Acts 9:32-10:48

Acts 9:32-10:48

I have regularly heard the question asked in regards to salvation, “What about all of the people that have never heard the Gospel?  Will God send them to hell?”

I will not tackle this question in full this blog posting, but there is a partial answer to this question found within our text for today! 

In chapter 10 we are introduced to a Centurion named Cornelius.  This gentile man, feared God, and prayed to Him, but he did not know Jesus.  If you are unaware what a gentile is, in simple terms, a gentile is anyone that is not Jewish.

An angel of the Lord appeared to Cornelius telling him to send for Peter.  Meanwhile the Lord alerts Peter of what is about to happen in a vision.  So, Peter goes to meet Cornelius and begins to preach the Gospel and all who heard, believed and the Holy Spirit came upon them.  Then Peter exclaims, “ ‘Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days” (Acts 10:47-48 ESV). 

Peter’s reaction always puzzles me.  Peter just got done saying that all who believe will be saved, and if you remember back in Matthew 28:16-20, when Jesus tells the disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (ESV).  You would think that the Disciples would have put two and two together when Jesus said to go into all of the nation’s baptizing them, that this would also include the gentiles.  Of course Peter’s surprise was mainly about the filling of the Holy Spirit upon the gentiles.  Which, it is common doctrine now, that the Holy Spirit indwells you upon salvation. But, I digress. 

I am so thankful that God sent His Son to die on the cross, not only for the Jews, but for ALL peoples of the world.  For “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).  Here we see that Peter finally gets it.  That God desires all people to come to know Him in a very real and personal way. 

Back to my main point.  If God desires that none shall perish, but that all should come into a relationship with him through His Son Jesus Christ, then what happens to all of those people that have never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel? 

It is out of the Lord’s good mercy and grace that anyone is saved.  If it is God’s will and pleasure that a person come to a saving knowledge of Him, God will make a way.

Refer back to our text – In Acts 10:3-6 the Angel of the Lord appears to Cornelius telling him to send for Peter, so that he and his people could hear the Gospel. 

He may press upon the hearts of a church to reach out to a nation (such as Red Door and the Maji people).    Some may be skeptical of authenticity, but it has been well documented that the Jesus appears to people in dreams and they become saved that way (here is a link). 

No matter what your soteriology is, God is Sovereign and He is able to do anything.  I am just thankful that, like Cornelius, He opened up the door for a ordinary gentile like me to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.