“At once therefore I sent to you, and you have done well that you are come. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God, to hear all things that have been commanded you of the Lord.”
He then explained that he had immediately done what the man had said, and that Peter had done well to come. He understood the predicament that Peter had been in but can assure him that he has nothing to fear in that regard. His house is clean. Now therefore he and his friends and kinsmen were gathered in order to hear what Peter has to tell them from God, so that they might hear from him all that the Lord has commanded him.
We must now consider these words in their context. Peter had spent three years and more evangelising under the auspices of Jesus while He was on earth. He had since then proclaimed the Good News for some years before Jews, and had received great response. But he had probably never before walked into a room like this packed with so ‘many' people who were just waiting, every one, to be converted. There was no opposition. There were no doubters. And yet these were Gentiles. But they were hungry to know God and their hearts were filled with desire for Him. Here was a picture of the waiting people ‘to the uttermost part of the earth' who were awaiting the Good News. How humbled Peter must have felt, and how moved, as with his new view of things he looked at these longing faces. He must have said to himself, “Why is it that I never realised.” He would never forget this moment.