But a certain man in Caesarea, -- by name Cornelius, a centurion of the band called Italic,
The book turns a corner here. Until now the message has gone to Jews and Samaritans. Here Luke names a Roman officer in the garrison town of Caesarea. With him, the gospel reaches the Gentiles.
Cornelius is named at a turning point. God had announced this change long before, and His people had been slow to act on it:
This change was momentous, and the circumstances around it carried unmistakable marks of divine authority. Yet the Lord Himself had announced it long before (Luke 24:47), to disciples whose ears were unwilling and therefore did not understand. Peter had stated it plainly too (Acts 2:39), though he seems to have grasped little of the force of what he then said... But He would not have the activity of His grace wait any longer for the dull sons of men. His message of love to the lost must run out in power. And the great apostle to the Jews must be the one to open the gates of the kingdom officially, not to Jews only but to Gentiles also. The moment was come; the man with whom to begin appears.
Cornelius holds a rank in the Roman army. Its structure explains the words Luke uses:
A "legion" was a body that contained within itself all the grades of the army... Every legion at times contained 10 cohorts of 600 each; every cohort 3 maniples of 200; and every maniple 2 centuries of 100. So we get the name centurion, meaning commander of 100 men, as in Acts 10:1, 22. ... A cohort is translated "band" in Acts 10:1.
God chose both the moment and the messenger. Two earlier preachers had already passed through this city:
The first Gentile to receive the call was Cornelius, an officer in the Roman garrison at Caesarea. Toward God, he was devout and a man of prayer. Toward people, he was generous and kind, and this to a conquered nation. In choosing such a man, and not a character like the Philippian jailer, God showed consideration for Jewish feeling. Philip and Saul had both already visited Caesarea, yet neither seems to have preached the gospel there (Acts 8:40; Acts 9:30). In this we see the sovereignty of God. He has His own time and His own instruments for carrying out His work in every place.
The next verse says he feared God "with all his household" — older translations read "with all his house," the phrase this writer uses:
He feared God "with all his house." There are very few people of whom that can be said. "With all his house" would include his servants and children... This Gentile centurion, then, could not have been an unconverted man, for an unconverted man has no fear of God before his eyes. Cornelius, on the contrary, was a prayerful man, a man in whom the Spirit of God had worked, and had produced spiritual desires in his heart. He is a type of hundreds and thousands of Gentiles today. He was an awakened man — anxious, devout, prayerful, and God-fearing; but had you gone and asked him if his sins were forgiven, he would not have dared to say so.
A man can be a real work of God and still not know forgiveness. That is why Peter had to come:
He was already a converted man, though a Gentile. But he did not know the salvation proclaimed in the gospel. That is why Peter was to be sent for, as Peter himself afterwards explained (Acts 11:13-14)... The devout centurion was only entitled to know his sins forgiven on God's message of grace through the blood of Jesus.
Everything in Peter's background made him an unlikely choice — and the right one:
God entrusted the keys of the kingdom of the heavens to a home-born Jew, from the city of Bethsaida on the western shore of the Lake of Galilee. He had already used them to admit Jews into the kingdom on the day of Pentecost. Soon he would use them again, to admit Gentiles in the house of the centurion Cornelius at Caesarea. There seems a fitness in this... A home-born Jew was the fitting instrument to open the door of the kingdom to them. In doing so he acted against Jewish teaching, national feeling, and the habits of a lifetime (Acts 10:28). But the Holy Spirit guided what he did. No one could have suspected Peter of favouritism toward Gentiles.
- The door. God announced this opening long before. His servants were slow to use it. The delay ends here, and this verse names the man He starts with.
- The doorkeeper. God sends Peter, a Jew acting against the habits of a lifetime. No one could accuse him of favouring Gentiles.
- The doorstep. Caesarea was a Roman garrison town, and Philip and Saul had passed through it before. God chose the time and the messenger.
- The man at the door. A commander of a hundred men. His fear of God reached through his whole household, servants and children included.
- What he still lacked. He was devout, generous, praying — already a work of God. Yet he could not say God had forgiven his sins. That assurance comes only through the message of grace by the blood of Jesus.
pious, and fearing God with all his house, [both] giving much alms to the people, and supplicating God continually,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.