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No Man Hath Ascended Into Heaven
The Answer to Peter’s Prayer – Acts 10:9-16
Summary:
Cornelius had been given a trance vision to tell him to send men to Peter (10:1-3), and Peter was given one (v. 9, 10) to prepare him to receive them. Peter’s hunger (v. 10) was symbolic in the same way the Lord’s hunger was (Mark 11:11-14). The fig tree was a symbol of Israel, and the Lord hungered for spiritual fruit in Israel, and He was doubtless praying for it as well, since He was a man of prayer.
And Peter’s hunger was symbolic of his hunger for fruit in Israel, and for fruit among the Gentiles. Remember, the Lord sent him to the Gentiles (Mt. 28:19) but told him Israel had to be reached first (Lu. 24:47) so God could use Peter and all saved Jews to reach the Gentiles (Isa. 49:6). When Israel rejected Christ instead, Peter hungered for fruit among the Gentiles as well as the Jews. After all, he was in Joppa “by the sea” (10:5-8), and the sea was symbolic of the Gentiles (Isa. 60:5). And he was no doubt praying for it too.
Peter was probably thinking of how he got to Joppa in the first place. He was called there to raise a Jewish damsel from the dead (9:36-38). She deserved it because of her “good works,” making her a type of Jews who were saved by faith plus works. God brought Peter to Joppa to assure him that despite Israel’s rejection of Christ the Gentiles will still be reached when saved Jews are raised from the dead and Gentiles come to them for salvation (Isa. 60:5). Being in Joppa also reminded Peter of this, for that’s where a Gentile brought Solomon riches for the temple (I Chron. 2:1-16). That’s what will also happen after saved Jews are raised (Isa. 60:5).
But God also brought Peter to Joppa to teach him how He planned to reach the Gentiles in the meantime. You see, He just saved Saul in Acts 9, and sent him to the Gentiles (Acts 16:16, 17). And here in Acts 10, God is preparing to introduce Peter to Paul’s new ministry among the Gentiles by sending him to a Gentile named Cornelius.
Of course, Peter didn’t want to go to a Gentile—and neither did Paul. When he headed for the Jews in Jerusalem instead, God put him in a trance to straighten him out (Acts 22:17-21). His hunger in Acts 9:9 was symbolic of his hunger for spiritual fruit in Israel (cf. Rom. 10:1). But he also didn’t want to go to the Gentiles because he knew God’s plan was to use saved Israel to reach them (Acts 13:47). So he was standing on God’s Word in his refusal to go to the Gentiles—just like Jonah! Jonah wanted God to punish the Ninevite Gentiles who had slaughtered Jews, not save them, according to God’s Word in Genesis 12:3. That’s because if you messed with Israel you messed with God (Zech. 2:8 cf. Acts 9:4)
Peter is also going to stand on God’s Word in his refusal to go to the unclean Gentiles, as symbolized when he stood on it to refuse to eat unclean animals (Acts 10:11-14). He was “very” hungry (v. 10) but he used God’s Word in Leviticus 11 to resist the temptation to eat unclean things. When you’re tempted to be sinfully unclean, you should do the same. God’s Word to you says that He sees you as a new man who cannot sin (Col. 3:9, 10). Live like He sees you!
Since Peter knew that God told the Jews that certain meats were unclean to remind them that the Gentiles were unclean, he knew that this vision meant they were no longer unclean (Acts 10:27, 28).
The past tense word “hath” (Acts 10:15) means God cleansed meats and Gentiles back in Acts 9 when He saved Saul. Peter was just learning about this in Acts 10. But he’s a bit thick-headed, so God gave him the vision three times (10:16) just as the Lord had to call him three times to follow Him
But the main reason the vision was repeated three times was that Cornelius had sent Peter three Gentiles (10:7, 8), and the Lord wanted Peter to make the connection and get the message that Gentiles were no longer unclean. The law required two or three witnesses to settle things (cf. Deut. 19:15), so the Lord witnessed the vision to him thrice.
Peter wasn’t being a Jewish racist, nor were the other Jews who preached only to Jews (Acts 11:19). They rejoiced when they heard God sent Peter to Gentiles (11:18). They just knew Israel was supposed to get saved first.
Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: The Answer to Peter’s Prayer – Acts 10:9-16
Songs of Deliverance
The Leader of the Italian Band – Acts 10:1-8
Summary:
When it says that Cornelius “feared God” (10:1,2), that didn’t mean he was saved. As a matter of fact, we know he wasn’t saved, for God is about to tell him how to be saved (11:13). We know being “devout” (10:2) didn’t mean “saved” either, for Acts 17:2-4 describes some people who were devout before they got saved. “Devout” just means devoted to, and Cornelius was obviously devoted to God.
That’s a good first step in getting saved (Heb. 11:6), but you also have to do what God says to do to be saved. People often wonder how God can fairly judge people who never hear the gospel, but Cornelius illustrates the answer! When he sought God, God showed him the gospel (cf. Ps. 25:8-14).
True, “there is none that seeketh after God” (Rom. 3:11), in and of themselves. But God does things to make men seek Him. He speaks to them through the stars (Ps. 19:1-3) and He divided men up into different nations (Gen. 10,11) “that” they might seek Him (Acts 17:24-27), to name just a few.
But Cornelius had a problem. He was a Gentile, and the God of Israel wasn’t receiving Gentiles under the new kingdom program (Mt. 15:23,24). But a Gentile could be saved under the old program of the law that was still going on as the new program was being introduced. But Gentiles needed Jews to tell them what the law said about how to be saved. Luckily for Cornelius we know there were Jews in Caesarea, for there were Jews everywhere (cf. Acts 2:5). We see evidence that his hometown Jews told him he could get saved by giving alms “to the people” of Israel (10:2). That’s one thing Gentiles had to do to be saved (Gen. 12:1-3 cf. Luke 7:2-5).
But doing that hadn’t saved Cornelius because the new kingdom program that included water baptism for salvation had now been introduced. So now Cornelius needed Jews who could tell him about that too! We know that Philip knew the new program because he baptized the eunuch, and he was living in Caesarea (Acts 8:40 cf. 21:8). And as an “evangelist” he would have made a lot of converts by that time. So why hadn’t they told Cornelius how to be saved?
It was because they were still preaching to Jews only (Acts 11:19) until all Israel was saved. But when unsaved Jews stoned Stephen and made it clear that wouldn’t happen, God saved Saul in Acts 9 and sent him to the Gentiles, changing the kingdom program to His even newer mystery program.
But God didn’t tell Philip about that, for the mystery was given to Paul, not Philip (Eph. 3:1-3). But to introduce what Paul was starting to do among the Gentiles, God is about to give Cornelius a vision to tell him how to be saved.
We see more proof that Cornelius was obeying the law to be saved in that he was praying in “the ninth hour” (Acts 10:3 cf. 10:30), “the hour of prayer” (3:1). Because of all that, his prayers came up to God “for a memorial” (10:4). A memorial is something to help you remember something, as when Memorial Day helps us remember the men who died serving our country. The Jews had sacrifices for a memorial (Lev. 6:15) to help them remember that the reason they had to keep offering them was that they kept sinning (Heb. 10:3).
Cornelius’ prayers were a memorial in place of offerings like that, just as David’s were when he was on the run from Saul (Ps. 141:2) and couldn’t offer sacrifices in the temple. So in saying Cornelius’ prayers came to God as a memorial, that means they were as accepted of God as David’s prayers!
Don’t overlook the fact that the angel calls Peter by his original name (Acts 10:5,6). His full name was “Simon Barjonah” (Mt. 16:17), which means son of Jonah (cf. Mark 10:46). His father was obviously named after the prophet Jonah, who liked to argue with God (Jonah 4)—like Peter (Mt. 16:22; Acts 10:14). We see more proof that Peter was a symbolic son of Jonah in that God is about to send him to the Gentiles like He sent Jonah, and both men had to be convinced to go! Instead, Jonah went to Joppa (Jonah 1:3)—where Peter was (Acts 10:5). See the parallels?
Peter was “by the sea side” (Acts 10:6), and the sea is a symbol of the Gentiles (Isa. 60:5; Rev. 13:1-4). When the angel told Cornelius that Peter would tell him what he had to “do” (Acts 10:6), we know he meant do to be saved (Acts 11:13), so Cornelius obeyed without delay (Acts 10:7,8)!
Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: The Leader of the Italian Band – Acts 10:1-8
Finishing the Course
The Builder and His Building – 1 Corinthians 3:12-15
Summary:
Paul wants us to build the “building” of the “house” of our own personal spiritual lives on the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ (v.11, 12) so that your house can withstand the storms of life (cf. Mt. 7:24-29). But it’s also important what you build your house with (v. 12).
You say, “Who builds a house with things like gold?” Solomon! He built the temple with it (I Ki. 6:17-21), and that house was a type of what God will someday make the house of Israel into (Rev. 3:12). That’s the living temple of God He had in mind when He said He’d live in the Jews (II Cor. 6:16).
But that wasn’t God’s only house of people. Paul told Timothy about a “house” that was “the church, which is His Body” (Eph. 1:22, 23). That’s God’s other house of people, and it’s also the other house He wants us to build on the foundation of Christ! It’s a house made up of all the individual spiritual houses of the members of Christ’s Body. God wants us to build up their houses as well as our own.
This “great house” of the Body contains vessels made of gold and silver (II Tim. 2:20). A vessel is a container used to carry things (Ge. 43:11). Ships are called vessels because they carry cargo. God put the cargo of the gospel in us (II Cor. 4:3-7) expecting us to carry it to others, as He did Paul (Acts 9:15).
And He doesn’t want the vessel carrying His salvation dishonored by sin (I Thes. 4:3, 4), like the vessels of dishonor in II Timothy 2:20. And when Paul talks about honorable vessels of gold and silver in the context of rewards in our text, that tells us the personal conduct of our testimony is the first thing God plans to reward. Not because our sin hurts Him—Christ paid for that hurt!—but because it hurts the gospel.
But the gospel isn’t the only thing God wants you carrying in your vessel to others. To build up the spiritual house of other believers, you have to carry Pauline truth to them. If you fail, you are a vessel of dishonor. We know this because the “these” Paul says you have to purge to be a vessel of honor (II Tim. 2:20-22) are dispensational errors (2:16-18).
God plans to test our works for wood, hay and stubble like that (I Cor. 3:13) at the Judgment Seat of Christ (Rom. 14:10) with the “fire” of God’s Word (Jer. 23:29) to see what “sort” it is. “Sort” means kind (cf. Deut. 22:11). God is going to judge the quality of your work when the fire of His word burns up your wood and hay, and leaves the gold and silver that can “abide” the fire still standing (I Cor. 3:14, 15).
He won’t put you in the fire. He did that when He identified you with Christ on the Cross and His fire fell on Him for your sins. So your sins will only be judged as they affect your work. The word “wrong” in Colossians 2:22-25 doesn’t mean servants will be punished for their sins at the Judgment Seat. It means they’ll suffer a loss of reward for being bad servants. The wages of sin is death, not a loss of reward!
All believers will suffer that loss for the “bad” work they’ve done as servants of the Lord (II Cor. 5:10). “Bad” doesn’t mean sinful (cf. Num. 13:20; Jer. 24:2; Mt.13:48), it means we did a bad job building up the church. A bad carpenter doesn’t follow the blueprints, and a bad believer doesn’t follow the blueprints for the church found in Paul’s epistles.
A believer who does a good job building according to Paul’s blueprints will be rewarded with a “crown” (I Cor. 9:25) so he can “reign” with Christ (II Tim. 2:12) over the angels (I Cor. 6:3). God wants us to run so we can reign at the highest possible level (I Cor. 9:25-27). Paul compares the Judgment Seat to Olympic games like that because it will be a joyous day, not a somber day, like when sinners are judged and sent to the lake of fire. The “terror” we’ll know in that day is the kind Israel had just standing in God’s presence, when He wasn’t even mad (Ex. 20:18-20). The “mercy” Onesiphorus will need is the kind Israel got when God didn’t leave the Jews in captivity (Ezr. 9:9), the loss-of-reward kind.
But our motivation to serve the Lord isn’t rewards, it’s the love Christ showed in dying for us, as Paul went on to say (II Cor. 5:14, 15). But the foundation of your spiritual house can’t burn, because it is the rock-solid foundation of Christ. So even if all your work burns at the Judgment Seat, you’ll still be saved in that day “yet so as by fire” (I Cor. 3:15).
Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: The Builder and His Building – 1 Corinthians 3:12-15
