Who is God calling you to receive? Acts 10:9-23a | Prescott Anglican Church

Who are we called to receive?

Text: Acts 10:9-23

In Acts 10:9–23, God prepares Peter to bring the gospel to Cornelius by challenging his understanding of clean and unclean. Even an apostle needs correction, and Peter’s first act of hospitality shows how God’s Word reshapes both our thinking and our behavior. This sermon calls the Church to hold firmly to biblical holiness while welcoming those Christ has cleansed, trusting that his grace reaches people we may have assumed were beyond hope.

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I have to admit that a guilty pleasure of mine is watching mindless but satisfying video clips. I enjoy putting something on in the background while I work on something more meaningful. One channel I watch fairly often is devoted to auto detailing. Who would have thought I would be interested in watching someone clean cars?

But these are not ordinary washes. They are transformations of cars that no other detailer wanted to touch because they seemed too far gone or too dirty. I detailed cars and RVs as a side job for a few years, so this speaks my language. Something you would expect to find in a scrapyard becomes something you could imagine seeing on a dealer’s lot.

Our passage reminds us of an even more remarkable transformation: something we would never expect could be restored.

There are occasions in the life of the Church when the Lord must correct our understanding of the reach of the gospel. The gospel itself does not change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Salvation has always meant sinners being reconciled to God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. But sometimes God’s people need to be reminded how wide the reach of that gospel is.

We can say the right things about grace and still quietly imagine that it is mainly for people like us. We confess that Christ came to save sinners while keeping a mental list of the sorts of sinners we think are especially unlikely to be saved. We believe the Church gathers people from every nation, yet feel most comfortable when everyone shares our background, customs, education, and way of doing things.

That is part of what makes Acts 10 so challenging. Peter was an apostle of Jesus. He had walked and eaten with him, seen the risen Christ, preached boldly, and been filled with the Holy Spirit. Yet Peter still had something to learn.

God was about to bring Gentiles into the Church in an astonishing way. Before Peter could go to the house of Cornelius, God had to prepare Peter’s heart.

Even apostles have more to learn

We find Peter on the rooftop, praying. God gives him a vision and a command, and Peter objects. The Lord begins to teach him.

There is something both encouraging and searching about this. It is comforting to realize that even an apostle had more to learn. We are not alone when we struggle to understand what God is doing. Peter’s problem was not that he had rejected the Lord. He had not yet understood the full extent of the Lord’s work.

Two themes run together through this passage. God is working in Cornelius and Peter at the same time, bringing them together at precisely the right moment. Cornelius is being prepared to hear the gospel; Peter is being prepared to preach it. And the vision reveals how difficult Peter finds it to understand the implications of Christ’s coming. The distinctions between clean and unclean, holy and common, had shaped Israel’s life for generations. They were not Peter’s invention.

But Christ had come, and God was bringing his promised salvation to completion. Peter had to learn that the old ceremonial boundaries could no longer exclude those whom God himself was cleansing through Christ.

Christ is building his Church, and he must teach us to receive those he has cleansed.

“What God has made clean”

Peter becomes hungry while food is being prepared. He falls into a trance and sees something like a great sheet descending from heaven, containing animals, reptiles, and birds. A voice tells him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”

Peter answers, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”

The voice replies, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happens three times before the sheet is taken back into heaven (Acts 10:13–16).

Notice that Peter is praying when God speaks. He is not far from the Lord or careless about spiritual things. Yet in the middle of prayer, God shows him that there is something he still needs to understand.

The Christian life never brings us to a point where the Lord has finished correcting us, deepening our understanding, or exposing our blindness. Peter had been with Jesus. He had preached at Pentecost and seen thousands respond to the gospel. He had witnessed miracles. Yet he still needed to be taught. If that was true of Peter, it is certainly true of us.

We should never become so settled in our understanding that we refuse correction by the Word of God. Sometimes our beliefs need correction. Sometimes the way we apply them needs correction. Sometimes our hearts have drawn conclusions Scripture does not allow.

Peter is trying to be faithful to what he has been taught. The ceremonial laws had distinguished Israel from the surrounding nations and pointed to the holiness of God. They had a purpose, but they were signs pointing forward to Christ. Now Christ has come, and those old distinctions must not become barriers to the people he brings into his family.

The wording matters: “What God has made clean.” Peter is not being told to accomplish the cleansing. God has done it. Peter is being told to recognize God’s work and act accordingly.

The vision begins with food, but it points toward something more. God is preparing Peter to enter a Gentile’s home and to understand that he is cleansing people from every nation through Jesus.

Holiness and our preferences

The lesson reaches far beyond what Peter may eat. He must not regard Gentiles as beyond the reach of God’s grace or treat them as permanently outside God’s people.

This does not mean holiness no longer matters or that the Church should abandon God’s commands. Peter must not add his own boundaries to those God has established. We must hold firmly to God’s holiness and the authority of Scripture while allowing Scripture to correct our human additions to his commands.

There is always a danger that we will confuse biblical holiness with our preferences. Holiness does not mean keeping away from people because they are different from us. It does not mean looking down on people whose background, appearance, language, class, or history differs from our own.

The gospel is good news for sinners. None of us entered the Church because we deserved to be here. We are cleansed by the saving work of Jesus Christ, not our ancestry, moral record, or religious observance.

Have you personally received that gift? And are you willing to let Scripture correct your assumptions about whom God may bring into his Church?

It is possible to defend the doctrine of grace while quietly resenting the people to whom God gives it. It is possible to take truth seriously and still fail to show the mercy that truth commands.

Obedience before complete understanding

Peter does not immediately understand the vision. He is still inwardly perplexed when the men Cornelius has sent arrive at the gate.

God may be at work in our lives before we fully grasp what he is doing. Most of us would prefer a complete explanation of where a decision will lead. But the Lord often gives enough light for the next step without giving us the whole map. Faith requires us to trust the God who knows every detail.

God has been working in Cornelius and Peter simultaneously. This encourages us as we pray for evangelism. Before you speak to someone about Christ, the Lord may already be working in that person’s heart. Before you invite someone to church, they may already be asking questions about God. Before you offer to pray with someone, they may already be wrestling with their need for mercy.

We may have no idea what God is doing. But he knows.

We can assume that the main obstacle to evangelism is always the hardness of the unbeliever’s heart. Sometimes God must also deal with the heart of the messenger. Peter must be willing to go somewhere he would once have avoided. He must learn that God’s grace reaches further than his expectations.

We may pray that God will bring people into the Church while resisting the change of heart necessary to welcome them. We may ask him to save our neighbors without ever speaking to them. Yet sometimes the Lord brings the opportunity right to our door.

While Peter is pondering the vision, the Spirit tells him that three men are looking for him: “Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them” (Acts 10:20).

Peter may still have questions, but he has enough to obey. Hesitation can sound sensible. We can say we are still praying when we are unwilling to act, or insist we need more clarity when the next step is already clear. Once God has spoken, our responsibility is to respond faithfully.

A small invitation with great significance

Peter goes downstairs and asks the men why they have come. They explain that Cornelius is a just and God-fearing man, well spoken of by the Jewish nation. An angel has directed him to send for Peter so that he might hear what Peter has to say.

Then Luke records a small but significant action: “So he invited them in to be his guests” (Acts 10:23).

Peter welcomes these Gentile men into his fellowship. He has not yet preached to Cornelius or seen the Holy Spirit descend upon his household. But he takes the first step. His understanding has begun to change his behavior.

The gospel creates fellowship between people who might otherwise never give each other the time of day. The Church is the household of God, made up of people cleansed by the same Savior. Some grew up in Christian homes; others spent years rebelling against God. Some have respectable reputations; others carry a past they hope nobody will discover. Some have belonged to the Church for decades; others arrived only yesterday and feel terribly out of place.

If they come to Christ in repentance and faith, they belong to the same family. That does not erase every difference in personality, culture, age, or background. It does mean those differences can no longer become excuses for denying fellowship to people Christ has received.

The old barriers are broken down through the saving work of Christ. Jews and Gentiles have not become identical. They have been brought together by the blood of Jesus.

Making room for those Christ receives

The Church is called to holiness. We must not pretend sin does not matter, redefine obedience according to secular definitions, or accept every belief and behavior simply in the name of inclusion. But holiness also means loving people well and guiding them to Christ.

Jesus was called the friend of sinners. He came near to sinners in order to save them. He welcomed the repentant, forgave the guilty, and called the lost home. If we follow him, we must be willing to cross barriers for the sake of the gospel.

Growing up, I remember occasional visits with my father’s cousin, Kirk, and his wife, Oren. They lived in Pico Rivera, California. Kirk was a Navy veteran who rode a Harley and wore a vest covered in motorcycle club patches. With long hair, an unkempt beard and mustache, and tattoos on both forearms, he looked the part.

I later learned that he had spent time in jail or prison. But while he was there, he found Christ. When he came out, he took a different road. He became a Christian who served his community, studied the Bible diligently, and eventually became a prison chaplain.

Many people might have looked at Kirk and thought his life had reached a dead end. But the Lord worked in his life and made a U-turn.

Do we welcome those who are new to the Christian faith? Do we make room for people whose lives are different from ours? Have we decided that someone is too far gone, too broken, or too unlikely to respond?

The Church must be a place where people hear the gospel clearly, where truth is spoken in love, and where sinners are called to repentance and assured that Christ is able to save everyone who comes to God through him.

Will we receive those he has cleansed?

On the surface, this passage concerns Peter, Cornelius, and clean and unclean food. But it points us beyond them to Jesus. Christ cleanses sinners, gathers his Church, and sends his servants where they are needed.

Peter is slow to understand. He objects and is perplexed. But the Lord is patient with him, teaches him, and sends him to Cornelius.

That is encouraging. We may not understand everything at once. We may not immediately see what God is calling us to do or why. But if we listen to his Word, the Lord can correct and use us.

The question is whether we will obey. Are we willing to be corrected by his Word, welcome those he is calling, and go where Christ sends us?

Remember what Peter heard: “What God has made clean, do not call common.” God’s people are cleansed through Christ’s saving work, justified by his blood, and brought into his family by faith. We are here because God has been gracious to us. The same grace that saved us is able to save others.

Let us pray for humble hearts, for our unclean thoughts and behavior to be cleansed by the blood of Christ, and for a willingness to welcome everyone he calls.

Christ promised, “I will build my church.” He will build it according to his purpose, drawing people from every nation by the power of the Holy Spirit. May he teach us to see whom he has cleansed, welcome whom he has received, and follow wherever he sends us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.