SERMON SPOTLIGHT * 5/8/22

The cross of Jesus has leveled the playing field. Without exception, all have sinned, and all need a Savior, and Jesus is calling all men everywhere without distinction to repent and be saved, and “everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name!” Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.

TEXT: Acts 10:1-48
TITLE: Cornelius the Centurion is Saved
PREACHER: Tom Wilkins

POINTS:
Day 1 - Caesarea – God prepares the sinner for the Gospel
Day 2 – God prepares the evangelist by the Gospel
Day 3 – ANYONE who believes in Jesus will be saved

SERMON EXCERPTS:
”In the Gospels, Jesus goes where no good Jew would go. Time and time again he would break through social barriers. He went to the outcasts, the prostitutes, and tax collectors. He goes to the demon-possessed, touches lepers, and into Samaria to an adulterer. He advanced the Kingdom to God in the hearts of men and women no matter who they were or where they were from.”

“Luke slows the narrative down for the next two chapters allowing for the details needed to understand this ever-important moment in the history of the Church.”

“Here we have a pagan Gentile hear what will be the beginning of his unstoppable salvation - God is on His gracious move in this sinners life - ‘Cornelius!’ Though he was far off, he is now being ‘brought near.’”

“Redemptive History is unfolding a major turning point!”

“The “dividing wall of hostility” between the Jew and Gentile has been broken down. The cross of Jesus has “killed the hostility.” There are Gentiles about to rock the Apostle’s world and knock on his door, and without the needed paradigm shift in his heart, Peter will leave the door closed on the Gospel advance to the Gentiles.”

“We are clean in Christ!… and this should shock us when we just begin to understand how repulsive we really are! When God – who is Holy – looks down on the whole compass -“four corners”- of the earth, our sinfulness is indescribable filth - justified abject divine repulsion. And yet He has set his affection and love on repulsive sinners like me and made me clean!” 

QUOTES:
Kent Hughes - “We write off whole churches simply by what we have heard about them. We shut out whole ethnic groups because of a bad experience with one person or family. We mentally excommunicate those who do not agree with us on one secondary issue or another. Our sheets easily fill with educational, racial, cultural, and spiritual rejects, and we cry, ‘By no means, Lord - they are not my type!’”

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:
Ephesians 2:12
Ephesians 2:14
Revelation 7:9-12

APPLICATION:
- Who would fill your “sheet”?
- Who has become repulsive to you?
Sovereign Grace Church, you are sent: to speak the Good News to all men and women both near and far!