Peter saw a vision from God… a great sheet let down from heaven containing four-footed animals and crawling creatures and birds of the air… unholy, unclean for any Jewish person to eat.  Yet, a voice said to Peter, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat.”  Peter said, “I have never eaten anything unholy or unclean.”  Again, Peter heard a voice saying, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” (NASB Acts 10:11-15)

  While Peter was thinking about all of this on the house’s flat-topped roof:
NASB) Acts 10:17-18 “Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate;
18 and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there.”

  Before anyone told Peter of the three men looking for him, the Spirit of God told him, giving him explicit instructions:
(NASB) Acts 10:20 “But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.”

  Peter went downstairs and told the three men that he was the one they were looking for… then he asked a logical question:
(NASB) Acts 10:21 “…what is the reason for which you have come?”

  The Lord God had prepared Peter for the next step he was to take… and it would be one in which Jewish people would say, ‘No’.  However, the Lord God was doing a new work in the lives of the followers of Jesus Christ… the Lord Jesus had died on the cross for all people, not just the Jewish population of Israel.  What was the reason these men came for Peter?

(NASB) Acts 10:22 “…‘Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well-spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you.’”

  Because Peter saw a vision sent from God, because Peter had heard God’s voice instructing him to go with these men, he was prepared to obey God’s voice over his own upbringing in the Jewish faith.  The Lord was doing a new work and He began with His chosen people… He began with the disciples Jesus called to follow Him.

  How did Peter respond?
(NASB) Acts 10:23 “So he invited them in and gave them lodging.”

  Peter acted appropriately, pleasing to God.  When you read God’s word (the Holy Bible), do you change your responses to life situations to please God? 

~ Take it to heart ~

  Peter was prepared by God for His will to be done in the life of Gentiles…
  How is the Lord God preparing you for His will to be done in the lives of others, through you?

Categories: The Acts of the Holy Spirit