A Light to Lighten the Gentiles
“There was a certain man in Csesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,” etc. — Acts x.
ALKEADY Christ had come, the glory of his own people Israel; and now he must be set forth as a light also to the Gentiles. The second half of the promise must be fulfilled as well as the first. Shiloh has come to hold the sceptre in Judah; but to him must the gathering of the peoples also be. It is not enough that the law of the new kingdom should be established in Zion; the word of the kingdom must go forth from Jerusalem. The king hath I prepared his sacrifice, — he hath bidden his guests. All things are now ready; the servants must now go out into the highways and the hedges, and compel the outcasts to come in. North, give up; south, keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.
The outflow of the gospel upon the Gentile world is a great turning-point in the history of the primitive Church.
That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakters of his promise in Christ by the gospel, was not at first known to the followers of Jesus: it was part of the mystery of godliness specially revealed to the apostles after the ascension of Christ. “Other sheep I have,” said the Master, “which are not of this fold: them also I must bring; and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd” (John x. 16). This chapter narrates the accomplishment of the promise. Here we learn how the door was opened; or, rather, how the middle wall of partition was broken down so that henceforth, there should be for the Church neither Jew nor Greek.
Although individuals here and there had already been admitted into the fellowship of the Church, it needed yet a revelation to show the believing Jews that the way into the gospel was as open and free to the nations as to themselves. Those who had entered hitherto, entered first into the Jewish communion, and thence were introduced into the Christian Church. Now it is made evident that the Gentiles may come direct to Christ, without passing through Judaism on their way. God’s own hand had hung up the separating veil to serve important purposes for a time; but now, when it has fulfilled its purpose, his own hand will rend it.
Peter and Cornelius are chosen as the two points at which
1 “Not one fold, but one flock; no one exclusive enclosure of an outward Church, — but one flock, all knowing the one Shepherd and known of him.” — Dean Alfokd.
the two bodies shall come into contact, so that they may be joined in one.
Cornelius was a favourite name among the noblest families of Rome. He was an officer of the Italian band. The body- guard of the governor was composed of native Italians. Levies raised in the provinces were not trusted near the ruler’s person. This circumstance makes it sure that Cornelius was a Gentile. He belongs to the Roman Empire, the representative at that day of the world’s power.
He was a devout man. Whether he was a proselyte of the gate cannot be certainly ascertained; but, at all events, he was not further initiated into Judaism. He worshipped God, but did not conform to the Jewish ceremonial.
He worshipped God with all his house. This is a feature in family life that is always mentioned in the Scriptures with honour. Jesus is pleased when parents bring the little ones and place them in his arms. Grace not only flows down like water, so that from the head of the house it reaches the youngest; it also, by a cognate law, rises up like vapour, so that it may find its way from a godly child to a worldly father. Parents, bring your house to the Church; and bring the Church to your house.
“Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.” Prayers and pains were equally yoked in the life of Cornelius. Body and soul together constituted the religion of this devout Roman. It is not that the giving of: alms makes the giver just with God. It is rather that the gifts accompanying the prayer serve to embody his desires. The charity was not a dead work, for it ascended to heaven; the gifts were the outgoings of an earnest but unenlightened soul groping after God.
“Now send men to Joppa and call for Simon.” The Lord puts honour on the gospel in that he sends an angel!
from heaven to set a train in motion for conveying it to an anxious soul; but lie also puts honour on the human ministry in that he does not intrust an angel with the work. The angel is employed to run an errand — to call the preacher to the spot. The matter is so great that an angel must be sent in order to get it accomplished; but the matter lies so exclusively between sinful man and his Divine Redeemer that the angel is not further employed, after he has told where a minister of the gospel may be found.
When there is a great illness in a family, a loving neighbour comes in; but he does not presume to prescribe. He will run for the physician. So do angels minister to “the heirs of salvation.”
This arrangement is wise and good. When Paul was constrained in faithfulness to tell certain men of Philippi that they were “enemies of the cross of Christ,” he told the stern truth “weeping.” He who has himself been taken by free grace out of the pit, knows how to pity those who are left. The words that win souls run thus: — “Come with us, and we will do thee good,” “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did speak; is not this the Christ?” “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.” This is preaching; and therefore angels cannot preach. They seem to say — “We can but desire to look into this mystery; send for one who has passed through it.” Send for the man who denied his Lord, and thereafter melted under his look of pitying love. Send for Peter, who has himself been saved, and he will tell you what you must do to be saved.
We know by the answer sent what the centurion’s prayer had been. The answer is an echo of the request; and the answer is to show him the way of life.
There were many strong barriers between this man and Christ. He was a Gentile, a Koman, a soldier, a centurion: each word indicates a fence within a fence to keep grace at bay; but grace burst through all, and led him captive.
Peter went to the house-top about noon to pray. The house-top was the place of retirement. Peter’s closet was large and lofty. Its roof was the dome of heaven; yet it served his purpose well, for it was secluded. The closet, in the sense of our Lord’s instructions on prayer, is any place where you may be shut out from earth below, and open upwards to heaven. That is the best closet which does for the spirit what the house-top did for the body, — which veils off the earth, and leaves all heaven open above the suppliant.
It is good to have associations of special communion with God connected with particular spots. The sight of these Bethels may revive sweet memories in later years. The tree, more hoary now, in the rural haunts of your youth, under whose shade, in the long summer twilight, you were wont to kneel and lift your soul to God, when the life of faith was young; the avenue along which you were wont to walk communing with a present Saviour, when the sense of his presence was new; — sweet spots! beautiful rays of light from above seem still to linger over them! This world is sweeter to a Christian than to other men. It contains for him many spots of holy ground on which he loves, even unto old age, to dwell; and even if some places call up sad memories of evil, they remind him also of his Saviour’s love in blotting out all his sin.
The vision of Peter marked a great crisis of the Church. The apostles must have experienced at this time much difficulty in reconciling the Lord’s command, Go ye into all the world, with their adherence to the Mosaic ordinances, which they, still considered binding. On the general
The Church in the House.
principle that you may discover in the answer sent to prayer what the suppliant pleaded for, we haveood ground to assume that Peter, on the house-top that day, cried to the Lord, 0 send out thy light and thy truth, let them guide me on this very thing. The vision that followed was the opening of the gates, that the kingdom long pent-up in Israel might flow out upon the world. It is the bursting of the chrysalis, in which the life has been preserved indeed, but confined. The life that now issues forth is the same; and yet it is so much more glorious, that to observers the Church of the New Testament seems a new creature.