This post is also on You Tube here: https://youtu.be/hvl7lA3CF4w
Acts 10:1-8 Read it first, and then let’s chat. Here’s a link if you don’t have a Bible nearby: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2010%3A1-8&version=NIVUK
And speaking of God orchestrating events, Luke introduces us to Cornelius, a Roman centurion. We are told that Cornelius and his family feared God, prayed regularly and gave generously to the poor, but he had not converted to Judaism like the Ethiopian eunuch had. So this man by birth and by practice was not a Jew. He was a Gentile. This matters because most people on the planet then and now were and are Gentiles. And God sent an angel directly to him to give him instructions that would enable him to hear and receive the message of Jesus. This is big. Jesus taught among the Jews, but he told his disciples that the message of salvation through his sacrifice would be given to the whole world. He also gave the responsibility of spreading that message to his apostles and disciples.
The apostles were the eleven men he had specifically chosen and mentored during his life. (Paul also refers to himself as an apostle) And Jesus’ disciples were all of the people who chose to follow him ever since. So you and I, if we choose to follow him, are his disciples.
Getting back to the passage…
So this is the first recorded story in the New Testament of God specifically reaching out and saving a Gentile. It was also a big step for Jesus’ followers to take, because up to now, everyone who had chosen to follow Jesus was either born a Jew or had converted to Judaism. They were under the impression that following Jesus had to include practising Judaism. This gets really clear in the next section, but I don’t want to hurry there. This passage has something really cool that I only noticed this morning. I really am learning as I go through this. I’m right here with you, reading God’s word and asking his Spirit to draw my attention to the things he wants me to see today.
And THIS is what he pointed out to me. I’m kind of geeking out right now because it’s so beautiful and deeply significant.
Did you notice that the angel talks about Cornelius’ gifts to the poor and his prayers being recognised as a memorial offering? That’s not just a nice figure of speech. A memorial offering was a specific portion of some of the offerings that were commanded and described in Leviticus. I had to pop back to Leviticus 2 to remind myself how this all worked. As we know, our sin separates us from God. God made us to be in relationship with him, but sin cuts us off. The just punishment for sin is separation from God. As a reminder of this fact, God commanded the Israelites to sacrifice animals as a symbol of substitutionary payment for their sin. Following this substitutionary sacrifice of an animal, the person for whom the sacrifice was made would give a grain offering. This offering was a gift of gratitude. It could just be flour or it could be a specific kind of baked item. Most of the grain offering would be given to the priest so that he and his family could be provided for since he was busy serving God and didn’t have time to grow and care for his own food supply. But a portion of that grain offering, that gift of gratitude, would be mixed with salt and fragrant incense and completely burned up as an expression of worship. That portion was called a memorial offering. It is a picture of total worshipful abandon. You bring a gift to God and no one else gets it. It is completely consumed just to give God something nice to smell.
See why this is beautiful? We now know that those offerings were only symbols of the payment that had to be made for our sin. We also know that by this time in history, Jesus had lived a perfect life, been executed unjustly, died as a once for all substitution for the death that we deserved, and was brought back to life by the power of God. This means that, by this time in history, the final sacrifice for sin had been made. And now there is a guy who isn’t a Jew. He respects God and prays to him. He is generous to the poor and his generosity seems to be inspired by love for God, but he’s not Jewish. This man prays, and an angel tells him that his prayers have been received by God as a memorial offering. This is massive! The punishment for sin is paid. The memorial offering is a gift of gratitude that comes after. And this Gentile man’s prayer is accepted as a memorial offering!
It’s ok if we aren’t really getting this, because he definitely didn’t understand it. That’s why the angel told him to send men to go get Peter. The angel’s directions are enviably specific, which is to say, I wish God would give me directions this clearly. The town, the house, the location, the name, even the nickname of the guy they were looking for was laid out in detail. And Cornelius, very wisely, didn’t waste a second doing what he was told.
