Our personal testimony of conversion to faith in Christ is meaningful, but our testimony is not the gospel. In this sermon, R.C. Sproul explains how the Apostle Peter modeled faithful evangelism for us in his encounter with Cornelius in Caesarea.

I will pick up the text at Acts 10:24:

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 I would like to move over to verse 34, where we read:

Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

The Word of God for the people of God. You may be seated. Let us pray.

Our Father and our God, again we thank You for the record of this narrative that has been transmitted to us this morning. We pray that You would give us not only understanding but application of its importance to our lives. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Spiritual Heroes

I did not read the entirety of the text this morning because Luke repeats much of that at which we have already looked. He reminds his readers about the way God directed Cornelius to send some of his cohort to request a visit from Peter after Cornelius had been visited by the angel. At the same time, God prepared this meeting by sending a vision to Peter of the sheet filled with all the animals, both clean and unclean.

We looked at that last time, and I mentioned that this chapter is one of the most important chapters in all of Scripture because it sets forth the unveiling of the mystery that had been hidden for centuries and generations, the mystery that Christ now includes the gentiles in full membership in the kingdom of God. That is what was happening in this meeting.

The mission had been accomplished, and Peter left from Joppa and went to Caesarea to meet with Cornelius. We picked that up in verse 24. In verse 25 we read, “As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him.”

This morning, I welcomed Randall back to our church. He has been gone for several weeks doing graduate work in choral direction at Princeton University. Before the service, I asked Randall, “How was your time?” Instead of telling me about music, he said the thing that he was excited about was going to the cemetery in Princeton. He saw the graves of Charles Hodge, the great theologian, and Jonathan Edwards.

When Randall told me that, it clicked in my own mind that during my first visit to Princeton the thing I was most excited about was searching out the grave of the great Jonathan Edwards. In fact, I did something quite silly. When I found his grave, I took a coin out of my pocket, and I pushed it down into the ground between his tombstone and the grass, just as some kind of physical reminder that I had made that pilgrimage and been to that place.

If you were to visit my office at Ligonier, you would see a portrait of Jonathan Edwards. In fact, if you went to the recording studio at Ligonier, you would see another painting there of Jonathan Edwards. If you came to my house, you would see a portrait of Martin Luther, because I like to see likenesses of my great spiritual heroes and mentors. I think we all have this proclivity for giving certain attention and adulation to those who have meant a lot to us in our spiritual journey.

But as much as I love Edwards, Luther, Calvin, and the rest, not once in my life have I ever prayed to any of them, nor ever have I got down on my knees and made an act of devotion before them, nor have I ever asked them to intercede with God on my behalf.

Honor versus Worship

One of the crises of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century was the issue of icons and images in the church. The Reformers were opposed to the use of images because of the medieval church’s practice of venerating the saints in general and the Virgin Mary in particular.

The Church of Rome was careful at this point to make a fine distinction and encourage its members not to worship the saints—Mary, Saint Francis, Saint Thomas, or anyone. Instead, they used the language of venerating them and giving service to them. They instructed members to serve the images but not to worship them.

The distinction the Church of Rome made was between dulia, which means “service,” and latria, which means “worship.” They encouraged idolodulia, the service of the idols, but discouraged idololatria or idolatry, the worship of images, especially for the Virgin Mary. She was to receive not only dulia, but she was to receive hyperdulia, which was an elevated and extreme form of service.

In objecting to that, Calvin said that here we see a classic example of a distinction without a difference. He said that when you are on your knees, bowing before the images of human beings and talking to those images, asking them to intercede for you in heaven, you have crossed the line from service to worship. You have attributed to these human characters powers and authorities reserved for Christ and for Christ alone, whom the New Testament makes clear is the only Mediator between God and man.

We see throughout Scripture that when angels appear suddenly to people, the normal reaction for those to whom they appear is to fall on their faces in worship. We would likely be inclined to do that ourselves. Similarly, if you were to see a great personage like Paul or Peter, particularly after Peter’s reputation had grown exponentially since he just raised Dorcas from the dead, you might do what Cornelius did. When Peter came into the house of Cornelius, and Cornelius saw the great Apostle Peter, Cornelius fell down and worshiped him.

Every time this sort of thing happens in Scripture, whether it be an angel, an Apostle, or a prophet, the response is the same. Peter said: “Get up. Stop that and stand up; I’m a man just like you are. Don’t worship me.” Paul had to do the same thing. Angels had to do the same thing. The only person we see anywhere in Scripture who accepts the worship of people is our Lord Himself because He is God incarnate.

We must be careful in our appreciation for those who have gone before us. We are to give respect and honor to those who have been faithful in the past, but we need to guard ourselves carefully that we never cross that line to veneration or worship in any way and detract anything from the glory of God, of which God says, “I will share with no man.”

The Real Good News

The first thing I want us to see in the encounter between Peter and Cornelius is the original greeting. We are told that they recount how they were brought together. After those details are finished, Luke tells us, “Peter opened his mouth and said . . .” That may sound like a redundancy because obviously if he speaks, he must open his mouth to do it, but that is a Hebrew idiom that indicates he was beginning to preach.

We hear many people say, “I’m committed to the gospel, to preaching the gospel, and to sharing the gospel.” Yet if we look at the content of what some often are preaching and sharing, it is not the gospel. Someone may share with his neighbor that Jesus changed his life. That is a wonderful testimony, but it is not the gospel. I could say to my friends: “I’ve got good news for you. God loves you.” That is good news, but it is not the gospel.

In New Testament categories, the gospel is understood in terms of definite content, and that content is not about me, and it is not about you. The content focuses attention on the person and work of Jesus, on who He is and what He has done, and then it is added how the benefits of His ministry can be received by us in faith.

I said at the beginning of our study of Acts that on several occasions we get examples of Apostolic preaching. We get examples of what the scholars call the kerygma, which is just a fancy word for the proclamation of the early church. When we want to know how we should approach a watching, dying, pagan world, and we wonder what gospel they need to hear, it is this kerygma that we find encapsulated in the book of Acts in sermon after sermon.

We see it again in Acts 10 when Peter visited Cornelius. Peter opened his mouth and preached the gospel. It is the life and ministry of Jesus in a nutshell. I think it is good for us to give our testimonies, but do not confuse your testimony with evangelism. Our testimonies are pre-evangelism. They may be of interest to our friends, but again, my life is not the gospel. His life is the gospel.

The power of God unto salvation is not R.C. Sproul’s testimony. The power of God unto salvation is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which was given in summary form when Peter said, “The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached.”

Baptism, the Cross, and the Resurrection

It is not by accident that Mark’s gospel begins with John the Baptist and an account of how the baptism of Jesus marked the beginning of His public ministry. In John’s gospel, John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching the Jordan and sang the Agnus Dei: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Immediately, Peter pointed out that Jesus was the One promised by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 61, the Anointed One, the Christos, the Messiah, the One upon whom God placed His Holy Spirit and empowered to go about preaching, teaching, and delivering people from the power of Satan, healing them, and even raising them from the dead. He is the Anointed One of God. That is essential to the gospel. It is essential that we proclaim Jesus is the promised Messiah.

Remember, Peter was preaching this sermon to gentiles. When the Apostles went out to preach the gospel, they did not have time to give a three-year study of the Bible in an adult education program, starting in Genesis, going through the covenant made with Abraham, then with Moses and so on. They started with Jesus, born of the seed of David, and talked about His baptism and His being anointed to His public ministry by the Holy Spirit with power.

Peter went on to say, “And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree.” He went straight to the death of Christ, focusing on the cross and the atonement, a message about God’s work in our lives. It may be good news, but if it does not include the cross, it is not evangelism, it is not the gospel.

Peter then said, “Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly.” Let me say it again from a different perspective. We can tell people wonderful things about God. We can tell them how He can change their lives and even talk about Jesus, but if the affirmation of the resurrection of Christ is absent from that testimony, it may be good news, but it is not the biblical gospel. The cross of Christ and the resurrection are essential elements of the gospel, so without them, you do not have the biblical gospel.

Christ Openly Made Manifest

Peter called attention to the resurrection and said, “He showed Him openly”—that is, the New Testament’s declaration of the doctrine of Jesus’ resurrection was not an esoteric element of a secret mystery religion.

It is not like Mormonism, where a man from Palmyra, New York, Joe Smith, proclaimed that he had a secret encounter of a third kind with the angel Moroni. He received a secret revelation on tablets behind some sheets that only he had the eyes to see, and nobody else could see it. That is not Christianity.

As Peter proclaimed, the manifestation of the resurrected Christ was public. It was open. It was not to everybody or fifty thousand people at once, but neither was it to one or two people. Christ’s resurrection was witnessed, however, by over five hundred people at one time. To those people whom God chose from the foundation of the world to manifest His resurrected Son, He was shown. Peter was one of them.

That is why Peter later said in His epistles: “We declare unto you not cleverly devised myths but that which we’ve seen with our eyes and heard with our ears. This is not a conjured-up philosophy of life. This is not a brilliant idea someone had. No, we are declaring to you what we saw. We were there. We saw Him. We heard Him.”

Peter went on to say: “We ate with Him, and we drank with Him. It wasn’t just His sudden appearance or a reflection from oil on a window. We saw Jesus Himself. At the table we broke bread. We drank wine together.”

Jesus the Judge

Peter continued: “And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.” We think that to preach the gospel is to preach Jesus as the Savior, and that is part of it. But Peter also said, “After He was risen, He commanded us to preach that Jesus is the Judge of everybody.”

Sometimes I despise the lingo of evangelical Christianity. I dislike it when I hear people say, “I gave Jesus permission to be the Lord of my life.” That reflects such arrogant patronage. Beloved, you do not give Jesus permission to be the Lord of your life. He is the Lord of your life. He is the One who gives permission, not you. But we live in a narcissistic culture such as the world has never seen before. Many of us think salvation is bound up in what we do and what we allow.

Do we every think of telling people, “Christianity is about Jesus as your Judge not just after you die but right now.” How popular is that gospel? That does not sound like good news because it is not. It is bad news unless Jesus is also your Advocate, your defense attorney, your Redeemer—unless you put your trust in Him and Him only for your salvation. Then the Judge becomes your friend. Then the Judge becomes your Advocate. Then the Judge gives remission of sin and removes from the record all charges against you.

But until or unless you put your trust in Christ and in Christ alone, He is your Judge, and your sins are written large in front of Him. If you do not submit to Him, the gavel will come down, and there will be no mercy. You will stand on the basis of your own righteousness—or lack of it—before that Judge.

That was what Peter was moved by the Holy Ghost to explain to Cornelius. What happened when Cornelius heard the gospel is fantastic, but we must wait for next week to hear about that as we look at the response of Cornelius and his household and at what God did to confirm the truth of the gospel on that occasion at Caesarea.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.