Dateline: Caesarea by the sea – Cornelius, a Roman centurion (a commander of 100 men)  Acts 10:1

Thumbnail sketch: Devout Gentile; Feared God with all his household; Generous Gentile: gave the Jewish people much money.  Scripture says he prayed to the Jewish God continuously.  Acts 10:2

About 3:00 pm Cornelius clearly saw an angel of God who called him by name.  Surprised and startled he asked, “What is it, Lord?”

The angel said, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.”  The angel continued to tell him to send to Joppa for a man named Simon Peter.  The angel even told him where to find Peter, at Simon the tanners house by the Mediterranean Sea.  Acts 10:3-6

What did Cornelius do?  He was immediately obedient to what the angel told him.  He was quick to do, to respond to God’s instructions through the angel.

How obedient and responsive are you to God’s word to you?  Doesn’t the Lord God expect you and me to be obedient and responsive as we read or hear God’s word read?

Cornelius sent two servants and a believing soldier to Joppa.  They arrived the next day… they found Simon the tanner’s house and knocked on the door.  They asked for Simon Peter.

Peter was on the roof of the house.  Before the men arrived, God gave him a vision of accepting clean and unclean creatures as food.  Peter was prepared by God for a totally new direction in his thinking.

What did Peter do when he was told of the three men downstairs?  The Spirit of God told Peter to go with them, because God Himself sent them.  Acts 10:9-20

Peter and Cornelius, a Jewish man and a pagan Roman, both were obedient to God’s instructions.  They acted in response to God’s words to them.

What is God saying to you as you read His words?

~ Take it to heart ~

26 “… but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith…”  (NASB) Romans 16:26

The living God includes all who will receive Jesus as their Savior…
by faith.
That, my friends, is obedient responsiveness.

Do you need to respond by receiving Jesus as your Savior?
Do you need to obey the living God and tell another of Jesus?