The account of Peter preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to a Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius and his kinsman, has been called by some, Gentile Pentecost, because on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. The vast majority of us who are gathered together in the Name of Jesus, are the offspring of what God did here in Acts 10. But when we ponder the narrative in Acts 10 a bit closer, we discover a beautifully orchestrated plan of God that brought all of this to pass.

The Great Commission as we read it in Matthew’s gospel was, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matt 28:19). But up to this point in time, for the most part, the gospel was preached to and received by the Jews. So here in chapter 10 we see the Sovereign God moving upon the hearts of two men, one a Jew and another a God-fearing Gentile to set in motion this “beginning” of the spread of the gospel to the Gentile nations. The Jew, was none other than the apostle Peter, the Gentile, a Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius. As a result of two separate messages from heaven, we see these two men brought together by the mighty hand of God.

Overcoming religious taboos about being in company with Gentiles, and years of being taught to eat nothing that was not kosher, Peter goes to the house of Cornelius and begins preaching the gospel, we read, “and they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 10:45). Behind the scenes of one of the most important moves of God in the spreading of the gospel beyond Jerusalem, we see Him working in the lives of two men, who prior to the coming of Jesus Christ, would had nothing to do with one another. But by the end of this meeting, Peter and Cornelius would embrace one another as brothers in Jesus Christ and give all the glory to God.

Praise God for the power of the gospel that tears down the divisive walls of religious legalism and nationality distinctions. SELAH