Acts 10

Acts 10:1-48

PETER, THE MIRACLE WORKER Acts 9:32HEREIN is an indication of the rapid spread of the Gospel. The Church at this place is easily accounted for when it is remembered that Philip passed from Azotus to Caesarea, preaching in all the cities between (Acts 8:40). The saints at this place were doubtless the fruits of his ministry. Modernists have tried to make it out that Scriptures which have not an evident spiritual intent can have no spiritual profit, and famous writers have even affirmed, “There are whole pages of the Old Testament that can in and of themselves by no legitimate method be made to minister to the soul’s welfare and evidently were not written for that purpose,” and yet one of the most recent writers, and one who is not unacceptable to critics themselves, has called attention to a number of instances by which men have been converted by the very passages intended in that remark. It might not seem a matter of special interest that Philip moved from Azotus to Caesarea, and preached as he passed through the cities, but in it is a historic base for this report concerning Peter’s find at Lydda, and had to do with the creation there of an atmosphere in which Peter could do such marvelous works, and marvelous they are. The remaining part of the 9th chapter and the 10th of Acts recites miracles not exceeded, and gives occasion to a discussion under three heads: The Miracles of Peter, The Mission of Peter and The Message of Peter. THE OF PETER The text makes it perfectly evident that Æneas was a member of the Church at Lydda, a special saint among the members of that little city. For eight long years he had been bedridden; his malady was most malignant. Palsy had paralyzed him, and while it had not despoiled his spirit, produced in him skepticism or made him the easy victim of morose sorrows, it had rendered him utterly impotent in body. To him Peter came and the record of his healing here is clear and specific. Peter’s address presented Christ as the cure for incurables. Ӕ ?neas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately” (Acts 9:34), One thing about Christ which could neither be denied nor discredited was His wonder working. Enemies and friends alike were compelled to affirm, “We never saw it on this wise”. The healing was a perfect healing of one for whom men had no hope. That is like Jesus Christ. It is true that God has made a promise, “My grace is sufficient for thee”, which the sick often appropriate, and prove the same in the sweetness of their lives when they truly trust the Word. It is also true that He has promised the sick to “make their bed in their affliction”, and He does temper the pillow to the fevered brow of the believer. It is also true that our God, in Christ, is capable of the yet better and bigger thing, namely, the perfect restoration—“Jesus Christ maketh thee whole”, and Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever. His purpose toward the saint is no less gracious now than in the day of Ӕ ?neas. His proclamation for the saint is no less effective. He is not only the One that “forgiveth all our iniquities”, but He also hath power to “heal all our diseases”. Jesus is none other than Jehovah-Rophi, “I am the Lord that healeth thee”.Joseph Parker truly says, “But you are not the people to wait for such crises in which to invite the Lord’s anointed to your house. Send for Him that day when every table is laden with flowers and every corner of the dwelling is ablaze with His own sunshine.” Doubtless one reason why we have such difficult times to secure the Christ in our houses when sickness smites and sorrow is on and death draws nigh, is in the circumstance that He has not been a welcome guest when all was well. Peter believed Christ to be life for the dead. “Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and alms deeds which she did” (Acts 9:36). God’s answer to prayer begets further faith. The healing of Ӕ ?neas had doubtless spread to Joppa and led the friends of Dorcas to feel that burial was not justified, and to hope that if Peter came, a resuscitation of this dear friend might be expected. That was the effect of healing upon their faith. That a kindred result was accomplished in Peter was made perfectly evident when, in response to their invitation, he went at once and, coming into the home of death, pushed the weeping friends aside, and in secret made his appeal to God, and then, turning to the body, said, “Tabitha, arise!” and apparently experienced no surprise when she opened her eyes, but rather gave her his hand and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and witnesses, presented her alive. Every answer to prayer effects an increase of faith. There is a strange psychological effect concerning one’s study of his own image as reflected by a mirror. The moment he turns from the mirror, he forgets what manner of man he is, but that mental aberration is not so strange as the speedy forgetting of some work of grace. In that work we have seen Christ, but when tomorrow’s crisis is come, if we could but remember what manner of man He was, we would put our case into His hands with confidence, knowing that with Him it is one, whether He say, “to the sick of the palsy, Arise and make thy bed”, or to the buried dead, “Come forth!” Christ’s promise to His Apostles when He commissioned them to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” was, “As ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead”. Peter belonged to that company and is simply exercising here his proper prerogative. Later, when the seventy were sent out, the commission was extended, but the miraculous powers were limited. “Whatsoever city” was their field, “healing the sick” was their privilege, but not so with “raising the dead”. People sometimes say, “If the miracle is continued, and the sick are to be healed, why then do you not raise the dead?” We answer, “The apostolic privilege was one thing, and the privilege of the disciple another.” See Mark 16:17-18. Peter was an Apostle, and when he said to the dead woman, “Arise,” he had back of him a Divine commission, and in his risen Christ, the resurrection power. “Welcome, thou victor in the strife, Almighty now to save! Today we triumph in thy life, Around thine empty grave. “Our greatest foe is put to shame, His short-lived triumph o’er, ‘Our God is with us,’ we exclaim, We fear our foe no more.”Peter’s ministry demonstrated the effectiveness of the miracle as a message. When Ӕ ?neas was made whole, “all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him and turned to the Lord”. It is likely that the word “all” here is used in an accommodating sense, just as we say, “The whole town attended church,” when the congregation is exceedingly great. When Dorcas was raised from the dead, “it was known throughout all Joppa and many believed on the Lord” (Acts 10:42).The one reason why the message is non-effective in many churches is that there is no miracle in the midst. I have in the city of Memphis, Tenn. a friend, Dr. Ben Cox. He once published in the Memphis News Scimitar what he terms a “Confession”, and in that he says, “For a number of years I have been more or less interested in the passages of Scripture in the last chapters of Mark and James, and other places, but have either lacked courage or conviction enabling me to step out on the promises of God. I am frank to confess, I rebelled, as many others do, against the idea of putting a few drops of oil on a person’s forehead when having prayer for the sick. I could see nothing in it. * * * * * * I was led to invite Brother Collins here because the news had come to me of the marvelous manner in which the Lord was blessing him and his associates in New Orleans. I simply expected that he would be here one or two weeks, conducting the noon prayer meeting and perhaps have a short sermon at night.

Nobody in Memphis is more thoroughly surprised and dazed than I am at the marvelous happenings we have witnessed the last three weeks. Very many people are coming to me saying, ‘Dr. Cox, this makes me think of the days when Christ was upon the earth’. “At the beginning of this wonderful revival meeting, I saw scarcely anything in the matter except the blessings brought to the people by the Lord healing the sick in answer to prayer. The tremendous evangelistic feature did not appeal to me; I had not thought of it. I am now thoroughly convinced that Jesus intended these two streams should flow on side by side, as that great Baptist preacher of Boston, Dr. A. J. Gordon, used to contend.

Traditionalists and materialists have dammed up one of these streams, claiming the days of miracles are past, but they do not seem to be able to show the chapter and verse which teaches that the days of miracles are past. Jesus plainly says, ‘Greater works than these shall ye do because I go to My Father’, and as dear Gordon used to put it, ‘The force of the stream is stronger because the source of the stream has been raised.’” People are constantly making evangelistic plans. The average pastor’s study is flooded with evangelistic programs. Year succeeds year and the evangelistic tide ebbs! Why? Because these plans and programs do not anticipate the reappearance of Christ, the Miracle Worker. Men want the salvation of their fellows as the fruits of their own endeavor and it will not come that way. The rejected Christ will be recalled in all His plenitude of power, or the church perish. Evangelism without the miracle is unknown. The miracle without the evangelistic results is equally unknown. The Divine miracle has forever been the entering wedge ‘for evangelism. It is the sign of God in the midst. That true, converts come easily and often! THE MISSION OF PETERThe last sentence of the 9th chapter leads naturally to the story of the 10th—“And it came to pass that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon a tanner”. Possibly due to the ceremonial laws of the Jews, the business of tanning was despised. An eminent rabbi is quoted as having said, “It is impossible that the world can do without tanners, but woe to that man who is a tanner.” He was not permitted either residence or shop inside the city limits; hence the significant statement of Simon, the tanner, that “his house was by the seaside.” Peter was beginning to break with Jewish customs when he consented to be entertained by this practical outcast. To lodge with a Jew who was under condemnation is a step toward fellowship with a Gentile who is regarded by the Jews as a dog. But in order to take that step, two visions were essential. The first was granted to Cornelius and the second to Peter himself. And in the study of these two visions, we have Peter’s Response to the First Vision, Peter’s Experience of a Second Vision, and Peter’s Interpretation of the Same. Peter’s response to the first vision. The subject of this vision was Cornelius, a Centurion of the band called the Italian Band, hence a Roman citizen, a Gentile, and yet a devout man, “one who feared God and his whole house”. So far, he had yielded to Jewish teaching, and instead of worshiping many gods, had feared the Name of Jehovah and worshiped Him alone. Faith is always fruiting in righteousness and the result in this instance “was much alms to the people” and constant “prayer.” At three o’clock in the afternoon, an hour often devoted to prayer, the angel of the Lord came to Cornelius and bore testimony that his prayers and alms had come before God for a memorial, and gave direction to “send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do” (Acts 10:5-6).Men have long debated the question, “Will the heathen be saved?” Some one who relies upon his reason is constantly affirming that it must be so or God will be unjust. “Since the heathen have not had the Gospel, how can they be held responsible for rejecting Christ?” If that argument were sound, missions would be a sin, enlightenment an iniquity. If ignorance is redemption, then woe to the man who lifts its darkened veil and lets in the light! On the other hand, this text makes it fairly clear that a man may be accepted of God without knowing the Name of Christ, but it is when he, himself, has sought to find the true Way and stands ready to receive light from whatever source, and lives up to the light after it comes. There has long been a story current to the effect that Brainerd found in the Northwest an Indian whose custom was to retire daily into the forest and pray to the Great Spirit to pardon his personal sins and save him and his people. We can readily believe that such an Indian was accepted of God, and can even imagine that God may have sent Brainerd to make known to that Indian the more perfect way. It is a truth—Christ is our authority for it—“if any man is willing to do the will of God, he shall know of the teaching”, and it is very doubtful if there has ever been a heart on the earth who truly cried to God ‘for light and life, but some way God got to him both. It may have been the cry of a man like Cornelius that compelled Carey to leave cobbling and sail for India. It may have been the cry of a man like Cornelius in the heart of Africa that drew Livingstone to the Dark Continent. It may have been the cry of a man like Cornelius that brought Morrison across the seas to benighted China; that sent Verbeck to Japan, and Williams to the South Sea Islands. No one will ever measure the might of a sincere petition. If faith as a grain of mustard seed can remove mountains, surely such a faith as that exercised by Cornelius in the mighty God would move Him to create, equip and commission a missionary. A few years since we sent out from the Northwestern Bible School eight or nine young people. Three of them went to India, two to Africa, and two to South America. I do not know; the principle on which the minds of each of these was made up. It is doubtful if they could defend their choice at all, but each of them felt a tug. How do we know but that there was some marvelous medium of spirit through which the cry of men in South America reached the ears of Mr. Lange, or the yearning of some men and women in Africa was committed to Mr. and Mrs.

Rosenau, or the pathetic longing of certain seeking souls in India was brought by the blessed Spirit to the heart and mind of Miss Olson and Miss Johnson and Miss Levang? I do not believe God would let such a man as Cornelius go to his grave in darkness. Peter had to go. An Apostle had to come. Such prayers cannot go unanswered simply because God is God. But in order to respond, Peter himself must experience a vision. Drawn aside from his journey, he went to the top of his host’s house to pray at about the sixth hour. Hunger smote him; a trance came upon him; a sheet descended from Heaven, filled with four-footed beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air. A voice came, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat”. But Peter said, “Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that was common or unclean”. That is a suggestive phrase. It is bad enough to be in Simon the tanner’s house; Jews declare uncleanness is here. But now to eat wild beasts, creeping things and fowls of the air—that is unthinkable to the Jew. But thrice over the command came, and God’s statement, “What God hath cleansed call not thou common”, and the sheet was received up again into Heaven. There is no indication that Peter killed anything or that he ate anything. That was not the purpose of the vision. The purpose was to show him that what God had cleansed was clean indeed, and open the way for a Gentile work. The purpose was to impress him with the ‘fact that if God justify the Gentile and send His Spirit upon the Gentile, he became as surely a saint as was any saved Jew. All of this conspired to prepare Peter to respond to the man that waited without to conduct him to Cornelius’ house. The preacher needs a preparation to preach as surely as the inquirer needs a preparation to hear and to receive. The vision of Cornelius fitted him to hear and to understand, and the vision of Peter fitted him to go and to speak. They came alike from God. In each record an angel appeared, but in no instance did the angel tell the message. God’s ministers are privileged above angels. The Divine program is preached by one’s fellowmen. The Spirit’s voice is not always an audible one, but none the less clear on that account, and the man who obeys it will find properly prepared people to whom to preach. When Philip went down the South way, the Ethiopian treasurer was waiting for his coming. The same Spirit that convicted the treasurer commissioned Philip. Some years ago in Temple, Texas, I rode up and down on an elevator run by a young colored man. One day when there was no one else on the elevator, instead of getting off at my floor, I took a few minutes for conversation with him on the subject of giving his heart to Christ. I did not at the time know exactly why, although I felt prompted to do so. I have ridden with hundreds of other elevator men and had no such impulse. But that day the prompting was clear. Years went by.

I heard nothing from it until I visited Fort Worth, Texas. The meeting in that city was over and I had been at home perhaps a month when I had a letter from a man in far Western Texas, who said, “I have seen by the papers that you were preaching in Fort Worth. I hoped against hope to get away from duties and get down for a day at least to hear you again. You may not remember me, but I am the colored boy who used to run the elevator in the hotel at Temple when you held the meeting there, and to whom you talked one day. As a result of that conversation, I have lived a Christian life for eight years, and you can imagine how much I wanted to see you and tell you what the conversation had meant to me”. If only Christian people yielded to the promptings of the Spirit to bear their testimony, the march of the Church of God would be a continuous victory. But let us further consider Peter’s interpretation of the vision. This call to direct a Roman citizen and a Roman officer into the way of life was at once a commission to the Gentile world and a declaration of the Divine principle, namely, “God is no respecter of persons”. To be sure the Jews are the people of promise and God can never make a promise to any people without keeping His Word; but they were never intended to be the solitary subjects of grace. From the beginning “God so loved the world”, and always in God’s thought of grace there was neither Jew nor Gentile. The great Joseph Parker says, “He will not allow the Jew; to come in by one way and the Gentile to come in by another way. He does not say to the Jew, ‘You shall come up the front avenue; you shall drive to the portals of your father’s house in chariots drawn by steeds of fire, wearing harness of gold, and you Gentiles must come in at midnight by some unfrequented path that will be pointed out to you by some condescending person.’ He says, ‘There is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God’. How is it to be then? By ransom, by sacrifice, by propitiation, ‘through faith in His Blood’. Are there those who would have it explained? They must be denied.

Are there those who think of blood in some narrow, common, vulgar, debasing sense? Then they do not take God’s view of the meaning of the term blood. This is not a murder; it is a sacrifice. This is not a measurable quantity of hot fluid rushing from the fountains of life; this is an offering—never to be explained in cold words, yet to be felt when the heart is most tender, penitent, broken, self-helpless. When the heart is in that receptive mood, it will know the meaning of the words, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world’. Where is boasting then?

Gone! Who can find it? None! By what law is it excluded? The law of works? No, but by the law of faith, the new law, diviner, higher, larger law.” THE MESSAGE OF PETERThe 10th chapter concludes with Peter’s message. This begins with the 34th verse and eventuates in the 48th, and involves some fundamental facts. First, The salvation of all is through the risen and ascended Lord. “The Word which God sent unto the Children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ; He is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36-43), etc. read for all the world like a declaration of “Christian fundamentals.” The inspiration of the Bible is in the 36th verse, “The Word which God sent”; the declaration of the Deity is in the same verse, “He is Lord of all”. The matchless ministry of the Lord is in the 37th verse, “Was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached”. His anointing is in the 38th verse, “Anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power”. His miraculous workings are in the same verse, “Healing all that were oppressed of the devil”. His crucifixion is in the 39th verse, “Whom they slew and hanged on a tree”. His resurrection is in the 40th verse, “Him God raised up the third day, and shewed Him openly”.

His commission is in the 42nd verse, “He commanded us to preach unto the people”. His office of judge is in the same verse, “And to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead”. His Saviourship is in the 43rd verse, “To Him gave all the Prophets witness that through His Name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins”.Henry Van Dyke in speaking of “Redemption” makes statements that sound like an interpretation of this Scripture. The inspiration of the service that we render to this world, to our homes, our country, our fellowmen, springs from the recognition that a price has been paid for us; the vital power of noble conduct rises from the deep fountain of gratitude, which flows not with water, but with warm heart’s blood. How, then, shall a like power come into our religion? How shall it be as real, as living, as intimate as our dearest human tie, unless we know and feel that God has paid a price for us, that He has bought us with His own precious life? And this is the truth which the Gospel reveals to us. This is the price of which the text speaks. It is the incarnation, life, sufferings and death of the Son of God. This is the great ransom which has been given for all. He gave Himself to poverty, to toil, to humiliation, to agony, to the Cross. He gave Himself for us, not only for our benefit, but in our place.

He bore the trials and temptations which belong to us. He carried our sins. He endured our punishment. Through torture and anguish He went down to our death. Through loneliness and sorrow He descended into our grave. If it were merely a human being who had done this for us, it would be much.

But since it was a Divine being, it is infinitely more precious. Think of the Almighty One becoming weak, the glorious One suffering shame, the holy One dwelling amongst sinners, the very Son of God pouring out His Blood for us upon the accursed tree! It is this Divinity in the sacrifice that gives it power to reconcile and bind our hearts to God. It is God Himself proving how much He loves us by the price which He is willing to pay for us. It is God Himself manifest in the flesh to redeem us from sin and death, in order that we may belong to Him entirely and forever. Words fail me to express the splendor and might of this great truth as it is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. It is the wisdom of God and the “power of God unto salvation”. It is the supreme revelation of the Divine nature which is like the human nature, and yet so far outshines it as the sun outshines a taper. It tells us what God will do for us, for “He that spared not his own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us, how shall He not also, with Him, freely give us all things?” It tells us what we owe to God, “for He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again”. It is the source and center of a true theology. It is the spring and motive of a high morality. It is the secret of a new life, redeemed, consecrated, sanctified by the Son of God, who “loved us and gave Himself for us”.This redemption is to Jew and Gentile alike by Jesus Christ.“While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on 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. “And they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God” (Acts 10:44-46). This was in fulfilment of the Psalmist’s statement, “Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive; Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them” (Psalms 68:18).I am increasingly persuaded that the true interpretation of the Scriptures, “To the Jew first and also to the Gentile”, has had its literal fulfilment. “It was necessary”, according to Paul and Barnabas, “that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you (Jews): but seeing ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles,“For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have sent thee to he a light to the Gentiles that thou shouldst be for salvation unto the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:46).The Jews rejected Christ in His first appearance. With few exceptions they will walk in darkness now until Christ come again. What they refuse to accept by faith, they will be compelled to acknowledge by vision, and so deep will be their grief over the blunder of having put away their own Messiah, that their penitence shall be accepted, and “a nation shall be born in a day”! The conclusion of Peter’s message was the command of baptism.“Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptised, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?“And he commanded them to be baptised in the Name of the Lord” (Acts 10:47-48).There is a strange argument, made by my Quaker forefathers, that the baptism of the Spirit renders needless the baptism in water. Peter did not so consider. On the contrary, he felt that the inner experience should be immediately symbolized by this outer ceremony. That is what water baptism is. It is the only ceremony that typifies death to sin, burial with Jesus Christ and resurrection to walk in newness of life; and unless it become a symbol of these essential truths, it is indeed a meaningless ceremony. “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection;“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:4-6).Types and symbols are sometimes louder than speech itself. Certainly that is a truth concerning the ordinance of baptism when properly administered. In the language of the great Moravian writer, “Witness ye men and angels, now Before the Lord we speak, To Him we make our solemn vow A vow we dare not break; “That, long as life itself shall last Ourselves to Christ we yield; Nor from His cause will we depart, Or ever quit the field.”