When Being Good Isn't Good Enough

At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort. A devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God. About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and said, "What is it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God."

Now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He's lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside. When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him. And having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. And in the second half of verse 23, the next day he, that's Peter, arose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.

And on the following day, they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter lifted him up saying, "Stand up, I too am a man." And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered.

And he said to them, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I asked then, why have you sent for me?" Cornelius said, "Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, 'Cornelius, your prayers have been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.

Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He's lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.' So I sent for you at once, and you've been kind enough to come. Now therefore we're all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord." So Peter opened his mouth and said, "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality.

But in every nation, anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him. And as for the word that He sent to Israel, preaching the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all. You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.

For God was with Him, and we are witnesses of all that He did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised Him on the third day and made Him to appear not to all the people, but to us who have been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name. While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.

And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles, for they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, "Can anyone withhold water for baptising these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" And he commanded them to be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. Brothers and sisters, in our Lord Jesus Christ, there was a Canadian country and western band called Emerson Drive.

They once put out a song called "He Was a Good Man." The refrain of the song goes like this: "I wanna be the one when all is said and done, who lived a good life, loved a good wife, and always helped someone in trouble. On the day they lay me down, I want everyone to gather round and say he was a father, brother, neighbour and friend. He was a good man."

He was a good man. Friends, that's not just a refrain of a song. That's a refrain that we hear so often at funerals. I once had dealings with a man who was in a nursing home. He was not a believer, but he loved religious discussions, or he preferred to call them debates.

He bought the idea that Jesus was born of a virgin because that was unscientific, and he couldn't accept the resurrection of Jesus because that was unscientific. He later developed terminal cancer and asked me to take his funeral, and I agreed that I would do that, but I said on one condition: that is, I know your views about Jesus and you know what I've been saying to you about salvation through Him. As long as I don't have to pretend at the funeral that you've gone to heaven. He said, "That's okay. He said, 'Just tell them I was a good bloke.'" Sad. Sometimes celebrants at funerals will even say that of someone who was anything but a good bloke.

I think of another song, a song by Carrie Underwood called "Two Black Cadillacs." The song tells of two black Cadillacs that rolled up for this man's funeral. One of the black Cadillacs belonged to his wife, the other one belonged to his mistress. The refrain of the song goes, "And the preacher said he was a good man and his brother said he was a good friend. But the women in the two black veils didn't bother to cry."

Bye bye, bye bye. The problem, congregation, when the best thing someone can say of you is you're a good person, leads people to think that God would have to be pleased with you as well. And that God would be terribly unjust if He didn't let you into heaven as a good person. Now this morning, we've got this story here in Acts 10 that shows us that being good isn't good enough.

This man Cornelius was a very unlikely good man. To start us off, Cornelius is a Roman, and Romans in that day were polytheists, which means they worship many gods. One of the most important objects of their worship was Caesar. In Rome in those days, Caesar was lord. He was treated as divine.

Now please, congregation, I'm not suggesting for a moment that polytheists and idol worshippers are not nice people. But please remember we're this morning looking at the Bible's perspective on being good. And the Bible never, ever that I'm aware of, calls idolaters good people. Never. One of the reasons why Cornelius is a good man is that he's abandoned his idolatry.

Somewhere along the line, he's come into contact with the religion of the Old Testament, and he saw Roman idol worship for what it really was: empty and futile. Secondly, I want to say this morning that Cornelius is a rather unlikely good man because he was a centurion, an officer in what was back then the greatest army in the world, and a ruthless army in which he had certainly experienced the roughest sides of life. As a centurion, he was an officer over what was called a century, a platoon of up to a hundred men. And we'd hardly expect someone like that to be an outstandingly good person. Too often they were known as brutal disciplinarians, and then especially it's called here the Italian regiment, probably a bunch of fairly radical loyalists.

And here, congregation, look at all the good things that we're told about Cornelius. First, he fears God. So he's not just a doubter. He's not just religious. He's religious and God-fearing.

This man is not just a monotheist because he's ditched his Roman idols; he actually fears the God of the Bible. He's religious, but not like so many people in our society who are religious today. Religious maybe for what they can get out of God—health, wealth and prosperity. No. This man actually lived in awe of Almighty God.

Secondly, this man Cornelius is what many people would call a philanthropist. He's very generous with his money, and you probably noticed this morning in our reading that in verse two and later in verse 31, Luke uses the word "alms". That means he supported the poor and needy. So here was a man, congregation, who would care for the widows and the orphans in his community. And then thirdly, our text tells us Cornelius is a man of prayer.

And it makes clear to us this is not just a man who said some prayers occasionally when he joined others in public worship. Verse two tells us that he prayed to God, and then not just regularly as the NIV translates it, but he prays continually as our pew Bible has it. He was constantly praying. And then fourthly, congregation, this man is a man who's concerned about his family and even his soldiers. He's keen for them to share his faith and his values.

Put your Bible open still. Have a look how that's brought out in this chapter. Verse two, we read that his religion was not just a personal and private matter. It says he and all his family were devout and God-fearing. In verse seven, notice we have a hint there that his faith impacted the soldiers in his platoon.

It's a devout soldier who accompanies the servants to fetch Peter. Verse 24, we see that he's gathered his whole family together to listen to Peter. If God has a special message for him, he wants the whole family to hear it. This is so obviously a good man, but it's also just as obvious, friends, that being good is not good enough. If you turn over the page a minute in your Bible to chapter 11, I want to just pick up on a verse there that makes that abundantly clear.

Chapter 11, we have the story of Cornelius repeated. But in chapter 11, it's Peter telling the story to explain to the leaders in Jerusalem what had happened. And notice how in verse 14 he reports the words of the angel to Cornelius. Verse 14: "He, Peter, will bring you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household." Hey, Cornelius is a good man.

He's a religious man, but he's an unsaved man, an unforgiven man. Is it then not desirable and commendable to be a good man? Absolutely, congregation. In next chapter, chapter 11, verse 24, it said of Barnabas, "He was a good man." It's better always to be a good man than a bad man.

It's better to be generous than stingy. It's better to be religious than an atheist or an idolater. Being religious and moral is better than being irreligious and immoral. It's better to be concerned and caring about your family and your soldiers rather than neglecting them. But the issue is that being a good person isn't good enough.

It's not gonna save you. And the point is, and I made it in the ministry of reconciliation, God does ultimately, when the chips are down, He doesn't do good. He's not interested in good. God only does perfect. And ultimately, He's looking for sinlessness and complete holiness.

And the whole thrust of Acts 10 is that this good man needs Jesus. When you stop and think about it, congregation, that's scary. You can sit here in church this morning complimenting yourself that you're a good person. You don't swear. You don't do drugs.

You don't gamble. You've never ever been drunk. And you too, well, you do stand in awe of the God of the Bible and you do love your family. That's great. But I want to say to you this morning, it's not enough.

When all is said and done, that doesn't cut it with God. You desperately need the good news of the doing and the dying and the victory of Jesus, and that alone, that alone is what saves you and not your goodness. In Acts 10, God makes sure that this good man gets to hear the gospel. But notice, please, who it is who brings this good man the gospel story of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not angels who are entrusted with the gospel. It's not an angel who tells Cornelius the good news that someone has died in his place for his forgiveness.

Angels are not allowed to tell human beings that message. The nearest thing we have to angels bringing the gospel is in the story of the shepherds in Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus, but even that wasn't the whole gospel. It didn't include the message of the cross or the resurrection. We may say, "Well, but in this story doesn't God send an angel to Cornelius?" Yes, of course.

Angels often play a part. In an earlier chapter of Acts we read that an angel sent Philip to the desert road to meet the Ethiopian eunuch. And here an angel tells Cornelius to send for Peter in the house of Simon the Tanner. Angels play a part in God's purposes in the book of Acts, and I want to say, congregation, they still do. There are stories coming out of the Muslim world, Muslim countries, where people have seen an angel, and in this vision of an angel, the angel has told them to go and meet a certain Christian, where they could meet them, how to meet them. But the gospel is not entrusted to angels; it's entrusted to us as human beings.

God wants sinners to tell other sinners the wonderful truth of the gospel. He wants people who have discovered for themselves that they were not good enough to teach other good people that they're not good enough for God. Here the task is especially entrusted to the Apostle Peter, and I want to say that Peter plays a key role in the commencement of each of the phases in God's Gospel agenda. You could read that agenda in Acts 1:8 where it's spelled out for us. And so Peter is the one who spoke on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem.

Now Peter is the one who had the privilege of formally opening the door to the gospel to the Samaritans, and now he's got the privilege of opening that same gospel door to the Gentiles, the non-Jews. But I want to make one qualification this morning about Peter's role in this. Our Roman Catholic friends teach that Peter was the first Pope. Well, isn't it interesting? When Cornelius bows down to Peter in verse 26, Peter pulls him up.

He doesn't accept that kind of reverence. He says, "I'm just a man." Makes me question some of the bowing and scraping that's done to the Pope. So it's Peter who brings the gospel, and he's now invited to speak God's message to this large gathering. And he introduces this in verses 34 to 36 in a very telling way.

First, he mentions God doesn't show favouritism. That comes out in the bit we skipped in verses 9 through 16 where Peter has this vision of a sheet let down from heaven. It teaches Peter the lesson that God doesn't show favouritism. Next, he points out that the message he brings is a message of peace through Jesus Christ. It's the gospel, the good news of Jesus, that brings peace to troubled minds and to restless souls. And that's the message Peter brings: the gospel of peace. We're not told, but it kind of makes me wonder a little bit, brothers and sisters, about Cornelius.

Makes me wonder whether his good deeds to the poor were an attempt to find peace with God. Hey, were his constant prayers his way of trying to settle his restless soul? Because the point is that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no peace with God. We can conclude that while we may have here a good man, we have a good man who was not at peace. See, being a good person doesn't automatically bring you peace of mind.

Being good doesn't guarantee that. This good man is going to find peace only as he embraces the message that Peter brings. And so in his message, Peter tells Cornelius and his family about another good man. And this other good man was sent by God to be good on our behalf. He earned goodness for us.

And that's why God declared this good man, Jesus, now to be Lord of all. And it's through Him alone that you and I find peace in our restlessness. In Peter's presentation, all the key elements of the gospel are there. Jesus is God's anointed one—in other words, He's the Messiah, anointed by God's Holy Spirit and power. And God's anointed one went about doing good and healed all those who are under the power of the devil, says Peter.

Now I think it's helpful for us to memorise—a little challenge for you coming up—to memorise this gospel presentation of Peter. Why? Because you've got friends who are good people, but whose goodness isn't good enough. Some of you have relatives, good people who will one day discover that being good isn't good enough for God. But let me say, God is not going to send an angel to teach them about Jesus Christ.

God leaves that responsibility to us sinners to share with other sinners the message of Jesus. But that means, friends, you need to make sure that you know what you're going to say, because it's good to plan that beforehand because we so easily get flustered, don't we? I do. I'm sure you do. You can do that in many ways.

There's many helpful ways of memorising the gospel, but let me make it easy for you to memorise Peter's approach here. You've all heard of the three Rs: reading, writing, arithmetic, right? Back in school days, three Rs, easy to remember. Well, Peter also has three Rs that sum up the story of God's anointed Messiah—three things that are crucial that we need to get across to others and again can be remembered by three R words. The first R is rejection.

Jesus Christ was rejected, and Peter speaks of that rejection in terms of those in Jerusalem hanging Him on a tree, rejected to die, rejected all the way to the cross. The second R is risen. The Lord Jesus Christ rose from the grave, or if you like, resurrection. Peter says God raised Him from the dead on the third day to be seen. And then the third R that Peter mentions is returning.

This Jesus is coming again in glory, and Peter says He's coming to do the work of judging the living and the dead. So there you've got three Rs: rejected, risen and returning. And it's through this Jesus, rejected, risen and returning, that we have forgiveness of sins. Salvation is through His name. Not only are our sins removed, but as I showed you in that last slide this morning with the arrows left and right, Jesus took our sins on Himself, but we're also given the righteousness, the goodness, the perfection of Jesus.

And good people, friends, good people desperately need to hear that message. Well, the wonderful thing is that even while Peter preaches this message, things begin to happen. Peter didn't need to give an altar call first. I thought I've got a problem with altar calls; there's a place for them. He didn't have to wait to lead every one of them first of all in a prayer of commitment, and there's a place for prayers of commitment.

But we read that even as Peter spoke, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. Suddenly Cornelius was not just a good man. Suddenly in Christ, he was a perfect man, perfect in Christ. That transaction with those two arrows had taken place. The sins of Cornelius were laid on Jesus, taken by Him, and the righteousness, the perfection and holiness of Jesus had been given to Cornelius.

He was now more than just a good man. He was now like Barnabas in chapter 11, verse 24, because that verse doesn't just say that Barnabas was a good man. It says he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith. Some people have wondered, congregation, why there was this outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a tangible way. Others want to make this normative for all Christians, that it should happen to all of us.

I want to say no. No, this was a very special moment in the history of the Christian church. This is the third time in the book of Acts that this happens. And each of the latter two are a repeat of the first one, which is Pentecost. Pentecost Sunday. And then we have a second repeat of a little mini Pentecost as the Samaritans come to faith.

If you like, a Samaritan Pentecost. God was showing in a visible way to the church that the Samaritans also belong, and now a Gentile Pentecost. And it's witnessed by the six Jews who accompanied Peter, that the Gentiles also have a place in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Congregation, this was visible evidence of the fulfilment of God's agenda as it's spelled out in Acts 1:8. It was visible evidence of the fulfilment of all the Old Testament prophecies about the ingathering of the Gentiles. Another thing that happens in the story is that baptisms take place, and Peter sees what happens and he asks the question, "Can anyone keep these people who've received the Holy Spirit from being baptised with water?" And so he orders that water is brought in and they're baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this way Cornelius and his gathered household are baptised and added to the New Testament church.

It's telling, congregation, for a whole lot of reasons. I'm going to limit myself to just three reasons. First, baptism is obviously a sign of their commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism is a ritual of initiation. The people now identify with Jesus. In baptism they're marked as His. It's a sign of belonging, that their conversion is real, their embracing of the gospel is genuine, and that reality is now demonstrated in their baptism.

Secondly, Gentiles are now also for the first time included in the church. Baptism is not only an identification with Jesus; it not only marks them as followers of the Lord Jesus, it also marks them as belonging to the church of Jesus Christ. And you and I this morning can be thankful about that because we're gathered here this morning as Gentiles. Well, some of you are Jewish, of course, which I guess is a possibility, although rather unlikely. We as Christians belong to the church because the church of Jesus Christ is not just some Jewish sect.

And then thirdly, baptism puts into perspective this whole matter of being good people. You know, the church often gets labelled as a bunch of hypocrites. You ever heard that? Hear it ad nauseam, don't we? People have this idea that church people think that they're not only good people, but they're better than everyone else.

Well, say no. The church is first of all not a gathering of good folk; it's a gathering of sinful people who have responded to the good news of Jesus and received His perfection, have been washed clean in the blood and spirit of Christ. We're people who know that being good isn't good enough, and that's why we're baptised, a sign of the washing that Jesus does. And so baptism marks us as a community of sinners saved by grace. I want to conclude this morning, congregation, by saying just one other thing about the genuineness of Cornelius's conversion.

Of course it's quite evident to Peter and the six men who came with him. By the way, if you're wondering why I'm talking about six people who came with Peter, they're mentioned in chapter 11, verse 12. It seems Peter took them along because of the unnatural, unusual nature of what he was doing. He knew he was gonna be challenged by the Jews about a Jew going into a Gentile house. That was a no-no for Jews.

But the result was that they witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on these Gentiles. That's why it had to be a visible thing. They saw the evidence of transformed lives in Cornelius and his household. Not only the speaking in tongues, but also the praises they expressed to God for the gospel of His Son. It's in that context that I want to draw attention to the last few words of the chapter. Worth noting.

They asked Peter to stay a few days. Now why did Dr Luke find it necessary to add that to the end of the story of Cornelius? And why did Peter and his companions stay anyway? I mean, wasn't this just a matter of Middle Eastern hospitality where you just did that? I want to say no.

These people realised as new Christians they had a lot to learn. And so Peter and his companions stayed on to teach them more about Jesus. I can imagine, friends, that Peter taught Cornelius what it really meant to be a good man. A good man, a good woman, is not just someone who is generous with their money and helps the poor. A good person is not just someone who takes care of her family. A good person is not just someone who's devoted to prayer.

A good person is not even someone who just lives and fears God in their life. No, a good person accepts the gospel of Jesus and then lives the whole of their life by faith in Jesus, their saviour and Lord. And I'm sure that's what Peter and the apostles taught Cornelius in the days that followed. May God enable us to live that too in the week ahead. We lead you in prayer.

Father, thank you that your word is so often so brutally honest. It confronts us with truths that we don't really like to hear. We like to think of ourselves as being good. Now this morning you've shown us that the only goodness that can make any claim on your love and affection is the goodness of your Son, when that is attributed to us by faith in Him. We pray, Father, that we may live as your perfect people this coming week and seek to live that out in our daily life in thanks for the wonder of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you that we could celebrate that in our worship service, and now also in the sacrament. We pray that in His precious name, as we say together, Amen.