Contemplate these questions as you dwell in Acts 10:34-48:

1. The shift in the Book of Acts from primarily reaching Hebrew folk to the inclusion of Gentiles marks a significant turning point in the spread of the gospel. How does Peter's proclamation of the gospel to Cornelius and his household challenge traditional notions of who is eligible for salvation? How does this shift align with the overarching theme of the gospel going to the ends of the earth?

2. Peter emphasizes the bodily resurrection of Jesus as a crucial aspect of the gospel message. Why is this belief foundational to the Christian faith? How does the bodily resurrection of Jesus offer hope and assurance for believers regarding their own resurrection in the future?

3. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles serves as a powerful confirmation of their genuine faith in Christ. How does this miraculous event validate their inclusion into the body of believers? What does this teach us about God's impartiality and His desire for all people, regardless of their background, to come to faith in Jesus Christ?

Transcript:

 If you will remember back to Friday, you'll remember I said that we were seeing a shift in the Book of Acts. Now, let's remember what is happening in the book of Acts. What is the general theme? That the gospel will go to Jerusalem, Judea, then Samaria, and then the ends of the earth. And so, we're seeing that shift here.

Primarily the gospel has gone in the book of Acts to Hebrew folk, to the Jewish people. But now we're seeing this shift, and we had Cornelius and all of that stuff on Friday. Well, now Peter has gone to those Gentiles and he is doing something. Well, what is that something? He is proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He is telling the story of Jesus. Notice verse 39. And Peter says that we are witnesses of all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.  And then he says, what happened? They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. Now, we know that Jesus went to the cross to pay the price for our sin.

But he had gone to the people of the Jews and they had rejected him. They, uh, the religious leaders had him killed. And Peter immediately goes from that death to the victory that Jesus has over death when he says, But God raised him on the third day and made him to appear. Not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

Now, notice that Peter is saying that he didn't appear to everybody. He only appeared to a group of people. Now, we know from 1st Corinthians 15, it wasn't like Jesus was necessarily only showing himself to a little handful of people. Uh, 1 Corinthians 13, which is believed to be the earliest creed of the church about the resurrection, tells us that he appeared to over 500 men.

So, we know that while it was a limited number of people, Jesus wasn't doing this all in secret. Um, well, it was secret, but it wasn't just to the, just to the twelve apostles. And so, we see that Jesus has appeared, and he has a purpose here.  It is to have people who are witnesses. Now, notice what it says about them.

They ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. Why is that important? Well, it means that Jesus did not just raise spiritually, because a spirit does Not eat a spirit does not drink Jesus rose bodily from the dead an important part of the gospel Right if we are going to have hope  that our bodies will be resurrected We need to know that we have a lord who had victory over death and whose body was resurrected himself.

That is the beginning it was the first fruits of the resurrection, we have hoped that our bodies will be resurrected as well. So, Peter tells the story of the gospel here. He proclaims Christ and Him crucified, and he proclaims the resurrection from the dead.  Well, what happens? We see.  That the Spirit falls upon these Gentiles.

The Holy Spirit causes them to believe, and people are amazed. And notice what it says here. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed. They thought that this salvation in Christ was a Hebrew thing. It was a Jewish faith thing. And so now those who are not Jews, those who Uh, have not been circumcised are coming to faith.  

The spirit is being poured out even on Gentiles, even on the outsiders. This is huge. And again, this is the shift in the book of Acts.  The message of the cross, the message of salvation in Christ, has been going to the circumcised. But now it's going to the uncircumcised and even they are coming to faith.

Even the Spirit is at work in them.  And so, Peter makes an obvious statement. If these people are coming to faith, if they have the Holy Spirit, Why would we not baptize them? Why would we not bring them into the church? And so, they were baptized in the name of Jesus. Now, this is an amazing story because it is, as I said, the shift.

Now, it's normal to you and I, us Gentile folks, to imagine Gentiles, non-Jewish people, being in the church.  But for them, this was an amazing change, and the book of Acts is showing us this, that there's this movement. And in fact, it's such a major change that, that when Luke is making these statements, he's showing us that there is proof that Gentiles can have faith.

They, um, God worked in a, an amazing way.  He didn't just say, hey, these people over there have faith. He showed that they had the gift of the Holy Spirit so that they would know, all the people would know that they were coming to genuine faith in Christ. This was a special change that the people would have a struggle believing, but yet God shows it to them.

And so the same basic application that we have been seeing throughout the book of Acts comes up for us here again.  What amazing good news it is. That God takes the outsiders and makes them insiders. That is unbelievable news again for us It's normal because we see ourselves as the insiders, right? But when it comes down to it God takes those who are on the outside and he brings them in By the power of his holy spirit through the proclamation of the word through the proclamation of the gospel He brings people in he brings them to faith  And so may we relish this truth and may we not see anyone as an outsider ourselves Because the truth is, we were all outsiders in our sin and unbelief, but God brought us in.

So, may we be proclaiming the gospel to people, may we be supporting missions to all people. Because God is the one who takes the outsiders and brings them in. May we trust in God's word to do this.