6th July 2025

New Testament Heroes 18 – 06/07/25 – Martin Mowat

Readings: Acts 10:1-8 and Acts 10:9-23

The book of Psalms starts with these wonderfully encouraging words

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. They will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Why did I start with Psalm 1? We’ll see at the end.

Today we’re going to finish that part of Acts that deals with the life of the early church before Paul became an active apostle.  Last week our hero Peter was in Lydda, and then in Joppa, on the coast, and we left him in the caring, if rather smelly hands of Simon the tanner.  

The story of Peter and Cornelius, the centurion, that we just heard part of, is probably familiar to most of us. They had both had

supernatural experiences, Cornelius in Caesarea, had an angelic visitation and Peter, in Joppa, a vision that had him seriously puzzled.

Caesarea was a fascinating place because it wasn’t just any old Mediterranean port, humming with fishermen, ferry boats, and related trades.  Some decades earlier it had been adopted by King Herod the Great (not to be confused with Herod Agrippa who we’ll come on to in a few minutes), who decided to pour a huge amount of money into it, taking 12 years building a deep-sea harbour, protected by a huge breakwater, that took trade away from Joppa. He also built huge warehouses, markets, wide roads, Roman baths, a temple, and other imposing public buildings, a massive double aqueduct, as well as a palace for himself on a promontory that jutted out into the sea.

Every five years, the city hosted major sports competitions, gladiator games, and theatrical productions. He dedicated the city and the harbour to the Emperor Augustus, hence its name, … and it became the administrative, economic, cultural and military capital of the Judean province from this time onwards. 

All this, of course, was deeply offensive to Jews who considered Jerusalem to be the local capital. 

Caesarea is where our friend Cornelius was stationed.  He was Italian and his equivalent rank in the British army was that of major.  Luke describes him as “devout and God-fearing” so it’s likely that he had been attending a Jewish synagogue. 

He was also “generous”, ”a man of prayer”, “righteous”, and “well respected”. But when theangel came to him and said, ‘Cornelius!’  he stared at him in fear and asked. ‘What is it, Lord?’.

You heard that part of the story. He sent for Peter straight away, as he was told to do. Peter, meanwhile had had his own vision, and his was even more worrying because the Mosaic Law specifically prohibited eating any animals considered "unclean", including pigs, camels, rock badgers, eels, vultures, owls, hawks, storks, herons and such, as well as reptiles, amphibians, worms, and the like. Who would want to, anyway?

When Cornelius’ invitation arrived, Peter, somewhat hesitantly I suspect, did as he was told and went to Caesarea and see him.

When he arrived, he went into his house, something else he wasn’t supposed to do because Cornelius was a “gentile”. “Why do you want to see me”, he asked, not unnaturally.  

They wanted to hear the gospel message, and when they did something extra-ordinary happened, something very similar to what had happened in that upper room at Pentecost.  There was not a shadow of doubt that it was authentic, and that God was saying, in no uncertain terms, that as far as he is concerned, Jews and Gentiles are the same, they both need to hear and receive the gospel message for salvation, and they are both eligible.

They are the same in the eyes of God, and they must be the same in our eyes too.  Be honest! Are people of other faiths, or none, lesser in some way, in your estimation? THEY SHOULDN’T BE. God loves them equally and wants all them to turn to him. 

A few days later Peter set off back to Jerusalem but before he did so, he ordered that they all be baptised, the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, the public declaration of of an adult who has surrendered his or her life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It’s so important. 

But when he got to Jerusalem, he had an unpleasant surprise waiting for him.  According to Luke “the apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.  So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the “circumcised believers” in other words the Christian Jews, criticized him and said, 'You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.'" (Acts 11:1-3)

No mention was made of the baptisms though. It was fellowshipping and eating with Gentiles, and thus not observing Jewish dietary laws, that they complained about. 

So Peter explained what had happened, and what God had done, "When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, 'So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.'" (Acts 11:18)

This was a big day for the early church. A really big day!  Suddenly Jesus commission in Matthew 28, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you made perfect sense.

To conclude, lets go back to Herod Agrippa. On his father’s side he was Herod the great’s grandson, and on his mother’s side he was his great nephew.  All sounds rather nepotic, doesn’t it?

But he wasn’t of the same calibre as his grandfather, at all.  In fact he was a rather nasty piece of work who took delight in persecuting the church because it made him popular.  On one occasion he had James, the brother of John, one of the 12 apostles killed, and then, encouraged by the reaction, he had Peter arrested and put in prison, where he was guarded by no less than 4 squads of 4 soldiers.  You’d think that would be sufficient, but it wasn’t, because in the night an angel appeared in the prison and said to Peter “Quick, get up!” As he did so the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals,… wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” 

Not one of those 16 soldiers saw them pass, or saw the heavy iron gate open to let them out, and then close again. Sadly, although it wasn’t their fault, all 16 of those poor men paid with their lives. Such was Herod’s lust for power.  

There’s an amusing little anecdote, that I love because it’s so human, of what happened when a servant girl called Rhoda was so shocked to hear Peter, free and knocking desperately to come in, that she left him standing outside while she ran back to tell everyone.  You can find it in Acts 12. 

I know that this is all very gory. I’m sorry but we need to see both sides of the coin, as they say.  

After losing Peter, Herod went back to his palace in Caesarea. Let me read to you what happened next. Herod had been quarrelling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. After securing the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king’s country for their food supply.

 On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people.  They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. Yuk!

But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.

Let me remind you of what I read earlier in Psalm 1. 

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

My friends, the powers of darkness will not prevail. ….