Sunday Evening, February 4, 1973 — Richmond, Virginia
Let us have a word of prayer.
O Lord, no man can stand before Thee. We praise and thank Thee for the precious blood, for the new and living way that Thou hast opened for us, that we may come into Thy very presence to worship, to commune, to wait upon Thee, and to hear Thee.
O Lord, what a privilege that should be! What grace, what mercy! It amazes us all the time that man can come into Thy very presence. O Lord, we pray that we may hear what the Spirit saith to the church. In Thy precious name. Amen.
Please turn to a very familiar chapter, the Book of Acts, chapter 10. We will read from verse 1.
Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name,
a centurion of the band called the Italian band,
a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house,
who gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.He saw in a vision openly, as it were about the ninth hour of the day,
an angel of God coming in unto him, and saying to him, Cornelius.And he, fastening his eyes upon him, and being affrighted, said, What is it, Lord?
And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are gone up for a memorial before God.And now send men to Joppa, and fetch one Simon, who is surnamed Peter:
he lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side.And when the angel that spake unto him was departed,
he called two of his household-servants,
and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually;
and having rehearsed all things unto them, he sent them to Joppa.
Now on the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city,
Peter went up upon the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour:
and he became hungry, and desired to eat:
but while they made ready, he fell into a trance;
and he beholdeth the heaven opened,
and a certain vessel descending, as it were a great sheet,
let down by four corners upon the earth:
wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts and creeping things of the earth and birds of the heaven.And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill and eat.
But Peter said, Not so, Lord;
for I have never eaten anything that is common and unclean.And a voice came unto him again the second time,
What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.And this was done thrice:
and straightway the vessel was received up into heaven.
Now while Peter was much perplexed in himself what the vision which he had seen might mean,
behold, the men that were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood before the gate,
and called and asked whether Simon, who was surnamed Peter, were lodging there.And while Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him,
Behold, three men seek thee.
But arise, get thee down, and go with them, nothing doubting:
for I have sent them.
And Peter went down to the men, and said,
Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come?And they said, Cornelius a centurion, a righteous man and one that feareth God,
and well reported of by all the nation of the Jews,
was warned of God by a holy angel to send for thee into his house,
and to hear words from thee.So he called them in and lodged them.
And on the morrow he arose and went forth with them,
and certain of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him.And on the morrow they entered into Caesarea.
And Cornelius was waiting for them, having called together his kinsmen and his near friends.And when it came to pass that Peter entered, Cornelius met him,
and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.
But Peter raised him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.
And as he talked with him, he went in, and findeth many come together:
and he said unto them,
Ye yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man that is a Jew to join himself or come unto one of another nation;
and yet unto me hath God showed that I should not call any man common or unclean:
wherefore also I came without gainsaying, when I was sent for.
I ask therefore with what intent ye sent for me.
And Cornelius said, Four days ago, until this hour, I was keeping the ninth hour of prayer in my house;
and behold, a man stood before me in bright apparel,
and saith, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.
Send therefore to Joppa, and call unto thee Simon, who is surnamed Peter;
he lodgeth in the house of Simon a tanner, by the sea side.
Forthwith therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come.
Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God,
to hear all things that have been commanded thee of the Lord.
And Peter opened his mouth and said,
Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to Him.The word which He sent unto the children of Israel,
preaching good tidings of peace by Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all.
I think probably, for the sake of continuation, I have to go back a little bit and fill in a little bit. So those who have been here before, I hope you will bear with me. I hope I will use just as short a time as possible, just to bring us to this point.
Luke, the beloved physician, was used of the Lord to give us two books in the New Testament. In his first discourse, the Gospel according to Luke, he told us what the Lord Jesus began to do and to teach. Underline that word: began.
Then, in his second discourse, the Book of Acts, he told us what the risen Lord continues to do and to teach.
When our Lord Jesus began to do and to teach on this earth, He did all this in the body Christ took upon Himself at His incarnation. He used that body for over thirty-three years.
But when He continued to do and to teach after He was resurrected from the dead and ascended up to heaven, He took upon Himself another body: the Body of Christ, that corporate body. In that body, He has continued to do and to teach up to the present moment.
It is a body that came into being on the day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost, one hundred and twenty individual believers, a congregation praying with one accord, received the Holy Spirit; and they were baptized into one body.
That was the beginning of that body. From then onward, you find that this body gradually grows. This body gradually takes up a form according to God’s design. It is in this body that the risen Lord is able to continue to do and to teach.
In the growth of a person, we may say roughly that there are three stages. The first stage we call the phase of childhood. During the days of childhood, as we look back, it is one of the happiest moments of our life.
We are being cared for. We have no concern, no responsibility, no problem. If any problems should arise, our parents would take care of them. We are just enjoying what our parents have provided for us. A happy time.
Then, after that, we grow into adolescence. This is the most difficult time. It is not only difficult for the one who is growing, but for all who are around him or around her.
It is a period of conflict, of turmoil, a period of doubting everything and questioning everything; throwing off all traditions, trying new ideas, seeking for a future.
But you know, that is the most exciting period. Whether a person can come out into manhood or womanhood, or whether that person will become just a failure, depends largely upon this period, because this is the formative period.
After you come out of adolescence into manhood or womanhood, then it is just a matter of maturing.
That is what I feel about the Book of Acts. The Body of Christ, in the way it grows, seems to me to follow the same order as the growth of a person.
I see Acts chapters 1 through 5 as the childhood of the Body of Christ—the happiest moment of the church. Everybody who reads these chapters still finds all those who believed, oh, how happy they were!
From one hundred and twenty to three thousand, then to five thousand, and the Lord added to the church daily. Oh, the growth of a child!
All those who believed continued in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. How they were one in spirit and in soul! Nobody said that anything belonged to him; everything was full of love. Happy, happy time. No problem.
Whenever a problem came—in chapter 5, a little problem did come—you find the Holy Spirit solved it right away. You do not need to worry about it; your parents do. Everything was provided. Glorious!
I believe, when we read the Book of Acts, we often wish that we could go back to that time.
Then you find, from chapter 6 to chapter 15, an entirely different thing. The Body of Christ entered into a period of great conflict—tremendous problems.
Then you really do not know how it will turn out: whether it will be formed according to the heavenly pattern as the Body of Christ, a vessel for the Master’s use, or whether it will be a wreck. Nobody knows.
Yet these chapters are very true. Then from chapter 16 to chapter 28—and chapter 29, 30, 31, 32, and so on and so forth, today and maybe tomorrow—you know, the Book of Acts is never finished. It is still going on.
It is not just chapter 28; you cannot fix it at that chapter or end it. It is just maturing until it is fully grown, and then the Bridegroom will come and claim His bride.
We mentioned last time that during the period of formation, these formative years are the most important years. Chapters 6 through 15 are the most important chapters in the Book of Acts.
Why? Let me use another illustration. The life of Christ is the new wine. The new wine seeks for a new wineskin.
You cannot put the new wine into old wineskins. The old wineskin has lost its elasticity; it is rigid, it is fixed. If you put new wine into the old wineskin, the new wine continues to ferment, and the result is that it bursts the old wineskin and the new wine is wasted.
The new wine must be put into a new wineskin. The life of the Lord Jesus is the new wine. Judaism is the old wineskin. If you try to put the life of Christ into Judaism, it will not work.
So the Lord is looking for a new wineskin. What is this new wineskin? The Body of Christ—the church.
You find that in the formation of this new wineskin, the Body of Christ goes through a period of formation. Will it be thought to be part of the old wineskin and just lose the freshness, the power, and the life of the new wine? Or will it become a new wineskin, completely new, to be filled with the new wine?
This is the question in these chapters, from chapter 6 to chapter 15 of the Book of Acts.
Thank God, He raised up a few key persons. Through these key persons, He was able to direct the Body of Christ, the church, in those days into that new wineskin which He had ordained.
Brothers and sisters, that is what we are interested in at this moment. The last time I was here, we studied together three of the key persons. We began with Stephen, continued with Philip, and finally considered Paul.
Now, of course, we cannot go back again, because if we go back again, we cannot go ahead. But anyway, you find that God raised up first Stephen as a pioneer of the heavenly way, of the new way.
The church is not a part of Judaism. It is a new creation, a new wineskin, a new vessel. Because Stephen was pioneering this, he became the target of persecution.
This was furthered a little bit by the joining of the Samaritans. There was tremendous prejudice between these two. But here you find that Samaritans were joined to the Jews, and the Jews to the Samaritans.
Then God raised up a most unusual vessel in the person of Paul. He was the very symbol of Judaism, and God shattered his Judaism completely and used him as a master builder of the Body of Christ.
This evening we would like to continue with the fourth, and that is Peter.
You know, Peter came to the Lord through his brother Andrew. We all know that. Andrew, his brother, was with John the Baptist. When our Lord Jesus passed by, John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”
The second time John the Baptist testified to this, Andrew and his companion left John the Baptist and followed the Lord. They stayed with the Lord that night, and the next morning Andrew went to find his brother Simon and said, “We have found the Messiah.” So he brought Simon to the Lord.
It was love at first sight. When the Lord saw Simon and Simon saw the Lord, they did not just have a glance. The word is that they looked intently at one another.
Immediately Peter received a revelation—a revelation from the heavenly Father, not from flesh and blood. Our Lord Jesus said, “Simon Bar-Jonah, you are blessed, because this is not something instructed or taught you by flesh and blood. It is the heavenly Father who has revealed it unto you.”
Thank God for that revelation. But the revelation of the Father concerning His Son is only the first part of the revelation. There is a second part.
Immediately after Peter confessed the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord said, in effect, “It is the Father who has revealed this to you. The Father reveals the Son to you. Nobody knows the Son but the Father; nobody knows the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son wills to reveal Him.”
Now the Father had revealed the Son to Peter. Then, after Peter had received that revelation, the Son began to reveal something further.
“You are Peter, a living stone. I will build My church upon this rock, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
But how? How will the foundation be laid? How can the church be built upon this rock? The Lord said, “I must go to Jerusalem. I must suffer. I must die. But on the third day I will be raised from the dead.”
Brothers and sisters, this is tremendous revelation. It is as tremendous as the first part of the revelation. The Father revealed His Son to Peter, and the Son revealed His purpose concerning what He came to do. Why did He come into this world? He came to build His church.
In order to build His church, He had to go to the cross, because death and resurrection are the principle not only of laying the foundation, but also of building the house.
Did Peter understand? Did Peter get it? He got the first part, but he missed the second one.
When our Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church upon this rock,” it went in one ear and out the other. What remained in Peter’s mind was, “You have to go to Jerusalem and die. You do not need to do that.”
So Peter took hold of the Lord and said, “No, Lord, do not do that. Please, be good to Yourself. Be kind to Yourself.”
Peter was not ready for the cross. Because he was not ready for the cross, he was not ready for the church.
We often say, “If you preach the church, you get the cross. If you preach the cross, you get the church.”
Here you find the Lord Jesus told Peter of the church, this Body of Christ, this new wineskin He was going to make. But it had to come by the cross. Peter rejected the cross, and therefore the vision of the church evaporated.
Peter had to be tested beyond his measure. When the Lord was crucified on the cross, Peter died. When Christ was crucified on the cross, Peter denied the Lord three times. He did the very thing he had said he would never do. He went into death.
But at the resurrection of the Lord, Peter too was raised from death.
On the day of Pentecost, God used Peter as a spokesman, not only for the Head but also for the Body.
Peter’s work was mainly among the Jews. He was an apostle to the Jews, and he was very content. He would work among the Jews and nobody else.
At one time he was sent to Samaria, that is true. But the Samaritans were part Jews; they were not completely Gentile.
In the early days, in the beginning, the church, the Body of Christ, was composed mostly of Jewish believers. Even though some might not have been Jews, at least they were proselytes. They had embraced Judaism; they were Judaized.
In the case of the eunuch from Africa, most likely he was a proselyte. He came to Jerusalem to worship. So, even though he was a Gentile, yet he was connected with Judaism.
At that time, even the apostles thought that Christianity, or the church, or the Body of Christ, was just part of Judaism—perhaps reformed Judaism.
That is the reason why this concept was very deep and strong: if you wanted to be a believer, you had to become a Jew too. You had to be circumcised. You had to become a Jew so that you could become a believer, a Christian.
They could not see that the Body of Christ is the new wineskin. It is different from Judaism. They thought that it was composed only of the Jews.
But God, in His sovereignty, began to move. You know, the movement of the Holy Spirit is most fascinating.
If God had told Peter in Jerusalem that He was going to send him to the house of Cornelius, probably Peter would have gone like Jonah, trying to go in the opposite direction.
But the Lord did not tell him anything. It seemed as if Peter was moved by circumstances from one place to another until finally he was in Joppa. He did not know why he was in Joppa, but he was there. The Lord just moved him, without his knowing, to Joppa.
For what purpose? To open the gospel to the Gentiles.
The Jews had nothing to do with the Gentiles. The Jews were completely separated from the Gentiles. They would not even enter into the home of a Gentile, and they could not eat at the same table with a Gentile.
Why? According to Leviticus 11, God gave ordinances to the Jews concerning certain things that they could eat—things that were clean—and certain things that they could not eat.
In Leviticus 11, the reason given is this: God said, “I am holy; therefore you must be holy.” That is the reason why they could eat only clean things and should not eat the unclean.
You read the Old Testament, and you cannot find any commandment to the Jews that they should not enter into the house of the Gentiles. There is no such commandment.
It was largely because of Leviticus 11, because of this matter of food, that they became separated from the Gentiles. They could not eat Gentile food.
Just as today, if you are an Orthodox Jew, you cannot eat any food that is not kosher. Because you cannot eat food that is not kosher, you cannot go into any home, because their food is not kosher. That is the same thing.
So here you find that it was mainly because of this matter of eating, this law concerning eating, that gradually the Jews became completely separated from the Gentiles.
They considered themselves clean; the Gentiles were unclean because they ate unclean things. So they would not enter into the house of a Gentile. They could do business, but they could not go there and be entertained and eat at the same table.
Why did God give them such a law? Because God was preparing a people for the coming of Christ.
After Christ had come, you find that all these things, especially the ceremonial law, had been fulfilled. When the reality has come, the shadow passes away.
Therefore, you find in Colossians 2 that the handwriting in ordinances which stood against us, which was contrary to us, has been taken out of the way, having been nailed to the cross.
Our Lord Jesus has blotted out the handwriting in ordinances that stood against us. Some people tell us that the handwriting is an obligation to which a man is subject by his signature.
A bank note: you sign your name under it, and you say that you are going to fulfill it. When the law of God was given on Mount Sinai, the children of Israel signed their name, as it were: “All that God has said, we will do.”
Because they signed their name, they were obligated to fulfill the law. If they did not fulfill the law, they were all condemned.
But when Christ died on the cross, He blotted out the handwriting in ordinances that stood against us. Not only that, He took it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Some people tell us that it was a custom in the old days: suppose you signed an IOU, and a person had that paper in his hand. You were obligated to pay it.
But one day, after you had paid it, you got your IOU back. What did you do? You just nailed it to the door to show everybody that it had already been paid.
So this is what happened: taken out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. This IOU is now on the cross; it is taken away. We are no longer under the law. We are under grace.
When Christ came, He fulfilled the law. He took that which opposed us out of the way. All the ceremonial law, especially, had already found its fulfillment.
From now on, it is the spirit of the law, because moral principles never change—never change.
Brothers and sisters, it was very difficult for a Jew to accept that. All his life Peter had kept the Levitical law of cleanness, and then one day the Lord said, “You can eat these things.”
Does God contradict Himself? You say one thing at one time, and now You are saying another thing. You say that we should not touch unclean things because You are holy and You want us to be holy. But now You say, “What God has cleansed, do not call common.” You are just contradicting Yourself.
Do you find sometimes you are in the same situation? Thank God, He is the living God.
The law was given as an emergency measure. It was temporary. It was to bring us up to Christ. When Christ came, these things were superseded, all replaced by Christ Himself.
God is not contradicting Himself. God is now working according to His permanent design.
To separate the Jews from the Gentiles was God’s temporary measure. Now Christ has come, God is going to bring us into His permanent design. His permanent design is that all the nations shall be blessed in the seed of Abraham—in a singular seed.
This is God’s original design. But how easy it is for the human mind to hold on to the old, especially when we say that it comes from God.
Anyway, you find that Peter went to Joppa and stayed with a man called Simon, a tanner. A tanner dealt with skins, and in preparing skins there was a terrible odor. Therefore, they did not allow a tanner to live in the city. A tanner had to live outside the city, by the seashore, where there was plenty of water.
So Simon Peter went there and stayed with him. As a matter of fact, when I was in Joppa, I found that house.
I went there because I remembered that the Bible said Joppa. Joppa today is Jaffa. One day I went there, but nobody seemed to know the place. I went here and there and saw a great cathedral somewhere, but no, that was not it.
Nearby, I saw a house with a sign there: “Simon the Tanner’s House.” I do not know whether that was really the house or not; I do not know. But anyway, it is all commercial now.
You knock at the door, somebody comes, and you have to pay something. Then you can go in and see all these dye urns there. I went up the stairs to the roof and looked over the street where Peter prayed on that roof. It is quite interesting. But that is nothing.
Anyway, you find that Peter was there.
It was at noon. There is nothing bad if you get hungry; that is natural. Peter felt hungry, and his host was preparing lunch. So Peter went up to the rooftop and started to pray.
Now, I wonder: when you are hungry, can you pray? The problem is, when you pray you think of food. That is what Peter was doing. He was praying, but naturally it was difficult because he was hungry. When he prayed, he thought of food.
Then the Lord gave him a vision. Sometimes, when the Lord begins to reveal things, it comes so naturally that you can hardly believe it. You think that a revelation or vision has to be so particular and supernatural that it shocks you.
But very often, you find that it is just in the common occurrence of things that the vision comes. Look at Moses. He was in the desert, and he saw a burning bush. That was the most common sight in the desert; it happened every day. Yet there was something different.
This was Peter. He was there praying, and of course he was thinking of food. As he was praying, he saw in a vision a vessel. We cannot describe it exactly. It says, “a vessel as of a great sheet.”
It came down from heaven, with four corners tied, and it was lowered down to earth so that he could see in that sheet all kinds of fourfooted beasts, creeping things, and birds—both clean and unclean, all mixed together.
Then he heard a voice: “Peter, rise up. Kill and eat.”
Peter said, “No. I have never touched any unclean thing.”
The voice said, “What God has cleansed, let no man make common.”
This happened three times. Three times Peter said, “No, Lord. No, Lord. No, Lord.” Then the sheet went up.
Brothers and sisters, that is a tremendous revelation.
Peter was a fisherman. What did he see? He did not see fishes. God took him out of his own realm to show him something new.
What God was teaching him was more than preaching the gospel. Peter was a fisherman, a fisher of men. He was preaching the gospel as if he were drawing a net, drawing fishes out of the sea into the kingdom of God.
This seemed to be the work of Peter, but here the Lord wanted to show Peter something more. Instead of a net cast into the sea to gather fishes, it was a vessel as of a great sheet, hanging by four corners and coming down from heaven.
It originated in heaven. It came down to earth to gather up all the clean and unclean, and then it returned.
That is the vision of the church.
Brothers and sisters, the church is not something earthly in origin. Even toward the very end in Revelation, you find John saying, “I saw the New Jerusalem coming down.”
The church is a heavenly body. According to God’s original design, it came from heaven. It is not something originated by man. It is not something organized by man. It is not a human, ingenious invention.
The church comes down from heaven. It comes from God. But it touches the earth. Why? To gather together all kinds of people—clean and unclean.
Then the word of God came: “Rise up. Kill and eat.” What does that mean? It means this: have fellowship. It means fellowship with the creatures in the sheet. Make no distinction.
Peter said, “I cannot. I am a Jew. I have to keep the Levitical law, the ceremonial law. I have to do that.”
But the Lord said, “What God has cleansed, let no man call common.”
You know, this refers not only to what the Levitical law called clean or unclean, but also to what the Levitical law said concerning people. Though the Jews and Gentiles are all cleansed by the blood of Christ.
Levitically speaking, according to ceremonial law, the Jews were clean and the Gentiles were unclean. But when you come into the presence of the Lord, we are all unclean. There is no difference.
The Jews must be cleansed by the Lord Jesus just as the Gentiles, and they are. That is the argument you find in the letter to the Galatians. Even we Jews are saved like the Gentiles, not by works but by faith in the Lord Jesus.
“What God has cleansed, let no man call common.”
God has taken away the wall of partition. In Ephesians 2, He has taken away the wall of partition, the enmity, the ordinances that were contrary to us. He has made us one. He is our peace.
Brothers and sisters, this is the church. That is the church. The church is designed by God. It has its origin, its root, in heaven. It includes all who are cleansed by the Lord, both Jews and Gentiles.
The Lord said, “Have fellowship with all. Make no distinction.”
Peter said, “No, I want to have fellowship only with the Jews. I want a Jewish church, and let them have their Gentile church.”
But the Lord said, “I have only one sheepfold, not two sheepfolds. I have made them one.”
Peter was so bound by tradition, so bound by the law, so surrounded by the past, that he just could not. He just could not. Even though he knew it was the Lord talking to him, he said, “No, Lord. No, Lord. No, Lord.”
Do you know, it is not very easy to break away from tradition. It is not easy to break away from the past. It is very difficult. It is very difficult to let the old pass and enter into the newness that is Christ.
The Lord was leading Peter into the fullness of Christ, but Peter found himself unable—unable. Three times.
Then the sheet went up to heaven, and at that very moment messengers from Cornelius arrived at the door. They knocked on the door and said, “We want to find a man, Simon surnamed Peter. Is he here?”
Peter was still pondering over the vision. “Now, what does that mean?” The Lord said, “Go down. Go with them. I have sent them.”
So Peter went. He said, “You know it is not lawful for a Jew to enter into the house of a Gentile, but the Lord has told me, ‘What God has cleansed, let no man call common or unclean.’”
Thank God, the gospel came to the Gentiles, and the Holy Spirit testified with His approval. Wonderful!
Brothers and sisters, the Body of Christ is a heavenly body that touches the earth. All the principles that govern the church are heavenly, but they are very practical.
In the church, in the Body of Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, whether barbarian or Scythian, neither bondman nor freeman. Why? Because Christ is all and in all.
The distinctions are gone. All the natural distinctions have been wiped out, nailed on the cross. No more IOU. We are free in Christ to have fellowship with all our brothers and sisters.
It is a new creation. All the old discriminations are on the ground of the cross.
You know, there is something most wonderful about Cornelius. He was a Gentile, a Roman, a centurion of the band called the Italian band. It means that those soldiers were great Romans, and they garrisoned that place in Caesarea.
But he was devout. He was not a proselyte to Judaism, but somehow he admired the purity that he found in Judaism. So you find that he was practicing, giving alms, and praying. God knew his heart.
Whether you are Jew or Gentile, if you are really seeking God, God knows. There is no distinction in this.
God sent an angel to Cornelius. When that angel came to Cornelius, the angel did not preach the gospel to Cornelius so that he might be saved. The angel said, “You send people to Joppa and get Peter to come and tell you how to be saved.”
We say, “Yes, that is very complicated. You can do it very easily. If You send an angel, why not just let an angel give the message?”
No. God never acts by expediency. He always acts according to principle.
If God had sent an angel to preach the gospel, it might have been a perfect gospel, but that angel had no experience of salvation. The result would have been an orthodox church, but no life.
Do you know who was probably in Caesarea? If you remember your Bible, who was probably in Caesarea? The great evangelist Philip.
If God wanted Cornelius to hear the gospel, could Philip go there? Next door! I am just saying this: why send people to take a day’s journey to go to Joppa and get Peter to come down? It took altogether four days, back and forth.
That again is the strange way of the Holy Spirit. He never acts because it is convenient. He always acts according to principle.
Philip was an experienced, used, proved evangelist. Certainly, if the Spirit of the Lord had told Philip, “Go next door to see Cornelius and give the gospel to him,” Philip would have done it.
Yet God used Peter. Why? To maintain the oneness of the Body of Christ.
Why did God use Peter to open the door to the Jews, and the same person to open the door to the Gentiles? To keep the unity of the Body of Christ.
If God had used Philip, probably you would have had a Gentile church there. But, brothers and sisters, you find in the foundation of the Body of Christ how the Lord emphasized again and again this oneness of the Body of Christ.
In this body, there can be neither Jew nor Gentile. Christ is all and in all.
Thank God, even though Peter was so prejudiced and so bound by tradition, God somehow broke through. He had his relapse, of course, but God did break through.
So the Gentiles and the Jews were all baptized by one Spirit into one Body, wherein there is neither Jew nor Gentile; and we are all made to drink of the same Spirit. That is the church.
Shall we pray?
O heavenly Father, we do worship Thee, because Thy ways are always higher than our ways. Thy thoughts are always higher than our thoughts.
How often we would act according to expediency, thinking that we know what is best. But, Lord, Thou knowest better.
How we praise and thank Thee for preserving the nature of the oneness of the Body of Christ. How we praise and thank Thee because Thou hast cleansed us in spite of what we are, and Thou hast made us one.
Thou dost desire that we fellowship one with another in the spirit of love. O Lord, we pray that this vision may not be lost to Thy people today.
Oh, that Thy Body may be that vessel specially designed and chosen to contain Thyself and to express Thyself.
Lord, we do worship Thee. Thou art great. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.