The sermon by Trent Moody, titled 'How Two Men Needed Supernatural Instruction for the Advancement of the Gospel,' explores the narrative of Acts chapter 10, focusing on Cornelius, a devout Gentile, and Peter, a Jewish apostle. Both men receive supernatural guidance to broaden their understanding of the gospel. Cornelius, a God-fearing man, lacks sufficient knowledge of the Messiah, while Peter needs a broader vision of the gospel's reach beyond Jewish boundaries. The sermon highlights the historic moment when the gospel extends to the Gentiles, emphasizing the need for divine intervention to break down cultural barriers. It stresses that devotion, fear of the Lord, giving, and prayer, while good, are not sufficient without faith in Christ. The sermon calls for believers to examine their understanding of the gospel and actively spread it to all nations, overcoming biases and limitations.

Well, it's good to be here this week. I really hated missing last week. I think that's the first time I've ever missed church from being sick, especially when I was supposed to be preaching. It's good to be here. Acts chapter 10, and we want to look at the first 16 verses of Acts chapter 10 and if you will read along with me Acts chapter 10 verse 1 and thus says the word of the Lord there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always.

About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius, and he observed him. When he observed him he was afraid and said, What is it, Lord? So he said to him, Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa and send for Simon, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon a tanner whose house is by the sea.

He will tell you what you must do. And when the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually. And so when he had explained all things to them, he sent them to Joppa. The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat, but while they made ready he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth.

In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, Rise Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean. And a voice spoke to him again the second time what God has cleansed you must not call common this was done three times and the object was taken up into heaven again let's pray our gracious father we thank you for the word of God. We have come for nothing less.

Lord, we pray that you would truly show us Christ today in your word. Lord, he is there. He is here. And we pray that you would show us Christ. Lord, that you would give us and grant to us such an understanding of your word.

Lord, that we would be filled with understanding. Even as Paul prayed for the the churches there, that we would be filled with understanding and in the knowledge of your word. And so Lord would you do that today. Do not leave us Lord where we are. Take us forward even as you brought these two men forward from where they were to where you would have them.

Lord take us from this place to where you would have us to be. Correct us Lord if need be. Sanctify us by your word for your word is the truth Lord and it is what we need And we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated So if you will bear with me today, I'm I do apologize try not to come across as drinking too much while I'm here but it will it'll help me along the way.

So I want us to be thinking about a couple of things this morning mainly as you see there in your outline two main things that I want to focus on but the the overall theme and what I thought really helped me in my understanding of this passage of Scripture and something that was very interesting to me is as we were dealing with two men and in both of these circumstances God sent supernatural help to these men And so how two men needed supernatural help for the advancement of the gospel because that's really what it was about. In the book of Isaiah 49 verse 6, one of my favorite verses states this, Indeed, he says, it is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth. That really encompasses what I want to share with you this morning. How the glory of Jesus Christ and his worth is so much broader in scope and so much more glorious than just to redeem Israel itself, the preserved ones of Israel.

But in God's economy and in God's salvation, his great desire was to give Jesus Christ as a light to the Gentiles that Jesus Christ should be his salvation to the ends of the earth and I think everyone here could say amen to that praise be to God that that was his plan and that that was his decree to save the Gentiles or brothers and sisters let me tell you none of us would be here None of us would have hope this morning if that verse was not true. And as clear as that verse may seem to us, it was not however so clear to the Jews, even the Jews that were apostles. It was in fact a mystery, a mystery that Paul would later explain to the church at Ephesus like this in chapter 3. For this reason I, Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation he made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already, by which when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men.

As it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel." So this great mystery is what our passage is about this morning. We're looking into this recorded history of this great mystery in Christ being made known both to the Jews and to the Gentiles. The Book of Acts really is a case study, if you will, of this very thing of how the Holy Spirit empowered the Gospel being preached beginning in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and into the ends of the earth. And what began at Jerusalem nearly 2, 000 years ago has encompassed the whole globe and is now being carried back to the very place where it began back to Jerusalem. So the gospel began with the Jews in Acts chapter 2.

We know the day of Pentecost God did an amazing thing when the Spirit of God came upon them and dwelt in them. And then it went into Samaria in Acts chapter 8. And now here in Acts chapter 10, we move to this next group of people that God is working to bring the gospel to, these God-fearing Gentiles in chapter 10 with a man named Cornelius. And this is where we pick up this morning, this most glorious part of the history where we find both Gentiles, a Gentile man, and a Jew, an apostle, both in need of supernatural instruction so that both of them will more fully understand the glorious nature of the gospel. And perhaps you're here this morning and you have somewhat of an understanding of the gospel, but I pray that through this passage of Scripture you will have a more glorious understanding of the gospel and what God has done and is doing.

You see the God Fears were those Old Testament believers who had an understanding but needed a greater understanding of the substance of the gospel and we also have the Jews who needed to have a greater understanding of the scope of the gospel. They were very limited in their scope and and they did not see God's big picture in all that he wanted to do. And this was not only true of certain Jews but almost entirely of all Jews and even here with the Apostle Peter being that key example of the Jew, an apostle of Jesus Christ, who needed to have his scope broaden to understand what God was going to do. And Paul was working and explaining this in Ephesians chapter 2 and what was needed was that this middle wall of separation between Jew and Gentile would be broken down and that God from the two would make one new man in Christ. And so what was needed of the Jew?

They needed to become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. What did the Gentile need? The very same thing. They needed to believe that Jesus Christ is the Jewish Messiah and they both needed to leave from where they were and come and be one new man in Jesus Christ. That was the need.

One commentator notes and describes it this way, in this narrative we see the supernatural preparation on both sides. God as it were lays his right hand on Cornelius and his left hand on Peter and impels them towards each other. But the importance of Peter's actions here is that by reason of his apostleship, his recognition of Gentile Christians becomes the act of the whole community. His entrance into Cornelius' house ends the Jewish phase of the church. The epoch was worthy of divine intervention and the steps needed divine warrant.

Therefore the abundance of the miracles that we find here at this point is not unnecessary. God was doing something that sometimes I don't think captures our understanding as fully as it would them. This is something that needed divine intervention to break down this middle wall of separation because we knew they held on to to the Jew first and it's almost like they forgot the second part of that and also to the Greek. And God was gonna break down this wall in Jesus Christ and bring both men and both peoples into one. So let's begin in Acts chapter 10 and verse one.

And we're gonna look at two main things this morning. We're going to look at Cornelius, two men if you will. We're going to look at Cornelius, a devoted Gentile proselyte, in need of a better understanding of the substance of the gospel. And then we're going to look at Peter, a Jewish apostle, in need of a better understanding of the scope of the gospel. So one had a lack of understanding of the substance and then Peter had a lack of understanding of the scope.

And both of these men God would take by the hand and bring them together to begin that work of breaking down the middle wall of separation. So what do we see about Cornelius in verses one and two? He says, There was a certain man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always." pretty astounding description of this man Cornelius, this proselyte into the Jewish religion. So what do we hear and what do we understand? We see here in verses 1 and 2 that Cornelius was a man of sincere faith.

What he believed affected what he did. It changed his routine if you will. That's what Jesus Christ always does. If you come to Jesus Christ and you believe in him, he's going to change your routine. The things that used to be important to you will not be as important to you.

The things that are now important to you will be very important, that are now important to you in Christ will be preeminent to you and it will change the way you live. It will reorder your life and change your day. When you wake up in the morning the first thing you think about will not be what you're gonna do for work. It'll be about the things of God. You'll be thinking about prayer and you'll be thinking, I want to open my Bible.

I want to see what God has to say this morning to lead me in the way I should go and Cornelius was a man like that. He was a devout man. Devout means to live and to act piously and religiously. I find it interesting that This is how God chose to describe Cornelius in this way as a man who was devout, a devout man. And the same is also said about other groups of people, and specifically some men who carried Stephen away to be buried who was martyred in Acts chapter 8.

They were devout men who came and did that. But Cornelius was a Gentiles, I said he was a Gentile proselyte to the Jewish religion, a Gentile he converted to Judaism and he believed in the God of the Old Testament. He was truly devoted to the God of Scripture. I believe that this is important for us to understand. We see it also in verse 22, we're not going to get there today but I'll read verse 22, it describes him as this, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews.

John Gill describes him this way, that Cornelius was a believer, needed not be questioned since he was not only a devout and religious person but one that feared God, which includes the whole religion internal and external, And so faith in Christ without which he could not pray aright there is no doubt of. But he had read the prophecies of the Old Testament, attended the synagogues of the Jews, and believed in the Messiah to come, though he did not know that he was come and that Jesus of Nazareth was he, so that his faith was the same kind of faith that the saints before the coming of Christ had, and in this faith he did all the good works he did, which became acceptable to God through Christ, and without which it is impossible to please him. Yet the Bible says, also, regarding Cornelius in Acts 11, 14, who will, he's speaking about Peter here, who will tell you words by which you and your household will be saved. So we have this very interesting situation here with Cornelius. We have a man who was a God-fearing man, an Old Testament believer you will, but yet his understanding of the gospel, although was sincere but was not sufficient.

He did believe in God. He was a devout man. He gave his life and his money as we see and his time to the things of the Lord. But yet he still lacked that one thing which Peter says, by which you and all your household will be saved. So in the Old Testament sense, he was a believer, but now post-resurrection he still lacked something in order for him to be saved.

So a very interesting and unusual if you will part of history for those who were alive before Christ died on the cross and after Christ died on the cross and had an experience of both of those things at the same in one lifetime. He needed though, what he lacked was is the true knowledge of the Messiah. He lacked his understanding of Jesus Christ. He needed more information if you will of who the Messiah was so his knowledge as I said was sincere but not sufficient Or else God would not have gone to such lengths to bring Peter to him to preach the gospel so that he and his household would be saved. If it was sufficient, he would not have needed to do this.

But it was not sufficient. Even though he was a devout man, and as we see, a God-fearing man. One who feared God with all of his household. He was a man of wisdom. I say he's a man of wisdom because he feared God and this is what the Bible teaches us.

It teaches us in Psalm 111 verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So Cornelius had the fear of the Lord. We read in Proverbs 1 7 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Also in Proverbs 14, 27, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. And this is that fountain that Cornelius would truly experience very shortly.

However, this fear of the Lord was not enough for Cornelius. He was not satisfied with the fear of the Lord, nor he wanted his whole household to understand the fear of the Lord. He wasn't satisfied just him fearing the Lord. There are some people who are very satisfied that they know Christ. And they have no desire beyond that so that everyone would know Christ.

Cornelius was not that kind of man. Cornelius was a man whose sincereness belief and understood to the limits of his understanding and feared God. He was not satisfied until his household feared God. Not just his family but his servants and soldiers and everyone whom he had authority over and had influence in their life. Just to stop here a moment just to say how is it with you?

Are you satisfied where you are? Are you satisfied with the extent of your gospel influence of those in your household? Of those in your life? In your purview of where you work or where you live? Are you satisfied with the extent of the gospel outreach?

Or are you a man like Cornelius who knew that everyone that he had influence over needed to know and fear God? So I encourage us all to do be like this man Cornelius, to not be satisfied until until our whole household hears and to all of those within the sphere of influence that God has given us hears the gospel. You see our desire should not only be that we fear God, our desire should be that everyone fears God. It's not just good that we fear God, it is, but it would be good if everybody feared God. Not only would our life be better, their life would be better.

It's not just that it's a good way It's the best way to fear God. I was thinking about this yesterday as we standing in the circle in front of the abortion mill And God actually granted my request brother Paul. He gave me tears for those people and I wanted them to fear God. I wanted them to know what I know. I wonder sometimes as we stand out there and people preach to them, I wonder if they know why we do what we do.

I would love to ask them, why do you think these people do this? Because they're mean and they hate women? Or is it because they love you and they love women and they love children? I don't want to be satisfied and I don't want to be a man who's content with just me fearing God. I want all of you to fear God.

I want all my household to fear God and I want those people at the abortion mill to fear God and I want my neighbors to fear God and I want everybody I come in contact with to fear God. This was the heart of Cornelius. He feared God and he taught his household to fear God. His religion was personal, but it was not private. And may ours never be private.

When we know the truth, we are compelled to tell the truth to those we know and love the best and then to all the rest. It is not the fear of the Lord that is good only for me and not for thee. No, the fear of the Lord is the best for everyone because it is the best way of living. Not only was he a man who feared the Lord but like Psalm 34 says, oh magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together.

How much better is it? Josh, as you were singing this morning, imagine if it was just you here. Hey, I just want to praise the Lord in this empty building. How much better it is when we say, hey, let's come together and let us exalt his name together. Let us sing praises to the Lord.

Come you children, listen to what he says in Psalm 34. Come you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. I think Psalm 34 was Cornelius' favorite psalm. Come to me children and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Listen to me, I will teach you. Who is the man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it." That's what the psalmist was teaching.

That was his doctrine. This was Cornelius' doctrine as well. He wanted his household to know. But not only was he a God-fearing man and a devout man, but his faith took effect into his heart and into his pocketbook. He was a generous man.

He was a man who feared God. He gave alms and charitable gifts generously to the people. He acknowledged that what he possessed did not possess him. That's a difficult one. He acknowledged that what he possessed did not possess him.

He was a man willing to give. He was a man interested in the deeds and the desires of others. He looked out not only for his own interest. He had compassion and his compassion was moved to action and so he gave alms generously. Isn't it interesting the words that are used?

Not only did he, as we see he'll pray, but he prayed always. Not only did he give, but he gave generously. He gave abundantly. He gave more than was expected because he was so generous in his giving. But we also see, as I said, a man of prayer.

He spoke often to God and now it was God who was going to speak to him. He prayed to God, the Bible says, always. He was dedicated to his prayer life. This denotes not only did he pray to God often, but he also prayed consistently and also that he prayed all kinds of prayers. Multi-colored, multi-fasted, This word always encompasses this whole idea.

Not only did he do it regularly and consistently, but he prayed all kinds of prayers. The idea is total, a whole, or of every kind. He committed his life to God and speaking to God. He did not live as if God did not exist, but prayed as if it all depended upon God because it did. We are not told, interestingly, what Cornelius prayed for.

He prayed always. But it seems very likely to me that the rest of this chapter will unfold in the answer of his prayer. It seems to me that he was praying to know the truth, that God would somehow give him understanding of who this Messiah was. One commentator noted this as the vision that follows may rightly be regarded as an answer to the prayers thus offered. It's natural to infer that Cornelius was seeking for guidance as to the new faith which Philip had brought to Caesarea, of which he could scarcely fail to have heard.

So perhaps it was this very thing that he had heard of the preaching of Philip. He had heard this man coming with this new doctrine and He didn't understand or maybe didn't know or didn't hear all the details and he's asking God, Lord show me the truth. Give me the the truth of your of your word. I believe that we do know the request by the answer we see. Here we have Cornelius in verses three and four visited by an angel.

He's a visited man. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius. And when he observed him, he was afraid and said, what is it, Lord? So he said to him, your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Cornelius saw a vision, something that was seen, a sight from God, an angel from God came to him.

And as you can imagine, this is always the case in the scriptures, when a human being sees an angel, they're afraid. Typically, the first thing the angel says is do not be afraid. He doesn't say that here but it does tell us Cornelius was afraid. He was fearful of what had taken place. But you know what's something about Cornelius that I really appreciate was his response.

Though this man was a man of authority, he had men under him, he had servants. And because he was a devout man and a prayer-filled man, he was an open and teachable man. His response was, what is it Lord? The word Lord here is not as in the Lord God but as a sir or master or someone who's in authority. He was not a man who thought he knew everything.

He wasn't a man who thought he had all of religion figured out. He didn't come across that way. He was open to hear from this heavenly vision and to learn he understood that he was a man of authority and a man under authority Jamison Fawcett Brown says This language was childlike reverence and humility. May we be that way. Oh Lord give us childlike reverence and humility.

Cornelius acknowledged his authority and was ready to listen and obey his command. He knew that the angel did not show up for no reason but for a reason. He had something to say, he had something to tell him, and he had better be ready to listen. And so the angel tells him that he was a noticed man. Notice by God your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.

Wow. You know the Bible teaches us that God's thoughts towards us are more than can be numbered. We think about all the people in the world and we think, man, that's a busy task. Not for God, it's not. His thoughts towards you are more than can be numbered.

That gives me great joy when I think about that. But yet at the same time it brings me some grief because I think how few my thoughts are towards him. When he's thinking about me continually, what am I thinking about? Cornelius, his prayers and his alms were as a memorial before God. God had taken notice.

It was verbiage of the ceremonial law, these offerings that were offered up. It did not go unnoticed. Cornelius had gained God's attention. These acts of almsgiving and prayer, God looked upon favorably. And I want to be careful here in our perception of Cornelius because we can fall into a ditch here and I don't want to do that.

I want to make clear that Cornelius was not a chosen man because of what he did, but rather he did what he did because he was a chosen man. I want you to understand that the goal of this message is that you do not go home and just try harder. I don't want you to go home and leave here and just think I need to be more devoted. I need to pray more. I need to give more.

I need to fear God more. You do, but that's not the point of this message. And I want you to understand that he didn't gain favor from God because of his works. His works were an outpouring and a motivation because God had done something in him. It was a glorious thing.

Notice Philippians 2.13, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Because here's the fact of the matter. Unless it is very unusual, in this church today, there are someone, at least someone, maybe multiple someones, who come here week after week and they're devoted. They come week after week and they have some semblance of the fear of the Lord in the sense of respecting God's meeting place and respecting God's Word and respecting God's people. They may come week after week and offer prayers to God.

They may even give of their finances to help. And they think that through those actions they're right with God. If that was the case, then why did God send an angel to Cornelius and say, go get Peter and bring him to you so that you can be saved? The difference between Cornelius before he understood Christ and after was an eternity. His devotedness and his almsgiving and his prayers and his God fearing was not sufficient.

He needed something more. He needed Christ And perhaps there's you here this morning and you do all of these things and you think, man I'm like Cornelius, I just need to do more. No! You need to not only believe in Christ, you need to believe on Christ. What's lacking is not your devotion and what's lacking is not that you need to give more and pray more and do more.

You need Christ. You need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then from the overflow of your heart, and it will not be a work but a joy, you'll be a devoted man or woman or child. Out of joy and thankfulness, you'll give generously. Out of joy and relationship you'll want to pray always.

You'll fear the Lord because He is the Lord who saved your soul. And it will be not a fear of terror, but of reverence and respect. It will be a loving fear of the Almighty God. In Psalm 141, the psalmist says, Lord, I cry out to you. Make haste to me, give ear to my voice when I cry out to you.

Let my prayer be set before you as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. We must remember that the sacrifices and offerings in the ceremonial law were symbolic of something greater. And when God's people entered into that which is greater, it was accepted as if it was that very offering. It was accepted to God. Even though Cornelius here, a devout, God-fearing, generous praying man, as I said, he still lacked something to make him complete.

He was a man of insufficient understanding of the gospel. And I want to pose some questions to you and then I want to answer these questions. Number one, why did the angel tell Cornelius to send men to Joppa instead of just telling Cornelius, go to Joppa? How inefficient is that? Send men to Joppa and go find Peter and bring Peter back.

Number two, why did the angel just not preach the gospel to him? Number three, why does God do things that sometimes seem like the long way around? Why did Cornelius, number four, why did Cornelius, excuse me, what did Cornelius lack regarding his understanding? Question one, So why did the angel tell Cornelius to send men to Joppa instead of just telling Cornelius to go find Peter? Well as we have the privilege of knowing the end of the story, we see that though this seems odd, we know it was because God was not only working on Cornelius, but he was also working in Peter.

God was actually doing two things at once. He was actually doing 10, 000 things at once, 10 million things at once, 100 million things at once that Cornelius did not know about. And the same is true in your life. God is doing 10 million things in your life and around your life with other people that involve you that you don't even understand. The problem is is that we have this perspective and it's wrong.

You see, God was working in Peter's life and an apostle needed something. Specifically, God wanted Peter, an apostle, to go into a Gentiles house and to break his understanding of clean and unclean in his Jewish mind. Man, that seemed inefficient. Send three men to go find one man to bring back six or seven men. Question number two, why did the angel not preach the gospel to him?

I'm not aware of any place in the Bible where an angel does that. Because I believe that God has given this treasure and placed it in earthen vessels. Another reason would be an angel does not have experiential knowledge of salvation. Angels aren't saved. You have fallen angels and elect angels and there's no gospel for angels.

And in fact in the book of Peter we know that the Bible tells us that these are things that angels desire to look into. They're fascinated by it but they've not been commissioned to preach it. Men have. God has given this glorious gospel to men. That doesn't seem efficient either because we're fallible and we have horse throats and we can't always do what we need to do.

But God has done it anyway to show that through weakness of men the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It is not through our strength but through his. Matthew Poole says the angel could not have declared the gospel and instructed Cornelius, but he sends him to Peter, God being willing to honor the means of his own institution. See, God is ordained that men preach the gospel. I'm not going to share all of them with you because we're running short on time, but in 2nd Corinthians 4, 6 through 14, God did this, but we have this treasure in earth and vessels.

Listen, he says that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. That's why he does it. That's why he did it. John Gill said, the angel was not sent to instruct Cornelius himself but directed him to an apostle of Christ and minister of the gospel who should do it. For not angels but men are employed in the ministry of the Word which is the ordinary means of spiritual knowledge and of increasing it.

So the eunuch was instructed by Philip and Saul by Ananias which shows the excellency and usefulness of the gospel ministry and ministers and what dignity is put upon them, what use should be made of them and in what esteem should they be had? Question number three, why does God do things that sometimes seems like the long way around? Remember that When it seems like God's ways are not the most efficient ways, in your understanding, remember that you're a finite creature that knows almost nothing. You have a very limited perspective, And in this case, he was working, as I said earlier, not only in the life of Cornelius, but he was also working in the life of Peter. And that is only to scratch the surface of all that God was doing, Remembering that God's ways are not our ways.

Remembering his ways are so much better than our ways. So stop questioning God's ways and start saying here I am Lord your will be done. Are you willing to do that? Proverbs 16 9 says a man's heart plans his ways but the Lord directs his steps. Question number four, what did Cornelius lack regarding his understanding?

You should know this I've already told you. Cornelius's present knowledge was sincere and devout but what it lacked it was not sufficient for the new covenant believer. How can I say this? Well again Acts 11 12 through 18 says this, then the Spirit told me to go with them. This is a little bit later, this will be next time.

But he says, the Spirit told me to go with him, doubting nothing. Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house who had said to him, send men to Joppa. Call for Simon whose surname is Peter who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved. And as I began to speak the Holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning.

And then I remembered the words of the Lord, how he said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. If therefore God gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? And when they heard these things they became silent. He's talking to Jews. They became silent and they glorified God saying then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance of life, repentance to life.

And so we're told here very helpful information. According to Acts 11, Cornelius was a believer and a God-fearer in the revealed religion, but he was not yet saved nor had received repentance to life as is required. And I bet you there's someone here this morning in that same situation. You have come right up to the doorstep of the gospel. But you have not yet received repentance to life.

You're trusting in your devoutness. You're trusting in your devotions. You're trusting in your prayers and your almsgiving and whatever else you can trust in. But you're not trusting in Christ. You're not trusting in Christ.

His faith was genuine, but not sufficient for a post-resurrection world. What he needed to do was to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. I'd like to add that this was the case with Apollos as well in Acts chapter 18. You see two things. One, the only hope for the Jew or Gentile today is that they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Without this they will be eternally lost and we should be willing and eager to explain the way of God to them more accurately. Number two, I would venture to say that we have some Cornelius's again here and maybe an Apollos here among us today. This is often the case among those who have been raised in a church from childhood. They know about God, but they do not know God. So may I ask what is it that is hindering you?

Why continue in your state of unbelief or unbelieving head knowledge? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, for the Bible says all who put their hope in Him will not be disappointed. He will in no wise cast you out. All that call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. What does hinder you?

Believe on him. And he was a man under authority and I'm going to fly through this one to get to Peter. But notice real quickly he was a man of obedience, he was a man of instruction, and he had devout soldiers, which again speaks of his character in sharing the gospel or sharing his religion with those in his purview. What did he do though? Let's just read the verse.

And when the angel spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called his two household servants and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually. And so when he had explained all these things to them he sent them to Joppa. He was immediately obedient to the heavenly vision. This was a man who wanted to know God's will and he wanted to do it God's way. Then What about this other man who needed supernatural help for the advancement of the gospel?

You mean to tell me that an apostle needed help to advance the gospel? That's what it seems to be. Peter, a Jewish apostle in need. He needed to have his scope broadened. He was looking at everything with a magnifying glass and God wanted to give him a telescope.

He wanted to open it up so he could see broader and bigger and further. He wanted him to see the Gentiles as those who would receive the light of the gospel because Jesus Christ was worthy of that. He's worthy of all nations to be his. And So God sent an angel to Cornelius to go get Peter and bring him back. But what do we find Peter doing?

He's praying. He's a man of prayer. He just raised somebody from the dead. But he was not living on yesterday's miracles. He was not living on yesterday's relationship.

He needed God today. He's on the housetop. In verse 9, then the next day as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on a housetop to pray about the six hour and became hungry and wanted to eat. But while they made ready, he fell into a trance and he saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheep bound at the four corners descending to him and let him down letting down to the earth. We have another man of prayer.

This man's no stranger to us. Peter, one of the most prominent figures so far in the book of Acts. God using him in mighty ways to heal lame men and to raise dead women to life. However, Peter, he didn't rest on those past experiences, but he pressed forward. He pressed on.

He prayed. He understood that the Lord was not finished with him yet, and so he prayed. He sought counsel from the Lord and then he became hungry. What do we make of this? Suffice it to say he was a man and he was hungry.

The Bible is so real. Peter's a man. He's on the roof praying and he's hungry. Imagine that. Women can sympathize with that and they understand.

But as he was hungry and praying on top of the house, he fell into a trance. This is a different word than we see of the word vision. One commentator describes it this way, the word trance or ecstasy denotes a state of mind when the attention is absorbed in a particular train of thought so that the external senses are partially or entirely suspended. It is a high species of abstraction from external objects when the mind becomes forgetful of surrounding things and is fixed solely on its own thoughts so that appeals to the external senses do not readily arouse it. The soul seems to have passed out of the body and to be conversant only with spiritual essence." What did he see?

Well you have a hungry man, what do you think he saw? He saw food. He saw animals being let down in a sheet and he then he hears a voice saying rise Peter kill and eat. Isn't it interesting how God works in such normal and usual ways in one sense and very unusual in another sense. He's dealing with a hungry Peter so how's he going to teach him that he can go into Cornelius's house and take the gospel to the Gentiles.

Well, let's feed him with unclean animals. So he lets down all kinds of animals, creeping things, but there was a problem. Even though the vision said, rise Peter, kill and eat, we've got a man of conviction. We've got a man in verse 14 that says, not so Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean. What does God do with a man of conviction like that?

What do you do with a man who says not so Lord? I find it interesting the contrast between Cornelius and Peter. Cornelius says what is it Lord? Peter says not so Lord. Not to put too much off on Peter.

He was a man who believed he was obeying God's law. In Matthew 16, 22, the Bible says, then Peter took him aside, speaking about Jesus, and began to rebuke him, saying, far be it from you, Lord. This shall not happen to you. In John 13 7 Jesus answered and said to him what I'm doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this. And Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet.

These statements were not unusual for Peter, let me just say. This isn't the first time he said, not so, Lord. Mark 7, when he had called the multitude to himself, he said to them, hear me, everyone, and understand there is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him, but the things which come out of him those are the things that defile a man. If anyone has ears to hear let him hear. Ellicott's commentary said but he had not taken in the truth in its fullness.

He apparently did not have ears to hear what Jesus had said in Mark 7, neither in its literal or symbolic meaning. Another commentator says, God forbid I should do this so contrary to the law of God and to my own practice throughout the whole course of my life. For I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean, in a ceremonial sense which was in common use with Gentiles, but unclean by the law of Moses. This shows that Peter as yet closely adhered to the ceremonial law nor did he know that it was abolished by Christ and notwithstanding the commission given to him and to the rest of the Apostles to preach the gospel to every creature and the extraordinary gifts of speaking with different tongues for that very purpose bestowed on them at the day of Pentecost. And yet he and they remained greatly strangers to the calling of the Gentiles and the admitting of them into a civil and religious conversation.

The knowledge of every truth was not at once communicated to them, listen, but gradually as it pressed the Lord to enlighten their minds. Can I just say none of us have arrived yet and what I mean by that is we have Peter an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ who walked with the Lord Jesus for three and a half years of his ministry who now had been endowed by the Holy Spirit of God, and yet he didn't understand that he should preach the gospel to the Gentiles? How basic is that? But here he was. He was an apostle who needed to have his understanding of the gospel broadened.

Could you just stop and ask yourself a reflective question, where am I lacking? The Apostle Peter was lacking in this scope of understanding. Where are you lacking in your scope of understanding? Where am I lacking in my scope of understanding? May God give us the truth and teach us and open our understanding to His Word that we can live fully pleasing to Him.

I do want to say though that this does give me some encouragement. I who have often said things that did not fit the occasion or were offensive to someone or even contrary or ignorant of the Word of God. The Apostles here we see are real men with real faults and notable weaknesses and they too were in need of real sanctification. But you know Peter was a man who also was showed much grace. In verse 15, "...and the voice spoke to him again the second time, what God has cleansed you must not call common.

And yet after the rash and contrary statement, God did not cast Peter out but rather gently and lovingly taught him and brought him along. And the beauty of it was that Peter was quickly brought into the understanding that he so lacked. His scope of the gospel had broadened and instead of using a gospel microscope as I talked about, God gave him a gospel telescope to see to the ends of the earth. And very soon after this, he would be the very one defending the Gentile conversions and of them receiving the Holy Spirit before Jews. Praise God.

Aren't you glad God works with us? He's gentle with us. He didn't cast us out for some dumb thing that we do and some area in which we're totally blind and ignorant to, but he actually works with us. God has a way to break through our narrow view of the gospel. Look at what he says in verse 16.

This was done the notorious three times. Peter. Three times and the object was taken up into heaven again. God is kind and patient and to the point. This was done three times.

Matthew 26 Jesus said to him, assuredly I say to you that this night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Peter said to him, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. John 21, 17, he said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time Simon son of Jonah do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time do you love me?

We're not told what Peter felt here, but we are shown what he did. He went forward. He went into the Gentiles house, not reluctantly, but he knew that God had shown him and he understood what God was telling him to do. Now this of course is not the end of the story, but only the end of the message this morning. It's very helpful for us though to see the ways of God and how he works in people's lives, to bring people to where he wants them to be.

His hand is not short. He lacks no strength or wisdom to bring you where you need to be and that lost man where he needs to be to hear the gospel. I want to greatly encourage you to be ready and available for the Lord to use you to spread the gospel to all nations. By way of application four things I want you to think about. They're a little bit long so I'll repeat them.

Number one, I want you to understand that devotion, fear of the Lord, Giving and prayer are good but not sufficient. They're good. All of those things should be done but they're not sufficient for your soul. You see Cornelius had all that he understood in religion, but the one thing lacked that he lacked was Christ. He needed to be saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Number two, regarding taking the gospel to those outside your comfort zone, you'll sometimes find that they are more eager to hear than you are to tell. Be bold and preach the gospel. It's interesting here that Cornelius was more eager to hear the truth and to send men to get Peter to bring him back than Peter was to understand what I have called clean do not call common. Sometimes the fear of the unknown and the fear of our own minds hinders us. It's excited me at times when I did overcome my fear and speak gospel truth to somebody and they gobbled it up as if I just served them a big plate of dessert or something.

It's just amazing and how they were so eager. They were right there. They just wanted somebody to tell them about Jesus. Number three, Your plans are not more efficient than God's. Your plans are not more efficient than God's.

Our plans so often lack scope of what God's doing. We're limited in our perspective and understanding. And number four, if you have any animosity, bigotry, or bias towards any people group or any person individually regarding taking the gospel to them, you better re-examine your understanding of the gospel. For the gospel is to go to every tribe, tongue, nation, and people. So go forth brothers and sisters and take the gospel to them.

Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great power in the gospel. I thank you God that you have brought us through this text. I pray that it was clear and understandable. I pray Lord that it would stir up your people to love and good works and gospel proclamation.

I pray that it would show all of us that even if we were an apostle we have yet to arrive. Lord we still need sanctification and growth and understanding. Lord would you pinpoint the very places in each of our understanding every one of us here today There are places in our understanding Lord, would you pinpoint them and show us where we so greatly lack and give us clarity there. And I pray Lord that the result of this will be greater devotion because of your goodness and glory. And that many souls would enter in because Lord you are worthy.

You're worthy for all the Gentiles to come, and all the Jews to come, and to bow their heads, and bend their knees, and profess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And we ask this in Christ's name. Amen.