“Opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, 35 but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him. 36 “The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)— 37 you yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed. 38 “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. 39 “We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. 40 “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible, 41 not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. 42 “And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead. 43 “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”
This section taken from the latter verses of Acts chapter 10 consists of Peter’s sermon to the Roman Centurion, Cornelius, resident of Caesarea by the sea and devoted God-fearer. According to the Lord’s instruction sent through an angel, this commander of a battalion has asked Peter to come and bring a word to Cornelius and his immediate and extended family and friends, with whom he has filled his house for this occasion.
I’m going to treat this more fully in part two of what I have labeled, ‘The Launching of the Gospel – The Barrier Broken’. Now I have to pause here and explain that by this title I certainly do not mean to imply that this event recorded in Acts 10 was the first instance of the Gospel going out.
That has been happening ever since the women came fresh and excited from the empty tomb to tell the disciples that Jesus had risen.
I only chose this term ‘launching’ because of the way this whole scene was set up and what the results were; which we will study in part 2, when we look at the entirety of chapter 10 and even touch in chapter 11 before we’re finished.
Today I want to keep to this sermon that Peter preached in the home of this Gentile, and I want to expound on what it was Peter taught about Jesus, and I want us to observe that the information he set forth in this brief message is foundationally the message of every called and sent preacher of the Gospel.
I will basically be picking out terms and phrases that Peter used as he went along and give some amplification to the references he made and the meaning behind his well-chosen words.
I want to begin at verse 38, giving assurance that I will talk about the opening comments of Peter’s sermon in part 2. Having said that however, and before we look at verse 38, I do want to draw your attention to verse 36, as I feel this is the key verse of this entire passage.
“He has sent His word to the sons of Israel by giving us the good news of peace through Jesus Christ – He is Lord of us all”.
When Peter said that God had sent His word, he used the same Greek word that is used throughout the New Testament, which is ‘logos’. John employed it in the first chapter of his Gospel when he said “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”.
The word, logos, generally refers to revelation of knowledge. The word that comes from God brings the revelation of the will of God. In some cases this word is used to refer to the sum of God’s utterances, such as when we call the Bible the word of God.
In Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament words, we read “Logos’, the word, the personal manifestation, not a part of the Divine Nature, but of the whole Deity.” And that is a reference to Jesus Christ; the personal manifestation of the fullness of God.
The word sent from God is complete. The Word, capital ‘w’, to whom John referred in his first chapter, is the complete revelation of God to mankind in the Person of Christ.
The Bible itself, Old Testament and New Testament, comprise the divinely inspired record of God’s revelation of Himself to man. That is why we refer to it as the word of God. In both cases, in Scripture, ‘logos’ is used.
I wanted to explain that to you because what Peter was telling his hearers in this instance, is that God has perfectly revealed Himself in the Person of Christ, first to the sons of Israel and now to all, as He is Lord of us all.
So at the very outset, as he begins to address this mixed but mostly Gentile group that the Centurion has crowded into his house, Peter’s message is that they are about to hear about the God of all who has sent His word of good news to all in the Person of this Jesus of Nazareth – this Man.
GOD’S WITNESS OF JESUS OF NAZARETH
So we go to verse 38
“You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
As I said, Jesus is the perfect and complete revelation of Deity to man. He is God’s witness, or the witness of God, in human flesh. In Romans 8:3 Paul wrote that God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. In saying ‘the likeness’, he was establishing that in every way the Son of God became as every other human except that He had no sin and no sin nature. He came in flesh, but as relates to sin He was only in the likeness of sinful flesh.
Again Paul, to the Philippians, in chapter 2 verse 6 confirmed that the Son was equal with God although He humbled Himself and took the form of a bondservant in order to become the sacrifice for sin. And again, in Colossians 1:19 and 2:9 Paul teaches that the fullness of Deity dwelt in Him.
So Peter calls Him Jesus of Nazareth, which establishes his humanity in that Jesus was known as coming from an earthly location – although He was born in Bethlehem as the prophets had foretold, but since He grew up in Nazareth it was commonly supposed He came from there – and the mention of Nazareth would also have localized Him in the minds of these particular hearers, since that town was only a little over 20 miles inland from Caesarea where they were all gathered.
So for us, it would have been like the Montrose preacher saying, ‘you all know about this guy from Delta…’
He says, ‘You yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed”
Peter isn’t asking any questions, is he? This was common knowledge and so widespread was it, that he didn’t need to establish their degree of familiarity with all that had taken place over these past 4 years, since John came baptizing in the Jordan.
Even that was common knowledge and something Peter had no need to teach in an historical reference. This was a really big deal in the nation of Israel. God had been silent for 400 years, since the end of Malachi’s ministry, while the pagan world grew and developed; the Greeks under Alexander came to power and ruled the world; then that power diminished and the Romans rose to the top.
The Bible doesn’t say anything about all of that. Isn’t that interesting? The history of the development of the European cultures and societies that the world puts so much emphasis on – so much focus and importance – and God didn’t have a thing to say about it.
The Bible is about the Good News of salvation, my friends, and the world’s cultures and the world’s powers have had no part of that, and it seems to be a picture of the divine humor that God chooses not to comment on what little men are running around doing in all their pomp and circumstance.
But all of a sudden, the word of the Lord came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness (Lk 3:2), and it was a really, big, deal! Even the Gentiles knew that it was a big deal.
Remember, even Roman soldiers went out to see him, and they even asked him questions about how they should be behaving! Isn’t that amazing?
“Some soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.”
Isn’t that amazing? Tough, seasoned, Roman soldiers, the occupying force in this little country on the eastern end of the Mediterranean, going out to hear this Jewish preacher who was living in the wilderness, wearing camel hair and eating bugs, and they’re asking his counsel!
Listen friends! God was bearing witness of His Son. His Anointed One was coming to bring salvation to all men and God the Father made certain it wasn’t done quietly. Everyone knew of His forerunner and therefore everyone was attendant and listening when the Lamb Himself stepped onto the public scene saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel’. Mk 1:14
So Peter says, ‘you yourselves know’, because they did.
But they knew so much more than that, which probably has a lot to do, not only with the devotion of this Cornelius, who had become a God-fearer, but with the willingness of all his friends and family to set everything aside and gather to his house this day to hear the words of this preacher out of Jerusalem.
They knew of the recent history of this man who was going about the countryside and even in Jerusalem who was called Jesus of Nazareth; but more, they were aware that He was apparently anointed by God with power. They had heard – and undoubtedly some of them had seen – that He healed people of all sorts of diseases and maladies. He had even raised some from the dead. He had demonstrated authority over demons and power over the natural elements. He had miraculously fed over 5000 who were surrounding Him on a hillside and all knew the food could not have been brought in from someplace else.
Yes, they knew. They had heard and they had seen and now the preacher was confirming to their ears that what they had heard of and some witnessed was the power of the Holy Spirit of God, anointing Him to go about doing good and demonstrating power and authority over the devil himself.
Now Cornelius was certainly familiar with the idea of power and authority, wasn’t he? He was a Centurion with authority over at least 600 men at a time, which means he had to have captains and lieutenants under him. So he knew what authority entailed; what its powers and responsibilities encompassed. So it would have been no insignificant thing to him that he was now learning of the One who commanded the spirit world and its many legions with just the word of His mouth.
This was God’s witness to man, and it wasn’t done in a corner. The birth of Jesus was announced by heavenly heralds, the entrance to His public ministry was loudly proclaimed by the forerunner and then by the voice from heaven at His baptism, and then by over three intense years of His moving all over the countryside and in Jerusalem, showing Himself to be all that the prophets had foretold.
MAN’S WITNESS OF THE MESSIAH
Well, Peter moves on from there to proclaim the witness of men to the fact that this One was the Messiah – to this Gentile audience he would have used the Greek term, Christos, or Christ – with his words beginning in verse 39.
“We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. 40 “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible, 41 not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.
The first thing I want you to see in this is the contrast between this sermon of Peter to the Gentiles and his first sermon on the day of Pentecost which was to ‘Men of Israel’ (Acts 2:22) which is the way he began his address on that day. Verse 5 of that chapter says “Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men, from every nation under heaven”.
Please observe that in one place Luke records for us that these were devout Jews who had come there from everywhere, and only 18 verses later Peter is saying to this group of devout men, ‘you nailed to a cross’.
Not that there aren’t many evidences, both in Scripture and in history to this truth, but here is one glaring example of the ability of men to be devout in their religion and just as wrong as they can be at the same time.
It was their devotion; it was their zeal; for their religion and their self-righteous adherence to the tenants of religion that drove them up Golgotha’s hill to crucify the Prince of Glory.
But here, in the presence of a sincere God-fearing Gentile who is already playing the role of evangelist in gathering together everyone he loves or cares for to hear this message, Peter says, ‘they’. “They” put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross.
Now don’t think for a moment that he is letting this congregation before him off the hook for sin. He tells them in verse 43 that in Christ they can have forgiveness of sins – and in fact, immediately after his saying that, before he can go on to give an altar call or ask for any decision from his hearers, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.
What does this say about predestination and the work of God alone in regeneration and salvation? Nowhere here does it say that they prayed the sinner’s prayer, or that Peter said, ‘if you believe all this bow your heads and repeat after me’, nor does the Bible give us any indication that they had been called upon or led to do or say anything. “While Peter was still speaking these words”… What words? “…everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins” and the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. Period.
Back on track now… Peter says ‘they’ put Him to death, but remember that he had already said ‘you know’, and they did indeed know of all that had happened.
Just know that even though Peter is not holding this group culpable for the actual events of the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus, they as we were sinners in need of a sacrifice and in need of forgiveness and salvation.
Peter just wants them to know that he and probably some there with him were eye-witnesses to it all; the death of Jesus and His resurrection.
Isn’t the matter-of-factness in Peter’s message startling at this point? They put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. God raised Him up on the third day.
Well, it’s startling to us because we live in the end of the age when men have allowed the lies of the devil to make them stupid. So good men like Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel and many others have published works of wisdom and historical and archeological evidences to convince the doubter.
But in those early days and indeed, even up to fairly recent history, people didn’t question the resurrection of Christ. They may have chosen to reject Him and His preachers nonetheless, but until recently they’ve had enough courtesy and good sense to keep their mouths shut about the things about which they knew they were ignorant.
Now no one owns ignorance. They all act like they know it all when they know nothing – unfortunately they are even allowed to make movies and write books exposing their ignorance like the bright red of a baboon’s behind, and not only are they not embarrassed, they’re even applauded by the less talented but equally ignorant.
Not in the days of the infant church. Peter spoke matter-of-factly because people had the good sense not to refute out of hand the testimony of hundreds and hundreds of eye-witnesses who were willing, even in the face of opposition by a corrupt ruling class and at the risk of censure and even punishment, to boldly tell what they knew to be true.
I think the important point Peter wanted to press upon them and one that we should not skim quickly over, is that this was indeed a bodily resurrection. It wasn’t a vision, it wasn’t something some fanatic followers saw in a drug-induced trance. God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He should become visible, not to all the people but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is to us,” Hear it? He is saying, ‘I’m one of the eye-witnesses, so this isn’t secondhand information and it is not hearsay’.
“…to us, who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.”
Folks, if there’s one thing that every human on the planet has known without being told from the beginning of the history of fallen man, it is that dead men don’t eat and drink. And it has always, I think, been commonly accepted that spirits don’t need to, and since they are not of a solid, fleshly substance, there would be no place to put food and drink in them.
So when a witness says, ‘I know that person is alive because I ate and drank with that person’, the choice is to call the witness a liar, or believe that the person is indeed alive.
Jesus Christ came forth from the tomb on that resurrection morning, in a body that was both glorified, and solid and able to function as a live, human body. He ate and drank with His friends. He did this on more than one occasion, and frankly, I think He did it as proof of his bodily resurrection so that the fools who would come later to say He was only spirit could be easily refuted.
So this is man’s eyewitness account and testimony of Jesus of Nazareth. He was a man from a town in Galilee, they supposed, He went about demonstrating with His teaching and His amazing good deeds that He had the anointing of God upon Him and that the Holy Spirit was with Him. Then He died at the hands of evil men, was raised by God in power and glory, ate and drank with His friends and was visible to them by the gracious granting of the Father, who had declared Him to be the Son of God by the very power that raised Him up from the grave (Romans 1:4)
CHRIST’S WITNESS OF HIMSELF
The next thing Peter brings out in his sermon is Christ’s witness of Himself.
“And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.” Vs 42
In his magnificent little book, “A Faith to Proclaim”, James S. Stewart made reference to Paul’s declaration to the Galatians (2:20), “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me…”
And Stewart said, “To be thus taken command of, so that our testimony, when we go out to speak of Christ, is not ours at all, but Christ’s self-testimony – this is our vocation and the hope of our ministry.”
Stewart was saying that when the believer is called by Christ and sent to testify of Him, it is really Christ’s own testimony of Himself since He is our life and it is by His Spirit that we can know or speak at all.
Every preacher who has preached the word of God and the good news of Jesus Christ, and every layman who has ever given an account of the gospel to a friend – which, by the way, is preaching or proclaiming the good news – every one, has been the willing channel through whom Christ has testified of Himself.
He witnessed of Himself in that He ordered His Apostles to preach to the people, and to testify to them that He is the one appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.
Do you understand what is being said here? The risen Jesus gave instructions to His Apostles and His called preachers of the truth, to tell people that they will be judged, and it is He before whom they will stand. This is the truth for all; for everyone; for you and me. The living and the dead.
By the living and the dead he doesn’t mean to make a distinction between those who are presently walking around in warm flesh and those whose corpses lie buried in the ground or otherwise disposed of because they aren’t warm any more. He means those in the end who have life in Christ by the Holy Spirit of God by His grace through faith, and those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, without God and without hope, who will be judged and then eternally punished for their sin and their rejection of God’s Son Jesus Christ.
He stood once in the judgment of evil men who cared not for justice and in their willful blindness thought they would kill Him with impunity because of their high position. He has since and often stood in the judgment of the minds and hearts of evil men and women everywhere and in all times, who convince themselves that they are the masters of their own destiny and there is no place for God or His Christ in their lives.
All of these will stand in judgment before the glory of His throne; this He announced to His Apostles and this He ordered them to preach. In point of fact, this was His own final message to the men who had their night which He called their hour and the power of darkness. They demanded that He identify Himself and admit that He was the Son of God.
His answer to them was “I am, and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power”. What did that translate to in their ears? That as He stood before them then, they would stand before Him in the last day.
Christ’s testimony of Himself, friends, is that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on the earth, and when once again the world sees Him it will see Him as the Judge of us all.
THE WITNESS OF THE PROPHETS AND PREACHERS
Well, the final group of witnesses Peter calls forward is the prophets and preachers of old who, though they did not have a clear picture, spoke of His coming nevertheless, and because they were God’s chosen vessels to pour out His word to the people the one thing they understood clearly was that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.
Now isn’t that an interesting insight coming from Peter, who such a short time before this seemed to understand so very little of the true nature and character of the One he followed?
And when we think of the prophets of the Old Testament what comes most readily to the surface is their pronouncements of coming disaster and destruction because of the failure of the people to believe and obey God; to remember His mercies and His commandments; right?
So this is yet another evidence of the heart-changing work the Spirit has done in Peter, when he goes from declaring that the risen Christ has ordered him to solemnly preach Jesus as the Judge of the living and the dead, to the insightful and encouraging revelation that the true message of the prophets and preachers of old was that forgiveness is available to all who believe through Jesus’ name.
So this very brief message, this word of God Peter has brought to this hungry man and his friends, is that the person they were wondering about is a man who was anointed by God, demonstrated authority over all creation both nature and spirit, was the sacrifice of God for sin and approved by the Father by the attestation of resurrection in the body from the dead, who is now Divine Commander with authority over all in heaven and on earth, who will come as Judge over the living and the dead, and who even now offers forgiveness of sins to all who believe through His name.
Now I want to ask you; do you think God could have poured out His Holy Spirit in these people without Peter? Could He have given them the revelation of these truths Peter taught apart from any man?
Yes, He could have. But He has graciously chosen to reveal Himself to the nations through vessels of clay, so that they can know that this forgiveness is available to them also, and so that we can know the unspeakable thrill of speaking the word of God to the ears of men, telling them that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ who is Lord of us all.
In part 2 we’ll talk about broken barriers. I’ll just draw part 1 to a finish with this… There are certain truths that God knows that we know. What men and women so often do, and are unfortunately so practiced at that they do it with a sort of professional ease, is to deny the truths God has place in every heart so that they never have to open up to receive what might be revealed to them.
But here as in other places in Scripture, the preacher has said, ‘you know’, ‘you yourselves know’.
Please don’t deny the fundamental things about God that He Himself has placed in your mind and in your heart. He has done that so that you might seek Him, for He is easily found, and to all who believe in Him through Jesus Christ, there is forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
If you are one who has denied what you know in your heart to be true, just ask Jesus to awaken those truths in you today and to reveal Himself to you and make His Holy Spirit to fall on you today. Eternity and where you’ll spend it is in the balance.
He ordered His preachers to solemnly testify that He is the One who has been appointed Judge of the living and the dead. I do so today in your hearing.
Now what?
