Acts 10:34-48
Dear RTB’ers,
My apologies for not posting yesterday. We had driven through the night, through hours of drenching rain and arrived at my sister’s, safe but tired. Posting was just not in me!
So, yesterday’s reading (Acts 9:43-10:33) – Peter and Cornelius. The story is relatively straightforward, an angel appearing to Cornelius and the Spirit speaking to Peter, all leading to today’s conclusion. First, a confusing statement, Peter speaking: Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him. (vv. 34-35) Obvious question: Gandhi…? Other “good” people? What does it mean to be “acceptable to Him”? How to reconcile Peter’s statement with Jesus’ own words, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) But this is a longer theological discussion!!
God raised Him on the third day and made Him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. (vv. 40-41) The Gospels only report on Jesus’ appearances with His disciples, but in reading about these appearances, Jesus is not appearing to anyone beyond His disciples. And Peter makes it clear here that Jesus appeared only to His disciples, which begs the question – why did Jesus not appear to anyone except His disciples? I’m imagining the impact He might have had if He had appeared to Pontius Pilate or to Annas or Caiaphas or other influential Jewish leaders. Look at the impact He had on Paul – and on the entire Christian Church to this day – when He appeared to him. But please bear with me – with all that, it is always clear to me that I am not God!! He did what He did for His purposes.
And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. (v. 45) This is a striking outcome, completely unexpected by Peter and his friends. A few years ago I posted about Cornelius’ “expectant faith” – that he had an expectation that things would be done according to what he believed God was doing. So here we have an example of an “un-expectation” – God “showed up” in the form of the Holy Spirit and surprised Peter and his friends. Unexpectant faith! God can and will show up when we least expect Him. That is, when there are “hard cases” out there where we don’t see any possibility for God to act – He can! Have you got anyone or anything in mind right now? Specific people? Ukraine? Israel/Hamas? Pray and wait, wait and pray. Thank you, Lord!
Blessings!
See also: November 25 (2023) / Acts 10-12