A Year in Luke/ActsSample

What may not be apparent to us as modern readers is the importance of purity in Jewish culture and religious practice. We can see a window into this from Peter’s reaction to the instruction to “kill and eat” (v13) when he is shocked and says how he has never eaten anything “profane or unclean” (v14). The voice from the vision replies: “What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (v15). All of this is preparing Peter for those who would be seen as unclean being accepted into God’s kingdom community.

Keener notes that, incredibly, the phrase the angel says to gentile Cornelius: “your prayer has been heard” (v31), is the same phrase spoken by an angel to Zechariah, a priest, in Luke 1:13. (p302, Acts)

Luke is spotlighting how God hears the prayers of Gentiles as well as priests of Israel. It is now time for those prayers to be answered.