Acts 10:34-48: A Message about Jesus

Acts 10:34-48: A Message about Jesus

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Acts, and today the next passage we come to is Acts 10:34-48 as the passage upon which today’s message will be based. It says,

34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 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. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” 44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. 

You know, D. L. Moody famously stated that “the Bible was not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.” And I agree. Something’s wrong if we’re just reading the Bible to acquire information as an end in itself. Our ultimate goal shouldn’t be information but rather transformation. So whenever we read a passage of the Bible—whether it’s here on Sunday mornings or on our own throughout the week—we always want to try to apply the Bible to our lives. 

However, here’s the thing: I think a lot of Christians lack a full understanding of what application looks like. I think a lot of them think of application merely in terms of coming up with specific life applications that they essentially add to their daily to-do list. So, for example, if they read a narrative in the Bible about Jesus being kind to someone, they might try to apply that by making a mental note to look for opportunities to demonstrate kindness to someone that day. Or if they read about an Old Testament prophet being very bold, they might write down a personal goal of being bold in their gospel witness. And let me be clear that there’s nothing wrong with either of those things. Those are both very legitimate ways to apply the Bible, and the instinct behind that approach to application is a good instinct. After all, James 1:22 tells us that we’re supposed to not just be hearers of the Word but doers also. So, some would say, every time we read the Bible, we should always come away from that time with at least one specific application to our lives—some item, no matter how small, that we add to our daily to-do list. 

Yet, even though there’s certainly a lot of good in that approach to application, that approach in itself isn’t enough. It’s not complete. Because transformation in our lives is a more complex phenomenon than that approach assumes. True and lasting transformation isn’t that straightforward. 

An author named David Mathis elaborates on this in his book Habits of Grace, in which he also draws on John Piper’s insights. Mathis observes that the vast majority of our lives is lived spontaneously. Just think about all the thousands upon thousands of decisions you and I make each day. 99% of those daily decisions are made without much prior reflection at all. We just do things and say things without thinking about them all that much. For example, let’s say you’re in a conversation with someone. How weird would it be for you to pause every 10 seconds in order to pray about what to say next and give each word careful consideration? That’d be a bit unusual, right?—not to mention impractical. Like, the other person asks you how you’re doing, and you have to take a brief timeout from the conversation and pray about how to respond. Then maybe they mention something about the weather, so again, you’ve gotta take another timeout and pray about what you should say about the weather. You just can’t live like that, right? It’s humanly impossible to reflect on every single decision you make throughout the day—about what to say and what to do and how to live in general. 

That’s why Mathis says that the majority of our lives is lived spontaneously and that 99% of our daily decisions are made without much prior refection at all. We just say things and do things not because we’ve given each one of those words and actions careful consideration but rather because of the kind of person that we are—or, even more specifically, the kind of person we’ve become. Jesus teaches in Luke 6:45 that it’s out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks. Words just come out of us because of the kind of person we are and the kind of heart we have.

So here’s what that means for our efforts to apply the Bible. Our primary goal in reading the Bible shouldn’t be merely coming up with a list of specific applications to add to our to-do list but rather allowing the things we read to shape us into a more Christlike person. Again, our primary goal in reading the Bible shouldn’t be merely coming up with a list of specific applications to add to our to-do list but rather allowing the things we read to shape us into a more Christlike person. Because, remember: it’s impossible to consider each individual decision we’ll make throughout the day. Therefore, we should endeavor to become the kind of person who will instinctively make more Christlike decisions.  

And here’s the key thing to understand: that inward transformation happens as we behold the glory of God in the pages of Scripture. We’re transformed into a more godly kind of person, who will instinctively live a more godly life, as we behold the glory of God in the pages of Scripture. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul writes, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” So how does it say we’re transformed? What is it that brings about our transformation? “Beholding the glory of the Lord.” We become what we behold. So the most important thing we can do when we read the Bible is to seek to encounter God and to behold his glory and to be astonished all over again by the wonders of his grace. That’s the kind of Bible application that’s most critical for us to focus on. Let your heart marinate in the glory of God and the wonders of grace—and that’ll transform you. It’ll make you into a different and more Christlike kind of person with the result that you’ll instinctively live in a more Christlike way. The transformation you experience in your heart will spill over into your life and shape those thousand upon thousands of decisions you make over the course of an average day. 

So—to be clear—don’t shy away from specific applications of Scripture. Those specific applications of doing this and avoiding that are very good and appropriate and necessary. Keep coming up with them. Write down specific ways in which you want to live differently. But just recognize that that’s only a part of good Bible application. Ultimately, you should seek to behold the glory of God and the wonders of grace and thereby become a different kind of person who will instinctively live in a more Christlike way. 

And even though we should do that to one degree or another in every biblical passage, I believe the passage before us this morning—Acts 10:34-48—is an especially good passage for us to approach in that way. Last week, we saw earlier in the chapter how God led the Apostle Peter to the house of a Gentile named Cornelius so that Peter could share the gospel with him. A Gentile, by the way, is simply someone who’s not a Jew. And Peter was astonished that God would lead him to the house of a Gentile because Peter had some significant racial biases that were virtually universal among the Jews of his day. But God corrected Peter’s thinking, so that he confesses in verses 34-35, 34 …“Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” In other words, salvation is available for anyone of any race or culture or nationality who fulfills the requirements of verse 35. They have to fear God and do what is right—which entails embracing the gospel and trusting in Jesus. 

Then in the subsequent verses, we see Peter explaining to Cornelius and the other Gentiles gathered there what they need to know in order to be saved. This is one of the clearest and most complete gospel presentations in the entire book of Acts—perhaps even in the entire New Testament. And the thing that sticks out to me as the most notable feature of this presentation is that the whole thing revolves around Jesus. It’s all about him. So, if you’re taking notes, the main idea this morning is very simple: the gospel is a message about Jesus. It’s hard to imagine a simpler statement than that. Yet, strangely enough, many professing Christians seem to lose sight of that reality in a variety of different ways. So it’s a simple statement but perhaps deceptively simple in certain respects. The gospel is a message about Jesus.

So let’s just walk through this passage and see what it says about Jesus. And, again, as we do this, let these truths soak deep into your soul and transform you into the kind of person God wants you to be. 

In verse 36, Peter describes God’s message to Israel as the “good news of peace through Jesus Christ.” That’s what the word “gospel” literally means. “Gospel” refers to “good news.” The gospel isn’t a set of moralistic guidelines for the way we should live but rather a report of certain truths and realities. And, as we see here, perhaps the most central of those realities is “peace through Jesus Christ.” Think about that. “Peace through Jesus Christ.” This mention of peace presupposes a situation of enmity. The alarming reality that we all have to face is that every single person in this world is born into a state of enmity against God. According to the Bible, we have sinful hearts that lead us to live sinful lives. And the sin both in our hearts and lives cries out for God’s judgment. It’s like we’re going through our lives on death row. It’s only a matter of time until we receive the judgement our sins deserve in hell for all eternity. Our situation couldn’t be more desperate. That’s the bad news—the enmity that exists between us and God. The good news, though, is that God’s graciously provided a way for us to be at peace with him. Even though we didn’t deserve it and had, in fact, done everything not to deserve it, God the Father sent Jesus his Son to die on the cross and thereby suffer the judgement we deserved. Jesus endured God’s wrath so we wouldn’t have to. As a result, God’s justice can be satisfied, and we can enjoy a peace with God that would otherwise be impossible. That peace comes not through our striving but through Jesus and him alone. And through Jesus, we can be not only forgiven of our sins but even adopted into God’s family as his own sons and daughters, the Bible says. This is a peace that couldn’t be more comprehensive. It consists not only in the absence of enmity but also in the enjoyment of relationship. 

And this peace with God is also the key that unlocks the door to peace with one another—which is something we could certainly use in our society right now—as well as peace within ourselves. You know, it seems like more people than ever, these days, are plagued with anxiety. They’re functioning in a state of anxiety almost all the time. And contrary to what many people assume, the answer to that anxiety isn’t an endless series of therapy sessions or pills that’ll take the edge off of things—as helpful as those things might be during certain seasons of our lives. It’s first and ultimately Jesus who is the answer. Through Jesus, we can experience an inward peace that’s far superior to anything this world has to offer—a peace that’s rooted in the reality of a reconciled relationship to God and that’s experienced day by day through the continual work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. This is the peace Jesus offers—peace with God, peace with one another, and peace within ourselves. It’s no wonder that Jesus is referred to in Isaiah 9:6 as the “Prince of Peace.”

Moving forward in Acts 10, right after Peter speaks of “peace through Jesus Christ,” he says of Jesus that “he is Lord of all.” Jesus is the Lord of everything. There isn’t one square inch of this earth or one person walking on the earth or one molecule in the entire universe that Jesus can’t point to and say, “That’s mine. It was created by my power and exists for my glory and must do as I command.” That’s what it means to be Lord of all. And remember here what city Peter was in while saying this and who he was saying it to. Peter was in Caesarea, a city named after the Roman emperor and which was the seat of the Roman government in that region. He was also speaking this to a centurion in the Roman military, who would have been expected to be quite loyal to the Roman emperor. Yet Peter tells him that Jesus, not Caesar, is “Lord of all.” Paul says it this way in Colossians 1:15-18, speaking of Jesus: 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 

What a blessing that one so righteous and good and wise sits on the throne of this universe and that he reigns eternally. He never needs to seek reelection, he never has to worry about popular opinion polls, and he can’t be overthrown. Jesus is and will forever continue to be “Lord of all.” As Paul states so eloquently in Philippians 2:9-11, 9 God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

Then, continuing in Acts 10, Peter tells his listeners in verses 37-38 that, 37 You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. In other words, Jesus was the genuine Messiah predicted throughout the Old Testament, and God the Father bore witness to his legitimacy by empowering him, through the Holy Spirit, to perform miracles. Of course, in his deity, Jesus was fully capable of performing miracles by his own power, but part of the mystery of the Incarnation—God becoming man—is Jesus humbly putting himself in a position of dependence on the other Persons of the Trinity. The point is that Jesus was the genuine Messiah. He was marked with God the Father’s seal of approval. As the title “Christ” indicates, Jesus was the “Anointed One,” set apart for God’s purposes. 

And in his fulfillment of that calling, Peter says, Jesus “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” He was sovereign and supreme over nature, disease, demons, and even death itself. And yet, he also cared for people. Even in situations in which Jesus, in his humanity, must have been exhausted, he was constantly “doing good” for people. No matter how busy he was—and I’m sure the demands on his time were quite high—Jesus always had time to minister to people and help them and care for them. He lived the most astounding life of love this world has ever known. No one else in this world has ever lived a life of such love.  

And the greatest example of that is mentioned in verse 39, where Peter describes how the Jews “put [Jesus] to death by hanging him on a tree.” That’s a reference to Deuteronomy 21:23, where it states that anyone who’s hung on a tree is cursed by God. And, like we already said, that’s exactly what happened. Jesus endured the curse of God the Father’s wrath so that we wouldn’t have to. And that’s all the more amazing when you consider that he did it for those who were wretched and rebellious. As Romans 5:7-8 states, 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Who’s ever seen love like this? 

Peter then describes in verses 40-41 how 40 …God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 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. Unlike all other religious leaders who have ever lived, Jesus didn’t stay in the grave when he died. Instead, he showed his supremacy even over death itself by rising from the dead. Peter then explains in verses 42-43 that 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Part of Jesus being “Lord of all,” as Peter described him a few verses prior to this, is that he’s the Judge of both “the living and the dead”—that is, of everyone. Court will one day be in session, and not one person who’s ever lived will escape this appointment with justice. Even though it might seem like so many people in this world get away with so many things, that won’t ultimately be true. One day, all wrongs will be righted and all wrongdoers will be punished when Jesus exercises his authority as “judge of the living and the dead.” 

And that might be a terrifying thought for us as well were it not for the fact that, as Peter states in the latter part of verse 43, “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” No matter what we’ve done or what messes we’ve made, all of our sins can be washed away. As God states in Isaiah 1:18, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” And as the psalmist says in Psalm 103:12, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” That’s possible through Jesus and him alone. But as Peter says, we have to “believe” in him and recognize that this “forgiveness of sins” comes “through his name.”

So that’s the message Peter preached and that Cornelius and the other listeners embraced. The passage then records the Holy Spirit being poured out on these new Gentile converts, evidenced by them speaking in tongues, in order to show that they were indeed genuine Christians and should be accepted as part of the Christian community. This event is often referred to in theological circles as “the Gentile Pentecost.” For the first time, it was clear to everyone that the gospel is meant not just for Jews but for Gentiles as well. These Gentiles are then baptized into the Christian community. 

Yet the only way any of this is possible is through Jesus. He’s the centerpiece of Peter’s message, and it’s his glory that outshines everything else we find here.  

And thinking about us and our lives today, basking in the light of this glory is the key to personal transformation. There are plenty of specific life applications we could glean from this passage—and there’s certainly a place for those—but I believe the way this passage can have the most profound impact on our lives is if we let our minds and hearts just marinate in what’s revealed about Jesus here. Soak it all in. As Jesus himself says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” Drink deeply from Jesus this morning and from the rivers of living water that are found in him. That, more than anything, is what will shape you and transform you to be more like him. 

It’s also what will motivate you to live for Jesus even when that involves renouncing sin. One of the realities of our lives this side of heaven is that we struggle against sin. It’s a daily battle in which we’re called to “put to death” the sinful desires of our hearts, as Paul says in Romans 8:13. Yet, contrary to what many Christians often assume, the way to win that battle isn’t to grit our teeth and try harder to resist those sinful desires but rather to be so captivated by Jesus that sin simply isn’t desirable any more.

I once heard it compared to some of the characters from ancient Greek mythology. First, there’s Odysseus, whom Homer writes about in his epic poem the Odyssey. In his travels, Odysseus sails past these creatures called the Sirens, whose beautiful singing would often lure sailors to their deaths on the rocks. And even though Odysseus knew the dangers, he was also curious to hear what their song sounded like. So, before the ship came within earshot the Sirens, Odysseus had all of his sailors plug their ears with beeswax so they couldn’t hear the seductive music of these deadly creatures, but he didn’t plug his own ears. Instead, he had his men tie him to the mast of the ship and ordered them not to untie him no matter how much he begged them to do so. Sure enough, when the ship sailed past the Sirens and Odysseus heard their singing, he strained with all his might against the ropes that bound him. Thankfully, though, the ropes held tight and the ship sailed safely past the Sirens until they couldn’t be heard any more. That’s one story. 

Yet there’s another story in Greek mythology of a man named Jason sailing past the Sirens as well. And in this story, rather than using ropes to bind himself, Jason had one of his companions play his lyre when they got close to the Sirens. This beautiful melody from the skilled musician drowned out the Sirens’ deadly song, with the result that the ship sailed safely past the island and continued without incident on its journey. 

Now, here’s the point: all too often, we find ourselves in the position of Odysseus. Our hearts are pulled with a mighty force by sinful temptations. Sin seems so appealing—so seductive—and leaves us straining against the ropes. And let’s be honest: many times, the ropes aren’t enough to hold us. We often break free from the ropes and follow that seductive song of the Sirens to our own shame and misery. But if we’d simply have our eyes opened to behold the glory of Jesus and, similar to Jason, have the Christ-centered symphony of the gospel playing in our ears, the result would be quite different. That beautiful melody of Jesus and his glory and grace would drown out the song of the Sirens. And we wouldn’t even feel like we’re missing out on anything but would rejoice in the treasure we’ve found in Jesus. That’s how to successfully overcome sin in your life. Don’t merely try to resist sinful desires. Instead, let them be eclipsed by a greater desire that dominates your heart—an all-consuming desire for Jesus. 

I’d like to conclude this morning with a quote from Charles Spurgeon. I know that might surprise you, but the man just said so many things that are worth quoting. Spurgeon states, “Last Sunday night I had a text which mastered me: ‘No one knows the Son except the Father’ [that’s from Matthew 11:27]. I told the people that poor sinners who had gone to Jesus and trusted him thought they knew him, but that they knew only a little of him. Saints of sixty years’ experience, who have walked with him every day, think they know him; but they are only beginners yet. The perfect spirits before the throne, who have been for five thousand years perpetually adoring him, perhaps think they know him, but they do not to the full. ‘No one knows the Son except the Father.’ He is so glorious, that only the infinite God has full knowledge of him, therefore there will be no limit to our study, or narrowness in our line of thought, if we make our Lord the great object of all our meditations.” What a thought! Jesus “is so glorious, that only the infinite God has full knowledge of him, therefore there will be no limit to our study, or narrowness in our line of thought, if we make our Lord the great object of all our meditations.” Is Jesus the great object of all of your meditations?