Bible Study Lesson for Acts 10:9-23: Peter's Vision of a Sheet Filled with Unclean Animals

Read Acts 10:9. As we read here, it is noon the next day when Cornelius' men come in sight of the city. In the east most houses have flat roofs and often have outside stairways. The roof was used as convenient place for relaxation and privacy. I couldn't find a good picture of just a single house, but I did find a photo of modern day Nazareth so we can see that the style of house probably hasn't changed much over the centuries. { Show picture from "Great Events of Bible Times" pg 134 }

Read Acts 10:10. It says here that Peter fell into a trance. This was not merely his imagination or a dream, this was a state of mind that God produced so He could better communicate with Peter.

Read Acts 10:11-13. I've read this story many times, but what jumped out at me, for the first time, was realizing that God uses Peter's own hunger as a way to communicate an important truth. God meets us where we are and tailors His messages to us in such a way that fits our personality and current circumstances. There is no "one size fits all" way of God communicating with us.

What is significant about this image to Peter is that the sheet contained both "clean" and "unclean" animals. Leviticus 11 gives the Jews very specific instructions about what animals are clean and therefore acceptable to eat and which ones aren't. { Have group turn to Leviticus 11 and speed read through the chapter } One of the things that I noticed in this chapter was the mention of being unclean for even touching one of the carcasses. Remember where Peter is currently staying, at the home of Simon the tanner.

Read Acts 10:14. Notice how vehemently and instinctively Peter replies. Only eating "clean" animals has become so deeply ingrained in his psyche that he immediately refuses, without considering to whom he is speaking to!

Read Acts 10:15. God is in control. He can take something - in this case impure animals - and reach down and make them clean. Jesus had actually already set down the groundwork to set aside the laws regarding clean and unclean food. Read Matthew 15:10-20. Paul will also later write about this subject to Timothy. Read 1 Timothy 4:3-5. The shift is moving away from a religion based on works to a relationship based on faith and the attitudes of the heart, not on superficial things.

We know that God is not just speaking about food here - though that is important - but also about people. Up to this point Gentiles were considered "unclean" to the Jew and Jews were not supposed to associate with them beyond a certain point. God put those laws in place to keep the Jews holy and separate from the pagan peoples around them, but now the new covenant is in place and all peoples are welcome in God's family.

Read Acts 10:16. God repeats this three times to make sure that it makes an impression on Peter.

Read Acts 10:17-20. Though it seems pretty obvious to us about what God is getting at with this vision - ie. that most importantly people are no longer unclean - Peter doesn't immediately understand what God wants from him. He probably assumed at first, before these men arrived, that God was just telling him that the dietary restrictions he had lived with his entire life were being lifted. The Spirit tells him that the men waiting to meet him are sent by Him and that Peter shouldn't be afraid. Remember these would have been Gentiles, one of which was a Roman soldier, possibly dressed as such. Peter might have had a very natural fear that these men had come to arrest him if the Spirit hadn't prepared him for their arrival.

Read Acts 10:21-22. Without the Spirit's confirmation that he should go with these men, Peter might have had some qualms in accepting their story that an angel had appeared to a Roman centurion, no matter how wonderful a reputation this man had with the Jews. A centurion had a certain level of power in that culture and easily could have arranged for Peter to be jailed, if he so chose. Remember the people of Peter's day were just as prone and capable of lying as the people of today! It could have been an elaborate trap.

Read Acts 10:23. Though we won't have it spelled out to us until verse 28, Peter's actions here shows us that he did finally understand the vision of the sheet with the animals. He provides housing for these men, though they were Gentiles, which was totally contrary to the prescribed practice of the Jews of his time. He treats them like they were fellow Jews, that is "clean" in how he spends time with them, under the same roof. It is too late to head back to Caesarea that night, so they leave the next morning. Here it says that some of the brothers came with Peter. We will find out later that these men were Jews, Acts 10:45, and from Acts 11:12 that there were six in number.

To be continued...

Sources
Editors. Great Events of Bible Times
Editors. Compton's Interactive Bible (software)
Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford (notes). The Student Bible. NIV Version