Crossing the Line, When the Gospel Breaks Barriers | April 26, 2026

Sermon number twenty-nine brought the Cornelius story to its climax, and Pastor Justin walked through Acts 10:34-48 to show what happened when Peter finally arrived at a Gentile household and proclaimed the gospel there for the first time. Before reaching the text, he addressed a real question a church member had texted him that week, asking whether God's Old Testament separation of Israel from other nations was hypocritical in light of Acts 10's inclusion of Gentiles. Pastor Justin answered that the Old Testament separation laws functioned like a spiritual quarantine, protecting the promise of the coming Messiah within Abraham's family until the cure himself arrived in Jesus, at which point the mission shifted from protecting the promise to proclaiming it to everyone.

The Setup: A Text Message About Hypocrisy

He connected that shift directly to The Crossings' own two-phase journey, an internal, foundation-building Phase 1 as a small core team followed by an external, inviting Phase 2 after their official launch, and he named this Sunday's text as the church's own Acts 10 moment on a much grander scale. Peter opens by confessing what God had just taught him, that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. Pastor Justin's first point of application was that God's plans are not our plans, illustrating this with his own resistance to entering youth ministry years earlier, preferring auto body school and a future painting custom cars, until he finally surrendered to what God was calling him toward.

As Peter preaches Christ crucified and risen, the Holy Spirit falls on everyone listening, Gentiles included, and they begin speaking in tongues and praising God right in front of the astonished Jewish believers who came with Peter. Pastor Justin walked through the parallels to the original day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the wind, the tongues of fire, Peter's sermon, and the three thousand converts, showing that this moment in Cornelius's house was a direct echo of the church's birth, this time extended to Gentiles. His second point was that the mission moves when we do, Peter obeyed a calling he did not fully understand, and because he was obedient, the mission took a leap forward that even the day of Pentecost had not anticipated.

There was no second-class conversion and no waiting period for these new Gentile believers. Peter immediately commands that they be baptized, refusing to let human tradition delay what God had already done, and the chapter closes with the believers asking Peter to stay on with them for several more days. Pastor Justin was honest that obedience to God's plan is often costly and uncomfortable in the moment, recalling his own hesitation before eventually earning his undergraduate degree in youth ministry, a decision he called one of the best of his life alongside salvation and marriage.

Psalm 138 rounded out the scripture reading, David's declaration that though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, and that he will fulfill his purpose for those who call on him, a fitting close to a passage about God reaching down to people the world considered beneath notice.

This Week's Application

So this week, is there a barrier of comfort, tradition, or your own five-year plan that you have let stand between you and something God is clearly already doing? We would love for you to join us this Sunday as we continue walking through Acts together.