“God’s Forgiveness Available for All” (Pt.2)
(Acts 10:1-11:18)
Series: The Church on Fire!
Rev. Todd A. Linn
First Baptist Church Henderson, KY
(11-11-07) (AM)
- Take your Bibles and open to Acts chapter 10.
We’re making our way through the book of Acts and we’re bringing the second part now of a two-part message entitled, “God’s Forgiveness Available for All.” We left off in chapter 10 at verse 33. Peter has been summoned by a man named Cornelius. And Peter is now in Cornelius’ home and he’s getting ready to share the gospel with Cornelius and those in his home. In the past, Peter would have had some misgivings about being in the presence of a non-Jewish person. Going inside a Gentile’s home like this was strictly forbidden according to the Jewish law, but these are different days. The Jewish Christians are learning about the power of the gospel that breaks-down barriers between races and nations. So Peter is ready now to share the message of the gospel.
- Stand in honor of the reading of God’s word. We’ll read just verses 34 and 35 to get us started this morning.
34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality.
35 “But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.
- Pray.
Introduction:
Back before I was in the ministry I worked for seven years as a parole officer in the state of Georgia. And every once in awhile I would have a parolee on my caseload who just did really well—showed up at every appointment, kept a job, stayed out of trouble, just became a model citizen. And in those certain cases it was possible for a parolee, after a number of years of crime-free living, to apply for what is called a pardon. A pardon is granted by the state as the official forgiveness of a crime, including the penalty associated with it. Only the state can issue that pardon and only after a time whereby the parolee had demonstrated that he had “gotten his act together” and paid his debt to society. In those rather rare cases, the sovereign state could issue a pardon to the parolee. Well, that’s a pretty big deal to the parolee. He’s now received official forgiveness for his crime and his rights are restored and, in many ways, it’s like his crime never occurred.
Now in one sense, that’s what God does for us in Christ Jesus. When we come to God by faith in Christ Jesus, receiving Jesus as our new Lord, Master, Ruler, and Savior of our lives, then God issues us a pardon, forgiving us of all the sins and mistakes we have ever made. And that is awesome, but there’s something even far greater than that. Unlike the pardon some of my former parolees earned, the pardon we may receive from God is not earned. We don’t have to demonstrate first that we’ve gotten our act together before God issues His pardon. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:5 that God, “even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” That’s the radical nature of God’s grace, but it’s even more radical than that. While a pardon from the state is limited to a criminal’s past offenses, God’s pardon issued to us through faith in Christ is unlimited. God forgives not only our past offenses, but our present and future offenses, too! That is radical. That kind of forgiveness makes us want to live a life that is sin-free, but to rejoice in the fact that even when we do slip-up and sin, God has already forgiven us through the work of His Son Jesus on the cross.
So we’re talking today about this radical kind of forgiveness that is available for everyone: God’s forgiveness available for all. Hey, really quickly I want to review a few things we looked at last time to establish the context for our message this morning.
Chapter 10 introduces us to a man named Cornelius, a Gentile, a non-Jew. He as a Roman Centurion. I was attending Silvertones, our ministry for senior adults Friday afternoon. And one dear person asked me; she said, “Now, did I hear you say that Cornelius was over a hundred years old?” And I laughed right away, because I remembered what I said in one of the services. I said, “Centurion, the word means, “over a hundred,” meaning over a hundred men. So she was like, “The guy’s over a hundred years old—what a soldier!”
God uses visions to get Peter and Cornelius together. An angel appears to Cornelius and tells him to send for Peter so he can hear the saving message of the gospel. Peter has this vision and hears God say, “Don’t call anything unclean that I have cleaned” means that the Gentiles, the non-Jews, were no longer to be considered unclean persons, which is how the Jews had formerly regarded them. So Peter goes to Cornelius’ house where he will share the saving message of the gospel. So last time we discussed three truths that emerged from the text. First, we talked about:
1. The Mandate of God’s Forgiveness (10:1-8)
We learned that while Cornelius was a devout man, a good man, a religious man, he was not saved. Cornelius is like many people today, your neighbors, your friends, your co-workers, your family members. He gave money to charitable causes. He prayed to God regularly. But he was not a believer. He needed to hear the gospel. So we’re not saved by being a good person or doing good things. God’s forgiveness is mandated for us. We need to be forgiven by God because we have a problem known as sin. And the only way that problem is taken care of is through the saving message of the gospel. And the only way we hear that message is through a messenger. So that takes us to the second point:
2. The Messenger of God’s Forgiveness (10:9-23)
In this story, Peter is the messenger of God’s forgiveness. The whole point of the angel’s appearing to Cornelius and telling him to send for Peter is so that Peter would come and share the gospel with him. Peter, like you and I Christians, is the messenger of God’s forgiveness. If anyone is saved, it will only be because someone has been faithful to be a messenger of God’s forgiveness. We call that evangelism, or witnessing, but really it’s all about being God’s messenger. We carry this Good News with us and we share that with others. Then thirdly we looked at:
3. The Magnitude of God’s Forgiveness (10:24-33)
And this is really the main point of the story about Cornelius. Peter learns that the gospel really is intended for all persons, no matter their race, ethnicity, background, whether they’re circumcised and follow the Levitical law of the Old Testament, no matter what! God’s forgiveness really is available for all persons. All persons! Say “all persons.” You cannot be too great a sinner to be saved. You cannot be too lost to be found. That’s the magnitude of God’s forgiveness.
Now before we move on in the story, let me give you two principles that emerge from our study thus far. First, Cornelius is a reminder that no matter how sincere people are and how good they are, they still need the gospel. They still need to be saved.
Secondly, God has people like Cornelius all over the world. There’s a Cornelius in your neighborhood. There’s a Cornelius in your family. There’s a Cornelius next to you in your algebra class. There’s a Cornelius in Indonesia. There’s a Cornelius in Botswana. And there’s a Cornelius on an island somewhere who hasn’t heard the gospel and needs to hear the gospel or else he will die un-forgiven and remain separated from God. So our job is to get the message to Cornelius, wherever he is found.
Now I said this last week and I want to say it again. God reveals Himself to us in nature and through our consciences. We refer to that as general revelation. God reveals Himself to us in a general way. This general revelation is not enough to get us saved. To be saved, we need more than general revelation, we need special revelation, the saving message of the gospel. General revelation merely demonstrates that there is a god and any thinking person understands that. Paul says in Romans 1 that our inclination is to suppress that truth and to turn our back upon the light. So when God judges our sins we have no excuse. He shined his light our way and we turned our back upon Him. Now, if a person is a Cornelius; that is, if a person responds positively to that light, I believe God works wonders to get the special revelation, the saving message of the gospel, to him. Jesus says in John 6:44, “No one comes to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” So God draws us to Himself by giving us light. John 1:9 says that Jesus is the light which gives light to every person in the world. So the light shines into the world and if we respond to that light, God gives us more light, and if we respond to that “more light,” God continues this work until we hear the saving message of the gospel.
And only God knows where his “Cornelius’” are, if you’ll allow me to put it that way.
He knows where His people are, the people who will respond positively to His light. God knows that. We don’t. In Acts 18:9-10, Paul is sharing the gospel in Corinth. And one evening God encourages Paul in a vision. God says to Paul, “Don’t be afraid. Keep sharing the gospel,” and then God says why. He says, “For I have many people in this city.” That’s God way of saying, “I have many Cornelius’ here. I have many people here who are responding positively to the light I am giving them and they need a messenger to come give them the saving message of the gospel.” So God knows where his Cornelius’ are and we don’t. Our job is merely to be God’s messengers, taking the gospel all over the world. Some will hear and reject the good news, but some will hear and be saved. Our job is not to save them. God will do that. That’s how evangelism and missions can be liberating and fun. We don’t take responsibility for getting people saved. We only take responsibility for sharing the message. To be sure, if we don’t share the message, we’ll answer to God for that. He expects us to share. But only God can take that message and penetrate the lost person’s heart through the power of the message itself. We are only messengers of the message. We go out and share with a waitress or a co-worker or a family member and God does the work of drawing that person to salvation.
So we’ve looked at the mandate of God’s forgiveness, the messenger of God’s forgiveness, and the magnitude of God’s forgiveness. Number four:
4. The Message of God’s Forgiveness (10:34-43)
In verses 34 through 43 Peter, as the messenger of God’s forgiveness, gives the message of God’s forgiveness. And this is the gospel. He says he perceives that God shows no partiality. That is, the gospel is for everyone. And he refers to the gospel as the “word.” Let’s read it picking up at verse 36. Peter says:
36 “The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ — He is Lord of all —
37 “that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached:
38 “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
39 “And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree.
40 “Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly,
41 “not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.
42 “And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead.
43 “To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
That’s the message of God’s forgiveness. That’s the gospel. Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the dead. Peter says, “This is the message we’re going around proclaiming as God’s witnesses.” And in verse 43, look at that again, Peter says, “To Him (to Christ) all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive,”—what?—“remission of sins;” forgiveness. So forgiveness comes by believing in Christ. Now watch what happens next. Let me go ahead and give you this final point. When we receive the message of God’s forgiveness, we receive:
5. The Mark of God’s Forgiveness (10: 44-11:18)
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.
45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.
46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered,
47 “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”
48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days.
So what you have here is the mark of God’s forgiveness. The mark, the symbol, of God’s forgiveness is the Holy Spirit coming upon these Gentiles. We talked before about how Jews like Peter could tell that the Gentiles had truly been saved. God used the Holy Spirit to do that. They couldn’t see the Spirit, but they could see the evidence of the Spirit’s working within them. In this case, the evidence is seen in their praising and magnifying God. They do so in their own languages. Like Acts 2, that’s what “speaking with tongues” means here. They are praising and magnifying God in their own languages. So Peter’s like, “Well, let’s do the first thing we’re supposed to do then when a person is saved. Let’s baptize.” And that is the first thing we do once we have received the message of the gospel. As soon as possible we are baptized. We don’t do it before we’re saved. We don’t do as an infant. We do it only after we have heard and understood the gospel and received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
By the way, I love the way verses 43 and 44 tie together. Peter has just shared the gospel and then he says, “Whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins” and then what clearly happens is that the Gentiles in Cornelius’ home believe in Him, I mean right at that moment. We know they receive the message of God’s forgiveness because they reveal the mark of God’s forgiveness. The Bible says in the very next verse, verse 44, that, “while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon those who heard the word.” So the Gentiles believe the Gospel and are saved at once. The Holy Spirit falls upon them. I mean, Peter doesn’t even get to finish his sermon! He’s not even got to his third point and his concluding poem, he just shared the message and the Gentiles are like, “I believe that. I receive that,” and God radically saves them right then and there. See, you can be saved the same way. I mean, I can be up here preaching and God’s Spirit is working on you and you can be like, “I know I’m a sinner. God forgive me. Jesus come into my life” and God will do it. Now if you have been saved, then you’ll make that known. That’s what these Gentile believers did. They weren’t ashamed. They were then baptized, publicly, and unashamedly identifying with their new Savior and Lord.
Now, Peter explains all this later when he goes back to Jerusalem. The Jews there are like, “What in the world is going on over there in Caesarea?! We hear that the Gentiles are being saved. Is that really possible, the uncircumcised non-Jews?!” So let’s read the first part of chapter 11:
1 Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
2 And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him,
3 saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!” (Oooh! That’s bad!)
4 But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, saying:
5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came to me.
6 “When I observed it intently and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air.
7 “And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’
8 “But I said, ‘Not so, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth.’ (Peter’s just telling them what we read before in chapter 10)
9 “But the voice answered me again from heaven, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common.’
10 “Now this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven.
11 “At that very moment, three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea.
12 “Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house.
13 “And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, ‘Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter,
14 ‘who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be (what?) saved.’
15 “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. 16 “Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
17 “If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”
18 When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”
They’re like, “Hey, we can’t dispute this! God’s forgiveness really is available for all, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, man and woman, black and white, rich, and poor, UK and U of L fans—all persons!” And one of the things we reviewed last week is that the “all” of God’s forgiveness extends to every single kind of “sinner,” if you will. That is to say, whatever our background, whatever our past, whatever our baggage we bring to the table, God freely forgives every single sin if we place our faith in Jesus Christ. That’s every single sin—past, present, and future—every single sin forgiven and washed away by the ever-cleansing atonement of Christ on the cross. Last week we reviewed 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 where Paul says, “Remember what you Christians used to be—fornicators (that’s sex outside of marriage), idolaters, homosexuals, adulterers, thieves, drunkards, etc.”—Paul says, “You used to be those kind of people, but now you are washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God.”
God’s forgiveness is available for all, but remember this important clarification: while God’s forgiveness is available for all, only those who place their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are the recipients of God’s forgiveness. You’ve got to personally receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
And if you have received Christ as your Lord and Savior, then there’s this other application that naturally arises from the theology taught here about God’s forgiveness. If God has forgiven us of so much sin and continually forgives us of so much sin, then shouldn’t we forgive those who have sinned against us? In fact, that is precisely what Ephesians 4:32 says: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,”—how?—“even as God in Christ forgave you.”
What the Bible is saying there is, here’s how to practice forgiveness: look back at Calvary’s cross and remember what Jesus did for you. He died for every single one of your sins. God loves you so much that He took the punishment for your sin upon Himself in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. He did that so that you could be forgiven. Speaking of what God the Father did in Christ Jesus, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that God, “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” So Jesus dies for every single one of our sins. Every single one of our sins is an offense to God, but God freely forgave every single one of those sins—and continue to forgive those sins—through Christ Jesus on the cross. So the Bible says, “Look, if you want to know how to forgive somebody, just remember how God in Christ Jesus forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32, “Forgive one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”
Someone says, “Well, I can’t forgive my father. My dad was a mean person. He did some bad things.” Let me ask you something, Christian: “Have you been forgiven by God? Have you? Forgive one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” One of the most liberating and exhilarating things for a Christian to do is to practice forgiveness. God expects it. The basis for it is the cross. You can do it. You are blessed when you do it. So forgive that father, that mother, that spouse, that brother or sister, that co-worker, that neighbor. “But,” someone protests with all the passion of Peter in Matthew 18, “How often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” And we hear Jesus say, “Seventy times seven.” It never ends. Keep forgiving. Just look back to Calvary’s cross at what God did for you in Christ Jesus and then you show the same kind of love, mercy, grace, and kindness to others. And when you do that, experience the kick, the high, and the glorious rush of God’s forgiveness coursing through your veins and breathing life into others. That’s the blessing of God’s forgiveness available for all.
- Stand for prayer.