The Salvation of the Gentiles (5)
Acts 10:44-48
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. 45 All the Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had also been poured out on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter responded, 47 “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” 48 And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.
Caesarea
Nowhere – I’ll say it again, because that’s the key word – nowhere in the New Testament is tongues-speaking ever recorded as occurring in a single seeking individual, as in most modern Pentecostal experiences. In the Book of Acts, on the three occasions where tongues are mentioned, they come to an entire group at once. They are a corporate, church-founding, group conversion phenomenon in Acts, and they never occur subsequently in the Book of Acts in the experience of any one individual. Therefore, they had a place as assigned to the Jews of the equality of other groups in the unity of the church.
John MacArthur
Ephesians 2:11-13
Do not lose sight of the fact that you were born “Gentiles”, known by those whose bodies were circumcised as “the uncircumcised”. You were without Christ, you were utter strangers to God’s chosen community, the Jews, and you had no knowledge of, or right to, the promised agreements. You had nothing to look forward to and no God to whom you could turn. But now, through the blood of Christ, you who were once outside the pale are with us inside the circle of God’s love and purpose.
Ephesians 3:2-6
2-6 For you must have heard how God gave me grace to become your minister, and how he allowed me to understand his secret by giving me a direct Revelation. (What I have written briefly of this above will explain to you my knowledge of the mystery of Christ.) This secret was hidden to past generations of mankind, but it has now, by the Spirit, been made plain to God’s consecrated messengers and prophets. It is simply this: that the Gentiles, who were previously excluded from God’s agreements, are to be equal heirs with his chosen people, equal members and equal partners in God’s promise given by Christ through the Gospel.
Matthew 28:19
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Galatians 3:26-29
26 For now that you have faith in Christ you are all sons of God. All of you who were baptized into Christ have put on the family likeness of Christ. Gone is the distinction between Jew and Greek, slave and free man, male and female—you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, you are true descendants of Abraham, you are true heirs of his promise.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances.
In order for Salvation of the Gentiles to happen, there had to be:
A sovereign call - God moved in and prepared Cornelius
A submissive will - Cornelius needed to respond
A simple proclamation - Just the facts *
Spiritual power
Symbolic confession
Sweet fellowship
*
Salvation is available – introduction
Salvation is in Christ – main theme
Salvation is by faith – invitation
The whole point of Acts chapter 1 through 15 is to show Jew, Samaritan, and Gentile equally one in Christ. The whole point is to show that they are one, not that they are segmented, and to show that, there must be some accommodation in the transition period of the early church in the coming of the Spirit to prove that point. The only variations were not to prove they don’t get the Spirit, but to prove they do get the Spirit when they believe.
As you come to the 10th chapter of the Book of Acts, the Lord adds to the church Gentiles. The pagans who were despised by the Jews and who, incidentally, despised the Jews as well, who were thought to be unclean, in whose home Jews would never go, whose food Jews would never eat, and so forth and so on. He includes them into the church, into the one body with the Jews.
You’re all one in Christ. That’s the message of Christianity. There’s no distinction of race at all. When Christ came, God’s promise was fulfilled, and God’s promise was this: That in Abraham’s seed, all the families of the earth should be blessed, and it was not that salvation was of the Jews inclusively, but that it was of the Jews in order that they might preach its complete freedom to the rest of the world. And so really, they weren’t given the gospel as an end but a means.
Jesus was not and is not the Jews’ friend, nor the Gentiles’ friend, nor the friend of the rich, nor the friend of the poor, nor the friend of the higher up, nor the friend of the prostitute. He is the friend of sinners, and that includes all of us. I hope you’re the friend of sinners, and that includes all of them.