Here is an outline of Acts 10-11 that we will follow in the lesson this Sunday, February 26.
[1] We are all seekers, looking for answers. Cornelius was a good man, “a devout man who feared God,” but he needed help to find truth. Fortunately, “he prayed constantly,” and God sent him a vision. We are encouraged by the knowledge that when we seek God, He will show Himself to us. “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near” (Is. 55:6). This is a story of God’s grace, how He hears one solitary person’s prayers and personally responds to that person. “‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will let Myself be found by you,’ declares the Lord” (Jer. 29:12-14).
[2] When we find truth, we are all messengers, conveyors of truth. Peter had heard Jesus say, “I am the truth.” Jesus had also said: “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth” (Jn. 14:6; 16:13). After Peter had been transformed by Christ, and filled with the Holy Spirit, he became one who conveyed (carried) the truth of the Gospel to others. But this was not an automatic process. Peter was blinded by his own prejudices and judgments. God had to prepare him, and Peter had to make some changes before he could take God’s message to Cornelius. He needed to recognize and accept the authority of God over his life: “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy” (Ac. 10:15). He witnessed the power of the Gospel of Christ: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the one who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him” (Ac. 10:34).
[3] We see the results when God brings together the seeker and the messenger. When Peter gave his report to the church in Jerusalem, he gave details that help us understand God’s activity. Cornelius told Peter that an angel had told him: “He (Peter) will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved” (Ac. 11:14). This message of salvation that Peter announced was “the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all” (Ac. 10: 36). Peter would later write: “He Himself (Jesus Christ) brought our sins in His body up on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24). “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). This is what Phil referred to last Sunday as the greatest miracle of all!
[Conclusion] When the Jerusalem church heard Peter’s report, “they had no further objections and praised God, saying, ‘So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life’” (Ac. 11:18). This was a turning point for the church of Jesus Christ, and it continues even today as God brings together those who are messengers of His truth and those who seek that truth. The great adventure of the Great Commission had begun, when Christ’s followers would carry the Good News “as far as the remotest part of the earth” (Ac. 1:8).
-Al Gary
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