Olympics – Favorite event.
Gold medal winner, silver medal winner, Bronze medal.
Some people didn’t make the team.
Some people didn’t try.
We frequently want to rank people by their abilities,
talents, and accomplishments. We even sort people by height, weight, income,
race, and many other personal features.
The character we are going to consider today, held a
highly sought after position of authority, and was favored by God, but not
because of his race or his position of authority.
Acts 10 Cornelius – A Centurion of the Italian Cohort
V 1-23 ,, V
24-48
Caesarea – a seaport city 33 miles north of Joppa. The
city covered about 165 Acres and received its water from a 7 mile long aqueduct
from Mt. Carmel.
Roman army Units – 1 Contubernium = 8 men, 10 Contubernia
– 1 Century, 80 men.
A Centurion was over 80 men. The Italian cohort may
have been from Syria.
The centurian carried a stick (or staff) and rode a
horse. The stick was used to discipline men when needed.
Characteristics
– devout, feared God with all his household, gave alms to the Jewish people,
prayed continually, saw a vision, responded to God “What is it Lord?”, Obedient
to God’s direction, Explained everything to his servants and sent them
to Joppa, a righteous and God-fearing man well
spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews,
What can we learn about God through Cornelius’s story?
God is not prejudice.
He does not discriminate based on race or other things.
But we often do.
What are some of the prejudices we see around us?
Race, income, intellect, position, background…
How should we respond to prejudice in others? In ourselves?
Jesus came to save anyone who would accept salvation, not just
the Jews.
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