The Spirit confirms the truth

Sermon for the week of Pentecost

Acts 10:42-48  +  John 3:16-21

How important were the outward signs of the Holy Spirit in the earliest days of the Christian Church? We saw one example on Sunday from Acts chapter 2. We see another today in our reading from Acts chapter 10. In fact, these are the two most important texts in the whole New Testament for understanding the purpose of that particular spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. These four all-important truths were confirmed by the outward manifestations of the Spirit of Truth: (1) Jesus Christ is truly Lord of all, (2) the apostles, through whom the signs came, were truly sent by Jesus, (3) salvation is truly by faith alone in Jesus Christ, and (4) salvation is truly intended for all nations. We see all four of those truths expressed in tonight’s reading from Acts.

Let me remind you about the context of Acts 10. The apostle Peter had received a vision from God—a vision in which God shows him all kinds of animals, clean and unclean. And He told Peter to “kill and eat.” When Peter objected that he had never eaten any unclean or “common” animal, God told him, “What God has cleansed, you must not call ‘common.’” That was God, the Holy Spirit, guiding Peter into all truth, as Jesus had promised He would. The Spirit was teaching Peter that not only were the Old Testament laws about clean and unclean no longer in effect, that God had removed the stigma of “unclean” from certain animals, but that He had also removed the stigma of “unclean” from people. In order to be “clean” up to this time, a man had to be circumcised, as all the Jews were. But no longer would that be the case. The Jews had previously considered the Gentiles to be unsaved and unsavable. But they were to think that no longer.

So the Spirit informed Peter that three men were coming to bring him to the house of a Gentile named Cornelius, a God-fearing man, but still an uncircumcised Gentile who hadn’t heard the Gospel of Christ. Peter was to go with them and preach to Cornelius and his house. What you heard this evening was a part of Peter’s preaching there, where he began by announcing to them that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. He went on: God commanded us, that is, the apostles who were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ resurrection, to preach to the people, and to testify that it is Jesus 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 forgiveness of sins.

In that simple preaching, you have the apostle Peter’s testimony to those four truths I mentioned a moment ago. Peter claims that (1) Jesus Christ is Lord of all, (2) the apostles (including Peter) were sent by Jesus, (3) salvation (the forgiveness of sins) is by faith alone in Jesus Christ, and (4) salvation is intended for all nations, for “whoever believes in Him.”

And then what follows is the Holy Spirit’s own testimony, through the gift of speaking in other languages, that what Peter had claimed was true: While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.

Notice first of all that the Holy Spirit didn’t come upon the Gentiles apart from the preached word of God, but “while Peter was still speaking these words,” He fell upon “all those who heard the word.” Always keep that in mind. The signs of the Spirit are there to confirm the word of God that is being preached.

He certainly did that here! The very same gift of speaking God’s praises in other languages that the Holy Spirit had given to the Jewish believers on Pentecost was now being given to these Gentiles who had just heard the Gospel of Christ and believed it. The same gift meant the same Spirit. And the same Spirit means the same God, the same salvation, the same status in God’s kingdom, and the same acceptance of them all as children of God and heirs of eternal life, circumcision or no circumcision. It no longer mattered at all!

And so Peter called for them all to be baptized, just as the 3,000 Jewish believers had been on the Day of Pentecost. No difference, just as Paul says to the Galatians in chapter 3: For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Forgiveness of sins is tied to Baptism, Baptism is tied to faith, faith is tied to the word, the word is tied to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is tied to Jesus, and Jesus is tied to the Father. They all go together. You should never think of one apart from the other. The only thing that you should think of separately are those external, miraculous signs of the Holy Spirit, like speaking in tongues. That was a special thing, a special gift, given, when necessary, for the sake of confirming those four truths that we mentioned, that (1) Jesus Christ is truly Lord of all, (2) that the apostles were truly sent by Jesus, (3) that salvation is truly by faith alone in Jesus Christ, and (4) that salvation is truly for all nations. Or, as Jesus put it to Nicodemus, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Amen.