[The Enlightenment of the Holy Spirit]
Acts 10:30-35
It is important for us to realize what the essence is when we are to completely obey the Lord through the Word. Let us think about the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit that makes us to obey.
First, we have to pray and give gifts to the poor which God hears and remembers. Peter knew well why Cornelius invited him, but he first asked the Gentile for the reason of the invitation. Then Cornelius began to report in detail what had happened to him.
This incident was such an important and historic moment in Christian history so the Bible repeatedly recorded this. The evangelization of the Gentiles was such a tough and difficult thing to do. The Roman centurion humbly waited for Peter for four days (v. 31). And how could the centurion pray at three oclock in the afternoon? But in ancient Greek, the word house was oikos, which is more than a physical form of a house it meant everywhere people were being present, therefore, this meant that Cornelius could keep his praying hour at work or at home. He had set times to pray wherever he was. And while he was praying, he saw an angel in shining clothes. This angel gave Cornelius a compliment about his prayers being heard by God and the gifts given to the poor remembered by God. However, to Peter, God showed him a vision of all kinds of unclean animals. God shows different visions depending on ones maturity. Peter said that he would never eat the unclean animals, but God heard Cornelius prayers and remembered his good actions. We think that God complimented Cornelius much being partial to him. However, that is a mans thought. Peter was mature beyond peoples understanding. His many sins in the past helped his ministry greatly. Whatever God entrusted Peter with and whatever He commanded, Peter knew that he was a sinner and obeyed God by interpreting everything as salvation work of the Holy Spirit even though he rejected to obey at first.
Second, the one who wants to listen to everything that God had commanded will be enlightened. Cornelius was a Gentile, but he was desperate than any of the Jews to listen to the Word. And how could he be so humble even before he heard the Word and met Peter? I was curious. And then I was reminded that he was a soldier. The military training must have been helpful to him. He must have gone through many tough trainings as a centurion. I always emphasize that the wife has to use a language of submissopm to her husband when I give wedding sermons. The word submit is a military word hupotasso in Greek. A soldier must submit to his superior, and if he does not, he could be killed. One must be awake all the time to submit without any excuses.
As a special force soldier, Cornelius must have been apt to submission. We have hard time in using the language of submission because it feels like a long time. One can perceive Jesus six hours on the cross as a lifelong time, and another can perceive those hours as only six hours. For the one who has not gone through a military training, it is hard to submit to others. The word wait is related to the word waiter, one who waits. A waiter waits and serves. And Cornelius military trainings as a soldier helped him a lot in the faith journey. A soldier must follow the orders. The military law was very strict but Cornelius admitted that Gods law was above it, and he wanted to listen to it. That was the key to his enlightenment. We just cannot obey from the beginning.
Therefore, we only can ask for submission. There are lots of sufferings in life, but a tough training like a military one can be helpful for us to listen to Gods commands.
Third, we should not look at appearances. Verse 34 means that God does not take people for their appearances. God does not show His favoritism based upon peoples appearances. He is fair. He can save whoever if He wants. He sent Christ for all the people from every nation who feared God and did what was right, even a Gentile like Cornelius. Salvation can come to anyone through the faith in Jesus disregarding the ethnicity or nationality. Peter realized this with his heart: 'If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).' We all have to have experience to be enlightened. We easily say that everyone can be saved, but we truly realize it when we have sufferings like bankruptcy and other things. Those who admit and fear God do not take people for their appearances. In the passage, Cornelius respect for God and doing good were continuous things. Therefore, taking an action does not simply mean doing something but doing a work continuously and diligently, opposite to being lazy.
Thus Peter knew that he was not to judge from ones appearance whether one belong to God or not. He also realized that the Lord accepted everyone who feared and did the good regardless of the appearances. This is a true enlighten of the Holy Spirit that does not take favoritism from ones appearance.
In conclusion, I bid you blessings to have a true enlightenment of the Holy Spirit in this coming week.
