Chapter 10

The Gentile Pentecost

At this time it becomes necessary to have some introduction with regard to the doctrine of the Church since the general doctrine of the Church is so vitally connected with the interpretation of this particular passage. We need to orient ourselves as to why we have a Gentile Pentecost; before we had a Jewish Pentecost; and, in between, a Samaritan Pentecost.

First of all, by way of nomenclature under the doctrine of the Church, there are three basic types of nomenclature with regard to this subject in the New testament. The most important to understand is the phrase “in Christ.” It refers to one of the 40 things that happen at the moment of salvation whereby God the Holy Spirit enters every believer into union with Christ. So the phrase “in Christ” refers to being in union with Him.

The second concept which is used is the word “body,” as found in I Corinthians 12 and in Romans 12, and this emphasises that fact that while we are all in union with Christ we have different spiritual gifts. Every believer has a different gift and therefore a different function in union with Christ. Experientially we function under different gifts but positionally we are all in union with Christ. The basic concept as far as most people are concerned in the word e)kklhsia, translated “church.” Actually, it is used five different ways in the Greek language. The word originally came from the Attic Greek language in which it was used for the assembly of the Athenians. Acts 7:38 gives us really our first use of it in the Word of God and there we have the Old Testament usage, that is, the assembly of Israel: not the church of Israel but the assembly of Israel. Occasionally when the Jews were assembled for some special purpose and this was written in the Greek the word e)kklhsia was used because e)kklhsia is basically an assembly-type word. Then in Matthew 18:17 we have a Jewish reference again, this time for a synagogue. Sometimes when the Jews met in their synagogue they were called an e)kklhsia or an assembly of a body of people. The fourth use found is that in Acts 19:25 where we have an assembly of Greek type people, and this was called an e)kklhsia or a church — an assembly of Greek for the purpose of handling problem of government. The fifth use is the use in a technical sense for Christianity, and it is used in two ways: first of all for the universal church made up of every believer who is in union with Christ — Ephesians 1:22,23; 5:25-27; Colossians 1:17,18, 2:9,10. In other words, generally throughout the prison epistles this is generally the use of e)kklhsia, then sometimes e)kklhsia was used for a local church, a group of people meeting in some particular area, as in I Corinthians 1:2, the church at Corinth, I Thessalonians I: I, the church at Thessalonika. So the word church is used in numerous ways throughout Greek languages, for their are several Greek languages which have it. We need to understand that when we get into the New testament generally the word is technical except for its uses in the gospels and in Acts where it simply refers to an assembly of people, the assembly is designated in context.

Next we need to understand that the Church is more than a word, like e)kklhsia or position in Christ. The word church is also used for a dispensational designation. With that in mind we should understand that on the Day of Pentecost in 30 AD the Church actually began. Basically in human history there are four dispensations: the Age of the Gentiles, so designated because there was only one race on the earth, everyone spoke the same language. There are actually three periods within that age: the period of positive volition or man’s innocence; the period of negative volition or man’s sinfulness, the development of the divine institution of nationalism, a period of some 2000 years of human history. Then with the destruction of the first united nations building by God Himself we begin a new age the Age of the Jews. The Age of the Jews is divided into three parts: the period of the patriarchs, which is the sage between Abraham and Moses, during which time the Jews went from a family system to a race; the period of the law, from Moses to the death of Christ; and finally, a third part of the Jewish Age, still unfulfilled — the Tribulation.

The Jews were called out by God for a special purpose. The failures of the peoples of the world to adhere to divine institution number four caused God to divide them after He destroyed the first UN building. When He divided the nations linguistically, racially, and geographically, immediately it became necessary to have a nation responsible for the evangelisation of the other nations of the world and custodianship of divine truth. That nation was Israel. So Israel’s responsibility in the Old Testament was to provide the gospel and evangelise the Gentile nations of the world, and to be custodians of the written word and anything else which God entrusted to them - in which responsibility they would fail periodically, resulting in the five cycles of discipline.

Now after Christ was resurrected and ascended, 10 days after His ascension on the Day of Pentecost we have our third dispensation, the Church Age. The Church began at the point of Pentecost and terminates with what we call the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church. Then the Jewish Age is completed, and then the second advent of Christ, and then the final age which is the Age of Christ or the Millennium.

Our particular passage is going to deal with problems pertaining to the beginning of the Church Age or the Gentile Pentecost. In this connection we need to note a few points on the termini of the Church. The Church Age actually begins on the Day of Pentecost. There was no church in the Old Testament. The Jews. the nation of Israel, had the responsibility of the custodianship of the Word and its dissemination to the other nations. We know this from several standpoints. First of all, the doctrine of the mystery which is stated in Ephesians 3:1-6; Colossians 1:25,26; Romans 16:25,26. The word “mystery” itself means information which was totally hidden from the past. In the period of the Old testament no church truth was revealed. Not only was there no church but there was no information about the Church. For example, the baptism of the Spirit is never mentioned, the universal indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the fact that Christ indwells believers, the fact that every believer is in union with Christ, the fact of the Rapture of the Church, all of these things were not revealed. In the Old Testament we have the death of Christ, His burial. His resurrection. His ascension, all revealed prophetically. We have all of the events of the Tribulation revealed prophetically. We have the second

advent of Christ revealed prophetically plus His Millennial reign and the eternal state, but with regard to Church truth there is absolutely none mentioned in any way in the Old Testament. The fact that the Church was still future was revealed by Matthew 16:13-18, by one phrase where Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church.” The word church, o)ikoidomhsw in the Greek, is future tense. In other words, the Church did not exist at the time that Christ spoke in Matthew 16. Technically, this is very important theologically because there are false systems of theology which find the Church in the Old Testament, and they always do the inevitable: confuse Israel and the Church. The Church did not start in Abraham’s tent, it did not start in the Garden of Eden. That is what we call covenant theology.

The second approach to the fact that the Church began on the Day of Pentecost and not before is the fact of the future tense in Matthew 16 — “I will build my church.”

The third is the baptising ministry of the Spirit. The Church is formed by the baptism of the Spirit and the baptism of the Spirit first began on the Day of Pentecost in 30 AD, The fact that the baptism of the Spirit was future: Jesus Christ, just before He ascended in Acts 1:5, said, “I will baptise you with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.” In other words, it hadn’t occurred as yet, it was still future. The mechanics of the baptism of the Spirit are given in I Corinthians 12:13. It is not an experience, it is the Holy Spirit entering everyone into union with Christ. Then the concept of the Church, as to when it began, is given in Ephesians 4:3-12.

The termination of the Church Age is the Rapture of the Church or the resurrection of the Church. Eventually the number of the people who are saved in the Church Age will equal the number of demons operating around the earth and in the earth. When this is true then the Church will be removed — I Thessalonians 4:13-18. Then there is the period of the Tribulation during which time the Church is in heaven. When the Church is in heaven three things happen. The Church receives a resurrection body; the Church loses the old sin nature (ultimate sanctification); all human good is judged. In other words, the Church on earth is called the body of Christ but in heaven it is called the bride of Christ — the Church is the bride being prepared. Then the second advent of Christ in which the Church comes back. during which time we have the termination of the Jewish Age. Then Christ who is the headstone of the corner: in the Millennium the Church and Israel will be together. As the cornerstone Christ is the ruler of Israel as David’s greater Son, and as the cornerstone He is head over the Church.

There are certain synonyms for the Word Church found throughout the scripture. For example, in I Corinthians 15 we have the last Adam and the new creation as a designation for the Church. Secondly, in Ephesians, Colossians, I Corinthians 12, Romans 12. we have the head and the body. Christ is said to be the head; we are the members of the body. In John chapter ten; Hebrew 13:20; I Peter 5:4, and other passages, the Church is often designated in its relationship to the Lord: the Shepherd and the sheep. A fourth designation is the vine and the branches in John 15. These are all designations of the Church in its relationship to the Lord. The last Adam is Christ; the new creation, the members of the body of Christ. The head of the body: Christ is the head, we are the members of the body. The Shepherd and the sheep: Christ is the shepherd, we are the sheep. The vine and the branches: we are the branches. He is the vine. The chief comer stone and the stones of the building is used in Ephesians 2:20: Psalm 118:22 — as a prophecy; and in Revelation 5:10. Then there is the

concept of the high priest and the royal priesthood — Hebrews 10; I Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10. The bridegroom and the bride is the other designation — Ephesians 5; Revelation 19, and other passages. There are seven relationship designations for the Church, so that actually the Church is said to be related to Christ under seven different principles.

There are eight unique features of the Church Age

1. The baptism of the Spirit. Every believer is in union with Christ.

2. For the first time in history Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, actually indwells every believer.

3. The Holy Spirit actually indwells every believer in the Church Age.

4. Every believer is a priest.

5. The completed canon of scripture. For the first time in all of human history we have everything that God wants us to know in writing. This has never been true at any time previously in history.

6. We have a supernatural way of life, it demands a supernatural execution.

7. We not only have a supernatural way of life but the means of executing it is supernatural - the doctrine of the filling of the Spirit.

8. Every believer is an ambassador for Christ.

There is a problem with regard to Pentecost. The Church began on the Day of Pentecost in 30 AD; it began in one geographical location. So let’s see the problem here for a moment. Wherever you have saved people, in the Persian empire, maybe in China, in India and wherever people existed at this time, you would call them Old Testament saints and they were under the Old Testament type dispensation. Then suddenly on the Day of Pentecost in 30 AD, in one city in the world, you suddenly have New Testament saints or the beginning of the Church. Immediately you have a problem. In one geographical location the Church began, so in that place you suddenly have the people possessing these eight things we have just mentioned. But in the rest of the world you have Old Testament saints living under the Old Testament economy. So obviously on the day that the Church began a problem exists. Coexisting on the earth are two categories of born-again individuals. One group is not any more saved than the other. After all the Church’s charter members were Old Testament saints, and by the baptism of the Spirit they were converted into New Testament saints. The day the Church began the baptism of the Spirit took Old testament saints and entered them into union with Christ, and now

they are New Testament saints. With us, we receive the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of salvation, but some of these people had been saved for a very long time. So immediately some problems exist when the Church begins. In the first place the Church began, not only in one geographical location but it began with one race only: the charter members of the Church Age were all Jews. Hence, on the Day of Pentecost you have not Old and New Testament saints but you have an apparent monopoly as far as the Jews are concerned. So actually three problems existed the day that the Church began. First, the problem of the monopoly.

The elimination of this problem is the story of the book of acts. This was accomplished by a series of Pentecosts. In Acts chapter two we have the Jewish Pentecost, the beginning of the Church. In Acts chapter eight we have the Samaritan Pentecost; how God brought into the Church half-Jews and half-Gentiles. In Acts chapter ten we now have the Gentile Pentecost, indicating that Gentiles are just as much in the body of Christ as Jews. In Acts chapter 19 we have the integration of Old Testament saints who lived in isolated places long enough to be brought into the picture. So the problem of monopoly is eliminated and this is really one of the great messages in the book of Acts. Secondly, we have the problem of the handling of Old Testament saints. Some Old Testament saints will die before the Church reaches out into their area. In one generation the Church will go from one spot to the entire world. Eventually there will be people who will live long enough to be integrated into the Church. That is the story of Acts chapter nineteen. The third problem is the geographical problem. This is eliminated by the rapid spread of Christianity in one generation. This is taught in Acts 17:6; Colossians 1:6; I Timothy 3:16.

In the first eight verses of chapter 10 we have the vision of a Gentile unbeliever, Cornelius. In verses 9-23 we have the vision of a Jewish believer. Peter. In verses 24-48 we have the actual Gentile Pentecost.

Verses 1-8, the vision of a Gentile unbeliever. This vision brings into focus the doctrine: What about the people who have never heard, or what about heathenism.

Verse 1 — “There was a certain man in Caesarea.” Caesarea to the Jews is the thorn in their side. Herod the Great (he was a Gentile, an Arab) who ruled the Jews was a man of great genius. He was one of the wealthiest men who ever lived and to this day he holds the record for having the largest construction company that has ever existed. He built many of the temples in Greece, Asia, and Rome. He built some of the most beautiful homes in the ancient world. His wealth was fantastic. He became tired of simply building buildings and one of the great things that he did was the start building cities. Someone told him that the Jews did not have a good sea port because the coast of the Mediterranean was too rugged. So he ignored Joppa, the only break in the Mediterranean coast in Palestine and said he was going to build the Jews a seaport the like of which no had seen in the ancient world. And he did. He dredged for ten years and he tore down the cliffs, and he built the most beautiful city and called after his friend Julius Caesar: Caesarea. It was the greatest breakwater port of the ancient world. Because it was such a beautiful city, when the Romans took over Palestine they made it their headquarters and it was a city despised by the Jews because it represented everything that

heathenism represented. It was a place of Greek culture, it was the place of the Roman headquarters, it was the place where the Roman eagles were kept, and it was the very- nerve centre at this time.

The “certain man’s” name was Cornelius, and immediately we know something about him. From his name we know that he was a Roman aristocrat from the clan Corneli which was one of the outstanding families of ancient Rome. Here is a Roman of the Romans and they are getting very scarce in the first century. He had chosen as his career the army. Every aristocrat had to choose as his career either the army or Roman administration. He was also a centurion and in a headquarters organisation such as at Caesarea he probably was on a general staff. His regiment was called the Cohort. The word “band” is simply the Greek word speirhj is “Cohort” and it refers to six-hundred men or a regiment. The members of this regiment all had to prove Roman birth, not just Roman citizenship. So he is an outstanding aristocrat in every sense of the word.

The amazing thing about this Roman aristocrat is that at the point of God-consciousness he went on positive signals and this is revealed by verse 2. He is not a saved man. He is said to be devout; he is said to fear God, he is said to have given alms to the people, the Jewish people - an unheard of thing for a Roman aristocrat. He is said to pray to God constantly. All of these things are recorded in verse 2. What do they mean? The answer is found in the five points of heathenism.

The doctrine of heathenism

1. The doctrine of divine essence: God is perfect — sovereignty, righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability and veracity. Two characteristics of the essence box are necessary; righteousness and justice. God is perfect righteousness and therefore He cannot be unfair to any member of the human race. What about the people who have never heard? They have all had a chance to be saved. There has never been in the history of the human race a person born into this world who has not had a chance to be saved. God is absolute righteousness. He is fair. He is justice. He has never given anyone a wrong deal. That is the application of the essence of God in brief.

2. The doctrine of unlimited atonement. When Christ went to the cross He didn’t die for the sins of the elect. He died for the sins of the world. When Christ was on the cross all of the sins ever committed in the human race, past present and future, were poured out upon Christ and God the Father actually judged those sins. So anyone in the human race can be saved because Christ died for everyone. So the application of unlimited atonement simply says: Since Christ died for all members of the human race He obviously desires the

salvation of every member of the human race.

3. The application of divine sovereignty. What is God’s sovereign will in the matter? The answer is found in 2 Peter 3:9 — “He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to a change of attitude toward Christ.” God does not want anyone to go without salvation; which indicates, of course, the existence of human volition. The fact that people are not saved indicates that they go on negative signals, that they refuse to accept what God has provided.

4. The principle of God-consciousness. This brings us to the human race viewpoint.

God-consciousness can be defined as recognition of the existence of a Supreme Being. At some point in life, every normal person reaches God-consciousness. This involves mental activity and information on which to act.

Man acquires information three ways:

a. Empiricism, the perception of reality through the senses. What you see, touch, taste, hear, smell are real to you.

b. Rationalism is perception through reason.

c. Faith is the acceptance of an established criterion as the basis of reality. Whether you know it or not, you have used all three of these systems all your life.

5. Heathen are heathen because they have used negative volition at:

a. Point of God-consciousness: Romans 1:19-20.

b. Point of Gospel hearing man uses: volition and faith. Exegesis of Romans 1:18-21 (High points)

v. 18 “ungodliness”: Negative volition at Gospel hearing; “unrighteousness of men”: Negative volition at Gospel hearing; v 19 Point of God-consciousness, “they … them.”

v 21 “knew God”: Gospel hearing (not saved); “neither were thankful”: Rejected the cross;

“glorified him not as God”: Negative volition; “vain… imaginations”: Perverted in their thoughts, in their mental attitude; “foolish … became darkened”: became idolaters.

The principle of God-consciousness simply says this: If any member of the human race - regardless of any geographical location, regardless of an linguistic barrier or isolation, at the point of God-consciousness desires relationship with God, God will provide information for that individual. This is taught in John 7:17; Acts 17:27; Jeremiah 29:13; Romans 1:20-21. Sooner or later all normal members of the human race reach the point of God-consciousness. There are five ways in which the human mind accomplishes this. The only exception is the person who is an idiot or a moron, or a person who dies before reaching accountability. These are automatically saved because they

never reach the point of God-consciousness.

At God-consciousness we have volition. Volition has a positive and a negative pole and when a person reaches God-consciousness if he goes on negative signals God has no further responsibility. Negative signals at God-consciousness create a vacuum in the mind. Into that vacuum is drawn religion, as per Romans l:20ff, and with religion this person will constantly reject the truth all of his life. If a person goes on positive signals then God is responsible to provide information. That information is provided at a second point called Gospel hearing. If a person goes on positive signals at God-consciousness then God will provide the gospel and positive volition at Gospel hearing is faith in Christ. Cornelius went on positive signals at the point of God-consciousness. Verse 2 simply expresses the positive signals which this young man had. The word “devout” is e)usebhj in the Greek. It is used in several ways. Sometimes it is translated “devout” and sometimes it is translated “godliness." It can be used as a designation for spirituality in a believer, which is the use which Paul gives it in the pastoral epistles; but when used by Luke it is always used for an unbeliever who at the point of God-consciousness goes on positive signals. That is the concept of it here.

Positive volition at the point of God-consciousness is also revealed by a present active participle, “one that feared God.” The word “fear” means to be in awe of or to have respect for. He had great respect for God. This again confirms positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. And that isn’t all, he gave alms to the people for whom the Romans had little regard, the Jews. Then finally we have the fact that he prays to God, which again indicates positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. Not only does Cornelius but his entire family and some of the members of his staff. Apparently gathered in the area of Cornelius were those individuals, Romans, who at the point of God-consciousness had gone on positive signals and now in Caesarea this group is going to be used to demonstrate the fact that when a Gentile believes n Christ he has the same privileges as a Jew who believes in Christ, that Jew and Gentile are no longer Jew and Gentile when they believe in Christ but they are members of the body of Christ. So the Gentile Pentecost is going to teach us something else about mankind: no two members of the human race are born equal. There is no such thing as equality at birth or equality in life. Equality in the human race can only be provided by God, and the only

equality that exists is “in Christ” .At the moment of regeneration you have for the first time equality among those who are born again.

In verses 3 and 4 we have God’s response to the positive volition of Cornelius and other Romans around him.

Verse 3 — the word “evidently” is rather interesting. The ninth hour happens to be the Jewish time for prayer, 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The word “evidently” means there is no doubt about it but it is rather surprising that a Roman aristocrat would follow a Jewish custom. But the reason for it is obvious. He has at the point of God-consciousness positive volition, and therefore God has responsibility to this man.

“he saw in a vision” — a vision is a type of pre-canon revelation from God. There were actually three categories of pre-canon revelation. Before the canon of scripture was completed — it was not completed until 96 AD when the last word in Revelation was written — God revealed Himself by:

a. Direct communication. The precedent for this is found in Moses. God spoke with Moses face to face. Direct communication was God speaking to prophets.

b. Medium communication, winch means dreams, visions, trances, and preaching and teaching.

c. Written communication which means the Old Testament scriptures at this time. The New Testament had not been written at the time of this event. God reveals Himself to those who have positive volition at the point of God-consciousness, and the manner of doing so: God sent an angel, a messenger — “coming to him and saying to him, Cornelius.”

Verse 4 — “he was afraid” .He was afraid but he didn’t run away, he stood there and he talked. When a man is afraid and can carry on a conversation he is a remarkable person. To be able to think clearly under heavy pressure is one of the primary assets of a military man.

“What is it Lord?” — he is ready to listen and to talk. “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.” Why? Because they represent positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. Therefore God is now responding to the positive volition of Cornelius as He must do so. as per His essence: righteousness and justice. “For a memorial” is an interesting phrase that is used twice in the Bible. It is used first of all for the act of Mary of Bethany in Matthew 26:l3; Mark 14:9 which was called a memorial to the death of Christ. Secondly, the same phrase is used for the activity of Cornelius. Mary demonstrated positive volition as a believer; Cornelius demonstrated positive volition as an unbeliever, and the principle is that God always recognises positive volition in the human race whether it is an unbeliever or a believer. Positive volition of an unbeliever in the human race always means receiving the gospel and responding to it, and as far as the believer is concerned it mans receiving doctrine and being blessed by it. “Before God” is literally, “in the

presence of God.”

In verses 5 and 6 he receives his instructions.

Verse 5 — “And now send men to Joppa,” the sea port that the Jews liked, a natural sea port and yet very small compared to Caesarea, thirty miles to the north of Joppa. Now we have a thirty-mile problem. Down in Joppa is a Jew by the name of Peter, a Jew who is a fisherman, a lower class Jew; up in Caesarea is an aristocrat. Peter is saved, the aristocrat is not saved. Both have positive volition and the point is to bring these two men together; and in so doing not only would the Roman aristocrat and his friends be saved but it will be demonstrated once and for all that Gentiles are in the body of Christ, for at this point in Caesarea we are going to have the Gentile Pentecost.

When Cornelius reached the point of God-consciousness he went on positive signals at that point. This means that God is responsible to provide information for him. Remember that God-consciousness simply means to be aware of the existence of God, it has nothing to do with information regarding Jesus Christ. But this Roman, very early in life apparently, reached God-consciousness and when he did he desired relationship with God, and therefore God was responsible to provide information for him. And this He is about to do because 30 miles away there is a man who can give him the information he needs. We will see them getting ready for gospel hearing and we have all of the mechanics whereby Peter came the 30 miles in order to present the gospel to this man and to others. At that point we will see positive volition expressed by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ resulting in the Gentile Pentecost and resulting in the breaking of a monopoly which has existed up to this point.

Behind the principle of this monopoly is a long bit of history. Whenever the Jews become apostate, first of all it affects them not only spiritually but economically and militarily. Eventually they get to what is known as the 4th cycle of discipline, as illustrated by what happened in 721 BC when the Jews came under the yoke of the Assyrians. Then, for a short time, Egypt and then eventually the Chaldeans. Then in 586 BC the Chaldeans took them out of their land completely under the 5th cycle of discipline and that lasted until 516 BC the Babylonian captivity which was the first administration of the 5th cycle of discipline to the Jews. As a result of the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity the Jews realised that no nation can survive without emphasis on Bible doctrine. So they began to emphasise Bible doctrine and they had the golden age which lasted all of the way to 323 BC, the death of Alexander the Great. During this time while the rest of the world was engaged in wars and difficulties the Jews had great spiritual and economic prosperity and were well protected under

first of all the Persian empire and then the Graeco-Macedonian empire of Alexander. Then gradually they went through the three cycles of discipline again until 363 BC when Pompey the Great captured Jerusalem. At that time they went under the 4th cycle of discipline to Rome which lasted until 70 AD, some forty years after our present passage. Then the Jews went into the 5th cycle of discipline again and it will last until the second advent of Christ.

With the Jews under the 5th cycle of discipline they have a most interesting situation developing. God used the Jews as the nation to represent Himself. Under that situation in Romans 9:6 we find that Abraham was a Gentile. He lived in Ur of the Chaldeans, he had a bother name Nahor. Nahor rejected Christ whereas Abraham as a Gentile accepted Christ as saviour. Then Abraham finally went into the land and he had some sons. His oldest son, Ishmael, is a Gentile but his next son, Isaac, is a Jew. He had other sons who were Gentiles. Isaac was the only one who was a Jew. The step brothers of Isaac were all Gentiles. The difference: Isaac believed in Jesus Christ. Then, to demonstrate the principle that the foundation of Israel is unique in the history of nations in that they were founded on regeneration, Isaac had twin sons. The eldest was Esau who was a Gentile and the youngest was Jacob who was a Jew. Again, the difference between the two: Jacob accepted Christ as saviour.

In all of the history of nations national entities are founded on natural generation. But in the case of Israel they were founded on regeneration. That is why Jesus Christ has as one of His titles in the Old Testament, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - because the Jewish nation was founded on regeneration. From that point on the racial Jew simply is anyone who has the genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Jews, therefore, has a tremendous spiritual heritage. Often they lost track of their spiritual heritage through religionism, through ritualism, and therefore God set up for them a special type of discipline to handle their failures. When apostasy came in eventually they would get to the fourth or the fifth cycles of discipline. During the Church Age the Jews are under the fifth cycle of discipline; they are scattered throughout the earth. There are Jews in the land today but this is Zionism, a Satanic move, God Himself will bring them back into the land at the second advent.

Since the Jews are under the fifth cycle of discipline God has called out another nation to become custodians of the Word. That nation is the Church. Since the Jew is under the double curse today — first the

curse of the fifth cycle and secondly the curse of spiritual death — when the Jew believes in Christ the curse is canceled. The fifth cycle of discipline is canceled for him because he enters into union with Christ and therefore he is no longer a Jew but is a member of the body of Christ, just as a Gentile who believes is no longer a Gentile but a member of the body of Christ. So in this way the Jew is out from under the fifth cycle of discipline and he is out from under the principle of spiritual death.

The great problem was that on the Day of Pentecost in 30 AD the Church began in one place only, in Jerusalem. Throughout the rest of the world wherever believers existed they were Old Testament saints and only in Jerusalem do we have the beginning of the Church. But in one generation the Church will be spreading throughout the entire world. The gospel will be disseminated under a most unusual type of system and soon everything will be Church and there will be no Old Testament saints. But on the Day of Pentecost on 30 AD there was one problem. Those who were charter members of the Church we all Jews and it appears on the surface as though we have a Jewish monopoly, but it will be demonstrated in this chapter that both Jew and Gentile are one in Christ. This principle is given later on in the book of Galatians.

Galatians 3:22 — “For the scripture has concluded all under sin” - in other words, the Bible demonstrates the fact that all men, Jew or Gentile, are sinners. The word “sin” is in the singular, referring to the old sin nature. This means that all members of the human race who are unbelievers live all of their lives under the old sin nature. The unbeliever produces a certain amount of good and he produces a certain amount of evil, and he is motivated by inner lust. This is the story of the unbeliever. The principle involved here is the fact that the scriptures say that all members of the human race live under their old sin nature. The only exception is the believer controlled by the Spirit; “that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” In other words, the way in which the monopoly of the old sin nature is broken is faith in Jesus Christ. So when a person believes in Jesus Christ he still possesses the old sin nature but now he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and he is indwelt by the person of Christ. The Holy Spirit has an operational function to perform divine good and to imitate Christ, whereas the old sin nature can only imitate the unbeliever. So we have the principle then that while the scripture has put all under the old sin nature the scripture also gives the solution: “Believe

on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

Verse 23 — “But before faith came,” before any of the Jews, for example, believed in Christ; “we were kept under the law.” the Mosaic law was the basis for the Jewish modus operandi; “and therefore shut up unto faith,” or the law closed out the possibility of faith - “which would hereafter be revealed.”

What was the purpose of the Mosaic law? Even though the Mosaic law was not salvation, even though the Mosaic law could not save in itself, it did have a purpose.

Verse 24 — “Therefore the law was our schoolmaster,” the Greek word paidagwghj is the word for a slave who takes the children to school, so a better translation: Therefore the law was a school bus, “to bring us to Christ.” The purpose of the Mosaic law was to point out that there is a saviour. The law cannot save but it can point to the saviour. Under this principle Codex #2 of the Mosaic law was a complete Christology.

The Mosaic law is divided into three parts. Part I is the ten commandments which demonstrate that man is a sinner and needs a saviour. Part 2 is a complete Christology presenting the person of Christ as the only solution to the sin problem. It includes the study of the Levitical offerings, the modus operandi of the priesthood, the tabernacle and so on. Codex #3 is a perfect system for divine institution #4: nationalism, it is the protection of a national entity, and it includes everything from dietary laws to taxation.

All of this adds up to the fact that on the Day of Pentecost we have a Jewish monopoly, and all Jews involved there would almost seem to indicate that the Church Age is going to be a duplication of the Age of Israel. But this is changed radically by the story we have before us in Acts chapter ten.

Galatians 3:26 — “For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” .There is only one way to become a child of God. There is no such thing as universal brotherhood, God is not the Father of all, and all mankind are not in the category of brothers. The only brotherhood that is recognised by the Word of God is the brotherhood of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are born into the family of God the moment we believe.

What happens when we are born into the family of God? God does 40 things for us immediately, including entering us into union with Christ, called the baptism of the Spirit. The word “baptism” means identification.

In verse 27 it says, “For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ (that means in union with Christ) have put on Christ.” So every person at the moment he believes is entered into union with Christ. What does this mean?

Verse 28 — “For there is neither Jew nor Gentile.” Once you accept Christ as saviour you are born into a new family where there is no racial distinction. As far as your union with Christ is concerned this is no longer recognised as a distinction. The interesting thing is that no two people are born the same; they are born unequal. There is no such thing as people being born equal - “there is neither bond nor free” - slaves accept Christ and in the eyes of God they are free. Social distinctions are removed by union with Christ - “there is neither male nor female” no sexual distinctions (though quite obviously experientially there is. Even though this type of situation exists positionially, experientially these functions go on). In Christ these distinctions are removed even though experientially they may operate on the earth. Positional truth is the beginning of everything and it is the equaliser and the basis for the formation of the Church. The body of Christ is the great concept here and under that concept we are now going to see the breaking of the Jewish monopoly, for up to

this point the only people who have been brought into the body of Christ are Samaritans who are half Jew and half Gentile. We are now getting ready for a Gentile Pentecost to demonstrate the principle that Jew and Gentile are equal before God and that they are one in Christ.

What better way to do this than the two people we have in verse five? “And now send men.” Here is a command given to Cornelius, a Gentile. Cornelius and Peter are the two men mentioned in verse five. Cornelius has positive volition at the point of God-consciousness’ Peter has positive volition at the point of gospel hearing. In other words. Peter is saved at this point and Cornelius is unsaved but will get a crack at it. Basically these are the differences except for their geographical problem. Cornelius is attached to the Roman general staff a Caesarea and Peter is living at this time in Joppa with Simon the tanner. Two people couldn’t be as different as these two; yet, of course, these two are in heaven today.

Verse 6 — “he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do” is not found in the original.

Verse 7 — the obedience of Cornelius. He is a military man, he recognises orders from a higher authority, and immediately we see him going into action. “And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants,” domestic servants, “and a devout soldier.” This soldier under Cornelius has also demonstrated positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. He is of the Italian regiment which was the greatest regiment in the Roman army, made up of Romans from Rome. Cornelius is a centurion of it, only aristocrats could be officers in that particular regiment. He has with him a Roman soldier who is his orderly or some similar position and he, too, is a member of that famous regiment. So he is called here a devout soldier, which means at the point of positive volition this Roman soldier has also desired relationship with God and he will be involved in the Gentile Pentecost - “of them that waited on him continually.” The word to wait on him is not exactly correct. In the Greek it is proskaterew, a compound word. The word proj is the preposition which means face to face, but karterew means to be strong. It means to be strong in the presence of someone, which comes to mean to be faithful to them, to be dependable. It is interesting that here is a Roman centurion and he has at least one member of his staff who is dependable.

Verse 8 — “And when he had declared all these things unto them,” he briefed them on the commands of the angel, “he sent them to Joppa” thirty miles to the south.

In verses 9-23 something is going on in Joppa the next day. The timing of the movement of this patrol to the south plus the activities of Peter on the next day are most interesting. Peter is a fisherman and it is very difficult to determine whether he really liked flowers or not. In the ancient world people had their gardens on the roof. We don’t know whether Peter liked flowers or not be he had one rather odd or interesting habit of prayer, he didn’t pray inside, he prayed outside. While Peter was praying he felt very hungry and began to smell food. At that point he went into a trance. In this trance God revealed to him the principle of the Gentile Pentecost.

Verse 9 — “On the morrow.” This is one of those days which illustrates the perfect timing of God. God’s timing is perfect and that is a part of Romans 8:28, all things do work together for good, it is knowing it that counts; “as they [the patrol] went on their journey, and drew nigh to the city. Peter went up on the housetop to pray about [approaching] the sixth hour [in Jewish time is twelve noon].”

Verse 10 — “And he became very hungry and would have eaten.” He had a strong insatiable desire to get food in his mouth. The word “would” is imperfect linear aktionsart, and “have eaten” is actually the aorist tense. So we have a contrast between two verbs in the Greek. “Would” means desire from the emotional pattern, and then “have eaten” is an aorist passive infinitive, but it doesn’t mean to eat, it just means to taste something. So he had an insatiable desire to go down and taste that food. Apparently with that in mind he fell into a trance. It says, “but while they made ready” — while they were preparing the food — “he fell into a trance.” A trance is a bona fide means of communication of doctrine before the canon of scripture was completed. This trance is different from a vision in that a trance includes ecstatics. Since apparently his emotional pattern was already stimulated by the smell of good food , and he was very hungry, and since his emotion was already high up he apparently just went over the top into ecstatics and went into this trance. Now we have a vision with ecstatics which is called a trance. In verses 11-16 we have the content of the vision.

Verse 11 — “And [he] saw heaven opened,” perfect tense. It was opened for a purpose, “and a certain vessel.” We have to remember that at this Peter has overcome some legalism. He is living in the house of Simon the tanner. It was taboo to associate with tanners and yet Peter is violating the background of Judaism, because he is a believer, because Simon is a believer, he is living with him. But even though he has overcome this part of legalism Peter always had a terrible job with other types of legalism. There is one type of legalism which he has not overcome and will not overcome for some time, as indicated by this vision, and that is his attitude toward Gentiles. The word for vessel isn’t a vessel at all. This is a food locker — “and a certain food locker descending,” this was a food storage container or a food locker. It is a very interesting one because it isn’t like anything we have today. This was written in a time when Peter could understand. This food locker was “as a great sheet,” actually a great linen cloth, a great table cloth, “tied up at the four corners,” which meant it contained certain things and they couldn’t get out, “and lowered to the earth to the place where

Peter was located].”

Verse 12 — what was in it? Suddenly the four comers part and the cloth is standing, as it were, just above Peter’s eye level and on it are some interesting things. “Wherein were all manner of four footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.” Everything on this sheet was forbidden by Codex #3 of the Mosaic Law. The dietary laws were very interesting and they were very protective. They forbade certain things which could not be properly prepared in the ancient world and would be detrimental to health, and therefore these were things which were forbidden. You see he will live with a tanner, that’s forbidden, but he will not associate with the Gentiles and he doesn’t know that the Gentiles were to be included in the body of Christ. This is God’s way of showing him.

Verse 13 — “And there came a voice to him” .And we have three aorist active imperatives: “Rise, kill, eat.” There is no doubt about it, this is a command from God. What kind of a man is Peter? If it is a command from God versus the Mosaic law. Peter says no. Peter is typical of Israel. By the time that Israel had this grilled into them, for over a thousand years now, it stuck. God now tells Peter to do something that is contrary to his training, and Peter says no just like a lot of believers who have been trained in certain areas of legalism cannot break away from it when they face the biblical doctrine of spirituality. It is grace and they can’t take it.

Verse 14 — “But Peter said. Not so. Lord” — That’s no; “I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean [anything that is contrary to the Mosaic law).” This is what ruins a lot of believers because there is the doctrine of progression of revelation. We live in the Church Age; Peter lives in the Church Age. Things have changed. God protected Israel under a national entity, Israel under a national entity is finished, and now it is a new type of protection under operation Church. So, wake up Peter. God may tell him to do it but it is contrary to his traditional concepts. Traditional concepts keep many believers from living the Christian life, they want to operate under legalism and human good. It is very difficult for a person with a religious background to ever make a good believer because of this same problem that Peter faced. However, Peter will get away from it. It is going to take him a few years but he finally makes it, and only doctrine can do it. This is doctrine that he is getting.

Verse 15-we have a repetition. “The voice spake unto him the second time. What God hath cleansed you do not call it common.” This was something new to Peter.

There is a principle behind this section of the vision: legalism defiles what God has cleansed. This has always been true. Legalism is the great defiler. In other words Peter, the Mosaic law has been superseded by a new dispensation, by a new principle, and a principle which is much more advanced. This was to teach Peter that the middle wall of partition which kept the Gentiles out of the temple has now teen broken down. Some forty years from now where the middle wall of partition has broken down the temple itself will be destroyed. There will be no Jewish monopoly yet, the Jews will be under the fifth cycle of discipline by that time. In this particular situation Peter was defiling by his mental attitude something that God had cleansed. Mental attitude is therefore the most dangerous form of defilement, even as mental attitude sins are always the worst sins — the envy, the jealousy, the hatred, the vindictiveness, fear, anxiety, and so on. In this case, when Peter says, I have never touched anything common, in a sense he is judging God as if God doesn’t know what

to do.

Verse 16 — “This was done thrice [this came to pass three times]: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.” Why three times? Because people learn by repetition. Peter didn’t get it the first time because he was shocked. He didn’t get it the second time because he was standing on his tradition and background. And the third time was the first time that he really caught on as to what was being communicated to him through the vision. This is generally true of any type of truth which is grace truth. You have to hear it about three times before you really hear it the first time.

Peter has been commanded to eat unclean animals in violation of Codex #3 of the Mosaic law. God has cleansed Gentile believers without those Gentile believers becoming Jews. God has cleansed those Gentile believers in the same manner that Jewish believers are cleansed and He is pointing this out to Peter because Peter is about to have contact with a Gentile patrol, and another day will pass when he will have contact with a Gentile officer. So Peter is taught this thing three times and he still doesn’t understand it, but the key will be with the patrol and then with his conversation with the centurion in Caesarea. But again, religious tradition binders the understanding of Bible doctrine. Legalism frustrates orientation to grace. Peter remains unconvinced even by God’s Word and it is going to take some experience added to it before Peter is convinced. This is often true of believers. They have to learn the hard way, the knot on the head system.

Examples of how legalism can defile what God has cleansed

1. The first is the doctrine of unlimited atonement. Under this doctrine, when Jesus Christ went to the cross all of the sins of the world were poured out upon Him. This is called the baptism of the cup. When these sins were poured out upon Christ they were judged. This means the sins of the unbeliever as well as the believer. Legalism and tradition add to the work of Christ on the cross by insisting that man must feel sorry for his sins, that man must renounce his sins, that man must walk an aisle, that man must observe some ritual such as baptism, that man must adhere to the golden rule. that man must fit into a certain pattern of morality. So here we have a principle of salvation, but what does religion do? Religion puts man in the picture. Grace = God the Son does the work; man does the receiving; God gets the credit under grace. Under legalism or religionism, man does the work and God is supposed to receive what man does, and man gets the credit. Peter said no, and this is legalism actually dewing God. We see this all of the time. There is only one way to be saved: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Legalism comes along and says no, you must do something, you must work, and so on. So here is the first area in which legalism defiles what God has

cleansed, adding to the Word of God with regard to salvation.

2. The second way is, after salvation, rebound by confession of sin. People want to help God and they want to feel sorry for their sins, renounce their sins, promise God they will never do it again, take a vow, go through some system of self-torture, some system of flagellation. But God says no, I have already done the work, you simply name your sin. We confess our sins. he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So once again, even in the principle of rebound, there is no place for man to take any credit. When we confess a sin as a believer we name a sin that has already been judged, and since it has already been judged we simply name it, cite it, make reference to it, and He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

3. A third problem comes up as to what constitutes spirituality. Most people think spirituality is being moral, spirituality is living a good clean life and showing up at church periodically, etc. That isn’t spirituality. Human sweetness does not connote spirituality. Remember that honey is omitted from the gift offering, the second of the Levitical offerings — no leaven, no honey. Spirituality is the filling of the Spirit; you get it only by rebound. Here again, legalism destroys the principle.

4. Then there is the problem of production by grace. Some people think that you can do some good. This takes us to the other part of the old sin nature from where comes human good. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who produces divine good. Take giving money. If you give some money while controlled by the Spirit it is divine good; if you are controlled by the old sin nature it is human good. But most people say that it is just giving that is good. It isn’t !As far as God is concerned it is who controls your life when you give, when you pray, when you witness, when you worship, whatever you do at any time. It isn’t what you do, it is who controls you when you do it. Legalism defiles what God has cleansed in the realm of salvation, in the realm

of rebound, in the realm of spirituality, and in the realm of production.

Remember that for 1400 years the nation Israel has been responsible for the Word of God, custodians of divine truth, and having the responsibility for the dissemination of the gospel to all nations. This actually began at the end of the Age of the Gentiles when the first United Nations building was constructed in Babylon. God Himself destroyed this international organisation in order the stabilise the human race and make it possible for people to be evangelised. He immediately scattered the population of the earth under three types of national entities language, race, and geography so that today and throughout the history of the human race there will always be nationalism and national entities as a means of protecting the human race. And then God took one man who had accepted Christ as his saviour who was a Gentile. The man’s name was Abraham. God called him out to form a new nation. This nation is the only one based upon regeneration. His younger son, Jacob, is in the line for the Jewish race. The difference between Esau and Jacob Gentile and Jew. But more important, Jacob was a believer, Esau was not. So there was one race in the history of humanity which was founded on regeneration. God took a Chaldean, a man by the name of Abraham, and made a Jew out of him, and the foundation of the Jewish race, then, is regeneration. Jesus Christ, in one of His titles in the Old Testament is called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

With this wonderful beginning God has a special plan for any Jew who follows the footsteps of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and is born again. But at the same time, from this point on Jacob had twelve sons who became the basis of the Jewish nation. Eventually there were thirteen tribes that came out of these twelve sons. Then the Jews had the responsibility from that time on the custodianship of the written Word and dissemination of the gospel.

Under this concept in Leviticus 26 we have the five cycles of discipline which is the basis of national discipline and judgment of the Jews. In 721 BC the Jews of the southern kingdom went under the fourth cycle of discipline, which was administered first of all by Assyria and secondly by Chaldea. At the same time the Jews of the northern kingdom, the ten tribes, went under the fifth cycle of discipline which continues until the second advent of Christ, with the exception of many believers who went down south and resided in the southern kingdom.

In 586 BC the southern kingdom of Judah went into the fifth cycle of discipline which lasted seventy years to 516, the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity. This was a warning to them that no nation can survive without doctrine and that God held them personally responsible for their apostasy. They learned their lesson well. When they came back into the land they actually began to come back in 536 but 516 was the year when the second temple was completed their testimony was then in full operation. From 516 down to 323 BC the Jews had their golden age in which they lived on the basis of doctrine. In every generation there was revival, a maximum number of believers, maximum utilisation of doctrine, they had the finest economy any nation has ever known, and they were totally free from any warfare during a period of concentrated warfare throughout the world. Then in 323 BC they began to go through their three cycles and in 63 BC when Pompey the Great came into the land and conquered Jerusalem the Jews went under the fourth cycle again to Rome. and then in 70 AD they went under the fifth cycle of discipline to Rome and this will continue until the second advent of Christ.

This is a prolonged fifth cycle. From 70 AD to the second advent is such a prolonged period that God needs another nation to replace Israel. That nation is the Church. The Church will be different from Israel in that it is made up of many races whereas the Jewish race was one race under the Age of Israel. So the Church is made up of believers from many races but they have one thing in common, they are in union with Christ. And in Galatians at the end of chapter three we are told it is neither Jew nor Gentile. The Jew and the Gentile become one in Christ.

However on the day of Pentecost, the day the Church Age began, the Church Age began in one spot Jerusalem. There was only one Church. Both the local church and the universal Church was in Jerusalem. So there as a problem immediately because the Church began with Jews only and it looked as though it would be a Jewish monopoly just exactly like the Jewish Age. In order to demonstrate that this is not true. and ion order to demonstrate that the Church is the body of Christ made up of Jews and Gentiles, we eventually had to have a Gentile Pentecost and this is the story of Acts chapter 10.

Verse 17 — “Now when Peter doubted in himself.” The word isn’t really “doubt” at all, the Greek diaporew and it is actually a triple compound word the preposition dia which is usually translated “through,” then the alpha negative, a); and then porew means to go through. Actually, what it means is to have something go through your mind time after time after time. And he wasn’t doubting the vision which came from God, he knew that the Lord talked to him so it wasn’t a question of doubt, it was a matter of being confused. The real issue in this verb is perplexity. God told him three times to eat something which was unclean and all of his life he knew that the Mosaic law was a part of God’s Word. So God tells him one thing: God’s Word, Old Testament tells him something else, and this keeps on going through his mind. He doesn’t know what to make of this vision, it is obviously a part of God’s Word, verbal at this time, and he doesn’t know which way to turn. The content of the vision is not troubling him, it is the implication of the vision. It is the application of Bible doctrine that is bothering him.

“behold” indicates the fact that God’s timing is perfect and just about the time that he has run this thing through his mind a number of times so that the content of the vision is firmly fixed in his mind though the implications escape him at the moment “the men which were sent from Cornelius.” Here now we have the patrol sent 30 miles from Caesarea. They remained overnight and then came in the next day and the next day went from house to house inquiring as to where they might find Simon Peter who is supposed to reside at the house of Simon the tanner. God’s timing here is perfect. God gave the vision to Peter at such a time as he knew that Peter would get the vision, the vision would disappear. Peter would run this thing through his mind quite a while while he is still on the roof top. In the meantime the patrol got up at immediately the right time, finished their journey into Joppa at the right time, arrived at the house of Simon the tanner just as lunch is ready and as Peter is thoroughly confused though clear on the content of the vision. So there will be a meeting of Peter with Simon with the three-man patrol, and you now have one of the strangest lunches ever recorded in the Word of God. One Roman soldier, two servants who were probably Greek [Caesarea was a Greek city], and ostracised Jew [Simon the tannerJ, and an apostle are all going to sit down to lunch together. In fact it became such a wonderful lunch that it turns into a dinner party and that night other Jews from Joppa will actually join them from dinner. All of them that night will have such a wonderful time that the whole party will move to Caesarea and to the house of Cornelius next day. And there will take place the Gentile Pentecost. These people were so intrigued with what the Roman soldier told them and the patrol that there will be accompanying Peter a lot of saved Jews from Joppa. So that eventually when have as observers for the Gentile Pentecost we will have Peter and Jewish believers plus the patrol, and they are going to have a wonderful time together, not only in the home of Simon the tanner but at Caesarea where they will meet Cornelius; and then there will be the preaching of Peter and then the Gentile Pentecost. At this particular time in verse 17 these people are just getting acquainted.

Verse 18 — “And they called” literally, the Greek says thy shouted.

Verse 19 — “While Peter thought on the vision.” The word “thought” means to ponder in his mind.

“the Spirit said unto him” the Holy Spirit had to break his concentration “behold three men seek thee.” It is time for action.

Verse 20 — “go with them, doubting nothing.” This is the first time we actually have the word doubt. He is not for a moment to doubt that there is a purpose in this. The word “go” means to keep on going, it is present middle imperative. The present tense means he is going to have doubts along the way but don’t entertain the doubts, stick with what the Word says.

“for I have sent them” perfect tense, I have sent them in the past with the results which will go on forever. It will demonstrate once and for all in the Church Age, right from the starting point, that the Church is made up of Jews and Gentiles. There will be a Gentile Pentecost even as not long before there had been a Jewish Pentecost followed by a Samaritan Pentecost. Now there will be a Gentile Pentecost indicating that Jew and Gentile are one in Christ. Peter obeys although he does not fully understand. There is a principle here. We do not always understand the things that God requires but we go ahead and do them anyway, and eventually things get cleared up, but it takes a knowledge of doctrine and an increasing knowledge of doctrine as in the case of Peter.

Verse 21 — “which were sent unto him from Cornelius” is a true statement but not found here in the original. It simply says, “And Peter went down to the men and said.”

“Behold, I am he” which indicates that probably down in his subconscious he had been hearing this calling for him “I am he whom you seek: what is the reason that you are come?”

Verse 22 — the patrol reports. “a just man” simply means that he has positive volition in human good, and that is all. It means that he is operating under very pleasant human good, and he also has positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. This has led him to a life of human good in contrast with many of his fellow officers. Human good is not acceptable to God Isaiah 64:6. His appearance is that of a just man but the basis of the fact is that at the point of God-consciousness he went on positive signals. The “just man” means positive volition.

The “good report” is a present passive participle which means that he constantly receives a good report. He lives a good life. Tins is from the human good of his old sin nature, it is not acceptable to God, this will not save him. What he needs is Christ and when he accepts Christ as saviour he will be born again, he will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and he will be able to produce divine good which is acceptable to God. He will also have gospel hearing from Peter and his positive volition will express itself by faith in Christ, resulting in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the production of divine good, and that will be the first operation of the Gentile Pentecost.

“one that feareth God” is “one standing in awe of God,” again, a manifestation of positive volition.

“among all the nation of the Jews” in other words, here is a Roman officer whose life is so excellent that it is acceptable by the standards of the Jews, by the standards of the Mosaic law. This was fantastic. This man is unique in every way humanly speaking. He is not only an aristocrat and a Roman officer but he is different from the officer corps of the Roman army in that he has a very pure life, a life which is absolutely acceptable by the standards of the Mosaic law.

“was warned from God by a holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words from [not of] thee.” The word “of” is the preposition para in the Greek, the preposition of immediate source. He is to hear words “from the immediate source of you.” In other words. Peter will give this man the gospel. This man is ready for the gospel and when he hears it his positive volition will express itself by faith [believing) in Christ. He will do this the moment he hears the gospel. Peter will be the immediate source of gospel information, God is the ultimate source of that information. The Greek is very careful to distinguish between the two. The preposition of ultimate source is a)po, the preposition of immediate source is para. Papa is the one used here. Peter is the immediate source but the message he gives is God’s message, so the ultimate source is God. This is God’s Word to people who are ready to hear it in Caesarea, the Roman capital for this particular province, the province of Judea.

Verse 23 — Simon the tanner’s greatest day. Here is a man ostracised socially by the Jews because he is a tanner. A tanner deals with dead bodies, the touching of dead bodies makes one ceremonially unclean under Codex #3 of the Mosaic law, therefore he is ostracised by the Jews. The Jews recognised the need for the existence of tanners but they still had to ostracise them on the basis of the Mosaic law.

“Then called he [Simon the tanner] them in.” Simon invites the patrol in. Simon the tanner, ostracised by society, saved by the grace of God, now exercises the gift of hospitality to one Roman soldier and two Greek servants.

Remember the meal is already prepared. Peter, you will remember, has already smelled the aroma of food. The food is now served.

“and lodged them” they not only stayed for lunch, they stayed for dinner and they spent the night. This is one of the greatest days that Simon ever had. Under the one roof barriers and prejudices are broken down. Christian hospitality and fellowship is one of the great blessings of life.

“on the morrow” this would mean after a breakfast and fellowship “Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa” believers in Joppa went along. The night before they had met the members of the patrol. They were impressed by the Roman soldier, an unbeliever, he wasn’t like the average Roman soldier. Romans soldiers frequently maltreated Jews in the province of Judea, but here is a Roman soldier who was courteous, who was pleasant. Here are two Greek servants. The Greeks always attacked the Jews every time they had a chance. The histories of Josephus are filled with stories of Roman and Greek maltreatment of the Jews, but here is the antithesis.

“accompanied” an aorist active participle indicating that the night before these believers who dropped in to Simon’s to chat with Peter and to talk with the patrol and have fellowship with them realised that something great was in the air. Hence, they decided to go with Peter to Caesarea. So we have the alertness of believers and this would indicate that the believers of Joppa who accompanied were those who knew Bible doctrine and they had enough Bible doctrine in their souls to realise they were going to witness one of the greatest events of the Church Age, the Gentile Pentecost. Therefore, the next day they just dropped their business and whatever they were doing and made the 30-mile trip. Verse 24 — the assembly in the quarters of Cornelius. We switch 30 miles on to see what is going on the day that the patrol will arrive. “And the morrow after” the word “after” indicates that they stopped overnight on the way back.

“they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them” Cornelius had given instructions, there will be an elapse of three days and on the fourth day these events beginning in verse 24 occur. He knows that on the fourth day they will be back, and therefore he has “called together his kinsmen and near friends ,” and they will all be gathered together so that when Peter and the patrol and the believers from Joppa arrive he will be all set up.

“Cornelius waited for them is imperfect linear aktionsart in the Greek which means to anticipate eagerly.

In verses 25-27 we have the meeting of Peter and Cornelius.

Verse 25 “and fell down at his feet and worshipped him.” This is erroneously translated. It is true that he fell at his feet, although he didn’t fall. There was a certain type of salute used by Roman officers for the emperor or VIPs in the Roman empire. Originally, this particular salute was used only for the emperor. It is strictly a kneeling salute, he did not worship Peter. This is not correctly translated. He gave Peter the honours accorded only to the emperor of the Roman empire or to one of his legates. Therefore he accords to Peter about as high an honour as one could have.

Verse 26 this was too much for Peter who lifts him up immediately, “took him up” is literally, “lifted him up.”

“Stand up; I myself also am a man” in other words, he assumed he was getting honours for an angel. He refuses to accept obeisance of any kind. The servant of the Lord must be oriented to grace just as any believer is oriented to grace. Peter is an apostle, he holds the highest spiritual gift in the Church but everything in the divine plan depends on who and what God is, not who and what Peter is. This is a demonstration of his orientation and is also a very- clear reminder to us that Peter was in fellowship as well as oriented to the grace of God. This nonsense has to go immediately and Peter takes the proper steps to demonstrate it. When he said “I also am a man” he was assuming from his background that Cornelius thought he was an angel.

Verse 28 “Ye [all] know” the Jews had these strong taboos “how that it is unlawful for a man that is a Jew to keep company [to associate with) with Gentiles.” They are familiar with this and apparently they nodded their heads. So he is now expressing his problem to them. But he goes on to say something else: “but God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” In other words, he has learned something from the vision which occurred four days before. His statement means that Peter had some realisation of the fact that taboos are nullified by Bible doctrine and that there is no place in the plan of God for human taboos for human concepts, that doctrine comes from God and that none of these things can take the place of doctrine. The plan of God also calls for divine ability and not human ability and Peter is expressing a taboo which is directly related to the energy of the flesh. So there is no place for this nonsense, this taboo which has come to Peter from his background. Taboos are a great hindrance to witnessing for Christ, they are a great hindrance in any kind of a communication situation, believer with believer; believer with unbeliever. Now Cornelius has assembled in his home a large number of unbelievers who all have one thing in common positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. They are seeking God, they are anxious to find God. They do not have salvation, they do not have relationship with God because that only comes through faith in Christ. Born again Peter walks into the room. Behind him are Jews who will report on him, he has the pressure of fellow Jews. Peter demonstrates leadership ability and he also demonstrates something else. After all of these years, three years of being with Christ, and after contacts with angels. Peter is now beginning to learn a little doctrine. When he expresses a taboo which he has held all of his life he does so for our benefit. He shows us that all of us are reared with some type of prejudice. Very often these are in direct contradiction to scripture and sometimes

scripture merely regards them as innocuous. But at some point in life these taboos, in principle, will come into conflict with the principle of grace, and when they do then doctrine is your only hope. That is exactly what happened. The Gentile Pentecost was not held up because Peter had received four days ago a doctrinal lecture in the vision which he saw. He now applies it to the situation, though this is not the whole answer to that message. This message had other things. At least one thing that Peter now learned, “Call no man common or unclean,” an untouchable, someone with whom you can have no contact. So the plan of God, Bible doctrine, calls for a change of attitude on the part of Peter.

Verse 29 “without gainsaying” means without talking back, without revising. Peter did not refuse to come though he knew that he was going to contact Gentiles. Already in his mind the vision which he had seen of the unclean animals and God’s Word to him, “Call no man common or unclean,” had caused him to make application. He now makes a second application as he stands in a room full of Gentiles which is a violation of a Jewish taboo.

“I ask therefore for what intent have you sent me?” It is obvious that Peter does not understand the reason for this mission. Peter describes himself as Jew but he is really no longer a Jew, he is a member of the body of Christ, the baptism of the Spirit took place in his life in the Jewish Pentecost.

In verses 30-33 we have the key to Peter’s vision.

Verse 30 “Four days ago I was fasting.” This is not a correct translation. The Greek actually says “Four days ago I was observing the afternoon prayer time.” He was not fasting but he was praying, and obviously his type of prayer was one in which he was seeking God. This would be about three o’clock .The Jews had a prayer hour three times a day and he was observing the Jewish prayer hour.

“at the ninth hour” is three o’clock in the afternoon; “I prayed” is imperfect linear aktionsart, which means “I kept on praying.” The imperfect tense meant that he was persistent in prayer. The middle voice indicates he was benefited by the prayer. The indicative mood is the reality of what happened. In this case the reality of what happened was the angel came and stood before him “a man stood before me in bright clothing.” The angel appears as a man in communicating with human beings.

Verse 31 there were two thing manifesting the positive volition of Cornelius, his prayer life and his generosity in helping the poor. “Alms” is a technical expression referring to money given to the poor, it has nothing to do with Christian giving as such.

Verse 32 the instructions of the angel. The key to the whole situation lies with Peter and now very simply Cornelius explains to Peter what had happened.

Verse 33 Cornelius tells of his obedience. “Immediately” indicates decisiveness. His decisive attitude comes from the fact that he is seeking God.

“Now therefore we are all here” he turns to these Gentiles and points to them. These are Gentiles with positive volition like himself “present before God, to hear all things that are commanded of thee by God.” In other words, they are there to hear what you have to communicate from God.

Verse 34 the message begins. “Opened his mouth, and said” is actually an idiom in the Greek which means a speech is coming, not a conversation as such. Peter now gives a formal public message, as it were, to these people.

“Of a truth” is an idiom of clarification. Peter’s vision has now been clarified in his own mind and “of a truth” means that doctrine is formed on the basis of clarification of communication.

“I perceive” this is a real breakthrough for Peter because Peter listened to Jesus teaching for three years and didn’t get a thing, and now he is beginning to get a point or two. This is an interesting word in the Greek — katalambanw. This is a compound verb: kata is the preposition of norm or standard; lambanw means to receive. When you put it together it means to receive information according to a norm or standard. The norm or standard is Bible doctrine and Peter now receives information which he recognises is Bible doctrine. That is what the word “perceive” actually means. So he has now taken the doctrine which he has received and he recognises it through application as being a part of modus operandi for Christianity.

“that God is no respecter of persons”

1. Careful study of Romans 9:30-33 indicates that more Gentiles were saved in the Old Testament than Jews. The reason is because the Jews distorted the Mosaic law “the Gentiles , who did not pursue righteousness, and yet they have attained [acquired] righteousness, even the righteousness which comes by faith. But [conjunction of contrast] Israel, which pursued the law of righteousness [righteousness based on the Mosaic law, salvation by works), hath not attained the law of righteousness. Why” Because they sought it not by faith but, as it were, by the works of the law. They stumbled at the stumbling stone [the Mosaic law]” they took the law as the way of salvation and they fell flat on their faces because no one can be saved by keeping the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law did reveal Jesus Christ and they stumbled over the stumbling stone again because since the law revealed Christ they failed to see Christ in the law. Instead of seeing the person and work of Christ most of the Jews not all instead simply took Codex #l and said we will be saved by keeping the law. For that reason many Gentiles were saved where fewer Jews were saved.

2. Salvation of many Gentiles in the Old Testament is because they sought it through faith in Christ while the Jews sought it by keeping the law. The reason why more Gentiles were saved is because Gentiles came to Christ when he was revealed to them.

3. From keeping the law for salvation the Jews moved into the heresy of salvation by physical birth. In other words, they thought often that they were saved because they were born Jews. That is the significance of the ritual of circumcision with them. Circumcision lost its original spiritual meaning and became the sign of their salvation rather than the sign of separation. So they distorted ritual.

4. But Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all born again Romans 9:6-14. The foundation of the Jewish race contradicted the Jewish view.

5. Regeneration is the key to the foundation of the Jewish race the only way a Jew or Gentile can be saved.

6. There are no assets in physical birth whereby man can be saved.

Verse 35 Peter now makes a statement compatible with this principle. “But in every nation,” that is, among the Gentiles “he that feareth him” is an expression of positive volition at the point of God-consciousness, and this phrase actually has to do with what happens when between God-consciousness and gospel hearing a person actually hears, and fear is then used synonymously with faith. There are two different meanings of fear. Fear is actually occupation. Occupation may cause fright or it may cause love, but fear at the point of God-consciousness expresses itself with positive volition. Fear at the point of gospel hearing expresses itself by faith in Christ. Peter is going very slow on this, he is hesitant almost to make any type of a statement that these people are going to be saved so he says “he that feareth.” This is actually positive volition at the point of gospel

hearing.

“and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him” the word for “work” means to acquire

righteousness. The Greek word does not mean to work righteousness, it means to gain or to acquire righteousness. The righteousness which is acquired is God’s righteousness. Acquiring righteousness means to believe at the point of salvation.

“is accepted with him” to be accepted here has to do with the fact that salvation is for the Gentiles as much as for the Jews.

Verse 36 Peter concludes with the fact that the Jews had the responsibility for dissemination of this Word, and what the Jews actually preached was peace. Preaching peace. Peace is the removal of the barrier between man and God. The barrier is composed of sin “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

The barrier is composed of the fact that the wages of sin is death, the fact that in physical birth man has no assets to gain salvation. The barrier includes the problem of relative righteousness. It includes the problem of the character of God. God is perfect in His character and cannot have fellowship with man, and the barrier includes the fact that we have a position in Adam “in Adam all die.” Peace is removing this barrier between man and God. Between man and God is a barrier which man cannot surmount in any way. This barrier is removed by Christ. Christ died for our sins redemption, unlimited atonement; He paid the penalty of sin which is death expiation; He provides in salvation regeneration, imputation and justification. God the Father is propitiated by the work of the Son. Position in Adam is exchanged for position in Christ and now between man and God there is peace. The peace is the work of Christ on the cross. Man can be reconciled to God by faith in Christ. Remember that the word peace in the New Testament is a technical word. It receives its technical information from Ephesians 2:14-17 but it refers to the doctrine of reconciliation.

Verses 36 — “he is Lord of all” the word for “Lord” simply means God. deity, and for any person who accepts Christ as saviour at that point Jesus Christ is as much Lord as he will ever be. There is no change in Jesus Christ. The word kurioj simply a word for deity and it means that Jesus Christ is sovereignty, absolute righteousness, justice, love, eternal life. omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, immutability, and veracity. In other words, “Lord” simply refers to the deity of Christ. His deity made it necessary for Him to take on true humanity in order to die on the cross.

Verse 37 — “That word ye know.” There is no “I say” in the original) Here is an amazing statement on the part of Peter. He has made his own reconnaissance. “That word” refers to the fact that Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe, the God-Man, undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. In addition. He died an unique death. He died for the sins of the world. These people already know this information “that word ye know” which means that somewhere along the line someone had been witnessing to them. These people have not responded yet but they actually have heard the gospel, and apparently for this reason Peter is merely summarising the gospel at this point.

“which was published throughout all Judea. and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached.” He begins to summarise something about the incarnate person of Jesus Christ and he is going to give them a quick resume of what happened, what was published throughout all Judea. beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. The baptism which John preached was simply salvation by faith in Christ with emphasis on the fact that Christ was here and John was His forerunner. He begins now the summary.

Verse 38 — “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit.” One thing is quite evident and that is that in the human ministry of Jesus Christ He was indwelt by God the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ

1. The ministry of the Spirit was prophesied in the Old Testament Isaiah 1 1:2.3. 42:1: 61:1,2.

2. The Holy Spirit was given without measure to the humanity of Christ John 3:34. This is another way of describing the filling of the Spirit. Not only did the Holy Spirit indwell Jesus Christ but He filled Him perpetually. The only thing that breaks the filling of the Spirit is actually sin in the life.

3. The Holy Spirit is related to the baptism of Jesus in a special way Matthew 3:16. This was the ministry of the Spirit in the public ministry of Jesus Christ.

4. The Holy Spirit is related to the earthly ministry of Christ. By comparing Matthew 12: 18: 18:28 we know that every miracle He performed, every message He gave. even thing that He did He did in the power of the Spirit.

5. The ministry of the Holy Spirit was discontinued on the cross. When Jesus Christ during the last three hours was bearing our sins the ministry of the Holy Spirit was discontinued. Jesus said. “My God. My God” the second ‘My God’ is addressed to the Holy Spirit “why hast thou forsaken me?” The answer: Christ was made sin for us, 2 Corinthians 5:21. The Father can only judge sin. and He did at the cross: the Holy Spirit can have no fellowship with sin. so the Holy Spirit forsook Jesus Christ at the cross.

6. However, the Holy Spirit had a definite part in the resurrection of Christ Romans 8: 11:1 Peter 3:18.

The Holy Spirit actually raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

7. The present ministry of the Holy Spirit in relation to Christ is different. Now. instead of indwelling the humanity of Christ the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to indwell the believer to glorify Christ John 7:39 which tells us that. first of all. the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified. But after the cross Christ was resurrected, he ascended, was seated at the right hand of the Father, and in His humanity that is the beginning of His glorification. Ten days after Christ was seated the Holy Spirit came to the Church on the day of

Pentecost and now the Holy Spirit actually indwells every believer John 16:14. The ministry of the Holy Spirit at the present time is to glorify Christ and he does this through indwelling of every believer I Corinthians 6:19.20.

“even with power” this is the power of the Holy Spirit.

“who went about doing good. and healing” everything that Jesus did he did in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, during His earthly ministry, relied upon the Holy Spirit rather than on the utilisation of His own omnipotence. In other words. He surrendered the independent use of His attributes in order to fulfill the plan of the Father. The humanity of Christ actually operated in the power of the Spirit and set the precedent for us in the Church Age. “Doing good” means to perform divine good; “healing,’’ the purpose of healing was to focus attention on the message rather than to alleviate suffering.

“those who were oppressed of demons, for God kept on being with him.”

Verse 39 Peter introduces himself into the picture. “And we are witnesses’ Peter was a witness to these things, he was present during the earthly ministry of Christ.

“whom they” the Jews “slew and hanged on a tree.” This brings up a very interesting question. We have the statement here that the Jews slew Him and hanged Him on a tree. The inconsistency of one thing can be seen. The Jewish punishment was always stoning without exception; the Roman punishment was to hang upon a tree which was crucifixion. “They slew” is an aorist active indicative; “hanged on a tree” is actually a reference to the Gentile punishment or Roman punishment. The tree is actually “wood” here, not a tree, and it refers to the cross. It refers to crucifixion. Actually, these two phrases, the aorist participle and the main verb, both indicate the responsibility humanly speaking. He says the Jews slew Him, and this would refer to the religious Jews. Also, hanging on a tree refers to the Romans being involved. Then, of course, there is God the Father being involved

long before this. So we have to recognise these three involvements in the crucifixion. The Jews who were involved were the religious type. All of the Jews weren’t involved, many were believers in Jesus Christ. It was specifically the Sanhedrin, the scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests. These were

responsible and the reason they did not execute Him themselves was simply because during the Passover their law prohibited executions of any kind. It was on the day of the Passover when they wanted to kill Him but they were hindered by their own law. So they adhered to their law and passed Him on to the Romans. But the religious Jews were definitely involved, and in that sense religion always hates the Lord Jesus Christ.

Secondly, the Romans were involved under the guise of Pontius Pilate who was the Roman governor of the province. Pontius Pilate was a weak man and he succumbed to pressure to do it, so we have political pressure and there is a sense in which political pressure is always against the Lord Jesus Christ.

But all of this was ordained and planed by God the Father who did it out of love. He loved us John 3:16.

So we actually have a threefold involvement. The Father because of love; the Romans because of political expediency, the religious Jewish leaders because of hatred. These are the motivations and these are the ones responsible in the crucifixion. But regardless of hatred, regardless of political expediency, regardless of these negative factors in the human race God’s plan was accomplished. Here is another principle of the cross. The plans of God are accomplished in spite of the negative attitudes of mankind.

Verse 40 Peter goes on to describe what the Father did afterwards. “Him” referring to Jesus Christ “God [the Holy Spirit j raised up on the third day (Gentile time), and demonstrated him publicly.”

Verse 41 — “Not to all the people.” Christ was only manifested to those to whom it would be important.

“but unto witnesses chosen before” believers only, and certain believers who would play a very important part in the beginning of the Church Age. And they are said to be “chosen before” proxeirotonew. The verb actually means to vote. Xeir is the Greek word for hand, and this word means to throw with their hands. These people couldn’t read or write but they could throw a rock with their hands and in the Greek democracies they often voted by having a white stone and a black stone. If you were for the candidate you put a white stone in the box, if you were against him you put a black stone in the box. God did this before the foundation of the world. That is why this Greek word has pro in front of it. It actually means to vote or appoint beforehand, and God voted on certain people ahead of time, people whom He knew would accept Christ as saviour and would be on hand.

“to us” — I am one of those people.

Verse 42 — God the Father’s plan here is involved. The word “ordained” is simply a verb for the plan of God, and the plan of God calls for Jesus Christ who was judged to be the judge. He was judged at the cross and at the last judgment, the great white throne. He will be the judge.

Verse 43 — “To him [Christ) give all the prophets” these are the Old Testament prophets, the writers of the Old Testament scripture “witness.” This means that Moses wrote about Christ, Hosea wrote about Christ, Isaiah wrote about Christ, David wrote about Christ. So all of the Old Testament writers witnessed concerning Christ “that through his name” this is what they said in the Old Testament “whosoever believeth in him shall receive the remission of sins.” Peter is beginning to see something himself that he has never seen before. He is beginning to see a fantastic principle, that any one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ has forgiveness of sins, that Moses talked about this, that there was witnessing about Christ among the patriarchs. Abraham believed in the Lord and from Abraham right down to Peter (Peter is a child of Abraham) there has been a long line of clear declaration of the person and the work of Jesus Christ. He finally comes to that wonderful point of “whosoever” which means not only Jews but also Gentiles. And when he says “whosoever” these Gentiles begin to respond and in a few moments there will be the Gentile Pentecost.

If we had time to analyse the passage in verses 34-43 we would see that this is actually an outline of the Gospel of mark. This helps us a great deal to understand the Gospel of Mark. Remember that the four Gospels were written by eye witnesses. Matthew, Luke and John were witnesses, but what about Mark? Mark was not an eye witness to all of these things but Mark and Peter were very close friends in Jerusalem. Apparently Mark wrote what Peter told him. In Peter’s message here in verse 37 he talked about the forerunner. That is the way the Gospel of Mark begins. Then in verse 38 we have the ministry of Jesus and that is next on the agenda in the Gospel of Mark. In verse 39 we have the crucifixion of Jesus and that is next in the Gospel of Mark. In verses 40-41 we have the resurrection of Jesus and that is next on the agenda in Mark. In verse 42 we have the command of the ascended Christ, that is next in Mark. And then the Old Testament witnesses of Christ in verse 43 and the way of salvation and that is the way Mark is concluded. So Peter’s message here is expanded in the entire Gospel of Mark.

Verses 44-46, the interruption for the Gentile Pentecost. There was a necessity for this. On the day of Pentecost in 30 AD, in Jerusalem we had Jews only. So it would appear that a monopoly was in the making. But then we had the Samaritan Pentecost in Acts 8, and at that point we see those who were half Jew and half Gentile were included. Now in the house of Cornelius we have Gentiles only and this is to indicate that the middle wall of partition is broken down and that Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ.

Verse 44 — “While Peter yet spake” Peter was still going on with his message. “Yet spake” is a present active participle which means he kept right on going for a minute, but he was interrupted by the ministry of the Spirit to these Gentiles. All they were waiting for was for Peter to tell them how. They had apparently heard some parts of the message before. Peter makes the message and the issue very clear, and then when he gets to the mechanics of verse 43, “whosoever believeth,” that is all they needed. Right then and there while Peter was speaking they began to believe in Christ.

“the Holy Spirit fell on all of them which heard the word” in other words, every person there actually responded to the gospel. In the course of maybe a couple of minutes they had all responded by believing in Christ and at that particular moment the Gentile Pentecost occurred. We have an aorist tense here which indicates this came suddenly and immediately upon believing in Christ. So in a moment of time each person present is definitely saved, and at that moment of salvation the Holy Spirit came just as He does with us. The Gentile pattern of salvation, then, is the pattern of salvation for the Church Age. God the Holy Spirit actually does five things for every believer. These Gentiles were saved by faith in Christ and in that moment God the Holly Spirit did five things for them, as He does for us.

a) Regeneration. The Holy Spirit is the agent in causing a person to be born again John chapter 3; Titus 3:5; Matthew 19:28. God the Holy Spirit regenerates every person at the moment of salvation. We are born into the family of God.

b) The baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the Holy Spirit taking every believer at the moment of salvation and entering him into union with Christ. Remember that baptism, or the Greek word baptizw means identification, and the Holy Spirit identifies every believer with Christ. Remember, too, that the baptism of the Holy Spirit did not occur in the Old Testament, this is the way the Church is formed, and they had no baptism of the Spirit in the Old Testament. The mechanics of it are found in I Corinthians 12:13 God the Holy Spirit enters every believer into union with Christ. This is the basis of our unification in the body of Christ.

c) Indwelling. God the Holy Spirit actually indwells every believer at the point of salvation. So God the Holy Spirit not only entered all of these Gentiles into union with Christ but He indwelt every one of them.

d) Sealing. Sealing is the security angle. Every member of the body of Christ is sealed by then Holy Spirit at the point of salvation and that is the principle of eternal security.

e) At least one spiritual gift is given to every believer. Specifically here there are two things which characterise the phenomenon of the original day of Pentecost, and these are mentioned.

Verse 45 — the Jews were utterly astounded by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. They are seeing exactly what they saw on the day of Pentecost and they are absolutely taken back by it. The two things to notice: a) The baptism of the Spirit whereby they are entered into union with Christ. b) The indwelling of the Spirit.

When it says “the Holy Spirit fell on them”

1. This is the ministry of the baptism of the Spirit, every- believer is entered into union with Christ.

2. The ministry of the indwelling of the Spirit. Every believer begins the Christian life with indwelling and with the filling of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit will always indwell the believer whether he is spiritual or carnal.

3. The filling of the Holy Spirit is never retained in the Christian life. You don’t keep on being filled with the Spirit because you are a Christian.

4. The new believer is always indwelt by the Spirit but only filled with the Spirit when in fellowship.

5. The first time the believer sins he loses the filling of the Spirit.

6. The filling of the Spirit is recovered by rebound I John 1:9.

Verse 46 — “For they heard them speak with tongues.” They heard exactly what was heard on the day of Pentecost. When it says “speak with tongues” we have a present active participle and it indicates a continuation of tongues until the fifth cycle of discipline is completed. In other words, these Gentiles spoke with tongues as they did on the day of the Jewish Pentecost.

Tongues

1. The fifth cycle of discipline is involved in the gift of tongues.

2. The warning and the sign of the fifth cycle of discipline was tongues Isaiah 28:9-11.

3. This warning is quoted in I Corinthians 14:21.22.

4. The purpose of warning and signs was to turn cursing into blessing Acts 2:1-11.

5. Once the fifth cycle of discipline begins in 70 AD the gift of tongues is discontinued I Corinthians 13:8,10. It was the first spiritual gift to be discontinued and is also listed as the lowest of all spiritual gifts.

6. Some sort of tongues phenomena continues after 70 AD but this is a Satanic operation 2

Thessalonians 2:7-12.

7. Tongues is erroneously perpetuated as an expression of emotion and ecstatics. The Bible warns against emotion and ecstatics as a spiritual phenomenon or a spiritual criterion 2 Corinthians 6:11,12; Romans 16:17,18.

8. The mechanics of tongues as a Satanic operation Isaiah 8:19, 29:4. These people spoke with tongues as a part of the Gentile Pentecost. This was a warning to the Jews that

the Jews would be going out under the fifth cycle of discipline in forty years. So we have a duplication of the Jewish Pentecost. “Then answered Peter.”

Verse 47 — “Can any man forbid water ...” At this point Peter brings us the matter of water baptism. Until this point water baptism is not an issue. Notice that these people are saved. They have given evidence of the baptism of the Spirit before water baptism is brought into the picture.

There are seven different baptisms (baptism simply means identification)

These baptisms fall into two categories. First we have real baptisms which is an actual identification.

There are four real baptisms in scripture

1. The baptism of Moses which is given in I Corinthians 10:2.

2. The baptism of the cross where Christ was actually was actually identified with our sins Matthew 20:22.

3. The baptism of fire which takes place at the second advent and unbelievers are identified with fire Luke 3:16; Matthew 3:11.

4. The baptism of the Spirit whereby the believer is entered into union with Christ in the Church Age. There are three ritual baptisms. Under ritual baptism we always have water involved and the water represents something else.

1. The baptism of John. The water represented the kingdom of God.

2. In the baptism of Jesus the water represents the Father’s will or the plan of God.

3. The baptism of the believer in the Church Age water actually represents retroactive positional truth Romans 6, identified with Christ in His death. When the believer comes out of the water he is identified with air and air represents current positional truth or union with Christ forever. The second meaning of baptism: When you are identified with Christ is His death we must reject human good of the old sin nature. Identification with Christ in His life means up with divine good. So water baptism says down with human good and up with divine good in the life of the believer.

“that these should not be baptised, which have received the Holy Spirit as we?” In other words, salvation come before water baptism. Water baptism is for those who understand salvation.

Verse 48 — “And he commanded them to be baptised in the name of the Lord.” The water baptism occurred at this particular point. They are going to be briefed with regard to divine and human good and to the different types of positional truth.

“Then they requested him to abide with them certain days.”