Well may the Lord bless us this
evening as we continue our meditation on the Acts of the Apostles and
we'll consider this evening the first eight verses in the tenth
chapter. We read it together so I won't
go over it again. This is a wonderful account of
this man Cornelius. Cornelius was an Italian and
he was in charge when he was a centurion, he had a hundred
men under him who were no doubt Italians, many probably coming
from Rome. And we have a description of
him, and it's a good description. And it's this, he was a devout
man and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much
alms to the people and prayed to God all the way. And that
is a wonderful commendation to anybody And it would be a wonderful
thing for us tonight if that could be said of us, each one
of us as we think of these words. Here was a man and an important
character, somebody who no doubt was looked up to and yet we read
the wonder of this that although he didn't clearly know the Gospel,
yet he was a believer in God and he praised God and he was
devout in the things that he did. They weren't just things
that he did now and again. He was constantly involved, clearly,
in the things of God. And he was devout. That's good
for us today. If we are devout in our religion,
it's not something we just pick up on a Sunday and it comes to
Sunday night and we put off and then we get into the world on
Monday and we're pleased to be in the world. This man was a
worshipper of God, and he was a devout man. And how good it
is, if it can be said of us, that we are devout in the things
of God. That means that we are really
serious about them. And they really take the preeminence
in our lives. Not something that we just add
on to suit ourselves. And so, he was a devout man. And that he feared God. He feared
God. Well, we know that the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What a blessing it is
if we are brought to that place where we fear God. We may fear God in two ways.
We may fear God because we feel guilty and we feel that we are
a just cause for condemnation. And that we fear that because
of our evil heart and the sins that we commit, we shall be cast
into hell. And there will be no hope for
us. We shall spend eternity in that
terrible place. Well, that is indeed a fear. And then we can also have a fear
that we fear to offend God. We desire to please God. And
we may be upset. when we do those things which
are not good and right. And therefore, we are amongst
those who do truly fear God. So then, not only was he a devout
man, one that feared God, and we're told he wasn't by himself,
he wasn't an individual, or his house. And we can take that to
be conclusive in so far that it was not just his family, it
would have included his family, but also his servants and those
that abode with him in his house. Well that's a good testimony
as well, to be able to count that, that all our house fear
God. They all walk in the same way.
They all desire to worship the same God. And so here was another
condemnation. All his house, it would seem
therefore from that that he would have perhaps led worship in the
house, perhaps read and prayed in the house, perhaps sang psalms
in the house and to set a good example to his family and his
servants and all those that abode in his house. Well not only that
then, but also then he gave much alms. Alms of course is giving
away goods and the Word of God really is very instructive to
us in this matter. We're told that the Lord loves
a cheerful giver, not a stingy giver, but a cheerful giver. We don't want to be found giving
because we have to, but giving because we want to. And again,
we should give as we're able. I believe the word of God clearly
indicates to us that we shouldn't give less than a tenth of our
income, and if we're able to, we can give more. And so this
man here was one that gave much alms. Perhaps he gave a lot more
than the tenth, and he gave it away, and he gave it as unto
the Lord. Much alms to the people, and
then last, he prayed to God always. The Apostle Paul speaks to us
in the Thessalonians about praying without ceasing. Well, it's a
good thing, isn't it, if prayer is our life, our spiritual life. As we live in this world, we
need to breathe, don't we? If we don't breathe, Well, there's
no life, we die. And it's the same really with
prayer. Prayer is the breath of the Christian. It is life. And if we don't pray,
we die. It's a good thing then that we
are found praying to God. And here we have this statement
about this man here. This man Cornelius, he prayed
to God always. So we have in just a few words,
a wonderful testimony and a testimony that we should seek to follow
and desire that we might be given the same ability to be devout,
to fear God, to fear God with all our hearts and to give much
arms and to pray to God always. Let's remember that, especially
you young people. Remember this second verse in 10th chapter
of the Acts. If you want any instruction as
to how to organise your life, what to do, follow this man Cornelius. Now, something wonderful was
to happen in this man's life. He was to see a vision and it
was about the ninth hour, that's three o'clock in the morning
or three o'clock in the afternoon I believe, three o'clock in the
afternoon in our time and he saw this vision and it was an
angel of God coming into him and speaking to him by name Cornelius. Some of you had God speak to
him, didn't you? Samuel. Samuel. It's good to know when
we perhaps may think and realise that God is speaking to us, speaking
to our heart, individually, personally, because our religion is personal
and we do need God to speak to us and to know that we are a
true worshipper of the true God and the Lord Jesus is mindful
of us. And so we're told here, He came
and he spoke to him and he said, Cornelius. And when he looked
on him, he was afraid and said, What is it, Lord? And he said
unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial
before God. Well, we can understand, can't
we? If an angel came and spoke to us in a physical way, we might
well tremble. We might well be afraid and fearful. as to what tidings the angel
might bring to us. We might feel very guilty. We
might feel very cast down. We might feel very fearful of
what an angel might speak to us. Perhaps words of condemnation. But no, this angel came and spoke
to this man Cornelius in an encouraging way. He spoke like this, Thy
prayers in thine arms are come up for a memorial before God. Now then, he wasn't praying to
the unknown God, was he? And we want to pray to the true
God, to the living God, believing that our prayers do enter in,
that our prayers are heard, the Lord does hear our prayers. We don't want to pray in vain. And so, he was spoken about that
and then he was given an instruction. and he was told to send men to
Joppa and to call for one Simon whose surname is Peter. Now we
finished of course our last meditation in the ninth chapter where we
were told that Peter went and dwelt with one Simon, a tanner. Now a tanner wasn't a very pleasant
place to be. It was a very unpleasant place
because there was all the smell of rancid fat and all the scrapings
of the skins and perhaps carcasses of animals, it wouldn't have
been a very pleasant place. But nonetheless here was Peter
with Simon, Miss Simonettana, and so here now is Cornelius
told to go and send for Simon, whose surname is Peter. He's
told where he lives, He lodges with one Simon Atanah, whose
house is by the seaside. He shall tell thee what thou
oughtest to do." Well, that was very clear instructions for this
man Cornelius. And when the angel which spake
unto Cornelius was departed, so the angel went, and what did
Cornelius do? Do you think he sat down and
thought, well now, what do I make of that? Obey what is said or
should I forget all about it? No, Cornelius realised it was
a word from God. My friends, if you and I are
blessed with a word from God, we should obey that word from
God. And here was Cornelius then. What did he do? He called two
of his household servants and a devout soldier of them that
waited on him continually. So not only did we have his household
who were devout, but also at least one of his soldiers was
also a devout man. He called for these three people
and he told them when he had declared all these things unto
them, he sent them to Joppa. Now it's good, isn't it, if we're
able to tell people what God has said and what God has done.
Yes, he didn't mumble, he didn't prevaricate, he told them very
clearly what had happened and what they had to do. And so they
didn't stop the next morning on the morrow, as they went on
their journey and drew nigh into the city, Peter went up upon
the housetop to pray about the ninth hour. Well, we'll follow
on next week God willing, we'll see the situation there, how
that all the things worked out for good, they all dovetailed
in. It was a wonderful blessing to realise that when God works,
everything works together. So we can thank God tonight for
this account of Cornelius and to realise how favoured he was
and to desire that you and I in our lives might be favoured in
like ways to be able to set a good example and to remember the life
and how this man Cornelius lived. Amen.