God Grants Repentance to Gentiles

Transcript

GR 1605
05/22/2011
God Grants Repentance to Gentiles
Acts 10:44-11:18
Gil Rugh

Acts in the 10th chapter. We are talking about the Gospel being brought to the Gentiles for the first time. This is something shocking to the Jews, to the believing Jews. Something they had not expected even though it had been prophesied. Now you have Chapter 10, you need to come back to Genesis.

We are going to end up in Acts 10 of course, but we have to come back to Genesis, Chapter 12. The Abrahamic Covenant. Genesis 12:1-3, “Now the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” In that last statement, in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. That statement will be repeated in Genesis 18:18, Genesis 22:18.

Come over to the book of Galatians in your New Testament in the 3rd chapter. Paul is explaining that salvation has always been as a result of God’s Grace brought to us through faith in the provision that God makes and in this development in Chapter 3:8, the Scripture that would justify the Gentiles by faith. “Preach the Gospel before Abraham saying all the nations will be blessed in you.” So here is God’s inspired commentary on the portion we just read in Genesis 12. God was anticipating and preparing the way for his plan for the salvation of the Gentiles by faith. Verse 8 was saying “the scripture forseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the Gospel” in a very condensed way “and you in all the nations would be blessed.” That’s the blessings of God’s salvation that would be brought to the Gentiles.

Just after the book of Galatians, the book of Ephesians, chapter 3. Again we have to remind ourselves of what a dramatic change and understanding is being brought even to believing Jews. Now they could read the Old Testament, they could read that all nations of the earth would be blessed. But their understanding of that up to this point would have been that there would be numbers of Gentiles who would convert to Judaism who will have faith in the God of Israel. And become part of the nation of Israel by converting to Judaism. So the idea of Gentile salvation is not what is new but what is really new is the focal point of God in the world. We’ll see as we move on in Acts, it is going to move out to the Gentiles. But can the Gentiles as Gentiles be saved by faith? They don’t have to submit to the Mosaic Law. They don’t have to convert to Judaism. They are saved just by faith. So Paul has been talking about this in Chapter 2 and again in Chapter 3, in Ephesians and in Ephesians 3, Paul says in verse 3 “that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.” What is the mystery? It is that in “which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it is now been revealed to the holy apostles and prophets.” So God is now revealing it in a more full, more complete way, the plan and program of salvation that He has. It had been revealed as Paul said in Galations 3 to Abraham and through Abraham. God foretold that the Gospel would be brought to the Gentiles. But there wasn’t any clarity to that; that brought understanding to Jewish believers. Verse 6, “that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.”

That is the contact of the mystery that hadn’t been before revealed. It wasn’t that the Gentiles could be saved. There are instances of Gentiles being saved in the Old Testament but that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members. Now Jews and Gentiles are on the equal understanding in the program of the world of God today. Down in verse 9, verse 8 in sentence. “to me, the least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the infallible riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things.” It is not something new in the plan of God. It is something newly revealed by God by assuring his eternal plan. Verse 10; “that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to rulers and authorities in the heavenlies.”

Even the angels didn’t have clarity of the understanding of how God’s plan would unfold. Now this manifold wisdom, this multitask faceted wisdom of God is being made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies referred to as angelic beings. Now verse 11, very important, “this was in accordance with the eternal purpose,” his purpose of the ages “which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is why we talk about progressive revelation. God progressively made more clear, gave more understanding with more revelation regarding his eternal purpose. So this has been his plan from eternity, that has been his plan for all ages, but now it has been made manifest.

So you can appreciate the significance of Acts, chapter 10, Peter had no concept. He’s been preaching the Gospel, he has been the instrument of salvation of thousands beginning on the day of Pentecost. But he doesn’t understand that this program of God bringing salvation through Christ by faith is to reach out to the Gentiles, as Gentiles. And bring them the same salvation available on the same terms as it is to the Jews, by faith. Which has always been the terms of the salvation, but it has always operated since the days of Abraham, 2000 years before Christ, within the confines of God’s program with Israel.

So come back to Acts, chapter 10. Here we come to the full implementation of the eternal purpose of God, now being unveiled and even at this point, it is not fully understood. That will await additional revelation given through the apostle Paul as he wrote to the Ephesians. I want you to be able to understand how I know this, the revelation of the mystery given to me. So we are not done with the program of the progressive revelation but the dramatic turn here is significant. Peter needed special revelation from God with the bringing before clean and unclean animals and he is told to eat the unclean animals and that was to teach him that God has called that which was formerly unclean, clean. Verse 28 of Chapter 10 “he said to them, to the Gentiles assembled at the house of Cornelius, you yourselves know how unlawful it is to a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner, a non Jew or to visit with him. Yet God has shown me that I should not show any man unholy or unclean.” That is a new understanding for Peter. Jesus as we saw had given indication of this even during his earthly ministry but none of the disciples had any concept or understanding of that. Now Peter realizes the Gentiles are not unclean so he comes to bring the Gospel to them.

So what he is doing in verses 34 and following is presenting the Gospel to the house of Cornelius, a Roman soldier, his family and friends that he is associated with to bring to hear the Gospel. As a Gentile, Cornelius was a believer in the God of Israel. He was not a full convert to the God of Judaism; but he recognized the God of Israel as the true God and he was a supporter in many ways of the Jewish people recognizing their special place in the plan of God. What Peter does now to this assembled group is just unfold the simple gospel. We’ve looked through the first part of this. He started out by saying in verse 34, “I certainly understand now that God is not one to show impartiality.” That is a remarkable change in the thinking of Peter that has taken place within the framework of this chapter. Partiality in the sense of not being partial to Jews over against Gentiles. “But in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcomed to Him.” Then it goes on, “the word which he sends to the sons of Israel preaching peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all.”

And you know what Christ did, his earthly life was well known to those who were assembled here. Verse 39, “we are witnesses to all the things he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put him to death by hanging him on a cross. God raised him up on the third day and granted he become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who had chosen him beforehand.” That includes Peter and those associated with him. Verse 42, “He ordered us to preach to the people.”

So you see what he has declared to them, a summary of the earthly ministry of Christ. Very condensed, the fact that he was crucified by godless men, but God raised him from the dead. He ordered us to “preach to the people and to solemnly testify that this was the one who has been appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. Of him, all the prophets bear witness that through his name that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.” Peter understands that in a fuller way than he has ever understood it before. It was there but now he has a clarity on it he didn’t have before.

So Christ, the One who was crucified, the One who was raised from the dead has been appointed by God the Father as Judge of the living and the dead. And everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins. That is the point in which the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of Cornelius and those with Him and they believe. Because here’s the point, what did they have to do? Believe! And hearing that, their hearts turned to Christ in faith. While Peter was still speaking these words, the words that just came out of his mouth, everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins. “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all of those who were listening to the message.” That is an indication to what; they had believed and the Spirit of God now comes into their lives. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter, Jewish believers, were amazed. They are dumbstruck because the gift of the Spirit was poured out on Gentiles. You see no one is expecting this. I mean, that the Holy Spirit comes on Gentiles. Wait a minute, they haven’t, you know, the Jews have received the Spirit. Even the Samaritans with the Samaritans we had their mixed blood of Jews. They haven’t gone outside the bounds yet in a clearly distinct way. But now we are outside Judaism. And these men and women assembled here haven’t done anything to move toward Judaism.

Its not, well here is what you have to do, you have to submit yourself to the law and the men will have to be circumcised and the procedure. Then you could receive the Holy Spirit like the Jews do. The Holy Spirit indicates that is just by faith and it is for Gentiles by faith apart from Jews who can receive the same salvation by faith. So a totally new work here. Some call this a second Pentecost, but it is not really a second Pentecost. This is just a continuation of Pentecost; there is only one Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit the first time and the establishing of the church. And that ministry is carried on to the Samaritans in chapter 8. Now to the Gentiles in Chapter 10. So it is a continuing expansion of what took place on the day of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 45, “the circumcised believers who came with Peter are amazed” and there were six Jewish believers who accompanied Peter from Joppa where he was when Cornelius sent for him and brought him to Assyria. Chapter 11, verse 12 where Peter will be reiterating these events to Jews in Jerusalem. Verse 12 of Chapter 11. “The Spirit told me to go with them without misgiving; these six brethren also went with me.” Peter and six other Jewish believers. There were seven witnesses of what takes place at the house of Cornelius, the Gentile, to witness the salvation of these Gentiles. How do they know the Holy Spirit fell upon them? Well verse 46 says, “for they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exulting God.” How did the Jews recognize the coming of the Spirit in Acts 2. People spoke in tongues.

Now it amazes me that there are a number of commentators who think that the tongues here would be different than Acts chapter two. Let me read you what one commentator said and these are not flakey commentators, these would be well recognized commentators. The gift of tongues at Pentecost should probably be understood as distinguishable languages. That’s the tongues of Acts chapter two. They should be recognized as distinguishable language because they were immediately recognized as dialects than current. However, an outburst of foreign languages would have fallen on untoned ears and failed to be convincing, so we should probably view what was expressed here in Acts 10 as being ecstatic instances as Paul later described in First Corinthians 12 to 14. Now just stop and think a minute, what possibility would there be that these skeptical Jews would accept as valid Gentiles just beginning to babble in what we call ecstatic speech; not in earthly languages of any kind. Mystery religions and so on of the time used ecstatic speech. Are these Jews going to accept as evidence that the Gentiles who have received the Holy Spirit don’t speak in languages just like the Jews did in Acts, chapter two. There are several commentators who make similar comments. Now all of a sudden they make a biblical switch here without any foundation. In fact in chapter 11, Peter is going to say that the Gentiles got the same gift that we did. It would have to be manifest in the same way. And again not difficult for these Jews to recognize other languages, even though they would have to have a complete understanding. Maybe God gave them understanding here, we don’t know, that is not the point. I can listen to a language and can sometimes tell that is Spanish or French, something like that. There is a difference between someone just starts to run off collected syllables and vowels that don’t make any sense of the language. I take it what we have here, they are speaking in tongues and exulting God and since they recognize they are exulting God it would seem to indicate there is some sort of understanding here. Maybe these Gentiles decided to speak in Hebrew, I don’t know, as well as other languages of the region.

At any rate, it is clear to them, it is without doubt, so Peter can say with confidence in Verse 47, “Surely no one can refuse the water to baptize to those who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did. Can he?” They received the Holy Spirit just like we did in Acts, Chapter two. We Jews. So there is no difference to be recognized here. They heard the message of Christ, they believed the Holy Spirit came upon them. Who could say they shouldn’t be baptized? Why is this so important? Not because they need baptism for salvation because verse 47, “Peter says no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did. “ They already received the Holy Spirit. They already are regenerate people. Those who have the Spirit are those who believe in Christ as we see in Roman 8. But now Peter says we cannot hinder them from being baptized. He is going to follow through here because it is not like they are incomplete followers of Christ in any way. So baptism will be a public identification for them as those who belong to Christ and are his followers. They step right up to do that.

So right away, just as in Acts 2, what happened to those who believed on the day of Pentecost, those who were Jewish believers? They were baptized. What are we going to do with the Gentiles? Well, there may be other things necessary for the Gentiles before they can be accepted as full followers of Christ – No. They are to be baptized with water - indicating what? They belong to Christ and are followers of Christ. So already they are accepted as full members of the body of Christ as Gentiles, which is important. He ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on a few days which he obviously does. Since he ordered them to be baptized in Verse 48, it would indicate that Peter didn’t do the baptism. We don’t know the procedure they followed, how much the apostles baptized. We know that in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says he did not make it a personal practice to baptize the people. That wasn’t a rigid rule, he did baptize some. But as a general rule, he didn’t do the baptizing because he didn’t want people to identify themselves as followers of Paul. Others probably less prominent and that might be true of Peter. It doesn’t say Peter baptized them. But he ordered them to be baptized even though they are not identified as followers of Peter. They are identified as followers of Christ. They are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

He stays on then for a few days. So here is a man who before Chapter 10 wouldn’t have even gone to a house of a Gentile. Now he suddenly comes to that house, preaches the Gospel to them and recognized their true and complete salvation in Christ. But now he is going to stay on with them for a few days evidently grounding them, teaching them, explaining to them more about the finished work of Christ. Now this is such a shocking event, word spreads back to Jerusalem rather quickly. Chapter 11, verse 1, “now the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.” Though the region of Judea and also Jerusalem, being the capitol, and it is in Judea. Word spreads, this is an amazing event. Spreads among believing Jews that Peter has gone and preached to Gentiles and Gentiles have received the word of God. There you see “received” as an expression that indicates their faith. There reception of the gospel by faith. “For as many as received him, to them he gave them the authority to become sons of God” as John 1 says. So they had heard the Gentiles also had received the word of God. The apostles and the other brethren, other believers, Judea and Jerusalem.

“When Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him,” believing Jews, “saying, you went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” You see they had no concept here as Peter did not. Before Chapter 10, remember what he said to those at the house of Cornelius, I wouldn’t have come here if God hadn’t given me special revelation. So we ought not to think down on these Jews and other apostles and other believing Jews. This is something they see still within the framework of the Old Testament and maintaining their ceremonial type of cleansing which indicates what – Israel is separated from the nations as we looked at them in a previous study. That’s what the reason for the clean and unclean foods were. Not primarily health issues – that’s not that the point. What do you think, now that you are saved now and in the church, God doesn’t care about your health so you can eat anything that is bad for you? That is not the point of clean and unclean foods.

Have a book in my library written some years ago and the whole point of the book is how you can avoid certain diseases by following Old Testament regulations. That’s why God gave them – he didn’t want Israel to get the diseases that plagued people. Well then what? Tell them Peter ate this stuff because now you can be diseased? No, it was to mark Israel off from the nations so in Ephesians 2, Paul talks about that. That middle wall of partition, and the ordinances of the Mosaic Law has been broken down, removed that kept Jews separated from Gentiles.

The nation Israel was to be separated, they were chosen by God as a nation. These Jews do not understand that the wall is removed now. Peter has had special revelation so now he has to share with them what God revealed to him. “Peter,” verse 4, “began speaking and he needed to explain to them in orderly sequence saying, ‘I was in the city of Joplin praying and in a trance I saw a vision. An object coming down like a great chief lowered by four corners in the sky. It came right down to me, when I had fixed my gaze on it and observing it, I saw the four-footed animals of the earth. The wild beast, the crawling creatures, the birds of the air. I also heard a voice calling to me to get up Peter, kill and eat. But I said by no means Lord, for nothing unholy. Anything unclean has ever entered my mouth. But a voice from heaven answered a second time. What God has cleansed no longer consider unholy.’”

That’s the key point in this. This happened three times and everything was drawn back into the sky. “And behold in that moment, three men appeared at the house in which we were standing having been sent to me from Assyria. The spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. So you see, he has a voice from heaven; what God has cleansed no longer consider unholy.” And then you have the follow-up after being told this three times. “The spirit told me to go with them,” so Peter wants to make clear, this is a sovereign act of God. I didn’t decide to have an outreach to Gentiles, I didn’t go there on my own. I was clearly under and directly told by God to do it. “These six brethren,” vs. 12, “also went with me and we entered the man’s house.” So you see, what happens here, we have multiplied witnesses. Jewish law required two or three witnesses. Here we have seven, six plus Peter who established this before the Jews went to Jerusalem. “And he reported to us how he had seen the angels standing in that house.” Cornelius reported to Peter and these witnesses how an angel had appeared to him and told him to “send to Joppa and have Simon who was also called Peter brought here and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved. You and all your household.” You see the evidence of God’s sovereignty in this so strongly. What happened to Peter and would happen to Cornelius. How did Cornelius, a Gentile centurion, happen to send for Peter? An angel told him to send him. And in verse 14, “he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.” That’s clear and plain in sending Peter to Cornelius’s house to bring salvation to that house. Because he is going to come and “tell you what you need to hear to be saved.” So Cornelius and others in his household evidently that were assembled there believed in the God of Israel and in that general sense, and were sympathetic to the Jews. He was not a saved man yet. You see God intervening now to bring salvation.

So here we are, we can get to their salvation, verse 14. “He will speak words to you by which you will be saved.” Verse 15, “as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as he did upon us at the beginning.” So you note, he has reiterated in some details the events leading up to the details of the gospel. He doesn’t have to repeat the gospel to these men. These are other apostles and Jewish believers. But it is important that he repeat all the details of how he happened to be there. Both with what the Lord had revealed to him and what the Lord had revealed to Cornelius. So they see that this an act of God. Cornelius didn’t take the initiative, God took the initiative by sending an angel to the house of Cornelius. Peter didn’t take the initiative; God did by bringing a vision to Peter and explaining its significance.

And then telling him to go with the messengers from the house of Cornelius. Just as he did upon us at the beginning. So that is further confirmation of everything that has happened up to this point. “Now the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as he fell upon us Jews at the beginning.” The beginning goes back to Acts 2 of course. “And I remembered the word of the Lord how he used to say John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” and Peter clearly connects here. What has happened to these Gentiles was what happened to the Jews on the day of Pentecost. That was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now it wasn’t clearly called the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 remember. But that was what it was and Peter makes that clear here through the inspiration of the Spirit. When the Spirit came on these Gentiles, he remembered this is what the Lord used to say. “John baptized with water and you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” He had that in Acts 1. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

This is the beginning of the church. There are some called ultra-dispensationalists who put the beginning of the church later in Acts 2. But Peter puts it in Acts 2; that is when the baptism of the Spirit began. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says “it is by one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body, the body of Christ,” the context there. We know clearly the church began in Acts 2, it began being Jewish, but that is just the beginning. It is not God’s intention to have a Jewish church. The church by nature of being a church will be much broader than just the Jews. In fact the Jews will be a smaller portion of it. Even though it begins with the Jews; that is in God’s plan because of the priority He has given them as a nation. It will reach out beyond that. Verse 17, “therefore if God gave to them the same gift that he gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus.” Note that the conversion there helps keep the baptism in order, water baptism. They had believed in the Lord Jesus, they had received the Holy Spirit, water baptism is a public identification and declaration. “Who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” Peter makes a compelling argument here. All that God has done here, climaxing here with giving the Holy Spirit to Gentiles in a clear and irrefutable way and here are six other witnesses that have creditability. Who was I that I could stand in God’s way. I had them baptized. It is back on them. With all that he has recorded up to here, would these other apostles said no? “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God saying, well then, God has granted the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to Life.” Here for the first time, the rest of the Apostles of other believing Jews understand God has granted repentance that leads to life.

The sovereignty of God is so clearly emphasized through all these proceedings. How did the house of Cornelius get saved? By the sovereign intervention of God. How did the apostle Paul, Saul as he was known on the Damascus road, in chapter 9 get saved? By the supernatural intervention of God. How does anyone ever get saved? By the supernatural intervention of God in a life. But it revolves and requires the hearing the message of truth. Romans 10:17 – “Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of Christ.” You have to hear the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and believe it to be saved. That’s it. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word the message of Christ. The repentance that leads to life. They can have it as Gentiles, not as converts to Judaism. There will still be debate on this that will not be resolved until we get to Acts 15 and it will take a special conference in Jerusalem where the matter gets clarified that Gentiles do not have to become Jews. So you can see the progressing understanding that comes. It is not finally understood by everybody here and that it is clear. There are issues that have to be resolved even more clearly in Acts 15. Peter will be a clearer spokesman because of how the Lord used him here. Repentance, God has granted, God has given repentance.

Come back to Chapter 5 of Acts. Acts 5, Peter is speaking here, verse 29, “as they are being instructed by the chief priests and the Sanhedrin governing body of the Jews, not to be preaching about Christ.” Verse 29, “Peter and the apostles answered. We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you put to death by hanging on him on the cross.” See how they constantly bring the Gospel into the conversation. Bring it to the main point. They crucified Christ and God raised him from the dead. He is the one who God exalted on his right hand as a prince and Savior. Now note this “to grant to see the sovereignty God in this” – he is the one giving to grant, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. At that point, Peter has no understanding it would go beyond that. But he is addressing the Jews, they didn’t understand how God will give them salvation, presented the Gospel to them again and again.

Just a reminder we sometimes would love to see people saved, so you have to give people the Gospel. Now it is a sovereign act of God to move on that part. But God does not move –His purposes and plans are to have the message of Christ presented and then in His sovereignty some will hear and He will move on that sinful heart that they might repent and believe. Come over to Ephesians 2:8 – many of you probably have these verses memorized. “For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God;” and that refers to the salvation. That salvation is not of yourself, all that is entailed in it. Some distorted way some believers think they are protecting the Gospel by saying, “oh no you don’t tell people they have to repent because that would be a human work.” It is not a human work anymore than faith is a human work. Salvation in its entirety is a gift of God. It is not a result of works. God grants repentance. So the person hears the Gospel and turns from their sin and places their faith in Jesus Christ. We are his workmanship created in Jesus Christ for good works. Good works are a result of what God does in our life. But God’s work is a sovereign work of God.
People must repent, they must change their mind about their condition, about Christ, they must turn from that and place their faith in Christ.

Turn to II Cor. 7. Paul has written a letter to the Corinthians. He is responding to that. Probably in Corinthians my understanding in verse 8, “I have caused you sorrow by my letter. I do not regret it though I did regret it. I see I caused you sorrow but only for a while. I now rejoice,” verse 9, “that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, in order that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.” Vs. 10, “for the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” The point is becoming sorry about something doesn’t really do anything. But a sorrow that would move you to repentance brings about a change in a life. It is like your little child, they get caught doing something and they say, “oh, I’m sorry.” Well, are they sorry to repentance that they are committed to not doing that again? They recognize the wrongness of their way. Some people hear a song or a message and they are moved to tears and grief and oh I’m so sorry but did that move them to genuine repentance. The sorrow, the tears are not necessarily genuine repentance.

That may be an indication it may just be natural human emotion like you have when you watch a sad movie. Like a song said, movies always make me cry. That’s not biblical repentance, we get confused. When I was in the holiness church, they had the mourner’s bench and you came to the front at the end of the service and you mourned over your sin. There might be genuine repentance and there might not. It might be that that person through a powerful message and the sad stories he mixed in really made me sorry that I did bad things. So I came up and expressed that I was sorry or that I did bad things, but I didn’t repent because I got up and left and did them again.

So that is what Paul is talking about in repentance, we are talking about saving repentance that always in Scripture involves a change, a turning. The word basically means a change of mind, but it always involves me. For when my mind has truly turned then the rest of me has turned because I am being made new in the realm of my mind.

Come to Romans 2:4, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience,” (do not take that lightly that God has given you an opportunity to hear the message of Christ and to respond to it) “not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” God is using this, the message using Jesus Christ and the unfolding of His patience, kindness, and so on to bring you to repentance, but you need to be careful that because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath.

Why do you call people to repentance? In the book of Acts, God is calling people everywhere to repent for He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in repentance. You have to come to understand you are a sinner, guilty before God. And you have no hope as a sinner, just turn from your sin to your Savior, the Son of God who was crucified on the cross, who was raised by the power of God and he is alive today and he is the Judge of the living and the dead. And anytime we share the Gospel, what, our burden and desires that God in His mercy and grace would reach into that sinful heart and mind and grant them repentance and faith. That they might turn from their sin and believe in the Savior. Because they have stubborn hearts like we have stubborn hearts.

A reminder that salvation is a work of God which Peter was doing. He was just going out and giving the message of Christ. And we are reminded that this message is the same. Peter changed nothing in the message as he gave it to the Gentiles at Cornelius’s house from what he gave to the Jews. What do I need to say to these people? They need to hear the Gospel. We need to bring them to the Gospel, the Gospel, to the Gospel, to the Gospel. So that they might hear, for “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the message of Christ.” We have this treasure of the message of Jesus Christ in earthly vessels. Paul writes to the Corinthians so that when people are saved by hearing the message of Jesus Christ that we presented them, all the glory, all the honor, all the credit if you will, will go to the God who has brought salvation to their lives. That is how it came to us, by God’s grace to us - that is how it comes to us.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the tremendous significance of Acts 10 as we as Gentiles gather together the church of Jesus Christ in this place. Lord we rejoice that Your plan of the ages was that the message of salvation by faith would be carried to Gentiles. That in Your foundational covenant with Abraham, You made provisions for all the nations of the earth to be blessed in the Savior who would be the descendant of Abraham. We thank You for Your mercy and grace that brought the message of salvation to us personally and individually. And then in an act of grace, opened our blinded eyes to see, our ears to hear that we might repent and turn from our sin to the Savior and believe in Him and experience power of Your salvation. Lord may we not forget that this message, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is Your power for salvation for everyone who believes, has been entrusted to us. And we are privileged to be instruments in Your hand as we become spokesmen giving out the Gospel. You intervene in supernatural ways to bring salvation to men, women, and children. Lord, may You use us to that end, in the days and weeks before us as we pray in Christ’s name. Amen