STUDIES IN NEW TESTAMENT LEADERSHIP

Bristol Road 11th August 2004

PETER

All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or

the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are
yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. I
Cor 3 v 22,23

The narrative we are using for this study extends over two chapters in
Acts – from 10:1 to 11:18. This detailed account tells us about
Cornelius the centurion and his conversion along with those gathered
at his home. It tells us how God revealed to Peter that the Gospel was
for the Gentile world as well as for Jews.
Luke will return to the story of Peter in Chapter 12, and in Chapter 15
(The Council of Jerusalem) – and from that point onwards Peter will
disappear from the narrative.

You will have noticed already in our studies of Apollos and Paul that
God was using these men in a critical role at a specific time.

Apollos demonstrated to us the way in which God overcomes a

PARTIAL GOSPEL

Paul demonstrated how God used the weakness of Paul to address

unresolved issues in the early church – a potentially COMPROMISED
GOSPEL

As we turn back the pages to Peter – we see God dealing with the
matter of a totally IMPARTIAL GOSPEL. But the interesting fact
remains that although God revealed the spread of the Church to the
gentile community to Peter – Peter was not the one who would carry
that mission forward.

ONE MAN’S MINISTRY is not God’s pattern. He uses different gifts and
circumstances to shape His people. His work involves a number of
different workers – and if the passage in 1 Corinthians is anything to go
by – they are often very different ministries.
It is also interesting to notice that over time a vision that once
transformed the way the church responded to God – over time that
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vision was modified. The vision becomes the driving force or another
minister – Paul, not Peter. This succession if you like is seen e.g. in
Moses and Joshua as well.
OUTLINE

Luke’s narrative – as always – is structured carefully:

10 1-7 Cornelius has a vision of an angel

10 10-23a Peter is given a three times repeated vision …

10 23b-48 Peter visits Caesarea & the Holy Spirit comes on

gentiles

11 1-18 Peter explains to the Christians at Jerusalem

In Chapter 15 Peter makes a statement at the Council in Jerusalem1

In Galatians Paul rebukes Peter for going back on this teaching.

1. God is at work in those with open hearts.

2. Ministry is a two-way process – giving and receiving
3. What has been learned has to be applied
4. What has been learned and applied has to be explained
5. The danger lies in drifting away from those hard won truths

Before we deal with each of those points let me make a very obvious
observation that actually merits a series of studies of its own – we have
here the Acts of the Holy Spirit in the Church. As you read Luke’s
narrative you are struck by the dynamic of the Holy Spirit as He orders
the affairs of enquirer and preacher alike, as He prepares for the next
great phase in the spread of the Gospel – the good news to the gentile
world.

1. God is at work in those with open hearts

1
15 6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and
addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the
Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart,
showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He made no
distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test
God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to
bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
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We have Cornelius the God-fearing enquirer and Peter the committed

Jew – poles apart in their world views, separated by historical oceans of
discrimination.
God is at work in BOTH – melting the “iceberg”2 of Peter’s Judaism, and
firing the desire of truth that burned in Cornelius.

Luke gives us a beautiful description here of a truly original Church

Home Group which sets a pattern for all to come. “A man opens his
home, gathers his friends into it, has some refreshments ready, and
invites a teacher to come and present the gospel to his friends.”3

Luke’s dramatic narrative demonstrates in a series of scenes how God

is at work in both Cornelius and Peter. The minister and the recipient
both experience the amazing work of God’s grace revealed by vision
and by word.

The spread of the gospel is played out against a changing background

– and in this narrative the contrasting neighbourhoods are Jewish and
Gentile.

In this description of New Testament Leadership we see God at work

where there is OPENESS OF HEART – on the part of the God-seeking
centurion – and on the part of the obedient, but blinkered apostle
Peter.

I suggest to you that this is going to be a PRE-REQUISITE of blessing in

the church. The fellowship needs to be receptive and hungry for God’s
truth and a new direction, and God’s servant is going to be equally
receptive to the vision of a dramatic change of world-view.

The marks of that openness are:

In Cornelius: devout, God fearing, giving generously and praying. (2)

In Peter: praying, listening, wondering & obedient to the Holy Spirit.

(9-20)

The area of God’s working was:

In Cornelius – to make up that (which like Apollos) was lacking in his

knowledge

2
Ray Stedman
3
Ibid.
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In Peter – to transform that prejudice which was his by birth and

upbringing

Had either man been CLOSED OF MIND AND HEART the work would not
have been done – but God is busy preparing not only visions but
miracles of grace.

It is beautifully described by Luke:

Cornelius (10:33)

“Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to

everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.”

What a congregation!

Peter “I now realise how true it is that God does not show
favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him
and do what is right.” (34,35)

You have to recognise what an immense step that is for a Jew. Two
thousand years of gospel preaching have intervened and we gentiles
take that as a given.

In Peter the process was interesting in so far as a threefold repetition of

the vision is needed.

Vision …. Command … Reluctance … then application. (10:9-20)

I absolutely love the way the minister describes himself :

“I’m the one you’re looking for.” (33) The conclusion of a Spirit led
open heart.

Presumably that is exactly the situation we are seeking as a church – a

congregation described in verse 33 and a pastor who announces
himself in verse 21!

Is it possible? Openness of heart is the key.

2. Ministry is a Two-Way Process

Whilst the central part of these narratives is the vision given by God to
Peter and it’s historic implications for the Church – the ministry of Peter
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is aptly demonstrated not just as a “teacher delivering a lecture” or a

“preacher delivering a sermon” – but an EXCHANGE between Peter and
Cornelius.

After Cornelius’ initial reaction is corrected:

25
As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in
reverence. 26 But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am
only a man myself.”

Peter shares with them a reminder of the way things are:

27
Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of
people. 28 He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our
law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. …

If that had been all – it would have been a sad occasion.

But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or
unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without raising any
objection. May I ask why you sent for me?”

30 Cornelius answered: “Four days ago I was in my house praying at

this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes
stood before me 31 and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer
and remembered your gifts to the poor. 32 Send to Joppa for Simon
who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who
lives by the sea.’ 33 So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of
you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to
everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.”

At the very beginning – before ever Peter starts his address there is a
conversation – a sharing of perspectives, an explanation and an
appreciation:

“It was good of you to come.” 33

Later – they will share at a deeper level as Peter, and his companions
(six chosen so that the Roman ideal of seven witnesses would be
realised?) observe the Holy Spirit fall upon the gathered people.
44
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on
all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come
with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had
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been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard them
speaking in tongues and praising God.
Then Peter said, 47 “Can anyone keep these people from being
baptised with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we
have.” 48 So he ordered that they be baptised in the name of Jesus
Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

Notice that Luke does not say that Peter was astonished. But peter is
learning not only from the vision – but from the experience of breaking
with tradition and entering a Gentile home – and most profoundly of all
– by seeing the evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in the meeting.

When we say that ministry is a TWO-WAY PROCESS we do not mean

that one is hearer and the other speaker although that may at times be
true – but that God is at work in both speaker and hearer alike – and
that each contributes to the work of God in the other.

Peter is not only learning the implications of the vision God gave him –
but he is learning:

o How God had already been at work in Cornelius

o How seriously Cornelius regarded his ministry and anticipated the
message
But also
o How God would continue to be at work in this new group of new
believers

Peter knows that he has been commanded to share the word

Cornelius knows that God has commanded Peter to speak

It is a mutual recognition of a share in the ministry of God’s grace.

PETER’S SERMON

Has (arguably) seven points

and
Is interrupted by the Holy Spirit!

1 No partiality 34,35
2 The work and Person of Christ 36-38a
3 A work for those “oppressed by the devil” 38b
4 Christ crucified 39b
5 Risen – and seen by witnesses 40-41
6 The appointed Judge 42
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7 (As scripture testifies) believe and receive forgiveness through His

name 43

No doubt Luke has summarised it for us – but it was a comprehensive

statement,
Appropriating the Gospel of the living Christ – who died for our sins –
and will judge all men = repent and believe….

At which point the Holy Spirit took over.

3. What has been learned must be applied

We see this principle at work in both the preacher and the hearers. It
is a fundamental of church life and spiritual development.

IN PETER

What He had learned from the beginning of His Lord is applied to

himself and to his view of ministry.

What He had learned by the Holy Spirit after the Lord’s ascension – and
as he applied the OT Scriptures to his understanding of the Lord’s life
and work and words.

And now – being open of heart and mind to what the Spirit is leading –
he must apply the vision and its meaning:

17 wondering about the meaning of the vision

19 thinking about the vision, the Spirit said….

29 I came without raising any objection

34 I now realise how true it is …

47 “Can anyone keep these people from being baptised with

water?”

48 So he ordered that they be baptised in the name of Jesus

Christ.

Observe the pilgrimage of the preacher!

IN CORNELIUS AND THE HEARERS

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5 Send to Joppa to bring back Simon who is called Peter

8 sent them to Joppa

9 “told him to have you come to his house so that he could

hear what you have to say”

33 I sent immediately

We are here to listen…

44 The Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message

48 they be baptised….

Of course the Holy Spirit was at work in the very beginning – both with
Cornelius and with Peter – but the culmination of the ministry is in the
praising of God and the evidence of the moving Holy Spirit.

4. What has been learned and applied has to be

explained

11 The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the
Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to
Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticised him 3 and said, “You
went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
4
Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had
happened: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a
vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven
by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6 I looked into it
and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and
birds of the air. 7 Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and
eat.’
8
“I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever
entered my mouth.’
9
“The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything
impure that God has made clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and
then it was pulled up to heaven again.
11
“Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea
stopped at the house where I was staying. 12 The Spirit told me to
have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also
went with me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he
had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for
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Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will bring you a message through

which you and all your household will be saved.’
15
“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had
come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord
had said: ‘John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the
Holy Spirit.’ 17 So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us,
who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could
oppose God?”
18
When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised
God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles
repentance unto life.”

The Judaist believers who accompanied Peter as witnesses took the

message back to Jerusalem.

This great change was apparently received without adverse comment

by the
“apostles and the brothers throughout Judaea” 11 v 1 - but when Peter
returned to Jerusalem the adverse criticism (2) had to be answered. It
was a matter of custom violated:

“You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

To us it seems petty and even trivial. It was not to many believing

Jews.
So APOLOGETIC was required – some explanation of this great
watershed in the Church’s history.

Chapter 11 details Peter’s defence:

As Peter recounts accurately (4) the events of those momentous times

in detail we may sense what weight the various parts of his testimony
carried with them:

I saw a vision
I heard a voice
I replied
The men had arrived
The Spirit told me
We entered the house (including the six circumcised believers)

Only in his retelling of Cornelius’ words is there any diverting from the
previous statement;
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10
‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will bring you a
message through which you and all your household will be saved.’
5
Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is
called Peter. 6 He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by
the sea.”

The interpretation is evidence of Peter reflecting on and praying about

those events.

As I began to speak the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on

us at the beginning…. 15

Once again Peter explains how he reflected on what had happened and
interpreted it in terms of what the Lord had said:
15
“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had
come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord
had said: ‘John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the
Holy Spirit.’ 17 So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us,
who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could
oppose God?”

Peter is now able to draw a conclusion based upon his experience and
the weight of Scripture:
17
So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?”
His hearers were convinced:
18
When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised
God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles
repentance unto life.”

LATER – in Chapter 15 Peter would summarise what had doubtless by

then been committed to notes and written form (?)
6
The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After
much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers,
you know that some time ago God made a choice among you
that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the
gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that
he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he
did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for
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11
he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to
test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that
neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11 No! We
believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are
saved, just as they are.”

Oh if only it could have moved on from there – But the sad reality is
that Peter moved back on that fine statement and earned The sharp
rebuke that we considered when we were studying Paul last time:

11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face,

because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came
from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived,
he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles
because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision
group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their
hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the
gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live
like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles
to follow Jewish customs?
15 “We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ 16 know that a
man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified
by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing
the law no-one will be justified.

1. The danger lies in drifting away from those hard

won truths

It is sad that we have to finish on a downward note.

In many ways the ministry of Peter – so respected and followed by a

clique at Corinth – fades away – to be replaced by the apostle to the
Gentiles – Paul.

Despite the traditions – and the status afforded him by the teachings of
the Roman church there is little more – save his two letters.

Perhaps the failure of Peter to stick to the new status of gentiles in the
Church explains his fading from the scene. But then it must be
recalled that the other ten fade even more.
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12
Whatever Jesus meant when he spoke about the “rock on which He
built His church” it was not the rock of a compromising fisherman
become apostle.

SUMMARY

We have considered three very different ministry styles: Apollos, Paul

and Cephas – but I think we have learned a lot more about the
varieties of style and the effects of background and circumstance upon
ministry.

Remember:

All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or

the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are
yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. I
Cor 3 v 22,23

David A Green © 2004 www.davidagreen.com