Text: Acts 10:1-23<\/p>\n
I. A Gentile army officer, stationed in Caesarea, named Cornelius is the focus of Acts 10<\/p>\n
A. He was a devout man and a believer in the true God, along with his household.<\/p>\n 1. A man’s household would also include those who worked for him as well\nas his wife, children, and slaves.\n
2. He gave aid to the Jewish people<\/p>\n
3. He prayed constantly<\/p>\n
B. Yet, he was not saved<\/p>\n
II. One day, at about 3 p.m. in the afternoon, he had a vision of an angel of God<\/p>\n
A. The time is important. We know it was not just a dream.<\/p>\n B. Cornelius began to tremble (this has been the typical reaction of most people\nwhen meeting an angel).\n C. The angel told Cornelius that his prayers and good deeds have been noticed by\nGod.\n 1. He was instructed to send men to Joppa and request the presence of Simon\nPeter who was staying in Simon the Tanner’s house near the sea.\n
D. Cornelius immediately did as he was instructed after the angel left.<\/p>\n
1. He sent two trusted servants and a devote solider.<\/p>\n 2. They were told exactly what had happened. Cornelius trusted them and\nthey, too, were faithful men.\nIII. The next day at about noon, as the men were approaching Joppa, Peter was on rooftop of\nSimon’s house praying\n A. Peter was hungry and food was being prepared, but he was using the spare time to\npray.\n
B. While praying, he fell into a trance and had a vision.<\/p>\n
1. He saw a sheet being lowered from the heavens by its four corners<\/p>\n
2. In the sheet were all kinds of animals, crawling creatures, and birds.<\/p>\n
3. A voice from heaven told Peter to arise, kill some of the animals and eat.<\/p>\n
4. Peter was appalled. <\/p>\n a. The sheet contained animals that were forbidden by the Jewish\nlaw.\n
b. Peter had never violated God’s dietary laws for the Jews<\/p>\n c. He told the voice that he had never eaten anything unholy\n(common) and unclean.\n
5. The voice scolded Peter for calling the things God had cleansed as unholy.<\/p>\n
a. In other words, God is telling Peter the dietary laws have changed.<\/p>\n b. By implication this means the law was changed, though Peter was\nnot aware of it.\n 6. Three times Peter was invited to kill and eat. Three times Peter refused.\nThree times Peter was scolded by God.\n
7. The sheet was then taken back up into the sky.<\/p>\n C. The presented quite a puzzle to Peter. He did not understand the meaning of the\nvision.\n D. Just at this time, the men sent by Cornelius reached the gate of the house of Simon\nthe Tanner.\n
1. They called to those inside asking if this was where Peter was staying.<\/p>\n 2. Perhaps since these men were Gentiles and one was a solider, the members\nof Simon’s house might have been reluctant to acknowledge Peter’s\npresence. After all disciples, including Peter, had been arrested in the past.\n E. Meanwhile, Peter, still puzzling over his dream was told by the Holy Spirit that\nthree men were waiting for him downstairs. Peter was instructed to go with them\nand not to fear because the Spirit was the one who sent them.\n F. Peter went down and greeted the men, telling them he was the one for whom they\nwere looking.\n
1. He asked the reason for their visit.<\/p>\n 2. They explained that Cornelius had sent them as directed by an angel to\nfetch Peter so he could hear a message from Peter.\n 3. They also gave a description of Cornelius so Peter would know he was a\nGod-fearing man and respected in the Jewish community even though he\nwas not a Jew.\n G. The men were invited in for the night and on the next day, Peter and some of the\nbrethren from Joppa left for Caesarea.\n
IV. Things to notice:<\/p>\n
A. Cornelius’s good deeds, faith, and prayers were not able to save him.<\/p>\n
B. Being visited by an angel did not save him.<\/p>\n C. The angel did not tell Cornelius what to do to be saved, other than instructing him\nto fetch a preacher.\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tActs of the Apostles\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Peter’s Vision Text: Acts 10:1-23 I. A Gentile army officer, stationed in Caesarea, named Cornelius is the focus of Acts 10 A. He was a devout man and a believer in the true God, along with his household. 1. A man’s household would also include those who worked for him as well as his wife, children, and slaves.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":10021,"menu_order":18,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10160","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10166,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/acts-of-the-apostles\/trouble-back-in-jerusalem\/","url_meta":{"origin":10160,"position":0},"title":"Trouble Back in Jerusalem","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Trouble Back in Jerusalem \u00a0Text: Acts 11:1-18 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Word quickly spread that the Gentiles had been taught the word of God and had responded to it. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The next time Peter came to Jerusalem, Jewish Christians who believed the Old Law was still in effect began to argue with Peter. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The accusation\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1075,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/when-was-cornelius-saved\/cornelius-had-a-religious-experience\/","url_meta":{"origin":10160,"position":1},"title":"Cornelius Had a Religious Experience","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Cornelius Had a Religious Experience Cornelius experienced miracles \"About the ninth hour of the day\u00a0he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God\u00a0coming in and saying to him, \"Cornelius!\" And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, \"What is it, lord?\" So he said to him, \"Your\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10109,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/acts-of-the-apostles\/the-establishment-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":10160,"position":2},"title":"The Establishment of the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Establishment of the Church Text: Acts 2:37-47 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Peter\u2019s sermon bothered his audience. 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Men were speaking in languages they never learned. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He points out that it could not have been caused by drunkenness \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Drunkenness does not produce such an effect \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Besides it\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10160\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}