October 4, 2025 - Acts 10-11

Peter and Cornelius.  This story is full of so many lessons:  God’s salvation is for the whole world, not just for Jews.  The gospel is not bound to any one culture.  God will get the gospel to those who seek him.  The necessity of the gospel being preached or told by a messenger.  Like Peter, we can harbor cultural and ethnic biases that keep us from sharing the gospel.  Opposition sometimes comes to those who push the boundaries of gospel proclamation (some of the Jerusalem Jews opposed Peter’s preaching to Cornelius).

A thought comes to me.  We sometimes hear about “lifestyle evangelism” or as it is sometimes said, “Be careful how you live.  The only Jesus they might ever see in you is the Jesus they see in you."  There seems to be a bit of tension here, doesn’t there?  On the one hand, it really does matter how we live.  A life well lived will point others to the One who saves.  A life well lived according to God’s instructions will draw others.  Paul seems to be alluding to this truth when he writes, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15).  Yet, people must hear the gospel, not merely admire our lives.  The gospel must be told.  The gospel must be explained.  That’s what Paul is getting at in Romans 10 and what Peter did in these chapters.  “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (Romans 10:13-15)  It is good when we, like Peter and Paul, put on our shoes, so to speak, and go and tell the good news.

We’ve a story to tell to the nations

that shall turn their hearts to the right,

a story of truth and mercy,

a story of peace and light,

a story of peace and light.

For the darkness shall turn to dawning,

and the dawning to noonday bright,

and Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth—

the kingdom of love and light.   -- H. Ernest Nichol (1896)