Acts 10:45, commentary and pictures

The believing Jews who came with Peter to the house of Cornelius were astonished because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles also. While Peter was preaching Christ to attentive, prepared hearers the Spirit fell on all who heard and interrupted his discourse, and the gift was known because they spoke with tongues and magnified God just as the Jewish believers had at Pentecost. The equal outpouring showed that God accepted Gentiles who fear Him and do right, did not regard them as inferior, purified their hearts by faith, and tore down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. God thereby decided that Gentiles did not have to become Jews, be circumcised, or keep the ceremonial law to be accepted, yet receiving the Spirit did not take the place of baptism, so Peter commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. The conversion of Cornelius and his household was the first major conversion among the Gentiles and the first-fruits of a harvest to be gathered from the nations, opening an entirely new phase of the church's work and preparing the way for Paul's mission.

Setting and Visible Evidence

The believing Jews of the circumcision who came with Peter to the house of Cornelius were astonished because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles also. Their astonishment was at seeing Gentiles who heard the message receive the gift just as the Jewish believers had received it, which showed that God accepted Gentiles who feared Him and received the message about Jesus. That equal reception overcame Jewish prejudice by confirming that God was bringing the gospel to the Gentiles and receiving them into His people without treating them as unclean or excluding them because of nation, so that through Christ they could become fellow heirs and members of God's household.

The outpouring came while Peter was preaching Christ to a company of attentive hearers whose hearts were prepared to receive the gospel and who were charmed by the teaching. His preaching set forth the life, ministry, and miracles of Jesus, together with His betrayal, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and work in heaven as man's Representative and Advocate pleading for sinners. As he spoke the words of life to Cornelius and his company, the Spirit fell on all who heard the Word and interrupted the discourse.

The gift was known because the Gentiles were heard to speak with tongues and magnify God, showing they had received the Holy Spirit just as the Jewish believers had. That manifestation was just as at Pentecost, confirming that the Gentiles received the gift as believers had at the beginning. It was the same promised blessing and power given to the apostles in Acts 2, evidenced by speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance, which belongs to believers today.

The event stands in a chapter of divine guidance by vision, in which God instructed Peter and others what to speak, with the instruction repeated again and again. Angels were employed to communicate with human beings and were sent as powerful helpers of chosen messengers, with Cornelius directed to send to Joppa to find Peter. On the housetop Peter himself was being converted to God's purpose to the Gentiles, learning that the barriers between Jew and Gentile were to be taken away. That dealing with Peter as he was about to preach to the Gentiles is an example of God giving visions to comfort His people and to correct those who stray from Bible truth and are in error, while Scripture remains the rule of faith and practice and no new rule of faith is given.

Gentiles Accepted as Equals

The astonishment of the believing Jews came because the Holy Spirit was poured out on uncircumcised Gentiles who believed just as on circumcised Jews at the beginning, and the equal gift showed that God accepted Gentiles who feared Him and did what was right and did not regard them as inferior. Their hearts were purified by faith, and the overturning of prejudice and exclusiveness meant Peter could not withhold the gospel from them. The same gift was evidence that Christ's blood can cleanse Gentiles from all uncleanness just as it cleanses Jewish believers, cleansing people of every nation from uncleanness.

The outpouring proved that God was tearing down the middle wall of partition and that Christ had broken down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles, overcoming Jewish prejudice so that Gentiles who feared God and accepted the gospel were included in God's people without being treated as unclean or excluded because of nation. Though the barrier had been broken through Christ, it still remained in the minds of the apostles, and this first major conversion among the Gentiles showed they were to share equally in the blessings and privileges of the gospel. Those who accepted Jesus were received into His people as fellow heirs and members of God's household, with Jews and Gentiles alike precious to God and equal through Christ.

By this act God Himself settled that believing Gentiles did not have to become Jews to be received by Him, but are to be regarded as on perfect equality with Jewish disciples without the necessity of circumcision. Circumcision and the ceremonial law are not conditions for their acceptance into the church, and Gentiles could receive the gospel without first taking on Jewish ceremonial rites. This opened an entirely new phase in which the door many Jewish converts had closed against the Gentiles was thrown open, the barrier against their acceptance was removed, and Peter's mission helped break down the prejudices that had kept them apart.

Baptism and Church Recognition

The outpouring of the Spirit upon the Gentiles did not take the place of water baptism, for every true conversion requires faith and repentance followed by baptism. Seeing that Cornelius and those with him had received the Holy Spirit just as the Jewish believers had at Pentecost, Peter asked who could forbid water to them and commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord. Through that faith, repentance, and baptism, believers of the most diverse temperaments are united in one Lord, one faith, and one baptism and are brought under the same principles by sanctifying grace.

The gift itself was heaven's testimony that God had granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life. Yet the lesson was so hard for Jewish believers to accept that contention arose in the church at Jerusalem over Peter's course. Peter therefore went to Jerusalem and rehearsed his whole experience with Cornelius until the leaders could believe that the Lord would send His Holy Spirit to the uncircumcised.

His account convinced them that God Himself had decided the question of Gentile acceptance and was opening the gospel without the old distinction between circumcised and uncircumcised. To oppose that work would be to resist God, and the church's part was to follow the Spirit's guidance. The later council recognized that God had favored the Gentiles with the Spirit and rested its decision on enlightened judgment in following that guidance, not on any claim to infallibility.

The same promised blessing and power given at Pentecost, evidenced by speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance, was thus poured out in the house of Cornelius. That evidence corroborates that this experience belongs to believers today.

God Works Through People

More than one conversion is seen in the outpouring, for Peter himself was converted to God's purpose toward the Gentiles and learned that the barriers between Jew and Gentile were to be taken away. He was appointed to become the human instrument in the hands of heavenly agencies, so that heaven and earth are united in the work, with Jews and Gentiles joined by faith to Jesus Christ. Cornelius was a devout man who followed the light he had received, and he was brought into connection with Peter to learn more of Christ. Though accepted of God in devout piety, with acceptable prayers and alms, he still needed an advance in faith and a new experience to do his work intelligently through Jesus Christ, in whom all fullness dwells.

Neither prayer nor almsgiving can take the place of Christ Jesus, for all is complete only in Him. God heard the centurion's prayer and gave him directions to receive further light, telling him just where to find Peter staying with a tanner, with Simon the tanner. His plan was for chosen people to bring the gospel to those who needed it, making the connection through which the Gentiles could receive it, and this work depended on God's power, not human wisdom. God knew exactly where Peter was and told Cornelius every particular about finding him.

The gospel was not to be communicated by the angel directly, though the angel could have told it, for that is not God's way. The light God had given to Peter had to be imparted by Peter to Cornelius and his whole household and family, with Cornelius sending to Joppa and the two becoming acquainted in gospel missionary work. God's way is for His church to connect together, requiring believers to unify and love one another for Christ's sake. They are to deal justly, honestly, truly, gently, and righteously with one another, putting away hatred, false weights and measures, self-exaltation, and tearing one another down, letting God come into their midst and giving Him room. When they work on Christ's principles and the principles of heaven, the salvation of God is revealed.

Firstfruits of Wider Harvest

The conversion of Cornelius and his household was the first major conversion among the Gentiles and the firstfruits of a harvest to be gathered from the world and the nations. It marked the opening of the church's work to Gentiles and an entirely new phase when the door that many Jewish converts had closed against the Gentiles was thrown open. The believing Jews who came with Peter were astonished because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles also, showing that through Christ they shared equally in the blessings and privileges of the gospel and were to be regarded as on perfect equality with Jewish disciples without circumcision. Christ had broken down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles, though it still remained in the apostles' minds, and God carried forward His work in His own way, breaking down the prejudices of true believers to make them ready to be taught while working to enlighten all who love and fear Him even when they do not know all the truth. Those who hold to their own ideas and will not yield cannot be used but will be passed by for those willing to walk in the Lord's ways, for God sends His messengers and sets in operation a train of circumstances by heavenly ministration to bring inquiring souls into connection with those who can give them advanced light.

It happened while Peter was preaching Christ — His life, miracles, betrayal, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and work in heaven as man's representative and advocate — to attentive hearers whose hearts were prepared to receive the gospel and who were charmed by the teaching. The descent of the Spirit interrupted the discourse as He fell on all who heard, and the outpouring was known because the Gentiles spoke with tongues and magnified God. Peter undertook the duty laid on him by divine command with reluctance at every step, defending his action afterward not on general principles but as an exception done because of divine revelation, and the result was a great surprise to him and to those with him. From that household and that home a widespread work of grace was carried on in a heathen city. That widening anticipates the conversion of people from every nation and every social class through the Spirit's power, demonstrating that God accepts people from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.

Through Peter the gospel reached beyond the Jews to Cornelius, a Gentile centurion, so that salvation was no longer restricted to the chosen people. It was Peter's role to break through long-standing barriers and bring the gospel to the Gentile world, the Spirit being given to Gentiles as well as to Jews. The outpouring on Cornelius and his household convinced the apostles and leading believers in Jerusalem that God had granted the Gentiles repentance unto life, and so prepared the way for Paul's mission. Cornelius stands among earnest Gentiles who had longed and prayed for light from heaven, and when Christ was revealed to them they received Him gladly with joy. God so leads seekers into connection with disciples and makes them lightbearers who share the truth with others, and the same pattern will be seen in the last days.

Call to Seek and Reach

Those who have only a little light and few privileges, but who live up to the light they have, will receive more light and will advance with it when truth is presented as the Spirit of God leads. Gentiles who have not received the whole truth, but who serve God with sincere, earnest purpose, walking in all the light they have received, serve Him as acceptably as Jews. There are many such men as Cornelius in the world, precious jewels in this dark world of sin, souls much nearer the kingdom of heaven than is supposed.

In every age there are devout men who fear God and work on principles of righteousness that God accepts, even when they are not fully informed in regard to the truth for this time. For them God works as He worked for Cornelius, by visitation of angels from heaven and by placing them in connection with men of superior knowledge of His Word that they may obtain advanced light. God prepares the way for such true standard-bearers, taught by God and sanctified and ennobled through the truth, to take the place of those who were given a knowledge of Bible truth but disappointed Christ. He gives them strength to stand in true integrity, to testify by purity and nobility of character to the power of unadulterated principles, and to walk the path that leads to everlasting life, in contrast to those who profess faith all their lives yet lose spiritual discernment and are not made true by profession alone.

God carries forward His work in His own way, breaking down whatever prejudices true believers have had and making them ready to be taught by Him, while He works to enlighten all who love and fear Him even though they do not know all the truth. Those who hold to their own ideas and are unwilling to yield cannot be used but will be passed by for those willing to walk in the ways of the Lord. Heaven is much nearer to the Christian engaged in the work of soul-saving than many suppose, for God regards every human being. Each person is to treat his fellow man as one of the Lord's instrumentalities for accomplishing His work in the earth.

Readiness for personal effort is called for to bring such souls to the full light of truth, with courage from knowing that the agencies of heaven and angels of God are ever ready to cooperate with human agencies and guide His servants to them, showing the simplicity of the Lord's plans for the advancement of His work. In every age God sets circumstances in motion and works through His servants in various ways to bring honest hearts into connection with those of His people who can best reach their individual needs, using children with special knowledge in certain lines for one class of inquirers and those trained differently for another class. God directed Peter to bring light to a devout Gentile in a position of authority and stewardship responsibility whose sympathies were with God's people, displaying His compassion for those seeking truth and showing that they could be joined to His church.

Yet such men are held by the threads that bind them to the world and lack the moral courage to take their position with the lowly ones. Working for them is often a heavier cross than letting sympathy go out to the poorer and more lowly, yet special determined effort must be made to reach stewards in trust because of the responsibilities they bear and the temptations that come to them in their positions, instead of letting the work drift into securing only the poorest. It is the Lord's design that earnest, devoted, determined work be done for associations outside the faith, such as temperance societies, so that light may shine to souls as honest as Cornelius. Through that work those who are seeking light may be gathered out from those who are bitterly opposed to the message God is giving to the world.