The Salvation of the Gentiles, Part 5

Acts 10:44-48

     Some of you may remember reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at some time in your life; and, if you did, you will remember there was a rather troublesome character by the name of Huck Finn; and Huck Finn was in the...the simplest sense a rather undesirable type.  On one occasion, Huck had tried to infiltrate Tom's gang; and the dialogue went something like this, as reported to us by Mark Twain:

     "Now, Tom, hain't you always been friendly to me?  You wouldn't shut me out, would ya, Tom?"

     To which Tom replied, "Huck, I wouldn't want to, and I don't want to; but what would people say?  Why, they'd say, 'Humph, Tom Sawyer's gang, pretty low characters in it.'  They'd mean you, Huck, and you wouldn't like that, and I wouldn't, either."...

     You know, adults play games like that...less obviously, but, you know, we want an exclusive fellowship.  We want the fellowship of the pure.  The pure are those who think like we do; and we want the fellowship of the deserving, those who would be so gratified to have your presence around; and we usually manage somehow within the framework of our structure to screen out anybody who doesn't enhance our image, strengthen our viewpoint, boost our pride, reinforce our prejudice, or feed our ego; and we...we sort of clannishly group in these little kind of identifying circles; and it's amazing how difficult it is for us, who are in another circle, to break into another circle, or for us to feel at home.  

     I had a perfect illustration of this as I was taken through the Canyon Country Club in Palm Springs by a very wealthy oil man from Canada who, after he had shown me his $500,000.00 summer home, winter home there, then decided to take us to play golf when I was in Palm Springs; and it was funny, because I didn't know what to do.  I'd never been around rich folks, and the first thing I tried to do was open the car door myself.  Can you imagine?  And I was immediately reprimanded, because there were people who did that; and then I tried to take the golf bag outta the trunk; and another man said, "Sorry, sir, you don't need to do that.  We will take care of that."  I even tried to open the door, you know, going into the building, and there were ladies there who did that; but I just was way out of my...I got in there, and a man asked me if I wanted me...if he wanted to shine my shoes, you know, and I...I couldn't believe what I was seeing, you know, and hearing. 

     But it was a whole different...of course, they knew I didn't belong.  I mean I wasn't dressed right to begin with; and, secondly, I kept doing the wrong thing; and I just didn't fit, you know.  But, very often, we see...we recognize this within our society.  There are these...these segmented groups of people...and, you know, it's an interesting thing; but if you go back to the early church, you find the same thing was in reality happening there.  It shouldn't have, but it did. 

     The church was born in Jerusalem, and it was comprised mostly of Jews at the beginning.  In fact, exclusively of Jews with only some half-breed Samaritans incorporated with Jerusalem Jews, Hellenistic Jews, and then this group of Samaritans; and the church had become pretty much identified with Judaism; and, in fact, there had grown up within this wonderful church that's been just blossoming in the first nine chapters, there had grown up within this a party, a faction of people called the Circumcision Party; and they had come to the conclusion that the only way into Christianity was through the foyer of Judaism.  You couldn't get into Christianity unless you came through Judaism; and in order to fence out undesirables, they made circumcision the standard; and that was their way of keeping Gentiles at arm's length.  Unless you had the physical rite of circumcision, you could not enter into Judaism; and...and they made Judaism sort of the...the room before Christianity; and so they had decided that the way to keep undesirables out was to make them be circumcised; and circumcision became the fence that kept the undesirables out.

     Well, Jesus was in the business of smashing fences, and this was one that had to go; and so as you come to the 10th chapter of the Book of Acts, the Lord adds to the church Gentiles.  The pagans who were despised by the Jews and who, incidentally, despised the Jews, as well, who were thought to be unclean, in whose home Jews would never go, whose food Jews would never eat, and so forth and so on.  He includes them into the church, into the one body with the Jews.  Now, this is not going to be an easy thing, but our Lord had already designed to build one body.  As Ephesians 2 says, "To make one new man, to join together Jew and Gentile.  As Ephesians 3 said, "The mystery of the church was Jew and Gentile one in Christ." 

     This was God's design to have one group of people who were His own, His body, His channel to the world; and so the Gentiles had to be reached...but the Jews believed that the uncircumcised were alienated from God.  They were corrupt, and so forth and so on; and this ultra-Judaistic, ultra-conservative group segmented away within even the framework of the early church and tried to hold onto such distinctives as circumcision; and, really, they shouldn't have.  There was no basis for it, because, in the Old Testament, the Bible had very clearly outlined the fact that God didn't play favorites.  Peter says in verse 34, "I perceive this.  I'm learning this.  That God is no respecter of persons."  That's not anything new.  That's something old.  Way back in the Old Testament, and last week I gave you three or four passages where it indicates that God says, "I am not a respecter of persons.  I play no favorites."

     And so Peter should've known that at this time, even though it took him a while to get it; and the Jews should've known it who knew the Old Testament.  In addition to that, Jesus Himself had even said as much.  Jesus said to them in the...in the parting words, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to Jews," right?  No, "To every creature."  And He said, "Make disciples and baptize 'em in the name of Christ."  And so Jesus had clearly indicated that the...that the fellowship in Christ was non-exclusive, that it was wide open, and it was available to all.  So there really shouldn't have been any reason for this whatsoever; but, nevertheless, in the Judaistic traditional framework, it had grown up. 

     In Galatians 3:26, Paul says, "You are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.  As many as you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, so there is neither Jew nor Greek.  You're all one in Christ.  That's the message of Christianity.  There's no distinction of race at all."...When Christ came, God's promise was fulfilled, and God's promise was this:  That in Abraham's seed, all the families of the earth should be blessed, and it was not that salvation was of the Jews inclusively, but that it was of the Jews in order that they might preach its complete freedom to the rest of the world.  And so, really, they weren't given the Gospel as an end, but a means.

     Now, when you look around the world, you find that all men are equally in need of salvation.  All men are equally unable to provide it, so God provides it equally for all men, and there can be no prejudice.  Christ came to be Savior to the world.

     Well, this didn't come easy to Jews, believe me; and Peter had to learn through a series of things.  First God had given him a vision.  God had broken down his prejudice in regard to Samaritans.  In the house of Simon, the tanner, he had broken down some of the other things that Peter had felt strongly about in terms of traditional background; and little by little, Peter's attitudes were beginning to break down; and, finally, here, he says he admits, "I see God's no respecter of persons," and so God has prepared him; and he's ready to preach to Cornelius.

     Now, Cornelius is a Gentile, a ruler, really in a real sense, because he ruled over a hundred men in the army of Rome; and Cornelius is a man who has attached himself to Judaism, because he believes that God, the true God, is represented by the God of Israel.  He doesn't yet know how to be saved, but he does know that he's found the right God, and so God brings Peter to him, and Peter's gonna preach beginning in verse 34.  Cornelius is not alone.  He has gathered together a whole household of people, and they are all eagerly waiting to hear what Peter has to say. 

     Now, this chapter then becomes a major chapter in the Bible, because this chapter presents for us the presentation that explodes the Gospel to include the world; and it becomes very important; and, thus, we've spent some time and some detail on it.  In the chapter, we see the salvation of Gentiles, as well as the salvation of individuals.  We look at it both historically, then, and personally, and both are important. 

     Now, we've seen...lemme just quickly review...the first three points already in the past.  Today we'll consider the last three.  We saw that, first of all, in order for this salvation of the Gentiles to happen, there had to be a sovereign call, how that God moved in and prepared Cornelius.  Then there had to be submissive will.  Cornelius needed to respond with a desire to come to know the Gospel, and so we saw a sovereign call and submissive will; and then once that had been already set in motion, all you needed then was simple proclamation.  Just the facts.  The heart of Cornelius was ready from God's standpoint.  It was ready from his standpoint.  He only needed information, and so Peter appears with a simple presentation. 

     Now, last week, we considered the presentation.  Lemme just take you through it very quickly by reminding you what it was.  Peter introduced it in verses 34 and 35, and his introduction was this.  "Cornelius and friends," and he's standing in their house, "I'm happy to announce in the city of Caesarea and to you and all Gentiles, salvation is available."  That's what he's saying.  It's available.  God doesn't play any favorites.  Any man in any nation who fears God, does righteously, God'll accept him.  So it's available. 

     Then his second point, the major theme is this.  Salvation is in Christ; and that's what Cornelius needed to hear.  Who is the Savior?  Who is the Messiah?  Who is this Redeemer?  And he says, "It's Christ," and he goes all the way down the line; and he says, "You see, Christ is your Savior," or verse 42, "He is your Judge."  And he exalts Christ and says, "Christ is the Judge."  You can compare John chapter 5 with that, because John chapter 5 presents the fact that Jesus Christ was given judgment by the Father.  So he presents Christ as the way of salvation, and the only way of salvation.

     Then he concludes with a powerful invitation in verse 43.  "To Him give all the prophets witness."  In other words, this testimony isn't just mine.  "That through His name," and that means through His person, through all that He is, "whosoever believeth in Him shall receive forgiveness of sins."  All right, salvation is available, introduction.  Salvation is in Christ, main theme.  Salvation is by faith, invitation.  This is a beautiful thing, because Peter simply says, "Cornelius, you can have it.  Here's what it is.  Here's how to get it."  That's all you need to know, isn't it? 

     And fantastic thing, it doesn't tell us what happened.  It just says the Holy Spirit interrupted Peter in verse 44. You say, "What were the results?"  Well, believe me, Peter had results.  Peter never preached without results.  They either came running to Christ, or they got mad.  And, for example, in Acts chapter 2 in Peter's great sermon, 3,000 people were saved.  Why?  Because the Spirit of God had done preparation work in their hearts.  The next time Peter preached, he preached to the Sanhedrin.  What happened?  They got furious.  Why?  Because there was no work of the Spirit preliminary to that.  Why?  Because they had already willful