Jesus is Lord of All

Sermon for July 18, 2021

After the martyrdom of Stephen, the Disciples scatter, just as Jesus had told them to do. The book of Acts has a couple chapters of short clips of the disciples’ activities during the dispersal. It recalls Simon the sorcerer, Philip in Samaria and a few others. The most important event, however, before the conversion of Saul was the account of Peter and Cornelius.

Cornelius was a centurion stationed in Caesarea. A centurion commanded a unit of 100 men and was pretty close to a battalion commander in today’s army. Battalions are normally commanded by Lt Cols. Thus, Cornelius was a significant rank but not among the commanding generals; not high enough to blow trumpets and bow down when he rode into camp in his chariot. There were probably several centurions in Caesarea.

Caesarea was built by Herod the Great shortly before the birth of Christ. It was the base of Herod’s navy and a major Roman military garrison. It served as the Roman capitol of Judea for over a hundred years. The city remains today as a small Israeli town with a population of about 4000. In Christ’s day, Jews only went into Caesarea on official business. It was a city of gentiles and Jewish law discouraged intermingling with gentiles. You might recall that was one of the things that got the tribes that followed Moses into Canaan into trouble. They intermarried with the locals who brought pagan gods into the households. Thus, most Jews avoided the Roman capital.

It intrigues me that Cornelius believed in the One God. He was in the Italian Regiment, so I assume he was from somewhere around Rome itself, and Rome was strictly polytheistic. They had adopted the old Greek Gods, given them new names and built alters to Jupitar, Mars, Diana, Backus and the other deities. It would have been both rare and a bad career move for a centurion to believe in any gods other than the Roman ones. But Cornelius did believe, and the question becomes, how? I see several possibilities. He may have been stationed in the part of the roman Empire that includes Persia. As you may recall, the Persians believed in a single God and Cyrus the Great was influenced by the teachings of Daniel. It is also possible that he was influenced by the belief of the Israelites where he was stationed in Judea. He was certainly exposed to their beliefs. It may also be that Cornelius simply had an epiphany. He could have come to the truth of the One Good simply by weighing the evidence.

Then Cornelius had a holy vision that instructed him to send for Peter. About the same time Peter also had a vision. Peter saw a vision of several kinds of food, some were clean according to Jewish law while other were unclean. In his vision, Peter was commanded to eat both the clean and the unclean. The message is similar to Jesus’s teaching in Matthew Chapter 15. Jesus said, “It is not what goes in my mouth that makes me unclean. It is what comes out of my mouth that determines whether or not I am clean or unclean.” Peter, however, took the metaphor beyond food and decided God wanted Peter to treat all men equally even though Jewish law forbade eating with gentiles or entering their homes. When Cornelius’s messengers arrived and invited him to Caesarea, he went.

Peter found Cornelius and all his house hold eager to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. While Peter was instructing them, the entire group of gentiles became filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter immediately decided to baptize all of them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This group baptism opened up Christianity to Gentiles. Cornelius and his family were the first Gentiles to become Christians.

I am, however, left with some lingering questions. How did Peter know the group of gentiles had received the gift of the Holy Spirit? Scripture says they were speaking in tongues, but I have been filled with the Holy Spirit and never spoke in tongues. How can we tell today if someone is filled with Spirit of God or just happy, or worse case faking it? Maybe it isn’t important that we know, only that the individual and God know.

Let me talk a minute about visions. How many here believe that God speaks to us today in visions or dreams. I’m not sure I know the difference except that Dreams are while you sleep, and visions are while you are awake. As far as communicating with God, I think they are the same. Does God communicate directly with us today? I think so. I’ve told this story several times but it is applicable here and I apologize to those who have heard it. My doctors were debating whether or not to drain my knee. One thought it important to release the pressure and the other thought it inadvisable to poke around in an infected joint. I was listening to their debate and asking God what I should do. He answered me. At first, I thought it was someone in the room, so He answered me again. It was a very short and only audible vision, but it was a vision none the less. God does speak to us today. It would have been easy to convince myself I was imagining things, but I have no doubt about the identity of the speaker. God spoke to me. My vision didn’t have all the chorography of Peter’s vision, but it didn’t need to. The message to Peter, as well as the message to Cornelius, were more complex. Mine message could have been a yes or no response. It was short and to the point. But God does speak to us. I am sure that if I had needed visuals, God would have provided those as well. I was very much ready to listen.

I wonder how many times God has spoken to me when I wasn’t ready to listen? I don’t believe God has changed much in the last 2000 years. He is still capable of communicating in visions. But visions include both the sender and receiver. Kind of like a telephone call. Does a phone call really happen if no one answers?

Let’s return to Peter and Cornelius jus a minute before I close. The baptism of Cornelius and his family was a game changer. Up to this time the followers of Christ were little more than an offshoot Jewish cult. The conversion of Cornelius made it a worldwide religion. The tent of Christianity became big enough to include anyone who believed. From that point on Christians could be from any country, there were no unclean occupations. Christians were of all skin colors and ethnic groups. There are no prerequisites or prohibitions, all you have to do is accept Christ as your personal savior.

Pray with me. Dear Lord teach us to listen. Teach us to listen to your voice. We get so busy with our daily lives we forget to take time to listen to what you tell us. Teach us Lord. Teach us to listen. Amen.