Welcome and thank you for taking a bible break to test your knowledge of God's word. This week's question:

Jesus told His disciples before His ascension into heaven, "It is not for you to know the times or the epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you ; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." (Acts 1:8-9). Then the Holy Spirit comes upon them and Peter speaks the first gospel sermon in Acts chapter two and about three thousand men are baptized, those who crucified Jesus (Acts 2:36), and they were added to the church by the Lord (Acts 2:47).

That brings us to our question, "Who is the first recorded Gentile convert?". We begin our search by turning to find a centurion of what is called the Italian cohort, "…a devout man, and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people, and prayed to God continually." (Acts 10:1-2). At about the ninth hour of the day he sees in a vision an angel of God who tells him, "Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now dispatch some men to Joppa, and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter;" (Acts 10:4-5). As the men are being sent the next day, Peter is up on the rooftop to pray, became hungry and he fell into a trance a great sheet came down to the ground from the sky with four footed animals and birds and crawling creatures and Peter was told, "'Arise, Peter, kill and eat!' but Peter said, 'By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.' and again a voice came a second time, 'What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.'" (Acts 10:13-15).

This happened three times and then it was taken back up into the sky. Peter was greatly perplexed at what this vision meant and the men from Caesarea arrived asking for Peter and then recounted the centurion's vision to him and Peter invited them to stay the night. Then the following day Peter took some of the Jewish brethren and they all journeyed to the centurion's house and when they arrived, the centurion fell at Peter's feet to worship him and Peter told him, "Stand up; for I too am just a man." (Acts 10:26).

Then they entered the centurion's house and found many people assembled there and Peter told them, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean." (Acts 10:28). So Peter understood the vision of the unclean animals that God had cleansed also represented that no man is unholy nor unclean. Peter then said, "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right, is welcome to Him." (Acts 10:34-36).

And as he then begins preaching Jesus to them, the Holy Spirit falls upon those who listened to the message. "And all the circumcised believes who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, 'Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?' And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on a few days." (Acts 10:44-48). Now, that devout centurion of the Italian cohort from Caesarea was named, "Cornelius" (Acts 10:1)!

And so there we have the answer to our question, but Peter had some explaining to do to the Jewish brethren back in Jerusalem when they heard the story, and only until they were told that the Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentiles would they accept that they too were part of God's eternal plan as they said, ". . .Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life." (Acts 11:1-18).

May we be as open minded as those men who saw the Holy Spirit fall upon those Gentiles to accept God's plan though it seemed contrary to what they believed before, and may we be as devout toward God as Cornelius for life eternal as he washed his sins away in that watery grave, calling upon the Lord Jesus Christ!