I love this story. It’s the story of the day the gates of the baby Christian church came crashing open and the first large group of non-Jews came in as believers. This was a huge change for Peter and the other Jewish believers—they found it almost impossible to believe that God would want to bring the Gentiles into His salvation the same way He brought them. How could the Jewish Messiah be the Savior for these foreigners, too?
God knew this was hard for them. So He made His point unmistakable. First He sent an angel to a Gentile man named Cornelius and ordered him to invite Peter to visit. Then God sent a vision to Peter Himself, so Peter would be willing to go. God repeated the vision three times, so I think He knew Peter was stubborn!
But when Peter finally got there, he told them about Jesus—how He lived, suffered, died, and rose again so that we could be forgiven for our evil. Right away the Holy Spirit fell on everyone who heard him speak—just the way it happened on the first Pentecost, when He came to the Jewish believers gathered in Jerusalem! It was too obvious to ignore. Peter had everybody baptized, and from then on, God’s church was open to everybody—Jews and Gentiles.
As we look back on this day, it’s a great time to think about who still needs to hear the Good News of Jesus. Our families? Our neighbors? Those foreigners? Our enemies? There is no human being God wants shut out from His kingdom. His love sends us to tell them all, so that they, too, can believe in Jesus.
WE PRAY: Lord, here I am. Send me—and since You know I am weak, You make things happen the way You want it to be. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.
Reflection Questions:
1. What kind of people go to your church right now?
2. Who do you have a hard time picturing in your church?
3. Ask the Lord to open your heart to those people, and pray for them.