Acts 9:32-10:48
Who’s Included?

I. The Importance of Being Intentionally Inclusive
1. Some are still addressing racism. Others think its ancient history and divisive.
2. Should we just preach the gospel and let the chips of ethnicity fall where they may?
3. A Nobel Prize winner, Jewish expert on slavery, said Christians ended slavery.
4. There can be Chinese-language churches but not Chinese-people churches.
5. Churches by definition are for including all kinds of people. They should be doing that deliberately.
6. Crossing cultural barriers to get to ethnic groups is so important to God, He takes the initiative Himself.
7. The Jews understood that they were elect. There was a barrier between them and other people.
8. The idea of election produces exclusion if we don’t understand that election is based on grace (not race).
II. Two Signs and Wonders
A. Aeneas (9:32-35)
1. Peter is now traveling and ministering. “Here and there” among all Israel, not confined to Jerusalem.
2. He comes to a town named Lydda. Aeneas who had been paralyzed and bed-ridden for eight years.
3. Peter says to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.” Jesus Christ who is doing and teaching.
4. When the people heard about it, they knew that the Jesus Christ who healed him was for real.
B. Tabitha (936-43)
1. In Joppa, on the coast, Tabitha (“Gazelle”) “was full of good works and acts of charity.”
2. She got sick and died. They urged Peter to come, unlike when Jairus’ daughter died, people gave up.
3. Mourners showed off the items Tabitha had made. Mrs. Perry made a table cloth and sash for us.
4. Peter is not Jesus. Peter has to kneel, pray, seek the Lord’s will, and then he can say, “Tabitha, arise.”
5. When news of that got out, that Jesus still raises the dead, many believed in Jesus.
III. Cornelius (10)
A. Visitation (10:1-8)
1. They couldn’t conceive that people could believe in and follow Christ without first being Jewish.
2. Cornelius is a “God-fearer”, who believed in the Lord, but hadn’t converted to Judaism yet.
3. At about 3 pm, he’s gets a visitation. An angel comes to him. He’s terrified. He’s told to find Peter.
4. The angel is sent just to to make the connection. So Cornelius sends three soldiers to fetch Peter.
5. Jews don’t enter the house of Gentiles or fraternize with them. If Peter is like that, he’d say ‘no.’
B. Vision (10:9-33)
1. Peter, in Joppa, is hungry at about noon. He goes up to the housetop and falls into a trance.
2. He sees a sheet or sail with all kinds of animals on it, like pigs. A voice, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”
3. He’s so indoctrinated, like everyone else in his culture, that he refuses. “By no means, Lord.”
4. The voice responds, “What God has made clean do not call common.”
5. He was perplexed because be still hadn’t fully understood everything that Jesus taught him.
6. In Mark 7:19 it says, “Thus He declared all foods clean.” The vision is about more than what to eat.
7. But it is literally about food because it was the food laws that separated Israel, excluded Cornelius.
8. Then the three Roman soldiers arrive with an invitation from Cornelius for Peter.
C. Sermon (10:34-43)
1. Peter with some “brothers,” went up to Caesarea to see Cornelius. Cornelius greeted him like a god.
2. Peter wouldn’t be treated like a god and he’d seen that he shouldn’t treat Cornelius like a dog.
3. Peter remarks that it’s contrary to their traditions for a Jew to associate with them.
4. “Truly, I understand that God shows no partiality.” Inclusion is important to God.
5. Cornelius isn’t saved yet. But he acceptable to have the gospel revealed to him so he can be saved.
6. Cornelius has heard about Jesus. Jesus is not just another do-gooder, a prophet. He is Lord of all.
7. Jesus is appointed by God to judge the living and the dead, Confucius, or Lau Tzu, or our ancestors.
8. The Old Testament is about Jesus. Isaiah 52 says the Servant will sprinkle many nations.
9. Everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through His name. So believe in Jesus.
D. Sign (10:44-48)
1. Because they believe, they receive the Holy Spirit. We know that because of the sign.
2. The sign is the same that the 120 disciples received on the day Pentecost.
3. Here the signs are for Peter’s friends so they’ll know that God includes these foreigners.
4. “Can anyone withhold . . . baptizing these people?” Receive the Holy Spirit and then be baptized.
5. The Holy Spirit included them. To exclude people God has included is to insult God.
6. Our building was built to keep out some people. King Jesus had other ideas.
7. Inclusion is so important, He sent an angel, a vision, the Holy Spirit, Jesus Himself to build a church.
IV. Invitation: Believers are included, no matter where they’re from. Believers who believe that He is Lord of all, that He will be their final judge, that He’s the One the Old Testament says sprinkles them clean of their sin, who’s name is the one to call on for salvation, the name of Jesus.