Forgiveness of Sins through His Name

(The Good News of Peace)

Acts 10:1-48

Key Verse 10:43

Read verses 1-8. Cornelius' prayers and gifts to the poor are called "a memorial offering before God." What does this designation ("memorial") indicate about the significance of prayers and gifts to the poor? Why did God bother to ask Cornelius to send men for Peter? 

** Two classed of persons are easy to forget, that is, God and the poor. God is the richest. He is the source of wealth. The poor are in need of God filling their needs. 

So God wants us to remember God and expecting us to pray to him asking for help, he calls prayers as a memorial offering. 

God also wants us to remember the poor, so by coming to God in prayer and being with God, we would be a source of blessing for the poor. 

** God did this for Cornelius is ready to receive God's blessings, that is, he repented and turned to God; as he is, he is in need of being baptized into the family of God. 

Read verses 9-16. What do the four-footed animals, reptiles, and birds stand for? (24,28) What do you think the voice meant when it said (in verse 13), "Kill and eat"?

** They represent the poor condition of fallen men. They are made like animals, rather than children of God bearing God's image. 

** Kill and eat = accept. 

This expression is the call to accept into the fellowship among believers. 

Eat = in Hebrew, it stands for intimate fellowship; Example – communion service (Luke 22; Matthew 26:26-28

Kill = it denotes cooking and eating. Cooking can also mean making Cornelius transformed via the good news of peace so he could believe in Jesus, receive the Holy Spirit and be sanctified as the bride of Jesus.  

 

What does "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean" mean? (John 1:29) 

** It denotes Jesus being the Passover Lamb, offering himself as the atoning sacrifice. 

Notice the present perfect tense (in v. 15), indicating that in God's mind it is as good as having already been completed, that is, even before Jesus' death on a tree, God foresaw the vision that all who believe such as Cornelius would be transformed into His likeness, becoming members of the pure virgin bride of Jesus Christ. 

Skim through verses 17-29. How did Cornelius and Peter come together in the same room? What shows that the two still felt uneasy about being in the same room?

** The Lord God organized the meeting. He is like a match maker bringing the two irreconcilable classes of people (Jews and Gentiles) together, to be one. 

** Notice the way Cornelius behaved as he saw Peter entering. Notice also what Peter said on seeing the Gentiles gathered in the room.

We see the same problem persisting in every corner of LA, and in every sector of human society. 

Read verses 30-43. What is the message God sent to the people of Israel? (36b-43)

** The message of the good news of peace. Peace is like water for fish. Without peace it is impossible for us to live with joy. Here peace is peace with God and peace with fellow human beings. See how the whole world is suffering for lack of peace. 

The means Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who came to remove the sins of the world, for sin is the peace breaker. 

It is the good news because it brings us back to God in whom we can have a resurrected life for good. 

Read verses 44-46. When did the Holy Spirit come? What is the purpose of a "tongue”? What is the significance of men speaking in "tongues" (or "other languages")? What is the significance of praising God?

** The Holy Spirit came when faith in the Lord arose in the hearts of the listeners (through Peter's message). 

** It is for speech, proclaiming the message of the good news of peace. 

** It signifies the Lord's desire to disseminate the good news in different languages. 

** Praising the Lord is the end purpose of preaching the gospel of peace. 

Read verses 47-48. What does it mean to be "baptized in the name of Jesus Christ"? 

** It means to be incorporated into the body of Jesus, forming a unity of love in Him.

** Write a testimony based on one thing you learned from the passage.