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Sermon &=
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nbsp; Dan
Neary
The Conversion of Cornelius - =
Acts
9:32-11:18
Ninth in the series of 19.
Sec=
ond
in this sub-series that highlights 4 people:
1. Stephen the Martyr
2. Philip the Evangelist
3. Saul of
4. Cornelius the First Gentile The
four people serve as the bridge the makes the way for the Gospel to be rele=
ased
out of And
Cornelius, this Gentile, Roman soldier, serves as a pivotal figure as the f=
irst
Gentile convert… the first recorded non-Jew to receive the Gospel, al=
ong
with his whole household. This section of Acts is aptly named in honor of t=
his
important man in the story of the early church… But,
just as much as the Conversion of Cornelius is at the center of this
story… In
these chapters we see that Peter’s mind needed to be changed… h=
is
prejudices transformed. Bef=
ore
we get into that, let’s examine how this long passage is laid out bef=
ore
us. You=
may
remember that prior to chapter 8, Peter, the Apostles, and the church really
were contained in The
“time of peace” described in verse 31, not coincidently precede=
d by
the conversion of Saul (the church’s chief persecutor) made way for P=
eter
to travel and minister throughout the region. The=
se
two miracles described at the end of Chapter 9 further establish the direct
link between the ministry of Jesus in bodily form on earth and the ministry=
of
Jesus through His Spirit and His Church. Fir=
st
there is the healing of Aeneas: 32 As Peter traveled about =
the
country, he went to visit the saints in Lydda. 33 There
he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight
years. 34 “Aeneas,” Peter said to hi=
m,
“Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat.”
Immediately Aeneas got up. 35 All those who live=
d in
Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord. [1]
This
episode almost perfectly matches the way Jesus healed the paralytic at Sec=
ond,
there is the raising from the dead of Dorcas which might make us reminiscen=
t of
the Lazarus story but almost precisely parallels the raising of the daughte=
r of
Jairus (Mark 5:41). In =
both
cases, the two hands, two feats=
formula that we have acknowledged twice before in Acts hold true. The=
se
miracles involve the hands of the servant and the hands of Jesus. The
miracle is dramatic and God is glorified. We =
have
made the point before that Luke is a cogent writer. Short, logical, no extra
words, just that which is needed to give a complete account. But here,
Luke-of-few-words gives us two nearly identical accounts of the same story.
This must be important. The=
two
accounts are back-to-back and tied together by concern from headquarters=
230;
·
Cor=
nelius,
and ·
Pet=
er So,=
for
our purposes today, we’ll follow the account as it appears in Chapter=
11,
pulling from the Chapter 10 account as needed. As =
an
outline, we can see how Peter’s conversion needed four divine
interventions for the conversions to come about. Stott calls them “fo=
ur
divine hammer-blows.” Have you ever been the recipient of what felt l=
ike
a divine hammer-blow? Are you, like me, trying to be more sensitive to the =
Good
Shepherd’s gentle urging so He doesn’t need to result to the ha=
mmer
blow? ·
Vis=
ion ·
Com=
mand ·
Pre=
paration ·
Act=
ion Rem=
ember,
Peter’s account is preceded by the questioning of the Apostles and fe=
llow
believers. Just as in the account of the revival in 4 Peter began and
explained everything to them precisely as it had happened: 5=
65279;
“I was in the city of Pet=
er
said he was in “Joppa praying.” What he didn’t say was th=
at
he was on the roof of the house where he was staying… the house of Si=
mon
the tanner. Peter was already hovering close to the line of a good Jew. Tan=
ners
work with dead animals… and dead animals are unclean. But the vision =
drug
him right over the line. Her=
e in
the vision was a mixed-up stew of clean and unclean animals… just that
would be detestable to any good Jew. But
then the command comes to “kill and eat.” Pet=
er, apparently
knowing that this is the Lord, Jesus, speaking to him says what any good Jew
would say… gross! No! This
part of Peter’s personality hasn’t changed… this isn̵=
7;t
the first time Peter has told Jesus no… and the result is the same=
230;
rebuke. And,
true to form… not just once was this exchange rehearsed, but three ti=
mes. Kill
and eat… no… don’t call this unclean when I have called it
clean… Kill
and eat… no… don’t call this unclean when I have called it
clean… Kill
and eat… no… don’t call this unclean when I have called it
clean… And
then Peter snapped-out-of-it. 11 “Right then three =
men
who had been sent to me from In a
trance Jesus said eat, =
and
Peter said no. But now =
the
Spirit said go and Pete=
r went
right away. 13 He told us how he had se=
en an
angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is ca=
lled
Peter. 14 He will bring you a message through wh=
ich
you and all your household will be saved.’ [4]
The
exchange, as described in chapter 10, was fairly extraordinary. These two m=
en,
Peter and Cornelius, learned a great deal in this simple meeting. Cornelius=
, a
good man who feared God, had a fairly dramatic encounter with an angel̷=
0;
so when Peter arrived, he naturally treated him as divine… but Peter
wouldn’t have it, explaining that he was no god, just a man. Peter, by
even entering the house was demonstrating that he was learning his lesson. =
The
Jews commonly referred to the Gentiles as dogs… less than human. So e=
ach
man parked his misunderstandings… this wasn’t a meeting of a god
and a dog… this was a meeting of two men. 15 “As I began to spe=
ak,
the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. =
65279;16Then
I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized witha
water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 1=
7
So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the =
Lord
Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?” [5] Pet=
er
preached, the Gentiles repented and believe… and God sent His stamp of
approval. The Jews had their Pentecost in Ear=
lier
we saw the explicit question in regard to “why, Peter, did you associ=
ate
with Gentiles.” Another implied question had to by “and why wou=
ld
you baptize Gentiles.” Peter’s answer is simple… Jesus
promised that believers would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. He, clearly,
baptized these new Gentile believers with the Holy Spirit… so
Peter’s position was simply “who am I to withhold my part when
Jesus clearly did His part?” To =
the
credit of the church leaders… they heard all they needed to hear̷=
0;
and their criticism turned to worship. 18 When they heard
this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So the=
n,
God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.” [6] And
with that the Gospel began to spread like wild fire. We =
are
certainly benefactors of this account… descendants of this Gentile
conversion. Looking over the crowd… I suppose you are mostly converted
Gentiles so we can look back on this story and be glad for it. I s=
uppose
we can see how we benefit from the conversion of Cornelius… but what =
can
we learn from the conversion of Peter. Can=
we
begin to imagine how far Peter had to come… do we have any context to
understand the separation between the Jew and the Gentile? We&=
#8217;re
Christians… we know Jesus loves everybody… and we love everybody
too… right? Well… theoretically. But we know that there are gre=
at
divides. Loo=
k at
the news. This
may shock some of you… but the crazy people who stole the countryR=
30;
those nuttos who showed up to vote and fueled a holy war… those evil,
intolerant evangelicals that are sometimes being vilified in the press̷=
0;
well, that’s us. Now,
not every evangelical in the country voted for President Bush (pollsters te=
ll
us that about 25% of evangelicals voted for Kerry) in fact… not every
evangelical in this room voted for President Bush. But there is a divide (n=
ot
quite a Jew/Gentile divide). And there are some of you that, if pushed,
can’t practically conceive how to bridge political differences with t=
he
Gospel. I k=
now
that some of you are thinking… well, if he got saved, his politics wo=
uld
change. Really? Necessarily? Is =
is
conceivable that none of his politics would change? Could there be a reason=
able
born-again position in favor of not making abortion illegal? What about
opposition to a Constitutional ban on gay marriage? The=
re’s
another good example of a whole category
of people… people who live in Wat=
ch
the news for a moment longer… It
shouldn’t be hard for us, at all, to conceive of the divide that need=
ed
to be crossed in Peter’s mind, and heart, to cross that divide. Rac=
ism Nat=
ionalism Den=
ominationalism Cla=
ssism Sex=
ism Par=
ticinism We =
need
to know that our isms a=
re a
barrier to the effective spread of the Gospel. I’m not saying that we
need to change our positions, soften our stands, or anything like that. What
I’m saying is that we need to grasp that the Gospel is bigger than our
differences. May=
be
you are Cornelius today… maybe you’re here and you don’t =
know
Jesus. Take heart from this message today and know that there is no way you=
are
too far away… you, and your household, can be saved. I k=
now
most of you aren’t a Cornelius… so you must be a Peter. And tod=
ay,
I’d ask you “who is your Cornelius?” And more specificall=
y,
who is the Cornelius that you see everyday? Who can you not practically thi=
nk
about reaching with the Gospel? Is there a person, or even a whole category=
of
persons? Will
you be open to a divine-hammer-blow… even today. Let’s pray. For
the Cornelius we may have in mind… but also for ourselves that we wou=
ld
be freed from our prejudices so that the Gospel can shine through us.
So is the Conversion of Peter. Not a
conversion-unto-eternity like the conversion of Cornelius. Peter didn’=
;t
need to get saved…=
; but
Peter did need to have his world-view converted.
The rest of chapter nine further introduces us =
to
Peter’s itinerate ministry.
Chapter 10, then, brings us to the first accoun=
t of
the Conversion of Cornelius. I think that it is noteworthy that this is the
first of two accounts. We have this account in chapter 10 that is basically=
a
factual/chronological account that we are accustomed to from the historian =
Luke
(Cornelius centric). But then there is a nearly duplicate account in chapte=
r 11
that is told from Peter’s perspective (Peter centric).
And… the story included both conversio=
ns:
Here are the four hammer-blows that Peter
received:
First Divine Vision
8 “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Not=
hing
impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9 “The voice spoke from heaven a second ti=
me,
‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ =
5279;10
This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven ag=
ain.
[2]
Second the Divine Command
Third the Divine Preparation
Fourth the Divine Action
But there must be something more for us today.
Right? So we ask ourselves so what?
Will the red states and blue states ever figure=
out
how to get along? Now I don’t think we are anywhere close to civil
war… but there is a stark divide.
Let me ask this… what if John Kerry got
saved?
our neighborhoods and ride on our busses, who m=
any
of us can’t practically=
i>
conceive of how to reach with the gospel. We are so enraged with the lifest=
yle,
that we have no regard for the life. We might be able to make the jump
theoretically… but practically the whole thing, for many of us, just
grosses us out. But that is OK… they are convinced that we hate them,=
so
they’re not dying to listen either.
Can we practically conceive of how to reach
Fallujah with the Gospel? Or Ramallah? The images on our TV screens this we=
ek
are chilling. So much anger and hatred.
Most everyone suffers from some ism.
The conversion of Cornelius had to be preceeded=
by
the conversion of Peter.
[1]The =
Holy
Bible: New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ac 9:32-35).
[2]The =
Holy
Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ac 11:4-10).
[3]The =
Holy
Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ac 11:11-12).
[4]The =
Holy
Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ac 11:13-14).
a Or in
[5]The =
Holy
Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ac 11:15-17).
[6]The =
Holy
Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ac 11:18).