Message: Community 2

10:1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cor­nelius, a cen­tur­ion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his house­hold, gave alms gen­er­ously to the people, and prayed con­tinu­ally to God. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vis­ion an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cor­nelius.” 4 And he stared at him in ter­ror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your pray­ers and your alms have ascen­ded as a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is lodging with one Simon, a tan­ner, whose house is by the sea.” 7 When the angel who spoke to him had depar­ted, he called two of his ser­vants and a devout sol­dier from among those who atten­ded him, 8 and hav­ing related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

9 The next day, as they were on their jour­ney and approach­ing the city, Peter went up on the house­top about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted some­thing to eat, but while they were pre­par­ing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heav­ens opened and some­thing like a great sheet des­cend­ing, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of anim­als and rep­tiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten any­thing that is com­mon or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call com­mon.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

17 Now while Peter was inwardly per­plexed as to what the vis­ion that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cor­nelius, hav­ing made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood at the gate 18 and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. 19 And while Peter was pon­der­ing the vis­ion, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are look­ing for you. 20 Rise and go down and accom­pany them without hes­it­a­tion, for I have sent them.” 21 And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are look­ing for. What is the reason for your com­ing?” 22 And they said, “Cor­nelius, a cen­tur­ion, an upright and God-​​fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jew­ish nation, was dir­ec­ted by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” 23 So he invited them in to be his guests.

The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the broth­ers from Joppa accom­pan­ied him. 24 And on the fol­low­ing day they entered Caesarea. Cor­nelius was expect­ing them and had called together his rel­at­ives and close friends. 25 When Peter entered, Cor­nelius met him and fell down at his feet and wor­shiped him. 26 But Peter lif­ted him up, say­ing, “Stand up; I too am a man.” 27 And as he talked with him, he went in and found many per­sons gathered. 28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlaw­ful it is for a Jew to asso­ci­ate with or to visit any­one of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any per­son com­mon or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without objec­tion. I ask then why you sent for me.”

30 And Cor­nelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was pray­ing in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright cloth­ing 31 and said, ‘Cor­nelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. 32 Send there­fore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tan­ner, by the sea.’ 33 So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now there­fore we are all here in the pres­ence of God to hear all that you have been com­manded by the Lord.”

34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I under­stand that God shows no par­ti­al­ity, 35 but in every nation any­one who fears him and does what is right is accept­able to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preach­ing good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened through­out all Judea, begin­ning from Galilee after the bap­tism that John pro­claimed: 38 how God anoin­ted Jesus of Naz­areth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and heal­ing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are wit­nesses of all that he did both in the coun­try of the Jews and in Jer­u­s­alem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as wit­nesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he com­manded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appoin­ted by God to be judge of the liv­ing and the dead. 43 To him all the proph­ets bear wit­ness that every­one who believes in him receives for­give­ness of sins through his name.”

44 While Peter was still say­ing these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believ­ers from among the cir­cum­cised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gen­tiles. 46 For they were hear­ing them speak­ing in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 “Can any­one with­hold water for bap­tiz­ing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he com­manded them to be bap­tized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. (ESV)