And on the morrow, as these were journeying and drawing near to the city, Peter went up on the house to pray, about the sixth hour.
At midday Peter goes up on a roof in Joppa to pray, while messengers sent to fetch him come near the town. Two prayers run side by side here: a searching Gentile forty miles away, and an apostle who still thought God's blessing ran along Jewish lines.
One writer explains what the sixth hour meant to a Jew, and how close the messengers already were:
The messengers had nearly covered the thirty miles between the two towns. Peter, unaware of the special work waiting for him, had gone up to the roof of Simon's house to pray. It was about the sixth hour, the hour of noon. The third, the sixth and the ninth hours were hours of prayer with the Jews. Hungry, and while waiting for food to be prepared, he fell into a trance.
Here there is no temple and no set meeting place — only a roof. The setting had changed, but the man's dependence on God had not.
Peter still lived in that dependence on God which he had voiced when the seven were chosen for their service in Jerusalem... That is certainly what he was doing now, when God was giving him a special mission. He had withdrawn to be alone before Him. It was not a question of going to the temple as once, or even to a place of prayer. The housetop was enough; but it is well, when forms vanish, if the Spirit remains and grows stronger, as here.
One writer sets this hour beside an earlier night in Peter's life.
Peter went up to pray on the housetop, and he did pray. In the next chapter he says, "I was in the city of Joppa praying." It was the sixth hour, noonday — not the time people usually go up to pray. Once the Lord told Peter to watch and pray, and he did not, so he fell. Now we find him praying, and the Lord speaks to him in a vision.
God was at work at both ends of this story at the same time.
In this chapter you have Cornelius on the one hand, praying at Caesarea, and another man praying forty miles away, on the housetop. Both are being prepared by God for each other. He sends to the anxious man an angel and says, in effect, I know what you want, Cornelius; you will get what you want. And He says, by the vision, to Peter on the housetop, I want you to get rid of all your old Jewish ideas... So He prepares the servant before he meets the troubled Gentile to whom he is to carry the gospel news.
The delay was not on the seeker's side. God had to ready the messenger first, and He did it while Peter prayed.
There was more difficulty here, for he was still bound by his Jewish thoughts, and from these he had to be delivered. The hearers were ready, but the preacher had to be made ready to go. The record is that he "went up upon the housetop to pray," so he was in the right attitude to receive the necessary guidance. There was not only a praying seeker but a praying servant also. Hence remarkable results followed.
What he had not yet grasped is spelled out plainly: redemption was accomplished, the Spirit had come, and Peter himself had preached at Pentecost — yet the thought that people of other nations should share fully in Christian blessing had not dawned on him.
This same port had seen an earlier servant sent to other nations.
Two servants of the Lord, one a prophet and the other an apostle, went to that place. God entrusted both with a message to the Gentiles. The prophet of the Old Testament carried a warning of judgment. The apostle of the New carried a message of salvation, grace and peace through Jesus Christ. The prophet went to Joppa in disobedience to the will of God, but the apostle under the guidance of the Spirit. Their gracious Master had to train them both in His school for their service.
The messengers reach the gate just as the vision ends.
Now we see the servants of Cornelius arriving at the precise moment to fix the divine instructions in Peter's mind. The thing was of God, and Peter was irresistibly carried forward.
- Prayer — Peter went alone to God at noon, one of the Jewish hours of prayer. A roof served where the temple once did.
- Preparation — the seeker was ready first. God used this hour to ready the preacher, who still clung to his old Jewish thinking.
- Pairing — God was making two praying men ready for each other, forty miles apart, and neither of them knew it.
- Precision — the messengers arrived just as the vision closed. Peter could not mistake whose work this was.
- Pattern — one prophet fled Joppa rather than go to the nations. At the same port, God trained an apostle to go.
And he became hungry and desired to eat. But as they were making ready an ecstasy came upon him
Peter goes up on a flat roof at noon to pray. Hunger interrupts him, and while they prepare the food God gives him a vision that will change who hears the gospel.
The setting matters. Noon was one of the set hours of Jewish prayer, and what came over Peter matched something that happened to Paul.
The thirty-mile journey between the two towns was nearly over. Peter knew nothing of the special work ahead of him. He had gone up to the roof of Simon's house to pray. It was about the sixth hour, the hour of noon. The third, the sixth, and the ninth hours were hours of prayer with the Jews. He was hungry, and while he waited for food, he fell into a trance (or, an ecstasy came upon him). Paul was in a similar state at the temple (Acts 22:17) when the Lord appeared to him. The Spirit of God was now about to teach His servant the special service that lay before him.
The Greek word behind "trance" appears elsewhere in the Bible. Those other uses show what state Peter was in.
The word is ekstasis, 'ecstasy.' In it the mind is, as it were, carried beyond the body. It is translated 'astonishment' in Mark 5:42, and 'amazement' in Acts 3:10. It is translated 'trance' when Peter saw the sheet let down from heaven. It is 'trance' again when Paul in the temple saw the Lord and heard Him speak to him. Acts 10:10; Acts 11:5; Acts 22:17. The Greek Old Testament uses the same word for the deep sleep of Adam and of Abram. Gen. 2:21; Gen. 15:12.
One writer ties this state to the Lord's training of His servant.
It is interesting to see how the Lord prepares His servant in this chapter. He let him fall into a trance: he was not asleep; he was in a trance.
Hunger set the timing here. One writer traces what God did with Peter's appetite.
Though he became very hungry, God did not allow him to eat. While they were preparing a meal, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened, and a vessel like a great sheet, knotted at its four corners, let down from heaven to earth.
Peter was not the only one God was preparing. An anxious man named Cornelius was waiting elsewhere for an answer, and neither man knew about the other.
God is preparing both men for each other. He sends the anxious man an angel, and says, in effect, I know what you want, Cornelius; you will get what you want. And by the vision He says to Peter on the housetop: I want you to get rid of all your old Jewish ideas. You must have your old ideas and prejudices knocked out of your head, and you must go and do what I tell you.
One commentator notes where the greater difficulty lay. It was not with the hearers.
Next comes the account of God's preliminary dealings with Peter by means of a trance. There was more difficulty here. Peter was still bound by his Jewish thoughts, and God had to free him from them. The hearers were ready, but the preacher had to be made ready to go. The record is that he "went up on the housetop to pray," so he was in the right attitude to receive the necessary guidance. There was not only a praying seeker but a praying servant also.
Peter had already preached at Pentecost. Yet a whole dimension of God's purpose was still closed to him.
Peter is staying with Simon, a tanner, in Joppa. He does not yet know that God wants to use him to open up the kingdom of heaven to the "nations", that is, to believers from a non-Jewish background… The work of redemption was complete. The curtain of the temple had been torn. The Holy Spirit had come to dwell on the earth, and Peter himself had preached a great message on the day of Pentecost. But he had not yet seen that Gentiles would be invited too, that they would share fully in Christian blessing, and that they would belong to the church of God.
- Prayer first. Peter prayed at the sixth hour, noon, one of the set Jewish hours of prayer. Guidance came while he prayed.
- Hunger held. Peter was hungry and food was coming, but God did not let him eat. The vision came in that gap.
- Trance, not sleep. The word means an ecstasy: the mind carried beyond the body. Scripture uses the same word for Paul in the temple and for the deep sleep of Adam and Abram.
- Preacher prepared. The hearers were ready already. The preacher, still bound by his old thinking, was the one who needed preparing.
- Prejudice removed. Peter had preached at Pentecost, yet still had not grasped that people of every nation would share fully in Christian blessing. Here God began to show him.
and he beholds the heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending, as a great sheet, [bound] by [the] four corners [and] let down to the earth;
Peter went up on a housetop to pray, and while he prayed heaven opened above him. What came down was a sheet holding every kind of creature. The question it raises is whether God's mercy has any edge left.
Before Peter could go anywhere, God had to deal with Peter himself.
God first dealt with Peter through a trance. There was more difficulty here, for he was still bound by his Jewish thoughts, and God had to free him from them. The hearers were ready, but God had to make the preacher ready to go. He "went up on the housetop to pray," so he was in the right attitude to receive the guidance he needed. There was not only a praying seeker but a praying servant also.
Heaven does not open here to show a Person. It opens to lower something.
On the third occasion the heaven is not opened above nor for Christ. It opens to help Peter grasp the tremendous change that comes from the work of redemption accomplished on the cross… The curtain of the temple had been torn. The Holy Spirit had come to dwell on the earth. Peter himself had proclaimed a great message on the day of Pentecost. But he had not yet seen that Gentiles should be invited too, should fully share in Christian blessing, and be part of the church of God.
The law of Moses sorted animals as clean or unclean by their hooves and habits. The sheet sorts nothing.
How strange it must have seemed to a man taught from his earliest days in the principles of the Mosaic ritual! He saw a vessel coming down from heaven, and "in it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air." He did not only see the vessel, so filled; he also heard a voice saying, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." How wonderful. No examination of hooves or habits! There was no need of it. The vessel and its contents had come from heaven. That was enough… but the tide of divine grace was rising above all such fences, to take into its mighty compass "all kinds" of objects.
The four corners of the sheet carry their own meaning.
It was a great sheet "let down by its four corners", which gives us the thought of what is universal. The vessel coming down would show Peter that the gospel was to go out to everyone.
Mercy had reached outsiders before this. What is new is that it now has no edge.
The great sheet set out the worldwide scope of the grace of God today. In former times the river of God's mercy kept overflowing its banks. It overflowed to Rahab the Canaanite, Ruth the Moabitess, Naaman the Syrian, and a whole city full of Ninevites. But there are no banks for it to overflow in this day. It is like a shoreless ocean, flowing free to all mankind. It brings those whom it reaches to better blessing than Israel ever knew.
Peter did not learn this once. The lesson came three times over.
Peter receives a threefold testimony that God purifies the Gentiles by faith, instead of separating Israel by circumcision. The cross had changed everything, and put no difference between believers, Jew or Gentile… From the open heaven light streamed on the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. Grace declared that the uncleanness was gone — the uncleanness the law given at Sinai had condemned strictly for a time… A Jew until then could no more eat an unclean animal than he could eat with a sinner of the Gentiles.
Commentators differ on what the sheet pictures. Some take it as the church.
The vessel comes down from heaven and returns there again. It is the Church, heavenly in origin, and heavenly in destination. Those within it are alike those whom God has cleansed, and no one must call them common.
Another writer disagrees:
Some have imagined this to be the Church, but I do not believe that is the thought here. Peter was not the vessel through whom God was going to bring out the truth of the Church — that was given to Paul. I believe the vision taught Peter that the Cross had done away with all the barriers that once stood between Jew and Gentile.
The sheet does not stay on the ground. It goes back up, and that raises a question for the reader.
God takes it back again, and that is just what one would expect. Nothing goes into heaven except what comes out of it… There is nothing in either you or me that fits us for heaven… The contents of the vessel show us that there is no limit to the grace of God. His grace meets and saves the most unlikely, and those who seem the least suited.
- Prepared — the hearer was ready before the preacher was. God freed Peter from his own thinking on a rooftop, then sent him.
- Opened — heaven opens here not to show Christ, but to lower a lesson Peter had not yet grasped.
- Unsorted — no hooves examined, no habits checked. The vessel came from heaven, and that settled it.
- Unbanked — mercy once overflowed to a Rahab or a Naaman; now it runs like an ocean with no shore.
- Returned — the sheet goes back up. Only what comes from heaven goes there, so grace cleanses the unlikely and carries them home.
in which were all the quadrupeds and creeping things of the earth, and the fowls of the heaven.
Peter is praying on a rooftop, hungry, when he sees a sheet let down from an open heaven. The point is what is inside it: creatures of every kind, clean and unclean together. Why would God fill that vessel with animals a Jew was forbidden to touch?
The shock is the mixture. Clean and unclean lie there together, so Peter cannot pick his way around the problem.
The great sheet which Peter saw descended out of an opened heaven. It embraced within its folds all kinds of creatures, both clean and unclean. It was received up into heaven. Peter was told to satisfy his hunger by eating, and he might have done this by selecting a clean animal for his food. Yet they were all jumbled up together, so he declined. He was told, however, that God could cleanse the unclean. In fact He had done so, and what He had cleansed Peter was not to call common. This happened three times, so that its meaning might sink into Peter's mind.
Peter had always read Leviticus 11, the chapter of clean and unclean animals, as a rule about food. In the vision God shows him it is about people.
Up to that time he seems to have taken this eleventh chapter of Leviticus, and scriptures like it, only literally... But now, under the direct teaching of God, he finds that these beasts, birds and creeping things stand for men who are completely unclean in themselves. Yet by divine grace the precious blood of Jesus can cleanse them.
One writer sorts these creatures into three kinds of people: the refined, the despised and the rebellious.
Domesticated animals would speak of the classes of men who are cultured and refined. Creeping things would speak of the more despised classes, in lowly and humbled places. The beasts of the earth remind us of men in their wild, rebellious state. This third class is even more common than the others.
Under the law, a Jew judged an animal by its hoof and its habits. The vessel came from heaven, and that alone settled the question of what was in it.
How wonderful. No examination of hoofs or habits! There was no need of this. The vessel and its contents had come from heaven. This was enough... It did not matter what was in the vessel, if God had cleansed it. The Author of the Book of Leviticus was about to lift the thoughts of His servant above the barriers that book had put up. He was raising them into all the magnificence of heaven's grace.
Why could the old distinction go? The answer is what happened at the cross.
The cross had changed everything, and put no difference between believers, Jew or Gentile... It was no longer a question of the law, or of becoming a convert to the Jewish religion, or even of holding on to the edge of a Jew's robe. From the open heaven, light streamed down on the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. Grace declared that the uncleanness was gone — the uncleanness that the law given at Sinai had condemned so strictly for a time.
The sheet came down from heaven and went back up again. Another writer asks what the sheet full of creatures means.
What is the meaning of that? Nothing goes into heaven but what comes out of it. How am I to get there? That is a serious question. If there is no work of God in my soul and yours, let us not dream of heaven.
Commentators differ here. Some read the sheet as a picture of the church, gathering Jew and Gentile into one.
The vessel is a picture of the church. The four corners represent the four corners of the earth. The clean animals it contained are the Jews; the unclean, the Gentiles. But all in that vessel are cleansed... Believing Jews and Gentiles are redeemed by blood, saved by grace, washed and sanctified. God's purpose is to put them all into one body.
Others hold that the church was not Peter's subject at all.
Some have imagined this to be the church, but I do not believe that is the thought here. Peter was not the vessel through whom God was going to bring out the truth of the church — that was given to Paul. I believe the vision taught Peter that the cross had done away with all the barriers that had once stood between Jew and Gentile.
- From heaven — The vessel and its contents come down out of an opened heaven. That origin settles everything. No one examines hoofs or habits.
- All kinds — Clean and unclean lie jumbled together on purpose. Peter cannot pick and choose; he must face the whole question.
- Not food, but people — The beasts, creeping things and birds stand for men who are unclean in themselves. The blood of Jesus can cleanse them.
- The cross — The change rests on what Christ did at the cross. Grace declares the old uncleanness gone, and puts no difference between believing Jew and Gentile.
- Taken up again — What came out of heaven goes back to heaven, cleansed. The test for every soul is whether God has done that work in it.
And there was a voice to him, Rise, Peter, slay and eat.
Peter is praying on a rooftop in Joppa at midday, and he is hungry. Heaven opens, and a sheet comes down full of every kind of creature. Then a voice tells him to kill and eat. For a man raised on Leviticus 11, the order was unthinkable, and the rest of the chapter turns on what he does with it.
The setting is ordinary. It is the usual hour of prayer, Peter is hungry, and food is cooking downstairs. Then he sees clean and unclean animals side by side in one sheet.
It was about the sixth hour, the hour of noon. The third, the sixth, and the ninth hours were hours of prayer with the Jews. He was hungry, and while he waited for food, he fell into a trance... Peter saw what looked like a sheet let down from heaven by its four corners. It held all kinds of four-footed animals, creeping things, and birds of the air. To him these were clean and unclean beasts, all mixed together. A strange sight for one brought up in the strict rules of Judaism!
The law gave Israel a test for sorting clean animals from unclean. The voice skipped the test and rested everything on where the sheet came from.
How strange it must have seemed to a man taught the principles of the law of Moses from his earliest days... to hear a voice saying, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." How wonderful. No examination of hoofs or habits! There was no need of this. The vessel and its contents had come from heaven. This was enough... God would teach him that true cleanness — the cleanness heaven demanded — no longer meant chewing the cud, dividing the hoof, or any such ceremonial marks. It meant being washed in the blood of the Lamb, which cleanses from all sin.
The lesson was not about food. Peter had read Leviticus 11 as a list of animals. God now showed him what it pictured.
It seems that up to then he had read this eleventh chapter of Leviticus, and scriptures like it, in a literal way only... But now God teaches him directly. He finds that these beasts, birds, and creeping things stand for people who are completely unclean in themselves. Yet by divine grace they can be cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus.
The sheet came down from heaven and went back up again. That whole journey — down, filled, and up — carries the meaning.
The great sheet which Peter saw came down out of an opened heaven. It held within its folds all kinds of creatures, both clean and unclean. Heaven received it back again... We can see in the vision a fitting picture of the gospel. It comes from an opened heaven. It gathers a crowd into its folds, and among them are many Gentiles who were unclean under the ceremonial law. But grace cleanses all of them, and in the end they are taken up into heaven.
Peter answers a direct command from heaven with a flat refusal. So where did the wide grace of the gospel come from?
Even at this hour Peter had no thought of what the voice commanded from heaven, and he dared to object to it in the vision. The free grace that marks the gospel owed nothing to the hearts or minds of its most blessed preachers. God's word proves beyond doubt that what matters to us more than anything else, for time and eternity, came from God alone.
The command had a basis. The same writer points back to the cross, and to what the blood of Jesus settled.
The cross had changed everything. It put no difference between believers, Jew or Gentile... Light streamed from the open heaven on the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. Grace declared that the uncleanness was gone which the law given at Sinai had condemned so strictly for a time... The Saviour speaks from heaven, where a distinction like Jew and Gentile has no place... Until now a Jew could no more eat an unclean animal than he could eat with a sinner of the Gentiles.
- Heaven speaks first. The sheet came down from an opened heaven, so no test of hoofs or habits was needed — its source settled the question.
- A new test. Clean no longer meant split hoofs or chewing the cud. It meant being washed in the blood of the Lamb.
- People, not food. The creatures stood for people — Gentiles counted unclean — gathered in and cleansed by grace.
- The cross is the reason. It put no difference between believers, Jew or Gentile. It ended the separation the law had enforced.
- Grace was God's idea. Peter objected to the very command he would soon obey. The reach of the gospel came from God, not from the men who preached it.
And Peter said, In no wise, Lord; for I have never eaten anything common or unclean.
Peter is praying on a rooftop when a voice from heaven tells him to kill and eat, and the man who calls the speaker "Lord" flatly refuses. His refusal comes from a lifetime under the law — so what happens when God moves on and our training does not?
The two words Peter uses carry a double weight in the New Testament, covering both food and people.
It may mean 'unclean' in reference to animals forbidden by the law as food, or to Gentiles in contrast with Jews, Acts 10:14, 28; they were not sanctified.
God had to prepare Peter for this. His "no" came from loyalty to the law he had kept all his life, not from rebellion.
God prepares Peter's heart for a mission he was, until then, in no way ready for. But God wanted the Gentiles… Peter fell into a trance and saw what looked like a great sheet let down from heaven to earth, full of all kinds of four-footed animals… and birds of the air, which it was not lawful for the Jews to eat. A voice said, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." Peter, faithful to Judaism, refuses; he had never eaten anything common or unclean.
The sheet was not really about food. It announced that the cross had ended the separation the law had built.
Peter receives a threefold testimony that God purifies the Gentiles by faith, instead of separating Israel by circumcision. The cross had changed everything. It put no difference between believers, Jew or Gentile… Until then a Jew could no more eat an unclean animal than he could eat with a sinner of the Gentiles. But the sheet came down from heaven and went back up there. In time it taught Peter the immense change that hinges on the cross.
The law judged an animal by its hoof and its habits. The vision leaves one question: has God cleansed it?
Peter had learned the principles of the law of Moses from his earliest days. How strange it must have looked to him to see a vessel coming down from heaven, and to hear a voice saying, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." How wonderful. No examination of hoofs or habits! There was no need of this. The vessel and its contents had come from heaven. This was enough… It did not matter what was in the vessel, if God had cleansed it… He would teach His servant that true cleanness — the cleanness heaven demanded — no longer meant chewing the cud or dividing the hoof, but being washed in the blood of the Lamb, which cleanses from all sin.
Peter's objection settles one thing: grace reaching the nations was not a human idea. Its leading preacher argued against it.
Even the least attentive reader of the inspired story can see how far the saints, or even the apostles, saw the grace of the gospel in advance. Up to this hour Peter had no thought of what the voice commanded from heaven. In the vision he dared to object to it. The gospel in its free grace owed so little to the hearts or minds of its most blessed preachers.
The vision came three times, and the repetition itself is part of the message.
The answer came: "What God has made clean, do not call common." To make it all the more emphatic, this happened three times, and then the vessel went back up into heaven. So the Lord was patient with His servant's conscience and taught him about the new work of grace now in hand. Distinctions of birth were to hold no longer. God would bring uncircumcised Gentiles in and bless them on common ground with the believing Israelite.
Peter obeyed this vision. Later he still failed to live by what he had been taught.
We may do certain things because of pressure, but this is always wrong… The Lord showed Peter the vision in Acts 10. The Lord Himself taught him that what God had sanctified he should not call unholy. Peter preached in the house of Cornelius. Even after all that, he failed in this respect. Can such a well taught man fail about this truth? Yes, that can happen. It can happen to the best one, and so it can happen to me and to you.
- Command. A voice from an open heaven tells a hungry Peter to kill and eat — food the law of Moses had always forbidden him.
- Refusal. His "no" is the loyalty of a man faithful to Judaism, who had never once eaten anything common or unclean.
- Cleansing. The old test of hoofs and habits is gone. One question is left: has God cleansed it?
- Reach. The cross put no difference between believers, Jew or Gentile. No one may call a person unclean whom God has purified.
- Holding it. Peter argued with the Lord before he learned this, and failed to live by it later. A well taught believer can still slip on truth he already knows.
And [there was] a voice again the second time to him, What God has cleansed, do not *thou* make common.
Peter is praying on a rooftop in Joppa when he sees a sheet full of creatures his Bible had told him never to touch. A voice tells him to eat, he refuses, and the reply settles who decides what is clean.
The old test asked what an animal was. The new word asks what God has done with it. One writer sees grace rising over every fence the ritual had built:
The Jew might shelter behind the narrow fences of the Jewish ritual and say, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." But the tide of divine grace was rising in majesty above all such fences. It gathered "all kinds" of objects into its mighty sweep and carried them up to heaven, on the authority of those precious words, "What God has made clean, do not call common." It made no difference what was in the vessel, if God had cleansed it.
Peter refused the command outright. The word of this verse came back to him as a rebuke, and he needed it more than once:
He had gone unwillingly at first — he had even dared, so to speak, to argue with the Lord in the vision of the great sheet… But again and again he received the rebuke, "What God has made clean, do not call common"; and at last he profited by the lesson.
Peter had read the rules about clean and unclean animals at face value. God taught him to read them differently:
Up to that time he seems to have taken this eleventh chapter of Leviticus, and scriptures like it, only literally… But now God teaches him directly. He finds that these beasts, birds and creeping things stand for men utterly unclean in themselves, yet whom divine grace can cleanse by the precious blood of Jesus.
The change rests on the cross, and the voice comes from an opened heaven:
The cross had changed everything, and put no difference between believers, Jew or Gentile… Light streamed from the open heaven on the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. Grace declared that the uncleanness Sinai had strictly condemned for a time was gone.
Commentators differ over what the sheet itself represents. One reads it as a picture of the gospel's whole course — where it starts, whom it gathers, where it ends:
The great sheet which Peter saw came down out of an opened heaven. It held within its folds all kinds of creatures, both clean and unclean. It was taken up into heaven… We can see in the vision a fitting picture of the gospel. It comes from an opened heaven. It gathers into its folds a crowd, and among them are many Gentiles who were counted unclean under the law. But grace cleanses all of them, and in the end they are taken up to heaven.
Another rejects the idea that the sheet stands for the church, and keeps the focus on the lesson Peter needed:
Some have imagined this to be the Church, but I do not believe that is the thought here… I believe God gave the vision to teach Peter one lesson. The Cross had done away with every barrier that once stood between Jew and Gentile. The grace of God was going out to each alike, and the same cleansing power was to bring both into blessing.
The voice came three times, and that was patience with a hesitating servant:
The answer came: "What God has made clean, do not call common." To press it home, this happened three times, and the vessel was taken up again into heaven. So the Lord in His grace bore with His servant's scruples and taught him about the new work of grace now in hand. Distinctions of birth were to hold no longer. Uncircumcised Gentiles were to come in, blessed on the same ground as the believing Israelite.
The lesson stayed with Peter and shaped how he treated Gentile believers:
He remembered the Lord's words at Joppa : "What God has made clean, do not call common." With thanks he recognised these uncircumcised men as brothers in Christ. He not only had open fellowship with them in the assembly. In everyday life too, he ate with the Gentiles.
- Cleansed by God. The question is never what was in the sheet, but whether God had cleansed it.
- Cleansed by blood. The creatures stood for people unclean in themselves. The blood of Jesus makes them clean.
- Cleansed at the cross. At the cross God made no difference between believers, Jew or Gentile.
- Cleansed, though he argued. Peter said no. The word came three times before he learned it.
- Cleansed, therefore welcomed. Peter remembered Joppa and ate with Gentile believers as brothers.
And this took place thrice, and the vessel was straightway taken up into heaven.
Peter sees a sheet let down from heaven, full of every kind of creature, and a voice tells him to eat. He says no, so the scene runs three times before the sheet goes back up — and this verse turns on those two facts: the three repeats, and the return.
Saying it three times made it emphatic, and it left room for God's patience with a servant who kept objecting:
The answer came, "What God has made clean, do not call common." To make it all the more emphatic, this was done three times, and "the thing was taken up at once to heaven." So the Lord graciously bore with His servant's objections and taught him about the new work of grace now in hand. Distinctions of the flesh were to hold no longer. Uncircumcised Gentiles were to be brought in and blessed on the same ground as the believing Israelite.
The message went beyond food. It touched who could be counted clean before God:
Peter receives a threefold testimony that God is purifying the Gentiles by faith, instead of separating Israel by circumcision. The cross had changed everything, and put no difference between believers, Jew or Gentile. The Jew had lost his old superiority according to the flesh. Both were now open alike to incomparably better blessings in Christ by faith… A Jew until then could no more eat an unclean animal than he could eat with a Gentile sinner. But the sheet, which came down from heaven and was taken up there, taught Peter in due time the immense change that hinges on the cross.
The sheet does not vanish. It goes back where it came from, still holding its contents — a round trip some read as a picture of the gospel itself:
This happened three times so that the significance of it might sink into Peter's mind. We can see in the vision a fitting picture of the gospel. It comes from an opened heaven. It gathers a crowd into its folds, and among them are many Gentiles who were ceremonially unclean — but all of them cleansed by grace, and taken up into heaven at the end.
Commentators differ on how far to press this. Some see the church in the vessel that comes down and goes up. Others reject that reading:
Some have imagined this to be the Church, but I do not believe that is the thought here. Peter was not the vessel through whom God was going to bring out the truth of the Church — that was given to Paul. I believe the vision was given to teach Peter one lesson. The Cross had done away with all the barriers that previously existed between Jew and Gentile, and the grace of God was going out to each alike.
Peter objected to the very message he would soon preach. That fact tells us where the gospel came from:
Even up to this hour Peter had no thought of what the voice commanded from heaven, and in the vision he dared to object to it. The free grace at the heart of the gospel owed so little to the hearts or minds of its most blessed preachers. The word of God proves beyond dispute that what matters to us more than anything else, for time and for eternity, came from God alone.
The vision also closed an era, and with it the rules about food:
This was done three times to emphasise its importance (Acts 10:9-16). The age of law was over. Its regulations must not be carried into Christianity. The cross had broken down the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles. With it, of course, the rules about avoiding certain foods were done away (Eph. 2:14-15).
- Three times. God says it three times so it sinks in. He bore with His servant's objections until the lesson held.
- Cleansed. God is purifying Gentiles by faith, not separating Israel by circumcision. The cross put no difference between believers.
- Taken up. The sheet goes back to heaven with all it holds. Some read this as a picture of the gospel: heavenly in source, wide in reach, heavenly in the end.
- Law closed. The age of law was over. Its food rules must not be carried into Christian living, since the cross broke down the wall between Jew and Gentile.
- Not Peter's idea. Peter objected to the message before he preached it. Free grace came from God alone, not from the minds of those who announced it.
And as Peter doubted in himself what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold also the men who were sent by Cornelius, having sought out the house of Simon, stood at the gate,
Peter is in Joppa, turning over a vision he cannot explain. While he thinks, messengers from a Roman officer are already standing at the gate below. The verse holds two halves of one act of God that have not yet met. It shows how God guides a servant who is still in the dark.
The vision had ended, yet its meaning still escaped Peter. One commentator points to old habits of thought as the cause, and shows what finally cleared it up.
At first Peter doubted what all this meant, because old prejudices die slowly. But while he kept thinking it over, the messengers from Cornelius arrived and cleared it up. The Spirit told him plainly to go with them and so carry the Gospel to the seeking Roman. God would save the "unclean" Gentile.
Peter could not read the vision while he was staring at it. One writer explains what it was teaching, and who God chose to carry it out.
But Peter could not interpret the vision. While he was wondering what it meant, the men sent from Cornelius stood before the gate… I believe Peter now begins to get some idea of what the Lord means by the vision. It was to teach him that with God there was from now on to be no distinction between Jew and Gentile. Peter had been a good Jew up till this time… and Peter was the man God chose to begin this work and to call in the Gentiles, even though Paul was clearly the Apostle to the Gentiles.
Harder thinking did not solve Peter's puzzle. An invitation from a Gentile did, and the Spirit then made the way plain.
Under God, the great apostle Peter owed the answer to his vision to a Gentile's invitation. But the Spirit is the agent of all blessing, understanding, and power in the believer, and so His place stands out here (verses 19, 20). It must be a divine impulse, not a conclusion worked out by reasoning. For us and for all, this is a lesson of priceless value.
The messengers arrive neither early nor late. They reach the gate just as the vision ends, while Peter is still weighing it. One writer sets this beside an earlier moment in Acts, when Philip met the chariot of an Ethiopian traveller.
In Acts 8 we saw how exactly God timed Philip's meeting with the Ethiopian's chariot. Now we see the servants of Cornelius arriving at the precise moment to settle God's instructions in Peter's mind. The whole thing was of God, and it carried Peter forward with a force he could not resist.
Nothing in the world of that day made such a meeting likely. Someone else had to arrange it.
But for this to happen, Peter and Cornelius must meet, and Peter must bring Cornelius the Gospel. A Jew and a Gentile to meet! Who could arrange that? Who could persuade Peter to agree to it? God must do it.
God gave each man his own vision, and witnesses stood on both sides. Neither man could claim he had arranged the meeting.
But it mattered above all that man's will should be shut out, and man's wisdom with it. What could do this better than the vision of Cornelius on one side and the vision of Peter on the other? The character of each man gave special weight to what they saw and heard. The "three men" from Caesarea and the "six brothers" who came with Peter from Joppa confirmed that the two visions agreed, and that agreement carried great weight and a clear meaning. God used men a great deal, since they were the ones most deeply concerned, but in such a way that every honest mind can see that God was the driving force in it all.
- Puzzled. Old prejudice dies slowly, so the vision alone left Peter in doubt.
- Providence. The messengers reach the gate at the exact moment needed, as Philip once met the Ethiopian's chariot. God's timing settled the matter in Peter's mind.
- Prompting. The answer came by divine impulse, not by reasoning it out. The Spirit moved Peter forward.
- Purpose. The vision taught that God now makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile. Peter was the man chosen to open that door.
- Proof. Two visions, three messengers, six witnesses left no room for man's will or man's wisdom. God alone was the driving force.
and having called [some one], they inquired if Simon who was surnamed Peter was lodged there.
Three men from Caesarea stand outside a house by the sea and call out for a man they have never met. They ask for Simon, called Peter — and at that very moment Peter is inside the house, puzzling over a vision he cannot explain.
The call at the gate came while the vision was still fresh. One commentator counts the separate strands of that day, each one standing on its own:
Peter also told them how the three men from Cornelius, a Gentile, stood in person before the house in Joppa at that very moment. He told them how the Spirit said to go with them without asking a question. Such a threefold cord could not be broken, each part was independent of the other, and all of them from God. For Cornelius in Caesarea had a vision no less than Peter in Joppa. But Peter had more than that. While he was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit directed him to go with the messengers of Cornelius. This was before he knew that the three men were asking for him at the gate.
The men had a name, a host, and a house by the sea. They found all three without trouble. One writer sets this beside the way Ananias found Saul:
Peter's address at this time was the house of a Christian, Simon the tanner, by the seaside. Ananias had no difficulty in finding Saul. The messengers of Cornelius found the house and the man they were sent to just as easily. The Shepherd knows the sheep. The Holy Spirit can point out the place and the house where they will be found. Some may be strangers to the people right around them on earth. If saints, they are, however, under the watchful eye of One in heaven — a comfort for any in such a position on earth.
An angel had already spoken to Cornelius. The angel could have told him everything and saved the journey. Instead Cornelius had to send for a man:
The angel, you notice, did not cut a long story short by telling the message to Cornelius himself. Only a man who has himself received grace can tell the message of grace rightly. So Peter must be called.
The men ask for Simon called Peter at the house of another Simon, a tanner. One writer notes how the Jews viewed that trade: "Tanning as a trade was considered unclean by the Jews" (Arno Clemens Gaebelein). Another writer sees the Lord going ahead of the messengers to that address:
The Lord goes ahead of the messengers from Caesarea to the house of Simon the tanner by the seaside. That house is the lowly birthplace of a wide and far-reaching movement in His ways with men.
Peter did not hear the men's question first. Before their voices reached him, the Spirit had already told him they were there and what to do:
Understandably Peter was in doubt, wondering why the vision was given. But he had not long to wait for an answer, for the men sent from Cornelius were at the gate asking for him. He does not go because they ask, however, but at the direction of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit tells him about the three men looking for him. The Spirit tells him to go with them without personal reservations, for God had sent them.
So no one could later claim credit for the door that opened:
So it was made plain, beyond doubt, that it was God who opened the door to the nations just as to the Jews — not man, not the church, not even the apostles. That is how the gospel itself worked and was preached. But even the believer is slow to grasp the full meaning of what he has really received. He depends entirely on God's word and Spirit to give him growth and progress.
- God prepares. The Lord goes ahead of the messengers. Peter learns from the vision while the men who need him are still on the road.
- God times. The call at the gate comes at the moment Peter is puzzling. Vision, messengers and the Spirit's word make one threefold cord.
- God knows. A name, a host, a house by the sea. The messengers find their man as easily as Ananias found Saul. The Shepherd knows His sheep.
- God sends men. An angel could have said it all. But only a man who has received grace can tell of grace — so they ask for Simon.
- God opens. Peter moves at the Spirit's word, not at a stranger's knock. God opened the door to the nations, not man.
But as Peter continued pondering over the vision, the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men seek thee;
Peter is turning over a vision he cannot yet explain. Three messengers stand at the gate below, and into that unfinished thought the Spirit speaks.
One writer explains the value of going back over what we have heard, and where that shows up in Peter's life.
It is often a valuable thing to go over again in our minds the Scriptures we have recently read, the substance of a talk we have heard, or some experience we have been through. That way we make sure we have taken in its special message. We do not often think of Peter as a man given to reflection. Yet twice we find him doing so at critical moments in his life. "And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him ... And he broke down and wept" (Mark 14:72).
The second time is here, with the vision. (Older translations of Mark 14:72 read "when he thought about it, he wept.")
This word does not come to Peter through an angel, and one writer shows why that matters.
Notice "the Spirit said" — it is not an angel who speaks. When it is a question of dealing with the soul, and carrying the truth to the soul, the Spirit speaks. The Holy Spirit whispers to Peter, and what does He say? "Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them" (vv. 19, 20).
The Spirit does not report what God has arranged. He claims it as His own work, and one writer says this settles who the Spirit is.
What a clear message to Peter, when the Spirit followed up his vision by applying it! Nothing could be plainer than the divine authority with which the Spirit speaks and acts, here as elsewhere — "I have sent them": He is God.
Peter could have reasoned it out: a vision he could not explain, three men at the gate, therefore go. One writer says the Spirit's leading does not work like that.
But the Spirit is the agent of all blessing, intelligence, and power in the believer. So His place here stands out (vv. 19, 20). It must be a divine impulse, and not a mere deduction of reasoning: for all of us this is a lesson of great value. At first, visible signs and extraordinary power announced His presence and showed the new truth of His action in man. But the reality remains, and He remains with us for ever. In divine wisdom, those outward signs are no longer given.
Peter was praying when the word came. One writer shows how reasoning can stall obedience.
Peter was not serving as Philip was, but praying, and that was a good condition to be in for the Spirit's voice to be heard. The Spirit said, "Go, do not doubt." How often we find a matter put before us, and our minds start to think and reason. Before we know where we are, we have a thousand reasons not to do the thing pressed upon us... He sent the three men and then He awakened Peter. The whole thing was timed together. They went down to the house of Cornelius, and there was great blessing for the Gentiles.
The Spirit's word reached Peter before the men ever asked him. As another writer puts it, he goes "not in response to their asking, however, but by the direction of the Holy Spirit" (Leslie M. Grant).
Only now does the meaning of the vision begin to open to Peter.
God does not send an angel — a servant — to call Peter and tell him about the messengers standing at the gate... How beautiful this is. I believe Peter now begins to get a hint of what the Lord means by the vision. It was to teach him that with God there was from now on to be no distinction between Jew and Gentile. Under the law, God had forbidden the Jew to mix with the Gentile. Now the Lord taught Peter that that day had gone by — that what God had cleansed, he was not to call common.
Kelly adds that God gave two visions, one to Cornelius and one to Peter. This was designed so that "man's will should be excluded as well as man's wisdom." Every honest mind could then see "that God was the moving spring in it all" (William Kelly).
- Ponder — Peter is caught thinking. Twice in his life a turning point came while he went back over something the Lord had said.
- Spirit — the voice that breaks into that thought is not an angel's but the Spirit's. He speaks when truth has to reach a soul.
- Sent — "I have sent them" is the language of divine authority. The Spirit claims the errand as His own.
- Impulse — guidance here is a divine impulse, not a conclusion reached by reasoning. The outward signs have ceased, but the Spirit Himself remains.
- Open — one man obeyed mid-thought, and the door opened. With God there is now no distinction between Jew and Gentile.
but rise up, go down, and go with them, nothing doubting, because *I* have sent them.
Peter is in a house in Joppa, turning over a vision he cannot explain. Three men sent by Cornelius, a Gentile, stand at the gate below. Then the Spirit speaks. He gives a command and a reason: "I have sent them." That reason settles who opened the door to the nations.
Notice who speaks to Peter here.
He does not learn this lesson at once. He was puzzled about what the vision he had seen could mean (v. 17). But while Peter was thinking about the vision, the Spirit told him that three men were looking for him. Notice that it is the Spirit who speaks, not an angel. When it is a question of dealing with the soul, and carrying the truth to the soul, the Spirit speaks. The Holy Spirit whispers to Peter.
Peter never worked the answer out for himself.
But the Spirit is the agent of all blessing, intelligence, and power in the believer; so this passage puts His place in full view (vv. 19, 20). It must be a divine impulse, not a conclusion drawn by reasoning. For us and for all, this is a lesson of priceless value. At first, no doubt, visible signs and extraordinary power announced His presence and showed the new truth of His work in man. But the reality remains, and He remains with us for ever. In His wisdom, God no longer gives those outward signs.
Two calls reach Peter at the same moment — one from the men at the gate, one from above.
He does not go because they ask him, however. He goes at the direction of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit tells him about the three men looking for him, and tells him to go with them with no reservations of his own, because God had sent them.
One hand set both ends of the errand moving. That is the help for anyone who hesitates over a clear duty.
Peter was not serving as Philip was, but praying, and that was a good state to be in to hear the Spirit's voice. The Spirit said, "Go, do not doubt." How often a duty comes before us, and our mind starts to think and reason. Before we know where we are, we have a thousand reasons not to do the thing pressed upon us. The Spirit said to Peter, "Do not doubt, you go. I have sent the three men." He sent the three men and then He awakened Peter. The whole thing was synchronised.
Peter later had to account for what he did, and he told this story. Three separate strands ran together in it.
Peter told them also how the three men from the Gentile Cornelius stood in person before the house in Joppa at that very moment. He told them how the Spirit told him to go with them without a question. Such a threefold cord could not be broken; each part was independent of the other, and all of them from God... But Peter had something more. While he was thinking about the vision, the Spirit directed him to go with the messengers of Cornelius. That was before he knew that the three men were asking for him at the gate.
The Spirit gave the order. That settles who takes the credit for what followed.
This made it plain, beyond doubt, that God opened the door to the nations as fully as to the Jews. It was not man, not the church, not even the apostles.
The command also began to open up the vision to Peter himself.
I believe Peter now begins to get an inkling of what the Lord means by the vision. It was to teach him that from now on there was to be no distinction with God between Jew and Gentile. Peter had been a good Jew up till this time. But the special thought of the Church is this: "there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:11).
- Sent — the reason behind the command is "I have sent them." Peter goes at the Spirit's direction, not because the men below asked him.
- Spoken — no angel brings this word. The Spirit Himself speaks to Peter, because carrying truth to a soul is His work.
- Synchronised — one hand sent the messengers and woke Peter, so the two ends of the errand met.
- Settled — the order is a divine impulse, not a conclusion Peter reasoned out. The outward signs have gone, but the Spirit remains with us for ever.
- Sealed — vision, messengers and the Spirit's word form a cord no one can break. God opened the door to the nations, not man and not the church.