“Acts 10: The Conversion of the Gentiles”

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

One of the common threads of Old Testament prophecy about the coming kingdom dealt with its universal nature. It was to be a kingdom of all nations, all races, all languages, all people.

That’s why the Great Commission was to “preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15b). It was God’s plan that the good news of salvation should be taken from Jerusalem, to all Judea and Samaria and then “to the end of the earth” (remember Acts 1:8?).

In God’s plan, the gospel was first preached to the Jews and only when they rejected the Messiah, to Gentiles (Matthew 21:33-43, for example). Romans 1:16 points out that the gospel of Christ is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”

Acts 10 is a significant turning point in the spread of the gospel as it records for us the first occasion on which the message is taken to the Gentiles. Finally “the promise” has reached those “who are far off” (Acts 2:39; see also Ephesians 2:14-16).

Peter is the preacher, as he was in Acts 2, and the household of Cornelius provides the audience. Miraculous circumstances on both sides ultimately bring them together.

An angel of God speaks to Cornelius to tell him to call for Simon Peter, in the city of Joppa, staying with a tanner whose name was also Simon. Verse 4 tells us that Cornelius’ prayers and alms (gifts to the poor, NIV) have been heard by God. Cornelius, a Roman centurion, sends two of his household servants and a devout soldier under his supervision to bring Peter to Caesarea.

The apostle Peter, at the sixth hour (noon), on the same day has gone up on the housetop to pray and sees a vision from God of unclean animals, according to the Law of Moses, being let down from heaven on a sheet. The voice of God tells him to kill and eat them as He has made them clean. This symbolizes the breaking down of the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:14-16).  Only at the culmination of these events does Peter realize that God is teaching him that the Lord truly shows no partiality.

As Peter preaches to Cornelius and those of his household (family, servants, etc.), they are baptized in the Holy Spirit, the second and final case of such in the Bible. Peter then commands them to be baptized in water for the remission of sins (compare verse 43 with Acts 2:38).

--Roger Hillis

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