In Acts chapter 10, two men have two separate visions from God at nearly the same exact time. A man of the nations named Cornelius is in Caesarea, on the Israel coast, when God tells him, via a celestial messenger, to send men down to Joppa (35 miles—56 kilometers—south of Caesarea), also a coastal city, to inquire for a man named Simon, surnamed—yes, that Peter.

On the same evening, Peter is in Joppa relaxing on his roof but becoming ravenously hungry when God puts him into an ecstasy and lowers a sheet from heaven in which there are unclean creatures of all kinds. God says to Peter, “Kill and eat.” Peter declines, telling God that he has never eaten any unclean food. God says, “Do not call unclean what I have cleansed.”

Cleansed? Unclean animals?

Peter did not know what this meant at the time (he would soon find out), but we do: God was cleansing the nations. Peter was no longer to consider people from other nations to be dirty dogs.

This must mean that Peter is now ready to start the Great Commission, to take the gospel of the Circumcision to all the nations of the world. Nope. As far as we know, Cornelius is the only Gentile to whom Peter announces the Circumcision evangel in his lifetime. (Yes, Peter did go to the home of Cornelius and yes, something remarkable happened there in that Cornelius and his entire household—Gentiles all—received the holy spirit apart from the Jewish rite of baptism. This shook Peter to his core. )

But if Peter did not subsequently go to the nations on the heels of this divine revelation, why was this excursion from Joppa to Caesarea necessary? It was for the sake of Paul. That’s right. Apart from God preparing Peter for what Paul would do among the nations, the Jews would have assassinated Saul/Paul on day one. But with Peter’s blessing and right hand of fellowship extended to Paul, at least the most notable and powerful believing Jews in Jerusalem would “get” Paul’s work (barely) and not only refuse to hassle him, but keep as many of the Jerusalem contingent from hassling him as they could. This was not a 100% effective campaign, we know that, but it kept Paul alive so that God could do His might work among the nations through him, bringing a new evangel of the transcendent grace of God to the world.

But not without the understanding and fellowship of Peter.