Peter and Cornelius - Darren Rowse
Have you ever stood on the outside of something, wanting in, but not quite sure whether you'd be welcome? Maybe you've hovered at the edge of a group, a community, even a faith, sincere in your search but unsure whether there was a place for you.
Acts 10 is a story about someone exactly like that. It's also a story about what happens when God decides the outside is no longer where anyone has to stay.
This week at One Church, Darren Rowse continued our journey through the Book of Acts, opening up Acts 10, the remarkable account of Peter and Cornelius. You can watch the full message in the video above, or listen to the audio version below.
Ten years in, and the mission had stalled at the edges
Darren began by setting the scene. Most scholars suggest the events of Acts 10 take place around seven to ten years after Jesus ascended to heaven and told his disciples, "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
So how was the mission going? Jerusalem, yes. Judea, yes, as persecution scattered believers across the region and they took the gospel with them. Samaria, yes, through Philip's preaching. But the ends of the earth? So far there had been only one glimmer, Philip and the Ethiopian in Acts 8.
Darren wondered aloud how the apostles might have been feeling at that point. The mission had started like an explosion at Pentecost, but had they really fulfilled what Jesus gave them to do? Were they starting to wonder whether it would even happen in their lifetime? That, Darren suggested, is the context for what happens next.
Two men, two cities, two visions
Acts 10 introduces us to two very different men in two different cities, who have never met, but who are both doing the same thing: praying.
Cornelius lives in Caesarea, a Roman city built to impress. He's a centurion, a commander of soldiers, a man of wealth and standing. But he's no ordinary Roman officer. The passage describes him as devout and God-fearing, generous to the poor, and regular in prayer. He's what the Jewish community called a God-fearer: a Gentile who had rejected the Roman gods and was drawn to the God of Israel, but hadn't fully converted. He's sincere, he's searching, but he's not quite through the door.
Peter is staying in Joppa, by the sea, in the house of Simon the tanner. Darren pointed out a fascinating detail: Joppa is the same port Jonah ran to when God told him to go and preach to the Gentiles in Nineveh. Centuries later, another man of God is praying in Joppa, about to be asked to go to the Gentiles. This time, he won't run.
While praying at three in the afternoon, Cornelius sees an angel who tells him to send for Peter. The next day, as the messengers approach, Peter falls into a trance on the rooftop and sees a sheet lowered from heaven, full of animals that Jewish law forbade God's people to eat, and hears a voice: "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."
"No, Lord": the vision that wasn't about food
To feel the shock of Peter's vision, Darren explained, you have to understand that the food laws weren't just about diet. They were about identity. They were one of the clearest markers separating God's people from the nations around them. Which makes Peter's reply so striking.
You can say "no", and you can say "Lord", but try saying both in the same breath and meaning it.
That's exactly what comes out of Peter's mouth, three times. Darren suggested this wasn't stubbornness so much as conviction, the tension of being confronted with something that seemed to cut against his very identity.
While Peter is still puzzling over the vision, the answer arrives at the gate. Cornelius' messengers show up asking for him, and the Spirit tells Peter to go with them without hesitation. And notice what Peter does: he invites these Gentile men to stay the night as his guests. This was not the done thing. It was crossing a boundary. Already the meaning of the vision is taking root.
When Peter arrives in Caesarea and enters a Gentile home, he finally says out loud what the vision meant:
It's not about food, it's about people. When God said no food is unclean, he was saying something much bigger: no person is unclean.
The food laws had drawn a line around who you could eat with, whose home you could enter, who you could share life with. God was erasing that line.
An awkward meeting, and a preacher being converted
Darren drew attention to the sheer awkwardness of the meeting. Cornelius is anxiously waiting (the Greek carries a layer of anxiety), has gathered all his relatives and close friends, and then puts his foot in it by falling at Peter's feet. Peter refuses the reverence: "Stand up, I am only a man myself." Both men are nervous. Both have brought moral support. Both are pushing through the discomfort because it matters.
Then Peter does something surprising. Instead of launching into a sermon, he asks a question: "May I ask why you sent for me?" He already knows the answer. But he gives Cornelius the floor and invites him to tell his story.
And when Peter does begin to speak, he doesn't start with what Cornelius needs to know. He starts with what he himself has just realised:
I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.
Darren loved this detail: in the middle of a story about evangelism, the evangelist is the one being converted. Peter is having his faith expanded even as he seeks to expand someone else's. As Tim Keller once put it, the wonderful thing about this faith is that the converts end up converting the evangelist.
Peter then shares a short, simple gospel message, and Darren noted how much God is the driving subject of it. God sent. God anointed. God was with Jesus. God raised him. God appointed him. Peter starts where Cornelius already is, a man who already prays to God, and joins the dots to Jesus. And he lands on a word that would have stunned Cornelius: everyone. Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
For those of us who grew up in church, "everyone" is easy to gloss over. But Cornelius had spent his life on the outside. Respected by the Jewish community, tolerated even, but not welcomed in. He didn't want to be tolerated. He wanted to be included. He wanted to be loved. And now the door was open.
The Spirit interrupts the sermon
What happens next is one of the great moments in the whole book of Acts. While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. Before any altar call, before anyone said "I believe", the Spirit fell. The Jewish believers who came with Peter were astonished as they watched Gentiles praising God, and Peter asked the obvious question: who can stand in the way of them being baptised? They were baptised that very day.
This moment is often called the Gentile Pentecost, and the name fits. Years after Acts 2, the same Spirit is falling on people who were never supposed to qualify, and they are responding just as the first believers did.
When Peter later had to explain himself to sceptical believers back in Jerusalem, he added a line that Darren called beautiful:
Who was I to think that I could stand in God's way?
Darren paused here with an encouragement for all of us. Have you ever had the experience of someone speaking about Jesus, a friend's story, a baptism testimony, even a sermon, and something wakens inside you? A spark, something coming alive? That is the Holy Spirit at work. Pay attention when that happens.
Nothing happens until two people move
Darren closed by asking where we see ourselves in this story, and he spoke to two groups.
To those exploring faith, those who see themselves in Cornelius, sincere, praying, trying to live a good life, but not sure whether they're fully in: you are so welcome in this community. God sees your search, and he wants to invite you deeper, and the way he does that is through Jesus. Notice that the angel didn't preach the gospel to Cornelius; he told him to send for someone who knew Jesus. So keep putting yourself in the room with people who know Jesus. Come back next week, ask your questions, talk to someone on the prayer team, come to Alpha. Yes, it can feel awkward. It felt awkward for Cornelius too, and he bumbled through that first conversation, but he pushed through the awkwardness and it changed everything for him and his family.
To those who follow Jesus: if explorers are pushing through the awkwardness to get into rooms with people like us, what will they find when they arrive? People who rush off and only talk to each other, or people who genuinely want to journey with them? Because this story only works when both men move. Cornelius sends, but Peter goes.
And here is the encouragement Darren kept returning to:
We are not the missionaries. God is.
God sent the visions. God prepared Cornelius' heart before Peter arrived. God poured out his Spirit while Peter was mid-sentence. Peter's part was simply to be available, to go where he was nudged, and to say what he was invited to say. Our job is not to convert anyone. Our job is to play a part in what God is already doing.
There was an angel, a vision, a voice from heaven. God was moving. But the story hinges on a Roman soldier taking a step and a fisherman walking down some steps. God does the heavy lifting, and he invites us to move too.
And underneath it all is the cross. Cornelius couldn't pray his way in, give his way in, or earn his way in. The door was opened for him, and for us, through Jesus' sacrifice.
One way to live it out this week
Take Darren's challenge literally: go to the place Peter was in when the vision came, which is prayer. Set aside some time this week to pray a simple, risky prayer: "God, who are you already working in? Who are you nudging me towards?" Then watch for the answer, and when a name or face comes to mind, don't just pray from a distance. Step into that person's orbit, not with a sermon or a three-point plan, but with a conversation, some hospitality, or an invitation. Trust that God has been at work in them long before you showed up.
A short prayer
Father, thank you that you are a moving, active God.
Before we pray our prayers, you are preparing a way.
Before we knock, you are opening doors.
Holy Spirit, fan into flame whatever you have stirred in us today.
Show us the people you are already at work in,
and give us the courage to move towards them
with love, hospitality and friendship.
Thank you for the cross that opens the door for everyone.
Amen.
Personal Reflection
Where do you see yourself in this story: Cornelius the searcher, Peter the reluctant boundary-crosser, or one of the astonished onlookers? Why?
Peter said "No, Lord" three times before he understood what God was doing. Is there an area of your life where conviction or comfort might be causing you to resist something God is showing you?
Darren said "we are not the missionaries, God is." How does that truth change the way you feel about sharing your faith?
Small Group Discussion
Read Acts 10 together. What details stand out to you that you hadn't noticed before?
Cornelius was devout, generous and prayerful, yet still on the outside of God's people. What do you think his search felt like? Have you known people (or been someone) in a similar place?
Why do you think Peter's vision was so confronting for him? What did the food laws represent, and what was God actually saying through the vision?
Peter invited the Gentile messengers to stay the night, and later entered a Gentile home. What boundaries or comfort zones might God be asking us to cross today?
When Peter arrived, he asked a question and let Cornelius share his story rather than launching straight into a sermon. What can we learn from that about how we talk with people exploring faith?
Darren pointed out that Peter was "converted" in this story too, saying "I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism." Where has God expanded or stretched your understanding of who he loves?
The Holy Spirit fell while Peter was still speaking. What does this story teach us about God's part and our part in mission? How does "we are not the missionaries, God is" take pressure off us?
Spend some time praying for one another: ask God to show each person who he is already at work in and who he might be nudging them towards, and pray for courage to take a step towards that person this week.