Rise Up

0:02 At this time, I'll pray for Rabbi Ari as he comes forward to bring the word. Father, I thank you so much for my dear brother and Messiah and my friend, father, as we are coming to the end of this season on these great days of celebration. I know that he has been busy about your work. I pray that you would strengthen him today, that you would use him and all that he has done to prepare, to bring forth the glories of your word. I pray that you would open up our eyes and the ears to receive that what you have for us. And Father, I pray that if there's anyone who does not believe in Yeshua,

0:47 that this word will help them see the glory of his majesty, the great sacrifice that he made, that we can come back into relationship with you. Father, use him mightily in the mighty name of Yeshua. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Marcus. Before I get into too much, I know this time of year I, I, I, uh, usually do a few things which I have not done this year. Not because it's not important, just because a lot is important and it slipped my mind,

1:33 but we are now in the middle of a two week period where you can go and cast your vote. You can, you can have great turmoil as you wrestle over the ballot and, and then go and wait in really long lines because apparently everyone to early votes now, nobody votes on the day anymore. Uh, anyways, this is my yearly reminder and I'll, I'll give you one more, uh, next weekend. Uh, don't forget to vote.

2:20 This is your opportunity in the, in, in, in the country that we live in to put your voice to work, uh, for the beliefs that you hold. Now, let me give you one caveat, not that there's any caveats for your belief system. Whoever wins, what does the scripture tell us? The Lord installs kings and the Lord takes them down. Not that we have a king. We, we got rid of that through a T tags and in replacement, we got a thousand taxes.

3:07 No, I'm just playing. I mean, not really. But anyways, all that I'm telling you to do is it doesn't, your vote does count, but in the end, the Lord is in control, and you have to recognize it now because it doesn't matter who wins on November 5th. Thank you. That one on that one, November 5th, it doesn't matter who wins. Some of us are gonna have to exercise self-control, whether that be for gloating or whether that be for sorrow. I'm, maybe I should say all of us are gonna have to exercise self-control and self-control is a fruit of the spirit.

3:55 So if the spirit dwells within you, you have to exercise self-control. Now's your time to begin to practice. So don't forget to go vote. There are, if you're in Dallas County, listen, everybody understands that there's a president that's up for election. Um, I don't know if you actually understand this. I'm, I'm gonna wax on for about two more minutes and then I'll be done. But actually president, y'all can lambast me later, but I actually don't think it's the most important thing you vote for. My impression, or my opinion is

4:44 what you do with your local area, you actually experience the greatest amount of change and you have the greatest voice. Now, when it comes to local, local, um, local ballots where there's no presidential election attached to it in Dallas County, the city council representatives are determined by about, I think the number is 30,000 people. Do you understand how big Dallas is? That's not even 1% of the voters in Dallas determine who governs our city where they are fiscally irresponsible,

5:33 and when they don't keep up to what they've promised to do. Alright? I I am slightly being tongue in cheek, but it's also true. And on this ballot, there are, um, propositions like A through Z, uh, to through you. Thank you all the way through you, you, you should definitely look at those before you go into the ballot to the polling office and understand what you are doing or what you are not doing. Because I will tell you over the last, I don't know, maybe the last four years, in my opinion, Dallas City voters, Dallas County voters

6:21 tend to, um, vote to give money to people without a plan. And I don't necessarily think this is any different. So you go take a look at it and you make your own determination. Um, I think it was, was it the Dallas Morning news, Kristen? Was that what you gave me this week? The Dallas, even the Dallas Morning News advocated voting against every single proposition this year. Oh, maybe that was the mayor, not Dallas Morning News. Oh, mayor of Dallas and the Dallas Morning News. No, in the Dallas morning. Okay, I got it. I got it. All right, I got it. Anyways, I'm not going,

7:09 I'm not transitioning to my message yet, but I am transitioning away from, uh, from voting. Don't forget, go vote. You have one more week of early voting, and then you have the day of to, to, um, to make your voice known. This week, if you were unable to attend our sim Clat Torah service on Wednesday night, we remembered this was our, the one year yard site of the atrocities that happened on October 7th, at least on the Hebrew calendar, the one year yard site of, of the 1200 who were murdered, uh, just over a year ago. And Israel in the process has been waging,

7:58 well, it started with a war, and now it's a war that has seven fronts that basically are all around Israel. Israel continues to wage that war. Uh, I think, what was it, three weeks ago, maybe Iran launched 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. It it's interesting because I, I was trying to think, you know, back in April, somewhere, mid-April, Iran launched 300 projectiles at Israel, and it took like, I don't know, eight hours or 12 hours, something like that, to go from Iran to Israel. And in that ti time period, all of them got, um,

8:47 shot down from the sky. But then I read about the 200, which I hadn't realized, the 200 made it from Iran to Israel in about 20 minutes. So the, the time warning of eight hours from the previous time was very different this time around. And Israel immediately said, there will be severe consequences for this, uh, act of aggression against the Israeli populace. And if you haven't been paying attention, Israel launched their attack last night. And Israel, I'm gonna, I just wanna read it because I, some of it is, is fascinating to me. Israel launched their strategic precision air strikes

9:34 against Iran last night around 0 1 53 hours on Saturday morning. That's this morning, but it was last night here. But in, in Israel, they sent three waves of at least 100, um, uh, air Force, Israeli Air Force Jets, uh, and they attacked Iran in what is now known as Operation Days of Repentance. I, I mean, I don't know that you could name something better. Uh, for, for retaliation attack, the bombings were directed against ballistic missile factories and storehouses, ground to air, and ground to ground missiles and stockpiles, as well as against other aerial compat,

10:22 uh, capabilities. At least 20 sites were targeted in three waves of aircraft, including sites in or near Tehran, Han Shiraz, Maha and Ko, I just want you to think about this. They flew 2000 kilometers without being detected. Israel gave, Israel gave America a, a slight heads up that it was happening. Um, and as far as I've read so far, there have been zero civilian casualties. So when someone talks about the war of aggression,

11:08 that Israel is waging against the world, I want you to note, when Israel attacks, they minimize civilian casualties. And when any of the others attack their, their attempt is to maximize civilian casualties. It also, I I read it this week, uh, there are just so many things in this war that are, that are mind boggling to me. But this week, Israel released the details of a Hezbollah bunker in Beirut that holds $500 billion in cash and gold. I mean, that is some really good humanitarian aid

11:55 that's being utilized Well, in a bunker, Israel released this, you know, is interesting. Israel either could have blown the bunker to smithereens, or they could have taken the bunker, but they released the information to Lebanon so that the populace in the, in the opposition parties opposed to Hezbollah could go and get the reward themselves. And I'm gonna give you five prayer points, and I didn't put these in the YouVersion app. I should have, but I didn't. Uh, these were prayer points that were sent to me, uh, from a, a dear friend of mine, uh, this week in Israel.

12:45 You are all from what I understand in, in my interactions with you, basically, we're already all praying for these prayer points. I just wanted to list them out for you. Pray for the strength of the body of Messiah in Israel. Pray for strategic people to come to faith, pray for divine protection for the soldiers, pray for greater gains in the war. And finally, pray for the release of the hostages. I was, I was talking to someone before service, and they're talking about how this is type revelation esque, you know, warfare going on. And, and I said, well, at least we're getting a preview

13:30 because it seems to me revelation's gonna be a little bit worse on this, on the scale, but we're getting a preview of what could be, uh, through, through this. So now I'd like to invite you to join me in Acts chapter 10. We will be continuing our series. Before we get into Acts chapter 10, I just want to give us a recap of what we've covered up until this point. We're about a third of the way through the Book of Acts. Acts chapter one, verse eight says,

14:15 but you'll receive power when the Kodesh has come upon you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and through all Judah Samaria and to the end of the earth, acts chapter one, verse eight, sets the trajectory for the movement of the good news from Jerusalem to the end of the earth. So what we see is we see Jerusalem, we see Judea or Judahs, Samaria, and then to the end of the Earth. And what we have seen through this progression from Acts chapter one through nine, we've seen a, a, a, an outward progression or movement of the good news starting in Jerusalem, moving to Judea or Judah, moving to Samaria. And, and you see even a hint of the end of the earth when

15:02 with, uh, with the Ethiopian eunuch representing the southernmost, uh, parts of the world, at least in the mindset at that time. And every time the good news is about to expand, there's persecution. In other words, persecution arises and it forces the, the message of the good news out of its comfort zone or out of where it is into the next realm. The Messiah's community was scattered throughout the region of, of Samaria and Judea. This is in Acts chapter eight, verse one to Samaria, as we see in the first part of, of Acts eight, and then to Ethiopia in the, in the very ending part of Acts eight.

15:49 Then we have in Acts nine, the introduction of Paul to the story. As a reminder, I I, I, I know I've done this. I can't tell you how many times I've done this, but as a reminder, Saul or Shaul and Paul are the same person. Saul is not bad, and Paul is not good. They're both the same person. They're just different, uh, expressions of the name. Paul has a, a Hebrew name and a Greek name. And so what you'll see in context is when he's with Jewish people, he's more often called Saul. And when he's with, uh, those from the nations, especially Greeks, he's more often called Paul. So Paul is introduced in Acts chapter nine, and he goes

16:36 after he's, he's after persecuting the body of Messiah, especially on his way to Damascus. And in that, in that journey, Paul is confronted by Yeshua, and eventually Paul returns to Jerusalem meets Barnabas, who helps him into the community. And then the community gets into a, a, a disarray, an uproar. And Paul is sent to Cesarea and then to Sars, uh, Tarsus that at the end of chapter nine, Peter also leaves Jerusalem, and he goes to Joppa, which, if you'll remember, Joppa is about halfway from Jerusalem to Caesarea. He goes to Joppa, and he allows the Lord to perform, uh, two miracles through him.

17:23 Now, what you should note, what Luke has masterfully done as a, as a writer is Luke has brought Philip who has paved the way multiple times for, for the, the, the shaheem, the emissaries. He's brought Philip through Caesarea. He's now brought Paul through caea, and now it's setting up for Peter to come into Caesarea. He's halfway there when he stops in Joppa. So I'm saying all of that because Acts 10 leads us in a, into a new development, in my opinion, in the spread of the, of the message of the good news of Yeshua, the Messiah.

18:09 Now, let me also say this before we get into Acts 10. I know I'm giving a lot, a lot of preamble, acts 10. I've been thinking about this. If you were to ask me the most pivotal moment in the Book of Acts, I used to probably, I'm Texan. I used to probably would've said Acts 15. And I don't necessarily disagree with that assessment either. But I'm now beginning to wonder if, if actually Acts 10 serves as one of the most pivotal moments in the book. And, and this is the reason, acts 10, what we're going

18:54 to get into in Acts 10, in reality, all of those topics that fall in Acts 10, we're going to be studying until the end of the year this year. I mean, I mean, us as a community we're, because it's not just Acts 10, it's Acts 10. It's repeated in Acts 11, and it's repeated in Acts 15 as the basis for Acts 15. So Acts 10, all that happens. This vision that happens with Peter is repeated three times in the Book of Acts, which means that something is important when, when, when, when the Lord repeats himself and throughout the tanah and throughout scripture, when the Lord repeats himself, something is important.

19:42 So what we have, and, and we're really, we're really not even getting into it today. We're just getting into the first element of it. But Acts chapter 10, if I can just give you this preview, we're, today we're gonna be discussing the Centurion's vision. But the Centurion's vision, uh, is the, is the forerunner or the pre-runner, what happens before Peter receives the vision. And, and, uh, depending upon where you're from, you've heard multitude of, uh, interpretations of Peter's vision with one being primary. And that is, you can eat whatever you want to eat, uh, because in Peter's vision, there's a sheet that comes down.

20:28 Rabbi Sean, I think you taught this one last time. I remember a joke that, and now I'm just remembering a, a joke from that message. There's a sheet that comes down with all sorts of creepy crawly, slithery things. You know, all the things that we can't eat as Jewish people. And, uh, I, I know, I know I'm, I'm, I'm getting into next week, but Peter's there on the top of, of the roof of the house, and it's lunchtime, maybe it's a little after lunchtime. He's meditating, he's probably getting hungry. And now there's this sheet that comes down with all these animals, and the Lord says, take and eat. And he says, Lord, I've never eaten anything that's unclean like that.

21:17 And the Lord says it to him three times to tell and tells Peter to take and eat, which is why a lot of commentators, and a lot of pastors come up with the idea that this is a release from Leviticus 11, the, the Krut laws. But there's just a couple things to note. Number one, Peter never eats, but number two, it's immediately followed with the interpretation in the text. So as we spend the next really two months going over Acts chapter 10, because it is gonna take us two months, you're gonna get it in segments.

22:03 The problem with segments is you think that they're unrelated, but I want you to understand that everything for the next two months happens within about a, I don't know, 24 to 48 hour period, and we're gonna spend two months digesting. That was a pun intended. There y'all digesting what's going on in this text. So here we go. Let's, let's take a look at Acts chapter 10. Today we're looking at just verses one through eight. Now, in Cesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian co, uh, cohort. He was a devout man, revering God with all his household, he gave akah, or,

22:49 or perhaps your text says, alms, uh, or charity. Akah generously to the people and prayed to God continually About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision, an angel of God coming and saying to him, Cornelius, he stared at him in terror and said, what is it, Lord? The angel said to him, your prayers and akah have gone up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa and call for Simon, also named Peter. He is being entertained as a guest by Simon the Tanner, whose house is beside the sea. When the angels speaking to him had left, he called two of his servants and a soldier from

23:34 among those attached to his command. After he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. So you, some of you may or may not like this week's message, because we're gonna get into some little details that are in the text. Um, rather than just exploring only the text this whole time, first of all, we're gonna talk about Caesarea. It's, Caesarea is an important, uh, city to understand. First of all, it's a coastal city. Uh, it's a, it's about two days journey, uh, walking, perhaps three, uh, from, from Jerusalem. It's halfway. Uh, well, maybe it's a little more than halfway up to Haifa.

24:20 And, and Joppa, which is, uh, one of the port cities of, of Israel is, as I mentioned earlier, about halfway to Caesarea. So if you look at the map of Israel, you'll notice Haifa has a very natural, um, thank you harbor. That was the word I was looking for. Harbor. And going down the coast, there's really not another natural harbor until you get to Joppa. But Caesarea is halfway in between. And, and so let's just talk about Caesarea. The city was founded in the third century, b, CE. So this is about 300 years before the time of Yeshua. It was founded as a very small harbor, not a,

25:07 not a very large one, but a very small one, because that's just how it was. It was later developed by Herod the great as, as a reminder, Herod the Great was the one who attempted, uh, to kill baby Yeshua and, and, and slaughtered all of the babies in Bethlehem. When Yeshua was born, it was later developed by Herod the Great, and he renamed it Caesarea honoring Emperor Augustus. The Harbor was able, by this time to be further developed by a Roman invention of concrete that was able to be set underwater. Does that, does that make sense? I don't know if you guys are watching the construction of 6 35, you can pray, and I feel like we could learn from the Romans

25:56 today in road construction. Uh, I'm not entirely certain what we're doing, but anyways, concrete has difficulty setting underwater because it's wet. But the Romans, by this time had inve. It developed a concrete that set. In other words, it became, um, concrete, it became sturdy, it underwater. And so what what it allowed them to do is it allowed them to create a very large harbor in Caesarea, which now became a main port of entry, uh, for the land of Israel. So it was developed by this, in, in the construction of this large artificial harbor. And the city became primarily a gentile city.

26:42 I say that recognizing that there was a definite Jewish presence in Caesarea, but largely and culturally, it was, it was mostly a gentile city. In fact, you, if you go to Israel today, you can tour, uh, or, or if you, if you happen to see some of the videos that have been done, um, on behalf of the hostages to bring them home. There was one video of, I think it was a thousand musicians that they got into the amphitheater that's there in Caesarea. And they played, um, I can't remember what song it was, was it Bring Them Home? Maybe? Maybe it, it's bringing them home. It is beautiful. But Caesarea is littered with Roman artifacts,

27:28 statutes, uh, things that are, that are meant to worship the gods, the pantheon, all of these elements which are anti what the Jewish people practice. So at this time, the Jewish presence in Caesarea was largely wealthy. It was a wealthier element of Jewish society, and also perhaps a little willing to turn to blind eye to what was going on in Caesarea in terms of the worship of other gods. It also wouldn't have been necessarily, uh, what do you call it, comfortable, culturally comfortable for the average Galilean or Jerusalemite who is

28:17 after worshiping only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So let me let, let's look at another term found in the text is this term centurion. There there's a centurion. And so we know his name Cornelius, and he's a centurion. And the text tells us he's of the Italian cohort. So we have three different identifiers here. And, and so we're gonna start with the Italian cohort and we'll work backwards. The Italian cohort commentators often identify, and I, and I could read you the whole cohort's name, and you're not gonna understand it 'cause it's in Latin, but it is primarily or apparently considered to be an auxiliary unit of archers. That that is this, this cohort that he's leading

29:03 in a Roman Legion. Uh, during this time period, or, or, or maybe I should say, during Roman conquest of the world, there were up to something around 25 legions of Roman soldiers. And so a, a singular legion had something in the realm of between 4,000 and 6,000 troops. And those that legion was then divided into 10 cohorts. The 10 cohorts consisted, or, or let rephrase, each of those cohorts consisted of six, what are called centuries, which would've been led

29:48 by a centurion. You know, the creative with their names in the, in, in those six cohorts that make up the legion, the first of the cohorts was, was twice the size of the rest of them because it included headquarters personnel. It included, um, clerks, technicians, medical personnel and supply personnel. So it had, so you would set the headquarters and then you would have other cohorts that would go and, and be based stationed elsewhere. A centurion commanded approximately something between 60 and 80 military personnel. And the century, which was governed by the centurion, was,

30:34 was often, um, governed by two trained centurions just in case one died. By the way, that is very good succession training is to have someone in the ready, just in case Syria, because of its placement, had ample troops had, there was at least a full legion stationed in Syria. And what it looks like is that in Israel, Judea, there was not a full legion. And what they would do if they ever needed extra troops, they would send to Syria and Syria would send more troops. Uh, so during most periods, Judea prefect had one cohort in Jerusalem.

31:20 So you're talking about 60 to 80. Um, no, that's not right. I'm talking about 700 troops in a cohort, something around there. Is that right? I didn't write this math down. Okay, forget the number of period, uh, of troops during most periods. Ju uh, judeas prefect, that's the one in based in Jerusalem, had one cohort, and the other five, or up to the other five would've been stationed in Caesarea. So I, I'm saying that because now you understand what Caesarea, it really looks like there's a lot of military.

32:06 It's a, it's a largely, um, culturally an, uh, an antithetical, is that a word? The antithesis of what Jewish society is, you know, Jewish society, we worship one God, Roman society. We worship Caesar, we worship all of these other gods and all sorts of things. And so here we have Cornelius, who's a centurion in the Italian cohort. And, and let's just talk about Cornelius for just a moment before we move onward Cornelius, it's likely that Cornelius was a Roman citizen. Cornelius was possibly named after, okay, I'm gonna take a stab at it. Pius Cornelius Sipo Africanus, who

32:56 was a famous Roman general who defeated the car, uh, Kartha Genian military leader, Hannibal, about 200 years before this time period. Now, why, why do I say he's named after this person? Because this Roman general is famous or well-known because after the battle, he released and granted citizenship to all of his slaves, to all of his soldiers. And that said that they've served their duty. Typically, a centurion would serve 20 to 30 years before they were granted Roman citizenship and were able to retire from the military.

33:41 And it wasn't until that point often that they would then get married. You think about that 20 to 30 years, and they, they enlist somewhere around the age of 17, which means they're not really having families until mid forties. Oh, they were quite modern. So here Cornelius is likely the descendant of one of those who received the name. Those tho all those who received their citizenship from this general named their selves after him, Cornelius. So there's hundreds of people who were released and became Roman citizens, and their names all became Cornelius. Talk about confusing. It's, it's kind of like in America, we, we like

34:29 to honor the, the people who've gone on before us. And and I, I could take a poll, at least probably before my generation started having kids. 'cause we like to choose odd names, but before that, American, American names were something along the lines of John George Thomas. Do, do you recognize any reason why they might be called that? Because those were the people who founded America, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington. Uh, so all of the names that are, are what we would call typical American names, have filtered down for three or 400 years

35:17 because of what happened. So the same thing is true here, that all of these ended up being named Cornelius. And now we have here a Cornelius who is likely a descendant and is now serving in the, in the, as a centurion. So, but all of that aside, that's just history. What Cornelius represents is actually the most important thing in this text. Cornelius, whether he's a Roman citizen or not, represents to the audience of Luke by both his name and his office. His name Cornelius, in his office as a centurion, make him a representative of Rome.

36:04 And Rome was an enemy and an oppressor of the common Judean and Galilean. So this is about as opposite as you can get from those who were religiously Jewish and worshiping that way. So that's verse one. Don't worry, we're not gonna be outta here before one, maybe one 30. But to me, all of this, all of this is important background for understanding how monumental this passage truly is that we'll, that we'll start into next week.

36:52 Here we have in verse two, he was a devout man. So this is talking about Cornelius. He was the devout man, revering God with all his household. He gave akah generously to the people and prayed to God continually. So there is a connection between this text, acts chapter 10, and the first time in the book of Acts that the Ruach was poured out. So fast forward just a moment, uh, because it's not in this week's text, but it's in, in, in either next week's or the week after. But Peter goes to Cornelius, it was in two weeks. Peter goes to Cornelius's house, he's sharing with him about Yeshua, and before he even finishes, the Holy Spirit is poured out.

37:37 And, and what is a tangible way? Because all Peter and all of the people who are with him see it and recognize it. So however, whatever that means, the spirit is poured out. But that's not the only connection. There's another connection here in this verse. Cornelius is called a devout man. In Acts chapter two, it says, there were devout Acts, chapter two, uh, verse five, there were devout men. These were Jewish men from every nation staying in Jerusalem. In other words, they were devout in the fact that they were there worshiping God in a prescribed manner. So Luke is making a connection automatically.

38:23 Now, for those who are hearing this and reading it between the audience or between what's going on in Acts two and what's now going on in Acts 10, there's a, a connection between these devout Jewish men who repented and turned to the Lord and subsequently received the outpouring of the Ruakaka kodesh. And now there's a devout Gentile or Gentiles who placed their trust in the redemptive work of Yeshua. And also the spirit gets poured out. I'm telling you this because the audience will recognize, the audience at the time would've recognized the pattern that's being set. Namely, what you've seen is the growth of the good news

39:08 in Acts two through nine. It spread like wildfire through Judea amaria. It's, there's nothing stopping it. That's after the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the devout Jewish men. And now here we have the pouring out of the spirit on this devout gentile man. If this produced a large harvest of fruit, this also Luke is setting the paradigm, will produce a large volume of fruit in the nations. So devout. Well, you say, well, you're connecting a lot on just a singular term. Devout, well, let's, let's look and see how Luke defines devout Luke uses the text to define it, to define it,

39:56 and says revering God with all of his households. So now what we see is it's not just Cornelius, but it's his whole household. And what we'll see in a little bit later in, in what you can take from this term household is households isn't just like me and Brittany and our three children, but it would include, um, all male siblings and their children, and it would include all servants. And what we see by connection is, is the Texas hinting at the inclusion of the cohort because Cornelius involves one of his soldiers under his, um, under his jurisdiction, under his command.

40:44 So the revering God with all of his household, they're giving akah and they're praying to God continually. Well, that should make us think about something continually. It makes us think about Paul who says, pray without ceasing. Ha Has anybody ever had difficulty praying without ceasing? Yes, you can absolutely raise your hand. Lemme just tell you one story of mine. I was praying. There is this family. I I was a teenager at the time. There was this family who is a dear family friend of ours, and, and the mother was go undergoing surgery. And so we, uh, I was in Israel at the time and, and we arranged an all night prayer, watch to pray without ceasing for her surgery,

41:32 for a positive outcome, for, for everything. And, and me. I'm back there. I'm praying hard, y'all. I'm like, I'm praying so hard. I'm on my face on the ground. And then one of my friends comes up and hits me on the head and says, stop snoring. I was praying so hard I fell asleep. It's okay. You don't have to be, you don't have to feel any condemnation because I'm here to tell you that's not what this text is, is talking about. It's not talking about praying every minute of every day, but it's talking about praying continually. And and so we're gonna set a pattern here

42:18 that you'll see and you'll recognize. The text also tells us he's praying around the ninth hour. Now, again, I'm just gonna tell you, every time the Bible tells you something, there's something important there, and you always have to ask why, what's going on? It's just a ninth hour. It's okay. He's, it's the afternoon, he's hungry. The ninth hour happened to coincide, I shouldn't say happened. It intentionally happened to coincide with afternoon prayers in the synagogue, afternoon, prayers in the synagogue coincided or were deliberately set at that time to be offered up

43:05 before the Lord in conjunction with the afternoon sacrifice. That was a communal sacrifice commanded by the Lord in Exodus, uh, I think it's Exodus 32, it's later in my notes. And it's during this time, during this time of afternoon prayers when he's seeking the Lord that the Lord chooses to answer Cornelius in a vision. So something for us to ponder on. And I'm not saying this is Marcus. What's the, it's not prescriptive, it's descriptive. This isn't the way it always has to be.

43:50 This is the way it could be. When does the Lord visit those who are seeking him? And at least in this text, it's descriptive as to when we are actively engaged in seeking the Lord or namely Cornelius, that the Lord appears to him and answers him in that moment of active engagement. So we move on to verse four. He stared at him in terror. This is Cornelius. He stared at him in terror and said, what is it Lord? And the angel said to him, your prayers in your akah have gone up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa and call for Simon, also named Peter.

44:38 He has been being entertained as a guest by Simon the Tanner whose house is beside the sea. Now, I, I've said this so many times, it's important to note Cornelius's reaction. He's staring at him in terror. It's so common in the tanah on the appearance of the angel of the Lord, for whoever is receiving the appearance to be terrified, which means the angel of the Lord must present as something terrifying. That's all that all we have in the text. We don't know what the angel of the Lord looks like. We don't know any of that other than it evokes almost across the board a reaction of terror.

45:25 You, you see it with the shepherds and, and, and in Luke two is that in Luke two, you see it with the shepherds at Yeshua's birth, they're terrified. Yeah. Luke two, Luke two, verse nine. They're terrified. But Cornelius knows enough about the scripture, about the TaNaK, about the story of the Jewish people. He knows enough that he has to respond. And he says, what is it, Lord? This is strikingly reminiscent of Abraham. Genesis 22, 1 and 11. Abraham says, Heini, or here I am Lord Moses says, in, in Exodus three, heini, here I am Lord Joshua says, this is,

46:11 this is actually striking how similar it is to Joshua, Joshua's, the military commander of, of, of, um, of Israel. And we have Cornelius, who's a military commander. His Joshua's response, when the angel of the Lord appears to him, what is it? My Lord? What is my Lord saying to his servant? In other words, what is it? My Lord? It is almost exactly the same. And in fact, Joshua worshiped the angel of the Lord. And it's important to note, at least in this case with Joshua, that the angel of the Lord did not say, stop. Why do I say that? Because angels throughout, throughout the tenah, the moment they're worshiped,

46:56 they say, stop. It's not me that you should worship. This one doesn't. And it's striking to me how similar the reaction is. It doesn't say that Cornelius worshiped, uh, the angel, but he does call the angel lord. And the angel doesn't respond to that. Just it's interesting to note. So the angel's response is this, your prayers and sedah have gone up, and I'm gonna use quotes here as a memorial offering before God. I'm not using quotes to like make it sarcastic or, or funny, but I'm using sar, I'm using it because what if this is not just descriptive,

47:41 but a what if it is the name of the offering that's being received at the time? You see, the concept in Judaism is widely known in, in, in early Judaism that prayer counts as a memorial before the Lord. It was common for prayers, as I mentioned earlier, to be offered at the same times as daily sacrifices were offered in the temple. And it makes the connection between prayer and sacrifice. It makes them almost equivalent to the point that after the destruction of the temple, the rabbis came up with the idea of we don't have sacrifices anymore. We still have to be able to worship the Lord, therefore, we're gonna do prayer.

48:27 Sah. Well, the third one, oh, Torah study. Thank you. Study prayer and Sedah, it's already here. And, and, and what Luke is actually telling us, by the way, the Book of Acts predates, at least the text that we have, the writing of the Talmud, therefore acts confirms that it's already present in Judaism Now that prayer and the sacrifice were paired together in terms of worshiping the Lord.

49:13 So prayer could count as a memorial. There were two, two daily offerings that are commanded in Exodus 29, 2 daily burnt offerings. And they were referred to as continual. See, so now we're coming back to the praying continually or without ceasing. These burnt offerings were communal, burnt offerings that were offered every day of the week in the morning and in the afternoon, early evening, and coincided with morning prayers and afternoon prayers. It doesn't necessarily in, in the context of this sacrifice. Now, I'm, I'm, I'm separating from the, my discussion on prayer and I'm just focusing on this text in, in Exodus,

49:59 in the focus on that text. The text says, these sacrifices were offered continually. Now what, what does that, what does that mean in definition within the text? It means they were offered in the morning and in the afternoon, daily without ceasing. In other words, it's not that it was all day sacrifices being offered continually. It was they had a designated time in the morning and a designated time in the afternoon. And the, the, the, um, continued sacrificial act daily was, was the act of sacrifice continually. Does that make sense? I know I just used the definition

50:47 within the, within the, within the sentence defining the word. But anyways, the, the text also reminds us we're also, we also connect prayer with incense before the Lord. There's, there's several scriptures that connect to this, and it's, it's an interesting following that those two sacrifices that are commanded in Exodus 29, in Exodus 30, it reminds us the incense was lit in conjunction with these two burnt offerings continually in the morning and in the evening, so that there would be a pleasing smell or pleasing aroma

51:35 before the Lord continually, they didn't go in and light it all day long. They lit it in the morning and in the afternoon, early evening, the language of the sacrificial offerings also employs this term that's utilized here in, in by, by Luke translated as memorial. So memorial, we see it, we see it over and over and over again. In Leviticus, the priest shall, uh, Leviticus two, the priest shall take a part of the meat offering as a memorial Leviticus two 60, and the priest shall burn the memorial part of the offering. The priest shall take a handful of it as a memorial. In numbers five, the priest shall take a handful of as a memorial. There's at least four different references concerning

52:21 what it is, is that is memorial about the sacrifice before the Lord. And it's always paired with the incense and the presentation before the Lord. And now here, Luke is doing something that's common or, or letting us know what's happening. And we should know that it's common knowledge at the time that prayers were offered up at the same time as the morning and the afternoon psych, uh, uh, sacrifices continually before the Lord. And now Luke is using this language not to describe a Jewish person, but to describe Cornelius, who's not just a Cornelius. He is a centurion. He at least presents as a Roman centurion.

53:09 He at least seems in the text to present as active in duty, which makes him the enemy of Jewish people at the time. Luke is utilizing this language to inform the audience that Cornelius. Now we're going back to the use of devout and what we'll find out in, in, in a couple weeks with the pouring outta the spirit, that the use of this language, Luke, is utilizing to compare what happens with the Jewish people and is now happening with Cornelius. And that one is used to prove the other and to prove that it is okay. And what is in between the vision that Peter has

53:57 that justifies from God that this is really happening and truly okay. The angel's final injunction to Cornelius is send men to Joppa and call for Peter. The, the angel gives him very specific details as to where Peter's dwelling at the time he's at Simon, the Tanners, uh, and by the sea. So now we continue on in verse seven and eight, when the angel speaking to him had left, he called two of his servants. In other words, now the angels left and Cornelius calls two of his servants and a soldier from among those attached to his command. This is why I don't think he was necessarily retired at the moment. After he explained everything to them, he sent them

54:43 to Joppa, which now the text implies based upon the, what the angel has said, implies the fact that he's sending them to Joppa to see Peter and to bring Peter back. So Cornelius, who has listened to the angel this whole time, by the way, I just wanna point out Cornelius is listening the entire time. He doesn't interrupt. He doesn't say why this, why that he's silent and he waits until the angel leaves to now speak and to do why?

55:28 Because he wants to make sure he doesn't miss anything. To me, that shows me that Cornelius is a man, uh, who pays attention to details, which if you achieve rank in the Roman army, you have to. So when the angel left, Cornelius is now faced with two options. He can ignore what the angel said, which is not likely because he's a devout man or he can obey what the angel instructed. Those are really the only two options at this point. So immediately after the angel left, it's not a, it's not a he waits, it's the angel left. And Cornelius gets into action. Cornelius calls two of his servants and a soldier from among those attached to his command.

56:16 And I wanna stop here and point out something that we just, sometimes we just read the text and don't think, but Cornelius is wealthy enough to have two servants. We don't think about that necessarily today, but it does state, uh, it does indicate that Cornelius had some level of wealth, at least enough to have two servants. I would presume actually, that he has at least four because he doesn't mind losing two to go to an errand. And, and the work that's around his own house isn't gonna suffer. So, which mean now you're talking about four servants. And, and, and the, the cost of a servant was at least on a, on a Romans, uh,

57:02 a Roman soldier's salary was at least a year's worth of wages. Now, the Roman centurion, just as a mental note, just one of those things to note, and and you don't have to remember it, a centurion salary was six times that of the average Roman soldier. Okay? So I already mentioned it seems like he's still active in his command role. And so here, what he does is he explains everything to his two servants and the Roman soldier who's under his command and sends them to go get pe uh, Peter, uh, in Japa. Now, this is when I was reading this, this text, and it,

57:49 and I think it came up in our discussion group. It should remind us all of one other story that Luke Notates, uh, in his gospel, in his gospel, Luke Notates in Luke chapter seven. I I just wanna read this because it's the only other mention of a centurion When Yeshua finished, so now we're within the time of Yeshua when he's walking and, and discipling his disciples. When Yeshua finished all his dra in the hearing of the people he entered Capernaum. Now a certain centurion, a certain, by the way, the term certain is often utilized to say this was a a very particular, and everybody would know who that centurion was.

58:37 A certain centurion had a valued slave who was ill and about to die. And this is interesting. The centurion also has a valued slave. And if you think about the value of the slave at this time being, uh, one year's wages, you can understand why he doesn't want to use lose a a year's wages. I I I am coming at it from a purely, um, financial standpoint, not just that he cared for the life of his servant. When he heard about Yeshua, he sent Jewish elders, ah, interesting. He sends Jewish elders to Yeshua asking him to come and save his slave. When they came to Yeshua, they begged him earnestly saying, he is worthy for you to grant this for. He loves our people and even built our synagogue.

59:23 Here's a fascinating thing. Here are Jewish leaders, religious leaders coming on, um, petitioning on behalf of a Roman centurion and saying, he is worthy for you to grant this request. And, and it says, at least he's known for building the synagogue. Now, Yeshua started to go with him. And when he wasn't far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him saying, master, don't trouble yourself. For I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. I wanna point out the centurion understands the custom of the time that the Jewish people couldn't come into Romans houses without becoming ritually. Def uh, uh, unclean don't, I'm not worthy

1:00:09 for you to come under my roof. This is why I didn't consider myself worthy to come to you, but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I say to this one, go. And he goes into another come and he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it. Now, when Yeshua heard this, he was amazed at him turning to the crowd following. He said, I tell you, not even in Israel, have I found such great faith. When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave was in good health.

1:00:54 A centurion knows that the soldiers under his authority must follow his command to the smallest detail. It's, it, it's exemplified in this passage here in, in Luke seven. Thus, Cornelius has no problem telling his servants and his soldier what to go do. He doesn't have any doubt that they're gonna, that they're gonna follow to the, to the minute detail. Unlike if I were to tell one of my children and say, um, Hey, go tell mom. No, actually, no, no, no. What happens more often? Go tell your brother or your sister that they need to come here. I i want to talk with them. Inevitably, what happens is you're in trouble.

1:01:40 Dad wants you. That is not at all what I said. I just said I wanted to talk to you. Cornelius knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that these two servants and this Roman, uh, soldier are gonna follow his every detail, his every in, uh, every instruction, instruction down to the smallest detail. So now, all of that to say, what does this mean for you and I, what does this mean for us today? Because we're not to the bigger context of, of the vision with Peter, just from this text. What does this mean for us? Well, first of all, here is a devout man who is pursuing a relationship with the Lord.

1:02:27 We see that he's devoted these times each day to pray and to seeking the Lord and to giving charity or akah to the poor. And the Lord chooses to meet him in the time which he has set aside for that opportunity to build relationship with the Lord. So what does that mean for us? My question is, do we set aside time for the Lord in our daily lives continually. Now, I don't mean all day, I don't mean that type of continually, but I mean continually, as in regularly, they're the same all the time. And from day to day, it doesn't change

1:03:14 because if you don't, I would challenge you to do it and see how the Lord begins to answer and to deepen his relationship with you. Why? Because you've taken time to deepen your relationship with him. It's not too dissimilar from if you want to have a healthy marriage, you have to set aside time, just the two of you on a regular basis every day. You could call this your date time with the Lord, and it just occurs regularly, continually, if you will.

1:03:59 God's usual pattern is bringing the message of the good news through human agents. You see, the, the angel could have told Cornelius, Hey, this is what's gonna happen. The spirit of the Lord is gonna pour out upon you because you have placed your trust in your shoe of the Messiah, and, and we're off. But that's not what the angel says. The angel says, go get Peter. I want him to be my messenger. I want him to be the one through whom the Lord speaks. Now, not only Cornelius is blessed, but Peter is blessed too. You see what happens by, by not just superseding or, or bypassing Peter, what happens is there's a mutual

1:04:46 blessing that, that, that happens. So my question for us, are you prepared to be an agent on the Lord's behalf or maybe the other way, are you prepared to hear the message of the good news from an agent of the Lord who's being sent to you? Or if either one of those are good enough for you? Are you presenting memorial offerings to the Lord continually? Are you setting aside time with him on a regular, continual basis? Now, we're gonna play what I always like to play. Who are you in this story?

1:05:32 We all, all of us by the way, don't think you, I'm leaving any of you out, all you'all, all of us, we all do the same thing. We all think we are the hero in whatever the story is, whether it's this story, whether it's any, we, we look for the applications that apply to the hero. Why? Partially it's, it's a good thing. Like that's what the Lord has called us to do, is to be his messengers, to be his servants before others. But on the other hand, sometimes we're unwilling to recognize that we're something other than the hero. So in this story, are you Cornelius?

1:06:19 Do you respond in obedience when the Lord instructs you to do something? In other words, do you recognize the authority when the Lord tells you to do something that now he's given to you? And if you don't do it, you're acting outside of his chain of command? Think about that. In terms of a spiritual warfare. What do you do with that? Or are you Peter and you're like, Peter's not even in this story. You're right, he's not. Are you unknowingly waiting upon the Lord with your social views about to be radically changed because that's Peter in this story?

1:07:04 Or are you the servant and the soldier? If Cornelius, now I don't jump at me because of, of the, of the, of the attachment, I'm about to say, or the, the, the, um, illustration I'm about to say. If Cornelius is a picture of our master Yeshua, can he trust us to follow the smallest details of what he has instructed? Unfortunately, don't think this is condemnation as, uh, as Cheryl says, cracks are ex or, or, uh, yeah.

1:07:51 The Lord reveals cracks in the foundation for restoration, not for demolition. So if, if a crack is about to be revealed, don't get upset. It's for the purpose of restoration, not for demolition. Unfortunately, in the body of Messiah, we're not usually attentive to details and certainly we're not usually as attentive to details as those who live in the secular world. And I mean, in terms of a job, in terms of doing the details of a job, why? I think part of it is all of us in here believe in grace, rightfully so. We recognize that if we mess up, the Lord has grace for us. The problem is, is when you mess up building the foundation of a house, the house is gonna fall

1:08:41 when you mess up on these other, if you don't take exactitude in your measurements, if you now, if you take shortcuts because you don't want to be in this job, as long as you think the job needs you to be in it, if you take shortcuts, understand the, the ramifications will come back. Just because we're followers of Yeshua doesn't mean we never experienced the consequences of our choices. It does mean we have grace and we experienced the grace, but it doesn't mean we don't ever have to pay the piper and let me, if that wasn't discouraging enough,

1:09:31 let me leave you with this. Let us strive to live and conduct our daily lives in pursuit of a deeper relationship with the Lord through prayer and sah that it might rise before him as the incense of the memorial offering continually on a regular basis each and every day. That's what we need to be about of Sha may our Father in heaven. Lord, I thank you for this opportunity. I thank you for this story in this scripture. Lord, I thank you for the lessons

1:10:17 that we can learn from Cornelius, from Peter, from the servants. Lord, I thank you for all that you have, for each and every one of us. Lord, I ask that you administer to us today and that you would speak into our lives. We bless you in Yeshua's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

1:11:34 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shalum.