Salvation for All: Pete Mace
Peter’s Vision: How Salvation Became Available to All (Acts 10: 9-16)
The chapter starts off with a man named Cornelius, a Roman centurion in a place called Caesarea, which was the headquarters for the Roman occupation of Judea. Now Cornelius wasn’t a Jew, but he did pray to the Jewish God, our God. And one day while he was praying he received a vision in which he clearly saw an angel. This angel told him to send men to Joppa and to have those men bring back Simon Peter, and the angel told him where to find Peter. So Cornelius sends two of his servants, and a devout soldier under his command to Joppa to go find Peter.
9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds.13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
So Peter has this vision. Then after, while he is sitting there on the roof trying to figure out what it means, Cornelius’s men get to the house where Peter is staying. But he is still just sitting there thinking about this vision he had, until the Holy Spirit literally tells him “Simon, three men are looking for you, get up and go downstairs. Don’t hesitate to go with them, because I sent them.” in verses 19 and 20. So Peter goes and meets the men, they explain to him what’s going on, and they all leave Joppa for Caesarea, and Peter takes six other believers with him. Now Joppa is about 30 miles from Caesarea so it takes them around a day and a half to walk each way. Peter and the men get to Caesarea and meet with Cornelius, who has gathered a large group of people, like a congregation. Then Peter said to them in verse 28 “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.” Peter then goes on to talk about Jesus and their faith. The Holy Spirit descends on those gathered in Cornelius’s house, and at the end of Chapter 10 we have the first instance of Gentile baptism in the Bible.
In the Bible there are many times where we see references to clean or unclean food in the Jewish faith. The most prominent example of this is in Leviticus 11, where the entire chapter is just God telling Moses what animals the people of Israel can or can’t eat, what they have to do to clean themselves if they become unclean, stuff like that (maybe give some examples). It’s very detailed and thorough, and there is still a good bit of speculation on why certain animals were clean and certain ones weren’t. But it is fairly common that it was a way to set the people of God apart from the rest of the world in their culture, and to remind them that they were set apart to worship the One True God. It helped them keep their identities in captivity, and not be assimilated into the cultures of their captors in the Old Testament. So it wasn’t just an arbitrary rule God gave the Jews, because He doesn’t do that. It was a good and righteous thing. In the New Testament though, after the crucifixion of Jesus, we are told several times that we are not judged based on the food that we eat anymore, like in Matthew 15, where Jesus said “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” So to be a follower of Christ, one doesn’t have to necessarily be subject to the laws of Judaism.
But when Peter receives this vision, he sees a sheet, with a bunch of animals on it, of all types. Birds, reptiles, mammals, everything. Clean and Unclean. Then the voice of God tells Peter to kill and eat. Peter says no, he literally says no to a direct command from God, because it goes against Jewish law, a law that God gave. I can’t blame him for being confused, but I don’t know what Peter thought was happening. Did he think God was trying to trick him into sinning, or that He was testing him in some way? God tells Peter that he shall not call anything impure that God has made clean. This wasn’t just about what animals Peter could eat though. God didn’t say “don’t call any animals I have made unclean, or any food.” God said “anything”. So when these Gentiles show up who Peter is not supposed to interact with, and God tells him to go with them, he does it. Then when Peter talk to the Gentiles in Cornelius’s house he openly acknowledges that he shouldn’t be doing it according to his law, but he does it anyways, because God has made the Gentiles “clean or pure” and has opened up this whole new area for the apostles to minister to. When reading through Peter’s vision though, it doesn’t really make much sense why he was shown animals, and told to eat unclean food. Why couldn’t the Spirit have just told Peter “Hey, Gentiles, they’re cool now, free game to go convert, get on it.” Why the metaphors and the indirect messages about food and purity? The reason is that to minister to someone you have to be able to eat with them. It’s because you can’t accept someone who you can’t eat with. Think about it, how many people are you friends with, or that you trust that you wouldn’t eat dinner with. And these apostles were staying with congregations for up to a year at a time, so it isn’t like they could just not eat. To minister to the Gentiles, the early church had to solve the problem of kosher food laws. So the discrimination against the Gentiles and purity distinctions of the food they eat go hand in hand.
So what does this mean for us today? Besides the fact that we have been given access to the Scriptures and salvation through Christ? I don’t want to focus just on what we’ve already been given though. Taking what I can learn from this story and apply these lessons to our own lives. And the main lessons we learn from Acts 10 is how we are supposed to do the work of God when it comes to ministering to others. Just like Peter in the beginning of this story, the first thing we need to do is look at what we consider unclean. Where are the places, who are the people that we think we aren’t supposed to, or shouldn’t have to interact with. Who are our unclean ones, the people we want to stay away from? Whether it’s that coworker you don’t really like, that kid in your class you just can’t stand, it may even be someone in your own family. There is no room for discrimination of any kind when it comes to preaching the Word to others. God didn’t let Peter discriminate against Gentiles, and he won’t let us do it either. Then, we have to listen to God. Where is God calling you to go? Is he calling you to go to those people? Sometimes the answer may be no. But a lot of times the answer is yes. And if God is calling you to go to those people, then you have o go. And it may not be some big mission trip, and it probably won’t be a year-long stay like the apostles did. But if the Lord calls you to go minister to a person or a group of people, then you have to do it. And again, I don’t just mean that if you like the people, or if we think they’re good enough. Everyone deserves to hear the Word of the Lord. There is no bar to becoming a Christian, and if there was, I certainly wouldn’t have passed it. Would you? Jesus didn’t go around healing politicians or eating with the rich. He healed the lepers, beggars, he ate with tax-collectors and sinners (Mark 2). Don’t ever consider yourself too good to eat with someone and talk to them about Christ. If God doesn’t exclude people than neither can we.
Christ didn’t die on that cross for the apostles, or for the Jews, or for the Christians. He died on that cross for everyone, so that everyone may be given the chance to find salvation through him. God led Peter to that revelation and gave the early Church permission and a command to minister to all. Now we, as the Church today, have to continue that. We can’t just be Christians to other Christians, we have to be Christians to everyone, because everyone deserves to be told of the love of Christ. And there are people that you may not want to talk to in general, much less try to minister to them. But if God is calling us to minister to someone, who are we to say no?
Pete Mace is a Senior Communication Studies major at Tech and a gift to the Wesley community. Since his freshman year, he has been a member of our body. Pete is our resident comedian and a true blessing to those around him. After he graduates in the spring, Pete plans to be an intern at the Wesley and to follow his call to be a pastor.