In the Book of Acts, the 10th chapter, we find a very interesting event in the early Christian church. A gentile requested Peter, the leader of the first church in Jerusalem, a Jewish church, to come and visit and explain the Gospel to him and his family. Reading verses 34-43, we hear the words of Peter and the effect of his vision corresponding with the vision of Cornelius.
The result here is that we have a clear but bare summary of what Peter said to Cornelius but more important we have the very essence of the first preaching about Jesus.
1) Jesus was sent by God and equipped by him with the Spirit and with power. Jesus therefore is God’s gift to humanity. Often we make the mistake of thinking in terms of an angry God who had to be pacified by something a gentle Jesus did. The early preachers never preached that. To them the very coming of Jesus was due to the love of God.
2) Jesus exercised a ministry of healing. It was his great desire to banish pain and sorrow from the world.
3) They crucified him. Once again there is stressed for him who can read between the lines the sheer horror in the crucifixion. That is what human sin can do.
4) He rose again. The power which was in Jesus was not to be defeated. It could conquer the worst that men could do and in the end it could conquer death.
5) The Christian preacher and teacher is a witness of the resurrection. To them, Jesus is not a figure in a book or about whom they have heard. They are a living presence whom have met and enjoyed fellowship with.
6) The result of all this is forgiveness of sins and a new relationship with God. Through Jesus the friendship which should always have existed between humanity and God, but which sin interrupted, has dawned upon humankind.
As Peter was preaching, things began to happen against which even the Jewish Christians could not argue. The Spirit of God came upon Cornelius and his family and friends. The very thing happened to them that happened to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost.
If we are true to the Bible in our preaching, we cannot ignore the openness of the invitation of the Gospel to all people.
May God be praised.
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