A Series on Acts - #49
Speaker Notes
Collect for Palm Sunday
Blessed Lord, give us grace as we enter in to the contemplation of those mighty acts whereby thou hast given us life and immortality: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Acts 10:1-23
Cornelius Calls for Peter
10.1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2 He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. 3 One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”
4 Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked.
The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”
7 When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. 8 He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.
Peter’s Vision
9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
17 While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. 18 They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.
19 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three men are looking for you. 20 So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”
21 Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?”
22 The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.” 23 Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.
Peter at Cornelius’s House
The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the believers from Joppa went along.
John Wimber Power Evangelism quote [Chapter 3 Power Evangelism]:
It was the end of a long day of ministry and I was exhausted. I had just completed a teaching conference in Chicago and was flying off to another speaking engagement in New York. I was looking forward to the plane ride as a chance to relax for a few hours before plunging back into teaching. But it was not to be the quiet, uneventful trip I had hoped for.
Shortly after takeoff, I pushed back the reclining seat and readjusted the seat belt, preparing to relax. My eyes wandered around the cabin, not looking at anything in particular. Seated across the aisle from me was a middle-aged man, a business man, to judge from his appearance, but there was nothing unusual or noteworthy about him. But in the split second that my eyes happened to be cast in his direction, I saw something that startled me.
Written across his face in very clear and distinct letters I thought I saw the word “adultery.” I blinked, rubbed my eyes, and looked again. It was still there. “Adultery.” I was seeing it not with my eyes, but in my mind’s eye. No one else on the plane, I am sure, saw it. It was the Spirit of God communicating to me. The fact that it was a spiritual phenomenon made it no less real.
By now the man had become aware that I was looking at him (“gaping at him” might be a more accurate description).
“What do you want?” he snapped.
As he spoke, a woman’s name came clearly to mind. This was more familiar to me; I had become accustomed to the Holy Spirit bringing things to my awareness through these kinds of promptings.
Somewhat nervously, I leaned across the aisle and asked, “Does the name Jane [not her real name] mean anything to you?”
His face turned ashen. “We’ve got to talk,” he stammered.
The plane we were on was a jumbo jet, the kind with a small upstairs cocktail lounge. As I followed him up the stairs to the lounge, I sensed the Spirit speaking to me yet again. “Tell him if he doesn’t turn from his adultery, I’m going to take him.”
Terrific. All I had wanted was a nice, peaceful plane ride to New York. Now here I was, sitting in an airplane cocktail lounge with a man I had never seen before, whose name I didn’t even know, about to tell him God was going to take his life if he didn’t stop his affair with some woman.
We sat down in strained silence. He looked at me suspiciously for a moment, then asked, “Who told you that name?”
God told me,” I blurted out. I was too rattled to think of a way to ease into the topic more gracefully.
“God told you?” He almost shouted the question, he was so shocked by what I had said.
“Yes,” I answered, taking a deep breath. “He also told me to tell you … that unless you turn from this adulterous relationship, he is going to take your life.”
I braced myself for what I was sure would be an angry, defensive reaction, but to my relief the instant I spoke to him, his defensiveness crumbled and his heart melted. In a choked, desperate voice he asked me, “What should I do?”
At last I was back on familiar ground. I explained to him what it meant to repent and trust Christ and invited him to pray with me. With hands folded and heads bowed, I began to lead him in a quiet prayer. “Oh God …”
That was as far as I got. The conviction of sin that had built up inside him seemed virtually to explode. Bursting into tears, he cried out, “O God, I’m so sorry” and launched into the most heartrending repentance I had ever heard.
It was impossible, in such cramped quarters, to keep hidden what was happening. Before long everyone in the cocktail lounge was intimately acquainted with this man’s past sinfulness and present contrition. The flight attendants were even weeping right along with him.
When he finished praying and regained his composure, we talked for a while about what had happened to him.
“The reason I was so upset when you first mentioned that name to me,” he explained, “was that my wife was sitting in the seat right next to me. I didn’t want her to hear.”
I knew he wasn’t going to like what I said to him next.
“You’re going to have to tell her.”
“I am?” he responded weakly. “When?”
“Better do it right now,” I said gently.
The prospect of confessing to his wife was, understandably, somewhat intimidating, but he could see there was no other way. So again I followed him, down the stairs and back to our seats.
I couldn’t hear the conversation over the noise of the plane, but I could see his wife’s stunned reaction, not only to his confession of infidelity, but also to his account of how the stranger sitting across the aisle had been sent by God to warn him of the consequences of his sin. Eyes wide with amazement (and probably terror!), she stared first at her husband, then at me, then back at her husband, then back at me, as the amazing story unfolded. In the end the man led his wife to accept Christ, right there on the airplane.
There was little time to talk when we got off the airplane in New York. They didn’t own a Bible, so I gave them mine. Then we went our separate ways.