May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we continue our meditation on the Acts of
the Apostles. And this evening we will conclude our meditation
in the 10th chapter, which as we know is the scene of Cornelius'
household and how he received and his household received the
blessing from God. And it is really quite amazing
to think that When Peter preached on that day of Pentecost to all
the Jews, all the Hebrews, the Lord came down and wonderfully
blessed them. And now, a little time later,
the Lord likewise comes down and blesses, this time just a
handful of Gentiles, but in a very similar way. And yet, as we look
around the world today, how obvious it is at the present time, and
has been, for some time now, how there have been great blessings
to the Gentiles, and far less to the Jewish people. So, as
we think of these words this evening, from verse 44, we read,
while Peter yet spake these words. Well, what were the words that
he was speaking? Well, he was preaching the Gospel.
He was speaking to them of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was making
it very clear that what had happened to the Lord Jesus Christ and
who he was. And it was this great and glorious
message of the Gospel that had the wonderful effect upon those
Gentiles which were in Cornelius' house. We're not told how many. There was a good company. and
they clearly received the word, because we're told, he yet spake
these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. Well, it was a wonderful time,
wasn't it? We think of Pentecost, perhaps,
as a wonderful time, and we may refer to that more in a situation
like this, but nonetheless, this was still the same, it was the
power of the Holy Ghost which fell on those people which heard
the word. The Lord applied the word, the
word was made a blessing, and as they received it into their
hearts, so we see the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit then
falling upon them as it had done to those who were in Pentecost. And the Holy Ghost fell on them
which heard the word, and they of the circumcision which believed
were astonished. There were those six people who
had come back with the Apostle Peter and they were of the circumcision
and they had no doubt been at Pentecost and heard Peter preaching
then and now they come to a Gentile house and now God are blessed
and now we see the reaction. They were astonished and that
the Lord had seen fit to come down and bless these Gentiles. And there the circumcision were,
which believe were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because
that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy
Ghost. We must never limit the work
of God. We might sometimes think, well,
the Lord won't bless that situation, The Lord won't favour those people,
but you see God is a sovereign. And God does that which will
bring honour and glory to his great and holy name. And so in
this household, this household of Cornelius, singled out for
a time of blessing. It's wonderful to think that
God singles out households, singles out people to pour forth of his
Holy Spirit and grant the blessing. And that's just what had occurred
here in this household here. Now on the Gentiles also was
poured out this gift of the Holy Ghost. What a favour it was to
have this poured out upon them. They listened to the words that
the Apostle Peter had spoken to them. For they heard them
speak with tongues and magnify God. but they heard them speak
with tongues and magnified God. Again, this was the same as the
day of Pentecost, when that gift of tongues was granted so that
every man heard the Word of God in their own language. And here
these Gentiles now were given this gift of tongues to be able
to spread the Word of God. And not only were they blessed
with this, but they magnified God. And how important that is,
is it not? Here they were, blessed. And
what did they do? They magnified God. How important it is that we also
are able today to magnify our God. That means to make Him very
great, to make Him very glorious and very wonderful, because He
is worthy of all our admiration, of all our praise, and to think
of the greatness of our God and to magnify Him. what a good expression
it is, and how we should desire to have that same view that these
people did as they spoke with tongues and they magnified God. It's good if you and I are able
to magnify our God, to think how great He is, great in His
work, His great and glorious work of salvation, and think
of the complete work, we have it here really, the God the Father,
sending his only begotten Son. And we see the only begotten
Son then spoken of by the Apostle Peter. And then we see the effects
of the blessed work of the Holy Spirit descending on these people.
And so they were blessed indeed. And they did then magnify God. And I'm sure they magnified God
as God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It had been so wonderfully portrayed
to them, and they were here so willing to magnify God. And so, then we see Peter. Peter answered. Then answered
Peter. Peter had been preaching, and
don't forget, as we mentioned last time, he'd come off the
road, had that long dusty journey, he and those with him, and Cornelius
ready to meet him with those friends in the house, and immediately
The Apostle began to speak of his leadings and Cornelia of
his leadings, and then the Apostle preached the Gospel with great
favour and it had a great effect. And now as the Holy Spirit descended
upon these people, we see Peter here. Then answered Peter, Can
any man forbid water? that these should not be baptised,
which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we." You remember,
again reverting to Pentecost, what was the effect of those
3,000 that received the Word of God? They were baptised. They followed the example of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the blessing to the
Jews and here we have the same blessing to the Gentiles and
the same effect. And therefore Peter asked the
question, can any man forbid water that these should not be
baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
There was that union, that unity between Jew and Gentile and what
was the cause of that unity? It was the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the binding effect,
that was the moving effect, that was the one who they were to
follow, that one who was despised, that one who had been crucified,
that one who had risen from the dead. And so the apostle immediately,
you see, brings to their attention the ordinance of believers' baptism. He didn't put it off and say,
well, perhaps I'll speak of that on a later date. Immediately
when he finished preaching and the Lord had bless the Word and
come down in this amazing way, he immediately speaks and says,
well, can any man forbid water that these should not be baptised
which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And therefore,
if there are those who have received the Holy Ghost, received the
blessing of the Spirit of God, been moved by the Holy Spirit
of God, then the same question should be put to such. Can any
man forbid water that these should not be baptised which have received
the Holy Ghost as well as we?" And what does the Apostle then
say? And he commanded them to be baptised. Well, we read of many commands
that were in the Word of God, but here we have this statement
by the Apostle Paul to these Gentiles here in Cornelius' household,
those who received the Holy Ghost, and it would seem that they all
received it. It's a wonderful time of blessing, an amazing
situation. And so he says, he commanded
them to be baptised in the name of the Lord. Yes, they were to
be a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't an ordinance
which was despised. It wasn't an ordinance which
was not mentioned. It was spoken here and it was
addressed to the believers. It was addressed to those who
had received the Holy Ghost and they clearly were willingly baptised
and he commanded them to be baptised in the name of the Lord. Then
prayed they him to tarry certain days. Clearly they needed and
they wanted to hear more of this gospel. This was all fresh to
them. This was all good news to them. And as we think of that, when
the word of God comes and touches our hearts and our eyes are opened,
our spiritual eyes are opened, our ears are unscopped, And we've
heard things which we've never heard before. Well, we have heard,
but not heard with our spiritual ears. And it's the work of the
Holy Spirit which has produced that hearing in our heart. And
we hear the Word of God, and we rejoice in it, and we bless
God for it. And then to follow in this Christ-honouring
way, to follow Him and to be baptised, and then to pray. when we're young in the way,
we want to hear the gospel preached, we want to hear the good news,
we want to have our understanding increase, we love to hear the
word of God. And I believe it's like this,
how sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. Before that
time, it hadn't really been a sweet name. It had been a name which
we were perhaps familiar with. But when under the influence
and work of the Holy Spirit, there's a change, and the name
of Jesus, instead of just being a name which is a name as any
other name, now it's a special name. Now our heart leaps, as
it were. Our heart rejoices to hear the
Lord Jesus Christ spoken of, and then to be brought into an
understanding of that great and glorious plan of salvation. We
can understand, can we not, why these Gentiles here, they prayed
that Peter might tarry with them certain days, so that he might
be able to continue speaking to them, preaching to them, and
that their understanding of the Saviour might be increased, and
that the name of the Lord God might be honoured and glorified.
Well, we've considered this account of Cornelius, and it's a very
beautiful account. It's very wonderful to see. how
the Lord works and how everything joins together. There were no
gaps. There were no gaps. There were
spaces, but there were no real gaps. Everything was joined together
from that very first time when Cornelius went to pray to his
God to the time when Peter prayed. And those three people from Cornelius
came and met with Peter. And then he went willingly with
them requested, and they journeyed off together on that journey
back to Joppa. And it must have been a lovely
journey, those people speaking no doubt about the things of
God. And then they came and gathered with these people in this house
at Cornelius. There was the Gospel preached,
and there was the Holy Ghost came down and blessed them. What
a time of fellowship, what a time of rejoicing. And so as we leave
this account of Cornelius, may we truly thank God we have such
a record to encourage us today that we come before that same
God, that God who did wonderful things in that day and age, to
believe that still God can do wonderful things in the day and
age in which we live, so that his name may be honoured and
glorified. Amen.