Who is Cornelius?

• Centurion in the Roman army.
• He leads his family.
• A man of prayer and generosity to the poor.

Cornelius is a ‘good person’

• Admirable.
• Friendly towards God.
• Good family man.

God’s attitude toward people is not determined by any exterior criteria, such as their appearance, race, nationality or class.

-John Stott

Peter’s Remarkable Message

38 - The good news of peace through Jesus.

39-40 – Even though Jesus was killed, God raised him from the dead.

42 – Jesus is judge over the living and the dead

43 – EVERYONE who believes receives forgiveness in his name.

Conversion of Cornelius

‘The Good’

Cornelius was a nice person, but he was not a new person.

Question – how good is good enough?

His best was not good enough because he had not met Jesus.

The main thing between you and God is not your sin, but your damnable good works.

-John Gerstner

Conversion of Peter

‘The Great’

There are really two conversions in this chapter: The primary question was how God would deal with Peter. How would he succeed in breaking down Peter’s deep-seated racial intolerance? The principal subject of this chapter is not so much the conversion of Cornelius as the conversion of Peter.  

- John Stott

The question that God wants to bring to Peter is this: Are you going to be a narrow racist like Jonah?

One of the biggest barriers that needed to be crossed in the first generation of Christians has proved that it needs to be crossed in every generation of Christians – that people of different colors of skin and different religious heritages are as equally loved by God as anyone else – and need to meet Jesus.

Before the gospel goes global, it has to go local to the very depths of the human heart.

Important Questions

- Do I connect meaningfully with people from different ethnic backgrounds than my own

- Am I hesitant to speak words of life to people of other racial   groups or even to speak to them at all?

- Are all my deep spiritual relationships with people of my own race?

- Am I bitter toward people of other races? (- Daryl Reed)

It is striking that at each stage of the story the primary adjustment needed for the gospel to bridge social and religious boundaries comes not from the Gentile ‘outsiders’ but from the Jewish ‘insiders,’ who must let go of their ethnocentric attitudes and practices.

–Dean Flemming 

When love of one’s people becomes an absolute, it turns into racism.

- Tim Keller

How desperately we need to be free of the spiritual powers of racism and oppression! These demons of the spirit are on the rise today. We can all be glad for the advances made during the civil rights movement, but we are now seeing alarming reversals.

(God would have) Christians lead the way to a new day of justice and brotherhood. It will happen if we can discern the powers and seek their defeat in the strength of the Lamb (referring to Jesus).   - Richard Foster