Great expectations - Not!

Good morning. We're going to be stepping our way through Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10, verses 1 through 23, as Courtney read for us here. And first, just the supplements. We've been handing out supplements left and right here over the last few weeks. Silk Road Map, Chronology of the Apostolic Age, New Testament Era Map of the Roman Empire, the word turn last week, and then were Christians really persecuted? So a number of those have been out there. If those sound like anything you need to catch up with or would like to, See me if you don't have copies of them, or I think Nancy or Sue can also help you with those. We have some more today.

Political figures in the New Testament that have been confirmed. As it turns out, there are quite a few political figures that are mentioned. sometimes more at length among various points in the New Testament. And as we go through the Book of Acts, there'll be a number of them. And some of them will be very unique political figures.

One of the Roman governors we're going to encounter later on in the Book of Acts is a Roman governor who's the only one in all of Roman history and all of the Roman Empire who was born a slave and became a governor. So anyway, we'll get to find that out. Centurions and the Gospels in the Book of Acts. One of the curious things is that all the centurions in the Gospels in the Book of Acts are mentioned favorably. They're spoken of favorably, no exceptions. So anyway, it addresses that.

And then Ministries of the Holy Spirits of the Believer. This is a one page handout that Hal initially put together. And we hand that out every chance we get. OK, because it's so good. So anyway, among those, just keeping you posted. And we also have some more in the works here. But it looks like we need to get a map to the Hemenways out there as well. So we'll try to leave room for that. OK.

So you have, this is similar to what's on the map on page one, and this is the passage we looked at last week, Acts 9, 32 through 43, the end of chapter 9. This is Peter going possibly from Jerusalem, not certainly, but possibly from Jerusalem, going to the city of Lydda, modern-day Lod in Israel closer to the coast, partway between Jerusalem and the coast there.

And then healing a man named Aeneas, who was a man who was lame. And then in Joppa, raising a lady who had been making garments for many of the people in need. Her name was Tabitha, or Dorcas. And we said her nickname was not Dork, right? Okay, so now here is an overview of the city of Joppa. This is, of course, an air photo as it is now, just to kind of get some perspective on it, looking down on it, because a lot has been built up over the centuries.

This right here is Simon the Tanner's house, so see that? Simon the Tanner's house right there, and then the ancient port is over here and then I point out the ancient port because this was a port for many centuries even before New Testament times. It was the port through which all of the timbers for the first and the second temple were brought. Secondly, it was the port that Jonah went to in order to try to escape the Lord's plan for his life by going to Tarshish. So at any rate, an amazing place and lots of ancient and even more recent things there.

This is the likely house of Simon the Tanner. Things have been, of course, under various attacks and even including the Crusades, things broken down and rebuilt, but this is the likely location. of the house of Simon the Tanner right here, and it is, as we'll see in the description here, right along the shore. So this is the place, it appears most likely, where Peter stayed with Simon the Tanner, and that will come into our account here as we'll read it today. So Acts 10, 1 and 2 looks like this.

There was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, a devout man and one who feared God and with all his household and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. So let's step through a few things. One is Caesarea was a Roman military colony in Port City.

That's what it was its primary purpose. It had actually been constructed as that under Herod the, as we call him, the not so great. But this was one of his dreams. Nancy and I have a coffee table book that has pictures of this place. I mean, it's so fantastic. But it was built under Herod the Great initially and then modified in various ways.

So that's Caesarea. We will continue to see Caesarea show up not just this week, but next week and also a couple more times as we go through the Book of Acts. It turns out in the Book of Acts to be a very pivotal city. Now Cornelius, possibly of the Cornelii family, a very important and prominent family in Rome. And so his name may well have come from that. We don't know for certain, but it appears at least possible, if not likely. A centurion, you know, you may look at it and say, century, centurion, sounds like a hundred.

But what they did is they had titles and offices that stuck even when they made other changes. So as an officer at this time over about 80 soldiers. One of the things that was interesting, there were a number of administrative changes made during the time of the Book of Acts, and we'll point out some of those as we go through. But at this time, it was about 80 soldiers was the command of a centurion.

He was of the Italian cohort, now that's important, he was of the Italian cohort, that doesn't mean he was in charge of the whole thing, right? So he was a centurion over a portion of it, So that's when we say 10 cohorts equals a legion. And by the way, that's one of the changes that took place later on the Book of Acts, right? So 10 cohorts equals a legion. So about 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers was typical of around that time. Now, this was a devout man who feared God.

Another term that we're going to see as we go through the Book of Acts, and there are other terms, is we're God-fearing. and we give several references there from Acts 10.22 on into chapter 17. So these were Gentiles who were God-fearing. We'll talk about that in a minute as to more about what that means specifically.

It says he gave alms to the Jewish people. Actually the word Jewish is not in there. It's it's the people and one of the things we pointed out is is with very rare exception in the Bible Which you will find is the people singular The people refers to the Jews the people's plural refers to the Gentiles the nation of It refers to the Jews, the nations refers to the Gentiles. OK, so so that this fits the pattern. It's why the translators put in the Jewish people, because unless you see that pattern and understand it, it might be misunderstood.

But the way it's stated is simply the people understood to be, oh, that's the Jews. And he prayed to God continually. So he was having personal conversation with God nonstop. OK. And so, at any rate, that kind of describes his habit. He not only was a devout man and one who feared God, but he continued to have prayers.

So here is the map that you do have, and what it shows here is Joppa on the coast in the middle of the map, right along the Mediterranean. there, and it's right along the coast. I mean, you're there at the edge of Joppa and right near the house of, you know, Simon the Tanner. Yeah, the ocean is right there.

Right about 30 miles to the north of it is Caesarea. Caesarea is the one we'll be taking a closer look at next week, introducing it this week because it's definitely important. So just to kind of get the idea as we pace our way through this, is that Caesarea is where Cornelius is located, 30 miles to the south is where Joppa is located. Peter has been there for, as it describes, many days, and probably the best way to summarize that is a number of weeks, about in that ballpark period of time. But his time there is about to end, at least for this round, and his time is about to end because he's going to be called up to Caesarea. So we'll see how this plays itself out here. So there's Caesarea on the north, Joppa to the south, and then Jerusalem is inland.

Here would be an artist's reconstruction. Caesarea has been a place where it has been excavated by archaeologists for a number of decades, even starting before I was born. Well, that was a long time ago, huh? Anyway, so they started excavating a long time ago. Some Italian archaeologists were working on it in the early 60s, and then in the 80s, they started, after the land-based excavation was done, they started bringing in teams of people working underwater, so the port facilities that you see there, Of course, a lot of them are broken down by this time, but they brought in people with scuba equipment and did lots of archeological excavation with that.

Of course, that's a lot of work and it's a lot of scuba diving. Some people might even like that. Anyway, so here is a picture of it and we'll be looking at that again next week because you're going to find, you see that kind of amphitheater at the south end there? And you see the roadway that goes in? That's the roadway that Peter would have come in. So anyway, we'll get there.

So he was a devout man that feared God. This devout is a word used mostly by Dr. Luke. And one of the things we pointed out is Dr. Luke has kind of favorite expressions and words and terms. This is one used mostly by him. We'll see it again in this passage, so actually twice, it uses devout uniquely to describe Gentiles. So that's unique. Twice in the passage in Gentiles, both times. So this is a very special man. And Dr. Luke is even recognizing this is a very special guy. Gentiles. OK, so here's something to help kind of get straight.

Gentiles who feared God or who were God fearing. Sometimes the term that was used was God fearers. They were in a spectrum. That is, they didn't fall into a single category. There were those who were simply sympathizers with the Jews. They kind of were favorable toward them, and that was about as far as it went. Then there were those who were devout.

And then the last category is proselytes, those who converted to Judaism. One of the deacons in Acts chapter 6 had been a convert to Judaism as opposed to the other six. He had been a convert and is called specifically a proselyte. As we look at this, Cornelius is of the second category, those who are devout but not a proselyte, not a convert to Judaism. One of the reasons we know that is going to be brought up again in chapter 11 and It would not have been a problem for Peter to go into the house of a proselyte, a convert to Judaism, because they would observe everything about the Jewish dietary laws and all that. But so here's Cornelius, a man who was devout and a God-fearer, but not a convert in the official sense. OK.

So the Pharisees had this come about. The Pharisees were missionary about their beliefs. They went around, unlike the Sadducees, they went around, not just in Israel, but all over the Roman Empire and even east of the Roman Empire. They went all over the place, missionary about their Pharisee teachings.

And they would teach both Jews and Gentiles. things about the Old Testament, as we call it, right? And so they would go about and And their appeal was to the Gentiles. And so because of that, the Gentiles oftentimes knew things about the Old Testament, even if they weren't necessarily real serious about their Judaism. This is why the Apostle Paul, for example, in 1 Corinthians 9 and 10, can talk about Moses and talk about what happened. And it's because of these Pharisees who go about teaching people about the Old Testament. Some Gentiles were persuaded by this.

Dr. Luke himself was likely once a God-fearing Gentile. We'll see later on about what appears to be the time when he joins with Paul. So we'll encounter these God-fearing Gentiles again in Acts a number of different times. We've already seen them some, now more again. So here's Acts 10, 3 and 4. This is about the ninth hour of the day.

He clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, Cornelius. Sure, that got his attention. And fixing his gaze on him, being much alarmed, he said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

So this is the ninth hour. It's about three o'clock in the afternoon by our measure. And so they would count the hours starting, you know, zero hours, 6 a.m. or about that time. Have you ever had an experience where you're just not quite sure what you see and things may be a little blurry and kind of, you know, rub your eyes and blink and try to get some clarity?

Well, guess what? That's probably what Cornelius wanted to do. The problem was that everything was clear. It's like, wow, I can't believe what I'm seeing. But blink, blink, blink. It's still clear. Right. So that's what he sees here. He sees in a vision. We're going to see visions. They first began in chapter 9. They're going to continue into chapter 18 of the book of Acts. As angel of God, the word angel means messenger at its base here. So this is a messenger from God as opposed to messenger from somebody else, right? And then Fixing his gaze on him, he was very much alarmed. That means he was very afraid. That's the literal meaning of the text there. He was very afraid.

Now you can imagine, here's a guy who's a centurion. He's probably seen some scary battle scenes. He is in command of men. He says, okay, you guys go here and carry out this and do that. He's been under attacks and things like that. And now so you have this centurion and amazingly one angel shows up and he's afraid. He's not just afraid, he is very afraid. And that's very typical for him.

And fixing his gaze on him, one of the things this word for fixing his gaze is one that continues. It's already showed up in the Book of Acts early and continues on for the Book of Acts right towards the end. And it's one we're going to also do another word study on, have as a supplement, because it's a very important word.

This is the word that is used for Stephen when he fixes his gaze on the Lord and then goes home to see him. The Lord is standing. He says, what is it Lord? So now though this is an angel, Cornelius still saw the words as from God. This is a messenger from God, so he comes back not to call the angel God, but simply to say this angel is carrying the words of God. He recognizes that, and so that's what his words are intending to indicate.

Okay, so now in Acts 10, 5, and 6, It says, now dispatch some men to Joppa, this is the angel speaking, and send for a man named Simon, who is called Peter, and he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea. So this is a brief instruction, but it's got a lot of important information that Cornelius is supposed to pick up here. So this is to Joppa, that's where Peter is, and we know he's been there for some time, very likely in the neighborhood of, you know, some weeks. We said that the many days is used, you know, previously for around 40, not that we want to be precise, but about, so a number of weeks. And then send for a man named Simon. This is the apostle of Jesus. Simon is also called Peter. is staying with a tanner named Simon whose house is by the sea. So what he's telling you is Joppa, of course it's by the sea, but within Joppa, this one is closer to the water, which it just so happens that little place where we showed the door of Simon the Tanner is real close to the water in Joppa.

Okay, so here's, imagine Cornelius, this is some kind of instructions. He's never had any instructions like this before, right? And he's kind of trying to get settled down a little bit after being very afraid. I thought, you know, centurions aren't supposed to be afraid, right? Well, he is. Here's Acts 10, 7 and 8.

So, when the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier. So here's this word devout again. And it's used not only here of Cornelius, but also of the soldier under him. So here is Cornelius, who is an officer, and then a soldier. Both of them are described as devout. That would mean that they're God-fearing, okay? They're both God-fearing Gentiles. And so this soldier here...

So it's interesting, this word devout is only used for Gentiles twice, and we've got them both here in this passage. And it's Cornelius and this soldier who was under his command. one of his personal attendants, and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. And we'll step our way through that. So he's devout like Cornelius, so also a God-fearing Gentile.

And then we have one more thing. He sent them. This is the word, it says, sent as a special messenger. It's the verb form of apostle. So he sent them on a special commission. This isn't, you guys are just, you know, carry out a bunch of messages, but this is a special message to carry. He sent them as special messengers to Joppa.

It's about 30 miles to the south. So by the way, just to kind of get some time sense here, ordinarily about 20 miles a day walking along a path was considered a normal day's walk. So keep that in mind here because we're going to see some. Remember what time he'd gotten this vision. About three o'clock in the afternoon, right? So keep that in mind. So he had to go 30 miles. It's a day's walk. Okay.

So here's Acts 10.9. On the next day, ah, the very next day.

So three o'clock in the afternoon, you get your instructions, go there, right? On the next day, as they were approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. So the next day after they started, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray, which is they being the two servants and the devout soldier coming across Joppa about noontime. So this travel started three o'clock in the afternoon as they grabbed everything and ran. They got there, about a day and a half journey ordinarily, at noontime the next day. Okay, that tells us something. Something else for us to look at.

This was a typical home at the time of the New Testament era. And when I say typical, certainly some of them would be larger, some of them would be changed because of topography and that kind of thing. But one of the things we point out is a flat roof. was common, that's part one. Part two is it would have a parapet around it, that is a short wall that was actually required under the Law of Moses, a short wall that you'd have. And then typically, most of the time, the stairs would be on the outside, so that would be the arrangement, unlike sometimes in our thinking, we'll have stairs inside.

Now, that was not usually the way it was done in this kind of an arrangement. And then we have this vision here. So on the zero hour of the custom would mean 6 a.m. So about the sixth hour would be about noon by our clock. And keeping in mind, Joppa is 30 miles from Caesarea. Since it was three o'clock the prior day Cornelius had seen the vision, it's now about noon the next day.

These men had likely been walking all night or maybe they didn't walk all night, but they really hoofed it. They really made good time. One way or the other. They either walked all night or they really made good time and did take a bit of a rest. One way or the other. Because this was a day and a half journey that they completed in less than 24 hours.

So here's Acts 10.10.

But he became hungry and was desiring to eat. But while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance. Okay, so one of the things making preparations of Jewish food Jewish food this is and we're going to take a look at what does that mean? Preparations of Jewish food would have been the typical thing and this is about noon time And so he's probably you know Peter says well pray for a while, and then we'll go have lunch You know but instead he's getting hungry while he's up there and He fell into a trance, as we'll see later on.

This is generating a vision, a trance that was accompanied by a vision. So here's Acts 10, 11 and 12. Where he has this vision and we'll see what that looks like. And he saw the sky opened up and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground. And there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air." Now these are the same words as Stephen used when he says the sky opened up or the heaven opened up.

Same words as Stephen used in Acts 7.56. where he saw the heaven opened up and the Lord Jesus was there. So this is this is Peter's having a similar kind of perspective, looking up and in this vision, seeing heaven opened up. And then this is all kinds, and so that means both clean and unclean, but it includes unclean, right?

And Peter's going to describe this again in Acts 11.6, and very similar words are used in Romans 1.23 by Saul, later the Apostle Paul.

And then these crawling creatures, that's generally unclean, it's usually a term for reptiles. And then birds of the air. Of course, birds of the air included both clean birds, according to the Law of Moses, as well as those who were unclean. So both kinds. So here's the vision in Acts 10, 11, and 12 that he's getting. And then We have a summary of the Jewish food laws from Leviticus chapter 11.

Instead of going through all the detail, just so you get an idea of what he's describing here. So, one, land animals, they had to both chew the cud and have a split hoof. Now, how many of you have seen a cud? I actually have. Cows have a cud. It's really strange if it comes out and you actually see it. You just take a broom handle and put it back in. Anyway, chew the cud and have a split hoof. It's got to be a hoof that they're born with, not one that you make. A split hoof, so it's got to have both of those.

Land animals that don't have it, you can't eat it. There was, when we were at Bethsaida, there was a little animal, it's actually not too tiny, called a coney, is one of its names. And the coney is a significant amount of meat. There's lots of them. The Jews couldn't eat them, right? Because they didn't qualify. They didn't have either one of those.

Sea creatures had to have fins and scales. So you can imagine, here's Peter. He says, oh, we got a great haul of fish. Good news. But a bunch of these can't eat. Bad news, right? So he'd go and sort them out. I can sell this to the Gentiles. I can eat this and sell it to the Jews. I can take this and throw it away. And I can take this and sell it to the Gentiles.

And he'd go like that with all the fish. And so with every fish you caught, you had to go through. Does it have fins and scales? Nope. Got to sell it to the Gentiles. They'll make fish paste out of it. Anyway, so So you have sea creatures, they have to have fins and scales. What if they have just scales? Does that qualify? No. What if they have just fins? No, it doesn't qualify.

It has to have both or else you don't eat it. Sell it to the Gentiles. Winged insects have to have jointed legs to hop. Basically, you're looking at things like grasshoppers and crickets. That's the only thing you can eat. Any other bugs, I don't care how delicious you think they might be, you can't eat them, right? Okay. Last one. Birds of prey and carrion and other kind of scavenger sorts of birds. Can't do those. None at all. No buzzard wings for dinner. Can't do that. No reptiles or other crawlers. All those are off limits. So that was just kind of a quick summary of the stuff they can't have.

And so, you imagine, here's Peter. He sees this great sheet. It's not just a little sheet, it's a great sheet. So who knows what all might have been included in this. Coming down, he says, there's a bunch of stuff in here I can't eat. He just looks at it and, uh-uh, not doing this. So here's Acts 10, 13, and 14. A voice came to him, Get up, Peter! Nuke it and eat! No. Kill and eat. Right? Kill and eat.

And Peter says, oh, by no means, Lord, I don't do that. You know, if I've never eaten anything unholy and unclean, even though the Lord said, kill and eat, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't do that. My mother never fed me that stuff, and I'm not going to eat it. My wife doesn't even fix that stuff. I won't eat it.

So and one thing is these are all live animals that he's seen. OK, so he's told, you know, kill and eat. And so these are all live animals that he's picturing here, not, you know, ones that have already been slaughtered. So it's easy. You've got to start from a live animal and then dress it up and all that. So Peter says, by no means, Lord.

So he took this voice as from the Lord. What he saw was these animals coming down on the great sheet. What he heard was this voice. He took it as from the Lord. And you might expect that since it was basically he saw heaven opened up and then the sheet comes down, he hears the voice.

This unholy and unclean, it's those things as we summarized out of Leviticus chapter 11 in the Law of Moses. So here's Acts 10, 15, and 16, again a voice came to him a second time, but God is cleansed, no longer considered unholy. Wow. So this happened three times and immediately the object was taken up into the sky. So what happened is, here's this vision and he goes through this Peter, you know, nuke and eat, right? And so, then he gets this with God is cleansed, no longer considered unholy, and that whole sequence happened three times. And every time, what is he doing? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't do that. My mama never fixed it that way. We never fix it that way. I'm not doing that.

So this is the second part of the first appearance there, and this whole thing was repeated three times. and then taken up into the sky. And of course, that's the same word for heaven. So he sees it taken up into heaven. Imagine these unholy things are coming out of heaven. Whoo! So this is quite a deal. He says, boy, how does that compute? Here's Acts 10, 17, and 18.

It says, Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, Behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon's house, appeared at the gate, and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there. So this vision which had come by him falling into a trance, and he'd been sent, again it's this word for a special messenger, and they had been sent, it's a done deal, right? Then this is Simon's house, Simon the Tanner's house. Then it appeared at the gate.

So they didn't go up closer than the gate, probably because, not certainly, but probably because they were wanting to be considerate. They may have even had instructions from Cornelius, don't, you know, don't go pushing yourself in. That'll offend them. Just go up to the gate and stop there, right? because there was a prohibition regarding the Gentiles.

Keep that in mind here, just a second. Here's Acts 10, 19, and 20. While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men are looking for you, but get up, go downstairs, and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them myself. Ah, key here. So the vision came when he had fallen into this trance, as he saw it.

And they were two servants and this devout soldier. But guess what? They were all Gentiles. Gentiles. And he says, but get up. So go downstairs. And you remember the picture of the house. And you go down the stairs, which are usually on the outside, then out to where these people are from the rooftop. This is accompanied them without misgivings. That means without any doubts or hesitations. Go ahead and accompany them.

Now look what the Holy Spirit said. I have sent them myself as special messengers. That's that same word again. I, the Holy Spirit, have sent these Gentile special messengers myself. Oh, that is amazing. So one of the questions we have is, wait a minute, who sent who?

So on the one hand we know God sent an angel to tell Cornelius to send the men to bring Peter back to talk to them all, right? So we know from that sequence earlier in the passage. And so Cornelius responds and does send this devout soldier along with two servants to go to the house of Simon the Tanner in Joppa. We also know Cornelius did in fact send these three men as special messengers to look for Simon who is called Peter. Then we read here that the Holy Spirit spoke to Peter telling Peter I have sent them myself. Ah, this is very insightful. This holds a great deal of insight for us. So the Spirit did not leave Peter perplexed. That's one thing to look at here.

Rather than have Peter be perplexed, right? And have to think and think and think what was going on and have these men show up and say, where are you showing up? I'm not sure what to do here, right? I know for me, I'd have to think about it a long, long time, right?

So the Spirit moved to communicate a special message through various means, as we see here in Scripture. Peter was indeed perplexed by what the vision meant. That was his instant response. The Holy Spirit made clear the part that needed to be made clear. Did Peter receive from the Holy Spirit everything he might possibly need to know? No. He received from the Holy Spirit and he had clear what was the next step, right? He didn't get clarity as to what was going on after that until later. So it's not the intent nor the working of the Holy Spirit that we should be perplexed about regarding what has been revealed to us or for us. The Spirit spoke directly to Peter. His personal work was through others. to send these men for Peter, even though what he says is, I sent them myself.

Here's Acts 10.21, Peter went down, it is down these outside stairs, right?

Off the roof and said, behold, I am the one you're looking for. What is the reason for which you have come? So down the roof, from the rooftop, along these outside stairs, then says, I'm the one you're looking for. Why? Because the spirit had told Peter, at least here's three men. They're looking for you, right? Then he asks a question. What is the reason for which you have come?

Because he doesn't know that yet. So if Peter didn't know why they had been sent, he simply knows that they had been sent. One of the things that this tells us is the Spirit did reveal some things to Peter as soon as he needed the clarification. The Spirit did not tell him everything.

Peter also had to ask a question of the men to find out the next piece of information. So this is key. So was Peter doing this, asking the question all on his own, and was that just his job? Or was it a part of what the Holy Spirit was doing in order for Peter to be able to get the full picture? The Holy Spirit may reveal things to us, and then we have to continue to pursue an answer, right?

It's a good lesson out of this. Here's Acts 10, 22, and 23, and they said, that is, the three who had come as special messengers, And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man, well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you. So he invited them in and gave them lodging. So here's Cornelius, he's a centurion, a Gentile name and occupation. By the way, the Jews were given a pass on military service. It's real difficult to have military service with a Jew, right? The officer gives the order, it's time for us to move! And the Jew says, no, it's five o'clock on Friday afternoon. I'm not moving. So that doesn't work. So they just gave him a pass.

There's God-fearing men in these passages, as we pointed out before. He's well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, as we mentioned. So here's the nation, right? And by all of them. And now, look, they recognize he was divinely directed. Cornelius was divinely directed by God, by a holy angel.

So this is a set-apart messenger, right? to send for you to come to his house and hear a message. What's interesting is this is a double hear, because it's hear a spoken message. It's a word that means spoken message, so it's hear a message that you hear. And then finally, and so he, that is Peter, invited them in and gave them lodging.

Now he is a guest of Simon the Tanner, right? Can you do this? Yeah, it was okay under the Jewish customs, right? But what was not okay? Invite these Gentiles in. That was not okay. Nancy and I had an experience with a neighbor who was a Jewish lady, and Nancy wanted to just invite her over for a cup of tea. And she said, well, I'm sorry, we just can't do that. Not possible. You can't even mix that much. So what we have here, we have this miraculous account, these extraordinary aspects of this account, talking about the angel, the trance, the vision, the Holy Spirit speaking. What do we do with that now?

One of the things, it's clear that God was putting together something very special in the way of communications, because notice, here was an angel on one end and visions on the other, and the Holy Spirit speaking in order to bring this about. This is a special time of transition. This is not intended to be the normal means in which the Lord brings things about in our time. But for us here, the primary tool is His Word, His written Word. That is the tool by which the Holy Spirit tells us things. So from this passage here, the Holy Spirit will work among us. He may well use others to do his work among us. And that is particularly the way he will work among us as a church body. Now, the law of Moses is holy and righteous and good.

However, this passage is just starting to tell the apostles and the body of Christ, God doesn't need one bit of help from law. Not one little bit. In what God intends to do, what God intends to carry out, He doesn't need our help. And not one law will be of any help.

And that's one of the things Peter is beginning to learn here. The law in fact gets in the way, just as it would have prevented Peter from inviting these people in or going to the house of Cornelius. The law gets in the way, here and now, of what God wants to do. Now, next time, okay? We'll look at this next time as to what happens when Peter goes to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea. We'll look at the best-kept secret about tongues in the book of Acts. It's a secret. Next time.

We'll see the great connection between the flood of Noah's day and Acts chapters 8, 9, and 10. What? Where's the flood? Well, we'll talk about that. So the flood of Noah's day and Acts chapters 8, 9, and 10 And we'll see why salvation doesn't always look the same on the outside, but it always looks the same on the inside. And what does Fern mean by that? Well, you have to come next week and I'll let you know. Right? Okay.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this amazing, wonderful passage. We thank you as we look at it. There are things revealed to us. There are things that we can see as the rest of this account unfolds. You have yet to show us and reveal us. And we thank you that you revealed it to us because you love us, you care for us, and you want us to have fellowship with you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.