Acts 10:9-23

There is nothing on Earth that can warm your soul and your body like a powerful time of worship. I know it’s 17 degrees outside, but it feels like about 100 degrees inside, and that is because of the move of the spirit of God in our midst. When we move and we are able to praise God with everything God has given to us, there’s a warmth that comes from the inside out. So thankful for the powerful time of Malayalam worship and again English worship the Lord has given to us so far, and I pray that God will continue to speak to our hearts today as we continue to speak, go into God’s word. A warm welcome to especially guests that are here with us this afternoon, we pray for God’s blessings upon you as well as we continue with our series from the book of Acts, Church on the rise. Today we’ll be focusing on Acts 10:9-23, the first part of verse 23, because of the lack of time. Let me not read through the verses, but we’ll go through it one by one as we normally do. 

This, thought to be what is happening in Acts 10, the encounter between Peter and Cornelius, is thought to be happening about 10 years after the birth of the New Testament Church. We think that the events of seven is thought to be around somewhere between AD 38 to 40, so about 10 years after the Holy Spirit came upon the church on the day of Pentecost. We already looked at the setting at the end of chapter 9, the beginning of chapter 10 as well. Peter is in the house of a Simon, by the name of Simon who was a Tanner at Caesarea. 30-plus miles away, there is a man by the name of Cornelius who was a Godly, was a man of who feared God, who had not yet known the Lord Jesus Christ, who was one who would give so generously even though he was a Gentile. The Bible says he would give generously even to the Jewish people. We talked about the visitation of the angel in the beginning verses of chapter 10, telling him to send for a man by the name of Simon who is living in the house of Simon the Tanner, which was in Joppa, almost 30 miles away. Very interesting here is about the location of these two cities and the journey between them, as we will see here, would take about a day and a half a day. By all accounts, the journey that these three men would take to Joppa, actually, they got there fairly quickly. Look at verse 9, about noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. This distance between Joppa and Caesarea is about 30 to 36 miles, depending upon where in Joppa you are, so this journey could have taken much longer. Remember, it was at 3:00 in the afternoon that Cornelius had the visitation from the Angel. By the time you come to noon, which is about 18 hours away, these three men have already come to Joppa. 

Now, in today’s time, we just traveled about 30 plus miles to come to church. It took about 35 minutes, but in those days, a journey of 36 miles, probably usually by normal means, would take almost two days. But these men were soldiers, commissioned by Cornelius, probably traveling by horseback, were able to arrive at a much faster speed. They had to stop along the way, rest, feed their horses, all these things. At noon the following day, these men are approaching the city, and at the same time, the Bible says Peter goes up onto the roof to pray. This is not a regular time of prayer, noon. We talk about the sixth hour, we talk about the ninth hour, and all these things are times such as when it’s prescribed to pray, evening prayer, but noon is usually not a time. Again, giving to us a good indication that there is no time restrictions as to when you can pray. But the reason why Peter is going up on the roof at about the same time as we have seen all throughout the Book of Acts is because God is orchestrating things behind the scenes that we cannot see. Joppa is a very busy trading city, Caesarea is a busy Port City. There’s a lot of business transactions going on, but behind the scenes, there are things that are happening by the work of God that is much more important than anything that is going on in the respective cities. Do you know that the most important work of God’s work that is happening in the city of Dallas is not at the city hall, it is not in the mayor’s office, even though that’s what you see on the news. The most important work that is happening in the city of Rowlett and the City of Dallas is God working behind the scenes as he always does. He brings things together, he brings people together. So these two men who are 30 miles apart, God is about to bring them together. Because as I mentioned last week, this is the most important of the most important chapters in the entire God’s word, especially as it relates to us. 

So what do we see here? Ephesians 1:11 talks about this, about our own predestination, our own salvation. There’s a God who is always planning, the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. God is always working things to achieve his purpose and His will in this world. The only thing that will happen in this world is in accordance with the will of God. The will of God, no one can go beyond that. Nothing is stronger than the purpose and will of God. Everything He orchestrates according to His purpose and plan. Exactly what He’s doing. Why did he go to the Rooftop? In Oriental houses, just like today, the rooftop is a flat surface where you can actually go. But remember, what Simon the Tanner’s house is. I already talked about the smell in his house. The rooftop is a great place to go and pray because you are kind of escaping the smell inside the house. Not only that, being by the sea, from the rooftop of Simon the Tanner, here Simon Peter has a clear view of the Mediterranean Sea, and the cool breeze from the sea is hitting his face as he goes up there at the noon time. Even if you were living there, you would want to go to the rooftop first to escape the smell, second for the view, third for the breeze, but a quiet time. But a rooftop, in the houses of that day, not unlike ours today made of shingles, you hardly can ever get on rooftop unless you’re experienced person, was a place where people went to pray, went to meditate, to get away from the busyness of what is happening inside the house.

So Peter goes up in the noon time to pray, but I love verse 10 because that tells us that Peter is just as a human being just like us. Look what happened: Peter became hungry and wanted something to eat. It is usually when we start to pray that we get hungry, the phone rings, text message, the child cries. You all have experienced all of those things. I’m kind of glad that we have service in the afternoon because usually by the time we go to morning service, by the time I start preaching, your mind is on the lunch buffet or wherever you’re going to eat lunch because you know you start getting hungry. A lot of times on Sunday morning you are not eating and you come to church, the pastor has a very difficult topic of keeping your focus on the spiritual food and not on the physical food. And here again Peter gets hungry, he needs something to eat, the smell from the kitchen is rising to the rooftop, probably aggravating his hunger. In fact, in the original language, it’s actually used a very strong word that says he was extremely famished and hungry. He wanted to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, the Bible says something happened to him, he fell into a trance.

Now, what is a trance? A trance is something where you become immediately, not out of your own doing, unconscious of your own body and the mind is fully awake and it’s now prepared to receive something from the Lord. That’s usually what we see in the book of Acts at least. Look at Acts 22:17, a similar thing happened to the Apostle Paul when he was in the temple in Jerusalem: “When I returned to Jerusalem and I was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance.” You are not conscious of what is going on around you, the hunger doesn’t matter to you anymore, suddenly your mind is just in a very state where it is able to receive something from the Lord. Maybe the experience that the Apostle Paul that he mentions to us in 2 Corinthians where he was taken up to the third heaven also happened in the midst of a trance. It’s kind of difficult to distinguish between the difference between a vision and a trance. The difference here is probably the person is fully awake but unconscious of this physical body, but his mind is very much alert, but most importantly his mind is focused and alert to receive from the Lord. 

And look what happened, verse 11, he saw heaven open. In some of your translations, he saw the sky open, same meaning. Heaven open and something like a large sheet, very important to read God’s word very carefully. The Bible is not telling you that a large sheet came down from heaven, it says something like a large sheet. In fact, the word there is something similar to the sail of a ship, if you can imagine the sail of a ship that controls the ship, that controls the wind and is able to direct the ship based on the direction of the wind. Something like that, something that looks like Aladdin’s travel magic carpet or something like that, you know, something that looked like a large sheet being let down to Earth by its four corners. It is very stable, very sturdy, something is holding it up, it is held down and is lowered by its four corners. Some theologians take the word “four corners”, it says it’s talking about the north, the south, and the east and the west, and about the spreading of the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. Whatever that might be, it is just talking about the fact that a sheet was coming down. 

And look what is in the sheet, verse 12, it contains all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Four-foot animals, reptiles, and birds are in this sheet, probably a very large sheet. Very interestingly, in the account of Creation in Genesis chapter 1, the same description is given to us in Genesis 1:20. You know where else you find this, in the list of the animals that were about to enter into Noah’s Ark. The same description is given in God’s word. What is God’s Holy Spirit trying to communicate to us? Whatever was in the sheet was a group of animals that contained both unclean and clean animals, people, animals that represented all the animals in the world were here in the sheet, and is brought before Peter. And that is important because God’s plan is for the entire world, and that’s what Illustrated here by animals representing all of creation and animals that entered into the Noah’s Ark.

Verse 13, then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat.” Get up, on his knees, listening in the trance, hears the voice, an audible voice. God’s word is coming to him, he hears the voice. We don’t know what it’s like, a small whisper or a loud voice. “Get up, Peter, kill and eat.” And verse 14, he says, “Surely not, Lord.” These two words should not be going together when you think about it. “Surely not” and “Lord” would’ve been okay if he just said “surely not” because that means that he’s not sure about what he’s hearing. But verse 14 makes it very clear to us that Peter knew fully well who was speaking to him, it was the Lord speaking to him. But look what he said, “Surely not.” Who is he saying no to? The voice of the Lord. By definition, you are supposed to obey everything the Lord tells you to do, but in his entrenched prejudice and behaviors that have been learned over a lifetime of following Jewish rituals, even the voice of the Lord is not able to shake up his prejudice and say yes to the Lord. And his natural tendency is surely not, Lord. 

I wonder how many times you and I have clearly heard the voice of the Lord, yet even after knowing that it’s the Lord that is asking us to do something, we have said no to it. Why? Because it is out of our comfort zone, it is not something we have learned to do, it is going beyond what our faith would allow us to do. The story is told of a man who wanted to go into mission field, he had a choice of obeying the call of God to the mission field or continuing in a very comfortable and rewarding business position. So he consulted a veteran missionary. He explained how clearly God had called him to go into the mission field, but how hard it was to make the choice to go. The missionary opened the Bible to this very passage and pointed to the young person, words of Peter, “Not so, Lord.” He said, “You cannot say that. It is either not so, or it is Lord.” The two words put together are a contradiction of terms. “Now then,” he continued, “take my Bible and take this pencil, sit down here and pray about it. Then cross out one of the Expressions. Cross out the words ‘not so’, leave the word ‘Lord’, or cross out the word ‘Lord’ and leave the words ‘not so’. You cannot have it both ways.”

That is challenging to our heart. If we know that our Lord is asking us to do it, will we do it? If our Lord is the one we clearly is telling us to do something, will we do it, or will we still stick on to what our hearts want to do, even when we acknowledge that he is Lord and has complete lordship over all of our lives? By our actions and words, we are either confessing that he is not Lord, or we are confessing that he has not said so, but both cannot be true. But that exactly what Peter did here, he said, “Surely not, Lord.” Peter replied, “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean in my life.” I don’t have time to go into all the dietary laws of the Old Testament, but you know it very well. God gave them very clear instructions in the Old Testament on how they should have food and should eat. God told them very, very clearly that there are certain things they’re not supposed to have. Here is a man who had followed this to a T, “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean in my life.” In fact, you know that the words of a legalist are usually like this: “I have never done that. I have never done this. I cannot do this.” This negative way is in which usually the legalistic speaks. It is usually the child of God that is above that, that says, “I will do this. I will do this with the help of God.” There is a positive reinforcement of what we can do, but the legalist always says, remember the man who was confessing before the Lord that he was holy, and he came to the Lord, and he said, “I want to be your disciple.” And what look what it says, he mentioned all the things that he did not do, but then he says, “There’s one thing that is lacking in your life, sell everything that you have and fall after me,” and that was difficult for him to do. This is what the legalists do.

Peter revolted based on everything he knew to be unclean. He knew that he could not do it, but look at verse 15, “The Voice spoke to him a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ Do not call anything impure that God himself has made clean.” If Peter was listening very, very carefully, he remembers the words of his own Lord from Mark 7:14-15, “Our Lord, when he was on this Earth, told the disciples and everyone listening to them, ‘Jesus called the crowd to him and he said, listen to me everyone and understand this, nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.'” Jesus made it very clear that the bacon that you eat cannot defile you, the burger that you eat cannot defile you, you can eat anything that you want, but what you need to be more concerned about is what comes out of you. Why? Because what you eat does not go into the heart, what you eat goes into the stomach. Our Lord knew biology and anatomy really well. Look at Mark 7:19, “It doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach and then out of the body. So don’t worry about what you’re eating, it cannot defile you.” Look what Mark does in his gospel, writing to make it very clear to the Jewish people of that time, also that he was writing the gospel to, he adds by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, something in the brackets, in parenthesis. Look what he does, “In saying this, Jesus declared all food to be clean.” Mark is adding that by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Peter, if you were listening carefully to your Lord, you have remembered his words, that it is not anything that happens in a man from the outside that makes him unclean.

This continues, verse 16, “This happened three times; immediately the sheet was taken back to Heaven.” Why three times? You know, in God’s word, that every truth is established by the witness of two or three witnesses. God is continuously, three times, dealing with his servant, reinforcing the truth that what God has made clean, you cannot call it impure anymore. Verse 17, “While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate.” I love the way God orchestrates everything. In fact, in the original language, it says, I told you last week, they will be able to find Simon the Tanner’s house really easy because of the smell, but verse 17 tells us otherwise, they had to stop and ask for directions to find the house of Simon, the tanner. They didn’t have a Google map where they could put in Simon the Tanner and get there, they had to stop and ask for directions. So when stopping and asking for direction, what happened? They got delayed by a little bit. You know why they were delayed? The vision was not over on the rooftop. God was still dealing with his servant three times on the rooftop. You see how beautifully God is orchestrating everything. Immediately after the vision is over and Peter is wondering about what is going on, what is the meaning of this, why would God ask me to eat something that is unclean.

Look what happens, the three men, and the Bible doesn’t mention their names, but one day we will see them in heaven, thank God for their faithful ministry, they found out the house and they stopped at the gate. Why did they stop at the gate? These three men are Gentile, they are not allowed to enter into the house of a Jewish man, and that’s why they stopped at the gate. And look what happened, verse 18, “They called out because they cannot go in, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.” Next verse, verse 19, “While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the spirit said to him, ‘Simon, three men are looking for you.'” Look at the way God is speaking and God is orchestrating. Don’t you love the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believers? Here he is, in prayer, but I don’t want you to forget how this all came about. Simon Peter was not on the rooftop sleeping when he fell into a trance and had the vision from God. This man, even though he was hungry, was still pursuing the face of God on his knees, seeking God in prayer, when God would speak to him in this vision, and the Holy Spirit will further counsel him. Children of God, great things from God are learned on your knees, great things from God are understood when you spend time, even in spite of your physical disabilities and physical limitations. When sleep is beckoning, you go to prayer, when you’re hungry, go to prayer, when you’re tired, go to prayer, when you’re busy, go to prayer. Do not let any of the physical limitations of your life limit you from pursuing the presence of God because it is in his presence that you hear the voice of God, that you know the direction to go to, it is there that we receive the counsel that is needed in our life. Hallelujah, Lord.

After doing whatever we want to do all day long and then blaming God, saying “I don’t know what to do,” is not the answer that we find in God’s word. If you earnestly seek his face, you will find it. If you listen to his voice, you will hear it. He will speak, he will direct you through events, through his word, through prayer. Even if you never hear the audible voice of God, God’s spirit will lead you in the way you should go. But for that, you and I have to learn to wait on the Lord and to spend time in the presence of God. Here is what the spirit said, “Get up,” he’s on the rooftop still, again on his knees, “Get up, go downstairs, do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.” Peter normally would not even come near this man. In fact, he would stand a few feet away from them because if he happens to touch one of them, he has to go and take a shower. So, every time you touch one, you have to go take a shower, so he doesn’t want to take shower all day long, so he would stay away from them. But that’s why the spirit of God says, “Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.” Look at verse 21, “Peter went down and said to the men, ‘I am the one you’re looking for, why have you come?'” The men replied, verse 22, “We have come from Cornelius the Centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man.” Look at the testimony of the three people that are working for Cornelius. You might be a boss at work, if we were to pull your co-workers and the people that you are over, will they give the same testimony? “My boss is a God-fearing and righteous man. My coworker is a God-fearing and righteous man.” Cornelius is not listening to what they’re saying. They could have just said, “Our guy fell asleep, and he had this strange vision, and he’s now sent us on a goose chase to come and get you.” That’s not what he says, “Our Master, the Cornelius that we work for, is a God-fearing and he is a righteous man, and he is respected by, look at the next words, all the Jewish people.” He’s a Gentile who is respected by all the Jewish people. Why? Because of his integrity and the way he lives his life. “A Holy Angel told him to ask you to come to his house, that he could hear what you have to say.” Verse 23, first part, very important, “Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests,” a Jew, not supposed to do that. The Gentiles are supposed to be outside the city gate. In fact, the normal thing to do here is this, “I’m so glad you came, will you please go and find an Inn to stay the night? In the morning, I will come to where you are, and we will go to see Cornelius.” No, the Bible says Peter invited the men to be his guest that night. In fact, the next word says it is the next day they travel, which means that entire evening and night they all lived together under the same house. They ate together, they slept together.

What has happened in a matter of minutes? God’s vision and Holy Spirit had changed the heart of Peter. Suddenly, the man who had never touched a Gentile in his entire life is dining with three other strange Gentiles, allowing them to live in the same house, because God is breaking down barriers one at a time by the work of the Holy Spirit. I told you Acts chapter 10 is one of the most important chapters in the entire Bible, and the reason for that is because what happened that night there would change the course of history forever. Can you imagine what Satan was wondering that night? He does not know the future, right? So he is thinking, what is God up to here? Here’s a Jewish man, another Jewish man who is an outcast, and three Gentiles dining together. This is not good for me. He knows that anytime something like this happens, he’s in trouble. But little does he know this would be the start by which the gospel would spread to the ends of the Earth, so the north, the south, the east, the west, we all hear, come, come. God has come to bring people of all races, all colors, all backgrounds into the fold of God. There is neither Greek, there is neither Jew, nor Gentile, all have become one under one umbrella, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I love the verse, “What God has declared to be holy is holy.” That is the story of our life. The famous theologian, a man, said that when his father died, this passage was running through his father’s mind. He kept on repeating this verse as he passed away from this Earth. A strange verse. It’s this verse, a great sheet, and wild beast, and suddenly when he could not get the words out, he started over but he stalled once more at the same place. Finally, a friend bent over and whispered, “John, it says in the King James version, ‘creeping things.'” He said, “Oh, that is me, the creeping thing in the sheet that got into the kingdom of God. I was the creeping animal inside that sheet. I was not worthy, I was not fit to come into the fold of God. I was a creeping animal in the sheet of God, but I know I was a poor creeping thing, I got in, I got in, and now I’m going to heaven because I am the creeping thing that was in the sheet.” And what God has said is clean, is clean indeed. It is not only the animals in Acts chapter 10 that God says, “What I made is clean, is clean indeed.” The story of my life and your life is God repeatedly saying, “What I have declared to be clean, is clean indeed.” When I stand before God, my righteousness is not worthy by which God can say, “I am clean.” It is only the blood of Christ that washes my sins away, that makes me clean. Even when I come to him with my filthy rags, and I surrender before the throne of God above, who is able to wash me clean, he says to me, “What I’ve declared to be clean, is clean indeed.” Oh, one day, when we will get to the gates of Heaven, the angels might revolt and say, “He cannot enter in. I know all the things he has done. I know all the things he has done. I know all the backsliding, that heaven is only for holy people.” You know what one day will open the door gates of Heaven for all of us, is the pronouncement of the father that says, “What I have declared to be clean, is clean indeed.” That will open the gates of Heaven for all believers.