April 24, 2016 Peter and Cornelius’ Conversion Acts 10v1-48; 11v1-18

Connect

1. With which historical wall are you most familiar, and what were your thoughts when that wall came down? (Berlin Wall, Iron Curtain, Apartheid)

2. Describe the “walls” of division that existed in your middle school or high school experience. Who were the “insiders”? Who were the “outsiders”? Where did you fit in? Where did you feel left out?

3. How did the message this weekend resonate with your own experience with “walls”?

Review

In the very beginning of the church, Jesus shows clearly that he wanted the gospel to go to into every culture and national grouping of people. Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (1:8). On Pentacost, the Holy Spirit came down and initiated the first worship service of the empowered New Testament church. And that first service was multi-lingual and the audience was multi-cultural. Despite all these clear signals from God, the early church was almost exclusively Jewish, and even the apostles were slow to see that Gentiles were to be included in the church as equals.

In Acts 10 we read about Peter’s reluctant mission to the Roman Centurian, Cornelius. Whereas Cornelius had to be converted to Christ, Peter still needed to be converted in his thinking — to see that implications of the gospel of grace for the breaking down of cultural and racial barriers between people. So the “conversion” of Peter is as important as the conversion of Cornelius in these chapters.

Engage

1. Read 10:1-8, 22, 34-35. Cornelius is an example of a “good man” without the gospel. What do these verses teach us about such a person?

2. Cornelius, despite all his goodness and desire for God, did not have “life”. 11:18 tells us that only after hearing the gospel was he granted life — i.e. eternal life. Why would such a good man need to be “converted”?

3. Read 10:9-23. How does God break down Peter’s racial/cultural prejudices?

“By choosing and blessing [the Jews] he intended to bless all the families of the earth (Gen.12:1-4)... The tragedy was that Israel twisted this doctrine of election into one of favoritism, became filled with racial pride and hatred, despised the Gentiles as ‘dogs’, and developed traditions that kept them apart. No orthodox Jew would ever enter the home of a Gentile...all familiar intercourse with Gentiles was forbidden...” - John Stott

4. What is the significance of speaking in other tongues on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2)? What is the significance here (Acts 10:44-48)?

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:28

5. Read Ephesians 2:14-17. What is the wall that is derived in the Ephesian passage? What role does Jesus play with that wall and why? What is the result of Jesus’ involvement with the wall?

Apply

1. What kinds of “walls” have well-meaning Christians built in order to be separate/ create distance from others?

2. Identify at least three “walls” that you have built over the course of your own life?

3. What is a “wall in your life that is still standing and needs to be brought down?

4. Jesus breaks down walls. To what extend do the people in your life see you doing the same?

Pray

Jesus, you came to bear the weight of our hostility toward you and one another. You bore that pan and broke its weight with your death on the cross. Thank you for your grace. Help us to live with gratitude and humility and peace toward one another so that the world will know your gift of reconciliation and love.