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44 While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 "Can any one forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. (Acts 10:44-48 NRSV)
Happy Wednesday, ConCafe Family! May God's love fall afresh on you and may His Holy Spirit also fall afresh on you as you hear what great things the Holy Spirit did in today's passage! May you, dear Friend, be on fire for the Lord Jesus in every part of your day! Friends, I shared in yesterday's devotional about prayers for Mrs. Catherine Winegeart, Felicia Winegeart Cantu's aunt; sadly, she passed away on Tuesday night. We ask continued prayers for the family as they seek and need God's comfort during these days. We continue to pray for each other and for ourselves.
The Holy Spirit is one of the three in the Godhead; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is alive and well, thank you very much and still as active and as strong as ever; moving, shaking, healing, guiding, comforting (the list is long!)and as many other assignments God the Father may give to Him. There are some who do not believe the Holy Spirit has done anything since the writing of the Bible. These believe that the Holy Spirit did His work and was retired to Heaven. I beg to differ; God never retires; nor will Jesus.
The passage is about the mission of Peter as he shared God's word in the home of a Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius. Cornelius was a God-fearing man, devout to the Lord, as was his family. He was known for his generosity in helping the needy and for his prayers. And it was during his time of prayer with the Lord that an angel came to visit him and told him that his prayers had been a blessing to God and as a result he was to send for a man named Simon, called Peter, to come and eat with him. Simon Peter was in Joppa when this happened. Those of you who already know this story know that while Peter was in prayer, he too had a vision from God about a net filled with what the Jews deemed as "unclean" meaning not fit for human consumption; yet the voice with the vision told Peter to "Get up, kill and eat." Yikes! "Surely not," Peter gulped; "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." And this happened three times meaning that Peter was adamant about not going against the law, but soon realized he was going up against God. And while this was concluding, here comes the servants and messengers from Cornelius and Peter realized that he was indeed to go to this home and do what God was asking.
This was a key experience in the life and ministry of Peter. He now realized the Gospel was for all people and not just Jews. God was the God of all people, and the sacrifice of Jesus also, was for all who believed and accepted Him as their Lord and Savior. And as Peter is concluding his sermon there at Cornelius' home, the Holy Spirit arrived and fell on all who heard the word preached by Peter. And this was witnessed by "circumcised" believers, meaning Jewish males. You will remember there was later a controversy between converted Jews and converted non-Jews; for now just note they saw how God did honor the Gentiles with this baptism of the Holy Spirit. Evidence in those days was marked by the speaking in tongues (other languages) by non-trained people in those languages. (Please re-read or remember Acts 2 where the manifestation of the Holy Spirit were the disciples all speaking in other languages and speaking of the goodness of God among those present for the Festival of Pentecost. As I was driving on the Interstate a pickup truck passed me with a bright Jak Se Mas? bumpersticker and I remembered that General Conference of some years ago when I was approaching the elevators, another delegate was there whose name tag identified him from Czechoslovakia and I greeted him with the complete greeting in Czech and he got very excited, hugged me and began telling me what I believe was his life story or at least how good it was to meet someone who spoke Czech and I had to let him finish and tell him that that was all I knew! He was still happy and we spoke about the number of Czech speakers we have in Texas. It was that connection that we both enjoyed that made what happened in Acts 2 all the more powerful; and this event at Cornelius' home also very powerful.
Peter is led by the Spirit to ask why these new believers should not be baptized with water; after all they had just been baptized with fire; and they were all baptized in the name of Jesus Christ; and the entire experience merited Peter's presence among them for "some days."
There are some days either on Sunday or during a retreat or event where we truly do not want the experience to end. I have experienced that many times in my life, and so I can identify with these new believers wanting to know more about God, about Jesus, and about all the Holy Spirit might ask of them. It is very sad to see a blessing come to an end; not to say it doesn't continue, but it blesses in a different setting or way and we tend to believe it is over. And I think of a pastor who said he likes hiding his Moses costume under his pew when he visits another church just in case the sermon goes long, and he can put it on and shout, "Let my people go!"
PRAYER: Father, may we never ask to be let go of You, Your love, presence, power and blessing. May our hearts ache for more of what goodness only You can share with us, so that we can share it with others. May the Holy Spirit truly fall afresh on us to melt us, mold us, and use us! In Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Seek to be a vessel of the Holy Spirit in all you do today!
Receive my blessings of peace and joy,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
