Amen. In Acts chapter 10, I'm
going to start at verse 28, actually, where Peter takes up basically
an excuse as to why he is there. And then we'll make our way to
verse 43, and we'll follow our outline strictly. So if you're
in your Bibles, Peter said unto them, you know how that it is
unlawful, an unlawful thing rather for a man that is a Jew to keep
company or come unto one of another nation. But God has shown me
that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore,
I came unto you without gain, saying, As soon as I was sent. For I asked, therefore, what
intent you have sent for me? And Cornelius said, Four days
ago I was fasting until this hour. And at the ninth hour I
prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright
clothing. said Cornelius your prayer is
heard and your alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God
send therefore to Joppa and call hither Simon whose surname is
Peter he is lodged in the house of one Simon a Tanner by the
seaside who when he comes shall speak unto thee immediately therefore
I Immediately therefore I sent to thee and thou hast well done
that thou art come now Therefore we are all here present before
God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God Then Peter
opened his mouth and said of a truth. I Perceive that God
is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth
him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him and The
word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching
peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. That word, I say
you know, which was published throughout all Judea and began
from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. How God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power,
who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed
of the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of
all things which he did both in the land of the Jews and in
Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised
up the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people,
but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat
and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded
us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he
which was ordained of God to be the judge of the living and
the dead. To him give all the prophets
witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall
receive remission of sins. Now while Peter yet spake these
words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished
as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was
poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak
with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, can any
man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have received
the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized
in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry
certain days. Thus, is the reading of God's
Word. So the title of our study, I
want to direct your attention to a very curious but probably
edifying note, is the Noble Centurions, a foreshadow of God's electing
love to the Gentiles. The Noble Centurions. Obviously
when you open up in chapter 10 verse 1, you have this new commentary
and that is there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius,
a centurion of the Italian band. So the first word I want you
to contemplate with me is the word centurion. And so our title
is the noble centurions. First, I would ask, what is the
centurion? Or maybe you would. Do you guys know what a centurion
is? If you don't, raise your hand. I'll go ahead on and state
it. Good, because some people say they do. Maybe they do. Maybe
they don't. centurion is a Roman soldier
but he is a Roman leader and he is a leader in the Roman army
over a centurion of soldiers you guys know what centurion
is right century is what 100 So he is the leader, military
leader of a hundred men. So whenever you read a centurion
now, you will know that he is a leader. A centurion is a leader
over a hundred men. That's a good number of people
to be over, isn't it? But you will note in the New
Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and also through the
epistles, some in the, through the book of Acts, some in the
epistles, The term centurion is prominent in the scriptures.
Centurions are everywhere. And in the gospels, they are
noted peculiarly for their nobility. I was extremely blessed to see
that. So I just kind of want to call
your attention to that reality under our first point tonight. And that is the kindness of God
to centurions as a precursor to the Gentile conversions. Obviously, if you're a centurion,
You are probably non-Jewish. It would be very peculiar for
a Jew to take up being part of the Roman Empire's army, because
just as a basic overall worldview, the Jews would not identify like
that. They would keep themselves separate.
They would be part of their own army, their own military service,
and not be part of the Roman Empire. just because they would
want to maintain their Jewish distinctive. But here's what
you will know. When you go through the Gospels, you will find that
there are some very unusual and very marked occasions where our
Lord meets centurions. And the first one I want you
to look at is in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 7. So under our
first point, we are going to be looking at four things with
regards to the noble centurion. The noble centurion is commended,
The noble centurion is instructed, the noble centurion is humbled,
and the noble centurion is called. That's in your outline. In then
therefore Luke's gospel chapter seven, notice what it says in
verse one. We're gonna read verse one through
nine. Now you guys know this account,
but this account is still worth marking because it's gonna be
a foundation for our consideration of this marked event that's taking
place in the book of Acts. Luke's Gospel chapter 7 verses
1 through 9 reads as follows. Now, when he had ended all of
his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum,
and a certain, here it is, centurion's servant, who was dear unto him,
was sick and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he
sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he
would come and heal his servant. Now this gives you insight as
to the nature of the relationship between this particular centurion
and the Jews with which he was engaged. You'll see this pattern
through the scriptures. This is what I meant by the noble
centurion. Here he has a problem. He loves someone and this someone
that he loves is ill. He hears about Jesus. Obviously
Jesus has been noted to be a miracle worker. And so he does something
about it. If you guys remember a couple
of weeks ago before we took break, one of the things I marked was
one of the evidences and workings of faith in the heart is when
we have a need, we go to whom? We go to Christ. And this is
quite fascinating because this centurion is now going to take
advantage of this situation to see if this jesus who is also
a jew is willing to cross certain lines certain taboos certain
barriers certain structures that are intrinsic to culture and
intrinsic to our own nature and uh and and actually accommodate
his need he has a need he's wondering will this jesus accommodate his
needs but this centurion won't go to jesus himself because he
has and understanding of how nature works, how culture works,
how the structures of society works. And so he's going to send
Jews to Jesus because he doesn't want to offend Jesus. He doesn't
want to offend this rabbi, this master. If in fact, this rabbi,
our master has a certain pecan or certain emphasis of his Jewish
purity that would somehow be offended by this centurion coming
into his presence. So what does he do? He sends
his friends who are themselves Jews to him. Is that a wise thing
to do? It would be just like an individual
who is an unbelieving Christian who, however, has really good
Christian friends. He needs something from God,
but he can't go to God himself But he has enough of a relationship
with his Christian friends to ask them to go to God for him
This is evangelism and This is the nobility of the centurion.
So mark this because you're gonna see it again in our account the
reward of this wisdom It says in verse 4, and when they came
to Jesus, they saw him instantly saying that he was worthy, the
centurion was worthy, watch this, for whom he should do this. For
he loves our nation and he has built us a synagogue. Then Jesus
went with them and when he was now not far from the house, the
centurion sent friends to him saying unto him, Lord, do not
trouble yourself. For I am not worthy that thou
should enter under my roof. Virtue, virtue. Now watch this. Wherefore, neither thought I
myself worthy to come unto you, but say in a word and my servant
shall be healed. And he's giving the reason for
which he can trust Jesus to simply say the word. Here's a human
analogy of something with which Jesus and the centurion corresponds
and you and I learn a little bit about how God uses practical
things in our world To represent spiritual things and they are
nothing but disciplines to which we are all called to here's what
the centurion says He says in verse 8 for I also am a man Set
under authority. Do you see that? Having under
me soldiers I say the one go and he goes and to another come
and he comes and to my servant do this and he Do with it, you
know what? He's acknowledging chain of commands
He's acknowledging authority basis. This is not a rogue Gentile
who basically is operating out of wild autonomy Much like what
goes on in our world You know, in a lot of ways, a bunch of
the problems that's taking place in America is because we are
uncivilized. A lot of the problems that's
going on in our culture is because we don't have the kind of discipline
that we should. We don't respect authorities.
We carp and we argue and we complain and we cross lines and we suffer
consequences. And because we suffer consequences,
we can't see God's hand in authority basis. This man is so acutely
aware of the intrinsic authority, the ability to tell someone to
do something and they just do it. That he says, Lord, if I
can do this, you can do the same thing. All you need to do is
speak the words. You don't even have to come to
my house. This is profound. Now watch what goes on. In verse
nine, when Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him. And
he turned him about and said to the people that what? I say
unto you, I have not found so great a faith. No, not in Israel. Huge. You know what he just said
about this noble centurion? And Jesus is God. That no one
in the Jewish people, even the believing ones who were with
him, the apostles, were operating with that level of faith. He
turned and simply told everybody, no one's talking with this kind
of understanding of who I am. I've talked to you before about
logic and the need for us to be careful not to fall prey to
religious antics and religious idiocy. A lot of us fall prey
to religious idiocy on all kinds of levels, like stupid, empty
words that don't mean anything, and gestures and practices that
don't amount to spiritual maturity. We just do religious idiocy. And what this man is demonstrating
is the importance of being able to be reasonable about our faith. See, if Jesus is God, I don't
need him in my proximity for him to do a thing for me. All
I need for him to do is to know and desire to meet my needs wherever
he is. Are you guys understanding what
I'm saying? And this is the importance of reasonable thinking. I'd like
to say logic. And when I say logic, for those
of you who are students, I'm talking about the Logos, the
word of God, which requires reasonability. In other words, we don't want
to promote the kind of insanity that goes on in religion that
says that if I don't have Jesus in my presence, if he doesn't
come to my house and anoint my front door and anoint my steps
and anoint my couch and anoint my bathtub and anoint my toilet,
Then my house won't be blessed all that's idiocy That's idiocy
and What I love about the Word of God is that the Word of God
always takes the base things to confound the wise See this
Gentile is a base man Fundamentally speaking because the Jews would
assume that they are far more spiritual than him But what Jesus
just stated was this man has way more understanding of who
God is than everyone in Israel That's huge That's why under
our first point we make note of The commendable miss of the
noble centurion just to close it out Verse 10 and they that
were sent returning to the house found the servant whole that
had been sick. Is that good? the second one
then under our first point the kindness of God to centurions
a precursor of to the Gentile conversion, which is where we're
going in the book of Acts. You guys know that, right? We are
in a hiatus. We are in a parentheses period.
And we are now knocking on the door of the Gentiles. Peter is
made to knock on the door of the Gentiles. The door is opening
up. Peter's getting ready to enter
in. They're getting ready to have a conversation. And because of
this projectory turn, you and I as Gentiles are saved. Where
we're reading in the book of Acts is the nexus is the foundation. It's the matrix of God ushering
the gospel into the four corners of the world. This will be the
first set of authentic Gentiles who will be saved in the gospel
will from this point accelerate on. to our present time. The
other area in which I used to years ago when I was studying
the gospels in the book of Luke was a very fascinating book for
me, is I loved what took place or occurred in the life of John
the Baptist. In Luke chapter three, verses
10 through 15, watch how this works. Apparently, Luke, definitely
under inspiration of the spirit of God, wants to call our attention
to the nobility and the virtue Centurions now we read over in
Luke's gospel chapter 3 where Luke has warned many women to
properly Understand what baptism is because that was his ministry.
Remember remember he was the Baptist and what he had said
to the rulers was to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the rest
who were coming you better bring forth fruit and Worthy of repentance
if you're going to enter into these waters Because baptism
is a sign that you have come to understand you are a sinner.
You are in need of mercy Christ is the only way and so you enter
into the waters as a sign of repenting of your past And putting
your full trust in the person and work of jesus christ And
what you see described in luke's gospel chapter 3 Are people? Who do just that? Notice what
he says over in um Verse 10. And the people asked him saying,
what shall we do then? Do then as a consequence of what? Having already been baptized,
having already acknowledged that we're looking for the Lord to
come, recognizing that the Lord who is about to come is about
to put the ax to the tree. Remember he warned about judgment. This is what then shall we do?
He answered and said unto them the man that has two coats let
him impart to him that hath none And he that hath meat let him
do likewise Fundamentally it means share right and in the
negative it means don't live a life of what selfishness greed
and covetousness So see what he's beginning to describe are
the fruits of faith. I The fruit of faith in the life
of the believer is a turnaround in our behavior when we have
come to know the Lord. And we ask the question after
we have come to know him, what do I do now? How do I now live? This is what repentance is all
about. And they're sincere about that. And so John tells him,
hey, you got two coats, give it to somebody. You got a little
extra food. The poor you have always with
you. He goes on to say in verse 13,
And he said unto them, exact those who were the money changers
like Levi, exact no more than that which is appointed unto
you. Do you see that? And the soldiers likewise demanded
of him, this would include the centurions. Same. And what shall
we do? And he said unto them, do violence
to no man. Isn't that good? Do not be unjust
just because you bear the sword. Don't be heavy handed with people. You're a believer. You're a soldier.
You have the capacity to capital punishment. You can hurt people. Don't do violence to any man. So if you meet a believing police
officer, he's under this imperative. A believing officer in the military
is under this imperative. They don't have a right to do
violence to any man. In terms of their own auspices
are on on the grounds of their own grievance as a soldier if
they're instructed to do something They're doing it under the authority
of that government, but not in their own person. This is how
we Practice our Christianity in the context of the world So
verse 14 would answer a question can a person be a Christian and
be a military man? The obvious answer is yes It's
a difficult vocation But it can be done. It certainly can be
done. And let's make a subsequent question
as we are contemplating the nobility of the centurion. Wouldn't you
want all your military men to be believers? That's exactly
right. And in fact, wouldn't you want
all vocations in the world to be occupied by noble Christians? Now, I didn't say Christians.
I said noble Christians. I just need that caveat to be
there because we don't have noble Christians all the time. We have
Christians who are so unprincipled and undisciplined in their character
that I wouldn't want them to put gas in my car. Afraid they're
going to take out the thing and put some gas in the can and still
charge me for it. Well, because Christians have
a very bad track record in the eyes of the world in terms of
being dishonest and untrustworthy. And Christians are dishonest
and trustworthy. because we're not principled.
There's an important principle that's going to be captured as
we continue to work through the nobility of the centurion. So
we've seen that the centurion has been commended. We see that
they are able to receive instructions. Here's another wonderful place
I call being humble. And it's in Luke's gospel, chapter
23, verse 47, Luke chapter 23, 47. Do you know there was a centurion
at the crucifixion of Christ? Now I just want you to mark this
for a moment. Luke's gospel chapter 23 verse 47. Listen to the language here.
Luke's gospel 23, 47. Am I going to be able to do that? Yeah, I'm over here. Let me get back over there. Listen
to this. And there are two accounts of this, and they're both absolutely
fascinating. And the question we have to ask
is, would we have so easily responded in the same way that this man
did? Now Christ is hanging on the cross. Verse 44 says, and
it was about the sixth hour and there was darkness over all the
earth until the ninth hour, six hour being 12 o'clock, ninth
hour being three o'clock. We'll see that when we get back
to Acts. Then the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was
written to miss. And when Jesus cried with a loud voice, he said,
father, into your hand, commend I my spirit. And having said
thus, he gave up the ghost. Now, when the centurion saw what
was done, he glorified God saying, certainly this was a righteous
man. He had a revelation of who Christ
was and his innocency and his righteousness at that moment
when he saw the dignity with which the king died. Now, in
Matthew's gospel, it's slightly different. I want you to see
that one because that one is even more rich with the response
of the centurion. Matthew's gospel, chapter 27,
verse 54. Just mark it for me with me. Matthew's gospel, chapter 27,
verse 54. Here's how Matthew states it,
and this is even more intense. Verse 54. Now, when the centurion
and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake,
those things that were done they feared greatly saying truly this
was the Son of God you see that so the the fascinating thing
and the rich instruction that we receive here is that thus
far what you and I can say about centurions in this sort of trend
of their character is that they are easy to be entreated these
centurions have a disposition of of being ready to believe
Jesus. They have a disposition of receiving
what Christ has to say to them. Now, this is remarkable, again,
because these are men with authority. And generally, people with authority
are hard to convince when it comes to divine things. But see,
what you have to understand is the Spirit of God is working,
as we'll begin to see, in the lives of these rulers. Because
while they are lords christ is lord of lords I shared this with
you before but you may have forgotten it and if you haven't i'll share
it with you again When you are in a position of authority Especially
authority over masses of people and you have the power of life
and death in your hand. You are especially accountable
to god When you're in a position of authority, we can go back
to our PowerPoint because I want to deal with my last point here.
The commendation instruction being humbled in what we see
here is a humble affirmation of the deity and righteousness
of Christ in the revelation that this centurion had a humble revelation. The Jews didn't call him a righteous
man. The Jews didn't call him the son of God, but they did. The very Jews that crucified
him for whom he came they wouldn't call him a righteous man And
they wouldn't call him the son of god, but they did You're getting
an insight into why I titled our series. Um, the uh, noble
centurions a foreshadow of god's electing love to the what gentiles
What I was saying is that um when god places you in a position
of authority You are extra accountable and men who are in positions
of political authority are more so. Do you know they have to
swear in when they take offices? And when they swear in, they
are generally swearing in on the Bible. And when they are
training to take a position in the military or in government,
do you know they have to learn ethics and they have to learn
moral absolutes? and therefore they are disposed
to having to read the Bible when it comes to what the Bible says
about morality. whether it's a matter of killing,
whether it's a matter of handling people properly, ethics become
a major preoccupation with leaders because leaders are more accountable. Everybody in the world knows
Romans 13, verses one through four, that all authority is from
God. Every authority that is, God
established it. And men who are in authority
over other men, particularly in matters of life and death,
do not bear the sword in vain. They are the servants of God.
And long ago, before we became ashamed of the gospel here in
America, we freely and openly said that in areas of authority,
whether we were governors, whether we were police chief in states,
whether we were military generals, captains, or what have you. We
used to say that freely. We don't now. We cower from the
notion that our right of authority is based upon God being the sovereign
over us. Might I add as we get ready to
close out on this last point. That's the reason we're in trouble
today We have cut off the umbilical cord of true life and we are
suffering a loss of oxygen And we are in a dying stage as a
consequence. Well, the last one is called.
This is my argument This is will this is what established my premise
that the centurions are a foreshadow of god's electing love to the
gentiles Is that they are called? Look at Acts chapter 10, verse
one. Now we're going back home. Acts
10, one, we're getting ready to deal with some practical things
in the book of Acts because they will teach us about where we
are and how God functions in relationship to the movement
of the gospel through people groups. So now we'll be a little
bit more sensitive to Cornelius, although there are a few examples
that I do have. I'll share those here at this
point called, what do I mean by they're called. Notice how
the text opens up in verse 1, 2, and 3. Are you there? There
was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion
of the band called the Italian band. That means he was Italian
in his ethnicity, his nationality. And that was sort of a category
of the Roman empire of which he would then be part of the
Italian band. Like others would be part of different nationalities,
but under the rubric and rule of the Roman empire, he was a
devout man. He was one that feared God with
all his house. He gave alms to the people and
he prayed to God. What always that's a powerful
commendation, isn't it? And I call that a calling. And
I'm going to develop that here in a moment. It's a calling.
that as the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world and started
doing his ministry and the word went out that the kingdom of
God is at hand, repent, that when he set forth the parables
in the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, he let the Jewish
people know that the Gentiles are coming in. Whether you know
it or not, whether you're ready for it or not, the Gentiles are
coming in. They had already been being called in the days of John
the Baptist and in the days of Jesus Christ. They were being
called. They were being called and when you're being called
god is dealing with you Now that's a process As we're about to see
This is critical for us to understand biblical evangelism But they're
being called. This is what's happening to carnelius
ladies and gentlemen verse three is remarkable This man who prays
gives alms whose whole house is persuaded persuaded by his
devotion to god Was praying And he saw in a vision evidently
that is in a manifest in a crystal clear way about the ninth hour
of the day. Remember, I told you the ninth
hour is in this context, it's the evening for a Jewish time. Their time goes from evening
to evening. So in the morning you would have
the six hour six o'clock would be the first set of threes. The
second set of threes would be six o'clock. From six to nine
is the first three from nine to twelve is the second three
So the sixth hour would be twelve noon and then in the evening
the third hour would be three o'clock in the morning Or three
o'clock in the evening. It would be the time of the evening
sacrifice and that's what's going on here Notice what it says he
saw on a vision evidently about the ninth hour which would be
the time of prayer for him in the evening The Jew he was a
proselyte the Jews prayed in the morning nine o'clock at noon,
12 o'clock, in the evening, three o'clock. You guys got that? Noon,
I mean, morning, noon, and evening. This is what David said in the
Psalms. I will direct my prayer to you in the morning. I will
direct my prayer to you at noon, and I will direct my prayer to
you in the evening. So they had a pattern of prayer. Remarkable. Why? Because while Cornelius
is praying to God and receiving a revelation at the ninth hour,
Peter has already received the revelation at noontime. There's
a corresponding factor between God talking to Peter and God
talking to Cornelius. Peter already explained that,
but just follow me now for a moment. So he saw in a vision evidently
about the ninth hour. Didn't Peter have a vision? Cornelius
had a vision. Peter had a vision. God is Lord
of all. Now watch this. He saw in a vision
about the ninth hour of the day. an angel of God coming in unto
him and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he
was afraid and said, what is it, Lord? And he said unto him,
watch this, saints, watch this. Your prayers and your alms have
come up for a memorial before God. Don't you jump over that? I mean, you can if you want to.
But if you do, what that means is you really are not persuaded
of the efficacy of prayer. One takeaway from this passage
is this. God hears the prayers of the righteous. That's at least
one takeaway. So just stay there for a moment.
If you wondered, does God hear prayer? God hears prayer. And here's another takeaway.
Sometimes God will come to you in providence to let you know
he heard your prayer. not necessarily like this. Don't
you come to me. Don't you, don't you come to
me. Okay. But God works providentially
in such a powerful way. Sometimes that immediately after
your prayer are shortly thereafter, things happen where you know
that God was affirming what you were yearning for. It becomes
so evident, so evident. So we can take away that God
not only answers prayer, but he answers prayer in a way to
bring about comfort and assurance that he's in your life. You know
how when you're in trouble? Most of us are always in trouble.
And we, and we, and we pray, Lord have mercy in whatever form
we do. And God delivers us. We go, ah, the Lord answered
my prayer again. Thank him for that. Thank him
for that. Thank him for that. Cause he
can let you roll for a while. Y'all know what I'm talking about. He can just let you roll for
a while. And so this is very remarkable. What's happening
to Cornelius is he's being called. We'll see that under our second
point. But let me share with you two more verses in the book
of Acts around the nobility of the centurions that we are now
contemplating. In Acts chapter one, in Acts
chapter 22, 25, I love this. This is now the apostle Paul's
engagement with the centurions. They all knew Paul, the centurions,
and they loved him too, many of them, because when they were
with him, They got a full orb gospel message. And if the centurions
by and large were dispositioned by God's purpose in their life
to hear the gospel, they wanted to hear what Paul had to say.
Now, this is interesting how it's set up in Acts chapter 22.
We read in verse 25, these words. Here it is. Let me start back
at, I'll start at verse 25. And as they bound him with thongs,
Paul said unto The centurion that stood by, is it lawful for
you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned? Now watch this. And when the
centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain saying,
take heed what you do for this man is a Roman. Then the chief
captain came and said to them, tell me, are you a Roman? And
he said, yes. And by virtue of the labors of
this centurion, Paul was delivered from being abused. Go with me
to chapter 27 now. One more set of verses, verses
1, 2, and 3 of chapter 27. Just giving you an overview of
the relationship of the believer with the centurion in the early
days of the church, a precursor of God's dealing with the Gentiles.
Now, by the time we get to Acts 22, Gentiles are being fully
brought into the kingdom. So it was not uncommon for centurions
to have already been believers, okay? Notice what it says in
verse 1 of chapter 27, verses 1 through 3. When it was determined
that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain
other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus'
band, Augustus Caesar. And entering into a ship of Adramatium,
we launched, meaning to sail by the coast of Asia, one Aristarchus,
a Macedonian of Thessalonica being with us. And the next day
we touched at Sidon. Now watch this. Paul is in, uh,
change headed to Rome, but the relationship that he has with
the Centurion is such that when they entered into port, watch
this. It says in verse three, and the next day we touched this.
I don't enjoy Julius. Who is Julius? He's the Centurion
verse one. Remember that Julius is Centurion
watches and Julius courteously entreated Paul and gave him liberty
to go into his friends. to refresh himself. Do you see
that? What I'm talking about is this
nobility that appears to be a trend in the scripture on the part
of the centurions because they actually believe the gospel.
They actually trusted Christ. Going back to Acts 10 now, deal
with a process under our second point. So when you're going through
your Bible and you run across a centurion, mark the context
because they may be doing something that's exceptional that you and
I would want to mark. Now remember now, Paul's a criminal. Basically, he's in captivity
to go to Rome. And this centurion is going to
give him free leave. Why? Because the centurion can
trust him. That Paul is not one of these
American 21st century Christians. They let him go. He's going to
run off. Paul can trust the centurion, the centurion can trust Paul.
It's a wonderful example of character. Under our second point, the election. calling and conversion of Cornelius,
the centurion. Obviously, you who come to grace,
you know that the only way you find yourself being saved is
that God had mercy on you. And the mercy of God that's on
your life is a mercy that is rooted in his electing love towards
you. You believe that, right? Why men argue that, I don't know,
but people do. I framed this this way so that
you can understand the process that's about to take place. Under
this statement, the election, calling, and conversion of Cornelius
and Centurion, I want you to be sensitive to the dynamics,
because they will play a role in interpreting scripture and
understanding what it means to be saved. How many of you listened
to the Monday program last Monday? Good group of you. Last Monday?
OK, small group of you. All right. Last Monday, a lady
called in, and she was asking about what it means to be born
again, what it means to be saved. And she gave me her experience.
If you guys recall how that, you know, through a calamity,
she came to realize she needed God. And all of a sudden she
was in love with God and pursuing God and, and all of that, which
all sounded pretty good, but I had to let her know, that's
not what we mean by being born again. And she was a little bit,
you know, setback, but it was teaching time. Teaching time
because in our present generation people will say they're born
again because they have warm fuzzy feelings about God Okay,
and that's what she was fundamentally doing saying that she had a kind
of radical change in her life that had her Disposition towards
going towards God and what I had to let her know was that's not
what it means to be saved. I There are very critical factors
that constitute salvation that have to be clear in our understanding,
lest you and I open a false door of assurance to people that their
salvation is based on their temperament, their feeling, their warm, fuzzy
love towards God. And they can be as ignorant of
God as the man on the moon. So I had to let her know, I'm
sorry, that is not what it means to be born again. It could have
been a conversion. And there's a distinction between
a conversion and a salvation. In fact, that's what you're looking
at right now with Cornelius. Cornelius is under what we call
a conversion process. But he has not yet been saved. This is so important for you
to get, and you'll see it in your text. See, what we will
say often is, I know that person say, look at the way they live.
That's not how you know. I mean, it's a, it's a good evidence
of the fact that they do understand the gospel, but they can be as
clean and pure as the false wind driven snow. They can be as nice
on the outward as any human being can measure. But if you use that
as a standard for salvation, you have completely missed the
propositions of the gospel. Am I making some sense? You cannot
determine a person's proximity towards God based upon their
characteristic disposition or their niceties or their sort
of a natural disposition of humility. Some people are just nice naturally,
but they're going to hell nice. So long as they are not authentically
saved. The big Mountain the big hurdle
over which we must all overcome Constantly is the innate Intrinsic
assumption that some people will make it to heaven by their good
works That's a human impediment you
may not have been challenged with it yet, but you will There's
going to be somebody that you like, you love, that you greatly
admire, and they're going to be a person with whom in the
providence of God, they will have come so close to the kingdom.
So close, so close. And I hear it all the time. Pastor,
I actually believe they're saved. I mean, she just loves to help
out people and do things for people. I can't see how she's
not saved. Well, does she believe the gospel?
I don't know. Has she darkened the doors of a gospel church?
No. Does she have any interest in the scriptures? I haven't
seen that. Then there's no evidence she
saved. As nice as she may be, we struggle with that. Because
when our faith shrivels up to virtually nothing, we will desperately
grasp hold to our good works. Even if it's as pathetic as this,
I'm not as bad as him. It's intrinsic. You will. And some people have a struggle
with what I'm about to say. The biggest offense, the greatest
offense of the gospel is its narrowness. That's the greatest defense of
the gospel is its narrowness. In a world who has failed to
recognize that the fundamental problem for which all of our
problems presently are occurring in the world is sin. You guys heard my friend Brandon.
I love him. He's so mad at God. Every time
a tragedy occurs, he calls. Why did God let those people
die in that airplane crash over in Kentucky? And the little girl
is saved. Why did he do that? God's mean,
God's bad. God can't be holy. God can't
be good if he let that happen when he could have stopped it.
That's how people feel who actually believe that we are intrinsically
good. See, he's arguing against what
he sees on a wrong premise. Do you guys understand that?
Of course, I've shared that with him, but he doesn't accept biblical
propositions. Because we're sinners, we're
disposed to all kinds of evil, right? Men, women, and children.
Now, had he been a Christian, what he would have said was,
God had mercy on that girl when she walked away. Now, some weak Christians will
still argue, why did God let that happen to her mom and her
daddy and her sister and her cousin? I mean, that poor girl
now has to live a lot. You don't know what kind of life
that poor girl is going to live. You're making assumptions now.
You have no idea what the real story is behind who her parents
were, how God dealt with them or anything like that. We could
hypothesize a number of stories. Her mom and daddy could have
been believers. As that girl grows up and deals with the drudgeries
of life, she will come to discover that God was merciful to take
her parents out of this crazy world when he did. And she can't
wait to go meet him. That's how believers talk. How
else do believers who were African having to deal with the horrible,
horrible, horrible slave trades and passages that got us over
here through the Atlantic, reconciled the evil that was perpetrated
upon us and a God who is sovereign, other than us knowing that that
sovereign God is able to take evil and work good out of it
and bring us to himself. Right? That's how we talked. Otherwise we needed to jump overboard.
Because if there's no God running this thing, it's all bad. Is
that true? Right. So I'm saying all that
to say this, that as I develop my argument for a process through
which Cornelius is going, if it alarms you, it's because you
are assuming that Cornelius is already saved. OK. And maybe you have your theology
worked out or maybe not. This is what I will say about
salvation. Salvation carries with it enough
mystery. Not that there aren't clear principles
laid down, but it carries with it enough mystery where in the
way God deals with people is so profound in terms of his patience,
and the long hand of his providence in their life. Like some of us
can remember God starting to deal with us very young in our
life. But we also are critically clear
that we were not saved until that crisis of revelation came
and our hearts broke under the preaching of the gospel. Am I
making some sense? But I could have been deceived
into thinking I was saved had I bought into false religion
and salvation by works or a wide enough door where God says anybody
can come in by any kind of way. Right. Getting back to the point
that salvation is a very narrow way with very strict rules of
compliance of which we're about to see. So my first point is
this. As noble as Cornelius is, and
as evident as it is that he has become a proselyte of the Jewish
religion, so that he is praying and giving alms and doing all
of the things that he's doing, he's motivated by a system of
good works. Because that's what Judaism presented
to people. And those good works drove him
to love the Jews and build synagogues and pray and do all of these
things that constitute what we call piety. Are you guys hearing
me? He's under a conviction. He's under a calling of religiosity. He's a pious man. But point number
one says he simply awakened to his need of God. Awakened. Awakened. The old theologians
long ago who would treat the matter of conversion or salvation
very seriously would say that a person can be awakened and
not converted. that they can be awakened and
alarmed to their sinfulness, but not brought into the rest
that's in Jesus Christ. And therefore, in their awakened
state, they are striving to find that rest by good deeds. You know what we call that? Religion.
It's called religion. Catholicism is filled with it.
Catholicism has a full orb system whereby all you are is awakened
to your sin, but you are not awakened to the glory of God
in Christ yet. And you're doing good works and,
you know, your your prayers and and all of the stuff that you're
doing because you want God's favor. But you're not converted
yet. Am I making some sense? All right,
so follow this. He's awakened to his need of
God. This is what Acts 17, 26 and 27 says. Watch, this is a
beautiful argument on Paul's part around how God deals with
us as human beings and bringing us to a point of awakening us
with the objective of bringing us to a saving knowledge of Christ
if it's his purpose for us. Some people are awakened but
are not illuminated in terms of a full conversion, regeneration,
and work of grace. But in Acts chapter 17, here's
what Paul said concerning the common benevolence of God in
how he structured the world and deals with humanity. I'm in verse
24. Are you there? God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
Dwelleth not in temples made with hands one of the ways you
can tell whether a person is truly converted are Regenerate
in understanding the gospel is their emphasis will not be in
material or physical temples Because they will understand
the true nature of God If I don't understand the true nature of
God, I'm not saved Are you guys following me this is important
for you to know If God reveals himself to you in a saving way,
you are going to know something of the true nature of God, even
though that knowledge be limited. Whatever limited knowledge God
gives to you, it's going to be true. It's not going to be false. So stay with me now. God is not
going to reveal to himself to you in a saving way and leave
you under the notion that God can fit inside of a physical
building. That's not going to be possible.
That would be a lie. The Holy Ghost would be teaching
you to worship idols. And that's not possible. Let
me go on. So he says, he does not dwell
in temples made with hands, neither is worship with men's hands.
You know what that means, right? God is not at the beckoning call
of men's pious labors to exalt God. He's not worship with the
works of men's hands. In other words, idols and gold
and silver and statues. Look at this next clause, as
though he needed anything. You know what that reminds me
of? The Buddha dolls, when you go into the stores, where the
incense is burnt, Buddha with his big old belly. Some are real
big. And they got the orange in there
and the grapefruit and the pineapple. He's a vegetarian, obviously.
Obviously he don't eat meat. But he hungry and he needs you
to feed him. Sometimes he'll just take the
money because I'll look in the trash. What's in there? And sometimes
there's money in there. I said, there you go, Buddha
boy. You're making some change, boy. Go on with your bad self. Buddha needs you. Buddha needs
you. Like false religion churches
do the same thing. They depict God as if God needs
your money. If you don't pay God, God's going
to lose out if you don't give your time. Same thing, that's
just Christian Buddhism. You guys got that? Christian
Buddhism. Now will you listen to what Paul
says? He says, God doesn't need anything. See, now you are getting an accurate
understanding of the character of the true God. When you meet
the true God, he does not come to you with a need. We need him
he does not need us Got it So then he goes on to say seeing
that he is the one that does all the giving Isn't that beautiful? I'm extending the text actually
on a theological level when I make that statement Because what I
want to do right now, just take the moment to make sure you guys
are contemplating the true attributes and characteristics of God, because
there's so much paganism in Christianity when it comes to the nature and
character of God. Don't do it. God doesn't need you. He doesn't
need me since he is the one doing all the giving. Yes, he is. God is the one doing the giving.
That's why we praise him from whom all blessings flow. Right. Because God's the one doing all
the giving. God's doing all the giving. Seeing he giveth to all
life, breath, and what? That's right. That's a rich theological
truth right there. He gives to us all things. All things. Whatever comes into
our hand came from him who was the first cause. A man can receive
nothing except to be given to him from heaven. That's biblical
theology. Are you guys following me so
far? God doesn't need anything from us. We need from God Then
he goes on to say and he hath made of one blood That's the
blood of Adam all nations every ethnic group of men For to dwell
on the face of the earth Now watch what watch what else he
says and he hath determined the times before appointed in other
words the the way the nations operate the rising of kingdoms
the falling of kingdoms The the the merging of nations together
the disbanding of nations the history that that we know at
present concerning how the world evolves the struggle right now
for us to make a North American Union like an African Union in
a European Union. All of those are God's providential
acts He allows nations to come together and he disbands them.
He raises up one nation. The West has been prominent now
for some 500 years. It's going down. The East is
rising up. And we're not liking it and we're
fighting and tearing up everybody's stuff because we don't want to
give it up. But the Bible says the crown does not endure forever.
So the sovereign Lord has already decreed how long a nation is
going to run their program. He gave Babylon 70, Medo-Persia
150, 200. He gave the Grecian kingdom several
hundred years. Then he gave the Roman Empire
almost a thousand years. Did he shut them down? You guys
understand? Raised Britain up, shut Britain
down. Raised up the West, shutting
us down now. And he shuts us all down. For the same reason,
we cut off the oxygen supply by not acknowledging God as God.
And God says, okay, let me see if you can breathe without my
air. And then we start to die little by little as a nation. And he has determined the times
before appointed and the bounds of their habitation. You guys
see that? You know what that means? The different people groups
in the different regions of the world, God has carved those out.
He has conveniently allowed ethnic groups to be here, Asia, Africa,
Europe, the Americas, Greenland, way up there in the north, Russia,
all of these different areas God has carved out in his providence
over mankind so that he could deal with them, watch this, right
where they are. This is a caveat. It's kind of
a segue or just a little detour, not much. But I do not think
that the best thing for the human race is that all kinds of ethnic
groups have to absolutely live together. Do you guys hear that? I don't think it's necessarily
the best thing that somehow we just throw them all in a big
old pot and shake them up. and dump them out and you got
50, 60 different ethnic groups all over the world kind of intermingled.
The text tells us that God wisely divided the ethnic groups for
his own purpose. So I have been working with pastors
over the last year and a half around the perplexity of effective
evangelism for a number of reasons. And it fundamentally has to do
with churches not actually being in step with what God is up to.
And as a consequence, missing seasons. So I have been actually
working with a number of African-American churches because we have seen
a diminishing of African-American influence in the Bay Area in
the context of evangelism. And so a lot of our older marquee
African-American churches have dwindled in numbers to almost
nothing. And the old people that are sitting
there wondering what's going on. And the answer is nothing. That's the answer. That's the
answer. And they're wondering what happened.
What happened was is you missed the paradigm shift. You missed
the way that God works with governments to bring people groups in and
take people groups out. Or if you didn't miss it, you
misinterpreted it. Like some folks don't do well
with change. The psychiatrists say, if you
don't do well with change, you are probably on the verge of
a mental problem. Because change is a part of life. So if you open your door and
go out and your neighbor next door don't talk in English, Don't
think the world's going to end. Things have just changed. Is
that right? And the Christian should have
been prepared for the change. But because we codify into cemeteries,
I'm talking about churches, because they codify into cemeteries.
and not living, thriving entities that are able to function in
the context of God's providence and therefore meet the needs
of the culture around them, then they become museums, archaic
museums of past historical facts that are no more relevant at
the present time. And it's like going into a time
warp when you go into some of our churches and you look around
and you say, man, I feel like I'm back in 1867. I'm waiting for John Knox and
urging somebody to come out. And you go, what happened? The
church failed to understand the vitality and the fluidity of
a biblical evangelism that requires meeting the needs of the moment. Well, ladies and gentlemen, from
Matthew to Acts, from Matthew to Acts is God's answer for the
transition of ethnic dynamics. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
says, Jesus coming. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John says, Jesus
says, get ready for the transition because it's coming whether you
like it or not. The Jews said, no. Well, Jesus is OK. The kingdom
is taken away from you. Got that? Kingdom since you don't
want to deal with a whole bunch of different ethnic folks The
kingdom's gonna be taken away from you because a bunch of those
folks are my people Are you guys hearing what I'm saying, that's
the challenge for a lot of churches And then notice what it says
in verse 27, here's our verse I Now, he did that, set these
boundaries up. And we can talk about the pros
and cons of mono-ethnic cultures. Because I work with this with
my pastor friends who are trying to make adjustments in their
dying churches. And they ask the question, what
is the benefit of a church filled with 20 different ethnic groups?
I said, you asking me? He said, yeah, I'm asking you. The food is good. I love it on
first Sunday. I get my Filipino food, get my
Asian food, get my Indian food, Latino food, all good. Obviously our American food,
our African food. And I'm being a little bit funny
with that. But the point is, is that the goodness is that
We as believers now are forced to come out of our superficial
boundaries. And learn how to deal with people
on a deeper level than our pigment. Right? We're forced to. And if
we're not willing to deal with people on a deeper level than
our pigment, then we are nothing but a neo-Judaistic construct
that's trying to preserve our own mono-ethnic identity and
fail to understand biblical Christianity. That's clear, isn't it? And it's
very important for you to know too, because sometimes God will
take you from where you are in a very comfortable situation
where everybody looks like you, everybody sounds like you and
everybody acts like you. And that's the problem. That's
the problem. I mean, you're comfortable with
it. You're comfortable with your blackness or you're comfortable
with your whiteness. Are you comfortable with your
Latino group? Are comfortable with your Asian group? Are comfortable
in your Indian culture? But the problem is that comfort
denies what is necessary for your character to grow and develop.
You can just stay raggedy in that culture and funky in your
attitude and wrong in your thinking. I'm telling the truth. See, different
ethnic groups coming together under the auspices of the gospel
is designed for you to actually step up and start acting right,
because there's stuff in our particular indigenous ethnic
group that's nasty, that shouldn't be there for a Christian. This
is true. And this is true of all ethnic
groups. I got them right here. I'm looking at them right here.
If I had a camera, I'd be taking a shot of multiple and they're all nodding
their heads. My Indian brethren are nodding
their head. Yep. My folks are toe up. My folks are toe up too.
They are toe up too. Mario back there, he agree with
that. They're jacked up too, right? So my Filipino brethren,
my Latino brethren, we all know it's true. Black folks jacked
up in my Caucasian brothers know they're jacked up too. It's just important for you to
know So we got five more minutes and then we'll take it take it
back. Look at verse 27 carefully God set those boundaries and
allowed us to be in our comfort zone Until we get saved Look
at verse 27, this is amazing. See the little word that that's
a purpose clause He left us in our boundaries in order that
we might what seek the Lord. Oh This is a good revelation
This is good. When God starts awakening you
to sin and you start looking around at your folks, you go,
it's time for me to seek the Lord. Cause we're jacked up. Do you see it? Do you see it? In other words, the glory of
the God, man, Jesus Christ becomes such a transcendent standard
to us. that it cuts the lights on and
shows us the deficiency in our own ethnic group. And we know
we got to get out of that. That's why a lot of us have made
our journey in terms of our pursuit of Christ experientially up out
of neighborhoods that we knew were not good for us. God saved
me at 18 years old. I was smack dab in the dope game. Do you know what I had to do
when he saved me? I had to go. I had to go. There was no way I could survive
what was taking place at that time Because I already had went
back in tried to witness to all of them and they said just we're
not having it We love you men, but we don't want your Jesus
So now if you force yourself on people after they have told
you they don't want your Jesus you you get a block to yourself
Proverbs 9 Reprove a scorner. He gonna punch you and I I Was
smart enough to not get punched I But subsequent to that, the
other point is, is that when God deals with you in, in, in
renewal and grace in your life and he's turning you around for
you to stay in that same culture is for you to be in a, in a,
in a continual state of temptation that can actually thwart your
growth. Cause there are stumbling blocks
and traps and gins and snares and people in those communities
with whom you can't overcome. Until you make an exodus out
of there and do some time in the wilderness grow and mature
And then maybe when you're ready, you can come back and address
them. Am I making some sense? That's what god did with me.
He took me away for five years From the bay area and then allowed
me to come back when I was stronger to be able to talk to them About
christ from a much more objective standpoint That's what god does
Especially when your environment is not conducive to them hearing
the gospel as a whole So he puts us in our comfortable groups,
monolithic groups, begins to call us by his grace. And we've
got to come up out of that. Now, if that's what the text
is saying, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might
feel after him and find him, though he be not what far from
every one of us. That's Paul's argument. Go back
to Acts chapter 10. I'm going to close here under
this first point with regards to our second point with regards
to the election, calling, and conversion of Cornelius the centurion.
And we'll come and pick it up after that. If you notice how the text opens
up with Cornelius in chapter 10, he's a devout Jew, a proselyte
of the Jewish religion. And he has made himself so comfortable
with them that he's going back and forth because of his authority
as a centurion, obviously because of his financial affluence, he
has the freedom to interact with them and they're going to interact
with him because he's a Roman centurion. So he has the power
to break out of the exclusivity of his own Italian culture and
participate in the Jewish religion. You know what that means? He's
going to synagogue. He's reading Torah. He's engaging
in Jewish practice, though that has nothing to do with his own
indigenous ethnic group. He's being able to straddle both
of those fences, which allows him a level of objectivity so
he can look back on his people group and say, you know what?
My people need this word too. See the practical application.
It's the same with you when you come to a knowledge of the gospel
and you actually enter into the church, you're living in two
worlds. Is that true? When you come to
the family, and that is as a part of the body of Christ, you are
in an oasis here. You're among fellow brothers
and sisters in Christ, ostensibly where you can be nourished and
strengthened and healed from the battles that you engage out
there and sometimes from your own family members. So there's an analogy here that
I'm trying to get across that the church is supposed to be
a refuge from our indigenous upbringing that has harmful components
to it, though we have to go back to reach them with the gospel.
And my argument is Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the book of
Acts. What's happening in Acts? The Jews are still trying to
the Jewish apostles are still trying to reach their brethren
who are Jews. while stretching out over here
in the Providence of God and dealing with Gentiles. See, remember
what we learned two weeks ago? Peter put his foot in the water
with the Tanner, remember? Now he's at both feet in with
Cornelius, doesn't he? And he's making apologetic statements
like, now you guys know us Jews don't hang out with you Gentiles,
right? Now I'll come back to this next
week as I explain to us how patient God is with us. with our prejudices. Intrinsic discrimination. He's patient with us. Because
Peter's going to get through this assignment. Remember what
we learned about assignments? If you didn't get it, write it
down. This is how you know God is bringing you into an assignment.
Because it's not easy. Biblical assignments are not
easy. They demand that you deny yourself. They demand that you
do not put your own preservation first. They demand that you trust
the Lord, that you walk in the grace of God, that you submit
to the Spirit of God so the Spirit of God can help you do in a counteractive
or counterintuitive way what you otherwise would not do. Am
I making sense? Very important. Peter is in that
now. So I actually appreciate Peter being smacked up in the
middle of a transition point. So let me just go through these,
uh, four points and, and we'll, we, I won't, uh, develop them.
We'll do it next week, but I just want you to think about it under
the second heading, the election calling and conversion of Cornelius
and Centurion. He's awakened to his need of
God. He's not saved. He's serving in religious party,
but he's not yet saved. He's chosen on the salvation
and therefore called, but he'll only be saved when Peter has
preached the gospel to him, for which the angel came to him to
tell him in his house, get ready for an actual work of grace. That's going to bring you up
out of works religion into the gospel of the glory of Christ.
Are you guys hearing me? That's what's about to take place.
And a text like Acts chapter 10, underscores the necessity
of us never, never giving way to the notion that God saves
people any kind of way. That is apart from the preaching
of the gospel of the glory of God and the person of Jesus Christ,
which must take place in order for people to truly call on the
name of the Lord. Why would God put Peter through
all that he's putting Peter through. Why would he put Cornelius and
his band through all this if God didn't have a strict methodology
by which he brings about a true regenerating work in the heart?
Am I making some sense, ladies and gentlemen? How shall they
believe on him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall he preach except
he be sent? As it is written, blessed are
the feet of them that preach good tidings, publishing peace
upon the mountains. So our text is forcing us to
understand the supremacy of gospel preaching to assure the salvation
of even the most pious people. Lest we give them a false assurance
of their salvation based upon their good words. Had Cornelius
heard Peter's message, And so I don't need that. My good works
are fine. It would have been an evident token that he wasn't
being called. And he was trapped by his works,
religion. Let's close and pray. So father, thank you for this
time. Thank you for my brothers and sisters. Thank you for our
study tonight. It was good. As we go our way, give us traveling
mercies and prepare us to worship you on Sunday. We pray in Jesus
name. Amen.