memorial offering to God. (Acts 10:3–4, CEB)

In other words, the angel says to Cornelius, your prayers and good works have been noticed by God like a ”pleasing aroma” of a burnt sacrifice. God has noticed. God is paying attention. God has heard your prayers.

Send messengers to Joppa at once and summon a certain Simon, the one known as Peter. (Acts 10:5, CEB)

So, Cornelius sends two of his servants and one of his trusted soldiers to Joppa to find Peter.

In the meantime…

Meet Peter

At noon on the following day, as their journey brought them close to the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. (Acts 10:9, CEB)

What kind of person was Peter? 

Peter is also a man of prayer. Do you see the connection?

Peter is also a Jew. Not only that, he was one of the disciples closest to Jesus and a key leader in the early church.

He became hungry and wanted to eat. While others were preparing the meal, he had a visionary experience. He saw heaven opened up and something like a large linen sheet being lowered to the earth by its four corners. Inside the sheet were all kinds of four-legged animals, reptiles, and wild birds. A voice told him, “Get up, Peter! Kill and eat!” Peter exclaimed, “Absolutely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” (Acts 10:10–14, CEB)

From a very young age, Peter had been taught that certain animals were absolutely forbidden for faithful Jews to eat — it was God’s Law! Leviticus gives clear instructions as to which animals were to be eaten and which were not. For faithful Jews, it has often been said that death was preferable to eating non-kosher food. 

Imagine that you are at a friend’s house, they’ve invited you for a lovely meal and you’re having a wonderful evening together. And then, when it’s time to eat, they inform you that for the meal that night, they have butchered their dog.

This is a true story from the Fairbanks Family archives. In some places where we have served, it is very common for Christians, and other non-Muslims, to eat dogs. It’s considered a delicacy. So, if that were you, what would you do? What you could be feeling in that moment might begin to approach something like what Peter was experiencing.

Peter’s reaction seems reasonable — “No way,” he shouts, “I will not be unfaithful to the Law. I will not stoop so low as to eat like those disgusting, heathen, dirty Gentiles! I may be hungry, but I’m not THAT hungry.”

You see, the Gentiles ate “dirty” animals. And because they ate dirty animals, they also began to be thought of as dirty, disgusting, unclean people — people unworthy of God’s attention. They were not, by any stretch of the imagination, people that God cared anything about.

We still do the same thing today, don’t we? We tend to transfer our dislike for certain sins, ideologies, political persuasions, or lifestyle choices to the person who possesses such things. Then, whether consciously or not, we begin to treat the person as dirty, disgusting, unclean, and unworthy of God’s attention.

We begin to see such people as less than human as if the image of God in them has been removed, deleted, or shattered beyond repair.

The voice spoke a second time, “Never consider unclean what God has made pure.” This happened three times, then the object was suddenly pulled back into heaven.

Peter was bewildered about the meaning of the vision. Just then, the messengers sent by Cornelius discovered the whereabouts of Simon’s house and arrived at the gate. Calling out, they inquired whether the Simon known as Peter was a guest there.

While Peter was brooding over the vision, the Spirit interrupted him, “Look! Three people are looking for you. Go downstairs. Don’t ask questions; just go with them because I have sent them.”

So Peter went downstairs and told them, “I’m the one you are looking for…Peter invited them into the house as his guests. (Acts 10:15–21a, 23, CEB)

Peter finds himself confused about this vision and what it was supposed to mean. As he is contemplating this, the opportunity for “vision application” (which is something like sermon application) arrives immediately at his door! Peter, prompted by the Holy Spirit, invites his non-Jewish visitors in for the evening and agrees to go with them to Cornelius’ house the following day. This is significant because strict Jews would not enter a Gentile’s home, nor would they invite Gentiles to enter theirs.

Peter knows that his actions will get back to the Jerusalem church and the other leaders there. Peter does not live in an individualistic society where privacy and personal rights are valued. Everyone will know that Peter has invited Gentiles into his home. And when they find out, there will be myriad questions, deep concerns, and probably some very angry accusations.

A new vision for the future

Peter has been given a new vision, and while he’s probably still trying to figure out what it all means, he knows that changes are afoot. 

God is doing something new!

In John 10:16 Jesus tells his disciples, “I have other sheep that don’t belong to this sheep pen. I must lead them too. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock, with one shepherd.” Then, on the shore, having met Jesus following the resurrection, Jesus tells Peter, three times, “Feed my lambs…take care of my sheep…feed my sheep” (John 21:15–17).

Those “other sheep,” Peter might have now realized, are the whole Gentile world. It is Jesus’ plan to bring them into the flock. It is the purpose and plan of the Father to unite all people — Jews and Gentiles, who could not have been more disliked, each by the other — into one human family, the kingdom of God here on earth, with one Lord and King, Jesus Christ.

This great vision is described by the apostle John in Revelation 7:9 — an uncountable gathering of people from every nation, tribe, and language (in other words, every sort of person from every kind of place), gathered around the throne of God, singing praises.

This is part of the intended beauty and witness of the church — to be a group of people who might not otherwise have any reason to be with one other; who might not, in other circumstances even get along with one another. But, centered around Christ, these diverse people — different sorts of people, from all different kinds of places, with different sorts of backgrounds — become one family to worship the one God in unity and shared hope.

Peter meets Cornelius

The next day, Peter and his guests get up and leave. They arrive at the home of Cornelius the following day. When they arrive, Cornelius meets Peter at the door and, after an awkward attempt by Cornelius to worship Peter, invites him in to meet the rather large gathering of people who have gathered to hear what he has to say.

…Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. 28 He said to them, “You all realize that it is forbidden for a Jew to associate or visit with outsiders. However, God has shown me that I should never call a person impure or unclean. (Acts 10:27–28, CEB)

Peter now seems to understand more fully the point of his vision from the previous day. People are not to be considered unclean. The holiness we talk about and preach about means that our hearts are so filled with divine, Christlike love that there is no room for fear, disgust, prejudice, hatred, or anything else that divides people from one another.

It’s not a matter of faith over fear…but rather ofLOVE overcoming our fear as the essential expression of our faith

There was no one more unclean, in the Jewish way of understanding than the pagan, heathen, disgusting Gentiles. So, if God could call the Gentiles clean, then no one was exempt — no ethnicity, no race, no religious background, no political affiliations, no lifestyle orientations. No one.

Sin might enslave people, but sin could not remove the image of God from the person — the human soul was still of great value. People enslaved to sin, no matter what their story or their history may be, were not beyond the reach of God’s grace that cleanses, heals, and restores.

Yes, real transformation of the heart is not only possible, but it’s the will of God for each and every human being.

You.
Me.
All of us.
Everyone in our family.
Everyone in our neighborhood.
Everyone…everywhere…even to the farthest places.
Everyone…everywhere…even those who seem farthest from the kingdom.

Peter’s message to Cornelius (and others)

Peter asks why Cornelius has invited him to come. Cornelius recounts the story of the angel’s visit four days prior. Then, having heard the story, Peter begins, no doubt relying on the Holy Spirit to give him the words to say at this unique, unimaginable point in history — 

Peter said, “I really am learning… (Acts 10:34a, CEB)

Peter has been born from above, sent by Jesus, sanctified through and through, and is now a key leader in the early church. But, at the same time, he is still growing, learning, and increasing in his Christlikeness. It’s a lifelong process.

…that God doesn’t show partiality to one group of people over another. Rather, in every nation [among all peoples], whoever worships him and does what is right is acceptable to him. (Acts 10:34b-35, CEB)

No one is exempt from the promise of the opportunity for new hope and new life.

Let me quickly summarize what happens next:

Peter tells them about Jesus, giving them an opportunity to meet Jesus for the first time.

Paul preaches that Jesus is the one and only judge of humanity and that everyone who believes receives forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus.

While Peter is speaking, the Holy Spirit comes and they all began praising God in other languages — if it was anything Pentecost, these languages would have been understood by people in the house at that time or perhaps by those in that part of the world.

Peter’s companions who had come with him from Joppa, are astonished, flabbergasted, and gobsmacked by the realization that these uncircumcised Gentiles received the Holy Spirit!

They might have also thought to themselves, “What are the people back at the church in Jerusalem gonna think about this?” We gonna have some ‘splain’in to do!

Finally, they were all baptized and Peter stayed with them for several more days.

So what does this all mean?

Three Important Conclusions and Applications

Let’s take a look at a few very important conclusions and applications –

1. Make PRAYER our catalyst: Cornelius and Peter were men of prayer, and their prayers moved the heart of God. If you find prayer hard, as I sometimes do, find a realistic time to pray each day. Try saying your prayers out loud, or try writing out your prayers. Pray with your spouse or a friend. Find a way to focus your heart. Make it a priority and see what God does.

2. Be TRANSFORMED in our hearts: Peter’s heart had to be transformed before he could be used by God to bring about the transformation of Cornelius’ heart. Peter had to be willing to trust God by allowing Christlike love to bring him close to people whom he believed to be absolutely unworthy. We, too, must be willing to be transformed first, before God can use us to reach our community. We must be reshaped, reformed, and restored so that we can live out God’s optimistic grace in our world. We must be willing to let LOVE push us past our fear and any sense that “those people” are unworthy.

3. UNDERSTAND that God has called you: Peter was a fisherman, not highly educated, no seminary training. But he had walked with Jesus. He had been forgiven by Jesus. He had allowed the Spirit to change his heart. God doesn’t send only the best, brightest, and most qualified the most educated, most experienced, and most elite among us. We are the church and we have been sent. We are a witness to the world in the way that we gather together as one for worship and as we disperse and shine the light of Christ in the places where we live, work, and play. We must become people who use the opportunities that are in front of us to get active, get moving, and see what God does.

4. Ask God for NEW VISION: To paraphrase Proverbs 29:18 — “When God’s people have no compelling prophetic vision and direction, they run amuck, going here and there and everywhere but making no eternal, kingdom impact.” We must have a compelling, Christ-centered kingdom vision for who we are and for what we do as a church. Let us see ourselves as one family — a community that with great hospitality and compassion invites people into the family to meet Jesus, to be loved, and to experience the overwhelming grace of God in our midst. Let us see ourselves as a sent people. Let this be our DNA. Let Christlike love to be our default, and optimism for the transforming power of God’s grace be our motivation.

Ask God to reveal the Cornelius’s in your world… and see what God does.

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