April 10, 2023 – Monday
Acts 10:43 NIV
43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
Comments
The above verse is the last verse of Peter’s message to the people within the house of the Centurion Cornelius in Caesarea. What followed was 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 been poured out even on Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in other languages and praising God.
But let’s go back to verse 43, 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. This was not a long sermon by Peter, but its conclusion presented the extensive broadness of the promise of salvation with everyone who believes in him or in some versions whoever believes or whosoever believesin Jesus which obviously included the Gentiles in Cornelius’ home.
Let’s be clear Peter was speaking about Jesus by looking at some of the preceding verses, 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. Which he followed by speaking of Jesus’ resurrection, 39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.
And then they, the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house, believed when Peter said, 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. So what does it mean to believe in Him, Jesus? According to the Greek (4100) word pisteuó it means (from Thayer’s Greek Lexicon) in the context given, specifically as used in the N. T. of “the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of his soul”; thus it stands α. absolutely to trust in Jesus or in God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something. Or we could say it means faith, an active faith that changes how we look at our lives and the world.
When we believe in the forgiveness offered through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection, we effectively die to this world and its values. As a result, we are essentially born again seeing this world and its values with new eyes through our faith, our belief in what Jesus had done for us.
If you read further or rather earlier in Acts you will find Cornelius was a devout believer in the God of Israel. He was ready. He was a Centurion who had no doubt seen the horrors of war and yet he believed first in God, then when Peter spoke, he believed in the Son of God.
Bottom Line: God’s Good News is for everyone who believes. Gentile or Jew, rich or poor, slave or free, any race, the only requirement was to believe in Jesus and what He had done for all of mankind.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, Thank You for this message that anyone who believes Your Son died for our sins and rose on the third day is forgiven of their sins. – In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
RileyD, nwJ
Riley D. Driver – Pastor
Calvary Chapel of Dayton
in Beavercreek