About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, "Cornelius!" And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, "What is it, lord?" So he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do." Acts 10:3-6
This religious man, Cornelius, was about to have an encounter with Christ and the gospel. Though we was religious, being religious is no guarantee that one knows the Lord Jesus. God graciously intervened in Cornelius’s life. How? By sending a believer, in this case the Apostle Peter, to tell him about Jesus.
Don’t miss this. No one is saved by being religious. People are saved when they receive Jesus Christ. And the way anyone receives Christ is through Christians communicating the gospel. As Christians communicate the gospel, the Holy Spirit regenerates (gives new life to) those He purposes to save.
When people are regenerated (born again) by the Holy Spirit as they hear the gospel, it is because the Holy Spirit is giving them understanding of the gospel. That understanding includes realizing their spiritual need, that Christ is the only One who can meet that spiritual need, and that they must receive Him through simple faith in Christ alone. And when one responds to the gospel in true saving faith, that person will have an earnest desire to turn from known sin to follow Jesus as Lord.
The point here however is that the way non-believers come to Christ is through believers who communicate the gospel to them. Let us pray that He will open doors for us as He did with Peter in Cornelius’s life.