Today's Devotion
Wednesday, July 2, 2025 (The Visitation) - Acts 10:34-48
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
St. Luke spends a lot of time on this pivotal incident: this meeting with Cornelius and the other Gentiles with St. Peter. Of course, God orchestrated all of it. This was not a chance encounter. This was not Peter’s decision. This was not Cornelius pulling the levels of power. God is directly intervening in the affairs of the church. It will set the tone for the rest of the book of Acts, which will shift the focus away from Peter to Paul, and away from Judea to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
Peter has finally grasped the ramifications of these twin visions: the one given to him and the one given to Cornelius – which brought the two of them not only under the same roof, but into the same church: “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 since the Gentiles have not heard the Good News, Peter preaches it to them. He sends them the same “Word that [God] sent to Israel,” namely, “the good news of peace” which came “through Jesus Christ” who is “Lord of all.” The Gentiles know the basic facts about Jesus, and Peter reiterates it in his preaching. He affirms that what they had heard is true, for Peter and the disciples “are witnesses of all that [Jesus] did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.” And Peter’s preaching – like all preaching – includes the cross and the resurrection.
Peter reiterates the nature of the Jews as “chosen by God.” But it has been made clear to him that God chose them not in an exclusive way so as to condemn the world (John 3:17), but rather to be “witnesses,” to the world, as those who “ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.” And they were also chosen, and “commanded,” to “preach” and “testify” to everyone. And the substance of their preaching is Jesus: crucified, risen, sent by God the Father, the one of whom “all the prophets bear witness,” with the result that everyone “who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”
This is true preaching: focused on our Lord Jesus Christ: His identity as both God and man, and His work of atonement by His sacrifice and resurrection. Preaching is not simply teaching or exhorting. It is proclaiming. It is bearing witness. It is all about how God justifies us by grace. And it is supernatural and miraculous, instilling faith in the hearer – not through mere rational convincing, but rather by the giving of the Holy Spirit. And this is exactly what we see here. For even “while Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the Word.” The Jewish believers are “amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.”
And upon Peter’s command, these new believers, these Gentile converts, were baptized into the church. And through the ongoing preaching of Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 1:23), the world will be turned upside down (Acts 17:6).
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.