lectionary.com

Easter Season · Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord · Year A

Acts 10:34a, 37-43

Peter at Cornelius’ House

St Peter and Cornelius the Centurion, Bernardo Cavallino
St Peter and Cornelius the Centurion, Bernardo Cavallino, 1640sGalleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome
Peter arrives at the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius, who has gathered his relatives and soldiers; the crowd presses in at the doorway to hear him.Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him … God raised him on the third day.”Bernardo CavallinoA Neapolitan painter of small, intimate, dramatic biblical scenes, who died young in the plague of 1656.Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, RomeThe Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in Rome.Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome

Overview & Insights

“God raised him on the third day and made him to appear… to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” (Acts 10:40-41)

10:23b–29 The setting for the third scene of this story is again Caesarea. The journey to the capital seems to have taken the best part of two days (v. 30), probably because the Christians were not mounted. Peter took with him six companions—Jewish Christians like himself (v. 45, lit., “men of the circumcision”; see disc. on 11:2)—who, according to a variant reading of 11:11, had been staying with him in Simon’s house. Their road lay along the coast, and since Apollonia was situated about halfway between Joppa and Caesarea, they very likely stayed there overnight. They arrived in Caesarea about midafternoon the next day (v. 30). Meanwhile, so certain was Cornelius that Peter would come, and knowing approximately how long it would take him, he was ready and waiting for him with his relatives and close friends (v. 24). Presumably he had told them also “everything that had happened” (v.

From Sermons.com: Join Today to access the most scholarly & well written preaching resources anywhere.

Take it further: Acts 10:34a, 37-43

Commentary

Background & Word Study

The Church Fathers

Prep at sermons.com

Ready to write?

  • Full sermons on John 20:1-9 or Matthew 28:1-10
  • Illustrations cleared for use in worship
  • Commentary, quotes, and Bible dictionary
Open it at sermons.com →

Trusted by pastors since 1995.

Free every Tuesday

Illustrations & Sermon Prep in your inbox

The coming Sunday’s readings, a cleared-for-use illustration, and a sermon-prep head start. One email, free.