And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea.
And Cornelius waited for them.
Model pastoral visitation
I. The preparation for it.
1. With the household, an earnest desire for salvation.
2. With the minister, a holy impulse honest exhibition of the state of their heart.
II. On the part of the pastor, a powerful testimony of Christ and His salvation.
III. The fruit thereof.
1. For the hearers; strengthening and vivification by the Holy Ghost.
2. For the minister; joy in the Lord over rescued souls and the increase of His kingdom. (K. Gerok.)
Peter and Cornelius
The incident before us teaches--
I. That christianity can eradicate the most inveterate habits. Until this hour Peter had not understood the world-conquering mission of Christianity, so that when the messengers of Cornelius met him he was the very embodiment of ceremonial sanctity. He must now feel the expansive power of Christianity--and run to the moral rescue of a branded Gentile! In achieving this eradication of habit, no compulsory agency is employed. Conviction is produced by illumination. How was it in the case of Peter? There was--
1. Visible revelation--the descending vessel was patent to his vision.
2. Oral communications. “What God hath cleansed that call not thou common.”
3. Concurrent personal evidence--“while Peter doubted himself, the men which were sent from Cornelius” stood at his door.
4. Divine instigation--“Get thee down, and go with them.”
5. In all this, however, there was nothing beyond moral suasion. Peter’s conviction was won, hence he avers, “God hath showed me.” Is aught so mighty as religious conviction? Has it not shaken thrones, convulsed dynasties, and made the history of humanity glorious? It is by the force of conviction that Christianity is to eradicate moral evil.
II. That the propagation of christianity has been devolved on human instrumentality (Acts 10:5-6). The angel might have been delegated and thus obviated the necessity of Peter’s ministry. But there are three all-sufficient reasons for the employment of human agency--
1. Man can practically attest the advantages of Christianity. He testifies to what he has experimentally realised. It is not a “thing of beauty” to his outward eye, but a reality and a power in his soul.
2. Man can sympathise with the peculiar difficulties which beset the human mind. The Christian has passed through the purifying process. Hence, having “passed from darkness to light” himself, he may guide others into the mysterious way. When he meets the doubter, the anxious inquirer, the tempted, he can sympathise with each phase of human experience, and thus is qualified to propagate the gospel.
3. Man can expose the delusiveness of sin. He has experienced its hollow and heartless treachery. This gives him power in reasoning with the Felixes of society. When they recount their pleasures, he can testify of their bitterness. These qualifications were combined in a superlative degree in Peter. Could not he attest the advantages of Christianity?
III. The true method of expounding christianity. Mark the directness of this sermon! Wherever the preacher travels he never loses sight of Christ. If he reverts to the “children of Israel,” he connects them with Jesus; if he traverses the Holy Land it is to track the footprints of the Saviour; if he refers to the Great White Throne of time’s final day, it is to point to the Redeemer Judge.
1. There are lessons for preachers here. The world is to be saved by the preaching of “Christ crucified.”
2. There are lessons for listeners here. For what purpose do ye assemble? Cornelius summoned the apostle “to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.” Come for mental gratification and your hope may be turned to confusion--come to commune with the condescending Deity and answers of peace will refresh your soul!
3. Peter emphatically preached the gospel. His address was not an essay upon the gospel nor a dissertation upon any of its doctrines--it was a bold and powerful proclamation of “remission of sins” through faith in Christ. In modern days such a sermon might be termed commonplace--scholars might describe it as being fit for unlearned plebeians, and critics might charge it with want of finish: notwithstanding this, however, can we imagine anything more exquisitely adapted to the necessities of Cornelius and his fellow auditors? Adaptation, in fact, is the true secret of power. Paul could reason, Apollos could declaim, and Peter could present the gospel with condensation and comprehensiveness unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries. So, in the modern Church, every man must work in his own order; each, however, striving to exalt the Cross as being at once a pledge of infinite love and the medium of human salvation.
IV. The connection between human agency and Divine power (verse 44). This fact shows us--
1. That human agency is not self-sufficient as to spiritual results. It is not in man to raise the Lazaruses of society from their moral death. They may “roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre,” but God alone can relax the tyrant’s grasp.
2. That, apart from the delivered Word, there must be distinct Divine influence. The word had been spoken, and in addition to the oral message there was a distinct effusion of the Holy Ghost. While, therefore, we “search the Scriptures,” and give ear to the human ministry, we must implore the presence and benediction of the Eternal Spirit. Conclusion: Lingering near this house in Caesarea, one may overhear lessons vitally affecting our personal peace and destiny as well as witness the triumph of evangelical truth.
We learn--
1. That spiritual perfection is an impossibility apart from Christ. Cornelius was an evidently religious man, yet he lacked the true light; something more was needed to purify and perfect his character.
2. That man’s worth is to be estimated by his moral condition. “In every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness.” The time will come when every man shall be estimated according to his character.
3. The transcendent honour connected with Christian usefulness. Was ever man crowned with higher honour than that of being the instrument of leading sinners to a knowledge of the true Saviour? (J. Parker, D. D.)
Peter and Cornelius
1. Surely this is put on record as a pattern of the Lord’s chosen way of doing His work, by making each one who receives His grace a centre for making his own immediate surroundings bright therewith. Cornelius “called together his kinsmen and near friends.”
2. When each agent in the Lord’s service obediently fulfils his own task “without gainsaying or tarrying,” all the manifold parts fit together in a wondrous completeness of success. It is one portion of a perfect design which the Master accomplishes when He works in you to serve Him. Another portion of the same design He is preparing elsewhere. Obedient faith brings the portions together.
3. When Peter received the Lord’s Word about “the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” he little thought that it would be given to him to throw open the gates of the kingdom to the Gentile world. Glad surprises of result are given also to the humblest and weakest disciple, who simply takes each step of service, waiting on Jesus with dutiful love.
4. In the few full words of Peter here, we are made to feel how all the gathered riches of the old covenant are completed and freely given to all in Christ, so that “whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” This “the law could not do.” (G. S. Rowe.)