Acts 10
Bible Passage: Acts 10
The chapter we are reading today records the first time the Gentiles received the grace of God. It tells of the story of the first Gentile convert, Cornelius, and how he and his household came to believe.
It is indeed a beautiful story of grace and mercy freely given to those who seek God sincerely with a true heart. The Bible tells us that Cornelius was
a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always (10:2).
Such a good man, of course God would pick him and offer him salvation freely. Surely he deserves the good news!
This is true… (but we also know of very good people out there who never knew God, isn’t it?) As we read of how God showered His blessings upon him and his house, it almost feels like life was smooth and good for him from the beginning to the end. Look, he is a centurion, commander of a hundred men. He must be quite wealthy to be able to give alms generously and to have two servants ready to run errands for him. Most importantly, God chose him and gave him the precious Holy Spirit. God not only blessed him materially, but also spiritually. It almost seem like God is showing favoritism towards a good man.
Is that so?
In fact, if we were to delve deeper into 10:2, we can really learn a lot from the attributes of Cornelius and we will also understand why God chose him.
But today, we will just focus on one point: Have you ever wondered how long Cornelius prayed before the vision came to him?
One day? One week? One month? One year?
That is, how long was the period in 10:1-2 before verse 3 came about?
If we were to merely skim through the chapter (for it is a familiar story to most of us), very often we would have missed out on this important fact that Cornelius must have prayed to God for a period of time before the angel of God appeared to him. The Bible says he prayed to God always. What does it mean by always? Do we pray to God always?
And to stretch you further in your imagination, think about this: Do you think that period of prayers was an easy one for Cornelius? Don’t you think they were accompanied much by tears and times of weaknesses?
Think about the time when you were praying for the Holy Spirit. How many times did you almost give up, thinking that God is not listening to your prayers? We all know it is not easy. The silence of God sometimes is too deafening. We wonder if He actually heard our each and every prayer.
Cornelius must have had the same weaknesses as we have too, yet he must have persisted on with faith. There could be times when he also felt weak, but he continued to trust in the Lord that his every prayer was heard. We do not know how long he prayed before God appeared to Him, but it must be long enough to ascertain his faith was true.
For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their prayers;
But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3:12)
“Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.” (10:4)
Yesterday, a truth-seeking friend, for the first time, went up to the front to pray for the Holy Spirit. After the prayer, she said she did not feel anything. I told her that of course I do not expect that she definitely must feel something immediately, but I forgot to tell her that the prayers we make to God are like spiritual sacrifices that we offer up to God today. And the fragrance of every sincere offering does reach up to God.
If you have not yet received the Holy Spirit, but are praying very hard about it, or perhaps you are at the moment praying about something important, but have yet to receive any answers, think of this period as the time just before Acts 10:3. In a little while, God will appear to you and answer your prayers. He will direct you the way to go, just as He directed Cornelius. He has promised, and so He will fulfill.
As long as we have the sincere heart to seek Him.
Indeed I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass. (Isaiah 46:11)
In every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. (10:35)
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6:11-12)
And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise (Hebrews 6:15).
Our homework is to patiently endure during this period of waiting, as both Abraham and Cornelius did. And our story can also become a beautiful one.
3 Comments
biblereadingcompanion
Indeed, Acts 10 records the beautiful story of which ALL of us are a part of… because God in His mercy has included Gentiles (all mankind) in His grace of Salvation.
As I was reading the chapter and the posting by Treasureinearthernvessel, I could not help thinking that the faith of Cornelius was very remarkable.
Here he was, a gentile, albiet a very good man, but still a gentile – outside of the grace of God and having no part in the promises of the chosen nation of the Lord God. And yet here he was, worshipping God in a very devout way.
Why was he worshipping the God of Israel so sincerely? Why did he even do all the good things when he knew that in the back of his mind, he had no part in what the Jews were waiting for?
I mean – it is easier for us today as gentiles to start believing and worshipping God because we have seen countless examples before us that God has open His salvation grace to those who are not in His original household of faith.
For Cornelius, there was no precedence. He was the first. He had no prior examples to revert to.
But he believed…. and through God’s abundant grace, Salvation to the gentiles started from him.
Today, we had our Katong Home Fellowship where we discussed on the theme of our bible reading this month… What is the Church?
And as we were doing our discussion, I marvelled that because of the grace of God – the stories of so many different lives are brought together as one bigger story – a family in the Lord that lives, encourages, edifies and loves one another.
The Katong Home Fellowship has members from as young as 3 years old to the mid 70s. And yet, we can sit together, read the Bible together, laugh together, learn together and sing together is something that is very hard to come by.
The discussion was in groups and we were all given a series of Bible verses for us to use to describe what the church is (try it… it was a good exercise as each of the groups came up with a different way of linking all these verses together to present how they saw what the church is like – complete with graphic illustrations – Eph 5:23, Eph 5:30, Rom 12:6, 1 Cor 12:12, 1 Cor 12:14, 1 Cor 3:9, 1 Cor 3:16).
But the finale was the use of Ephesians 4:16….
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
At the start of the session, we were all given pieces of paper to write 3 things we could do for the church or God.
The Bible Study leader then took all these papers and knit them together (by making appropraite cuts in the paper and interlocked them) so that it formed the structure of a church building and at the top of it, she had a banner that said, “True Jesus Church”.
Each of us then read out our “3 things I can do for God” and I think we have many toilet cleaners in the KHF 🙂
But the beautiful picture that I was left with was the very graphic illustration of what it means to be ‘joined and knit together’. I have some pictures but it did not turn out well so I have decided not to share it for now.
Indeed, young and old… we are all members of this same household of faith. We can work together to grow this church together. And I am sure, if we continue in our walk of faith together, we can all have a very happy ending to our story.
Just like Cornelius.
Just like Peter. He did not know that the story ofJesus’ salvation included the gentiles. But once he understood it – he went all out to make sure that they remained part of this story.
There are many more waiting to be included in this gospel story of ours. Let’s pray that the door of salvation be opened to them and that we too can play a part in this wondrous work.
PS
Peter said in Acts 10:42-43 that “And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
In Peter’s first sermon to Cornelius and his relatives and close friends, ie gentiles, Peter preached the only message that matters: Lord Jesus was ordained by God that through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.
Nowadays, do we preach this “blunt” message in our first encounter with our friends?
Acts 10:44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon those who heard the word.
Why does God to work with Peter so readily? Besides God’s mercy and soverginity, may be just may be:
-The Holy Spirit fell upon Cornelius and his relatives and friends bec the message preached was accepted by God and He testified for Himself.
– The people were praying to and praising God in their hearts as they listened. Then their prayers became audible bec the Holy Spirit fell on them.
The miracle in Acts 2:5-11 happened again in Acts 10:46. This time it was believers who were experienced the miracle when their ears were opened to understand the prayers in tongue:
For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.
(Acts 10:48 is slightly diff in chin bible and NKJV. The chinese bible records:就吩咐奉耶稣基督的名给他们施洗。NKJV records : And He commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.)
JoyousConcerto
Thanks Treasureinearthernvessel for your conscientious reading and thoughtful encouragement of the chapter. Behind every faithful Christian are years of prayers, labour and sometimes tears. We see the joys they experience in their service, we see their dedication and talents. But behind all those things which we can ‘see’ and can ‘praise’, they will not be able to serve if not for God’s grace. It is only when we realise this that we will not become jealous of our brethren’s ‘achievements’ and talents, but think of how we ourselves can serve God in our own ways.