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God who has chosen Cornelius

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[Acts 10:15]

The voice spoke to him a second time,

"Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

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The Jews had the idea that they were special.

Other nations, except themselves, are called ‘Gentiles’ altogether.

And they had thought that they were saved, and the gentiles were not saved.

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However, God wants all nations, not only the Jewish people, to be saved.

Today is the story of one of the first of the Gentiles who was chosen by God.

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There was a Roman army stationed in Caesarea in Samaria (ancient northern Israel).

The name of this army is recorded in the Bible as the ‘Italian army’.

There was a centurion called Cornelius, which means a man who leads 100 soldiers.

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Cornelius was a Roman soldier but a special man.

He honored and feared God. Not only himself,

but all the inhabitants of his house honored and feared God.

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Cornelius gave his money to the poor. In addition, he always prayed to God.

God saw this goodness of Cornelius.

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One day around 3 pm, Cornelius saw a vision in prayer.

In the fantasy, an angel of God came to him. The angel called his name “Cornelius.”

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Cornelius looked at the angel in fear. He looked at the angel and asked, “Lord, what is it?”

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The angel answered Cornelius.

“God has heard your prayer. God saw you help the poor and remembered you.”

The angel told him that God knew what good he had done for the poor and sent him.

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The angel told Cornelius that Peter the apostle was in Simon's house in Joppa and told him

to bring the apostle Peter. Cornelius awoke from the vision and sent two servants and

a godly soldier to Joppa to bring up the apostle Peter.

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By the time they arrived at Joppa, Peter was praying on the roof,

and he saw strange illusions in prayer.

A large crepe came down from heaven, and it contained a lot of beasts that were not eaten

by the Jews because they thought it was unclean.

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Then there was a voice in heaven that told him to eat them.

Peter replied, “I have never eaten this unclean thing.”

“Do not say impure that what God says is clean.”

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After this was repeated three times, the vessel went up to the sky.

While Peter was pondering about this weird thing, the people Cornelius sent to his door.

“Is Simon called Peter here?”

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Then the Holy Spirit spoke to Peter. “Peter, follow those who have come to you.

They are my messengers; do not hesitate to follow them.”

The next day Peter followed them to Cornelius's house.

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There were many people gathered in the house of Cornelius.

Peter realized that God wanted them to preach the gospel.

As Peter testified of them to Jesus, the Holy Spirit came to them. Peter baptized them.

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Today, it was the grace of God that Cornelius, a Gentile, was saved.

God chose Cornelius unilaterally at no cost and made the Gentiles a people of God.

Today, we, like Cornelius, have received this grace of salvation at no cost.

I hope you will always remember and appreciate that you have received the most precious salvation as a gift from God, and that you are all those who live according to the word of God.

(This is the sample conclusion provided by CTM. Please feel free to change the conclusion to best suit the listeners of your sermon.)