After relating the conversion of Saul/Paul, Luke then turned to recording the actions of Peter throughout this time. Obviously, the Samaritan revival had provoked Peter out of his “Jerusalem only” attitude because he now travels to Lydda, toward the Mediterranean Sea, and visits the “saints” here. The persecution of the Early Church had caused many of the Spirit-filled, Jewish believers to travel to this area, and these were no doubt the “saints” that Peter was visiting. Here Peter found a man named Aeneas (pronounced EEH-ne-ahs) who had been crippled and bedridden for eight years. Peter healed him in the name of Jesus Christ, and as a result many of the other Jews living in this area of Judea were converted.

Dorcas was a believer in Joppa which was a city upon the coast. Dorcas was obviously very involved in the local church and work of the Lord. While Peter was in Lydda, Dorcas became sick and died! As was the custom in those days, they washed her body and laid her in an upper chamber so that the family could pay their last respects. Remember that Jarius’ daughter whom Jesus healed had been done much the same way, and this is very similar to our “wakes” or “family viewings” that we typically have today.

Realizing that the man of God was only about 12-15 miles away in Lydda, the family sent for Peter to come and pray for Dorcas. When Peter arrived, the mourners were there and had all of the beautiful coats and garments which Dorcas had made (she must have quite a seamstress as well!).

Acts 9:40-41 But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up. 41 And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive.

Peter was not interested in looking at the momentos of Dorcas’ life, and immediately went and kneeled down beside the body and prayed. Then Peter commanded her to “arise” and immediately Dorcas opened her eyes and sat up. Peter then called unto all the family and friends outside and presented Dorcas alive!

Many people were won through the raising of Dorcas, and Peter stayed in Joppa a while no doubt preaching the gospel to all who would listen. God was also still working on Peter’s Jewish prejudice because he stayed with Simon a “tanner.” To the Jewish people who had added all sort of laws and rituals about cleaning ones hands and getting them dirty (see Mark 7:1-15), the tanning profession was very looked down upon. Simon prepared animal skins, a dirty process, and no doubt often ate the meat of the animals that he tanned some of which would go against the Law’s dietary laws. For Peter, who was a devout Jew, to even stay in such a place was a miracle, but as we will see in the next chapter, God had a purpose in Peter’s lodging place.

The close of Acts chapter 9 closes a period of history in the Early Church. In the eight years since the outpouring of God’s Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, thousands have been filled with the Holy Spirit and been baptized in Jesus’ name. Extreme persecution after the martyr of Stephen has scattered the Spirit-filled Jewish believers throughout the area, and even into Asia and the Gospel is being preached in many other areas beside Judea. The most zealous persecutor, Saul, has been transformed through a miraculous conversion into the most zealous preacher of the doctrine of Christ, and, for a time, the persecution has eased. In this period, however, the gospel has only been taught to Jews or Jewish proselytes. In other words, only males that had been physically circumcised according to the law of Moses and Jewish tradition had been taught the Gospel and subsequently received God’s Spirit. But now, after eight years, God finally dramatically gets Peter’s attention!

Caesarea was a town on the coast about 25 miles north of Joppa. An Italian man, a noncircumsized Gentile, named Cornelius lived there. Cornelius was a centurion in the Roman army, which is equivalent to a lower-level ranking officer in our military today.

The highest division of the Roman army was a “Legion” which usually contained 6,000 men. The Legions were commanded by 6 “Tribuni” who took turns being in charge. The “chief commander” mentioned in Acts 21:31 was the “Tribuni” in charge at that time and was the equivalent of a low ranking general or admiral today. The “Legions” where further broken down into 10 groups of 600 men each called “Cohorts.” The “Italian band” mentioned in Acts 10:1 above, was one such “Cohort.” Each “Cohort” was divided into 3 “Maniples” consisting of 200 men each. Each “Maniple” was broken down into 2 “Centuries” of 100 men each and each “Century” was commanded by a “Centurion.” Cornelius then was a Centurion, or commander of 100 men of the “Italian band Cohort.” The Legions were named by their number. We find in Roman history that at this time in history, the Fifth, Tenth, and Fifteenth Legions were stationed in Judea, and that the Tenth Legion contained a Cohort consisting of all Roman soldiers from the mother land of Italy and named the “Italian Band” because of their bravery in the earlier battle of Bedriacum. Thus history itself backs up the evidence that Luke presents in Acts chapter 10!

This Gentile Centurion, worshipped only the one, true, living God! Despite his race and position, Cornelius was a man of prayer and obviously taught his house to love and respect God with their lifestyle, time, devotion, and giving! About nine hours after sunrise or about 3:00 p.m., Cornelius saw a vision of an angel, and the angel told him that God had heard his frequent prayers!

The angel directed Cornelius to send for Peter in Joppa and even gave specific directions to the house where Peter was staying! “Peter,” the angel said, “will tell you what you need to do!” This is interesting in that Cornelius was a very devout believer and follower of God, and had obviously been praying for further guidance. Even though he believed in God, and was faithful to the things of God, there were certain things that he still lacked. There are several other interesting points about these verses that merit mention. First, notice that the angel did not tell Cornelius what he needed to do, but gave him direction to a man of God. God will ALWAYS use the man of God to clarify what men “must do.” Jesus did not entrust the preaching of the Gospel to angels but chose to use ordinary men, empowered by the Spirit, to preach His message! Second, the angel directed Cornelius to send servants to Joppa which was about 25 miles down the coast and ask for Peter. Remember that Cornelius lived in the town of Caesarea which we learned earlier was the town in which the evangelist Philip had settled. Why did God not give Cornelius instructions to send for Philip who lived nearby? For the same reason that God did not pour out the Holy Spirit upon the Samaritans until Peter arrived. As the leader of the Early Church, Peter still had some Jewish prejudices that God was trying to work out!

As the servants were traveling toward Joppa, Peter went upon the housetop to pray about lunch time. Peter was hungry but was having to wait on lunch to finish cooking. As he waited, God caused Peter to fall into a trance and see a vision.

Peter saw a sheet let down from heaven that had all kind of animals that according to the Mosaic Law, were unclean (see Leviticus 11). The Law clearly stated which animals were “clean and unclean” and the creatures that could not be eaten included pigs, most birds, and any fish or sea animal that did not have scales. As Peter, who was hungry, looked upon these “unclean” creatures, a voice from heaven commanded him to rise up, kill them, and eat them! Peter argued with the Lord and stated that he would “never” break Moses’ law!

The voice from heaven spoke again and said “what God has cleansed, do no call unclean or common!” In other words God was saying, “Peter, I’m turning to creatures that before I considered unclean and I want to cleanse them as well.” Even though Peter did not yet understand it because of his Jewish prejudice, God was opening the doors of salvation upon the Gentile people and was using ceremonial law to reveal it to Peter. Remember that there were three divisions of the Law: 1. Moral Law which consisted of the ten commandments and the various abominations against God. 2. The Civil Law which consisted of the borders of Israel and the laws of the political system of their nation. 3. The Ceremonial Law which consisted of the various sacrifices and rituals to please God. The Moral law is still very much in effect today. The Civil law does not apply to us who do not live in Israel, and has been replaced by our local Civil laws. The Ceremonial laws which are primarily found in the Book of Leviticus, apply to us but in a spiritual way. For example, we do not continually burn incense before God but must now “pray without ceasing.” We do not have to approach an ordinary priest with a sacrifice for forgiveness, but must approach our great High Priest, Jesus Christ! We do not have to offer a sacrificial lamb for atonement of Sin, because Jesus Christ was the spotless Lamb of God and paid the price in full at Calvary and now all we have to do is apply His blood to our life in Water Baptism. The Ceremonial law was a “shadow” of things to come. The diet laws was a “shadow” of how God would turn from His chosen people, the Jews, and provide cleansing to the Gentile race. What had formerly been unclean could now become clean! This change was both physical and spiritual and now we can eat Crawfish, Catfish, and Pork Chops and celebrate God giving us a chance at salvation at the same time!

God showed this vision of the sheet being let down three times to Peter. At the same time, the men sent by Cornelius arrived at the gate outside the house and asked for Peter. While Peter was trying to understand the vision, the Spirit spoke to him and said “there are three men that are looking for you now, go down and meet them, and go with them.” God went on to tell Peter “do not doubt anything, because I have sent them.” How timely God works! Notice also that these men were soldiers and according to Roman law, Peter had to obey them! God took every one of Peter’s excuses away!

After being greeted by Peter, the men from Cornelius’ house told Peter of the vision and the angel’s direction. They then stayed the night with Peter and the next day Peter and a few other Jewish believers went with them to Joppa.

When Peter and the Jewish believers arrived at Cornelius’ house, they found all of Cornelius’ family and close friends gathered together and waiting. When Peter walked in Cornelius, thinking that Peter was an angel, began to worship Peter but Peter forbade him saying “I am also a man.” Cornelius was ready and excited about what God had for him!

Peter went into the house and found the multitude of people waiting for him. He reminded them that according to Jewish laws, he should not even be in the house of a Gentile but that God had shown that he should not call any man unclean. Peter was finally starting to get the revelation that God had for him! Peter then asked “why have you sent for me?” Cornelius responded by telling him of the conversation with the angel and asked Peter to show them what is “commanded of God.”

Peter then realized that God wanted to reveal salvation to the Gentile people also so he began to preach about Jesus Christ and the story of His life and how that He was the Messiah whose death fulfilled the law. While Peter was still preaching, though, something miraculous happened!

While Peter was still preaching about Jesus and before he even got to the altar call and telling them what they were “commanded” to do, the Holy Ghost fell on all of Cornelius’ household and friends!

Remember that only circumcised people had received the Holy Ghost up to this point. The Jewish believers who were with Peter were astonished because God had poured out the Holy Spirit upon the uncircumcised Gentiles as well! How did the Jewish believers see that they had received the Holy Spirit? The answer is in the next verse:

Cornelius and his family were speaking in other tongues just as the 120 had received the Holy Spirit on the original day of Pentecost! Time and time again in scripture we find that when someone receives the Holy Ghost, they may jump around, they may magnify and praise God, they may prophesy, but they ALWAYS speak in another language as the Spirit gives the utterance! The Tongues are the common element in every specific conversion that we have recorded in scripture. Notice that Peter had not even got to the part about instructing them on what to do, these Gentiles were so hungry that as they began to worship and magnify God while Peter was preaching, God filled them with the Holy Spirit and changed their language to a heavenly language!

Just because these believers had received the Holy Ghost before they were baptized in water, did not mean that water baptism was optional. Even today, God will sometimes fill someone with His Spirit before they are baptized in water, but water baptism is still essential. Peter pointed out to the Jewish believers that were there that the Gentiles had received the Holy Ghost “as well as we. Shouldn’t they be baptized also?” Peter then commanded them to be baptized in the “name of the Lord.” Once again we see the only way that the disciples baptized was “in the name of Jesus” and not using a titled formula. Peter then stayed there several days and taught the Gentile converts further.

When Peter got back to Jerusalem, the apostles and other Jewish believers had already gotten word that the Gentiles had been saved. Some of the Jewish believers could not understand why Peter had broken all of the laws that he had, so Peter started at the beginning and told them the story. We will not recap the entire story a third time here, but notice several statements that Peter made to them:

First notice that Peter said that he was called down to Cornelius’ house because they wanted to hear what they “had to do to be saved.” In other words, what happened to Cornelius and his household was the answer to their question of “what MUST we do.” This was exactly the situation of the Jews that heard Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost and the result was the same as Peter’s commandment that day: they repented, were baptized in Jesus name, and were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:37-38).

Peter then went on to state to the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem that the Holy Ghost had fallen on Cornelius’ household just like it had fallen on them “at the beginning.” In other words they had received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues just as on the Day of Pentecost! Peter went on to say that God gave the Gentiles that believed the same gift that they who had believe had received. In other words, when the Jewish disciple truly believed, they received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. When the Gentiles in Cornelius’ household truely believed, they did also. This matches the teaching of Jesus exactly on how to tell a true believer:

When a person truly believes on Jesus Christ, they receive the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, and are “commanded” to be baptized in Jesus’ name! The same salvational formula that Peter preached to the Jewish people also applies to the Gentiles for God is “no respector of person!” We, today, still live in the Dispensation of Grace and this is still the only Biblical formula for salvation! Do not settle for a cheap substitute; get everything that God has for you!

When the Jewish leaders heard Peter’s testimony, they stopped arguing and glorified God saying that God had also granted the Gentiles new life! The argument on physical circumcision was not over though, as we will see later in our studies.

The results of the conversion of Cornelius’ household was at first varied. Some of the leaders continued “hard headedly” to only preach to Jewish people. But some stepped out in faith and began to preach to the Greek Gentiles. Those that obeyed the lesson of God, and stepped out in faith to the Gentile people, were rewarded by many new converts among the Gentile people. Being a Gentile, I am also overjoyed that God turned to the “common people” and provided a way for us to “be cleansed!”

The story of Cornelius’ conversion is important because it opened a new door of Salvation to the Gentile people. In doing so, it also teaches us the following important scriptural principles about salvation:

1. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues was not just for the Day of Pentecost or the leaders of the Early Church.

2. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is for Gentiles as well as Jews. ie.. physically circumcised and uncircumcised.

3. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was always accompanied by the person speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance. This includes the Jewish converts on the Day of Pentecost, the Jewish believers after the Day of Pentecost, and Gentiles after the Day of Pentecost.

4. When a person truly believes, they will be filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues and baptized in Jesus’ name.

5. The only way the disciples ever baptized was in the “name of Jesus,” thus obeying the command of Matthew 28:19 and not just repeating it.

6. God is no respector of persons, which means you can receive this experience today also!

7. A person can receive the Holy Spirit before being baptized in Jesus’ name, but that does not make water baptism unnecessary.

8. The Holy Spirit does not automatically “come in” at water baptism as some teach, because Cornelius’ and his household received the Spirit first!

9. Prejudice and holding to traditional views that err against the scripture can keep us from reaching our world with this Apostolic message.

10. We can now physically eat any animal we desire under the Dispensation of Grace. This includes Crawfish, Catfish, Pork, Crabs, Shrimp, etc... . There is nothing that is not lawful for us to eat, and we can eat them on any day we choose (ie.. we can eat meat on Friday if we so choose.)