Acts 10:1-33 - Homiletics

The indenture.

The meeting of Peter and Cornelius is one of those binges upon which, small as they seem at the moment, vast interests turn. It was one of those moments when revolutions in the whole state of human society are at the birth; when that is being unconsciously enacted by the doers which will powerfully affect mankind to the end of time and beyond it. From the call of Abraham to the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the covenanted mercies of God had been restricted within the narrow bounds of the Hebrew race. The very ordinances which were necessary to preserve them as a separate people, able to have the custody of the great truth of the unity of God, and of the great promise of a Messiah which should come, erected an impassable barrier between them and the rest of mankind. But this state of things was designed to be only temporary, and to pass away when it had accomplished the purpose for which it was set up. The time was to come when that knowledge of God which had been confined in the narrow reservoir of the Jewish people was to burst its embankment and flood the whole world with truth. But the embankments were very strong. The institutions which were intended to isolate the seed of Abraham had done their work well. The mind of the Jew was built in by a wall of prejudice, which it might have seemed impossible to break down. But it was to be broken down, and that by the band of God. The manner of doing it was remarkable. Among the things which powerfully persuade the human mind coincidences occupy a foremost place. An event which, happening alone, might not have any very commanding power, happening concurrently with another event which has distinct marks of special relation to it, acquires enormous influence. And when all possibility of human agency in producing the coincidence is removed, the sense of a Divine purpose falls irresistibly upon the mind, and with a peculiar energy of conviction. The edges of two events, wholly independent as far as the will of man goes, fitting into one another with the precision of the two edges of an indenture, produce the absolute certainty that the two events were foreordained of God, and have their unity in his eternal purpose. Such a coincidence broke down the barrier in Peter's mind between Jew and Gentile, and was the first beginning of that wonderful movement which transferred the religion of the Jews, purified and spiritualized, to the possession of the Gentile, and brought Japheth to dwell in the tents of Shem. Little did the good men whom Cornelius sent to Joppa think what would be the results of their embassy to Simon; and even Simon Peter, when he went with them to Caesarea, probably scarcely understood the magnitude of his errand. He opened the gates with the keys of his apostolic office, but scarcely realized the multitudes who would enter through them to the kingdom of heaven. To us there is something wonderfully instructive in standing where we can see the simultaneous events on both sides of the wall. The messengers of Cornelius wending their way to Joppa, to find the unknown teacher. Peter praying and seeing his vision, and perplexed about its meaning, in utter ignorance that the Italians were approaching his door and bringing its interpretation with them. Their arrival makes the vision plain, and the voice of the Spirit within him concurs with the voice of the men without. One sees at once the irresistible effect of such a coincidence in overcoming the strongest prejudices, and forcing upon a reluctant mind the conviction that duty lay in a hitherto untrodden path. "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life" was the just conclusion to which all who heard it were brought. And even so in our own lives, if we watch with a careful eye, shall we see many coincidences of a like nature giving us the clearest evidence of God's watchful care for us, revealing distinctly his hand and his purpose, and making our own path of duty clear in the light of his providential ordering. Sometimes it will be a coincidence between our thoughts and feelings and the events which come unexpectedly upon us; sometimes a coincidence between our own thoughts and the thoughts of others previously unknown to us. It may be some word of wisdom coming home to us at some crisis in our life; some guide sent to us at the very moment when we were in danger of losing our way; or some comfort poured into our heart by a stranger "in his simplicity;" but anyhow a coincidence in which the two edges of the indenture so manifestly fit into one another that we are constrained to hold our peace and to glorify God, and say, "This is God's work."