Sovereign Grace Blog

Sermon Summary - How To Do Evangelism - Acts 10:30-48

How To Do Evangelism - Acts 10:30-48


All things have been created through Jesus and by Jesus, which means that every person owes his or her existence to Him. And every one of us will meet Him as our Judge. It is eternally better to have that future meeting not be your first with the Lord Jesus. The way of salvation is laid out in this passage: first, the gospel message being proclaimed (Acts 10:30-43), and second, the Holy Spirit sovereignly working to apply that message to the hearts of sinners who are being saved (Acts 10:44-48, to be covered next week).

Recap of last week: God gave Peter a vision that showed him that the gospel is not just for Jews, but also Gentiles. Peter goes to Caesarea after being sent for by Cornelius. Cornelius then gathers his relatives and close friends, and together they are ready and waiting for Peter to preach the gospel (Acts 10:24, 30-33).

Peter begins by telling them that Gentiles can also be saved by the message he is about to tell them (Acts 10:34-35). Peter declares that God sent the word, the message, the good news by preaching (Acts 10:36). This preaching is like a king sending heralds to announce his message ("Hear ye, hear ye!"). The message was the good news (gospel) of peace. God is offering to make peace with rebellious sinners through Jesus Christ. We have peace with God only when His righteous, just anger toward us is put away. Peter then declares Jesus is Lord of all - significant to his Roman and Gentile audience who understood Caesar to be Lord. Then Peter points to Jesus’ earthly ministry (Acts 10:37-38). Peter calls Him “Jesus of Nazareth,” making it clear that the Lord of all had become a real human being. As a man, He was anointed with the Holy Spirit in power, but in a way that no other man ever had been. This anointing was what empowered His earthly ministry of preaching, healing, and miracles. And God was with Him. As a man, He relied fully upon God (Cf. Phil. 2:6-7).

Then Peter declares a key statement to God making peace with guilty sinners - that Jesus was put to death and hung on a tree (Acts 10:39) at the hands of sinful men (Acts 2:23). Jesus had to suffer God’s wrath in order for the guilty to be declared to be at peace with God. Peter then gives his eyewitness testimony, that he ate and drank with Jesus after He was killed and raised from the dead (Acts 10:40-41). The entire validity of Christianity stands on the truthfulness of Peter’s statement. Peter is either lying or telling the truth. Peter goes on to say that Jesus, the Lord of all, will be the final judge of every human being who ever lived (Acts 10:42). Seconds after Peter speaks these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon these Gentiles and opened their eyes to the truth and the beauty of this Savior (Acts 10:44).

Every one of us will stand before Jesus Christ as a personal, omniscient, all-knowing Judge, in order for Him to decide our eternity. The decision that Jesus will make will be determined by whether or not we respond in this life to His offer of peace, by believing this good news and by receiving Jesus as our treasure and as our Savior and Lord (Cf. 2 Thess. 1:7-10, Rev. 20:11-15). Every person will stand before Jesus and either be justly condemned for all of their sins, or finally acquitted and pardoned and ushered into everlasting joy because of their faith in Jesus (Acts 10:43).

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