“God Raised Him Up”

“God Raised Him Up”
Acts 10:34-43
April 20, 2025

Every preacher, every week asks himself the same question, “what do you preach this week?”

• What do you preach to those who are suffering by walking through the valley of the shadow of death? (Six church members have had mothers die in the past 4-6 weeks.)
• What do you preach to those who are suffering physically — and they think they may be dying?
• What do you preach to young moms and dads who are struggling financially — and struggle to make wise financial decisions and provide for the family?
• What do you preach to teenage boys who are being tempted daily (hourly) with sexual allurements and with promises of a good life and easy life without problems and difficulties?
• What do you preach to an older person who answered the phone from an unknown number and gave her bank password to someone he didn’t know and lost hundreds of dollars (and he’s done it before) — and he is having trouble getting justice and sympathy from her bank? And he’s angry at himself?
• What do you preach to the sufferers, sinners, and sinned-against? Where is hope and encouragement?
• What do you preach on Easter Sunday when people have heard the story many times before and while an interesting story, it is an old and so familiar story it no longer seems compelling?

What you do is you preach the one truth, the one message, the one word of hope that will help.  And if you can’t find a way to say it in a compelling way, you preach someone else’s sermon — which is what I am going to do today.  But I’m not plagiarizing — I’m preaching Peter’s sermon in Acts 10. 

Let me give you the context:  a few days prior to this sermon, a Roman soldier named Cornelius who was “religious,” trying to honor God (10:2) received a vision from God in which he was told to send for a man named Simon.  And the next day, Simon (Peter) had a vision of animals that were declared unclean by Mosaic law and God declared them clean (3x).  And while he contemplated the meaning of that vision (v. 17), Cornelius’ men arrived and asked Peter to go with them to Cornelius in Caesarea.  When he arrived there two days later, Cornelius said he was ready to hear Peter’s message.  And vv. 34-43 are Peter’s answer.  In this sermon, Peter reveals the centrality of Christ and the simplicity of the message of Christ —

Christ is Lord.  Believe in Him and be forgiven and freed.

Cornelius is one of the most important stories in the book of Acts; it takes two chapters to tell the story and give the report (chs. 10-11).  Yet Peter’s sermon is a simple and concise explanation of the gospel.  Peter provides three characteristics of the message of Christ —

1. The Message of Christ is For All People (vv. 34-35)
2. The Message of Christ is… (vv. 36-41)
3. The Message of Christ is For Proclaiming (vv. 42-43)

Download the rest of this sermon on Acts 10:34-43.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.