March 7, 2026 –  God Seals the Deal — Acts #33
Acts 10:34-43

For several weeks, we have been looking at the story of Cornelius, the centurion, and Peter in Acts 10.  It is a huge moment in God’s plan to redeem the world.

First, we looked back at Jesus’ first attempt to teach this to his disciples, with the first centurion in Matthew 8, and at how he tried to teach it again in his final words before ascending to heaven.  Then, 10 years later, God sends Cornelius a vision to send for Peter, who had a message for him.  So Cornelius gathered friends and family to hear Peter’s message.

Meanwhile, God uses another dramatic vision to finally convince Peter to abandon the idea that Gentiles were unclean and had to convert to Judaism to be accepted by God.  And Peter does come to Cornelius’ home, and here is the message he has for them:

Acts 10:34   “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

And as I said last week, I can almost hear God speak, “Well, it’s about time, Peter!” God called Israel His chosen nation for a purpose that He revealed at Mount Sinai more than a thousand years before Jesus came.  The purpose was to be priests to the world.  But they kept God to themselves and said you must become like us to worship God. So part of Jesus’ reason for coming was to correct this misconception.  But they were still unable to abandon their prejudice and fulfill their mission for the rest of the world.  That is why God is doing all this in Acts 10.  And when Peter arrives at Cornelius’ house and finds the house full of Gentiles waiting to hear his message, here is what he says:

Acts 10:34-43   So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. 
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

Peter makes 4 important points here:

1. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit and power.
2. He did many good things and healed many who were oppressed by evil.
3. They killed him, but God raised him from the dead (and we saw him)
4. Jesus commanded us to preach to the people.

This is Peter’s testimony, giving witness to what he saw himself.  Now, when we give our testimony, we usually talk about the good things Jesus did, and we always talk about his crucifixion and ascension.   And we may even talk about his command to us to spread the word.  But I wonder how many times we include that first point Peter made, that Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit? 

We know that happened, but I don’t think we understand the importance as much as Peter did. Peter has not only seen Jesus anointed by the Holy Spirit at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River, but Peter was also anointed by the Holy Spirit.  At Pentecost, God poured out his Spirit on those disciples.  And we talked about that turning point in their lives.  The difference it made, taking these scared young men hiding in a room and making them bold witnesses for Jesus, publicly preaching and healing.  That is the difference the Holy Spirit makes.  So to Peter, this anointing of Jesus was an important fact.

And that fourth point, “Jesus commanded us to preach to the people,” is what this section of Acts is all about.  To whom, Peter, were you commanded to preach?

Matthew 28:19-20 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Well, here is the Great Commission, the command Jesus gave before ascending to heaven. And it is a command, not a suggestion.  Which people does the command say?  Just the Jews?  No, it says all nations.  All people.  That is the lesson Peter finally understood 10 years later in Acts 10.  The lesson that Israel didn’t understand for 1400 years.  

But look what happens next.   Peter’s sermon gets interrupted after his fourth point.  We will never know what Peter was going to say next.  And it is God who interrupts Peter’s sermon.  God doesn’t wait for Peter to finish his outline.  (By the way, anytime God, if you want to interrupt me, that is perfectly okay with me.)  And here, God interrupts in a very dramatic fashion. 

Acts 10:44-46   While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. 

So look at the scene here.  Suddenly, these people listening to Peter became filled with God’s Holy Spirit.  And they start speaking in different languages.    Do you see what God is doing?  He is showing Peter the day of Pentecost happening again.   The Holy Spirit comes and is evidenced by these tongues, just as on Pentecost in Jerusalem.  But there is one big difference.  These people are Gentiles. 

The greatest day of the manifestation of God’s Spirit on humanity is happening again.   Except this time it is with people who would have been arrested if they had entered into the temple area on the last Pentecost.  As we have discussed before, the Jews said Gentiles were forbidden to approach the place of God, under penalty of death.

Here is one of the actual notices placed on the wall, the 4.5-foot barrier that kept Gentiles out of the temple.   It was discovered by archeologists in 1871 and is now on display in a museum in Istanbul.  It says, “No foreigner is to enter within this wall around the temple and enclosure.  Whoever is caught will be responsible for his ensuing death.”

They said Gentiles can not approach God.  But here in Acts 10, God has the last word.  He says, yes, they can be accepted by me, even if not by you.  God says, “You won’t let them approach my temple, but I will approach them myself, and I will make them my temple.” This pouring out of God’s Spirit on Gentiles is an undeniable proof of God’s acceptance. 

Can you imagine it from Peter’s point of view?   Why does God pour out his Holy Spirit with tongues just as he did at Pentecost?  Because he doesn’t want Peter or anyone else to miss it.  It is the same thing, the same experience. Gentiles who seek God are no different than Jews who seek God.  

And again, this is not late-breaking news.  God didn’t change his mind about Gentiles on this day.  This was his plan all along.  It was clearly prophesied in Joel:

Joel 2:28-29   And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

Who will he pour His Spirit out on?  God said he would pour out his Spirit on all flesh.  On everyone!  Peter even quoted this same passage from Joel in his sermon on the day of Pentecost.  But when he quoted it then, he assumed that everyone meant ‘everyone of the Jews.’  That is the way it had been understood for 800 years.  But God is putting the finishing touches on this lesson.  Everyone means everyone.  Even the servants.  Even the women. Even the Gentiles.  On all people.  Joel said this 800 years before Peter was born.  But the understanding does not come until here in Acts 10.  And how does Peter respond?

Acts 10:44-48   Then Peter declared, “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.

Peter says, “I can’t argue with God.  If these people are receiving the Holy Spirit in the same way that the other disciples and I did on Pentecost, then obviously God has proven his point.”  The work of the Holy Spirit before him is the evidence of God’s approval. They are ready for that next step, baptism.  The same next step in Act 2 at Pentecost.  Here is what Peter said in Acts 2 when the Spirit came on Pentecost:

Acts 2:38-39   And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Repent and be baptized, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  It was true for the 3000 Jews who were baptized on that day in Acts 2, and it is true for all of the Gentiles gathered in Cornelius’ home here in Acts 10.  And it is true for us today.  If you read the New Testament closely, you will notice that the order is not consistent, but it always follows the same 3 steps: repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Spirit.   Those in Acts 2 were baptized and then received the Spirit. These, in Acts 10, received the Spirit and were then baptized.  The order does not matter, but it is a package deal.

When you repent and accept Jesus as your Lord and the King of your life, as your savior, then you receive the Spirit.  You can call it a baptism of the Spirit if you want, like the picture of the Spirit being poured out on everyone that Joel uses, or you can say the gift of the Spirit, as we see in the New Testament many times.  But it is the same.  Because when you receive Jesus, you receive the Spirit.   It is an initial blessing and a universal blessing for all who believe.  Paul says it this way:

Colossians 2:9-10  “For in him [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

When you receive Jesus, since the fullness of deity dwells in Jesus, you are filled with His Spirit.  And if Christ dwells within us by his Spirit, then what more can God add to that?   If you are in Christ, the Holy Spirit already dwells in you. The question is: do we follow the Spirit? Do we listen to Him?  Or does He dwell in some small closet of ours, locked away and ignored?  

We all have the spirit, but not all of us are filled with the spirit.  We fill our lives with other things that take priority over the Spirit of God within us.  We pay attention to other voices.  We follow other paths.  Receiving the Spirit is a one-time event when you repent and commit to Jesus.  Being filled with the Spirit is a continual process of letting the Holy Spirit have His way in our lives, filling every corner of our lives, and changing the way we live.

That is why you see commands in the Bible to be filled with the Spirit.  But there are no New Testament commands to be baptized by the Spirit, for again, if you are in Christ, his Spirit is with you.  We are all baptized in the Spirit, but we are only filled with the Spirit as we allow the Spirit to have his way with us. 

Paul says in Ephesians 4 that we can grieve the Holy Spirit when we sin, by how we talk or how we act.  Our response to that is to seek to be filled more with the Spirit through repentance and a renewed effort to listen to and follow the Spirit.

The church in Corinth provides a good example of this.   Paul is clear that they had all received the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:13  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

He then describes that they had been enriched by all spiritual gifts.  Yet in that first letter, Paul rebukes them for being unspiritual, that is, not being filled with the Spirit.  In that letter, he shows them that the evidence of being filled with the Spirit is not the exercise of gifts (which they had in abundance) but the fruit of the Spirit (in which they were found lacking).  They had been baptized and gifted by the Spirit but were not filled by the Spirit.

So if you are in Christ, you have received the Holy Spirit.  But the important question is: “Are you filled with the Spirit?”   (Warning: personal opinion here — as usual, feel free to disagree with me — I have friends who differ with me here and we love each other.)  Now, some believe that if you have not spoken in tongues, then you have not received nor been filled with the Spirit.  But in all of the book of Acts, only 3 groups who received the Spirit spoke in Tongues.   (Acts 2 at Pentecost, here in Acts 10, and a group in Acts 19.)    Speaking in tongues is but one of many gifts mentioned in Corinthians 12, and nowhere does the Scripture call it an indispensable sign of the Spirit. 

So what is the evidence of the fullness of the Spirit within you?  How do you know you are spirit-filled?  The evidence is not the gifts of the spirit but the fruit of the spirit. The only passage in Scripture in which Paul describes the consequences of being filled with the Spirit is Ephesians 5:18-21.

Ephesians 5:18-21  And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Paul says the consequences of being filled with the Spirit are not gifts like tongues or prophecy, but are all moral qualities — how you behave.

Why does he mention being drunk with alcohol as a contrast to being Spirit-filled?   It is all about what you cede control of your life to.  We all know the effect alcohol has.  In sufficient quantities, you lose your inhibitions. You lose emotional control, and if you continue, you lose control of your motor abilities (you can’t walk straight), and then finally lose control of your consciousness.

Paul is saying, ” Don’t give up your control of yourself to alcohol; give up control of yourself to the Spirit.”  When we follow the path the Spirit leads, then we act like the person described here.   We could spend hours discussing the 4 individual behavioral results Paul sees as evidence of being spirit-filled: how we speak to one another, how we sing to the Lord, how we give thanks for everything, and how we submit to one another.  

The other list Paul gives is the fruit of the Spirit.  In other words, what is the result of the spirit living in you?   The result you get if you plant apple trees is apples.  The fruit you get from a stalk of corn is corn. What fruit does a person filled with the Spirit bear? 

Galatians 5:22-23  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

Again, this is how we can tell we are filled with God’s Spirit: this is what someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit looks like.  

We all need to seek to be filled to overflowing with God’s Holy Spirit.  And we do that by listening to the Spirit, then following Him, and letting Him change the way we talk, the way we treat each other, our attitudes about life, and our relationship with the Father.  Let me share what John Stott said in his book, “Baptism and Fullness: The Work of the Holy Spirit Today”.

“But disobedience and our unbelief have robbed many of us of our full inheritance. It is still ours by right, because we are Christ’s, but we have failed to enter into it. We are like the Israelites when they had been given the Promised Land but had not yet taken possession of it. We need to repent and to return to God. We have indeed been baptized with the Spirit, but we continue to live on a level lower than our Spirit-baptism has made possible, because we do not remain filled with the Spirit.”

You can call it being filled by the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, or walking by the Spirit.  They are all ways of saying the same thing.  God’s Holy Spirit is in you.  He placed it there when you repented of your sins and accepted Jesus.  What have you done with the Holy Spirit within you?  Does the Spirit guide you in how you speak and how you act, or have you ignored the voice of the Spirit for so long that you no longer hear it?  If that is you, then today you need to repent of grieving the holy Spirit.  You need to commit to learning to listen to that Spirit within you and following Him.  Then you will bear the fruit that God designed you to bear: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

1.  Stott, John. Baptism and Fullness: The Work of the Holy Spirit Today (p. 85). Kindle Edition.