In the last article we saw how Cornelius was a man who feared God and was devoted to good works. He was even devoted to prayer, yet he was not a converted man. This should awaken us to the differences between Cornelius and what we teach people in the modern day. It is true that not all people will do what Cornelius did, but there are some out there who are doing those things and we might view them as virtual saints. However, as with Cornelius, they might need to be converted. People who are outwardly wicked and people who are outwardly devoted to good works and religious activity both need true conversion. All human beings whether very religious or very irreligious are those who need to be converted or they will perish.
In this article we will first look at how God prepares the messenger. We may think of evangelism as limited to the state of events in the life of the one being converted, but God also has to prepare those He sends with the Gospel. Sometimes He has to do a radical work in the life of the believer to open their eyes and prepare them to be able to “relate” to others with the Gospel. This is what He did with Peter. It might be helpful to remind ourselves that God is the major focus of this whole chapter. He is the One that Cornelius prayed to and gave alms to through His people. He is the One that prepared Peter to go to Cornelius. He is the One that communicated to Cornelius to go to Joppa and send for Simon Peter. He is the One that actually enlightens minds, teaches the truth, and actually converts souls. We must keep our focus on Him if we are to see true glory in the conversion of Cornelius. God’s glory in this event is seen from beginning to end if we have eyes to see.
“Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; 6 he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.” 7 When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants, 8 and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. 9 On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; 11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” 15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” 16 This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky. 17 Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate; 18 and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. 19 While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. 20 “But get up, go downstairs & accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.” 21 Peter went down to the men and said, “Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come? 22 They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you” (Acts 10:5-22).
In this we see God preparing His messenger to go out with the Gospel. In this we do not see that God needs Peter to do work for Him that He cannot do for Himself, but that God prepares Peter and brings him to the point where he can be used as a messenger for God. God could have preached the Gospel through and angel as He used the angel to speak to Cornelius to tell him to send for Peter. In many ways this is also what God did to Paul. Yes, He changed the heart of Paul but He also prepared him to be a messenger of the Gospel to the Gentiles. It is at this early point in the text that we can see something very clearly. Sometimes our religious traditions, though we think they have impeccable biblical or historical proofs, are things that get in the way of living to the glory of God and we need to repent of them. It is also true that we are dealing with a time of great change in biblical history in going from the nation of Israel to the Church, but there are still principles here to be learned. The teaching of the Jews on what Gentiles were had a very long and honored history among them. When Paul spoke in his own defense before the Jews in Acts 22, they listened to him until he said that God had sent him to the Gentiles (v. 21). At this point they said this: “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live” (v. 22).
Peter was a Jew and this was at least ingrained in some of his thinking. Later on he still had to be rebuked by Paul for withdrawing from the Gentiles in refusing to eat with them (Gal 2:11-14). After Peter arrived in Caesarea he said this to them: “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him” (v. 28). Jesus was confronted with this type of thinking as well. But before Peter would be sent to preach to the Gentiles, his mindset toward his traditions had to be changed. The glory of God is shining here as He is preparing Peter to go preach the Gospel to Cornelius and many other Gentiles. The workings of God are beyond what the human mind can conceive in the actual conversion of a human soul but also in His preparation of the messengers of the Gospel and in the circumstances around the ones being converted.
Peter had no idea that a cherished religious tradition was about to be confronted by God. He had no idea that he was in Joppa on more than one mission. He simply went out to pray (10:9). It was while he was on the rooftop that he became hungry and preparations for his food began to be made. Notice again the sovereignty of God in these situations. Peter went out to pray and yet became so hungry he wanted food. It was in this hunger that God put him into a trance and went to work on him. In this state of hunger and in a trance a large object like a sheet came down with all kinds of unclean animals on it and he was told to get up, kill and eat. But despite his hunger he did not want to violate the law concerning unclean animals. Yet the voice said that “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” This was repeated three times. God took the time to drive this point home to a hungry Peter.
The text tells us that Peter was “greatly perplexed in mind” as to what this vision meant. In more modern language, it simply blew his mind. As he sat on the roof still hungry and thinking of this vision, the timing of God in His perfect and complete sovereignty is put on display. The men who were sent by Cornelius at the direction of an angel and then had to stop and ask directions to where Peter was staying, arrived at just the right time. Peter was still shocked about this vision he had been given and was thinking about it with great intensity. The men arrived at the gate and the Spirit told him to go with the three men before he had even seen them. At this point the sovereignty of God must have been strongly impressed on Peter. He knew that this was a Divine mission and he was to go with these men even though it was against his religious tradition to do so.
Peter who had just had a vision was told by the Holy Spirit to go with these men. The men told him that Cornelius had been directed by a holy angel to send for him and that he (Peter) was to go to Cornelius’ house so that he would hear a message from Peter. The message was the Gospel. It is impossible to know or really understand the shock waves that went through Peter during this time. Surely the weight of the meaning of the vision of the sheet with the animals became clear at this point. While the meaning became clear, yet we can be sure that Peter’s old thinking did not go away without an inner battle. We can be sure that he was in a spiritual war at that moment. Yet in the sovereignty and providence of God Peter was prepared to go and preach the Gospel to some Gentiles.
The conversion of Cornelius is a passage of Scripture in which the glory of God shines. It shines because of His grace on Cornelius in conversion itself and in giving the Holy Spirit, but also because of His grace in changing Peter to make him into a man who was willing to preach to the Gentiles. The bombastic Peter who was impulsive without much constraint in the Gospels is now a man given to reflection and able to overcome his inner distaste to do what he was commanded to do. Who was Peter not to obey and go at this point? He was nothing more than a mere man as he pointed out about himself a little later in the text. This is something that the Church needs to learn. It is to listen to God and obey God rather than anything else. We must not imagine that we are without traditions that cling to us and render us less than useful to the kingdom as compared to what we should be.
Luke 10:2 instructs us: “He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” The God of glory tells us that there is a harvest. We are told to pray that He would send out laborers into His harvest. We are to labor according to His word and His methods. We are to labor according to the strength which He gives. We are to labor according to His doctrine. The words of Luke 10:2 are clear, though we may read them with the eyes of tradition. 1) We are to pray 2) so that the Lord of the harvest 3) would send out laborers 4) into His harvest. We pray that the Lord of the harvest would (He Himself) send out laborers. He is the One that does the sending and the harvesting.
As with Peter, He must send out laborers into the harvest He plans. The harvest is really that which He carries out through His people. Perhaps we have a tradition that thinks of evangelism as coming up with a plan and then asking the Lord to bless our plan. That is not what the conversion of Cornelius and Luke 10:2 teach us. All things start with prayer seeking the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. The conversion of Cornelius teaches us that all things start with God and He divinely orchestrates them through servants who follow His words. Perhaps we need to be prepared by the Lord in order to hear His words and follow His plans so that He would send us as laborers into His harvest. If not, we will listen to our own hearts and traditions and follow our own plans by sending out our own laborers into our own harvest. His harvest is when people are truly converted, but ours is when people are not. The difference, it should be clear, is virtually infinite. Let us learn to start with prayer and not end it until we have found God and His will. If not, we will be asking Him to bless our plans and our harvest.
God Loves... Himself 
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