GOD’S SKETCH GUEST LIST
I lived in two different houses in Oregon before moving here. I want to tell you about all of neighbors.
Both houses the families smoked so much weed that when it was sunny (which was rare) we couldn’t leave the window open because if I did each neighbor practically hot-boxed my house.
One house the woman was so politically intense that when Rowe vs wade was overturned, she hand-drew a massive and graphic picture of the inside of a uterus with big text that said “My body my choice” and literally duct taped it to her front door. My oldest, 7 years old at the time would read that sign everyday and ask “dad what does that mean? What is that thing?”
In the other neighborhood some our neighbors we’d see everyday on our walks working in their yard, were two older lesbian women. They were sweet. And my son Ollie is also very sincere. Innocently, he would walk right up to them, ask them questions, and chat their ear off—even inviting them to our church. At this age, he had no idea that there difference might be differences in our worldviews. That didn’t matter to him. All he knew was— here are two women made in God’s image that he never saw at church and that are WELCOME to come to his church. And they were!
Now, if you’re a Christian, it is certainly true that my life and beliefs differed greatly from ALL of these neighbors. Because the Bible is clear that there is God’s way to do things, and it often crashes directly into our secular way of doing things. Our moralities, lifestyles, and desires—including all of the ones I just mentioned every single one of my neighbors—are things God’s wants to heal and change.. So don’t get me wrong, of course I disagreed with my neighbors a lot of of these things.
Buuuuut here’s one of our great problems: most of us are more deterred by our neighbors sin than we are drawn toward our neighbors need for a Savior.
GRACE CALLS PEOPLE RELIGION CANCELS.
Today our passage in the book of Acts tells a story specifically designed to SHAKE us out of this mindset.
The book of Acts is a story in the Bible documenting the wild growth of the early church. And it’s growth happened because people who realized they needed God’s saving told other people who need God’s saving that they could be saved by God’s son Jesus.
Who would you never choose for God’s Team?
Luke is intentionally organizing three consecutive stories of God reaching outsiders:
Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8 (couldn’t receive full jewish access)
Saul Acts 9 (Persecutor of the church)
Cornelius Acts 10 (Gentile)
Although we have previously encountered ‘outsiders’ receiving the grace of God, this is the first account of a Gentile convert.
God’s guest list would SHOCK you.
The message is called “God’s Sketch Guest List”
Acts 10:1–8 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, [2] a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. [3] About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” [4] And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. [5] And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. [6] He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.” [7] When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, [8] and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
JEW / GENTILE
For centuries, the Jewish people lived under a covenant that distinguished them from the nations around them. God had given them laws—dietary, ceremonial, cultural—that set them apart as His chosen people. The Gentiles—everyone outside that covenant—were considered unclean, outside of God’s chosen family.
vv.5-6 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.”
Peter is praying on top of Simon’s house who is a tanner. This is ironic foreshadowing. Tanners were ritually unclean under Jewish law because their work involved handling dead animal bodies. This is why Simon's house sat outside town by the sea, because it is outside the city. This willingness to stay with Simon foreshadows what is about to unfold. While tanners were rejected by devout Jews, they were apparently not rejected by Christians—at least not by Peter.
Joppa liminal space is a threshold or in-between place—literally or figuratively—that exists at the boundary between two distinct states, territories, or conditions. Jew / Gentile, Heaven / Earth Trance
But Peter is not all the way there. While he’s staying at Simon’s house, he still isn’t clear on the full Gentile inclusion that the Gospel made possible.
God wants him to embrace a guy named Cornelius, but it’s going to take a supernatural vision to get him to do it.
CORNELIUS:
01. Distant from God.
v.1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort
The Italian cohort was Rome's elite. He oversaw around 100 soldiers. So when a Jewish person heard “Italian cohort," they didn't think decorated soldier, they thought occupier. Cornelius wasn't just a Roman; he was the face of everything they resented. Any patriotic Jew would have had a natural, deeply rooted prejudice against a man like him.
Jews felt about Centurions the way anti-ice protestors feel about ICE agents.
But notice despite this fact that Cornelius prayed to God.
v.2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.
Cornelius was what Jews called a "God-fearer" — a Gentile who embraced Israel's God but stopped short of full conversion: no circumcision, no complete adoption of Jewish law. Jews respected men in this category, but couldn't fully share life, home, or table with them. Close, but not in.
→ Evidently, the very people that conservative Jews would have despised, God was willing to draw them to Himself.
Who is that you consider too far gone for God?
If you’re on on the cultural RIGHT:
LGBTQ neighbors, progressive activists, feminists, atheists, people with gender-disphoria, the marxist professor…
If you’re on cultural LEFT this might be:
MAGA diehards, conspiracy-theorists, anti-vaxxers, nationalists…
As a Christian is it:
The Muslim, people with messy divorces, people who smell like weed, people with moral baggage of all kinds.
→ God has a vision to REACH the very people we might RUN FROM.
The friends I brought to student ministry as a new Christian brought the average holiness of that ministry down by several notches. BUT my student pastor had caught God’s vision to reach people far from Gid.
Now I want to make TWO caveats:
01. Don’t mistake grace and evangelism for access and trust. Please be careful not to misunderstand me. I’m not saying we should hang around legit dangerous people. God’s Word is not saying you give predators access to your home or children. I’m not teaching today that untrustworthy , foolish, and dangerous people are not because of grace to be given full access. In fact, you can even forgive someone and have healthy boundaries. Grace is free, but trust is earned.
02. New believers need to be careful to have a season of consecration and all believers should be careful that the majority of your connections and influences are Christians. We did a whole podcast on this on YouTube on “How to reach friends without falling into sin”
Q code: https://youtu.be/joHmvuJxHrY?si=uKnBzWjhnAeM3Xva
In fact, it’s telling that even the apostles took time after Saul the persecutor God saved, to get and trust him. Some scholars think 13 years!
Even in this text it’s important to notice that while Cornelius Cornelius doesn’t just represent those far from God he’s a helpful picture of people close to faith but no cigar. There’s a certain extent to which he comes from a category Jews would resist” but he’s actually genuinely seeking after God…
CORNELIUS:
01. Distant from God.
02. Close but not there yet.
Cornelius doesn’t yet fully understand the Gospel.
V.3 Ninth Hour Cornelius sees a vision, which means he is most likely praying at ninth hour. The ninth hour was the hour of prayer at the temple and outside the temple for the Jews.
But something very interesting: did you know that the ninth hour is the same time that, when Jesus died on the cross and God split the veil in the holy of holies in two? Cornelius knows about the hour of prayer but he doesn’t yet know about the access he has to God through Jesus.
Think of God-fearers like Cornelius the way we think of someone today who believes in God, maybe even prays, respects the Bible, and lives a moral life — but hasn't crossed the line into full, personal faith in Jesus. They're not far. They're drawn. But they haven't fully come in yet.
Do you know anyone like this?
Acts 10:9–16 The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. [10] And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance
V.9 the sixth hour to pray. This is noon. And he’s praying while hungry because it’s lunch time.
But we need to understand this a layer deeper. One of the great divides between Jews (God’s people) and Gentiles (Outsiders of God’s people and promises) is in fact food. They can’t eat the same things. God chose Peter’s prayer at lunch time because he’s going to give him a vision that will allow Christians to eat with those far from God.
But can I take us ONE more layer deeper? Peter is hungry here, correct. But in this text, Luke may in fact be contrasting Peter’s desire for food with God’s desire to save the Gentiles!
→ GOD’S HEART HUNGERS AND YEARS TO REACH PEOPLE FAR FROM HIM.
Acts 11-16 [11] and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. [12] In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. [13] And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” [14] But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; No Lord is crazy… for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” [15] And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” [16] This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
Peter sees a vision that obviously indicates Christians may now eat the same foods as Gentiles that God has formerly forbidden. There are unclean animals on a sheet and Peter is told to kill and eat. But why?
A significant shift has taken place because of Jesus’ death on the cross. Peter isn’t willing to eat unclean foods because he’s just prejudiced or legalistic. This issue was biblical. It really was wrong for God’s people to eat such animals. Yet, in this vision Peter is told to eat animals that the old testament forbids. God calls those foods UNCLEAN in the Old Testament. Now God calls them clean. Why?
Something huge had to happen for that rule to change: and that huge thing was the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. On the cross, Jesus’ had never sinned, but laid down his life to die for our sin. His death made unclean sinners clean. When Jesus came, he fulfilled the Old Testament types. The dietary laws were a picture of holiness. When Jesus died for our unholiness, we are now made holy not by what food we eat but by taking Jesus’ forgiveness into our hearts. Jesus came and died to make a way for unclean people to be declared clean!
This was really important in the 1st Century: In this vision, Peter realizes that God is telling him a Gentile can become Christian without first becoming Jewish. Paul will deal with this forcefully in Galatians.
Peter saw this vision seven times.
Peter is still trying to figure out what his vision meant when — perfect timing —three men show up at the door looking for him. The Holy Spirit tells Peter, "Those guys are from me. Go with them, no questions asked." So Peter heads downstairs, meets them, and asks what's up. They explain that their boss Cornelius — a Roman soldier who everyone respects — was visited by an angel who told him to find Peter. Peter invites them in for the night.
Next day they all travel together to Caesarea, where Cornelius has already gathered his family and close friends, clearly expecting something big. When Peter walks in, Cornelius falls at his feet to worship him. Peter immediately pulls him up — "I'm a man loek you, don't do that."
Peter then addresses the room and says l: "Look, you all know Jews aren't supposed to hang out with non-Jews. But God has shown me I can't call any person unclean anymore." Then Cornelius retells the whole story — four days ago, praying, an angel appeared, told him to find Peter. And now here they all are, gathered together, ready to hear whatever God has told Peter to say.
God worked our the logistics perfect on both ends — preparing Peter through a vision, preparing Cornelius through an angel — so that the gospel can walk through a door it had never walked through before.
Acts 10:34–43 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, [35] but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. [36] As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), [37] you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: [38] how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. [39] And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, [40] but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, [41] not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. [42] And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. [43] To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
If you haveIf have not TREreceived the Gospel: receive it today. Peter just preached it. God is going to judge the living and the dead. And you will not stand through that judgement. But if you belive in Jesus you will be forgiven.
Do you feel unclean? God offers to fully and completely cleanse you through the blood of Jesus.
But if you’re a Christian I want you to see that:
This story is not just about the conversion of Cornelius, but also the ‘conversion’ of Peter.
OFTEN, BEFORE GOD CAN SAVE UNBELIEVING HEARTS HE HAS TO SOFTEN BELIEVING ONES.
Joppa is mention 6 times! That’s in part because a prophetic location for this story to begin in. Here’s Turn in your Bibles to Jonah 1.
Jonah 1:1–3 [1] Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, [2] “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” [3] But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
Joppa is the same city Jonah went to in order to flee from the presence of the Lord because He refused to reach those far from God. But get this
→ Joppa, the very port Jonah used to sail away from outsiders becomes the city God sends Peter from to save them.
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