Acts 10: The Gospel That Breaks Down Every Barrier

Introduction

For almost all of its history, England has been separated from France by the English Channel, a defense against the envy of less fortunate countries, as William Shakespeare once wrote. In the 1980s, this stretch of water became a bottleneck for European trade, and the Channel Tunnel project was born. On December 1, 1990, when the digging was finally done, a British worker, Graham Fagg, and a French worker, Philippe Cozette, broke through the last wall of rock and shook hands. Great Britain was at last connected to its arch-enemy.

This is how Jonathan Gillespie opens the third message in the "No Favourites" series at All Souls Langham Place, on Acts 10:23-48. The book of Acts also tells of a meeting point. But it is far more important: it is not the physical joining of two countries by a tunnel, but the spiritual joining of two peoples through faith in Jesus Christ. Peter the Jew and Cornelius, the Gentile and Roman soldier, find themselves in one new community.

The gospel is able to cross every barrier and to bring together all who believe. Paul would tell the Ephesians that Christ "is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition". So the preacher starts from the problem this gospel comes to solve, then follows Peter to Cornelius' doorstep.

Message Outline

1. The Problem: Separation

• What separated Peter and Cornelius was only the symptom of a much bigger problem, one that concerns us all.
• In the beginning, in the garden, God and human beings lived in the same place. They heard his voice and enjoyed his presence.
• When they turned away from God, the relationship was broken: with God, with the earth, and with one another. The separation was not only physical, it was alienation: the collapse of trust, of knowledge and of loving communication.
• God did not abandon his plan. He created a meeting place, first the tent of meeting, then the temple, a place where heaven and earth could come together again. But this access remained partial: it took boundaries, sacrifices and priests to maintain the distance between a perfect God and an imperfect people. And only one people, Israel, could draw near.
• God's plan was not to grant privileges to Israel by excluding the nations, but to show his presence to the world through Israel. This calling was obscured by Israel's disobedience, until Scripture describes it as a fallen tent, unable to shelter the nations.
• Then God came himself: "the Word became flesh and lived among us". The tent of meeting is now a person, not a place. Jesus is the place where heaven and earth, humanity and God, come together.
• So Acts 10 is not a moral lesson about tolerance. It is a glimpse of the power of the gospel in God's purpose: to bring together all things, in heaven and on earth, under the authority of Christ.

2. The Preparation: God Is Always One Step Ahead

• In Dublin, when he was working with international students, the preacher often had them over for dinner. Some arrived unannounced, through a chain of circumstances nobody had planned. One day a group turned up like this: these students had met someone on a domestic flight in the United States, who told them about this ministry. When they reached Dublin, they found the church closed, and someone sent them across the Liffey to the preacher's house. They were the first students of the new semester.
• God is always at work and is always one step ahead of us: he prepares people, opens doors and brings the right people together for his purposes.
• Luke prepared this moment too: believers scattered from Jerusalem, Philip sent to Samaria and then to the Ethiopian, the Good News moving up the coast, Paul's conversion, Peter led through Lydda and Joppa to Simon's house, and finally two visions that bring Peter and Cornelius together.
• In verse 23, Peter sets out with a small group heading north along the coast to Caesarea on the sea (not Caesarea Philippi). Cornelius, for his part, has gathered his family and close friends: the house is full.
• Cornelius is not only waiting for an important message, he is waiting for an important messenger. In Acts 11, when the story is told for the third time, we learn that Peter was to bring words by which Cornelius and all his household would be saved. Hence his remark in verse 33: "Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God".
• When Peter steps through the door, Cornelius falls at his feet. Peter rightly refuses: "Stand up! I myself am also a man." The messenger is not the Lord, Jesus is. Everything that will happen in this house will be the work of Jesus, not of Peter.

3. Peter, the Man Who Said "Never"

• Cornelius is ready. But is Peter? The week before, the church had reflected on his vision of the sheet filled with animals, given to change his understanding, though not without resistance.
• The preacher likes to see Peter as a child of Ulster (a slightly sensitive subject, he admits, after the Drumcree marches): always able to say no, and even three times, "never, never, never", in the manner of Pastor Ian Paisley. "Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean," says Peter in his vision. Just as he had said to Jesus: "You will never wash my feet!"
• Despite his protests, Peter accepts that no food is unclean. He no doubt remembers Jesus' teaching: what goes into a person does not defile them, because it goes into the stomach and not into the heart.
• On arriving at Cornelius' house, the deeper meaning emerges: the distinction between clean and unclean is not only about what we eat, but about whom we eat with. It applies to people.
• It was God who had set these limits, rooted in the law and in Jewish customs, to mark the distinctiveness of his people in the world. Now he exercises his right to redefine them and lifts the separation before Peter's eyes, as Peter crosses Israel's cultural and religious boundaries to go and eat in a Gentile home.

4. The Power of the Gospel

• Iran often makes the news, but another story is unfolding beneath the surface: according to some reports, Muslims are opening up to Jesus, often through dreams and visions of a shining figure dressed in white, like Cornelius. But a messenger sent by God does not remove the need for a message. That is why Peter had to speak.
• Peter sums up the Good News that Cornelius and his household needed in order to be saved. It concerns the past: Jesus died and rose again. The present: Jesus is Lord and brings peace to the world. The future: Jesus will judge all people, the living and the dead. But whoever believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
• The message of the gospel is itself the power of the gospel: these are words able to save a whole household, and not just one, but every household of every nation. The preacher refers back to a message given at the 5:30 pm service the week before, which reminded us to get excited about what words can accomplish.
• In his ministry in Dublin and Brighton, he saw that people loved to see international students gathered together, right up until the moment they were called to repent and turn to Christ. Modern society wants diversity without conversion: it rejects the lordship of Jesus.
• Despite his devotion, his generosity and his fear of God, Cornelius needed Jesus in order to be saved. And if Cornelius had to hear the gospel, Peter had to preach it. Jesus had said so: "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem", because he is Israel's Messiah.
• Peter knew that God loves the foreigner, Deuteronomy had taught him that. But he thought the nations would be blessed by entering within Israel's borders. On Cornelius' doorstep, the truth bursts out: God does not ask the nations to become Jewish, he invites them directly into his kingdom through Jesus Christ, into his great tent, on the same foundation as Israel.
• "God doesn't show favoritism." Jesus is not only Lord of Israel, he is "Lord of all". Jews and Gentiles are united in Christ on equal footing, in a new community with Jesus at the center. The movement of Jesus will no longer be tied to Jewish ethnicity, to the land, to the temple or to the law: this is the beginning of God's worldwide people, and the loss of Eden begins to be repaired.

5. A Church That Bears Witness, but No Salvation Without Christ

• No matter your origin, your race, your sex or any other outward distinction: a multicultural church in a global city is living proof of what began in Cornelius' house. More than sixty nations gather at All Souls week after week, not divided into cultural pockets, as is so often the case in society, but brought together as one people submitted to Jesus and to one another.
• The preacher returns to verse 35: in every nation, the one who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him. Some conclude from this that any sincere person, of any religion, can stay as they are. The worldwide Good News then quietly slides into universal salvation.
• That is not what happens here. Cornelius' sincerity does not save him apart from Christ: it shows that God had prepared him to receive Christ. If sincere faith were enough, Peter would not have needed to preach the death and resurrection of Jesus, he would simply have welcomed Cornelius as a brother.
• Here God deals with our universal problem: our separation from him. Only the death of Jesus repairs the root of the problem, only the cross atones for sin. And Jesus did not only die: he ascended to heaven and now reigns from on high.

6. The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit: One People

• How does the Lord of all gather one people from all nations? By pouring out his Spirit. "While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word." The circumcised believers who had come with Peter are astonished to see the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out even on the Gentiles.
• The preacher sometimes brings communion to elderly and sick people at home, preferably just after the Sunday service, to show that they are part of one congregation: one bread, one cup, even when separated by time and place. This does not create a second congregation at home. In the same way, the Spirit who came down on Cornelius' household does not create a second church for the Gentiles.
• He understands why people speak of a "Gentile Pentecost", since the parallels with Acts 2 are so clear, but he hesitates to use the phrase if it suggests a separate event for a separate people.
• John the Baptist had announced: "On whom you will see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit." Jesus, Jews and Gentiles share the same Spirit, the one who came down on Jesus himself. There is no difference between them. The preacher even doubts the usefulness of saying that the "unclean" received the Spirit like the "clean", because the heart of the text is that Christ has abolished these distinctions. This is the revelation that dawns in Peter's heart as he enters this house.
• The sure sign of belonging to God's people, whatever our origin, is the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is where the church's unity lies: our differences have become secondary, they are no longer essential.
• Jesus did not come to found a Jewish church and another for the Gentiles, nor an English, Korean or Nigerian church, a rock music church, a surfers' church or a forest church. There is only one church, whose members all share one Spirit and show it to the world through one baptism. Paul would tell the Corinthians: "in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks".

7. The Friction That Shapes Us

• At communion, the preacher invites everyone to look along the line at all the nationalities in front of and behind them.
• He once served on the mission ship Doulos: a small metal box, with barely enough room to avoid the 350 other people from 53 countries. Frustrating! But the ship's director was clear: the ship was designed so that the nations would rub shoulders and the natural fault lines of community would appear. This friction, he said, would make for deeper formation, because it would force everyone to respond with grace.
• God gathers people across divisions, in unity with him and with one another. Through the friction of life together, he shapes us into the image of Christ. Discipleship needs community, not isolation.
• This friction is not always pleasant, nor automatically sanctifying. It becomes fruitful when we respond to it with repentance, patience, forgiveness and love.
• That is why the fellowship groups at All Souls are deliberately mixed, and why the preacher invites everyone to community meals, whatever their background or age. He admits, though, that we do not always do it. These are not mere programs, but places where God teaches us that we belong together in Christ.
• The Channel Tunnel was completed when the two teams came face to face. Acts 10 shows a far greater breakthrough: the gospel crosses the barrier between God and humanity, the one between Jews and Gentiles, and the ones we keep building between ourselves, even in the church. Through his death, his resurrection and the gift of his Spirit, Jesus has made those who were separated into one people.
• Jesus is not only Lord of Israel, nor of a single culture or a single group: he is Lord of all. This is the Good News that All Souls needs to hear, and the whole world with it.

Key Takeaways

• Humanity's real problem is separation from God, and the divisions between people are its symptoms.
• God prepares encounters in advance, but a messenger must still proclaim the message: the power of the gospel comes through its proclamation.
• God has no favorites: he does not require anyone to become Jewish to belong to him, but he calls all people to faith in Jesus, the Lord of all.
• Sincerity does not save without Christ. Only the cross atones for sin.
• The Holy Spirit makes Jews and Gentiles one church, and life together, with its friction, shapes us into the image of Christ.

Personal Application

1. What cultural, social or generational barriers do you keep building, even within your own church?
2. Like Peter, is there a "never" that you set against God, while he wants to broaden your understanding?
3. Do you settle for appreciating diversity, or do you dare, like Peter, to proclaim the Good News of Jesus who died and rose again?
4. Who around you might God already be preparing to hear the gospel?
5. When life together becomes friction, do you respond with repentance, patience, forgiveness and love, or by withdrawing?

Verses Cited

• Acts 10:23-48
• Ephesians 2:14
• Ephesians 1:10
• John 1:14
• Acts 11:14
• Acts 10:14
• John 13:8
• Mark 7:18-19
• Luke 24:47
• Deuteronomy 10:17-19
• John 1:33
• Acts 2:1-4
• 1 Corinthians 12:13

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "God shows no favoritism" mean in Acts 10?

God has no favorites. On entering Cornelius' house, Peter understands that God does not ask the nations to become Jewish in order to belong to him: he invites them directly into his kingdom through Jesus Christ, on the same footing as Israel. Jesus is not only Lord of Israel, he is Lord of all.

Does Acts 10:35 mean that every sincere person is saved?

No. According to Jonathan Gillespie, Cornelius' sincerity does not save him apart from Christ: it shows that God had prepared him to receive Christ. If sincere faith were enough, Peter would not have needed to preach the death and resurrection of Jesus. Only the cross atones for sin.

Why does the preacher hesitate to speak of a "Gentile Pentecost"?

He acknowledges the obvious parallels with Acts 2, but rejects the idea of a separate event for a separate people. The Holy Spirit who came down on Cornelius' house does not create a second church for the Gentiles: it shows that Jews and Gentiles share the same Spirit, the one who came down on Jesus himself, and form one people.