The Need for Conversion
Download MP3If you would, open your bibles to Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10. We're actually gonna read the entire chapter. This is a fairly long story. It's gonna take us a couple of weeks to get through this.
Joel Brooks:Acts chapter 10 beginning in verse 1. At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort. A devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God. About the 9th hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and said, what is it Lord?
Joel Brooks:And he said to him, your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner whose house is by the sea. When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called 2 of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him. And having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
Joel Brooks:The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the house top about the 6th hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, But when they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened, and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its 4 corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air, And there came a voice to him, rise Peter. Kill and eat. But Peter said, by no means Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
Joel Brooks:And the voice came to him again a second time. What god has made clean, do not call common. This happened three times. And the thing was taken up at once to heaven. And while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood at the gate and called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was lodging there.
Joel Brooks:And while Peter pondered the vision, the spirit said to him, behold, 3 men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them. And Peter went down to the men and said, I'm the one you're looking for. What is the reason for your coming? And they said, Cornelius a centurion, an upright and God fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you, to come to his house, and to hear what you have to say.
Joel Brooks:So he invited them in to be his guests. The next day, he rose and went away with them and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. And on the following day, they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him.
Joel Brooks:But Peter lifted him up saying, stand up, I too am a man. And he talked with him. He went in and found many persons gathered. And he said to them, you yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit any one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.
Joel Brooks:So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I asked then why you sent for me. And Cornelia said, 4 days ago about this hour, I was praying in my house at the 9th hour and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius, your prayers have been heard and your alms have been remembered before the Lord. Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner by the sea.
Joel Brooks:So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore, we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. So Peter opened his mouth and said, 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. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all.
Joel Brooks:You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning with Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
Joel Brooks:But God raised him on the 3rd 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. And he commanded us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead. To him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
Joel Brooks: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. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. God, we ask that you honor the reading of your word. Your words alone bring life. It's why we take time to read, and to listen, and to be quiet before you. We want to hear from you, Lord.
Joel Brooks:God, I pray that my words would fall to the ground in this moment. But Lord, your words would remain, and they would change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. In the first few chapters of Axe, as we have seen, there's been massive amounts of conversions.
Joel Brooks:1,000 come to believe, I mean right after Pentecost, you have 1,000 coming to believe and then within another matter of days, more 1,000 come to believe. And so we see all these mass conversions, but then as we've moved on, Luke who's writing this, he narrows his focus to just individual conversions. We got to see how God used Philip to reach the Ethiopian eunuch, and how he was converted. We got to see how the Lord met Saul on the road to Damascus and converted him. And tonight we're gonna see how Peter is sent to Cornelius to convert him.
Joel Brooks:Now for those outside of the Christian faith, maybe for the the modern secular person, they might have a hard time understanding conversions. And and some people outside of the Christian faith might have a problem with a number of the conversions that we have looked at in the book of Acts. A matter of fact, each conversion we see becomes more problematic. The first conversion is not that bad. You have Philip converting the eunuch because there you see a spiritually searching man.
Joel Brooks:You see a hurting man. He's he's emotionally hurting, he's spiritually hurting, he's actively seeking answers. And when Philip comes by, he invites Philip in to come and talk to me, please. And then he decides to become a Christian. And so there's not really a problem there for a modern secular person because after all, the eunuch asked for help, and he was hurting, and if Christianity fills that void in his life and makes him feel better and he asked for it, fine.
Joel Brooks:The second conversion we get to is a little more problematic though because Saul isn't asking for help. He's not seeking it. He's also a murderer. He would arrest and he would torture and he would murder people. And people have a big problem with thinking, well God can just forgive people like that, wipe away all of these heinous sins, and somehow people like that go to heaven.
Joel Brooks:I'm sorry, I have a problem with with people like that being converted. Just like I would have problems with, with people being converted on death row. Why is it on death row people suddenly find Jesus? And all of a sudden, now you're saying they're forgiven. There's a clean slate.
Joel Brooks:They're going to heaven. I don't buy that. I don't believe that. God doesn't change people like that. But perhaps the most offensive conversion we have in the book of Acts is in the story we just read.
Joel Brooks:The conversion of Cornelius. Let me tell you, nothing makes the the modern secular person's blood boil more than a conversion story like this. Because Cornelius was a good, upright man. He worked hard at his job. He was respected by his employees and peers.
Joel Brooks:He gave generously to those who were in need. He seems to be a, you know, a fully functional, happy, content person. There there doesn't seem to be, at least on the surface, any reason for Cornelius to change or to be asked to change. And then this Christian comes up to him and says, hey, I know you've lived a good life. I know that you're a good person, but you need to be saved.
Joel Brooks:You need Jesus as your Lord and savior. And those outside of the Christian faith might look at that and be be offended by that. You know, when a when a modern secular person hears about us sending missionaries overseas to to places, maybe to, to tribes in Africa where they're content, where they're happy. And we come in and we say, but you need Jesus as your lord. They get angry at us for telling them that they need to change.
Joel Brooks:Why do they need to change? Why are you so arrogant? Why are you so pushy? Why are you so insensitive to these people? Those are the questions we might get.
Joel Brooks:The world doesn't like conversion stories like this. Yet here in this story, we see Peter going to another culture and telling a good man, a really good man, a devout man that he needs to be converted. And this story is it's of huge importance to Luke. It's the longest narrative that we have in the entire book of Acts, which right there, it tells you how important Luke thinks the story is. But not only that, you have everything like the vision is repeated 3 times.
Joel Brooks:And then throughout the story, you have the story repeated over and over. When you get through chapter 11, the whole thing's repeated again. Multiple times this is being repeated. It's almost like Luke is just trying to hammer this story and these points honed to us. So you have to ask why.
Joel Brooks:Why? What why is this story so important? The story reveals to us a lot about conversion and a lot about the mission of the church. Let's unpack this. The story begins with an angel visiting Cornelius and telling him to send for Peter.
Joel Brooks:We get that great description of Cornelius and just really a few verses. Go back to chapter 10 verse 1. It says there was Cornelius, a centurion who was known as the Italian cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. Now, I don't know many Christians that I would describe that well. Mean, this is a great guy.
Joel Brooks:I mean, a God fearer, gives generously, prays continuously. He's a good man by every person's account. So then God sends an angel to him and tells him something surprising. The angel does not tell Cornelius, you know what, God has heard your prayers. And you know what, He's impressed.
Joel Brooks:He's impressed with what you're doing. So he he sent me here to tell you, good job. I'll see you in heaven. Or he does this in the angel to come and and say, you know what? You're doing a good work.
Joel Brooks:Keep it up. Or you're doing a really good work, but there's just a few little things you've got wrong. Just just some minor little tweaks you need to do, and if you you just tweak it a little bit here and there, then you're gonna be fine. Know God sends his angel to Cornelius because Cornelius needs to repent, and Cornelius needs to be converted. Despite all of his goodness, his heart had not been changed.
Joel Brooks:To be converted means you are utterly transformed from the inside out. You're a new person. The language that Jesus would use is you must be born again. I'm actually, it's a very similar story when you go back to John 3 and you see Jesus encountering Nicodemus. Nicodemus was, by all accounts, an upright man.
Joel Brooks:He loved the law of God. He he he was a teacher of Israel. He was very respectful when he talked to Jesus. He said this to Jesus. He said, Rabbi, we we know that you are a teacher from God and that no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with you.
Joel Brooks:I mean, that's very respectfully acknowledging Jesus. I mean, you have incredible signs. God is obviously with you. And Jesus looks at Nicodemus and all of his goodness, and in all the respect he's given him, and he says this, truly truly I say to you, and Nicodemus, listen, you will never hear truer words. Unless one is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
Joel Brooks:You have to be born again. So despite all of your credentials, your good works, or despite all of your respect, you've got to be converted. And that's exactly what's going on in Cornelius. With Cornelius, he has to be converted. Look at chapter 11 at verse 13.
Joel Brooks:This is when the story, one of the many repeats of the story, and Peter is recounting his conversation with Cornelius to the apostles. And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, sent to Joppa and bring Simon who was called Peter. He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved. You and all your household. The angel said, you need a message.
Joel Brooks:A message needs to come to you in order that you will be saved, implying you're not saved. You're not you need to hear some news. And when you receive this news you will be saved. Probably about 10 years ago now, I I went to Belize for the first time. And I went to just some villages and some of the remotest jungles in Belize, and I had the opportunity to share Christ with people who had never heard the name of Jesus ever.
Joel Brooks:And it was such a thrill to be able to just walk through the Bible and the gospel with these people. And I came back and I was really excited about being able to do that, and I'm sharing with one of my neighbors who is not a Christian. And I could just see their face fall. Why would you do that to them? I mean, why?
Joel Brooks:I mean, they they were happy. They were fine. And sure enough, when I went there, I have never seen more generous people in my life than the people who live there in Belize. They they shared everything in common, kind of like what you would read in acts 2 or in acts 4. Everything, they just shared with one another.
Joel Brooks:And yet, I needed to bring Jesus to them. Why? The story here tells us why we as a church do missions. Why why missions, I hope, is at the heart, of everything we do, why we spend so much time, why we spend so much money on missions, why, you know, last week we, we prayed for Kate Dafunia as she left for Honduras. She arrived there yesterday.
Joel Brooks:Well, a few weeks earlier, we prayed for Sarah Dunn as she was going to Uganda. As we've prayed for Chris Kristen Slaughterbeck as she went to Mexico. As we've sent these missionaries from us, why do we do that? Why do we meet in a gym instead of having a nice building and so we could use money to go to missions? Why do we have this beautiful overhead projector here?
Joel Brooks:Yeah, why why do we use that? You know, for those of you who weren't here at in the beginning, that's what we used to use. We we had like $1,000 we we were budgeting for for a projector, and that sold us for $5 on the side of the road. And I was like, that's $995 to missions. $5.
Joel Brooks:Alright, and we use that, then somebody donated us that other projector that is not as reliable as this one. $5 goes a long way. But but why are we always trying to think along these lines? How can we give more to really understand, and I am positive there's people outside these walls who don't understand, people like my neighbor who's like, that is so insensitive. Why would you do that?
Joel Brooks:The story tells us why. We do not share our faith in order to make people become better people. That is not why we share our faith. We do not go out and share our faith with wife beaters, with murderers, with drug dealers, and hopes that they will change. That's not our motivation.
Joel Brooks:That to make them better people. Now hopefully, they will become better people. Paul certainly became a better person after he became converted, but that's not why we share Christ with people. And let me tell you, Cornelius was already a really good person. You can have good morals apart from Jesus.
Joel Brooks:There are many Muslims, there are many Buddhists, there are many Hindus, there are many atheists who all are really good people with good morals. That's not why we share our faith. But we do not share our faith in order to make people happy. There are many people out there living happy lives who've never even heard the name of Jesus. Just like when I went to that village in Belize.
Joel Brooks:They seem perfectly happy. They've never even heard his name. Cornelius seems happy. He seems content. He hadn't heard the gospel.
Joel Brooks:Now I do believe Jesus can make you happy or Jesus can give you a fullness of joy. Yes. And you saw that in the conversion of the eunuch. That eunuch who was so dejected, who was so spiritually dissatisfied, Christ came in, met that need, and he's he's bursting with joy. And you see that over and over in scripture.
Joel Brooks:That's not the primary reason we share our faith. Jesus himself tells us why we share our faith with others. I could go a number of places. I'm just gonna pull out 2. In Matthew chapter 11, Jesus says this, no one knows the son except the father, and no one knows the father except the son.
Joel Brooks:And anyone to who the son chooses to reveal him, Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jesus says, no one knows God but me. No one. So if you want to know God, you have to know Jesus. He would say it in another way in John 14 when he says, I am the way and the truth and the life.
Joel Brooks:No one comes to the father except through me. Jesus does not say, no one can live a happy life except through me. No one can be a generous person except through me. Nobody can be a moral person except through me. Nobody can have some kind of purpose in their life except through me.
Joel Brooks:He does not say that. What he says is that nobody can come to the father. No one can know God apart from Jesus. No one can have a relationship with him, and that is why we share our faith, because there's no other name under heaven whereby men must be saved. I wanna unpack this more in the weeks ahead.
Joel Brooks:2 things happen when Cornelius and everyone else gathers around here, and they hear this message. 2 things, actually more. We're gonna limit it to 2. 22 things that need to happen to us as well if they have not happened already. Chapter 10 verse 44.
Joel Brooks:While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 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, for they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. So Peter, he's preaching his message and he doesn't even get to finish his message. He does hit the main points there, and then the Holy Spirit just falls. He falls.
Joel Brooks:And everyone there is filled with the spirit. At conversion, the Spirit of God comes and takes the truth about Jesus and he turns it into an experience about Jesus. That's conversion. When he takes the truth about Jesus and he turns it into an experience of Jesus, it's when you have an objective reality now becomes a subjective reality. You actually encounter the Lord.
Joel Brooks:That happens at conversion. And so when you hear the message about the the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus, and you hear his lordship proclaimed, you're person as the spirit comes in you and dwells. To be converted is to experience the risen Christ in your life. It's it's not like choosing a political party. That's not I think some people think that's what Christianity is like.
Joel Brooks:You know, you, you weigh all your options, maybe put all the religions out on the table, you know, pros, cons, you know, this, yes, this can work here. I'm going to choose Christianity. I I will now be a Christian. It it it is not like that. Conversion means you have met with the living Lord, And he has sent his spirit into you to dwell.
Joel Brooks:If you have not experienced Christ, you very well might not be converted. The the second thing that we see that happens here is that they all speak in tongues, and they praise God. Now if we had time I'd unpack that. We have time. I know there's a number of you who want to hear what I have to say about this.
Joel Brooks:So let me tell you what's going on here. This is not the type of tongues that you're going to read about later in 1st Corinthians, in which it's these, you know, ecstatic utterances, this, speaking in a angelic language. What's being described here is real languages. Real languages. It says in verse 47, chapter 10 47, says, can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.
Joel Brooks:Go to chapter 11 verse 15. He says, As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And so, he's saying that when he sees the Holy Spirit fall, and he sees the evidence of that speaking in tongues, he's like, this is exactly like it happened with us in the beginning, which is Pentecost. And if you remember at Pentecost, when when tongues of fire come and rest on these apostles and they are filled with the spirit, and Peter rushes out of that room and he begins to proclaim Jesus. He begins to praise and to preach Jesus.
Joel Brooks:If he had spoken in Hebrew, everyone there would have thought, oh I get it. This is a Jewish thing. If he had gone out and he had spoken in Greek, they said, oh, okay. I I get it. This is a this is a Greek thing.
Joel Brooks:But but instead he goes out there and he proclaims and everybody hears it in their own language. And so they think, oh this is a world thing. This is a every nation, tongue, tribe thing. That this gospel message that Jesus is Lord, He's not just Lord of the Jews, He's not just Lord of the Greeks, He is Lord over all. Everybody.
Joel Brooks:And they hear that message, and that is unique in Christianity. It's not like if, if you're a Muslim, the Quran can only be read in Arabic. It can't be ever be translated and still be considered the Quran. Their faith only works in one culture. Christianity says, no, the word of God can be spoken, can be communicated in every culture and every tongue.
Joel Brooks:And that's fundamental to Christianity, and that is what you're seeing here. It says that they begin speaking in all different languages extolling God. So they're praising God just like what happened at Pentecost. They're praising God in all the different languages, realizing that this is the Lord of everyone. So if you have been converted, and this is the one thing Luke is pounding in, if you have been converted, your heart's desire is to see God praised in every language and in every culture.
Joel Brooks:If you are converted, that becomes your heart's desire. And it might take time, maybe if you have some prejudices or something like that, it might take time to override that. Peter is a work in progress because it happened at Pentecost. He kinda forgot it. He's got this dream, you know, that of of all these unclean animals, and he's telling the Lord, I'm not gonna do it.
Joel Brooks:Lord, I'm not gonna do it. You know, it's an oxymoron to say, Lord, and then say no. But he keeps saying it. Lord, I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it.
Joel Brooks:And God said, hey, your identity is not being Jewish. Your identity is being my child, and my child is every tribe and nation. It's time for you to join the club, Peter. And when he gets there, he still has stumbling blocks. Later, Paul is gonna have to rebuke him to his face because he's still refusing, to to really sit and eat with the Gentiles in the presence of the Jews.
Joel Brooks:But if you're converted, God overcomes that. If you're truly converted, your heart's desire is to see god praise in every language and culture, and you're gonna share that joy, share that message out of utter joy. I I I enjoy praising my wife, the one I love. I enjoy that. I compliment her probably too much.
Joel Brooks:But when when I the reason I do it is because it gives me joy. I don't know if it does anything for her, but it gives me great joy. And the only other thing that's even better than that for me is when I hear other people compliment her. Her. When I hear other people praise my wife and my presence, man, there is nothing that makes me feel better.
Joel Brooks:That's what worship is. That's what missions is. That's why it becomes your heart's desire to see as many people declaring the worth of the one you now love, and you wanna bring everybody on board to declare it. Worship is our fuel for missions. And that's why as a church, we can talk about using, you know, the little projector here, and, and and I can tell mission strategies, and I could preach a whole lot about missions.
Joel Brooks:But you know what I can primarily do? The best thing we could do as a church to give us fuel for missions, to make us a mission minded church is simply to lift up Jesus and to show He is beautiful. It's to preach the gospel. And the more and more I preach that, the more the more you understand that you will, in you because you're converted, you will want people to share in the praise. You will want to hear that praise from every tongue, tribe, and nation.
Joel Brooks:Worship becomes our fuel. And I pray that we will have a lot of fuel in the years ahead. Pray with me. God, there is so much in your word. Every week, I feel like I've I've I've gotten my little fingernail and I've just kinda scraped over the surface.
Joel Brooks:God, take us deeper. God, as we leave here, may may the words we have heard not just fall away. May you take us deeper. Deeper into you, deeper into your word. God, we share.
Joel Brooks:We we have a passion to share you because we're in love with you, because you've changed and you've converted our hearts. And nothing gives us more joy than to see your name honored throughout all of the world. God, we don't share our faith so people will be better people, so people will be happy, so people will become wise. That's not it. We share because you're glorious.
Joel Brooks:We share because we all need to be saved. Lord, I pray that you would press that in on us in this moment. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
