NOTES for Act 10:1-48

The law about impurity was all but foundational in the practice of first-century Jews. Nothing was more serious than violating kashrut: to be defiled meant being barred from the Temple and excluded from the fellowship of the people of God. It is no surprise that Peter so sharply objects in his dream to the impiety proposed to him.

But why does God Himself do something contrary to His own law? If God's guidance were limited only to His law, then a person would only need to know that law, and no further relationship would be needed. But God, whose name is love, seeks precisely a personal relationship with us, and our behavior must then flow from that relationship. Therefore God does something new, thereby opening for His Church new ways of fulfilling His will. In this way the Church receives the possibility of beginning its witness to Christ among the Gentiles, with whom the law had forbidden association.

To what relate the words of God, addressed to Peter? Some interpret them, as the abolition of all the standards and the limitations of the cacherout for the Christians, others (and the context confirms such an understanding) as the right of the heathen entering the Church to remain who they are, without accepting the Judaism with its complex system of norms and rules of the ritual purity. But what really mean the words of God, Who cleansed those who were formerly unclean? The notions of purity and impurity are indeed connected not with the cacherout and not with the rules of the purity ritual as such, they are connected to the fundamental peculiarities of the created and moreover fallen world.

Particularly the fundamental characteristics of the universe in its present state assume the division of the whole creation in the clean and unclean. Besides “unclean” do not mean bad or deficient, it means only what is not intended by God for the sanctification in this stage of the world history. The unclean has the full right to exist in God's world, he does not only have the right to approach the altar. And the quality of every thing in the created world is very clearly defined; the exception is only of man, who can be clean, quite as unclean before God.

Probably, before the fall everything was otherwise, hardly the man was conceived by God, as a being not being liable to the sanctification, but the fall changed fundamentally the situation, such that now man could completely be in such state, which excludes any possibility of sanctification. But with the coming of Christ, the situation radically changed: because with Him, entered the world the Kingdom where everything is sanctified by definition. In relation to the Kingdom and its inhabitants the question of cleanness and uncleanness loses simply its sense: There can’t be anything unclean in the Kingdom. This is applied to food and people. The second is more important of course: because with such, the way to the Kingdom really opens to everyone.

Before, the question of the observation of the ritual purity was a question of the membership in the people of God, because it felt people-community, sanctified, and thus free of all that prevents the sanctification. Now every person entering the Kingdom was cleansed by the very contact with Him, and thus, and with this breath of God, by which it {the Kingdom} is penetrated. So with the coming into the world of Christ and the Kingdom, was solved the problem of the cleanness and sanctification, dividing during centuries the Jews and the heathen. Was solved by opening the way to the Kingdom to every person who seeks for it.

The law concerning impurity was almost fundamental in the practice of the Jews of the first century. There was nothing more awful, than to violate the kashrus; to be unclean - meant being inadmissible into the Temple, expelled from any relationships with God’s people. That’s certainly why Peter objects so harshly in his dream to the impure which was proposed to him. Why God Himself makes something contrary to His own law?

If God's guidance is limited by His law, then it will be enough for man to know His law and no relationship will be needed anymore. But God, Whose name is love, looks especially for relations with us, and our behavior should result from these relations. That is why God makes something new, opening therefore to his Church new ways of fulfillment of His will. So appears to the Church the possibility to begin testimony about Christ to the heathen, to communicate with those, whose law prohibited.

The action of the breath of God, the Holy Spirit, in the early Christian church is mentioned constantly in the New Testament books, from the very day of Pentecost. It is spoken of as something self-evident and understandable, something that requires neither explanations nor comments. To us today this may seem, at the very least, unusual. Modern Christians in this case speak of charismatic phenomena, charismatic churches, charismatic communities and movements. Sometimes this is called spiritual revival, charismatic renewal, or something else.

But whatever this breath of God is called in the modern Church, one must admit that, compared with early Christian times, today it seems something unusual and in any case not characteristic of the Church as a whole. The first Christian generation perceived this differently. Its representatives did not doubt that the breath of God, the breath of the Kingdom, the blowing of the Holy Spirit permeates the whole Church and the life of each of its members. The first generation of Christians simply did not imagine its life otherwise.

The everyday life of each Christian, and still more its important events connected with God's commissions, was determined by the actions of the Holy Spirit directly, as in the case described with Peter, and this surprised no one. Of course, the first Christians also knew how to hear God's voice better than we do today. What, then, has changed over the centuries? It is hard to think that the breath of God has become less perceptible in the Church. The breath of God, the breath of the Kingdom, breathes in the Church today just as on the day of Pentecost. The problem lies elsewhere: in our perception of Christianity. For Peter, as for the whole generation of the first Christians, Christianity was life: life with Christ in His Kingdom. And the Christian also passed this life through his heart.

The Kingdom was not only outside; the faithful not only felt the blowing of the Holy Spirit, they also let it inside: into their life, into their gatherings, into their heart. And they knew how to prepare their hearts and minds for meeting this new life. Everything they knew about the inner Torah, about unceasing prayer, about attention to their own intentions, in short, everything best that existed in the ascetic tradition and practice of the Judaism contemporary with them, they used to prepare themselves for meeting Christ, for this new life.

In modern language, we would say that in the spiritual life of the first Christians the ascetic component was no less important than the charismatic one. For us today, however, Christianity often becomes a religion, the only true one, of course. Between God's breath, the breath of the Kingdom, and us stands our religiosity, whose symbols and rituals remind us of the Kingdom while at the same time separating us from it.

And the blowing of the Holy Spirit reaches us as if from afar, seeping through the cracks of our religion. We rarely think that the fullness of truth is not in religion, even Christian religion, but in Christ. And the fullness of life is not in ritual and symbol, even one filled with deep meanings, but in the Kingdom. If we think about this seriously and change our life, the breath of God and the life of the Kingdom will be opened to us in the same fullness in which they were opened to the first Christians. God is the same, and the Savior is the same. And the fullness of the life of the Kingdom has not grown poor.

How hard it is for us to grasp this understanding: it is I who stand before the face of God, and He looks specifically at me. For God I am a unique person, and not a member of some social group, nation, or church. What matters is our inner faith, our own thoughts and actions, our personal relations with God and people.

But it constantly appears to us that the main thing is to get onto the "right team": the team will win, and I will win with it! We try to guess the signs by which this team is chosen: national, confessional, social signs. In reality they are very simple: this team consists of those who fear God and act righteously, and only in this way can we get onto it.

As isn’t simple to us this conception: I am really the one standing in front of God's face; He looks especially at me. For God, I am a unique personality, and not a member of some kind of social group, nation, and church. Are important our internal faith, our personal thoughts and acts, our personal relationships with God and people. But it seems to us all the time that the main thing is to get into a "good team ": the team shall win, and I will be among! We try to guess the criteria, by which this team is chosen, the national, confessional, social criteria, but they are indeed very simple: this team consists of those who are afraid of God and act justly, and only like this we can get into the team.

What mean the words of Peter about God being no respecter of persons? The fact that God cannot be deceived and nor can be corrupted? Certainly, and that also. But Peter, it would seem, somehow particularly admires and is delighted at the fact that this is related to all the peoples. It would be strange to expect from God another thing. But before the arrival of the Christ, an equal relation for all from God was obviously far from being for each. In the Jewish environment, at this moment, was rather widely spread the representation of the God of Israel, as the God, Who if is interested in the fate of other peoples, it is only globally, in terms of how will turn the history in the result, for example, of the victory of either side in the war.

Several Jewish believers were then insured that the God of Israel does not worry about the fate of certain heathen: because only the Jewish people are His people, and it is only here that we can speak about the importance of every separated person for God. There could be of course exceptions: either when the heathen entered the Synagogue, having accepted the Judaism and having then become part of God’s people, or in particular cases, when too much depended on heathen, including in the fate of the Jewish people, to let the matter to chance.

Peter sees something completely different. He sees that God "is no respecter of persons", and including in the sense of the national or religious affiliation too. It turns out that for Him, particularly man is important, and besides it happens not to be important for Him if this man belongs to His people or not. Of course, God really has with His people special relationships, the union existing at that moment for almost two millennia was not in vain. But this union does not make small in the eyes of God other nations and those people, who belong to them. For Him each is really absolutely important.

He is ready to open the Kingdom to everyone. And the Messiah, sent by Him to the world, although He was born Jewish and preached only to His people, now He is open to every seeker. And it is not surprising: because with the coming of Christ, on the replacement of the former subjects of the historical process - of great civilizations (what in Daniel's Book is called "kingdoms") comes a new one - the Kingdom with a capital letter. And all the period from the Pentecost to the return of Christ becomes the period of the Kingdom, the Kingdom to come. And in the Kingdom, the mass, collectives, crowd and great leaders do not play role. Here is important only a concrete person, to whom God addresses.

Speaking about Christ and the Kingdom, Peter describes the spiritual movement connected with the spread of the Kingdom in the world, a movement in which a person takes the most direct part. The risen Christ first appears to those who received Him during His earthly ministry, and they in turn bear witness to the rest about the resurrection.

At first glance such witness may not appear to be the most effective: the process turns out to be long and not always fruitful, both because of the witnesses themselves and because fallen humanity so readily distrusts everything connected with spiritual reality. Would it not have been simpler for the Savior to appear to the world Himself, in the way He describes His appearing at the end of time? Then everyone would surely have been convinced and believed.

And yet Jesus does not do this. One of the reasons can be considered His respect for our freedom: He does not want to pressure us with the obviousness of His power, which surpasses every human understanding and would become obvious to us if He appeared to us in the full fullness of His divinity. He does not need followers who have chosen Him not freely, out of love, but under compulsion, under the influence of superior and overwhelming power.

There is another reason as well: our salvation. If the full fullness of the Kingdom had been revealed to the world already in the days of the resurrection, and this was entirely possible, there would hardly have been many saved. Of course, God cannot guarantee anyone's salvation; He can only give each person everything necessary and sufficient to be saved, which He does through the Messiah He has sent.

But human participation in the process of the Kingdom's unfolding in our world, which is already being transfigured though not yet transfigured to the end, makes salvation closer and more accessible to those who seek. On the one hand, the full and final triumph of the Kingdom is postponed, giving those who have not yet decided additional time to choose and make a decision. On the other hand, the participation of concrete, living people who already now live the life of the Kingdom and can bear witness to this life helps seekers understand that the Kingdom is not only a manifestation of God's power but also the breath of God's love. And it makes it more possible that those who choose God and the Kingdom will choose Him not only because He is the fullness of power, but above all because He is the fullness of love.

Today, when speaking of Christianity, we most often mean a certain new religion founded by Jesus Christ. The most correct religion, containing the fullness of truth, saving, but still a religion. Meanwhile the apostles, bearing witness to Christ, do not speak of any religion at all. They speak of something completely different. First of all, of course, of the Messiah, of Christ, who has finally come and revealed God's power to the world. Christianity is first of all Christ Himself. It begins with Him, and He alone bears in Himself both the fullness of living truth and salvation.

But Christianity is not only Christ Himself. It is also our relationships with Him. Precisely the relationships as such, and not what we think about these relationships, what we feel and experience in connection with them, and still less the rites and rituals that accompany them. Everything listed may exist or not exist, may take one form or another, may differ depending on place and time. But relationships with Christ are absolutely important for Christianity; they are its human dimension. These relationships, properly speaking, are the Kingdom that Christ brought into the world.

Place now plays no role: the breath of God, the breath of the Kingdom, is now felt in the world everywhere. Only the desire of the seeker is needed. But in order to become not simply a guest of the Kingdom but its inhabitant, one must also become a subject of the King who rules it. Here one cannot do without relationships with Christ, relationships deeply personal and always completely unique. But such relationships inevitably include an element of Judgment.

We come to Christ as we are, with all our problems and sins. We will have to be freed from the problems and cleansed from the sins and their consequences. Without the corresponding assessment from Christ and rethinking followed by repentance on the part of the one seeking the Kingdom, nothing will come of it. But if a Christian passes through this path, then he has no other Judgment to await: he has passed through his Judgment. For those who live in the Kingdom there is no Judgment. For them there is the life of the Kingdom. In abundance.

This phrase has to be examined word by word. "All the prophets": what matters here is "all," not "each one." Not every prophet spoke about the Messiah, not every prophet spoke about forgiveness of sins... But together they all reveal to people God's plan of salvation through Christ's redeeming sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins.

"Bear witness": we are used to thinking that prophets anticipate the future, while testimony is a story about something that has already happened. But prophecy differs from a forecast precisely because in it a person tells about a fact that has been revealed to him, regardless of what time that fact belongs to, past, present, or future. Thus a prophet is a witness to a fact.

"Will receive... through His name." Let us picture this: we have received by mail an invitation, an admission pass to a coming distribution of certain definite gifts. After reading the invitation, we can say, "I do not need these gifts," or "I do not believe they will be giving them out there," or "I do not have time," or "How tastelessly it is designed," or "Will I really receive something because of this little piece of paper?" - AND NOT GO! In order to go, we need to take seriously this invitation and the thing to which we are being invited. God invites us to enter His life through the forgiveness of our sins; the living invitation, the living letter to us, is God's Son, His name, given to us as a pass to God. We simply need to trust and receive this name as a treasure, as a pledge of eternal life, and then come to God and present this pass.

It is necessary to analyze this sentence word by word. "All the prophets": it is important here that "all", and not "each". Not every prophet spoke about the Messiah, or every prophet who spoke about the remission of sin... But they all together open to people the intention of God concerning salvation through the expiatory sacrifice of Christ for the remission of our sins.

"Witness": we are used to the fact that prophets forestall the future, while witness is a narrative of what already took place. But prophesy distinguishes itself from forecast by the fact that, in the first one, the person relates a fact that was opened to him, independently of the time or period this fact belongs to- in the past, in the present or in the future. So, a prophet is a witness of fact.

"Shall receive…through His name ". Let’s fancy such scenario: we received an invitation by post-office - a pass to the forthcoming distribution of some presents (quite concrete). Having read the invitation, we can say: " I do not need these presents ", - or: " I don’t believe that they shall give them there", - or: " I have no time ", - or: " as it is badly drafted ", - or: " Will I really receive something for such a slip of paper? " - AND DON’T GO! To go, it will be necessary for us to take this invitation seriously and what we are being invited for. God invites us to enter His life through the remission of our sins; the Son of God is the lively invitation, the lively letter sent to us, His name was given to us as pass to God; we just have to trust and accept this name as jewel, as guarantee of everlasting life - and after come to God and present this pass.

Today we finally read how the story of Peter and the centurion Cornelius ended. That is, in fact, it has not yet ended. And it will not end as long as the Spirit breathes in the Church. For it is largely thanks to the conversion of Cornelius and his whole household described in these chapters that most of us received “access” to salvation. Although the Lord Himself opened this path, His disciples, willingly or unwillingly, restricted that access. They took the order they had observed until then to be the only correct one. It never occurred to them that pagans might be of any interest to God. Yet they are. And God expands the boundaries and turns everything upside down. He sends His Spirit upon the converted pagans, effectively making them Christians before the brethren recognize them as such. Today the Lord Himself widened the entrance into the Church for us. May we not narrow it again...

This verse marks a turning point in the history of the Church. Before that, Peter and the other apostles preached, witnessed about Christ - and people responded, got baptized and were filled with Holy Ghost, while this always happened to people believing to the Unique God - with Jews (by faith). We see for the first time here a full conversion of the heathen – more again they are already filled with the Holy Spirit even before baptism, before the expressed confession. Therefore, from God was testified their membership to His people, and Peter not expecting such a thing, only remain to accomplish baptism. So the doors of the Church are opened for converted heathens. Let’s emphasize one more time that it is not by human decision that this came true, but by an evident Divine action.

Both in the history of the Church, and in our personal histories, we discover similar turning point. It sometimes seems to us that these changes are made by human beings hands, but this most probably means that we looked wrongly...