Journey Through The Bible
     Old Testament Reading: Exodus 35-40
     New Testament Reading: Acts 10

Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right (Acts 10:34-35).

During his second term in office, President George W. Bush held a meeting in the White House with political and religious leaders. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how to see the opposition party as the mission field rather than the enemy.

By the tenth chapter of Acts, the Gospel had spread to the Hebraic (Arabic-speaking) Jews, the Hellenistic (Greek-speaking) Jews, the Proselyte (converted) Jews, and the despised Samaritans, the Jewish half-breads. Then the Gospel spread to the most feared enemy of the Christians – Saul of Tarsus, the Jewish Pharisee who made it his mission to persecute and kill any and all followers of Jesus.

There is now one more division to cross, that to the despised Gentiles, seen by the Jews as heathens, a Godless people, their hated enemy. The Jewish hatred of the Gentiles was so deep that after a heavenly vision and direct order from the Holy Spirit, Peter said, “You know it’s forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner”(Acts 10:27).

Acts chapter ten should cause All Christian, especially those who are not direct descendants of Abraham, to rejoice. In this chapter, God confirms that His salvation extends to all people in all nations. We can give thanks to God for bringing Gentile believers into His kingdom and declaring us holy.

In this pivotal chapter in the Book of Acts, we see Peter using “the keys of the kingdom” for the third and last time. He had opened the door of faith for the Jews in Acts chapter two, and then for the Samaritans in Acts chapter eight, and now he would be used by God to bring the Gentiles into the church.

The stoning of Stephen and the subsequent persecution of the church marked the climax of the apostles’ witness to the Jews. Then the Gospel moved to the Samaritans. When God saved Saul of Tarsus, He got ahold of His special ambassador to the Gentiles. Now was the time to open the door of faith to the Gentiles and bring them into the family of God. Saul, who became the Apostle Paul, said, “There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

It is interesting to note that Dr. Luke records in detail the conversions of three people in the early chapters of Acts. The first was the Ethiopian eunuch, who would have been a descendant of Ham. Next was Saul of Tarsus, a descendant of Shem. And now Cornelius, a Gentile, who would have been a descendant of Japheth. Here in these three accounts, the Gospel was taken to the three family lines of Noah’s sons and had now crossed every racial and national border.