First Presbyterian Church of LaGrange Texas

The short sermon Peter delivers to Cornelius’s household illustrates how the proclamation of the resurrection can work. Peter’s words are important insofar as they summarize the story of Jesus, but their deeper significance resides in the way that they reflect and inform Peter and Cornelius’ enlarged understanding of the gospel and its capacity to transform how they both comprehend God. For these men, the significance of Jesus’ resurrection does not consist in merely knowing or reciting details about an empty tomb, as vital as such details may be. More important, the resurrection provides them evidence of God’s commitment to all humanity–a commitment that Peter, thanks to his recent experiences, has just come to perceive in a new light. The resurrection, he tells Cornelius and others, provides the foundation for the pivotal new realities that God has revealed to them.
A cursory glance at Acts 10:34-43, when unglued from the wider context of Acts 10:1-11:18, gives the impression that Peter’s sermon offers a generic summary of Jesus’ history: he lived, did good, died, and rose. But grasping the sermon’s purpose and the significance of its emphases requires, first, taking a broader view of Peter and Cornelius’s encounter and, next, considering the sermon’s details in light of that encounter.