ACTS: God Has No Favourites

God Has No Favourites

Acts 10:1–48 Alex Hogendoorn — June 1, 2025

God has no favourites — and the peace Jesus made at the cross is wide enough for everyone.

Sermon Summary

We began with the bridge illustration — but the bridge Jesus built at the cross is bigger than we often think. He bore our guilt there, and he also bore the wrath of God and absorbed our hostility toward God, making peace where there had been enmity. But Jesus is also the bridge that crossed gaps between "us" and "them"; he makes peace between people as well.

That is the world Acts 10 opens up. A Roman centurion named Cornelius has been praying and giving generously — his offerings have ascended before God like a sacrifice — and yet a wall still stands between him and his Jewish neighbours. So God moves on both sides at once. Both receive visions, both are not fully prepared for what God was going to do. But the word is awesome: What God has made clean, do not call common. When Cornelius's men arrive at the gate, the Spirit simply says: go, without hesitation. Peter goes. He enters the house, sees faith already at work among these Gentiles, and watches the Spirit fall before he can finish speaking. He stays for several days — eating at the table, sleeping under the same roof as the one family of God.

Icebreaker (pick one)

• Playful: What's a food or cultural activity from another culture you were skeptical about — and then loved?
• Meaningful: Can you think of a time you were clearly in the minority in a room or a crowd? How did it feel?

Opening Prayer

Ask the Spirit to speak through the word and to lead your time together.

Scripture Reading

Read Acts 10:1–48 aloud as a group.

Main Discussion Questions

God Revealed: God gives Peter the same vision three times and dovetails the all the events so simultaneously to tear down that wall of hostility and separation. What does it stir in you to see God so adamantly at work to make this happen?

Humanity Mirrored: Peter's prejudice came from a worldview he had been raised in and never questioned — until God opened his eyes. What kinds of biases are hardest for us to see precisely because we've assumed them to be "the way things are"?

Gospel-Centered Vision: "Do not call common what God has made clean." Jesus died to make peace and to make people holy. How does that — alongside the vision in Revelation 7:9–10 of every people group gathered around the throne — change how you see God's plan for the church?

Transformed Living: Peter ended up staying several days in Cornelius's home — eating together, sleeping under the same roof, as family. As the Comox Valley becomes more diverse, how will you seek to live out the gospel in building genuine friendship across cultural divides?

Sharing and Witness: Who in your life right now — at work, in your neighbourhood, at school — might be a Cornelius? What's one step you could take toward them this week?

For Further Study

• Genesis 12:1–3 — God calls Abraham to be blessed in order to bless all the families of the earth; the foundation of God's universal purpose.
• Leviticus 20:24b–26 — The clean/unclean laws are explicitly linked to Israel's separation from the nations — the very distinction Peter's vision dismantles.
• Deuteronomy 21:23 — One hung on a tree bears a curse; Peter's reference to the cross as a "tree" (v.39) signals that Jesus bore the curse separating Jew from Gentile.
• Isaiah 56:6–7 — God's house will be a house of prayer for all peoples; the vision Acts 10 begins to fulfill.
• Ephesians 2:11–22 — Christ is our peace; he has broken down the dividing wall of hostility and reconciled us to God and to one another through the cross.
• Galatians 3:26–29 — In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek; all who belong to him are heirs of the promise.
• Romans 10:12–13 — The same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
• Acts 15:7–11 — Peter recounts Cornelius at the Jerusalem Council: God made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
• Romans 2:11 — God shows no partiality; Paul applies Peter's discovery to the whole structure of his argument.
• Revelation 7:9–10 — Every tribe, language, people, and nation around the throne — the joy and the destination toward which God has been working all along.