Acts 10:42-48 Pentecost 1927 (page 57 - Volume 1)
For centuries the children of Israel held a select place in the favor of God, so they began to think that God’s covenant was bound to them alone and to those of their blood. They boasted: We are Abraham’s seed. They considered themselves a godly aristocracy and that God would not dare to step out of their race and lineage to chose a people unto Himself. Even after Christ came and gave His apostles the direct command to preach the gospel into all the world, they were still somewhat timid at first in following this command, because the prejudices of their race still held them somewhat in bondage. Therefore God performed this special miracle in the home of Cornelius, the Gentile to show that -
The Gentiles are also included in the Blessing of Pentecost
First the Gospel is preached to the Gentiles. What we just read is the last part of a sermon that Peter delivered in the house of Cornelius, the Roman Centurion. Peter was at first somewhat timid in going to the house of Cornelius because it was considered unclean for a Jew to eat or commune with Gentiles, but God showed him by infallible proofs that He Himself was calling and sending Him to the house of Cornelius to speak the Word of Truth there. Peter refers here to this command of God Himself when he says, “And He commanded us to preach unto the people.” The Gentiles are people as well as the Jews and therefore included in the command of the Lord, that the gospel should be preached to them.
What it is that Jesus commanded them to preach he states by saying, “and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.” This word relieves us from any doubt as to whether the command of Christ is authoritative enough to bring us safely by the judgment seat of God. God has given everything into Christ’s hand. Jesus Himself will be judge of living and dead and therefore there is no word or command as powerful or important or as trustworthy as the command of Christ. Peter need not fear judgment because he preaches to the Gentiles, nor the Gentiles fear judgment because they receive such message, even though the Jews stand and judge and condemn, for it is the highest and supreme Judge who gave the command and all cases must finally and in the last instance be settled before His judgment seat and not before the judgment seat of any man or nation.
The command of Jesus is also corroborated by the testimony of the people of God that went before. They had already proclaimed beforehand, as Peter here says, that through Jesus name whoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins. This witness of Peter is true, for what else does the prophet Isaiah mean when he says, “By His stripes are we healed?” The promise of forgiveness of our sins and everlasting salvation includes both Jew and Gentile: “Whoever believeth, etc.” Whoever is a broad word and means: No matter who the person is, of what color or race or nation, no matter how great his sin: Whoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins, and total cancellation of all his debts.
II.
Now when Peter said these words the Holy Ghost fell upon all who heart it, to give special power and emphasis to the truth of it. God gave visible proof by the pouring out of His Spirit into (?) these Gentiles that the Gentiles are to be partakers of the Blessings of Christ and the Blessings of Pentecost, called them into the eternal church and kingdom of Christ.
The visible sign that was evident to all who witnessed this miracle was that these Gentiles gathered in Cornelius’ house began to speak with other tongues and magnify God, even as the apostles had done on the day of Pentecost. It was visible proof that God made no difference between them and the Jews.
Some Jewish Christians had come with Peter on this errand and we read of them that they were “astonished”, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. We see how even the Jewish Christian were still held in bondage by this inborn conception that only a circumcised Jew was eligible to God’s people. But God here wipes out completely the preference of circumcision by giving the Holy Ghost to such who were uncircumcised. God Himself wipes out the old covenant of the law and binds us Old Testament the new covenant of faith in Jesus Christ.
Therefore we cannot stomach those who would in one day raise again the Old Testament covenant establishing the Old Testament Sabbath on Saturday and refraining from eating pork and the like, as do the Seventh Day Adventists and Zionists. God has here given plain proof that those ordinances are a thing of the past and not necessary to salvation by giving His Holy Spirit to the uncircumcised.
III.
This act of God in giving to the Gentiles the Holy Ghost also fully convinced Peter that God had wiped away all differences through Christ between Jews and Gentiles, for he said now: “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized?” If there were any Jews present who had their doubts, their mouths were completely closed now by this visible voice that God placed upon these Gentiles. Could they hinder the work of God by refusing to baptize them? Peter did not wait for an answer, but commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.
This act of God in the house of Cornelius was very important for the guidance of the church into the right paths later, for some years later the question again was thrown up by some Jewish Christians whether the Gentiles ought not to be circumcised before they were received into the church. The apostles and elders had a conversation at Jerusalem to decide that question and it was the rehearsal of this event in the house of Cornelius that helped to convince them all that the circumcision is a thing of the past. In its place Christ gave us baptism by which souls are received into the covenant of God and membership in His church.
There is a disposition to despise and neglect baptism among those especially who make the most of being born of the Spirit. Their disrespect for baptism shows that their being born of the Spirit is a hallucination and not fact, otherwise they would not despise the covenant of God.
