Peter's Vision and Cornelius's Conversion

In the coastal city of Caesarea, God gave simultaneous visions to a Jewish apostle and a Roman centurion, orchestrating a meeting that would shatter ethnic and religious barriers. When the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius and his household—Gentiles who hadn’t converted to Judaism—the early church faced its first major theological crisis: Could Gentiles be saved without first becoming Jews?

Cornelius’s vision:

Cornelius was a centurion in the Italian Regiment stationed in Caesarea. Though a Gentile, he was a “God-fearer”—someone who worshiped Israel’s God without full conversion (circumcision and keeping the entire Torah). He gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly.

About three in the afternoon, an angel appeared to him in a vision: “Cornelius!… Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.”

Cornelius immediately sent two servants and a devout soldier to Joppa.

Peter’s vision:

The next day, as Cornelius’s men approached Joppa, Peter went up on the roof to pray around noon. He became hungry and while lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance.

He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, reptiles, and birds—including animals the Torah declared unclean.

A voice told him: “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

Peter replied: “Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

The voice spoke again: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

This happened three times, then the sheet was taken back to heaven.

While Peter was puzzling over the vision’s meaning, Cornelius’s men arrived asking for him. The Spirit told Peter: “Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”

Peter goes to Caesarea:

Peter went with Cornelius’s messengers (along with some Jewish believers from Joppa). When they arrived in Caesarea, Cornelius had gathered his relatives and close friends.

As Peter entered, Cornelius fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up: “Stand up, I am only a man myself.”

Peter’s realization:

Peter explained: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection.”

Cornelius recounted his vision. Then Peter declared:

“I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”

Peter preaches the gospel:

Peter proclaimed Jesus’s message:

• How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power
• How Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were under the devil’s power
• How they killed him by hanging him on a cross
• But God raised him from the dead on the third day
• He appeared to witnesses who ate and drank with him after his resurrection
• He commanded them to preach that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead
• “Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name”

Gentile Pentecost:

While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.

The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. They heard them speaking in tongues and praising God—just as had happened to the Jews at Pentecost.

Peter responded: “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”

So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Jerusalem controversy:

When Peter returned to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him: “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

This wasn’t about theology but about purity laws—Peter had broken Jewish taboos by eating with Gentiles.

Peter explained the entire sequence:

• His vision of unclean animals
• God’s command: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean”
• The Spirit directing him to go with the men
• Cornelius’s vision
• The Holy Spirit falling on them as He had on the Jewish believers at Pentecost

His clincher: “So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”

The result:

“When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, ‘So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.’”

The principle was established—though its full implications would take time to work out (see the Jerusalem Council, Acts 15).

Significance:

First Gentile converts: Cornelius and his household were the first Gentiles to be baptized without first converting to Judaism

Divine initiative: God orchestrated the entire encounter—visions to both men, Spirit’s falling before Peter finished preaching

Barrier shattered: The clean/unclean distinction was abolished—both regarding food and people

Spirit as authenticator: The Holy Spirit’s falling on uncircumcised Gentiles proved God accepted them as they were

Peter’s transformation: The fisherman who wouldn’t enter Cornelius’s house without a divine vision became the one who defended Gentile inclusion in Jerusalem

Precedent for Paul’s mission: This event validated Paul’s calling to the Gentiles and prepared the church for its universal mission

Theological revolution: Salvation was not by ethnicity or law-keeping but by faith in Jesus—accessible to all nations

Quote remembered: Peter’s words at the Jerusalem Council years later referenced this: “God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:8-9).

This event was Christianity’s hinge point—from Jewish sect to universal faith, from circumcision required to faith alone, from ethnic exclusivity to “whosoever will may come.” The sheet full of unclean animals descending from heaven symbolized God’s radical inclusiveness, and Cornelius’s conversion demonstrated it. The God who told Peter “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” was declaring all people—Jew and Gentile, circumcised and uncircumcised—equally welcome in His kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ.