Click here to watch this sermon.

We’re in the midst of a series of lessons in the Book of Acts we’ve entitled Jesus Saves showing how the early Church fulfilled Christ’s great commission to preach the gospel to the world and bring men and women to salvation in Christ Jesus. Our focus is on the detailed accounts we’re given in Acts of people’s conversions to Christ. How were they converted and thus, how are people converted today? What did the apostles preach and what did they tell people to do in answer to the question, what must I do to be saved when they had heard and learned of Jesus?

Today, we come to another pivotal moment in the explosive growth of the first century Church. We follow Paul and his company to the city of Philippi, where the gospel is preached for the very first time in Europe. Several years have passed since Paul’s dramatic conversion on the Damascus Road. He is now a devout follower of Christ and doing the work of an apostle. As an apostle sent to the Gentiles, he is now on his second missionary journey with Silas, Timothy, and Luke. The Holy Spirit will now dispatch them to the European continent where an open door for the gospel awaits and great things will happen. When all is said and done in Acts 16, one of the greatest Churches of all time will have been established—a Church that will be particularly dear to Paul for the rest of his earthly life and ministry.

Acts 16:6-15 “Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.

And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days.

And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So she persuaded us.”

A small Sabbath prayer meeting on the riverside turns into much more than Lydia or those with her imagined. We want to study their conversions to Christ today. In particular, this case raises a question that we will address: what does it mean that the Lord opened the heart of Lydia? Does it imply some direct, inexplicable, miraculous operation of the Holy Spirit on her heart?

Some of the greatest people of faith are women, and that’s always been the case, throughout the stream of time. God has used women in a mighty way in His purposes and plans, and this is no exception. In this case, He established one of the great Churches of all time on the faith of this godly and spiritually minded woman named Lydia. The Bible says that she was a seller of purple, and this tells us that she was a remarkable woman in the world of business and successful in her line of work. Purple dyes were costly in the ancient world and generally only the rich were able to afford clothes dyed in purple. Emperors and kings wore purple. She was from the city of Thyatira and had ended up in the Macedonian city of Philippi in her business venture.

But her success in the business world did not cause her to compromise or forget her virtues and her faith. That came first in her life and I believe that’s evidenced by what the text tells us here in this story. She certainly believed in God, and now dwelling in a city filled mostly with heathen people, she was very careful to maintain her faith and her spiritual life. The Sabbath day meant nothing to the pagans of Philippi; it was just another day of business for them. But not with Lydia. As either a Jewess or a Jewish proselyte, she was very concerned with keeping the Jewish Sabbath. So, when that day came, she closed up shop and tended to the things of God instead. Normally a Jew would attend the synagogue on the Sabbath, but there would’ve been no synagogue in Philippi, so instead, the Bible says that she and some other women went down to the river to pray.

Once again, like those we’ve met in recent weeks in our journey through the Book of Acts, here is a person of virtue, morality, and even holiness who is in a lost condition. You see, those things didn’t save Lydia. She needed—like everybody else—to hear and obey the gospel of Christ. Just like every person—religious or not, man or woman, rich or poor, moral or immoral—it doesn’t matter: salvation is only found in the gospel of Jesus Christ and through obedience to it. This woman could not be saved until she heard, believed, and obeyed that gospel.

So, as before, God goes to work to providentially provide this sincere soul with the opportunity to hear the saving gospel. The apostle Paul is now well into his ministry and he’s busy spreading the gospel. Since his conversion in Acts 9, he has been received by the Church and prepared by Christ for the ministry. He is now on his second missionary journey visiting the churches he planted along the way. He and Barnabas have gone their separate ways and he is now traveling with Silas and a young preacher in training named Timothy. Paul and Silas planned to preach as they traveled west from Galatia into Asia and Bithynia, but the Holy Spirit forbade them from doing so. That may seem strange that a preacher on a preaching mission is forbidden from preaching by God, but that’s because God has His eye on what was going on in Philippi with this woman, Lydia, and He is concerned with getting Paul, the inspired apostle, to her to tell her about Jesus Christ. So, God the Holy Spirit intervenes and keeps Paul from stopping in Asia, instead pointing him further west where he ends up in the seaside city of Troas. While at Troas, Luke (the author of Acts) joins Paul and his companions. While they’re resting there for the night, a vision comes to Paul that we now know as ‘the Macedonian call.’

The record says that in a vision, a man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with Paul to come over to Macedonia and help them; to cross over the sea and come to that new ground to preach the gospel to them. Paul readily perceived that this vision was from God and he did not delay in heading for Macedonia, concluding that God had called them there to preach the gospel to the people. Great things would happen when he and the others arrived, including finding this woman Lydia and her friends down by the river praying and ready to hear the gospel from Paul. So, they boarded a ship in Troas.

Acts 16:11-12 “Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days.”

Now, the providence of God is all over this. We ran a straight course means the wind was in their favor. Ancient ships, which relied on their sails, could only sail such a straight course if conditions were perfectly in their favor. Think about this: just as God counted off the footsteps of Philip on his way to that rural road where he found the Ethiopian eunuch, and just as God orchestrated the visions of Cornelius and Peter so that everything fell precisely into place to bring Peter to that Gentile household, so now the Lord of heaven and earth filled the sails of that ship with the exact wind it needed to sail right into that Macedonian port where Paul and company would eventually find their way into Philippi and into this Sabbath day prayer meeting where Lydia was gathered with her friends. Once again, God has seen to it that the inspired person makes contact with the uninspired person who is ready to hear the gospel and is a prime prospect for the kingdom of heaven. I believe that God will move heaven and earth even today to provide every sincere person with the opportunity to hear the truth and be saved. Every chance you get to hear and learn the truth of God from His word should be seized and treasured as a sacred and precious opportunity that should not be passed by or indifferently shrugged off or put off to some other time which may never come.

Normally, when Paul went into a new city, he would find a synagogue to go to on the Sabbath. That was his strategy because it was a good place to find people who were willing to discuss and listen to the scriptures. He would use that as a platform from which to preach the Christ of the scriptures. It was the beginning point of his work in that city, but apparently having no synagogue in Philippi, Paul does the next best thing. He somehow hears about a place out on the edge of town down by the river where people usually went to pray on the Sabbath. This is where he finds Lydia’s prayer meeting in progress and finds a ready audience to share the gospel with.

Acts 16:13-14 “And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.”

This is an interesting phrase, the Lord opened her heart. How did the Lord open her heart? Some contend that this proves the Holy Spirit must perform a direct operation on the heart and mind of the sinner before that person can hear the gospel and be saved. The doctrine of Calvinism states that the unregenerate sinner is dead in sin and therefore cannot respond to the gospel. He is hereditarily depraved, born in sin and in such a condition that he can’t even hear and understand the gospel until a miraculous operation takes place in the heart of the one who is elected to salvation. That’s what Calvinism suggests. But does this verse go to prove that?

The Bible says nothing here about the Holy Spirit performing such an operation on Lydia’s heart. Notice it just says that the Lord opened her heart to heed the things that were spoken by Paul. Not that the Holy Spirit moved upon her in some operation of irresistible grace or a ‘first work of grace’ as it is called whereby she could understand and receive the word of God. We have to be very careful not to make the passage say more than it says. There is no question that the Holy Spirit must affect one’s heart for salvation to take place. We’re certainly not denying that fact. No person can be saved unless he is taught and led of the Holy Spirit to be saved. But what does that mean? How does the Holy Spirit play a role in one’s salvation?

Let me ask a question: if I use a particular tool or means to accomplish something, can I still say that I accomplished that thing? What if I say that I took a key and opened a lock, did I or did the key open the lock? Well, I opened the lock by using the key. I didn’t magically open the lock or perform some inexplicable operation on the lock to open it. I took the key, inserted it, turned it, and the lock opened. In so doing, I opened the lock by using the key.

Well, the gospel or the word of God is the instrument of the Holy Spirit. Paul once referred to it as the sword of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit revealed this word and He uses it to do His work in the conversion of sinners and even upon the hearts of Christians under sanctification. When the word does its work in the heart, it can rightly be said that the Holy Spirit did that same work, and it doesn’t require some abstract, miraculous, and individual operation to do so. In fact, interestingly, everything the Bible says the Holy Spirit does upon the heart and mind of the sinner, the Bible also says of the word which the Holy Spirit revealed. That’s very telling.

When Jesus promised His apostles that after His ascension back to heaven, He would send the Holy Spirit into their hearts to empower them to do the work of the apostles that He left for them to do, He said the Spirit would reveal the truth to them. That is, He would inspire them with the saving truth of the gospel so that they could perfectly preach it and write it down. And that by means of that truth, the Spirit would convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8). How does the Holy Spirit do that? We learned from Acts 2 that when Peter preached the resurrection of Christ for the first time on the Day of Pentecost, some three thousand people (who, in their ignorance and blindness of heart had crucified the Son of God only a few days before) now, when they heard the gospel preached, had this reaction:

Acts 2:37 “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

Peter told them how to obey the gospel and be saved, and they did what Peter told them to do. They now understood the gospel. Why? Because Peter had preached it to them. There is absolutely nothing said there about some mystical direct operation of the Holy Spirit on anyone’s heart that day. They heard the truth, saw its credibility demonstrated by the apostles, and they had a change of heart, were convicted of their sins, and turned to Christ for salvation. The Spirit of God convicted them and taught them by means of the truth that He inspired Peter to preach that day.

The same is true of Lydia. When Paul sat down and began to explain the gospel to her, she came to realize that what she had believed to that point was incomplete and inadequate. She was like the other Jews looking for an earthly Messiah to come and deliver Israel. But now, when Paul explains the truth and preaches Jesus to her, her heart is opened by the preaching of the gospel to act upon the things that Paul taught. The Lord, through his gospel message, opened her heart to the truth. She was not a godless heathen or immoral woman; she was a sincere woman who, at that point, did not understand that Christ was the promised Messiah until Paul preached what the Spirit revealed to mankind to be preached. When he preached that divine message, she could see that Jesus was the promised Messiah and Savior of the world. The Lord’s gospel opened her heart so that she eagerly acted on what she heard, and she obeyed the gospel. It’s as simple as that. It is the hearing of the word that creates faith; not a direct operation of the Spirit (Romans 10:17). It is the word revealed by the Spirit that leads to the saving of the soul (James 1:21), not some inexplicable moving of the Spirit or some Calvinistic first work of grace. The word, given by the Spirit, has that power. The Bible says we are born of the Spirit and it also says that we are begotten by the word of God which the Spirit revealed to the apostles to preach and write down (I Peter 1:23).

When Lydia heard the word of God preached to her, she was sincere enough to believe it and to allow the Spirit through that word to do His work in her heart and life and lead her to obedience to Christ wherein she was saved. Notice again that her heart was opened to heed (or attend to {KJV}) the things spoken by Paul.

Acts 16:14-15 “…The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So she persuaded us.”

What did Paul instruct her to do when he preached Christ to her? Doubtless she believed what Paul preached, but it goes further and says she attended to the things that Paul said. There was something involved in Paul’s preaching that she attended to. This once again shows us, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that responding to the preaching of the gospel includes more than mere belief in the mind. That belief leads to an obedient step of that saving faith. Here, Luke tells us exactly what it is. She attended unto the things spoken by Paul by being baptized because that’s a command of the gospel. Jesus gave it in the great commission.

Mark 16:15-16 “And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

Every creature includes Lydia here in Philippi. Friend, baptism is not a church ordinance for new Christians. It is not an outward sign of an inward grace formerly received, as many suggest. Baptism is a step of obedience to the preaching of the gospel itself. Here, just as in every other case that we have learned about thus far in the Book of Acts, baptism is an immediate step enjoined upon every person who heard the gospel preached and believed it and wanted to turn to Christ in repentance and obedience. The Book of Acts doesn’t separate baptism from hearing and obedience to the gospel; it makes baptism a part of obedience to the gospel. It makes it a part of the conversion of the sinner to Jesus Christ. And with that, this good woman and her family obeyed the gospel and they were saved. She attended to what Paul said and she was baptized.

Paul and Silas’s work is not finished here in Philippi. Here we find a wealthy, pious, religious woman who learns the truth and becomes a Christian. That lays the foundation for this congregation that will be established in this city. Lord willing, next week we will meet a man of a different sort who also hears the word and becomes part of this new and wonderful Church in Philippi. The overarching theme of the gospel is seen: that people of every nation, of every walk of life, man or woman, rich or poor, those of a devout background or a darker background, are all brought together in the gospel and made one in Christ Jesus. We will study the conversion of the Philippian jailer next week. This woman and her family and this jailer and his family will be the beginning of a wonderful Church that Paul will hold dear throughout the remainder of his life.

 

©2020 BibleWay Media. All rights reserved. BibleWay Media grants permission to copy this material for personal use. Permission is also granted to distribute this transcript as long as it is reproduced in its entirety, used solely for its original purpose of spreading the gospel, and attribution is given to the author and Let the Bible Speak.

Click here to watch this sermon.

Our series in the Book of Acts that we’ve entitled Jesus Saves brings us today to Acts 10 and what was a pivotal moment in the development of the church and the revelation of God’s eternal plan for the world. As we’ve followed the apostles and evangelists from place to place thus far, we’ve found them focused on the Jewish people. Beginning on the Day of Pentecost, the gospel was first preached to the nation of Israel, just as Jesus and later, His apostles, said. The promised remnant of Israel are those who gladly heard and received the Christ when the gospel was first preached to them. But the Lord taught that after this initial offering of salvation to the Jews, He would then turn to the Gentiles. Remember that Paul said that the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe, to the Jew first and then unto the Greek (Romans 1:16). That is to say, all other nations. This was God’s plan all along.

Here in Acts 10, we find a few things happening that had been promised by the Old Testament prophets and then by Christ Himself. First, the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all flesh, as Joel had prophesied and Peter had preached. In other words, the Gentiles would become partakers of the confirming work of the Holy Spirit in the early church. Second, Gentiles would be allowed to enter the long-promised kingdom of Christ. Third, Peter would continue to do what Jesus said he would do when Christ’s church was established: he would, for a second time now, use the keys of the kingdom given to him to open the gate of the kingdom to a new and much larger segment of humanity. All of these things occur here in this chapter, and none of them happened by accident. They were carefully orchestrated by God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit to make known to all people for all time that all who fear God and do His will can be accepted of God—saved, in other words, on the terms of the gospel. That the gospel is available to all and all can be saved through the efficacious work of Jesus Christ.

So, bear in mind that this is what’s happening in Acts 10 and God has a specific purpose for unfolding these events when and how He did. We won’t have time to read the entire account, which spans chapter 10 and much of chapter 11, but I strongly encourage you to take the time to read those two chapters. For our reading today, we’ll begin in Acts 10:1.

Acts 10:1-6 “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 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.””

As we read these conversion accounts, we cannot help but see the providential hand of God. God had the right people in the right places at the right times for these things to come to pass as they did, and for His purposes to be unfolded and displayed. This is certainly the case with the conversion of this man named Cornelius. Introducing Gentiles into the kingdom would be no small task. For millennia, the Jews had an exclusive covenant with God, which by its very nature and scope excluded the Gentile people, every other nation of the earth. Now, all along, God planned to use the Jewish people to bring salvation to the entire world–not only for themselves, but for the Gentiles as well. God’s purpose was to use His chosen people, the Jews, to lead other nations to faith in God through Jesus Christ. But the Jews of Jesus’ day missed many of the prophecies and truths of their own scriptures and they failed to understand that Christ had come to break down the wall of partition between themselves and the Gentiles. Therefore, even the Jews who were converted to Christ and who made up the Church viewed the Church as a Jewish institution. Their prejudices and perceptions of the Gentiles persisted even after they became disciples of Christ. But Christ established the Church in view of making Jews and Gentiles alike members of it and there was to be no distinction made between the two. But how were the Jewish Christians to be convinced of all this?

This is what the events surrounding the conversion of Cornelius were all about. Some claim that what happened to Cornelius is proof that the Holy Spirit falls upon people today in some miraculous way as evidence of their salvation. Even more claim that it proves that Cornelius and his household were saved before being baptized in water. But is that what these events tell us?

First, we once again see God’s providence involved in the process of bringing a person to the point of conversion. God desires for all people to be saved (II Peter 3:9), but in this case, He had a special purpose for arranging events so that this man, Cornelius, would be the first Gentile to receive the gospel and be admitted into the kingdom. You see, God chose a Gentile for this role who was already held in high esteem by the Jews. Listen to how the Bible describes this man:

Acts 10:1-2 “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.”

Consider the moral character of this man. Most Jews looked upon Gentiles as godless pagans, and many of them certainly were. But here is a man who was different. Oddly enough, he was a man respected by the Roman government, and doubtlessly, by the Jewish people as well. He was honorable and trustworthy enough to be given a rank of high command in the Roman army. He was a centurion, which means he had 100 soldiers under his charge. That was no small thing. The common Roman soldier was typically a heathen, blood-thirsty man, but Cornelius their captain was different. Somewhere along the way, this heathen man had come to reject the idolatry of the Romans and had come to believe in the one true God of Israel.

Cornelius didn’t have the law, the history, or the pedigree, but he had a simple and devout belief that God exists and that He is the one true God that should be worshipped. Perhaps while on patrol one dark, starry night, he looked up into the heavens and saw the stars twinkling and shining like diamonds against the black velvet of the night sky and came to see that there was a Creator behind all of that. Add to that, his charge was the city of Caesarea where he beheld the life and the manner of the Jews as they worshipped and lived for God. And somewhere in the course of time, there was a change in both the thinking and the lifestyle of this man. He became pious and began trying to live a moral and holy life. He gave alms to the Jewish people in need.

So, how should we classify Cornelius? Well, he was what was called a Gentile of the gate. He wasn’t a proselyte because Jewish proselytes were full converts to Judaism, including the rite of circumcision. The record clearly shows in Acts 11:2-3 that Cornelius and his house were uncircumcised. So, he was rather a Gentile of the gate, which refers to a Gentile who comes to enough faith in the God of Israel that he begins to conform to the lifestyles and habits of the Jews, and who seeks after the one true God, short of actually being circumcised and becoming a convert to Judaism itself.

So, that’s who Cornelius was. He was seeking after God. He was devout in his religious life. He was a spiritually-minded husband and father who raised his household up to serve God. He was generous, benevolent, and caring and spent much time in prayer. To tell you the truth, the moral and religious character of Cornelius far exceeds what we sometimes see in many professing Christians today—many who are looked at as in good standing. But here’s the reality: Cornelius was lost. And may that be a warning to you today if you are basing your salvation on all of the good you do, all of the piety you show, all of the feelings and intentions you have, all of the religious ritual in which you engage. Cornelius had all of that too, but he was lost.

But what a wonderful candidate he was to hear the gospel! That’s why God had His eye on Cornelius and orchestrated these events as He did. Cornelius was a man that the Jewish church could not level accusations of immorality against or ascribe nefarious motives to. All had to admit that Cornelius was an upright and sincere man who wanted to please God. It’s a shame that many people today who live clean lives, do good unto others, are kind and loving, and are very sincere in their religion are going to be lost in the Day of Judgment because they haven’t obeyed the gospel. But that’s the very condition Cornelius would’ve been in had Peter not come and preached the gospel to him and his house.

Well, God sets these events in motion when, one afternoon, Cornelius receives a vision—not a dream at night, but a clear vision in the midday—as an angel of God appears to him.

Acts 10:3-6 “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. 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.”

I want you to notice a few things here just like we noticed with Saul last week. First, he is praying, but he wasn’t saved. Why? Because the angel makes it clear that if he sent for Peter, Peter would tell him what to do to be saved. So, here’s a praying man who’s lost. Second, notice that the angel didn’t tell Cornelius that he was saved, nor did the angel tell him what to do to be saved. He simply instructed him to send for Peter, who was in a nearby town, to come and tell him what he must do. Angels aren’t in the gospel-preaching business and they never have been. God used the angels, as the Holy Spirit was guiding the apostles and evangelists of the first century to bring the inspired man in contact with the uninspired man–the man who had the gospel by inspiration with the man who had no way of learning the gospel except he come in contact with a man who was inspired by the gospel. Therefore, salvation doesn’t come in the form of an experience, a vision, a voice, a feeling. There is something that one must hear, believe, and do in order to receive the remission of sins. Please remember that as we go through our study.

Meanwhile, Peter is having a vision of his own. Cornelius dispatches some men the next day to go find Peter, and as they’re on their way, Peter goes up on the rooftop of Simon’s house to pray. He sees this strange vision occur three times. God wants to get a point across to Peter that he will not question. He sees a sheet let down from heaven with all manner of creatures on it—some forbidden by the law of Moses for a Jew to consume.

Acts 10:12-15 “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.””

What’s that all about? It meant that in Christ, the restriction of the law of Moses had now been lifted. But there was a deeper connection to be made by Peter, and it finally occurs to him when these men that Cornelius has sent come knocking at the door and telling him of their mission. The Holy Spirit confirms to Peter their claims. He now realizes that what God has told him in this vision was that he was to no longer make a distinction between Jew and Gentile. So, the next day they set out for Caesarea and Cornelius’s house. I really like verse 24.

Acts 10:24 “And the following day they entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them, and had called together his relatives and close friends.”

Here’s a man who is not only eager to hear the Word of God; he wanted his friends and kin folk to hear the Word of God, too. That’s a wonderful window into the heart of this man, that he was not only interested in learning the truth, but he cared enough about his friends that he wanted them to hear it, too. Do you encourage YOUR friends to listen to the gospel? Do you give them opportunities and invite them to go with you when you know the gospel is being preached? Do you invite them to watch programs like this one or to read gospel literature or listen to radio programs that will point them to the Word of God? Cornelius was eager to not only be saved himself, but he wanted others to be saved with him. So, Peter finds an eagerly waiting audience when he arrives to tell Cornelius what he must do.

Peter begins to preach, and he begins with this truth newly revealed to him for people in every nation—Jew and Gentile.

Acts 10:34-35 “Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.”

So much for the idea that all one must do is believe in your mind or in your heart. Those who are accepted by God are those who fear Him and work righteousness, the scripture says. You see, the gospel is not only facts to be believed; it also contains commandments to obey, as we shall see here. Peter proceeds to tell them of the life, ministry, and mission of Jesus culminating in his atoning crucifixion and His vindicating resurrection, and says that Christ had now commanded he and the other apostles to preach this message to the people, and whomever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.

Acts 10:43 “To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

We’ll come back to that in just a moment. But just as Peter says these things, his sermon is interrupted by an incredible event.

Acts 10:44 “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.”

Notice that he has not yet commanded them to do anything, which is what the angel said that he would do when he came. He hasn’t instructed them to do a thing. In fact, in the next chapter, when Peter later rehearses these happenings to the Jews back in Judea, he says this:

Acts 11:15 “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning.”

He had only just begun with the things he had come to tell them. Notice the Holy Spirit fell upon them. Peter did not lay hands on them as he did the people in Samaria in Acts 8. They didn’t even pray or ask for the Holy Spirit to be imparted to them as some claim to do and are encouraged to do today. You don’t read that here either. Suddenly, the Spirit just fell upon them. This is exactly the manner in which the Spirit fell upon the apostles on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. It was a baptism in the Holy Spirit. I know people talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit as though it happens to anybody who is saved, as if it’s a common thing that happens every time a person comes to Christ. That a person should expect it or pray for it or hope for it after they become a Christian. That’s not what the Bible teaches about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In fact, this here in Acts 10 is the second of only two times recorded in the New Testament where anything of the sort took place.

Peter would say in the next chapter that when the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius and his house that he was reminded of the Lord’s promise that they would be baptized or overwhelmed by the Spirit. Peter says it was evident that what was happening there was the like gift of what the apostles received on the Day of Pentecost.

Acts 11:16-17 “Then I remembered the word 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?”

He doesn’t recount all the other times people have been saved since Pentecost; he goes all the way back to Pentecost. And it’s remarkable. The people here are astonished by what they see because now they’re seeing the same thing occur that happened all the way back in the beginning when the apostles received the Holy Spirit.

Acts 10:45 “And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.”

So, why was the household of Cornelius such a special case that they would receive the same type of manifestation of the Spirit’s power as the apostles, and only they? What was so unique about them in this situation? Well, why did the apostles receive the miraculous power from heaven to speak with other tongues or languages? If you remember our sermon from a few weeks ago about the Day of Pentecost, we pointed out that this gift was a kingdom sign. In Acts 2, with the apostles, it was a one-time sign to fulfill prophecy and show that the kingdom of Christ had now come to the Jews. Remember, the tongues were a Jewish sign. It was to the Jews that the gift of tongues had significance. So, now, a few years later in Caesarea, the same type of experience occurs with Cornelius, the first Gentile convert to Christ. Just like in Acts 2, this was a kingdom sign to the Jews. This time, it was to show the Jews that the kingdom had also now come to the Gentiles.

Acts 11:18 “When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.””

That’s what this was all about. It was not a sign that Cornelius had been saved because he had not yet been saved. Neither is it a modern sign of anybody else’s salvation today. It occurred on this unique occasion to demonstrate for all time that Gentiles could be received into the kingdom on the same exact terms of the gospel as the Jews, and that is through faith in Christ and obedience to the gospel. God had removed all distinction between the two. Notice the reaction beginning in verse 45.

Acts 10:45-47 “And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?””

Now we’re talking about water baptism. Peter says now that this has been confirmed, now that we’ve seen that Gentiles can be admitted into the kingdom, who can forbid them from coming into the kingdom? Just as Peter and the apostles had received the Holy Spirit, so had they, so who could forbid them to enter the kingdom? That’s what Peter is saying.

Acts 10:48 “And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days.”

There it is. This one-time miraculous sign proves to the Church for all time that the Gentiles could be partakers of the salvation that Christ brought. And once that was proven to these Jewish brethren, Peter says that it cannot be forbidden of them to be baptized in water. Just like we entered the kingdom, so now they can enter the kingdom. Consequently, by being baptized into Christ is how one is saved by the blood of Christ and enters into the kingdom, according to Jesus.

John 3:3-5 “Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.””

Remember, Cornelius wanted to be saved. The angel told him that Peter would come and tell him what he must do. So, Peter comes. He preaches the crucified and risen Christ to them. And once all understand that Gentiles can now be saved, Peter does what the angel says he would do: he tells Cornelius and his house what they must do. He commands them to be baptized in water in the name of the Lord. And that’s what any sinner today who believes and repents must do as well.

Peter uses the expression the remission or forgiveness of sins in verse 43.

Acts 10:43 “”To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

Remember what Peter also preached on the Day of Pentecost?

Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Those people wanted to be saved, and Peter commanded them to do something attached to the remission of sins. You see, believing in the Lord means more than just some assent in our mind or heart. It means acting upon what the Lord has commanded you to do. And the fact that Cornelius was immediately commanded to be baptized upon his faith shows this to be the case.

My dear friend, listen: if you would be saved like Cornelius was saved, you must believe what he believed. That’s the gospel of Christ. And all of the miraculous events that accompanied  and led up to his conversion were simply to pave the way to bring Peter to his house and to convince all that Peter had the divine right to preach to these Gentile people and that Gentiles could now be saved and enter the kingdom. That’s what all of the miraculous and extraordinary events had to do with. But once all of that was done, it boiled down to the same thing that is the case with every single man, woman, boy, or girl who would be saved, then or now: he had to hear who Jesus is, what Jesus has done, how Jesus came to save, and he had to respond to that message in faith in Jesus by obeying the commands of Jesus. If you would be saved like Cornelius, you must believe what he believed and do what he did, and that is, to be baptized in water by the authority of Jesus Christ.

Maybe you’re like Cornelius today. You’re a devout person, a God-fearing person. A pious, family-oriented person who tries to instill spirituality and morality into your family. You’re a generous, benevolent, kind, caring, compassionate person. All of that is wonderful, but you’re not saved without Jesus and obedience to His gospel. If you’ve not obeyed the gospel, won’t you today?

 

©2020 BibleWay Media. All rights reserved. BibleWay Media grants permission to copy this material for personal use. Permission is also granted to distribute this transcript as long as it is reproduced in its entirety, used solely for its original purpose of spreading the gospel, and attribution is given to the author and Let the Bible Speak.