Acts 10:9-16

Peter’s Vision

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.

Peter in his vision responds from his safe place of tradition and refuses. In Leviticus 11v44-45, we have strict guidelines that Peter refers to.

Leviticus 11:44-45

⁴⁴ I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground.⁴⁵ I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

Acts 10 is like a bomb exploding. Peter realises that the living God is speaking to him and whilst it is always beneficial to fall back on scripture and tradition. By doing this we may miss out on what the Spirit is doing. Peter is obviously confused when Cornelius’ servants arrive to see him. The next day they all travel to Caesarea to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile. Peter, a Jew, again was breaking Jewish tradition by associating with Gentiles.

Peter listens to Cornelius’ story and then preaches the gospel as he finished preaching the Spirit fell on those who listened. The Gentile listeners were not baptised or circumcised and yet the Holy Spirit, descended upon them. God in this story shows to Peter, and to us, that the gospel is for the entire world, all nations, all ages, and all people groups. But it is also apparent that God wants to reach lost mankind in partnership with mankind. He invites us to be part of his mission. Taking part in the mission of God means leaving our place of security, to travel to the place where others are. It is always in the direction of others not ourselves.

So the challenge of this story for today. We must be prepared to let God do new things. Even if we don’t like it. We don’t get it, and we would rather he didn’t. Acts 10 is a story of a man and a community who were prepared to think and act outside of the box. We must learn not to confine and constrain God. We must be radically dependent on God and follow where he leads. We must also realise that God is active in the world outside the church. Cornelius was not part of the early church, but God spoke to him. We do not hold a monopoly on the love of God. It is available to all men.