Acts 10:9 - Meaning and Application

Cornelius had already received clear orders from heaven to send for Peter, a man he had not known, or at least had not paid attention to. But another difficulty stood in the way of bringing them together, would Peter be willing to come when summoned? That was not because Peter thought it beneath him to come at once, or because he was afraid to preach to a cultured man like Cornelius. The trouble was one of conscience.

Cornelius was a very good man in many ways, but he was a Gentile, and not circumcised. Under God’s law, the Jews had been told not to mix freely with idolatrous nations, so they kept company only with people of their own religion, even if others were very worthy. They even went so far as to treat an accidental touch from a Gentile as a ceremonial uncleanness, a ritual pollution (John 18:28). Peter still had not shaken off this narrow, biased view from his countrymen, so he would have been hesitant to go to Cornelius.

To remove that obstacle, God gave Peter a vision, preparing him to receive Cornelius’s message, just as Ananias had prepared him to go to Saul. The Old Testament had already spoken plainly about bringing the Gentiles, non-Jews, into the church. Christ had also given clear hints when he told them to teach all nations. Yet even Peter, who knew so much of his Master’s mind, did not fully understand this until God showed him by vision that Gentiles should share the same inheritance as believers from Israel (Ephesians 3:6).

This vision came just as Cornelius’s messengers were nearing the city (Acts 10:9). Peter knew nothing of their approach, and they knew nothing of his prayer, but God knew both and was arranging everything for their meeting. God has a fitting time for all his purposes, and he often puts thoughts into his servants’ minds right when they need them.

It also came when Peter went up to the roof to pray around noon. Peter was much given to prayer, even with much public work on his hands. He prayed at the sixth hour, following David’s example, who prayed not only morning and evening, but also at noon (Psalm 55:17). From morning to night, many people think it too long to go without food, yet how few think it too long to go without prayer.

Peter prayed on the housetop for privacy. There he could neither hear others nor be heard by them, so he avoided both distraction and show. From that place he could look up at the heavens, which would help his reverent worship of God, and also look out over the city and countryside, which would stir his compassion for the people he was praying for. The vision came right after prayer, as an answer to his prayer for the spread of the gospel, and because lifting the heart to God is a good preparation for receiving his grace and favor.

Peter was also very hungry and was waiting for dinner (Acts 10:10). He likely had not eaten that day, though he had surely prayed before. The text says he would have liked to taste something, which shows his restraint and temperance in eating. Even when he was very hungry, he was content with a little. This hunger fit the vision about food, just as Christ’s hunger in the wilderness prepared the way for Satan’s temptation to turn stones into bread.

Peter then fell into a trance, or ecstasy, not one of fear but of deep thought. He was so completely taken up that he was not only unaware of what was around him, but hardly conscious of it. He was, in a sense, taken out of this world so his mind could be fully open to divine things, as Adam was in his deep sleep (Genesis 15:12; Acts 22:17). The clearer our minds are from worldly distractions, the nearer we are to heaven. Peter himself could not tell whether he was in the body or out of the body, and neither can we (2 Corinthians 12:2-3).

He saw heaven opened, so he could be sure his call to go to Cornelius truly came from heaven. The change in his mind was brought by divine light, and the commission by divine power. The opening of heaven also pointed to the opening of a hidden mystery, one that had long been kept secret (Romans 16:25).

He saw a great sheet filled with all kinds of living creatures, coming down from heaven and lowered to the earth, to the roof where he was. It held not only animals from the land, but also birds from the air, as if they had been placed at his feet. It included tame animals and wild ones. There were no fish, because fish were not among the creatures that had been specially declared unclean; anything with fins and scales was permitted for food.

Some understand this sheet, full of creatures, as a picture of the church of Christ. It comes down from heaven, from an opened heaven, not only because it is sent from there (Revelation 21:2), but also because souls are received into it from below. It is fastened at the four corners to receive people from every part of the world who are willing to be added to it, and to keep safe those who enter it so they do not fall out. In it we find people from every nation and language, with no difference between Greek and Jew, and no lessening of status for barbarian or Scythian, that is, outsiders and rough peoples (Colossians 3:11). The net of the gospel gathers in all kinds of people, both bad and good, those once thought clean and unclean.

Or this vision may point to God’s generous providence, which, before the ceremonial law gave restrictions, had given people freedom to use all the creatures. When that law was set aside, we were restored to that freedom again. The vision teaches us to see all the benefit and service we get from lower creatures as coming down to us from heaven. They are gifts from God, who made them, fitted them for us, and gave them into human care and rule. “Lord, what is man, that you are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4-8). How should this increase our joy in the creatures, and our duty to serve God in using them, when we see them as let down to us from heaven.

He was told by a voice from heaven to use the food, with its plenty and variety, that God had provided for him (Acts 10:13): “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” He was also told not to make any difference between clean and unclean animals, but to take whatever he wanted. The law’s distinction between clean and unclean food was meant to mark off Jews from Gentiles. It made it hard for Jews to dine and share meals with Gentiles, because Gentiles would serve food Jews were not allowed to eat.

When that food law was removed, it clearly allowed Jews to spend time with Gentiles and be open and familiar with them. Now they could share the same table, eat together, and live as equals. Peter, however, held to his convictions and would not agree, even though he was hungry (Acts 10:14). He said, “Not so, Lord.” Hunger can be strong, but God’s commands should be a stronger barrier than hunger.

Peter was determined to keep God’s law, even when a voice from heaven seemed to tell him otherwise. At first, he may not have known whether “kill and eat” was a test, to see if he would hold to the more certain written law. If so, his answer was right: “Not so, Lord.” Temptation to do what God has forbidden should not be negotiated with. It should be rejected at once, and with surprise: “Not so, Lord.”

Peter explained his refusal by saying, “For I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” He meant that he had stayed faithful in this matter and intended to remain so. If God, by his grace, has kept us from serious sin until now, we should use that as a reason to stay away from even the appearance of evil. The godly Jews were so strict about this that the seven brothers, those brave martyrs under Antiochus, chose torture and death rather than eat pork, because the law forbade it. So it is no surprise that Peter could say with real satisfaction that his conscience could testify he had never pleased his appetite with forbidden food.

Then God, by a second voice from heaven, announced that the law was being lifted in this matter (Acts 10:15): “What God has cleansed, do not call common.” The one who made the law could change it whenever he chose, and bring things back to their original state. God had once, for wise reasons in the Old Testament period, kept the Jews from certain foods. While that time lasted, they were bound in conscience to obey. But now, for reasons fitting the New Testament age, he had removed that restriction and set the matter free.

God had made clean what had once been treated as unclean, and we should make use of the freedom Christ has given us. We should not call common or unclean what God has now declared clean. We should count it a great mercy that the gospel has freed us from the food laws of Moses, and that now every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused. This is not mainly because we gain foods like pork, rabbits, or other pleasant and healthy foods. It is chiefly because conscience is freed from a burden in matters like these, so that we may serve God without fear.

The gospel has added duties that the law of nature did not clearly require, but it has not, like the law of Moses, made sins out of things that were not sins. Those who forbid certain meats at certain times of the year, and make religion out of such rules, are calling common what God has cleansed. In that error, more than in any truth, they are the followers of Peter.

This happened three times (Acts 10:16). The sheet was pulled up a little, then let down again a second time, and then a third time, with the same command to kill and eat, and the same reason, that what God has cleansed we must not call common. It is not certain whether Peter’s refusal was repeated the second and third times, and likely it was not, since his first objection had already been answered so fully. The threefold vision, like Pharaoh’s doubled dream, showed that the matter was certain and deserved careful attention.

God’s lessons, whether heard in preaching or seen in the sacraments, often need repeating. Instruction must come line by line and precept by precept. At last, the vessel was taken back up into heaven. Those who see this sheet as a picture of the church, made up of both Jews and Gentiles just as it held both clean and unclean animals, rightly understand it as pointing to the entrance of believing Gentiles into the church and into heaven, the Jerusalem above. Christ has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers, and there we will find, besides those sealed from the tribes of Israel, a countless crowd from every nation (Revelation 7:9). But they are all people whom God has cleansed.

The providence of God then gave Peter the meaning of the vision at just the right time, and this is what he learned (Acts 10:17-18). Peter did not understand right away what Christ meant (John 13:7). He wondered within himself what the vision could mean. He had no reason to doubt that it was truly from heaven. His only question was about its meaning.

Christ often reveals himself to his people little by little, not all at once. He sometimes leaves them wondering for a while, turning a matter over in their minds, before he makes it clear. Still, Peter soon began to understand, because the men sent by Cornelius had already arrived at the house. They were standing at the gate asking whether Peter was staying there, and their message would show the meaning of the vision. God knows what duties are ahead of us, and he knows how to prepare us for them. We often understand his teaching better when we see the very occasion for using it.