Prayer Brings Change (Acts 10:1-48)

Prayers Bring Change

Based on Acts 10:1-48  |  January 19 2020

Khen Lim




Image source: lds.org

Introduction

Here’s an interesting (fictitious) story that I once read on the Internet:

One day, a pastor attended the usual monthly meeting with the church elders and deacons but unlike before, he came to share an idea that he felt had come from God. The hope was that everyone would be on the same page as far as the idea was concerned. In his presentation, he pulled out all the stops to promote the idea to all present but despite his all, they voted 15 to 1 against him.

“I’m sorry, Pastor Jeremiah. As it turned out, that one solitary vote in favour came from you. For whatever reason, everyone else didn’t think it would work,” the condescending elder said.

“Well, that’s it, folks. We can now call it a night and go home,” he added as he closed his diary to get ready to leave.

“What? Aren’t there anything else to discuss?” the pastor asked.

“Oh no, Jeremiah. We all came to listen to your idea but I’d suspected it would turn out the way it did,” the elder replied.

The pastor was shocked to hear that but before he could reply, the elder quipped: “Anyway, why don’t you do the honours and close the meeting with a prayer…”

Although crestfallen, the pastor didn’t give up although he didn’t show it to the others. He knew the idea had come from God and so he wanted to see it materialise. Raising his hands up towards heaven, he prayed as if it were his last.

“Oh Lord of Heaven! You have seen how my brothers here don’t share the vision You have given me. Try as mightily as I have, I have only failed you. Lord, I pray You will move them to see and realise that this is not mine but Your vision,” he prayed.

“And if it is, Lord, let us all do Your will,” he continued. “So, show us a sign. Let us know this is what You want us to do. In Jesus’ most precious Name we ask and pray, Amen!”

Before the others could say ‘Amen,’ a bolt of lightning appeared amidst a thunderous outburst, crashing through the window pane closest to where they were. The powerful lightning struck the table they were all sat at, shocking everyone. Many were taken aback by the suddenness that they fell backwards in their chairs. In the end, all were on the floor except the pastor who was still seated.

He looked at them, calmly, and asked, “So what do you reckon now? Should we put the idea back to a vote?”

Picking himself off the floor, dusting himself off and straightening his jacket, the elder said, “Well, I guess that’s now 15 to 2 but you still lose.”

For some people, change is just a word. They just can’t stomach the idea of changing. Even a bolt of lightning doesn’t cause them to rethink things. Change is never a good idea if it isn’t theirs in the first place. Some of us have come across people whose grievous sins are finally exposed and their promises to change amount to a bluster of hot air. 

In other words, they can’t be bothered to change. Life’s too good for them the way they are. The idea that God knows about their sins hardly made a difference. And they go about their lives unperturbed and unchanging.  

For many of us, change is way too difficult because old habits die hard. Ask any chain smoker or alcoholic. Or any drug addict you know. Sexual perverts and predators know that too well also. If change is so nigh impossible, then these are the people who can’t muster turning a corner in their lives. They will never renew their mindsets nor re-evaluate their prejudices. They don’t have the wherewithal to lift themselves from their sinful miseries.

Today’s article focuses on the story of Cornelius and Peter (Acts 10:1-48). Here are two characters of whom one we are familiar with and the other, not so much. In this true story, Jesus’ disciple Peter faces one of the biggest challenges in his life and ministry in the post-Christ era. In this challenge, God brings before Peter a great opportunity to change, one he never knew he had to. Faced with change, Peter’s response is what we’re going to look at.

This change has long been spoken about throughout Scripture. It is the same one that Paul had spoken about as a mystery kept hidden from Satan. However he did reveal it to the saints (Col 1:26) but it was to the Ephesians that he did so in much greater detail. In the change, the Gentiles would inherit the Kingdom and become members of the same Body of Christ. They are to be the co-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.

Because Peter bore the responsibility of fathering the Church for Christ, God’s first priority was to lead him to reorientate his thinking without which, the Church would not be ready to implement His plan to save the Gentiles. But of course, the story also involves a person named Cornelius, a Roman centurion and a Gentile whom God moved to press the issue on Peter. By bringing two disparate people together, God answered two separate prayers, merging them to and for His glory. This, in brief, is what Acts 10:1-48 is essentially about.

In the 49 verses, we can read the story in six distinct sections:

1-8 > I. Cornelius receives a strange vision

9-16 > II. Peter also receives a similarly odd vision

17-23a > III. Cornelius’ messengers seek out Peter

23b-33 > IV. Peter arrives in Cornelius’ home

34-43 > V. Peter shares the Good News

44-48 > VI. Cornelius and family receives the Holy Spirit

I. Cornelius receives a strange vision (Acts 10:1-8)

“¹ In Caesarea, there lives a Roman army officer named Cornelius who was a captain of the Italian Regiment. ² He was a devout, God-fearing man as was everyone in his household. He gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God. ³ One afternoon about three o’clock, he had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him.

‘Cornelius!’ the angel said. ⁴ Cornelius stared at him in terror. ‘What is it, sir?’ he asked the angel.

And the angel replied, ‘Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering! ⁵ Now send some men to Joppa and summon a man named Simon Peter. ⁶ He is staying with Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.’ ⁷ As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier, one of his personal attendants. ⁸ He told them what had happened and sent them off to Joppa.” (Acts 10:1-8, NLT, m.e.)

The important part of this story is that Cornelius wasn’t just a Roman and an army officer but was a Gentile. Scripture tells us that he was a “devout, God-fearing man” and so were his family members (“his household”). Cornelius was also someone who “gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God.”

There are two interesting things to note at this point. Firstly, we can and do find non-Christians who do believe in and pray regularly to God. It’s just that they might not have a personal relationship with the God we know and of course, they are yet to receive salvation through Christ Jesus. Secondly, it is also possible to find a non-Christian who might display godliness better than many Christians we know. In other words, Christians don’t necessarily behave better than non-Christians. Unfortunately, we do know this to be true in so many cases, don’t we!

In Cornelius was someone, a Gentile, who was better known to the Jews as an outsider. To the contemporary Christian, an ‘outsider’ would be someone who isn’t a member of the church, any church. Cornelius certainly wasn’t a disciple of Jesus but that didn’t stop him from wanting to know more about God. He was definitely prepared to do what it took to achieve that.

And because Cornelius was willing to be instructed and guided, his attitude paved the way for God to enter into his life and lead him. The point is if you avail yourself to the will of God and you have a natural desire to truly want to know Him, He will certainly make it all happen. In other words, the ball has always been in our court.

There’s that phrase: “Instructed and guided.” In verse 5, the phrase encapsulates how the angel instructed Cornelius to “send some men to Joppa” and then “summon a man named Simon Peter.” To be “instructed and guided” by the angel means that the Roman centurion was an exemplar of obedience. But then, being a centurion in the Italian regiment, obedience was a strong prerequisite. In this case, Cornelius was obedient not to his generals but to God, allowing Him to take over and lead him to hear the Gospel for the first time. Through the vision presented to him, he did exactly as he was told. 

A little interesting point that we shouldn’t overlook is that Cornelius despatched not only two of his servants but he requested a soldier to follow along. Quite likely the soldier was part of his 100-strong platoon (called ‘century’). Scripture took note of the soldier being “devout” as well, meaning that he too believes in God and was probably too, a prayerful person.

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II. Peter also receives a similarly odd vision (vv.9-16)

“⁹ The next day as Cornelius’ messengers were nearing the town, Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon, ¹⁰ and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. ¹¹ He saw the sky open and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. ¹² In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles and birds. ¹³ Then a voice said to him, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.’

¹⁴ ‘No, Lord,’ Peter declared. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.’ ¹⁵ But the voice spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’ ¹⁶ The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven.” (vv.9-16, NLT, m.e.)

Just to get the time frame as close to correct as possible, take note that verse 9 says that Cornelius’ entourage was close to arriving at their destination by the following day. We don’t know exactly what time they left the previous day but we do know that the same verse says “about noon.” 

During those days, a trip from Caesarea to Joppa would be around 35 miles (56 km) in the southerly direction along the Mediterranean coast. On the assumption that they walked at a speed of 3.7 mph (6 kmh) with brief breaks here and there, the journey would take up to half a day to complete. Given that they were due to arrive a little after midday (v.9), it is likely that, at the earliest, they departed in the late afternoon the day before, possibly sometime around 3:00pm.  

The amazing thing about this story is that these were two people who began by not knowing each other. In fact, they had no reason to know each other since their lives were so completely different. More to the point, one was a Jew while the other, a Gentile. Yet each of them ‘happened’ to have a divine encounter of his own after they began to pray. These visions were admittedly quite different in nature but even so, God used them to draw each to the other.

Though this might sound quite extraordinary, much of life itself is filled with similar experiences where God brings two or more people together for the purpose of fulfilling His will. I can certainly say that it was the Lord who brought my wife and me together. Given the unlikeliest of circumstances, there was no chance that we could have otherwise met. I can apply the same to other relationships and friendships that have come together, again, in quite unlikely ways. Indeed, through my experiences, I can say that He brings people together to bring glory to Him. Peter and Cornelius certainly did.

In Peter’s case, God put him in a trance just as he felt his hunger pangs. Quite incredibly then, the vision Peter had was about eating. He was told to slaughter and eat “all sorts of animals, reptiles and birds” (v.12). But he baulked because in his mind, they were unclean. 

In the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 14:3-20 underlined the Mosaic Law about meats that Jews could and couldn’t consume. But as we soon will see, Peter’s encounter in this case resulted in him declaring that under the new covenant, no creature of God was to be considered unclean (Acts 10:11-15). We also see this reflected in Mark’s Gospel (Mk 7:19).

Upon receiving the vision, Peter actually rejected God because “our Jewish laws” appeared more important for him to comply but the Lord put him in his place by saying that He “has made [them] clean.” Peter was a striking example of a typical Jew steeped in his tradition and customs. To him, abstinence from eating “impure or unclean” meat is as important as many of the laws that bound them. And they still bind them today.

Given that this was how he felt, it’s not hard to imagine how he would have been totally confused by the vision. But in this case, God is telling Peter to eat what were essentially unclean animals; animals that were rendered so in Deuteronomy 14:7. He did so for two reasons. Firstly, when God said He has cleansed them (Acts 10:15), indeed He has. He must have done something to have made these unclean animals clean and hence, acceptable for consumption. 

Secondly, Mosaic Law’s coverage of dietary stipulations and standards made up one of the key cultural points of separation between the Jews and Gentiles. Where the Gentiles could and would eat anything, the Jews relied on their laws to differentiate the clean from the unclean. But it was this very law that God would finally use Peter to tear it all down.

In verse 16, the vision is said to be repeated three times, meaning that in total, it had appeared four times. Why this many times, no one is sure because Scripture doesn’t explain it. Some say that this was because Peter had such trouble understanding it. Others suggest that it had something to do with Cornelius having sent three messengers thus helping Peter to understand that their purpose in seeing him had something to do with God’s command to all of them.

III. Cornelius’ messengers seek out Peter (vv.17-23a)

“¹⁷ Peter was very perplexed. What could the vision mean? Just then the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house. Standing outside the gate, ¹⁸ they asked if a man named Simon Peter was staying there.

¹⁹ Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, ‘Three men have come looking for you. ²⁰ Get up, go downstairs and go with them without hesitation. Don’t worry, for I have sent them.’ ²¹ So Peter went down and said, ‘I’m the man you are looking for. Why have you come?’

²² They said, ‘We were sent by Cornelius, a Roman officer. He is a devout and God-fearing man, well respected by all the Jews. A holy angel instructed him to summon you to his house so that he can hear your message.’ ^23a So Peter invited the men to stay for the night.” (vv.17-23a, NLT, m.e.)

In these passages, we now come to the encounter between Peter and Cornelius’ messengers but not before the apostle was inundated with perplexing thoughts concerning the vision. In the midst of such confusion, the messengers were already at the outside gate, standing and waiting to see him. Even more interesting then, Peter was stopped in his tracks by the Holy Spirit who told him accept Cornelius’ messengers without question. The command was to accept them and later go with them back to Caesarea.

So there you have it – the instruction had come and the message was quite clear by then. Being made clear, one would expect Peter to understand and obey but he didn’t. In verse 21, he actually asked, “Why have you come?” Before that in verse 14, he seemed quite happy to also argue with God over the unclean animals. It’s obvious that Peter can be quite obtuse. If God were to command any of us to go, we just get up and go. If we are to walk the whole 35-mile journey, we walk. You don’t ask why. You certainly don’t keep baulking at God all the way.

In such a situation, Christians, as disciples of Christ, should respond to God by saying, “Lord, Lord, I may not know why or where but I know I will do as You ask.” In every sense of what this means, Peter shouldn’t need to ask why. So do we given the same situation. But poor Peter. His head must have been spinning like a top by now. From strange vision to strange people, it was all getting a little too much.

Of course, it wasn’t just Peter alone. Cornelius was also intimidated by the appearance of the angel to the point of fear:

‘Cornelius!’ the angel said. ⁴ Cornelius stared at him in terror. ‘What is it, sir?’ he asked the angel. (10:3-4, NLT, m.e.)

After all, it isn’t everyday that everyone of us gets to see a real-life angel before our eyes. It is interesting that while Hollywood persistently paints pictures of angelic beings looking, well, ‘angelic,’ it is obvious that Cornelius didn’t. An expression of terror pretty much says it all. It must have gotten worse when the angel instructed him to get his messengers to go seek someone by the name Simon Peter.

But once both Peter and Cornelius got a grip of what was happening, they decided to heed God’s command. In both their cases, they acted immediately. For Peter, he said it so in verse 29 below.

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IV. Peter arrives in Cornelius’ home (vv.23b-33)

“^23b The next day, he went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa. ²⁴ They arrived in Caesarea the following day. Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. ²⁵ As Peter entered his home, Cornelius fell at his feet and worshipped him. ²⁶ But Peter pulled him up and said, ‘Stand up! I’m a human being just like you!’ ²⁷ So they talked together and went inside, where many others were assembled.

²⁸ Peter told them, ‘You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean. ²⁹ So I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. Now tell me why you sent for me.’

³⁰ Cornelius replied, ‘Four days ago, I was praying in my house about this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me. ³¹ He told me, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by God! ³² Now send messengers to Joppa and summon a man named Simon Peter. He is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.’ ³³ So I sent for you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.’” (vv.23b-33, NLT, m.e.)

Verse 23b tells us that Peter thought to bring along “some of the brothers from Joppa.” ‘Brothers’ in this case might not be his siblings. After all, there is a difference in wording between “the brothers” and ‘his brothers.’ They were more like like-minded fraternal friends who happened to live in Joppa and not where Peter originally hailed from.

Peter’s decision to bring along his friends is unusual because the angel’s command to Cornelius was that he needed to meet only him but not anyone else. One might be able to read into this a sense of distrust or doubt on Peter’s part. Perhaps it was because Peter had no idea who Cornelius was let alone the two servants and the soldier he sent. They might be ‘devout’ to their master but Peter wouldn’t know any of this. But then Peter’s instructions came not from another human but from the Holy Spirit. In other words, if he couldn’t trust the Spirit, who else can you? (1 Jn 4:18)

It’s obvious that even Peter didn’t remember that his descendants failed to claim the Promised Land that God told them to because they too doubted Him. In Num 13:26-14:4 lies the story of how mortal fears overrode spiritual sense in God. As a result, they sent 12 scouts in who then returned, gripped with fear. 

The rest of the story was, well, tragic. Thankfully, this time, God seemed more forgiving. Meanwhile it wasn’t just Cornelius who waited with mounting excitement for Peter to arrive but also his relatives and close friends. He was generous in also wanting his loved ones to experience the message from God.

In fact, Cornelius was so respectable that when Peter arrived, he “fell at his feet and worshipped him” (v.25), a gesture that Peter was quick to correct. It was also the kind of expression that those who were accustomed to pagan worshipping would have done. Being of Roman culture, that was an understandable mistake on Cornelius’ part. In the same way, we are never to take glory unto ourselves even as we do great things for others.

Someone I used to know would take delight in telling me how his late father would build schools, hospitals and playgrounds in some provincial part of China to show how he used his wealth to substantiate his generosity. The father chose that specific part of the country to do so because he was born there in the previous century before migrating to what was once called Malaya. However, there was a common feature on all these building structures – they all were emblazoned with his late father’s name. Just to make sure no one could miss it, the name was large and visible from the main roads.

That’s the kind of behaviour Peter was alluding to with Cornelius. For whatever our achievements are, God deserves all the glory no matter what. Because God is always in control (Prov 19:21, 16:9, Ps 115:3), our successes and failures are essentially what He allows or disallows. Every outcome in our lives is something God is aware. When someone has the means of building schools, hospitals and playgrounds to benefit communities, it is only because God allowed it to happen. It has nothing to do with the person’s abilities.

In these passages, we get to the crux of the article – both Peter and Cornelius are people who experience the kind of change that could only be brought on by God. But their reactions were quite different. Peter began by casting doubts and experiencing confusion. Cornelius, on the other hand, was terrified (v.4) by the angel’s “dazzling clothes” (v.30) in his presence before he quickly understood his instructions. Thereafter, he did not hesitate to send his servants and soldiers to bring Peter back.

The potential to change came to both Peter and Cornelius but they didn’t exactly produce the same outcome, at least initially. As we know, one of two outcomes was markedly more proactive. What made this story stand out was that these two changes were the result of two simultaneous prayers by two disparate people in two contrasting places. In God unfolding His plan, He brought together two people who knew nothing of each other. 

One was a Jew and an apostle and the other a God-fearing Gentile. By bringing these two people together, God’s plan to bring salvation to the whole world could take place. In issuing instructions to the two, God merged their actions and in unifying them, the promise of salvation was finally materialising for those not of his own Chosen People.

But of course, it wasn’t as straightforward as it may sound. In particular, it was Peter who had the odds stacked against him. For him to overcome his own cultural challenges was going to be an uphill task. It was something he was never brought up to do but then again, one could say that of almost every Jew during that era. 

When it came to dealing with Gentiles, the Jews only had verboten in their minds. For one, they could not visit a Gentile’s home. For another, they could not be associated with Gentiles, physically or otherwise. It was mainly both of these that Peter found himself confronting as a result of the vision.

Although he had problems accepting such challenges at the beginning, Peter did respond fairly quickly soon after but not before he was rebuked by God. In his eventual meeting with Cornelius, he admitted as much what that change was and how God altered his mindset. Of great importance was that he explained how such Jewish Laws concerning impure and unclean animals were finally abrogated by the Lord.

Needless to say, once Peter got over his earlier cultural inhibitions, God could finally use him to and for His purposes. Meeting Cornelius became the cornerstone of God’s greatest gift to the Gentiles because Peter finally moved in divine harmony. Or at least that was what most of us would have expected but, no, it seemed that his head was still stuck in the fog when quite incredulously, he asked, “Now tell me why you sent for me.”

It now appeared that the full weight of the chance encounter had yet to bear on Peter. He finally understood the vision of the impure and unclean animals. He joined the dots between that and how he should now treat the Gentiles. He obeyed the Holy Spirit’s orders to meet Cornelius’ messengers and join them in returning to Caesarea. He finally met Cornelius himself. And he explained all that he understood…except not having even the foggiest idea “why you sent for me.”

The full weight of God’s plan had still eluded Peter! In other words, it hadn’t dawned on him to share the Good News to this Gentile family. Maybe after all, Peter’s awareness was as sensitive as his namesake, a proverbial rock! It took Cornelius, a Gentile, to draw him to his senses. It was his account of the story that prompted the Gospel to be told (v.33).

A notable thing at this point is the sheer enthusiasm and anticipation that Cornelius and his relatives and friends displayed in wanting to hear the Gospel. Ironically, Cornelius’ hunger in this sense is truly spiritual but Peter’s earlier pangs of hunger were simply about wanting to eat (v.10).

No doubt about it, Cornelius’ desire to hear God’s message is what every aspiring evangelist in us would love to encounter. Cornelius and his friends epitomise the kind of people we all dream of meeting because they make our job far easier and more straightforward. Just imagine for a moment of some stranger coming up and say to us, “Listen, pal, I’d love you to tell me every wonderful thing you know about God because I’ve been hungering to hear it!” Now, what an enduring experience this would be!

As Jesus has commanded us to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Mt 28:19), the Bible doesn’t give us any hint if Peter was actually glad to do so with the likes of Cornelius. We know that Cornelius was itching to hear the Good News but that doesn’t necessarily mean Peter reciprocated. At this point of the story, of course, we’ll never know if it might just be because of his lingering cultural inhibitions.

V. Peter shares the Good News (vv.34-43)

“³⁴ Then Peter replied, ‘I see very clearly that God shows no favouritism. ³⁵ In every nation, He accepts those who fear Him and do what is right. ³⁶ This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel – that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. ³⁷ You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching his message of baptism. ³⁸ And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.’ ³⁹ ‘And we apostles are witnesses of all He did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross, ⁴⁰ but God raised Him to life on the third day. Then God allowed Him to appear, ⁴¹ not to the general public but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be His witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. ⁴² And He ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the One appointed by God to be the judge of all – the living and the dead. ⁴³ He is the One all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in Him will have their sins forgiven through His Name.’” (vv.34-43, NLT, m.e.)

It is only when Peter finally began sharing the Good News that his confession started. He said that God showed no favouritism (v.34), meaning the Gospel wasn’t just for the Jews but for everyone throughout the world including all the Gentiles one could find. This would have been sweet news to someone like Cornelius who was there to hear this firsthand because “no favouritism” means God is not partial to any particular race, creed or colour.

Neither would He favour a materially successful Christian in an affluent First World nation more than He would a homeless hobo in a Third World nation. He accepts Christians from “every nation” (v.35) just as He would welcome unbelievers into His midst albeit with the condition He mentioned (ibid). In fact, as we all know, a rich man who thinks he’s a Christian might have more cause for concern than his opposite counterpart.

Recall the story of this man who came across Jesus and asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” to which he replied that he must know the commandments (Mk 10:17-19). The man replied that he had honoured all of them throughout his life but Jesus said he had still left one that had yet to be fulfilled. This was what Jesus said he had yet to do:

“²¹ ‘Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ ²² At this, the man’s face fell and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. ²³ Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!’ ²⁴ This amazed them. But Jesus said again, ‘Dear children, it is very hard to enter the Kingdom of God. ²⁵ In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”  (Mk 10:21-25, NLT, m.e.)

It doesn’t mean that rich people don’t make it to heaven. God isn’t saying that it is sinful to be rich. He also isn’t saying that He hates rich people. What God is actually saying is that rich people might have priorities that do not allow them into His Kingdom. In the above story, the man only became crestfallen after Jesus told him to rid himself of all his possessions and give the money from the proceeds to the poor. 

For him, his priority was to horde his possessions. It’s this kind of priority that Jesus was talking about. Yet He genuinely loved this man (v.21). Hence when God says He shows no favour to anyone in particular, He loves everyone, rich and poor. No one is excluded. 

Perhaps the most significant part of Peter’s message to Cornelius and his friends was when he said, “that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all,” it was the last bit – “who is Lord of all” – that would have been played to maximum impact because it simply said that Jesus is, unreservedly and unconditionally, Lord of every creation.

Putting that into perspective might help us to understand how cringeworthy it is when we hear Christians telling their unbeliever friends to accept Jesus as their Lord and God. Why? Because Jesus is the Lord of all! Whether someone accepts this or not is immaterial because He remains his or her Lord. Irrespective of the people we talk to whether they are atheists, socialists, agnostics, anti-Semites, Satan-worshippers, Muslims or Buddhists, Jesus still is their Lord. There is no escaping this fact no matter what they might want to do. Richard Dawkins and everyone at ACLU, take note of this:

“¹⁵ Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, ¹⁶ for through Him, God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see – such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through Him and for Him.” (Col 1:15-16, NLT, m.e.)

And even if these people refuse to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, they all will end up doing so. It’s only a matter of where and when they will do that:

“⁹ God elevated Him to the place of highest honour and gave Him the Name above all other names, ¹⁰ that at the Name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Php 2:9-11, NLT, m.e.)

Take note that the phrase ‘under the earth’ refers to the underworld, which is just another name for hell. What this means is even those who have died and aren’t in the Kingdom of God will nonetheless acknowledge Jesus no matter who they were when they were alive. They may reject Him, admonish and abuse His Name, repudiate Him and condemn Him for all they want because Jesus will have the last say.

As Peter continued with his message, he added, “In every nation He accepts those who fear Him and do what is right” (v.35). And with this, he would have introduced an interesting almost-dichotomous concept to Cornelius; one where we are to love but fear God who then calls us His friends and children. It’s pretty much similar to parenting itself where children are to love their parents but at the same time, fear them enough to respect and obey. That is why parents who overplay the role as their children’s ‘best friend’ could eventually get into trouble when conflicts arise.

It is for the same reason that being the employer, we need to be circumspect when we befriend employees and blur the distinction. In my days running an IT outfit as an IBM reseller, that was precisely my problem. I had unwittingly – but foolishly – become too friendly to the point where it became too difficult to confront derelictions of duty.

Imagine if the King of kings show up at your home. Despite His towering height, He calls you His friend. He looks at you with a warm smile and His hand reaches for your shoulder. You sense His friendship but then will you return the favour and slap Him on His back? Will you wrestle and mess with Him as physically-inclined friends typically do? Will you tell ribald jokes as if you’re sharing a beer with Him in a pub? Or will you feel the gratitude of His friendship and hence, in your humility, bestow even greater respect to Him? Because He considers you His friend?

Remember Jesus saying this:

“¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you slaves because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now You are My friends since I have told you everything the Father told Me. ¹⁶ You didn’t choose Me. I chose you.” (Jn 15:14-16, NLT, m.e.)

“11 He came to His own people and even they rejected Him. 12 But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God.” (Jn 1:11-12, NLT, m.e.)

God not only calls us His friends but His children. But there is a condition. In the above passages, Jesus first says, “You are My friends if you do what I command (v.14).” And then He adds that “to become children of God,” we must first believe and accept Him. Only then will Jesus accords us the right. Those conditions make it very clear that even though He treats us as His friends, He remains someone we must learn to fear.

Yet this fear has more to do with respect. In other words, when you fear someone, it can also be because you respect him. To put this in another way, when you fear someone, it may lead you to show him respect. To me, both appear to make a lot of sense. But then there is this verse to consider:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Prov 9:10, NIV)

In other words, wisdom can only come after we learn to fear God. And only when we know who He is will we begin to understand life around us. Going back to what Peter said about those who fear God and do what is right are those whom He accepts. This is reverential fear; fear that is out of how much we revere Him. It is not fear just for the sake of fear.

Despite all the flaws or shortcomings we may find in the way Peter handled himself, he did share the Gospel and he did it very well; well enough that we can all learn from. From his sharing, he proclaimed the following to Cornelius and his friends and relatives:

-         Jesus was sent by God the Father and that He was equipped and empowered by Him together with the Holy Spirit

-         Jesus is Lord of all; ‘all’ meaning every single creation on earth and throughout the Universe

-         Jesus was sentenced to die on the cross but God the Father raised Him from the dead on the third day to once and for all overcome the perdition of death

-         He himself (Peter) and the other disciples including Jesus’ mother were all witnesses to Jesus’ ministry on earth including His dying on the cross and ultimately His resurrection

-         The outcome of all this was Christ’s forgiveness of sins and the emergence of a new relationship with God; one that includes the promise of salvation and eternal life beyond death

Towards the end of the message he shared, Peter revealed that the Son of God “ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the One” (v.42). Yet he himself was the one who was slow to come to his senses for it took him awhile to even figure out why he was ‘taken’ to see Cornelius.

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VI. Cornelius and family receive the Holy Spirit (vv.44-48)

“⁴⁴ Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. ⁴⁵ The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too. ⁴⁶ For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God.

Then Peter asked, ⁴⁷ ‘Can anyone object to their being baptised now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?’ ⁴⁸ So he gave orders for them to be baptised in the Name of Jesus Christ. Afterwards Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days.” (vv.44-48, NLT, m.e.)

If Peter had any scepticisms about being in the home of a Gentile, the intervention of the Holy Spirit would wipe them all out. Now, he as well as the Jewish friends who came along witnessed something they never imagined they ever would. Watching the Gentiles becoming the recipients of the Holy Spirit and then speaking in tongues, it must have been an incredible sight.

To say that Peter was shocked would be an understatement. Scripture says he was in the midst of saying, “Whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins” (v.43) when suddenly, the Gentiles were visited upon by the Spirit before they began to speak in tongues. In verse 45, Luke recorded that Peter was “amazed” at the sight of it all. 

In other words, Peter had no control as to where or when the Holy Spirit would act. Neither does any pastor today. No one has the Holy Spirit on his beck and call. No one can command Him on cue to do anything he’d like. It’s easy to forget that the Holy Spirit is God and in His sovereignty, He does as He wills, to whom He wills and when He wills.

Considering that he once thought of his exclusive Jewish background, this would have surprised him. And thus was the powerful conversion that Peter experienced. Being a disciple of Christ and having followed Him throughout His ministry, he probably thought he’d seen it all. He probably also thought he was ready for all the life could throw at him. But God knew better.

The Lord foresaw that Peter needed to be differently prepared in order to fulfil His plan. Peter himself had no idea that he needed some hard lessons in order that he changed his culturally-restrained mindset. Therefore, witnessing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit right in the home of a Gentile was enough to convince him that Cornelius and his friends and relatives were all ready for baptism.

The last verse tells us that Peter and his Jewish friends stayed with Cornelius for a few days (v.48), which would be completely unheard of prior to this event. But now, through the shared love of Christ, they – the Gentiles and the Jews – were able to dispense with the past many generations of animosity and prejudice and begin a new relationship bound in the sharing of the Gospel.

Now that God has fulfilled His will with the Gentiles, it is the Jewish church that, next, faced its need for change.

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VII. Peter retells the story in Jerusalem (11:1-18)

“¹ Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that the Gentiles had received the Word of God. ² But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticised him. ³ ‘You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!’ they said.

⁴ Then Peter told them exactly what had happened.

⁵ ‘I was in the town of Joppa,’ he said, ‘and while I was praying, I went into a trance and saw a vision. Something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky. And it came right down to me. ⁶ When I looked inside the sheet, I saw all sorts of tame and wild animals, reptiles and birds. ⁷ And I heard a voice say, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.’

⁸ ‘No, Lord,’ I replied. ‘I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean.’

⁹ ‘But the voice from heaven spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’ ¹⁰ This happened three times before the sheet and all it contained was pulled back up to heaven. ¹¹ ‘Just then three men who had been sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying. ¹² The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry that they were Gentiles. These six brothers here accompanied me and we soon entered the home of the man who had sent for us. ¹³ He told us how an angel had appeared to him in his home and had told him, ‘Send messengers to Joppa and summon a man named Simon Peter. ¹⁴ He will tell you how you and everyone in your household can be saved!’

¹⁵ ‘As I began to speak,’ Peter continued, ‘the Holy Spirit fell on them just as He fell on us at the beginning. ¹⁶ Then I thought of the Lord’s words when He said, ‘John baptised with water but You will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷ And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift He gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?’

¹⁸ When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, ‘We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.’” (11:1-18, NLT, m.e.)

As an adjunct to Acts 10, the following chapter reveals an important scene concerning what took place between the returning Peter and the Jewish church. Because Peter spent a few more days in Caesarea, that meant that news of the Gentiles getting baptised had reached the church well before they arrived, which explained why the believers criticised them. It was all too evident that they weren’t keen about what had happened.

Knowing he now had some explaining to do, Peter revealed what had happened but considering the sensitivities involved, he was careful how he told his story. He spoke about his vision of the unclean animals followed by the command to rendezvous with Cornelius’ messengers. He then recounted Cornelius’ side of the story. In rounding off his explanation, he concluded by saying, “And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift He gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?” (11:17)

The key part of his conclusion was important – “Who was I to stand in God’s way?” – because Peter is plainly reiterating that nothing that took place was theirs to decide or determine but God’s. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit could never be dictated by anyone and when He came, all Peter and his friends could do was to watch in awe. As it seems, that was all that was needed to finally convince the Jewish believers.

Or at least that was what it appeared by the end of the chapter. However, in truth, the Jewish church remained resistant to the idea. Five chapters later in Acts 15, we learn of many more objections that surfaced, resulting in a council being held in Jerusalem purely to resolve them.

Old habits die hard, they say, and it is often true. It’s certainly true with the early Jewish church. The baptism of the Gentiles was a rude awakening to a church that felt they were the ones exclusive to God. They knew next to nothing about His plan to broaden Kingdom appeal to the Gentiles around the world. Cornelius’ conversion had now forced the believing Jews to finally grapple with their old habits, customs, biases and prejudices. And they didn’t like it one bit.

The three takeaways

From this remarkable true story of Peter and Cornelius, we can take home three main points that proved inescapably dominant.

Firstly, God’s sovereignty is not up for debate. He is our Creator, our Lord, the King of kings and the Author of everything that is living on earth. He also happens to be the Creator of the entire Universe. As His creation taken after His image, we serve Him and to do that, we must be in obedience to Him at all times and that implies how we are to be in step with His plans. Not knowing the reasons behind these plans is immaterial – He may, after all, tell or not tell. He also can determine how long before He finally reveals His plans.

Irrespective of what plans God has in mind, we are submissive to His will. This means we are at His command no matter what. In His sovereignty, we can’t even question God’s motives in whatever He wishes to do. Even if we do, He doesn’t have to provide us with an answer. And so if we’re left grappling for answers, He remains God over all.

Still, because He is a moral God, righteousness in our lives is important to Him. What we feel is right or wrong might not matter much to Him because only His moral codes stand. In other words, we cannot invent our own to supersede His. In God’s sovereignty, He can forgive anyone He wishes – including mass murderers, corrupt politicians and rapists and so on – and there’s nothing we can do. 

Often when that happens, it is because we do not have the depth of understanding to know how God thinks. It is said that our intelligence does not prepare us to properly perceive divine providence in its fullest form.

In this story, God exposed Peter’s understanding for what it was – inadequate, antiquated and not in line with His plan. As much as the Jews liked to think of their exclusivity, it was ultimately God who decided that the Gentiles were part of His plan. Just as it was He who determined when unclean animals could actually be made clean (vv.11-16) much to Peter’s bafflement. And when that happened, Peter couldn’t accept it at the beginning. If it were any of us, we too would find ourselves in the same situation as Peter.

And if God could turn the Mosaic Law upside down, He would have no trouble dealing with manmade Jewish laws about whose home the Jews could or couldn’t enter much less fraternise with. Peter learned the difficult way as to how manmade legislations were no match for God’s supremacy. No matter how immutable we think our worldly laws are, God can make fools out of any of us.

Consider the odds that a fledgling modern Israel was against when the Arabs decided to invade its sovereignty shortly after its creation in 1948. In the three wars that span 1948 to 1973, the tiny and poorly-equipped Jewish state was constantly on the back foot against an enemy that was armed to the teeth by the Soviets. Time and again, the size of their army, infantry, air force and navy were dwarfed by the combined Arab contingent comprising Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Libya and several others.

In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel was seriously caught out. Having underestimated Arab resolve, Egyptian and Jordanian forces on opposing flanks found themselves with the best opportunity to finally annihilate Israel. It was so grim that much of the Israeli population had dug fresh graves in readiness to die. Hope was thinning by the day and gloom was cast over the entire Jewish state. After the victorious 1967 Six Day War, tens of thousands of Israelis felt this was the end, the ultimate shoah.

But God turned the tables on Israel’s enemies and made fools out of every media observer who predicted its destruction. Beyond 1973, Israel was always under the shadow of Arab threats but God was constantly on their side. As we now live through the looming emergence of Iranian nuclear weaponry, the Lord will show His sovereign hand even if the rest of the world continues to deride Israel’s chance of survival.   

Secondly, God doesn’t take sides, not even if you’re avowedly a Christian. Consider Martin Luther, the undisputed Father of Reformation and the protagonist of the Protestant movement, God did not agree with his well-documented hatred of the Jews. Some historians are of the opinion that Luther’s anti-Semitism could arguably be the motivating factor behind Nazi Germany’s genocidal ambitions against the Jews. 

Some of us, too, might harbour sentiments that the Jews did not deserve to be part of God’s plan simply because we like to hold them responsible for sending Jesus to the cross. Yet we forget the biblical significance of the Jews being God’s Chosen People. In other words, it’s not God’s fault that our opinion on the Jews is wrong.

By the same token, the Jews think Gentiles don’t have the right to share the same salvation plan as them and by and large, most Judaists today retain that same opinion. Again, it’s not God’s fault that they have little to no understanding of His plan. Persistently, many forget that Scripture does say that His thoughts are nothing like ours (Isa 55:8). In God’s impartiality, His love is for all to enjoy. Hence the Good News is for everyone who cares enough to listen and accept. Here is a lifetime of eternity with Him. It’s an offer He wishes for everyone to savour and not just a select few.

God does not look at us the way we do. While many of us are inclined to be discriminating to some extent and in some form or another, God looks past our creed and colour, social or economic standing, religion, cultural background or history. He will accept anyone who decides to come to Him by way of His Son. If we accept Jesus as the Son of God, the Father would welcome us. There’s biblical evidence of this and no one can dispute it.

This aspect of God’s impartiality saves many of us from certain doom. When the world doesn’t want to have anything to do with the uneducated and the poor, God opens His arms and greets them with promise of eternal life. When the world judges those who have been body-shamed and cast them aside, God offers them a chance for true peace and happiness. When we’re so down the social and economic pecking order with no chance of lifting ourselves, God leaves a door open for us to be redeemed. He loves us so much that He allowed His Son to die on the cross just so we have a way back to Him.

Thirdly, we persistently think we know everything until God exposes us. Even the best among us fall into this trap at least once in their lifetimes. It always takes God to show up our flaws. We’re often so into head knowledge that we forget that for all that we know in life, it’s probably only a small infinitesimal fraction of God’s limitless knowhow. It would be way beyond our comprehension to come to terms with the expansiveness of what He knows.

Man’s past history is enough to be daunting. Some historians think they have it down pat but oftentimes, their understanding might be flawed. Consider Darwin’s evolutionism and how misleading it turned out to be. Then there is carbon dating, which modern science swears by but Christian scientists know it to be deceptive. And of course, we’re now having to contend with climate change. Again hordes of scientists, researchers, environmentalists, climate activists and not to mention, politicians and liberalists are all forcing the rest of us to read from the same page.

Yes, many of us are arrogant enough to think they know everything there is to know. In truth, that is completely false and without proof. And the more removed we are from God, the more we like to believe in our expertise. This shortcoming prevents us from learning to develop the mind and perspectives of God. And so long as we reject His thoughts and ways are persistently higher than ours, we will never see the truth of life itself.

One of the worst aspects of Christian behaviour is our belief that we are superior to unbelievers simply because our head knowledge tells us so. We use our biblical knowhow to pummel others into submission just because we can. We know that if we want to win battles on Scripture, all it takes is to reel off an impressive series of verses to shut our opponents’ mouths. We look at unbelievers and we judge them as hell bound. We listen to unbelievers and we think we can teach them a thing or two. Our tendency to constantly judge others is simply a reflection of our smug attitude; that in knowledge we worship, not God.

Focus on Peter

John Stott once wrote, “The principle subject of this chapter is not so much the conversion of Cornelius as the conversion of Peter.” He’s not wrong. Acts 10 offers us a powerful lesson based on Peter’s intransigence concerning what God wanted to teach him although in the end, he relented after realising God’s grace in reconciling the Gentiles. It’s not difficult to see the very same lesson that many churches around the world must learn.

For many centuries, Scripture has been teaching churches about conduct but there are still so many that choose ignorance. Throughout the history of the church right up till today, there are churches that justify their own actions even if they are unbiblical. There are churches that infamously take God’s word out of context. Abound with the alluring prosperity gospel, these are churches that discriminately choose to ignore the multifaceted nature of God’s word. It’s a dangerous doctrine but they don’t seem to care. 

There are also churches insist that certain Bible translations are superior to others. Such churches advertise this as their standing position, meaning that if you use any version other than the one they uphold, you’re unfit to join their services. It’s alarming but it is true; they do exist even today. And they’re not about to change their views.

In the past number of decades, progressive churches are also fast becoming very involved in social issues to the point of taking up political lobbying. In doing so, they have painted Jesus as a social worker with an activist agenda. To that end, these churches are constantly embroiled in highly politicised issues like climate change, unemployment, gun control, illegal migrants, and of late, the notorious Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements. 

Many churches not only in the west coast of America but across Europe are not just welcoming illegal – but questionable – migrants but also protecting those who have broken laws. Countless of these migrants have raped and murdered; yet there are churches that choose to be blind to their actions.

But the ones that raise the most serious alarms are those that use Scripture to justify their positions on homosexuality, same-sex marriages, transgenderism and gender neutrality. So long as these sexual unions are anything but one between a man and a woman, it’s without a doubt a perversion of God’s word. It is clearly evident in Scripture but astonishingly, these churches still manage to distort the message to fit their sexual agenda. And they do all this by also removing everything else that they do not agree with.

The point is there are so many churches that are resistant to change the way Peter was at the beginning. So long as the change is something churches disagree, it wouldn’t matter even if it is biblically sound. Paul’s Ephesian inside-out transformation sounds great but many of these churches would either be indifferent to it or they twist it to fit into their ‘beliefs’ much like forcing a square peg into a round hole.

In Malaysia, there are mainstream churches that look fine on the surface but beneath the outer skin, there lurks an attitude that could surprise many. Most churches, for example, would think twice about inviting beggars and homeless people into their Sunday services especially if they haven’t had a bath in ages. The same could easily apply to those they know who are prostitutes, gigolos, gays, lesbians and anyone who isn’t ‘normal.’

On the converse, there are also churches where known bigamists attend but no one is interested in ‘rocking the boat.’ In a similar way, many churches welcome ‘big givers’ who may not conduct themselves in a Christian manner though this is tolerated so long as the generous funds keep coming in. Never mind if the money is clean, so long as the church benefits, everything is ‘fine.’

Donald Fortner in his book, ‘Life after Pentecost’ (Evangelical Press, 1995) wrote:

“Pride and racism are intolerable evils and must never be accepted by the church of God. All who are in Christ are one in Him, be they rich or poor, black or white, male or female, learned or unlearned. All true believers are brothers and sisters in Christ. In Christ, there are no distinctions of race, sex or social class and none should exist among us.”

Peter’s earlier attitude towards Gentiles is Fortner’s idea of racism but of course, today, there are many other types of problems beyond social ills that underscore the churches’ resistance to change. When progressive churches mix politics with their evangelical imperatives, they often lose track of or compromise their identity. Such involvements are no longer about spiritual empowerment but instead, they become nothing more than political fodder. In some cases, the politics in the church gets so intense that its members end up not filled with love but bursting with hatred especially for those whose opinions and viewpoints they don’t agree with.

A lot has changed since Fortner published his book in 1995; not just with churches in general but the society at large. There has been so much change going on but unfortunately, for the most parts, these aren’t the kinds of change God encourages. With so much undermining going on that stems from within the church walls themselves, Peter’s lesson in Acts 10 stands out as a strong reminder of all that is wrong that needs to be righted. In his case, it was God’s rebuking that finally made him understand what was at stake. As a product of his time and culture, God has shown the errors of Peter’s ways.

All this while, Jews like Peter were led to believe that Gentiles were not their equal but they were treated like dogs. With attitudes like this, it becomes easier to understand Jewish practices like shaking the dust off their feet once they left Gentile territory. As horrible as it sounds, that was standard fare at that time. Jews were also told neither to eat with a Gentile nor to welcome one into their homes. Or even be seen to visit one in his home. The legalism got so extreme that Jews would not even use the same cooking pots as those used by the Gentiles unless they were thoroughly cleaned.

During my parents’ years before becoming Christians, they would practise strict vegan diets on special auspicious days on the Buddhist calendar. During those days, they didn’t share the use of the kitchen appliances and dining utensils with me. They kept and washed them separately and then stored them away from my view just so that I didn’t accidentally use them and hence ‘destroy’ the purity of their tradition. 

My mother especially was so intractable over the matter regardless of how or what I said about it. No amount of logic could sway her. It was only after they became Christians that they understood the legalism and false piety. In similar ways, such practices are no different than some Muslims we know who hide their lasciviousness and corruption by dressing piously, attending prayers at mosques and looking very holy for the benefit of others.

None of these Jewish traditions were authorised by God. They were all contrived out of self-righteousness. Priding themselves over such practices, the Jews likened themselves as separate – and superior – to every Gentile back then. It was likely that their awareness of being God’s Chosen Ones had gotten into their heads. Hence the cultural supremacy. It’s therefore not too difficult to understand Peter’s confusion at the point of the vision itself. It’s possible that he was under the impression that Gentiles could only become Christians through ‘Jewification.’ In other words, they had to be proselytised as Jews first. We’ll never know, of course, but it’s not an impossible speculation.

Whether or not that was the case, Peter did finally understand that in God’s eyes, Gentiles were not subordinate to the Jews. By way of the vision that appeared in his trance, God made it clear that those who weren’t Jews were also part of His plan of salvation even if they needn’t have to be circumcised or wear a yarmulke. In other words, Gentiles were free from such requirements. For these reasons, Stott believes that Acts 10 was more about Peter’s rather than Cornelius’ conversion.

Gentile conversions, however, aren’t new by the time we come to Acts 10. In fact, two chapters earlier, we learn of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch, a treasurer at the court of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, en route home to Ethiopia (Acts 8:26-40). While on his way home from Jerusalem, he was studying the Septuagint when he chanced a meeting with Philip who, himself, was bound for Gaza. Having found Isaiah a difficult text to understand, he sought Philip’s help and through that, he was, according to Jerome and Eusebius, converted and baptised in Bethsura, which was not far from where Gaza is today.

The point is the eunuch was headed home. He did not spend time in the hospitality of any Jew. He met up with Philip but that was along the journey and not in a home. To put that into context, no Jewish traditions were breached. In contrast, the same cannot be said of in Peter’s case where the conversion of a Gentile was even followed by a few days of fellowship between the two. 

In other words, the baptism in Caesarea was ultimately cause for celebration between the Gentiles and Jews. And ultimately the Jewish church not only recognised the admission of Gentiles but without even becoming Jewish proselytes. This was real witnessing of the very first order!

In John MacArthur’s words, “In God’s providence, the time had come to reconcile Jews and Gentiles in the church” (MacArthur New Testament Commentary, 1994). MacArthur is saying that, without God’s orchestration, the reconciliation of the Jews and the Gentiles in church would not have been possible. Through separate prayers by Cornelius and Peter, God hatched His plan that led to the reconciliation becoming possible despite all the cultural and customary hurdles. Indeed, Acts 10 offers us stunning evidence of how only God’s grace could make the whole event so miraculous.

Cornelius and Peter had now set the tone to launch world evangelism of which the apostle Paul would eventually blaze the trail for the others to follow. With the two of them having broken the mould, everything gathered speed and before we knew it, missionaries from an essentially Gentile church were despatched across the various territories of the world for the Gospel to be shared.

As it was then, hatred continues to be the present-day bulwark against Christian evangelism. And we see that everywhere including China, North Korea and Iran and many other countries throughout the modern world. We see this hatred manifesting in persecutions of Christians from the mild to the serious, from simple banishment to beheadings and all forms of executions. Christians are made to pay the price for their faith but in glory to God, they go from here to a far better place, of course.

What is surprising isn’t the persecution in non-Christian parts of the world but the increasing entrenchment of institutionalised antitheism in countries allegedly blessed by God including America. In the U.S. of A, Christian evangelism is facing incredible odds because of leftist politics that outright reject God and the frenetic and immoral nature of political correctness. And therefore, we see an interesting turnaround where God is using missionaries from elsewhere who are now making their way to evangelise First World countries that include even Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

At Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) estimated that in 2010, some 400,000 missionaries from worldwide were despatched. Of the top ten missionary-sending countries in that year – apart from the U.S., which sent out 127,000 missionaries – they included Brazil, South Korea, India, South Africa, Philippines, Mexico, China, Colombia and Nigeria. 

While America continues to be the top despatcher of missionaries to the rest of the world, the nation itself is besieged by an incredible plethora of problems beyond just ethnocentrism. Assailed by mainstream and radical leftism, Christians are constantly under attack on all fronts and in all forms. Blacks hate whites at all social, corporate and institutionalised levels. 

But now even the whites hate whites, although it’s quite hard to wrap our minds around this piece of illogic. Women hate men but now certain women also hate certain other women based on gender preferences. Men pretend to be women so that they can dominate gender-based sports and invade women’s personal safe spaces such as bathrooms and changing rooms. And all of these are an affront to Christianity on the whole.

But as we have seen in Acts 10 with Peter and Cornelius, only the grace of God will overcome all these.

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Focus on Cornelius

Inasmuch as many biblical scholars believe that Acts 10’s focal point is purely on Peter, there is merit in considering that Cornelius’ role was equally as important. This is, after all, a great story of God’s amazing grace in not just sanctifying a saint but in saving a sinner. In this account, Cornelius was no less a recipient of God’s grace. God’s hand was on him for the purpose of carrying out His plan to redeem the entire human race and not just the Jews. What we have here is nothing less than the incredibly miraculous unfolding of sovereign grace.

Just to remind us that the Gentiles are very much a part of God’s children, recall what the apostle John says of God’s sheep from “another fold”:

“¹⁶ I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to My voice and there will be one flock with one shepherd.” (Jn 10:16, NLT, m.e.)

Cornelius is, indeed, one who was from another “sheepfold” to which Jesus said, “I must bring them also.” We should then be greatly encouraged – and grateful – that God has not forgotten those of us who aren’t Jews. The Lord’s plan didn’t only cover His Chosen Ones but to bring us all into His fold because Christ died for everyone. Cornelius’ account of the story offers us as clear a picture as Peter’s. So as we now shift our focus to the Roman centurion, what can we learn from his experience?

Firstly, there’s no doubt that Cornelius was deeply religious. William Barclay (Westminster Press, 1955) recalled Tacitus saying of Roman centurions, “[They] are desired not to be overbold and reckless so much as good leaders, of steady and prudent mind, not prone to take the offensive to start fighting wantonly but able when overwhelmed and hard-pressed to stand fast and die at their posts.” 

In other words, people like Cornelius were not rash minded, impulsive or spontaneous in the way they responded to situations. Rather they were measuredly circumspect and mentally organised. They knew precisely what they were doing. Cornelius’ decision to desire God wasn’t one hatched from a wild idea but instead one that was carefully thought out.

However, despite his devoutness, Cornelius was also lost. He was religious but in his desire for the One True God, he struggled to forge a relationship with. Being a part of Roman society, exposure to its poly-paganism was a given. It would have been simple enough to pursue the many gods in its midst. Yet Cornelius chose to abandon them to pursue Yahweh but short of being proselytised to Judaism. The proselytisation didn’t work for one obvious reason – Jewish tradition and custom simply forbade it.

People like Cornelius couldn’t have numbered many at that time. A Roman centurion who walked away from their own pantheon of gods was, in all likelihood, quite an uncommon case. Given that, he would have been very much on his own and with alienation coming from the Jews, someone like him would also have struggled in his spiritual life. But that didn’t stop him from influencing his own relatives and close friends, all of whom, quite miraculously, desired the same relationship with God. In other words, they too wanted to know the One True God.

Such desire might not be too hard to come by in Roman society but in Cornelius, one thing stood out – he actually prayed to God even though he had yet to establish a direct spiritual relationship with Christ. Richard Longenecker wrote:

“It seems that we must understand Cornelius to have been a Gentile who, having realised the bankruptcy of paganism, sought to worship a monotheistic God, practise a form of prayer and lead a moral life, apart from any necessary association with Judaism.” [m.e.]

Not being proselytised to Judaism may not necessarily be a bad thing. It just depends on how one sees it. Regardless, he wasn’t deterred in his desire to know God. Not being a Jew might have ‘prevented’ him from being circumcised but as a Gentile, he lived up to the light that he had. For that, God delivered a whole lot more light to him than he could have dreamed of. Such was the incredible power of Cornelius’ life of prayer that God rewarded him in great abundance.

Having desire was one thing. Like the Ethiopian eunuch or Saul who ‘excelled’ at persecuting Christians, he too was a man of nobility. Much respect was bestowed to him as a respectable Roman centurion. He was, like the other two, a godly man though one who was undeniably lost. Charles Erdman wrote:

“It is almost startling to note the character of the men who are described in the Acts as needing the salvation that can be found in Christ alone. This section of the book narrates three notable conversions: that of the Ethiopian prince, of Saul, and of Cornelius, but all of these were godly men; they were not only of irreproachable morality but they were zealously religious. Are such men lost? Is it absolutely necessary today for men of this character to experience a “new birth”? These narratives seem so to affirm and they remind us of the words spoken by our Lord to the great teacher of Israel: “Ye must be born anew.” [m.e.]

As Erdman rhetorically said, people like Cornelius were lost and therefore in need of being saved. The idea was they needed to experience “a new birth,” which isn’t difficult to understand. In our contemporary times, many people I know came to Christ because they were lost. They’ve been seeking the truth but they were looking in all the wrong places. 

In coming to Christ, they had nothing to lose but everything to gain such as the peace, calm and the reassurance. They felt rarefied comfort that only Christ could offer. They also found good reasons to finally be happy once again. In Christ, they now found their brand new identity. They experienced a rebirth and forged a direction in life unlike ever before because this time, they were sanctified to the Lord.

As Jesus puts it, Cornelius belonged to a ‘different sheepfold.’ That didn’t stop him from adopting his prayerfulness, which the story reveals in some detail. Acts 10 tells us he began his regular praying one day at the ninth hour. According to Jewish custom, the day begins at 6:00am rather than our midnight. Therefore, the ninth hour means 3:00pm in the afternoon. Given that Jews then as now prayed three times a day, Cornelius’ afternoon prayer – called Minchah – was of great importance even though he was not proselytised. Interesting then that he then “had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him” (Acts 10:3).

Therein, the angel had a great message for him. He said, “He [meaning Peter] will tell you how you and everyone in your household can be saved!” By that message alone, it is evident that despite all his praying, Cornelius was still not saved but the angel now told him that God had given him the opportunity to be. And all that because he prayed. Of course, little did he realised that God was using him to move Peter into revealing and sharing the Gospel with him and his relatives and friends.

When Cornelius heard that from the angel, he did not hesitate in following his instruction. Scripture tells us:

“⁷ As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier, one of his personal attendants. ⁸ He told them what had happened and sent them off to Joppa.” (Acts 10:7-8, NLT, m.e.)

Therein lies the next important aspect of Cornelius – his urgency. He wasted no time in sending his messengers to Joppa to seek out Peter. That alone set him apart from Naaman who was recorded in the Second Book of Kings as having a vastly different attitude. Even though he was deeply respected by his own king for the great military victories resulting from his relationship with God, he still refused to be washed seven times in the Jordan River as prescribed by the prophet Elisha to heal him of his leprosy. He only relented after his own officers succeeded in persuading him (2 Kgs 5:9-14).

Naaman’s refusal puts him in stark contrast to Cornelius’ sense of urgency. We don’t know why Naaman hesitated but we do know that Cornelius acted quickly because his desire to strike a relationship with God was undoubtedly strong and meaningful. His rapid response was also a sure sign of someone who wills himself to be obedient to God.

Cornelius’ part of the story affirms the wonders of praying. He proves that God delivers when we pray with all our heart. As Cornelius showed so clearly, when God answers, we must move and move quickly. Delaying or even rejecting in Naaman’s case is not the right thing to do. Similarly, we must not just sit around and wait for God to begin working in our lives. Instead, we need to be proactive. If you’re a parent, encourage and teach your children to read the Word of God, to pray ardently and to obey Him. Alternatively, if you’re a ministry leader, do the same for those who are under your leadership.

Don’t waste time. Don’t drag your feet. When God calls, do what He asks you to. And do it now.

Can we change to transform ourselves?

All of this brings us back full circle to some wide implications for us individually and as a church.

Firstly and without a shadow of doubt, God answers prayers. And this happened to not one but both Cornelius and Peter. He didn’t just answer them but He used the both of them to flesh out His plan for humanity. Cornelius’ desire to know the Lord prepared him well as the ideal candidate for His plan. His credentials were perfect – a Roman centurion, a zealous God-fearing Gentile and a generous person who loved helping people.

But Cornelius alone was only one part of the grand plan. Enter Peter. Again, here was a person who also loved God. In fact, he was one of Jesus’ closest disciples and the one chosen to lead the church. And because he was a Jew, he’d fitted into God’s plan to disassemble his attitude towards Gentiles. This meant prising apart every one of his prejudices and inhibitions against them. 

So putting the two together, Peter played the role of the transmitter and Cornelius, the receiver. In his role as the transmitter, Peter was the unwitting change agent, the one God used to bring change to the early church and the one who would witness the outpouring of the Holy Spirit onto a Gentile. As the receiver, Cornelius was first set up by a visiting angel who simply instructed him as to what to do to get saved.

There’s an old saying about the three ways God answers prayers. The first is He answers them immediately by providing exactly what the person asks for. The second is He answers them but not before the person is made to wait a while. The third is He answers by giving the person something different but better than what he asks for.

But there is a fourth one that people often overlook. When God answers prayers, it doesn’t always have to be in the affirmative. ‘No’ is also an answer though invariably, it’s not a very popularly accepted one. Nonetheless, it is still an answer. So when God says no, it still qualifies as an answer. It would be arrogant and presumptuous of us to expect God to always give us what we want. The point with God’s answer – yes or no, for that matter – is that it is always in our best interests. In other words, we should still be grateful to Him if or when He says, “No.”

The problem with God saying “No” to us is that we don’t have the ability to discern. Whenever we pray to God, asking for something, we tend to ask Him for a sign to confirm His answer to us. The issue with this is that invariably, that sign is supposed to be a verification for a “Yes” rather than a “No” response. In other words, no one I know of ever prays to God looking for a negative answer, meaning we have no way to tell when it’s not a “Yes.”

That of course makes it a touch hard to figure out. However, as life’s many lessons teach us, a negative response might sometimes be the better answer but often, that’s only in retrospection. If I look back at my life and think of all the past relationships that didn’t work out, I am now actually thankful they failed. I certainly wouldn’t have thought so back then but with the benefit of hindsight, I’m glad I broke up with them. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have met my wife and I certainly wouldn’t have had my lovely pair of twin daughters. It is sometimes in failure that we rise up and do something successful.

However, not everyone thinks like that. When God’s answer to a person’s prayer is a ‘No,’ that is as good as not answering at all. Sometimes even a zealous Christian might react wrongly to such a response. On the mistaken basis that God doesn’t care as much as we think, that explains why He doesn’t even answer our prayers. It might sound reasonable to think that way but it’s not true.

To help us to understand this, consider when we were young kids with not a care in the world. Back then, we lived in an age where we’d like to believe that at the click of our fingers, our parents would rush out and buy the toys we wanted. We like to imagine that parents were great only when they did as we liked them to, gave us what we wanted and took us to the coolest places in the world including Disneyland. Some of us might have liked to fantasise getting smartphones from our parents without even working for them. Or our first brand spanking new car for college.

That’s just a fantasy because for most of us, that just doesn’t even sound realistic. Loving parents just don’t do that sort of thing because doing otherwise would have spoilt and pampered us. Besides, if we’d gotten everything we demanded from our parents, there’d be no limit as to how far we would go. Being spoilt also meant that we would grow up irresponsible, undisciplined and arrogant and so on. In other words, there is nothing go about asking and then getting everything we wanted.

It doesn’t make sense that every prayer we pray gets answered purely on our terms. God wouldn’t give us things that He knows would end up harming us. He loves us too much not to act on what He knows would happen to us. As His children, we are His flock and He safeguards us as His sheepfold. When He senses trouble looming, He will shield us from its dangers. Saying “no” to our prayers is all about protecting us from harm that we can’t see.

Secondly, bigoted attitudes prevent the sharing of the Gospel with others. We see this in Peter’s ill-regard for the Gentiles. Had it all been left to him without divine intervention, the Gentiles would never know about the Gospel because he would have allowed Jewish traditions to rebuff them. As we saw later in Acts 11, even Peter’s actions in Caesarea were heavily criticised by his own brethren in the Jewish church back in Jerusalem, proving that bigotry is a formidable enemy of the Gospel.

All this points us to Jesus’ telling of the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37). Presumably Peter and the other disciples were there to hear their Master preach it to the people. Unlike some, this one wasn’t a difficult parable to understand and yet the message there hadn’t struck Peter on the day he was given the vision by God. 

Given that in the parable, it was the Samaritan who saved the Jew’s life and still, he failed to see that a Gentile’s love transcended race. Here was a person – Jew or otherwise – who laid on the side road, seriously injured. His fellow Jews ignored him, preferring to mind their business and let him die. But not the Samaritan who crossed the road and helped him.

In the story of Peter and Cornelius, the disciple was blinded by Jewish intolerance towards the Gentle that he failed to love his neighbour as himself (Rom 13:9, Mk 12:31, Mt 22:36-40, 1 Jn 4:7,20-21). Instead of viewing Gentiles as people, they were taught to treat them like dogs. It was so ingrained into Peter that he even rejected God’s invitation in the vision. It was only after the Lord rebuked him that he realised his mistake.

On Cornelius’ part, he did not have any trouble accepting orders from an angel whose sudden dazzling appearance had initially terrified him. He didn’t even once felt the trepidation of sending his messengers to seek out a Jew. He would have realised that Gentiles weren’t allowed to mingle with Jews let alone enter their homes. Yet he did not reject the angel’s instructions. Instead, he urgently put the angel’s command into action. All because he was eager to hear God’s message via Peter.

I was once at a local coffee shop finding a vacant table to sit at and have a meal when I saw a lady and her friend already seated nearby on their own. Their table was large enough to accommodate other people in the event that all the other tables were occupied. I noticed a gleaming cross around her neck, a confirmation that she was a Christian and so was her female friend. Seeing he had no choice, a stranger approached to ask the lady if he could share their table.

Quite unexpectedly, the two ladies told him he couldn’t and then signalling to him to find somewhere else to sit. I was horrified to have seen something as unfriendly as that but worse, I overheard one saying to the other that as Christians, they were not to share any public space within proximity with unbelievers lest something bad happened to them.

If these two ladies were correct, how would believers evangelise to unbelievers? If we can’t share common space with unbelievers, some of whom may actually be quite keen to hear the Gospel, then we cannot fulfil the royal commission. Similarly if we are so unwelcoming, how do we convince them to visit our church or attend our care group meetings or even join us on social fellowship outings? How do we make unbelievers feel unaccepted when we appear so unfriendly? In other words, if we are so filled with hatred for and judgement against unbelievers, we will go on in life denying every opportunity to change. We cannot open ourselves to new evangelical opportunities even if they do come from God.

It goes without saying that no church is perfect. Ours is so far from it as well. Yours is likely to be the same too. In our case, we don’t even appear to know where we’re headed and that in itself is just one of several problems that plague our church. It is therefore painful to have seen first-time visitors come and not return. It all seemed promising when the visitors shared breakfast after Sunday service and our fellowship felt positive. But when they don’t return the following weekend and beyond, that’s when we know something isn’t quite right.

Years earlier at a time well prior to our arrival, we were told of hordes of youth who simply got up and left. They too didn’t return. Some went to other churches while a few simply dropped out completely. Word has it that all of this was the result of poor leadership management from a ministry leader. In some other cases, it was the church’s elder leadership that was the problem.

Since then, nothing has changed. The opportunities were there but the leadership never took to them. We were once before a church with a three-figure congregation size. Today, we’re nowhere touching the century mark. It’s hard to say what exactly these ‘leadership issues’ were but in broader terms, bigotry of some form would probably not be too far off the mark. It appeared that the church youth were bereft of love, appreciation and value. They received none of those during those days. And yet we should be familiar enough with what Scripture teaches us about these qualities in fellowship.

Last but not the least, being a Christian doesn’t prepare us with an automatic knowledge download. Unless we will ourselves to embrace change, we will be too complacent to want to learn. And if we don’t seize the opportunity to learn, we’ll never be able to interrupt ourselves enough to want to change. It’s a vicious cycle that just keeps on pinning us against the wall. Peter’s experience in the story proved that his close relationship with Jesus failed to prepare him to anticipate God’s plan for the Gentiles.

Here was a person who was involved in Jesus’ public ministry. He heard Him preach. He was there at the Sermon on the Mount. He was with Him in the boat that threatened to capsize amidst a gruelling storm. He witnessed many of His miraculous healings. And of course, he was there when Jesus was nailed to the cross only to come alive three days later. Yet he was too ill-prepared to understand that no manmade laws could ever compare with God’s plans for humanity.

On the other hand, Cornelius knew he didn’t know enough about God. That was why he was so eager to meet Peter and hear God’s message through him. He knew nothing about what a relationship with God was like and that was why he kept a prayerful life, waiting for the Lord to change him. He was aware that good works alone wasn’t going to be good enough to save him. After all, he was a man known for his generosity towards the poor, a trait that God recognised and rewarded him. Cornelius’ thirst for knowledge about God set him up for the greatest change he could have ever hoped for in his life. It was this quest that finally led him to Peter.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we all know how much God wants to bring change into our lives. The renovations of our hearts are a big concern to God because they are needed so that we may turn ourselves into the kind of Christian that He wants us to be. Our need for God to intervene and bring change to us is simply because we don’t have it in us to change on our own. We’re just not cut out to complete such a task not just because of our very nature but mainly because we don’t have the capacity to do so.

In certain other cases, maybe it’s because something in our past that scarred us made it difficult for us to change and move on. I have stories to tell that offer me a window into how difficult change can be because of some lingering pain from my past. One such story involved my mid-teen schooldays when I was a victim of a frame-up.

To cut the story short, someone hated me enough to get me into trouble that lasted more than just a few months involving a few schoolteachers who all happened to have been the country’s judo contestants at the Olympics. In those long agonising months, they took every opportunity to drag me out of class to physically brutalise me away from prying eyes. With an alibi to keep me in sight, I stayed out of trouble until the culprit was finally caught.

This and a few other horrible encounters would paint me a permanent impression of a school I did not want to have anything to do with in my later life. Today I have neither the desire nor the enthusiasm to get in touch with most of my old schoolmates. I have no interest in revisiting the school even if it was a simple walk through its grounds. I do what I can to block images of the school away from my mind simply because those encounters remain vivid and horrifying. They leave a bitter aftertaste that just wouldn’t go away. And I found I couldn’t change myself from that state of mind.

Image source: cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

Perhaps a more interesting – and far more encouraging – story I came across on the Internet involved a guy by the name of Ken Parker who happened to have a fairly dark past. Parker was not only a former neo-Nazi – Regional Director of the huge Detroit-based National Socialist Movement (NSM) – but he also carried the high rank of a Grand Dragon of the notorious white supremacist group, Ku Klux Klan. From 2017 to 2018, Parker had two experiences that weren’t only unforgettable but one would lead irretrievably to the second.

Deeyah Khan (Image source: m4ufree.sx)

The first was the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 where 32-year-old lawyer and civil rights activist Heather Heyer was run over and killed amidst violent clashes between the white nationalists and the counter protestors. As he and a few of his fellow white supremacist buddies sat down to catch their breaths following the police dispersing the crowds, Norwegian filmmaker Deeyah Khan of Punjabi/Pashtun descent caught up with him, asking if he was alright. Parker recalled the moment:

“I pretty much had heat exhaustion after the rally because we like to wear our black uniforms, and I drank a big Red Bull before the event. And I was hurting and she was trying to make sure I was OK. She was completely respectful to me and my fiancée the whole time. And so that kind of got me thinking: She’s a really nice lady. Just because she’s got darker skin and believes in a different god [sic] than the god I believe in, why am I hating these people?”

Khan was in America shooting her documentary piece called, ‘White Right: Meeting the Enemy’ and Parker invariably was immortalised on film, spewing hatred against Jews and the gays. Yet the effect of the encounter made him begin to doubt his own bigotry over the next few months. These doubts were finally confronted when he came across a neighbour of his apartment complex, a black pastor by the name of William McKinnon III. It was at a poolside cookout where Parker had an intense dialogue with the All Saints Holiness Church pastor.

Being a card-carrying KKK stalwart, such an encounter would have normally ended up in blows but for some reason, that didn’t happen. In fact, that meeting alone changed Parker’s life forever. Upon McKinnon’s invitation, Parker was curious enough to attend a church service during one Easter some time later. And before he realised, he was stood right in the middle of a mostly black congregation. That was when he gave a glowing testimony that the congregation was not about to ever forget. This was part of what he recalled saying:

“I said I was a grand dragon of the KKK and then the Klan wasn’t hateful enough for me; so I decided to become a neo-Nazi – and a lot of them, their jaws about hit the floor and their eyes got real big… but after the service, not a single one of them had anything negative to say. They’re all coming up and hugging me and shaking my hand, y’know, building me up instead of tearing me down.”

Ken Parker, right (Image source: nbcnews.com)

Not long thereafter, Parker donned on a familiar white garb. The only difference between this one and the white KKK gown that epitomised so many of their rallies. Here, on July 21 2018, Parker was getting ready to walk into the Atlantic Ocean for his baptism in Christ as his fellow church members watched on complete with his tattooed swastika, Klan symbol and Confederate flags, which in September that year, he spent months using laser treatment to remove.

In resigning from the NSM, Parker said:

“Love thy neighbour as thyself. It doesn’t differentiate between the Jewish neighbour, a Mexican neighbour, a black neighbour. It says love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Parker, News21, 2018)

Parker’s turnaround, from being a bigot who hated blacks, Jews, gays and lesbians to a believer in Christ is stunning. God had offered him a meeting that he did not reject and in turn, he set himself on a path that would forever change him to the glory of God.

In the Gospel, the apostle Matthew recalled the time when Jesus visited him at his home (Mt 9:10) much to the disapproval of the Pharisees who considered tax collectors like him and the others “scum” (v.11). While the scribes’ hearts were probably too hardened to change their views, people like Matthew did and eventually, he responded to Jesus saying to him, “Follow Me and be My disciple” (v.9).

Yet another tax collector, Zacchaeus, somehow had a great change of heart and followed Jesus. He was so enthusiastic that he even climbed up a tree just to catch a view of the Messiah (Lk 19:1-4). With Jesus at his home as his guest, Zacchaeus’ turnaround was equally as stunning for he, the chief of all tax collectors, said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!” Yet, just like it was in Matthew’s case, there were Jews who were displeased with the encounter, labelling Zacchaeus as a “notorious sinner” (v.7).

Most people will say that change is never easy to do especially when it demands some form of personal sacrifice. When Peter changed his position, he gave up his long-held cultural inhibitions to follow God’s direction. Although he felt the initial resistance, he quickly changed his tune. When Cornelius sent his messengers to Joppa, he surrendered the same inhibitions that would have prevented the meeting he was now trying to set up. 

He could have remained a comfortable wealthy Roman and continued the senseless worshipping of pagan gods but he switched his attention in desiring God and God alone. Even the two tax collectors, Matthew and Zacchaeus, would have had an easy life collecting taxes off their fellow Jews. But even though they were richly rewarded by the Roman government, they too decided to follow Christ.

But once Peter and Cornelius were able to sense the purpose of the change, both set themselves apart to God, merging their paths to the full glory of the Lord. Through their actions inspired by the vision of the Holy Spirit, world humanity was saved. By welcoming Gentiles into the fold, the world changed forever.

Conclusion

As Acts 10 comes to a close, a new chapter reveals the intransigence of the Jewish church to accept change. But persistent praying eventually broke through even the most stubborn of attitudes. Over time, even though Judaism dug its heels in, Christianity blossomed through the subsequent centuries. And the numbers prove it.

It is estimated that there are just under 15 million Jews in the world. By the term ‘Jews,’ that also means those who have adopted Jewishness and embraced Judaism. A rough rundown on the numbers in 1998 looked like this:

Israel	6,500,000	United States of America	5,700,000
Europe	1,500,000	Latin America	400,000
Canada	400,000	Africa (overall)	75,000
Australia/New Zealand	125,000	Asia (excl. Israel)	40,000

In all the years since, these numbers have only changed marginally. While the world population has grown by more than a billion – having increased by 20 percent – and the U.S. population has increased by greater than 15 percent, the Jewish numbers have remained fairly static. Had they grown alongside, the total number of Jews in the world would have, by now, exceeded 15 million.

In fact, it is said that the worldwide Jewish population has not changed much at all. Since the Holocaust, they have grown by around 25 percent even when the U.S. population has since more than doubled. Perhaps the same intransigence has something to do with this.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library run by the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), the present numbers look like this, side by side those in 1998:

Country	1998	2017	Country	1998	2019
Israel	6,500,000	6,700,000	United States of America	5,700,000	5,700,000
Europe	1,500,000	1,400,000	Latin America	400,000	380,000
Canada	400,000	391,000	Africa (overall)	75,000	74,000
Australia/New Zealand	125,000	121,000	Asia (excl. Israel)	40,000	145,500

In fact, if we look at the overall Jewish numbers across the years, they don’t look any better:

1880	1900	1922	1931	1939	1945	1948	1950
7.8	10.6	14.4	15.7	16.7	11.0	11.5	11.3

1955	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	2018
11.8	12.0	12.6	12.8	12.9	13.1	13.8	14.6

On the other hand, Protestant Christian numbers have skyrocketed. In the last century alone, the Christian population has quadrupled from around 600 million in 1910 to more than 2 billion today and it has remained by a fair margin, the largest religious group globally, making up 32 percent of the entire population of the world. In America alone, there are about 247 million. Brazil has 176 million while Mexico has 108 million. It is said that more than 50 percent of the world’s total number of Christians reside in just ten countries.

Simply put, there is no contest. Christians outnumber Jews by a factor of 154 to 1. And that’s not going to change anytime soon. What makes these numbers so staggering is that during the days of Peter and Cornelius, orthodox Jews far outnumbered Gentile and Jewish Christians (Messianic Jews).

Possible reasons: Exactly what happened over the many centuries that stunted its population growth is hard to pin down but some scholars say that because Judaism wasn’t into proselytisation the way Christianity did, the numbers were impacted. Christian missionaries went virtually everywhere – including China and Japan – while the Jews didn’t. 

Another compelling reason is mass persecution. Following the destruction of the First Temple, only 35 percent of the Jews remained while the others were routed. World War Two’s Holocaust accounted for another 6 million Jews, not forgetting the countless pogroms and exilic movements throughout modern history.

Cornelius proves that even Gentiles can be God-fearing. Even Gentiles pray to God regularly. Even Gentiles are receptive to the Gospel and from there, they too receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. By regularly seeking God, Cornelius showed that you needn’t have to be a Jew to desire God with as much fervour as the Jews. And with all the praying, he set the stage for God to unleash His plan.

Peter’s prayerfulness led to the witnessing of the vision that brought change to the way the original believers accepted Gentles into the sheepfold. But unlike Cornelius, Peter’s willingness to go along with God’s plan was tested until he was ultimately rebuked. Change came hard with Peter but when it did, some of the worst Jewish taboos were finally shattered. Though Peter’s prayer was probably different to that of Cornelius’, seeking God made him instrumental in God’s unveiling of His mysterious plan. 

Footnotes

Author unknown (Sept 2018) Former KKK Member Ditches White Supremacy for Jesus (Universal Life Church Monastery) accessible at https://www.themonastery.org/blog/former-kkk-member-ditches-white-supremacy-for-jesus

Author unknown (Sept 2019) Vital Statistics: Jewish Population of the World, 1882-present (Jewish Virtual Library, American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise) accessible at https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-of-the-world#africa

Barclay, William (1955; Nov 2003) The Acts of the Apostles: The Daily Study Bible Series (Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox Press) available at https://www.amazon.com/Acts-Apostles-Daily-Study-Bible/dp/0664226752

Bruce, Richard (Nov 2019) Brief Summary of World Christian Statistics (richleebruce.com) accessible at http://richleebruce.com/churchstat.html

Dashefsky, Arnold and Sheskin, Ira M. () The American Jewish Year Book 2018, Vol. 118 (Dordrecht: Springer)

Dick, John (c.1923; Oct 2012) The Conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch – Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles (Ulan Press) available at https://www.amazon.com/Lectures-Acts-Apostles-John-Dick/dp/B00ARS7B66

Erdman, Charles Rosenbury (1966; Dec 2015) The Acts: An Exposition (Philadelphia: PA: The Westminster Press) available at https://www.amazon.com/Acts-Exposition-Charles-R-Erdman/dp/B019RSSL2O

Fairchild, Mary (Sept 2018) How Many Christians Are In the World Today? (Learn Religions) accessible at https://www.learnreligions.com/christianity-statistics-700533

Harrison, Everett F. (Oct 1986) Interpreting Acts: The Expanding Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan) available at https://www.amazon.com/Interpreting-Acts-Expanding-Everett-Harrison/dp/0310318505 

Longenecker, Richard N. (Dec 1995) Acts (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary with The New International Version) (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan) available at https://www.amazon.com/Expositors-Bible-Commentary-Richard-Longenecker/dp/031020108X

MacArthur Jr., John F. (Oct 1994) The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Acts1-12 (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers) available at https://www.amazon.com/MacArthur-New-Testament-Commentary-Macarthur/dp/0802407595/

Maclaren, Alexander (Nov 2015) Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform) available at https://www.amazon.com/Expositions-Holy-Scripture-Alexander-Maclaren-dp-1519340133/dp/1519340133/

Mindel, Nissan (n.d.) The Three Daily Prayers (Kehot Publication Society) accessible at https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/682091/jewish/The-Three-Daily-Prayers.htm

Rich, Tracey R. (c.2019) Jewish Population (Judaism 101) accessible at http://www.jewfaq.org/populatn.htm

Robertson, A.T. (1930; Dec 1982) Word Pictures in the New Testament, 6 vols. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House) available at https://www.amazon.com/Word-Pictures-New-Testament-Vols/dp/0801077109

Ross, Megan and Hepp, Brooks and Gardner, Kianna (Aug 2018) Hate in America: Profile of a Neo-Nazi (Indian Country Today) accessible at https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/news/megan-ross-brooks-hepp-and-kianna-gardner-news21-memphis-ken-parker-was-baptized-in-a-LWpx6L01m0CO5mYlk08iGA

Steffan, Melissa (Jul 2013) The Surprising Countries Most Missionaries Are Sent From and Go To (Christianity Today) accessible at https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2013/july/missionaries-countries-sent-received-csgc-gordon-conwell.html

Stott, John R.W. (Feb 1994) The Message of Acts: The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press) available at https://www.amazon.com/Message-Acts-Bible-Speaks-Today/dp/0830812369

Walton, John H. (Oct 2001) Genesis: NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan) available at https://www.amazon.com/NIV-Application-Commentary-Genesis/dp/0310206170

Warren, Steve (Aug 2018) Former KKK Member Denounces Hate Groups, Becomes Christian One Year After Violence in Charlottesville (CBN News) accessible at https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2018/august/former-kkk-member-denounces-hate-groups-becomes-christian-one-year-after-violence-in-charlottesville