Doctrine from Acts
Category: Evangelism & Soul Winning
Key Passage: Acts 10:1
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: August 13, 2025
We’re going through the Book of Acts. And we are in chapter number 10. It’s really a change, really in Christianity. We’ll get to it kind of a little bit into the message here. We want to try to cover three things tonight. But starting in Acts chapter number 10 tonight, and we’re in verse number one. Acts 10 and verse number one. And would you please stand as we read God’s word together? To show it respect and to make sure you’re awake. It’s a Wednesday night. You’re tired. How many are you tired tonight? Anybody tired out there tonight? Oh, my goodness. Wow. We’re going to have to do somersaults, you know, gargle bees out of my mouth with peanut butter in there or something to keep you awake tonight. Goodness gracious. You know, a lot of people like that today. Back in the back, there is no, no. Acts chapter 10. Here we go. Verse number one. Acts 10, verse number one.
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the man called the Italian band. Now, that doesn’t mean they were playing instruments, okay? All right, now. A devout man and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people—that’s the poor—and prayed to God always. Isn’t that interesting? Always.
Verse number 30. Let’s just jump down a little bit. And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, was I fasting until this hour?” You can tell it wasn’t a Baptist quite yet because he was fasting. I was fasting into this hour and at the ninth hour—that’d be 3 p.m.—I prayed in my house and behold a man stood before me in bright clothing." It’s the angel and said, “Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, that alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.”
We’re going to pray, and then we’re going to try to just rehearse chapter number 10 briefly. Many of you know it. We’ll try to just bring it back to your memory. You probably know it better than me, but we’ll just rehearse a little bit, and then we’ll try to draw out some things in chapter number 10 in the book of Acts. Would you pray with me?
That God that speaks to our hearts tonight. Father, would you bring life? Lord, you’re the one that does that. Lord, and I can kind of counterfeit it, but you’re the one that brings life. Father, your spirit. So we ask, Father, would you send your spirit tonight? Would you bring life to the hearts and minds, just lives of your people here tonight? Bless those on line. And you take control of your service. I yield to you, Father. And we’ll thank and brag on you for what you do. It’s in the name of Jesus, we pray.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. This man, Cornelius, isn’t over in a city. It’s over by the Mediterranean Sea called Caesarea. And it’s… it’s really known as more like a Gentile city. And he’s over there, and he’s not saved. He doesn’t know a whole lot, but he’s a good man. He’s devout. And he’s been praying all the time. But he was a centurion. He had a hundred men underneath him.
It was the Roman military, we imagine, but it was kind of like the Italian branch of it, you know, the mafia. And I’m joking about the mafia part, but he was the leader of a hundred of them. That’s where you get Campanelli from. That was the descendants. Patrick’s descendants from them. But anyway, Cornelius. And when Cornelius is really just meeting with the Lord and praying, the Lord appears—sends an angel, excuse me—to Cornelius and says, “Hey, send three men over to a place called Joppa.” Now, Joppa is more like a lot of Jewish people there. And there’ll be a man named Peter, and he’ll be at a man’s house named Simon the Tanner. So you kind of know, you’ll know how to find it.
So he sends men over there to this city called Joppa. In the meantime, Peter over here, he is hungry, he’s ready to eat, but he goes up to the rooftop. He’s probably getting a little nap in before he eats, all right? Nobody’s going to say amen right there? Come on. Okay, usually we get our naps after we eat now, you know. But he’s over there, and he’s upstairs, and they’re preparing a meal. He’s hungry. And, you know, sometimes God uses hunger. And he kind of falls half in, half out of it in a trance. And the Lord gives him a vision. And this sheet comes down. And the corners are held on to, if you will, and it comes down. And inside this sheet are all kind of cattle, four-footed beasts, you know?
By the way, you know what you call a cow with no legs? Brown beef. Come out now, you know. You’re going to learn intelligent stuff here, you know. But all kind of animals are in this sheet as it’s coming down. And I heard a new joke the other night. I got to tell it to you. It had nothing to do with the message. But let’s see if I could remember it right. But Brother Garrett’s heard it, and I think I told him my family. But anyway, the church had the church bell up there, you know, and had the rope for somebody to pull it. And the preacher and everybody, the members are kind of tired of always. So they put an ad out for someone to come and ring them; they’re going to pay him some money. Sure enough, this guy shows up, and he’s kind of hunched back. He’s got no arms. And the preacher said, “Well, sir, I’m sorry, but that’s going to be a little difficult for you to ring the bell, pull the rope, you know, and do that.” And the hunchback said, “Oh, no problem, no problem.” He said, “Come on, let’s go upstairs,” you know. And they went up. Sure enough, the preacher followed him, went up to where the bell was. And the hunchback, no arms, he just, boom, and he runs into the bell. Man, he rings the bell with his head. And the preacher’s like, “Man, that’s going to get painful after a while.” You know, I’m tough, no problem at all, you know. So every day, sure enough, they hired him. You know, boom, he’s hitting that bell. Well, one day he decides, “I’m going to ring it really good.” He’s in a good mood. Man, he just runs, boom, you know, and he rings, and he falls all the way down. Boom, he’s laying down there in the lobby, you know, the church. Some people call the ambulance. Ambulances get there, and somebody said, “I know who that man is.” And they said, “His face looks like he’s ringing a bell before.” I got to get that right. His face rings a bell. Now we got it. You can tell us a new one for me. I’m not good at telling them.
Now, wherever we’re at, over to Acts chapter number 10, but part of the story. Oh, Peter’s vision, Peter’s vision. Sheet comes down, all the animals are in the sheet. Some of those are unclean. Remember the Old Testament dietary laws, Mosaic laws, you can’t eat this, this, and this. And some of those were unclean. And the Lord, through this vision, says, “Peter, rise.” That means get out of bed, you lazy bum you. Rise, kill, and eat. Peter said, “Oh, no, Lord, I’ve never done that before. No, no, no, I can’t do that.” And again, “Rise, kill, and eat.” “No, I can’t do that, can’t do that.” Three times. By the way, wasn’t it three times that Peter—it seemed like pretty soon Peter’s going to catch on here, come on, buddy, yeah—fell over and denied him three times? And three times, Peter cries, “Kill and eat.” “Oh, no.” And Peter, he’s kind of sat up there thinking, what’s going on? What does this mean? And he doesn’t quite get it quite yet. And the sheet’s gone, vision’s over. He’s just thinking about what’s going on.
And about this time, these three fellas from Caesarea, from Cornelius, they’re at the gate out there, and they’re saying, “Hey, the Lord sent us here to find some guy. Is there a guy named Peter here?” And the Lord says, “Peter, when I send him by, you go there, you go with him.” And Peter’s still trying to put it all together, but he hears there’s some guy, and he goes down. And Peter says, “Well, I don’t understand quite at all, but I’m going to go before nobody to go.” And so they sleep there that night at the house there, and the next day, they travel from Joppa over to Caesarea, and they get over there, and Cornelius has really his family and just a lot of folks gathered up in the house when Peter first gets there. By the way, Peter brings some Christian Jewish friends there over here to Caesarea. Remember, Joppa’s really kind of known for a lot of Jewish people; Caesarea, a lot of Gentiles. And so…
Peter’s over here with this other Jewish brethren that come over here to Cornelius when he sees him. He falls down, starts worshiping. Now, Peter said, “Man, get up. I’m a man just like you are. Won’t you do that?” And here’s the thing: Peter goes inside and starts meeting with his Gentile people. And Cornelius says, “Let me tell you what happened.” He says, “By the way, the Jewish people weren’t supposed to—that was like, you don’t do that—a Jewish person going inside a Gentile’s house.” Remember, that’s why the centurion, when he wanted Jesus to help a servant, the centurion said, “I’m not worthy for you to come under.” Peter goes inside Cornelius’ house and he says, “Y’all all know.” He didn’t say, “You guys all knows,” by the way. It was, “Y’all all know.”
We’re over Cornelius’ house. And he says, “You all know that we’re not supposed to go inside. Everybody knows that. But he said, God showed me. God showed me. He’s taught me something today. I’m growing. I’m learning. And God told me, God’s not a respecter of persons.” And then Peter begins to give the gospel: the death, burial, resurrection. By the way, it was pretty bold because he says, “Hey, you know, y’all killed him,” specifically the Roman soldiers. Now, the Jewish people are a big part of it: crucify, crucify, crucify, crucify—but the Roman soldiers are the ones that did the act. Jewish people wouldn’t do that. And so he’s there telling this Roman centurion, “Hey, you killed him.” Of course, he rose again the third day, and boy, they began to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, and these Gentiles—boy, they’re just, they’re hungry for truth. He’s been praying all the time. They want to know the truth. They finally get someone that thinks it’s from God there, and they’re bowing down. And Peter says, “Don’t, don’t you bow down.” I mean, these are just hungry for truth. They begin to hear about it. They’re like, “Man, Jesus is it.” By the way, he was a Roman higher-up soldier. Don’t you know he had heard about a thousand different religions? Rome had all kind of religions. Cornelius said, “Now, the Jews’ Savior, something different there. I want to know the truth.” By the way, if you’re seeking for truth, God promises you, he’ll show you what truth is. He shows you that in John 7:17. And, boy, they believe on Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit comes in there.
And they began to speak in tongues. Now remember, tongues were a sign for the Jews. We’ve studied that months ago. The Jews require a sign, the Bible says. So they’re speaking in tongues was more for the Jewish people than the Gentile people because now the Jewish people that have been very prejudiced, they’re like, “Well, we can’t argue with God because God showed us very clearly they believe now; they’re speaking in tongues. Why, how can we go against God?” And then they begin to baptize them.
And these people, by the way, typically—not always, but typically—they got saved, baptized, and then the Holy Spirit came on in power. Boy, just initially the Holy Spirit comes on there, and they begin to speak in tongues, and then they’ll get baptized. Now, there’s a lot to this, but we want to just try to pull out a couple things here.
Number one, we want to talk about this very briefly. Some of our curriculum that we use—I don’t think it was in Sunday school, I think it was in one of our children’s churches—but halt this. And it’s not something to fight over, but I want to deal with it briefly. And being the pastor of the church, I like to kind of deal with some of these things sometimes that you’ll hear all kinds of different things about it. But how many have you ever heard this: that God will not hear the prayer of a lost man? Anybody ever heard that before? If you’ve heard that, would you raise your head? Have you heard that before? Sure, I’ve heard that before. But from biblically, that is not true.
Sometimes they’ll use John 9:31. Remember over there that blind man that was blind from birth and Jesus healed him? And then later on the Pharisees are arguing with a guy that was blind saying, “Well, who was it? He healed you on the Sabbath day. That’s not right.” And they’re arguing back and forth, and actually at that point the blind man is not really saved because later on Jesus comes to him and tells him, “I am the Messiah.” Then he believes. But that’s the guy over in John 9:31 that says, “Now we know that God heareth not sinners.” And he says that little phrase—the man that was blind says that little phrase. And a lot of people use that: “See there, God doesn’t hear sinners. If I get real technical about that, all of us are sinners.” Now, yeah, some are saved by grace, some are not. But they’ll take that one statement that the blind man makes in John 9:31, they say, “Well, God doesn’t hear sinners. If you’re not saved, he won’t hear your prayers.”
But if you notice there, the passage we just read, if you look at verse number two, right there, verse number two, Acts number 10, he says, “A devout man,” talking about Cornelius, “and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people”—alms are things you’re giving to someone who’s just in need and you’re doing it quietly and privately—“and prayed to God always.” It doesn’t necessarily say all of his prayers were about salvation. If you prayed all the time, I imagine there are some prayers that weren’t about salvation. You all follow me? Prayed all the time. By the way, it puts me to shame sometimes, you know.
But he’s praying all the time. And then look in verse number 31, verse number 31 of Acts chapter 10. And this is what the angel said to Cornelius in verse number 31: “Cornelius, thy prayer is heard.” Yeah. Cornelius wasn’t saved. And there’s a Bible example of a lost person God heard his prayers. Now, I give you this: before you’re saved, it may be that God in his mercy is hearing from his creation. The Bible even does talk about Romans, how creation groaneth. But once you’re saved, yes, you’ve got a special line because you’re a child of God.
I know of a preacher’s son, and his dad used to pastor, and his dad was a very busy man. And he said, “My dad told us growing up in a busy church that if you ever need us, it doesn’t matter who I’m meeting with in my office, you’re my son; you can come to the office and talk to me anytime, no matter why.” And when you’re a child of God, you have a special prayer line, if you will, to God the Father, then you get a hold of you. You have such a special link, but I would not go to the extent to say that lost people can’t pray. I wouldn’t say that. Cornelius was a lost man, and the Bible says his prayer was heard.
I think about my dad, a little more personal illustration. When my dad was not saved, he had a Corvette back of the day, and he wrecked, and he flipped that Corvette end over end three times it flipped. And, of course, he was in the hospital, was not supposed to live, took his plane out, different things, wasn’t supposed to live. And he’s in the hospital. You know, it was amazing how God can get a hold of you.
I remember a man that didn’t go to church one Sunday because he wanted to go fishing, and he told me, he came back Sunday night because Sunday morning he was out fishing on some river. It was flowing pretty good from what he said. He had waders on, and he stepped in a hole, and that water got down to those waders, and the river’s flowing. And he said, “Man, when I’m trying to get my head above water, all I can think about is, ‘I should be in church.’” True story. God knows how to get your attention. And the Lord had my dad’s attention, and he’s in the hospital, not supposed to live. And he prayed. He said, “Lord, if you just help me get better, let me get out of here, I’ll get in church, and I’ll get my life straight down.” I believe God heard that. He did get better. Now, I’ll be honest, my dad didn’t fulfill this part of the deal. By the way, how many of us have fulfilled every one of our things we prayed and said to the Lord? None of us. But God was working, and eventually, of course, my dad got saved. But I believe God heard my dad’s prayer. And the Bible very clearly here says Cornelius got saved. So be careful. Sometimes you just hear that. Nothing to fight over, but it’s not a biblical thing, and I want you to see that there.
Here’s number two. We’re trying to just debunk a couple things. Number one, somebody said, “Well, if a lost person, God will never hear their prayer.” That’s not true, friend. And I don’t think all of Cornelius’ prayers were about salvation. He prayed all the time. All right. Number two, some will say this. Some will say these Gentiles over here at Caesarea were the first Gentiles that were ever saved. Anybody ever heard that? Nobody’s ever heard that? Some, some, you know, some percentage, that’s true. You’ll hear that. Friend, that’s not at all true. Plenty of examples of Gentiles getting saved even in the Old Testament.
Help me out. When those two spies went over there to Jericho and they found the lady on the wall, what was her name? What was her name? What was her name? Well, she a Jew or a Gentile? Gentile. Pretty clear from Scripture, she got saved. Often we talk about Ruth the—what? Ruth the Moabitess. Yeah, was she a Jew? No, she’s a Moabitess. Awful nation, Moabites. Well, they even got started from Lot and incest and so on. But yes, she was saved. Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel, I believe, got saved. The book of Jonah and all the ancestry of Bill Johan Sr., the Ninevites. They were not Jewish people. They were Ninevites. And Brother Bill was traced back; he can give you more history on that. He really cares. Very interesting. But no, they weren’t Jewish. They’re Gentiles. There’s plenty of examples of Gentiles getting saved even in the Old Testament. These were not the first Gentiles to be saved. In fact, what does the Bible say? He’s not willing that any should perish. He would have all men to be saved. God gives him an opportunity to get saved. Even the Old Testament, some Gentiles were saved. All right. And I want you to kind of notice that.
But the focus of the gospel really up to this point was really to the Jewish people. Remember Jesus? He sent out the 12 apostles. And he said, “I want you to go to the house of Israel,” remember that? Specifically, Matthew talks a lot about it because Matthew describes Jesus as king, king of Jews. Well, they say, “Hey, go there and tell them the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Now, help me out: as a whole, the Jewish race, did they accept that or reject that? They rejected it. Yeah, they don’t want that. Look over in John chapter number one, if it would please. John chapter number one, you’ll know these verses. John 1 and verse number 11. John 1:11. And what does he say over there? He says, “He came…” You there? I’m going to look it up because I’ll misquote it. If you weren’t watching, I could quote it and get by with it, but you’re watching. Better make sure I get it right. John 1:11: “He came unto his own,” his own—the Jewish people, Israel—“and his own received him not.” But as many as received him, we’re about to have this shift, the change, from the focus of the gospel to the Jewish people, to the Gentiles.
So he says he came to the Jewish people as a whole; they rejected it. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to be the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. As a whole, the Jewish people—we already mentioned it—but the Jewish people, the chief priests, higher-ups, led the Jewish people. “Hey, do you want us to release Barabbas to you or Jesus?” And what did they say? “Crucify him, crucify him.” And twice Pilate said, “I find no fault in him.” But they crucified, crucify him. You realize they were sealing their father’s death sentence in some ways for some of them. Very sad thing. It came to the Jewish people; they rejected him.
Actually, even in Jerusalem, when we have this great revival and the day of Pentecost, and 3,000 saved and baptized, did they actually follow the Bible plan of Acts 1:8? Remember Acts 1:8? “And ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Go everywhere. Now, there’s a whole lot of places where the Jewish people were, but for the most part, it was starting to spread out of Jerusalem because of persecution, but they still were going to the Jewish people, and they’re just, they kind of just stuck on the Jews. And so even there, they weren’t actually following detailed by Jesus, even those that did get saved.
And there’s a major shift now here from not just the Jewish people for the most part getting saved. Now it’s changing over to the Gentiles. That’s why he had Peter go from this Jewish city known a lot over to a Gentile city with these Gentiles. And he went all the way in, like everybody said, “You’re not supposed to do that.” And Peter goes in there and begins to give them the gospel. And the shift changes. Acts chapter 10.
Now look over in Romans chapter 11. I want you to see this a little bit, just talking about this shift here. Romans 11 really describes much of this about the Jewish people. And let me say this: God’s not a respecter of persons, but nations. He really does treat nations as he so chooses. Romans 9 through 11 talks much about that, specifically the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. Look in verse number one of Romans chapter number 11. Just kind of get the thought here in this chapter. Romans 11 and verse number one: “I say then, hath God cast away his people?” the Jewish people. “God forbid.” For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. And he’s saying God hasn’t cast me away. But it goes on in this chapter and it begins to talk about grafting in. How have you ever heard about grafting or grafting in? Many have. And he uses this olive tree. And when you graft, often they’ll take the top part of the plant and they’ll clip off one of the top branches. Usually they’ll make kind of a V in it, and they’ll pull off the top part, and then they’ll bring in—they’ll kind of slice down off of them—they’ll bring in another branch, and they’ll bring it down into that. By the way, this is how you often get hybrid-type fruit and whatnot, and they’ll bring that down, then they’ll wrap it around with some kind of a bandage, and actually this new, often different plant will be grafted in. It’ll really change; it becomes one. How you often get hybrid-type plants, whatnot. And the Bible here is talking about how the Jewish people rejected Jesus as a whole, and so the Lord has clipped them, if you will, this top branch, and he’s put a vine—he’s cut down in there—and then he’s brought the Gentiles into this olive branch representing the Spirit of God, and we’re grafted in. We became a part of the family of God eventually, and there’s no Jew or Greek for one in Christ. And he’s talking about this a lot here in this chapter.
Now, I want you to look down and just see a little bit of this. We’re in Romans 11. Look in verse number 24, verse number 24: “For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these which be natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?” Now, he’s saying the Jewish people, they’ve been cut away as a whole, but one day they’re coming back. And if us that were not naturally part of that olive tree, the Gentiles that were grafted in, it’s going to be pretty easy for him to graft them back in there. That’s part of it naturally, if you know.
Okay. Now, kind of get into this thought. Now look in verse number 25, verse number 25: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceit, that blindness, watch this, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.” Now, what’s he talking about? He’s saying, “All right, this shift is now to the Gentiles. They’re getting saved for the vast majority, and Israel has the blindness. They rejected the light. You reject light, darkness comes.” That’s why the typical Jewish person is not saved. I have a relative that’s Jewish and not saved. We’re praying for her to get saved. And would you pray with me on that? She’s been reading her Bible here lately. We’re so thankful for that. We’re like, “Wow, praise the Lord for that,” you know. But typically Jewish people, it’s very far between that they’re getting saved in our day and time. But the Gentiles, the Church Age, the time of the Gentiles these mentioned, it’s our time to really spread the gospel around the world. Now, I always like to have at least one Jewish missionary—“to the Jew first and then to the Greeks”—and I like to have at least one Jewish missionary that we’re helping support there. But for the vast majority, it’s tough to see a Jewish person saved. But notice he said their blindness has come in part. That means not every Jewish person is blind. Jewish people can still get saved. I remember Dr. Gartenhouse—remember him?—and Jewish International Missions, and boy, he got saved. His dad, his family rejected him after he got saved, and he stayed true, and God’s used him to start a mission board for the Jewish people. But here’s the thing: so right now, it is very few and far between that a Jewish person gets saved; mostly Gentiles. Before it was kind of the opposite of that: for the most part, Jewish people getting saved, not very many Gentiles. It’s flipped in Acts chapter 10. Now mostly the Gentiles.
But can I say this? One day, he said, that part that was cut out will be grafted back in. That’s what he’s talking about in Romans chapter number 11. Actually, during the tribulation period, the Jewish people have a great revival. Steve Page has got him a pin on his jacket right there, and he got a cross, and then he’s got an American-Israeli flag. That’s how I like that. Because there’s still God’s chosen people, the Israel and the Jewish people. And one day they’ll be grafted back in during the tribulation period, and God will use them in a great way. We’ve mentioned this recently. And look over in John chapter number five, if it was—John 5—and just trying to get some little miscellaneous verses that maybe help you understand scripture as you read them, what they’re speaking of.
Now, during the first part of the tribulation period, it’s not going to be good for the Jewish people. And look at this, John 5 in verse number 18. John 5:18. Jesus here had healed a man and did it on the Sabbath day, and more the Jewish people were all over him about that. Verse number 18: “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” By the way, Jesus never said, “No, that’s not true.” It was true. That’s what Jesus was saying. Boy, they’re talking about killing him. Just trying to emphasize here in this chapter how they rejected Jesus.
Now look in verse number 42, John 5:42. He says, “But I know you,” speaking of the Jewish higher-ups, the Pharisees and Sadducees, “that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” We’re just talking about the Antichrist. That’s who he was talking about. They rejected the Christ, but when the Antichrist, the counterfeit Christ, the Jews fall for him, hook, line, and sinker; they think he’s wonderful. Now he’s halfway through the tribulation period, the abomination of desolation, the Antichrist turns on the Jewish people. Remember, he commits the abomination of desolation there in the temple and just defiles it, and, boy, he goes after the Jewish people. And that’s when God says, “I’m going to take care of my people,” and God has a place of protection for them, and he provides for them. God uses the Jewish people, the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. And so I’m saying at the very end, they get grafted back in. But one day that last person of the Gentile bride, the church, the bride of Christ, will get saved, and his bride will be complete. And boom, we’re out of here. Then the rapture; the tribulation period starts. And at the end of it, they have a great revival. They’re grafted back in. So just a little history about the Jewish people. But it’s shifting, the focus of the gospel shifting now to the Gentile people in chapter number 10.
Now let me just talk about one more thing. I got 7:01 back there. I try—I do seek to get you out at 7:15 on Wednesday night. Not because this person says that at the other, but because you’ve got to work tomorrow, and you’ve got school tomorrow, and on and on and on. I say, “Don’t bring that up, Pastor.” I try to be aware of that. I do. But I do want to just mention this briefly here tonight. Y’all with me? Everybody’s with me here?
Once you realize a little bit of what’s going on here, there’s a lot of prejudice. The Jewish people are very prejudiced people. And Jesus is breaking down—Jesus did, there was really all throughout his earth—just breaking down the walls of prejudice. In Jesus’ kingdom, there’s no room for prejudice.
Remember there in John chapter 4? Jesus is down in Judea, that’s over by Jerusalem down there, and he’s going up to Galilee. And typically the Jewish people, they would go around a little bit because they won’t go through Samaria because they’re very prejudiced. And the Samaritans were way back in the early days when Assyria came and took captives out of the northern part of Israel, and the Jewish people went back with Assyria and they intermarried. And from that, you’ve got the Samaritan. So the Jewish people are like, “Well, they’re, you know, half and half,” and they really look down their nose. And John 4:4 says this: “Jesus, my Jesus, he must needs go through Samaria.” And the apostles are like, “Jesus, what are you doing? Everybody—all those Jewish people—we don’t go there. We go around.” And Jesus said, “No, I’m going there.”
And not only does he go there to Samaria, but he comes to Sychar’s well, and this lady there, this Samaritan, he begins to talk to her. The rest of the disciples are in town. They’re at Sychar now. They’re right with the Lord, dead a bit at Cracker Barrel, amen, you know. Well, they’re getting some food, and Jesus is over there, and he’s talking, and even she was like, “What are you doing talking to me?” I tell you what, he was leading her to the Lord. And then not only that, but she goes and gets somebody else in town, or a whole lot of them out of town, and brings them over. And Jesus is leading them to the Lord while these other Jewish, often very prejudiced people are like, “Whoa, what’s he doing?” Jesus, over and over again, he would just get rid of prejudice.
Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan? Notice it’s a parable; it’s a story. Jesus could have used anybody in it. The parable of the guy that goes down—he’s going out of Jerusalem, some over there in Jericho. It’s a very dangerous road. And he gets mugged. And who comes by? A priest, a Jewish priest. And then what? A Levite, the elite of the Jewish people. Jesus could have used anybody in the world for those. It’s a parable; it’s a story. And then he uses a Samaritan—the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus—it wasn’t a coincidence. Jesus was always breaking down the walls of prejudice because there’s a lot of prejudice going on here. And Jesus is giving that story on purpose that way. And, boy, I tell you what, the Israelites—some of them were offended over that because they’re making that Samaritan look better than the Jewish people, and they didn’t like that. Jesus was breaking—he was just over and over again, he’s breaking down the walls of prejudice.
Look over Mark, chapter number eight—if you would, excuse me, Matthew chapter number eight. Real quickly here, we’ve got to close this thing out. Matthew chapter number eight. We talked a lot about doctrine at the beginning part of this message. Let’s get a couple practical things just kind of ending it up with this thing: how Jesus really just broke down the wall. By the way, the gospel breaks down barriers. It’s so very vital. Matthew 8, look in verse number 5. Matthew 8:5: “And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion,” same time we go over in the book of Acts, we got a Roman leader of a hundred soldiers, a centurion, a Gentile, beseeching him, and saying, “Lord, my servant I have that at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.” And Jesus said to him, “I will…” What’s the next word? “Come and heal him.” Jesus didn’t say, “I’ll heal him.” He could have. He said, “I’ll go to your house.” Would you—as people aren’t supposed to do that. Everybody knows, don’t you? Don’t you go in there, Peter? No, Peter did. By the way, Peter knew he would be judged, and he did get judged. You watch chapter number 11 of Acts when we get there next week. The people at Jerusalem, they did judge Peter: “Peter, what are you doing going in there?” Prejudice. Peter had to rehearse the whole matter, and they said, “Well, I guess we can’t argue with God.” Hope you don’t, you know.
And he said, “I will come and heal him.” Then the centurion answered and said, “Lord, I’m not worthy that thou should have come under my roof. Let us speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” This centurion knew what was going on. Everybody knew it. Jesus, people are going to talk about you. You don’t have to come under my roof. I know a Jewish person’s not supposed to come in a Gentile’s house. That’s all right. I’m not worthy of your house, my roof.
But watch what Jesus does. He says, “For I have a man under authority, and having soldiers under me: I say unto this man, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.” When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to them that followed, “Jesus, he’s really going to get in trouble, if you will, because he keeps putting the Jewish people down and Gentiles up.” That was taboo because Jewish people were very prejudiced. “Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom”—that’s the Jewish people, but the children of the kingdom—“shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Well, they didn’t like that. And Jesus said unto the centurion, “Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” And his servant was healed in that same hour.
Now, I’m just saying over and over again, Jesus—and there are other examples of it—but we’re trying to get out of here. Jesus will break down this wall of prejudice. I mentioned a couple weeks ago, or a week or two ago, be careful of racial slurs. Just be wise about those. Sometimes it wouldn’t mean anything bad, but what that can hurt. Jesus was always about breaking down this. Peter—what God has called—Peter didn’t get it, but later on, Peter did get it. Let me look back over in Acts chapter 10. Let’s see if we can find it somewhere along the line. Peter’s very clear about it: “I got what God’s trying to say now.” Verse number 34, Acts 10, verse number 34: “Then Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.” I finally getting it.
Hey, let me say this: I’m a conservative. I always will be a conservative. But if somebody doesn’t believe like I do politically, I don’t want to shun them; I don’t want to look down my nose at them; I want to try to get the gospel to them. A lot of different kinds of prejudice. I mean, some things are a whole lot more important. By the way, I’m a Christian first, then American.
And the Israelites had a problem—excuse me, Jonah did. I don’t want to go over there. That’s the enemies of Israel. And how did it turn out for Jonah in the well? Yeah. I’m a Christian first, then an American. Now, typically we can be both of those, but I got to take my pick. I want to be a Christian first. You know? Sometimes we can classify people financially. I had a great upbringing. I don’t mean to make my upbringing light, but sometimes we’ll use this term, “trailer trash.” I thought about the other day. I was raised in a trailer until I was in eighth grade. I don’t have a problem with it. I had many a good time in a trailer. And I say that and say, just be so careful that we’re not, you know… By the way, the ultimate end is we want people to be saved, lives to be changed. You say, “Do you want a multi-racial church?” Yeah, if it means more people getting saved. Amen, I want that.
Jesus wasn’t prejudiced. He broke down so many barriers. He went against the quote-unquote norm. He was just there to reach people. Came to seek and save that which is lost.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. I’m going to ask you a little different invitation here. I’m just going to ask us—we have just a few minutes left—would you spend some time maybe at an old-fashioned altar in just a minute? Would you pray for people to be saved, people to get baptized, and lives to be changed? I mentioned it earlier, but if we have a big church building, we get a lot of people who come, Christians that come, and people that are already in church to come to our church. We’ll be doing some in some ways if nobody’s getting saved and lives aren’t being changed. Let’s just say, “Lord, by the way, not by my might nor my power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” That’s the way temples are built for the Lord, the Spirit of God. Let’s pray that the Spirit of God be working in and through us. Would you stand and would you spend some time? Just ask the Lord, “Would you bless? Would you let us see souls saved, lives changed, people baptized?” Father, give us a burden for that. Give us a passion to share your heart to reach the lost and for you to change lives. Let us have a passion for that. Hear our prayers tonight. In Jesus’ name we pray.
We’ll just spend some time as our instruments play. An old-fashioned altar—it’ll be a great place, wherever the Lord leads. Let’s spend some time. Lord, would you let us see people saved? That’s right, that’s right. Let’s see people saved. Been a while since the Baptist Street water’s been stirred. Lord, let us have someone baptized. It’s interesting, not by might or by power. Power has to do with authority, not going to be all our different programs and all our building. No, no, no, no. It’s going to be the Spirit of God. He says, “He gives the Spirit to them that ask him.” Look, 1:13 in the book of Acts is interesting, isn’t it? So much. And, boy, you’ll see a shift now over to the Gentiles getting saved. Yes, ma’am. Let’s pray for Ms. Risa, cataract surgery in the morning. We sure will. Let’s pray for that. We’re going to get out of here. Oh, let’s see here. Brother Patterson, would you lead us, dismiss us in prayer? Would you pray for Mr. Risa? Got cataract surgery tomorrow. Would you please? We’ll be dismissed.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂Doctrine from Acts＂ - Wednesday 8⧸13⧸25 [SrEnkHQZ1FM]