Acts 10

Read Acts 10 – God is always at work.  We have two parallel events taking place that will come together and accomplish what the Lord intended. 

Meet Cornelius, a centurion, a devout man who feared God, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed constantly.  The Roman officers were hated by the Jews and it would have been totally inappropriate for a Jew to associate with one.  Yet Cornelius is boldly different.  An angel visits Cornelius in a vision and tells him to send for Peter. 

Notice, my friend, there are some tasks the Lord reserves for humans… the angel visited Cornelius, but he does not give him the gospel message.  He (the angel) instructs him (Cornelius) to send for Peter. 

Meanwhile, Peter goes up to the rooftop to pray at the tanners house in Joppa.  (The rooftop was a patio for many homes).  He gets hungry – I love that the bible makes note of this.  Beloved, when you set out to pray, you can expect any number of distractions, like hunger. 

Peter falls into a trance and has a vision of a sheet being lowered with creatures, clean and unclean under Jewish law to eat, and he hears a voice say, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” (:11-16).  Peter understandably says no way, but the Lord repeated the vision three times.  There was no mistake.  What the Lord calls clean is clean.  Then the voice tells Peter about Cornelius’s men downstairs and that he is to go with them. 

Peter’s life is brand new.  He is talking to people he never would have associated with before Jesus.  Beloved, is your life the same or boldly different with Jesus?  Keep reading and marvel at what God did next in our chapter.