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Acts 10:9–16
“[Peter] saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat’” (vv. 11–13).
Cornelius sent his servants to get Peter from the city of Joppa right after being told to do so by an angel from God (Acts 10:1–8). As these servants were approaching Joppa the next day, we see in today’s passage, the Lord spoke to Peter, preparing the Apostle to receive the men from Cornelius and to return to Caesarea with them. Instead of sending an angel to speak to Peter, however, God sent the Apostle a vision.
Peter saw the vision while he was praying at about the sixth hour—that is, noon (vv. 9–10). Luke tells us that in this vision, a sheet was being let down by its four corners from the heavens, filled with “all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.” A voice accompanied this vision, telling Peter to “rise . . . ; kill and eat.” Peter saw this sheet three times, and each time that he was told to eat the animals, he protested that he would never eat anything unclean (vv. 11–16). This helps us understand that the animals that Peter observed in the vision were unclean animals, those creatures that the Mosaic law forbade the Jews from eating (see Lev. 11).
A devout Jew, Peter responded in the way we might expect. When Peter protested, however, the Lord responded, “What God has made clean, do not call common” (Acts 10:15). Plainly, the Lord was instituting a change in the diet of His people, and yet as we will see, the change was even more thoroughgoing than that. He was signaling that He would now be bringing the gentiles, whom the Jews regarded as unclean, into the people of God en masse (vv. 34–43). The unclean animals were standing in for the unclean gentiles whom God was going to purify through faith in Jesus Christ. The many different kinds of animals may even be a picture of many different gentile nations, as many early church fathers argued.
In the days ahead, we will see just how God used this vision to bring gentiles into the church. Today, we close our study with an application to all people who are in Christ by faith alone that Dr. R.C. Sproul gives in his commentary on Acts. He writes: “God has removed your impurities from His sight and given you access into His presence. He knows the sin that remains in you, but if you have put yourself at the feet of Christ, He has embraced you and adopted you into His family. Others may call you unclean, but remember that . . . we, who by nature are unclean, have been declared clean by God. When God declares us clean, we are clean in His sight.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
As Christians who continue to struggle with the presence of sin in our lives, we often feel unclean. Of course, it is important for us to confess our sins so that we can fully enjoy our relationship with God, but we must also remember that if we have trusted in Jesus, we are clean. This allows us to come before our Creator without fear, knowing that He will receive us.
For further study
- Jeremiah 3:17
- Zechariah 3:1–5
- 1 Corinthians 6:9–11
- 1 John 1:7
The bible in a year
- 1 Kings 6–7
- Luke 23:26–43