Peter Meets Cornelius

Peter meets Cornelius

Tuesday after the First Sunday after Trinity

And the following day they entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them, and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I myself am also a man.” And as he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together. Then he said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. I ask, then, for what reason have you sent for me?” So Cornelius said, “Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms are remembered in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa and call Simon here, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea. When he comes, he will speak to you.’ So I sent to you immediately, and you have done well to come. Now therefore, we are all present before God, to hear all the things commanded you by God” (Acts 10:24-33).

Peter preached to the masses at Pentecost and 5,000 Christians were made. These were foreigners from many different countries, but they were all there for the feast of Pentecost; they were all Jews. Gentiles were a different story. How should they be treated? Could they jump right into the the Way, without first becoming a Jew? It shouldn’t be surprising that this issue came up. The Israelites were instructed to separate themselves from the Gentiles, or the nations, and given special laws to govern them civilly, ceremonially, and morally, to mark them as different. Paul, at one point, calls out Peter for his hypocrisy regarding interacting with Gentiles,

For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.[1]

God granted a vision to both the Apostle Peter, and to Cornelius the centurion. They were, however, different visions. Peter’s was a direct prophetic revelation from God. God showed Peter a bunch of unclean animals and told him, “Kill and eat.” Upon meeting Cornelius, Peter explains that, in this vision,

“…God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.”[2]

Peter is shown by God in this vision that God is the God of the gentiles as well as the Jews; In Christ there is not Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female for in Christ Jesus we are all one.[3]

The vision God gave to Cornelius was different. He was basically told to talk to Peter, and Peter would tell him what he needed to know. God used supernatural means to direct Cornelius to the Apostle. Why? Why not just give Cornelius the Gospel through a direct revelation? The answer is simple, if not entirely obvious: God does not wish to deal with man except through His outward Word. Jesus promised to give special revelation, and special spiritual gifts like tongue-speaking and healing, to the Apostles. He said those signs would accompany them, and act as a confirmation that the Word they proclaimed was true. He did not make such a promise to everyone. The episode of Peter and Cornelius demonstrates to us that God’s preferred method of converting men is through the means of the Word, baptizing and teaching, in no particular order.

Our Lord could have easily done to Cornelius what He did to Paul. Jesus could have appeared to Him, converted Him in a glorious and terrible flash of light, and personally taught him all the things he needed to know. He didn’t do that. That kind of communication was reserved for the Apostles, like Peter and Paul. Our Lord pointed Cornelius to Peter, a preacher of the Gospel, one of the sent-ones whose job it was to proclaim God’s Word to all people throughout the whole world.

We are not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for all who believe, for the Jew first, then for the Gentile.[4] And we know that faith comes from the preaching, and preaching through the Word of Christ.[5]

Cornelius, living among the Jews, had heard long before about the coming Messiah, through whom he was righteous before God. In such faith, his prayers and alms were acceptable to God (since Luke calls him God-fearing). Without the Word coming first and without hearing it, he could not have believed or been righteous.[6]

After Peter preaches the Word to Cornelius and his household, a miracle happens: another Pentecost. God the Holy Spirit manifests outwardly in the speaking of tongues by those on whom He fell. Then, baptism for the whole household: “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”[7] Baptism accompanies this preaching and teaching because, the baptizing and teaching must never be separated. They go together. They are both forms of the outward Word.

Whether it be through the proclamation of the Word in preaching, or the outward Word and promise of God of the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life in Christ’s death and resurrection joined to water, or bread and wine,

we must firmly hold that God grants His Spirit or grace to no one except through or with the preceding outward Word (Galatians 3:2, 5).[8]

The Word proclaimed by our faithful pastors from the pulpit is this same efficacious, outward Word that Peter proclaimed to Cornelius and his household. The baptism we have received, the promise that by the death and resurrection of Christ our sins have been washed away, and we have put on Christ, received the Holy Spirit, and eternal life, is the same as theirs also. Just as it did then, the outward Word creates faith in the hearts of men by the working of the Holy Spirit.

Do not despise preaching and God’s Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it. It is the means through which God works repentance and faith; it is the means through which He works to break our hearts and bring us to repentance for our sins, and draws us to Him through Christ, who died as the ransom for the sin of the world, and rose again. Hear the Word, repent, and believe the Gospel. Christ has redeemed you, a lost and condemned person, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, and by His innocent suffering and death. He applies this redemption to us through the outward Word: His means of Word and Sacrament.

Bibliography

McCain, Paul T, Robert C Baker, Gene E Veith, and Edward A Engelbrecht. Concordia, The Lutheran Confessions: A Reader's Edition of the Book of Concord. 1st. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005.

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[1] Galatians 2:11

[2] Acts 10:28

[3] Galatians 3:28

[4] Romans 1:16

[5] McCain, Paul T, Robert C Baker, Gene E Veith, and Edward A Engelbrecht, Concordia, The Lutheran Confessions: A Reader's Edition of the Book of Concord. 1st. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005. Romans 10:17, quoted from FC SD II, 51

[6] McCain, et. al. Concordia, The Lutheran Confessions, SA III, VIII, 8

[7] Acts 10:47

[8] McCain, et. al., Concordia, The Lutheran Confessions, SA III VIII 3

The Name of Jesus Forbidden

Icon of the Resurrection

June 18, 2019 - Tuesday after Trinity 

Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand... Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it... So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done (Acts 4:1-4, 13-14, 18-21).

Read Acts 4 here.

The Sadducees were offended that the Apostles were teaching the resurrection of the dead. They were the ones whom Jesus silenced, along with the Pharisees and the Scribes, the account of which is recorded in Matthew 22. The Sadducees come up with this ridiculous illustration of a married man who dies, leaving his wife to be married to his succession of brothers. The brothers also die, each leaving the woman a widow. They ask the sarcastic question,

“Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.”[1]

The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection, and may have even denied the immortality of the soul; unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees only accepted the Torah (the first five books of the Bible, known as the Books of Moses) as authoritative scripture.[2] Matthew records Jesus silencing the Sadducees saying,

“You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”[3]

In arguing with Jesus about the resurrection, the Sadducees treat it as an absurd idea. Jesus, using scripture only from the Torah, interestingly enough, asserts the resurrection as a fact: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. He quotes Moses, an authority the Sadducees recognize, to make the point that,

Though at Moses’ time the patriarchs were long dead, God identifies Himself as being their God. Only living people can have a God; therefore, if He is their God, they are alive, their souls are with Him, and their bodies will be raised.[4]

We live in the same world Peter and John lived in. We like to think ours is different and better than theirs, but it isn’t. In terms of hostility to the Gospel, things remain the same. We do not have the Sadducees to mock the resurrection, but there are plenty of others who are just as triggered by any such preaching, and forbid the name of Jesus. 

We tend to think that the ancients were less intelligent than we modern folk; if we are being charitable, we might say they were limited in their understanding of the natural world. The word primitive comes to mind. Our modern life certainly looks different from the life of the 1^st Century Roman Empire; I like my air conditioning and my internet, and don’t want to trade them for life in that society. But modern technology, while it makes life more comfortable and convenient, does not change the nature of man. The Sadducees rejected the resurrection because they didn’t believe the scriptures; they rejected Christ, just like people who are faithless and resist the Holy Spirit today. Peter and John weren’t preaching the resurrection because they had a primitive understanding of science, or were superstitious, or were uneducated. They proclaimed Christ crucified and risen from the dead because they saw Him alive after He died on the cross. They knew it to be true. They knew it was true for them, and for the whole world, that Jesus paid the ransom for sin, and in Christ they would have forgiveness and eternal life. No amount of ridicule, persecution, no threat of beatings, imprisonment, or death by the most horrific means, could dissuade them from making disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching all that Jesus commanded.

That is precisely what happened. The Apostles were all murdered for their faith, with the exception of John, who suffered imprisonment and exile. This is a profound piece of information that strengthens the credibility of Christianity. The fact that a person who believes a religion may be willing to die for that religion doesn’t prove that that religion is true. There are plenty of Muslims who are willing to seek out death for Islam. The Apostles, however, were either first-hand witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus, or perpetrators of the biggest hoax in history. I have not met the man who was willing to die for something he knew to be a lie. If the Apostles had stolen Jesus’ body and made up the resurrection, that would be them. Men have been willing to die for causes and ideas in which they believed that were later discredited, like National Socialism, or which way the toilet paper should be put on the roll (the proper way is over the front, as this link will decisively prove once and for all). I have never heard of a man who was willing to submit to a gruesome death by torture for a claim they knew to be false, rather than to renounce it and live.

The Apostles went joyfully to their beheadings, crucifixions, stoning, and burnings. They were tortured and fed to wild animals for the entertainment of the pagan masses. To avoid it, all they had to do was say they were lying, that they made it all up. Sure, they would be ridiculed and ostracized, but if this life is all that there is, wouldn’t that be preferable to a painful death? But they couldn’t deny Jesus. They saw Him, the one who lives, and was dead, and is alive forevermore, the one who has the keys of death and the grave, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.[5] Jesus had conquered sin and death, and promised them eternal life. In the grand scheme of things, for the sake of eternity in a new and perfect creation without sin or death, with a new and perfect body, living in relation to God as man was intended, what is a little bodily suffering here in this veil of tears?

This is the faith created in the Apostles through the Word, by the working of the Holy Spirit. It is the same faith that lives in us by the same means. We look forward to the same things they looked forward to. They saw and believed. We have heard their account, attested to by their signs and wonders, and believed: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”[6]

The world is sorely grieved

Whenever it is slighted

Or when its hollow fame

And honor have been blighted.

Christ, Thy reproach I bear

Long as it pleaseth Thee;

I’m honored by my Lord - What is the world to me![7]

The world with wanton pride

Exalts its sinful pleasures

And for them foolishly

Gives up the heavenly treasures.

Let others love the world

With all its vanity;

I love the Lord, my God - What is the world to me![8]

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[1] Matthew 22:28

[2] Harrison, Everett F, Geoffrey W Bromiley, and Carl F Henry,. Wycliffe Dictionary of Theology. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1990.

[3] Matthew 22:29-32

[4] Engelbrecht, Rev. Edward A., ed. The Lutheran Study Bible. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009.

[5] Revelation 1:18, 8

[6] John 20:29

[7] Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. The Lutheran Hymnal. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941. Hymn #430, stz. 5

[8] Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. The Lutheran Hymnal. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941. Hymn #430, stz. 6

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

Thursday after Pentecost

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him” (John 14:1-7).

Earlier, Thomas declared that he would die with Jesus.[1] Now, even after all the time Jesus and the disciples have spent together, he cannot see who Jesus is, and what His work on earth was. His problem seemed to be the same as the rest of the disciples; they could not rationally understand how Jesus could be the savior they thought He was, and also die a humiliating death: How could Jesus be the Messiah if He was murdered before He could set up His kingdom?

The dark spot in the mind of Thomas was his inability to follow the mission and work of Jesus beyond the boundary of death. For him the mission of Jesus was an earthly kingdom (Acts 1:6) – how, then, could Jesus retire to heaven; and how could there be a way to this kingdom that would lead via heaven? So Thomas grows downhearted like one who is lost in the dark.[2]

The disciples, like the rest of the Jews of Jesus’ day, were expecting a political Messiah.[3]^,[4] They expected the Messiah instantly to sweep away the old order of things; He would remove the boot of Roman rule from the neck of the Israelites; He would restore the house of David to a physical throne, and the kingdom of Israel would be a mighty nation once more. The disciples did not yet realize that Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world.[5]

Phillip asks Jesus to show them the Father. Jesus must have been quite frustrated by His disciples’ lack of understanding. He spent all this time with them, showing them works from the Father.[6] He explained to them that He was the incarnate Word,[7] the exact representation of the Father,[8] and they still didn’t get it. They still didn’t know Jesus. It wouldn’t be until after His resurrection that they would see Jesus through the eyes of faith.

We have the same problem. Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” How can we know Jesus? How could His words here apply to us today? The disciples could meet, see, touch, and talk to Jesus. They heard His teaching and saw His mighty works. How is this possible, though, for us living today? Are we not merely relegated to knowing only about Jesus? If Jesus of Nazareth was merely a man, His death on the cross would be the end of the story. Not only would it be pointless to try to “know” Jesus, it would be impossible. To us He would be nothing more than an historical figure, about which we could only memorize factual information. While Jesus did die on the cross on Good Friday, He did not stay in the grave; Jesus, God in human flesh, rose from the dead on the third day and, because He lives, we who believe in Him will also live.

Because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden, sin entered God’s perfect creation; creation was cursed and our human nature was changed. Jesus voluntarily humbled Himself by becoming a man, to save mankind. He was born of the Virgin Mary and was without the stain of sin. He identified Himself with sinful man as He was baptized by John in the Jordan River; He assumed responsibility for our sin; He endured temptation, just as all men must, but He lived a perfect life; He kept all of God’s law, and died as the ransom for our sin.[9] God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.[10] The author of Hebrews writes this:

Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death…For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people.[11]

Christ, our living Savior restored the relationship between God and man. Jesus gives His gifts of life and salvation to us today through His Word proclaimed, read, and coupled with water, bread and wine, all by the working of the Holy Spirit. He calls out to us through the Holy Scriptures that we might know Him, and have eternal life: Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.[12] He gives us His Spirit,[13] connects us to Himself, His death, and resurrection,[14] and washes away our sins through Baptism,[15] by washing us with water through His Word.[16] He comes to us, to strengthen and preserve us in this faith, through the Lord’s Supper. In this sacrament, He gives us His very body and blood to eat and drink for the forgiveness of our sins, and as a sign of unity as members of His Body, the Church. We can know Jesus because He is alive, and through Jesus, we know God the Father.

Bibliography

Englebrecht, Edward A, ed. The Lutheran Study Bible - English Standard Version. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005.

Lenski, R. C. H. The Interpretation of St. John's Gospel. Columbus: The Wartburg Press, 1959.

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[1] John 11:16

[2] Lenski, R. C. H. The Interpretation of St. John's Gospel. Columbus: The Wartburg Press, 1959.

[3] Mark 10: 35-45; Acts 1:6

[4] Engelbrecht, Edward A, ed. The Lutheran Study Bible. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005.

[5] John 18:33-38

[6] John 14:10-11

[7] John 8:48-59; 10: 22-39

[8] Hebrews 1:3

[9] Mark 10:45

[10] 2 Corinthians 5:21

[11] Hebrews 2:14-15; 17

[12] Matthew 11:28

[13] John 3:5; Titus 3:5;

[14] Romans 6:3-5; Galatians 3:27

[15] Acts 22:16; 1 Peter 3:18-22

[16] Ephesians 5:25-27

Lazarus Raised from the Dead

The Raising of Lazarus

Friday after Exaudi

Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go” (John 11:38-44).

Jesus told Martha that He was the resurrection and the life; now, everyone gathered at Lazarus’ tomb can see the proof. Jesus, the Word made flesh, gives life through the word. His word does the things He says. When God says over the formless void of the earth, “Let there be light!” there is light.[1] When Jesus, through whom and for whom all things were created,[2] tells the dead Lazarus to come out of his grave, he comes out, and by absolutely no effort of his own. God’s Word does what it says. It is creative. It is successful in producing the desired result, that is, it is efficacious.

God’s Word is no less efficacious now. When God’s Word comes to us connected to water in Holy Baptism, promising to wash away our sins and to save us,[3] it does. When we confess our sins, God tells us that He, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.[4] He does so, through the man called to preach and administer the sacraments, our faithful pastor, as well as informally through our brothers and sisters to whom we confess our sins.[5] When we hear the preaching of the Gospel, that while we were God’s enemies, Christ died for the ungodly as the Lamb of God, the ransom for the sins of the world, we know that it is efficacious;[6] it is the power of God to the salvation of all who believe, the means by which the Holy Spirit works faith in all men.[7] When we receive the very body and blood of the Word made flesh for the forgiveness of our sins, that is truly what He gives us - both His body and His blood to eat and to drink, and the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation He has won for us by His death and resurrection.[8]

Lazarus’ resurrection is a foreshadowing of our own resurrection. One day, Jesus will return and call us out of our graves:

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.[9]

Because we have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, His death and resurrection belong to us.[10] In our baptism we have put on Christ. It is God’s guarantee that we will not all sleep, but we will all be raised and changed to have a glorious body, just as Christ does.

For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.[11]

We are made His through our baptism, being born again from above by the power of the Holy Spirit, through water and the Word.

Here, in this fallen world of sin and death, we must endure much that is difficult to bear. Take heart! Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; He was buried, and He rose again the third day.[12] That means that all who belong to Him have the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. So, even if those troubles we experience in the world lead to our physical death, which they all ultimately will if Jesus should delay His coming, we can be certain that God the Father has saved us by what Jesus Christ the Son has done for us on the cross. He who is faithful and true has promised us. So, in Christ, God has turned death from a curse into something that guarantees us life. That is not to say that death is our friend, or we should welcome it, or we should not mourn those who pass from this veil of tears before us. We should, however, recognize that when a Christian dies, he is brought safely to the Lord in heaven, where Satan no longer has access to him, to safely await the resurrection on the Last Day. God has worked all things, including death, for our good, according to His purpose.[13]

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed - in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed.[14]

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[1] Genesis 1:1-3

[2] John 1:3,10

[3] Acts 2:38; 22:16; 1 Peter 3:18-22

[4] 1 John 1:6-9

[5] James 5:16

[6] Romans 5:10; John 1:29; Mark 10:45

[7] Romans 1:16; 10:17

[8] Matthew 26:26-27; 1 Corinthians 11:23-30

[9] 1 Thessalonians 4:16

[10] Romans 6:3-5; Galatians 2:26-27

[11] 1 Corinthians 15:21-23

[12] 1 Corinthians 15:3-8

[13] Romans 8:28

[14] 1 Corinthians 15:51-52