Everywhere I look online I see stories and articles about how people fought the system and won the rite to do x y and z. LGBTQ won the rite to get married. Women are winning the rite to not only have abortions but to also not have to put up with any "stop and think about this" barriers. The government is fighting to enshrine a person's rite to use washrooms according to the gender he / she self-identify as. We now have the rite to assisted suicide, the rite to sterilize one's self, and hopefully one day everyone will be forced to accommodate the rites of a disabled person to barrier free accessibility. I am no social scientist but it seems to me as though we are continually moving towards a society with no taboos and no restrictions save for new taboos and restrictions for those who wish to hold to traditional taboos and restrictions but I digress.
I have to wonder if, with so much freedom, restraint will be an important idea for the North American Christianity. As in, "just because you have the societal freedom to do as you please does not mean that you should use your societal freedom as an excuse to practice evil."
I suspect that the concept of evil will be challenged as it already has been. "What? No, homosexual practice isn't evil! It just... isn't. Unless you take the Bible literally or read it through heterosexual bias... or follow the faith traditions regarding marriage that God's people and the Church have always embraced since the beginning... which you shouldn't." As society continues to embrace current leftist social political agenda the Church will face pressure to conform from without and from within.
I suspect that those who truly desire to know and love the Lord will exercise and preach restraint in accordance with the Scriptures and Traditions of the Church.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Thoughts, Theology, Literature, Life
It's slow at work today. I just read a disturbing article that made me think. I doubt many would find it disturbing and even fewer for the reasons I did. It was about... wait for it... the use of allegory.
Allegory. Shocking I know.
Why on earth would I find the use of allegory disturbing? Because it brought to light an area of my mind and heart that have always seemed to be in constant friction with the rest of the world which I never even started to understand until maybe now.
The article argued that we misuse and misunderstand allegory because its roots are deeply buried within medieval tradition and worldview that we have lost and replaced with our own modern and postmodern traditions and worldviews which should hardly be surprising. The article talked about how CS Lewis convincingly argues that allegory, as understood from how the Medievals saw the world, is powerful, beautiful, and incredible art. Works like Pilgrim's Progress, and Faerie Queene epitomize medieval allegory and it was unthinkable that anyone who had the capacity to read should not have read them. Today they seem flat and uninteresting. The reason provided in the article was that the medieval world was ordered where everything has its proper place and people tended to think of the image and the abstract together whereas today the world is disordered where everything is up in the air and people have trouble putting images and abstractions together in the same way.
Why is this disturbing? I'm getting there I promise.
We read allegory like Pilgrim's Progress today and tend to roll our eyes because the characters seem flat and the direction of the narrative appears to be obviously rigged. We read about a character named Christian or Evangelist or Lust and we lose interest because they aren't real characters, they don't have life struggles or relational connections or any real depth to them. We expect characters to be like what we would find in a novel, actual persons with actual struggles and connections to the world.
In a medieval worldview though the characters take on a very different shape and meaning.
Is this the disturbing part? We're almost there.
I think in medieval allegory. I relate images to abstract things. I see a character and I see immediate symbolism and I view the symbolism as just as important (if not more-so) than the character. Yeah, the narrative of Pilgrim's Progress is simplistic, but I still have the Christian worldview and quite possibly enough medieval worldview to find it thoroughly meaningful and a valuable read where so many who chose literature as their direction of study would find it childish and morally oppressive.
Here is where I become disturbed. I think in ways that most others do not. I watch The Lord of the Rings and see the characters, their stories, and the grander narrative flawed and riddled with sensationalism though it may be but what I take away from it is Christ triumphing over the powers of the sin, death, and the world and I see myself as part of that story. What I see as the most important and most impressive aspects do not even appear on most peoples' radars.
And so I began reflecting upon my own psychology. I've always felt that I have a difficult time communicating my thoughts and I think this might be one of the reasons why. I'm operating and trying to communicate on a different wavelength. How much of my thought process is medieval / allegorical? How can I properly translate this into common speech? What other implications does this have for how I process information or try to communicate with others? The connections I make between things in my mind that seem insubstantial when I try to describe them, are they allegorical connections and if they are are they real? Is this why I chose theology as my centre of focus? Since I am finding so much personal meaning in the concept of a literary device should I have maybe studied humanities instead? Will people think me or my thinking obsolete?
"Medieval," after all, is a disparaging adjective (describing word). If we call something "medieval" what we mean is that it is archaic, out dated, crude, primitive, old-fashioned, unenlightened, draconic, or obsolete. I've always been convinced that this is, as CS Lewis put it, "intellectual snobbery" whereby we fail to understand the past and foolishly assert that everything that took place or was created before our time was not as good as what we have / think today.
I don't think my thinking is obsolete, and I don't think that my thinking my thinking is not obsolete is the product of obsolete thinking. Every contemporary historian of the medieval time period I've ever read has blasted today's misunderstanding of history that has made 'medieval' a dark age of dismal nothing between the light of Classical Rome and the light of the enlightenment. It was an age of thought, art, music, color, philosophy, literature, education, architecture, and new technology.
It's been a few hours since I started writing, the disturbance within me has dissipated. I guess to sum up I discovered another aspect of how I am different from most other people and how some of the foundational things I take for granted (like how I process thought and see the world) are not 'normal'. If the foundations are shaken then everything on the foundations are also shaken and now I suppose my subconscious will spend years realigning things with little epiphanies and realizations as things click back into place.
In the meantime I will stop navel gazing and put my mind toward more product things like loving and caring for my family and preparing myself to clean up the physical, emotional, relational, actual, and allegorical aftermath of a backed up toilet, rangy children, and a computer reset.
Greg Out
Allegory. Shocking I know.
Why on earth would I find the use of allegory disturbing? Because it brought to light an area of my mind and heart that have always seemed to be in constant friction with the rest of the world which I never even started to understand until maybe now.
The article argued that we misuse and misunderstand allegory because its roots are deeply buried within medieval tradition and worldview that we have lost and replaced with our own modern and postmodern traditions and worldviews which should hardly be surprising. The article talked about how CS Lewis convincingly argues that allegory, as understood from how the Medievals saw the world, is powerful, beautiful, and incredible art. Works like Pilgrim's Progress, and Faerie Queene epitomize medieval allegory and it was unthinkable that anyone who had the capacity to read should not have read them. Today they seem flat and uninteresting. The reason provided in the article was that the medieval world was ordered where everything has its proper place and people tended to think of the image and the abstract together whereas today the world is disordered where everything is up in the air and people have trouble putting images and abstractions together in the same way.
Why is this disturbing? I'm getting there I promise.
We read allegory like Pilgrim's Progress today and tend to roll our eyes because the characters seem flat and the direction of the narrative appears to be obviously rigged. We read about a character named Christian or Evangelist or Lust and we lose interest because they aren't real characters, they don't have life struggles or relational connections or any real depth to them. We expect characters to be like what we would find in a novel, actual persons with actual struggles and connections to the world.
In a medieval worldview though the characters take on a very different shape and meaning.
For them, “Venus” signified multiple things simultaneously: a planet, a Roman goddess with a set of stories attached to her, a literary figure, the image of feminine beauty, the force of erotic love, God’s will manifested in the fruitful union of a man and a woman, and so on. Christianity formed a bedrock for this way of thinking, but no one of these is the “true” meaning of Venus to which all others can be reduced. Their characters may seem “thin” when compared with those in a great novel, but their images are much fuller and richer.
Laura Miller - Save the AllegoryThis is the power of medieval allegory. This is the richness and fullness that we have lost in our own worldviews.
Is this the disturbing part? We're almost there.
I think in medieval allegory. I relate images to abstract things. I see a character and I see immediate symbolism and I view the symbolism as just as important (if not more-so) than the character. Yeah, the narrative of Pilgrim's Progress is simplistic, but I still have the Christian worldview and quite possibly enough medieval worldview to find it thoroughly meaningful and a valuable read where so many who chose literature as their direction of study would find it childish and morally oppressive.
Here is where I become disturbed. I think in ways that most others do not. I watch The Lord of the Rings and see the characters, their stories, and the grander narrative flawed and riddled with sensationalism though it may be but what I take away from it is Christ triumphing over the powers of the sin, death, and the world and I see myself as part of that story. What I see as the most important and most impressive aspects do not even appear on most peoples' radars.
And so I began reflecting upon my own psychology. I've always felt that I have a difficult time communicating my thoughts and I think this might be one of the reasons why. I'm operating and trying to communicate on a different wavelength. How much of my thought process is medieval / allegorical? How can I properly translate this into common speech? What other implications does this have for how I process information or try to communicate with others? The connections I make between things in my mind that seem insubstantial when I try to describe them, are they allegorical connections and if they are are they real? Is this why I chose theology as my centre of focus? Since I am finding so much personal meaning in the concept of a literary device should I have maybe studied humanities instead? Will people think me or my thinking obsolete?
"Medieval," after all, is a disparaging adjective (describing word). If we call something "medieval" what we mean is that it is archaic, out dated, crude, primitive, old-fashioned, unenlightened, draconic, or obsolete. I've always been convinced that this is, as CS Lewis put it, "intellectual snobbery" whereby we fail to understand the past and foolishly assert that everything that took place or was created before our time was not as good as what we have / think today.
I don't think my thinking is obsolete, and I don't think that my thinking my thinking is not obsolete is the product of obsolete thinking. Every contemporary historian of the medieval time period I've ever read has blasted today's misunderstanding of history that has made 'medieval' a dark age of dismal nothing between the light of Classical Rome and the light of the enlightenment. It was an age of thought, art, music, color, philosophy, literature, education, architecture, and new technology.
It's been a few hours since I started writing, the disturbance within me has dissipated. I guess to sum up I discovered another aspect of how I am different from most other people and how some of the foundational things I take for granted (like how I process thought and see the world) are not 'normal'. If the foundations are shaken then everything on the foundations are also shaken and now I suppose my subconscious will spend years realigning things with little epiphanies and realizations as things click back into place.
In the meantime I will stop navel gazing and put my mind toward more product things like loving and caring for my family and preparing myself to clean up the physical, emotional, relational, actual, and allegorical aftermath of a backed up toilet, rangy children, and a computer reset.
Greg Out
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Sermon thoughts on Acts 11:1-18
First attempt at a sermon. I'm sure I will improve with time and, you know, an actual real life context to write into.
The passage I want to cover is Acts 11:1-18. The events recorded here were a pivotal time in the beginning of the early Church. Jesus had been crucified, resurrected, and ascended into heaven. The apostles had received the Holy Spirit and had begun preaching in Jerusalem that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and that forgiveness of sins had been won by the blood of Jesus for all who put their faith in him. The Holy Spirit enabled them to speak with power and authority, performing miracles and driving out evil spirits. Many believed and the Holy Spirit moved among them convicting them of sin, provoking repentance, over filling them with joy and love for one another, and providing miraculous signs to the people. The Pharisees and teachers of the law who did not believe sought to crush the faith and persecuted the early church. Many believers fled the city taking the Gospel with them and so the Word of God spread among the Jews in every city and town throughout Judea and and the Mediterranean. Phillip preached the Gospel in Samaria and when the Samarians believed the Church sent Peter and John to lay hands on them and pray that they might receive the Holy Spirit, and they did! Saul, who spearheaded the persecution, had encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and was now also preaching in the name of Jesus and doing miracles. There were so many things going on it is as though the author of Acts can barely contain himself with recording it all. Peter received a vision to go to the home of Cornelius a Roman Centurion just as Cornelius receives a vision to specifically send for Peter, Peter comes to his house, preaches the Gospel, Cornelius and his family are overjoyed and believe and the Holy Spirit falls on them also and they are baptized. If you are a gentile then this is one of the most exciting points in the Bible. Now we have Acts 11:1-18.
Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?”18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
This is a very exciting story. God has poured out the Holy Spirit on both the Jews and the Gentiles, the Kingdom of God has become open to all people.
Let us go through the passage again, slowly now, and listen for what The Lord has for us today.
Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
What's going on here? Shouldn't the apostles and brothers have been pleased that the Word of God had spread to the Gentiles? Why was Peter criticized?
This would have been confusing and possibly even unsettling news for the ancient Jews. They were God's chosen people, the promises and covenants of God were made to them, and up until this point any Gentile who wanted to participate in what was promised to the Jews would have to turn away from their pagan beliefs and become Jewish. In their understanding Jerusalem was supposed to be God's beacon to the world that the Gentiles would eventually acknowledge and come to.
The circumcision party were the nationalistic Jews who were following with what they thought God's plan was, that salvation would come to the world through the Jewish people and that the Gentiles would become Jews in order to participate in the Kingdom of the Jewish God. What Peter did, speaking with Cornelius, staying with him, and eating together with him was strictly against Jewish custom and Jewish law. The Jews were a holy people, set apart from the rest of the world, and they did not associate with non-Jews, especially a commander of the gentile nation currently occupying and oppressing the Jewish nation! This was part of following Torah, the law that God gave Israel through Moses and every Jew knew it. This was a breach in God's law and so the circumcision party were demanding an explanation, partly because of their nationalism, but I think also because they knew that you can not follow God by breaking his laws even if breaking his laws appears to benefit what God is doing.
Here is Peter's response:
4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.
Alright, so Peter begins his explanation by telling them that he was praying. He wasn't partying, he wasn't drinking, he wasn't sampling any weird herbs from foreign countries, he had gone up to the balcony on the roof to pray to God, and he saw a vision. It was commonly understood that God spoke through visions, although not all visions were from God. When the vision was going on Peter wasn't sure if it was from God or not. A sheet coming down from heaven with animals of every kind a voice telling him to kill and eat, that sounds like a pretty strange vision. It would have had special significance for a Jewish person though. God had commanded the ancient Israelites to only eat clean animals and every Jew was very aware of what they were allowed or not allowed to eat. But on this sheet coming down from heaven were both clean and unclean animals and the voice told Peter to kill and eat!
How strange. Why would God give Peter a vision where he is told to kill and eat what is forbidden for him to eat? Why would God tell him to do something that he had previously told him not to do? It's a theological conundrum and Peter protests, he calls out back to the voice saying "By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth." But the voice responds "what God has made clean, do not call common."
What does that mean? Was God telling Peter that he was changing the law he gave to Moses centuries ago? Was it now alright for Jews to eat pork and calamari? If so, why? That doesn't really sound like something God would do.
Once the sheet went back up to heaven you can bet that Peter was praying to God about the vision. "Um. Father? I just had this strange vision with a bunch of animals coming down from heaven and you told me to eat them because you had made them clean. Did you do that? Have I maybe been out in the sun too long? I am pretty hungry, maybe... Oh, oh. oh. It's coming back down now. It's the animals again..."
It happened a second time and then a third time and while Peter was still scratching his head and probably very confused and concerned he looked down and saw three men inquiring about him at the door of the house and he gets a clear message from the Holy Spirit that he needs to go with them and not make any distinction.
Now there are a lot of really interesting things going on here right now. Here's the first one. Imagine that you are Peter, you've had this confusing vision that you think is from God but it doesn't make any sense to you and now you get a clear message telling you to go with the people who are looking for him. Who are these people? What do they want? What does the vision have to do with this? Cornelius was a Roman commander, these could have very well have been soldiers and the early Christians were under persecution. And yet the Holy Spirit tells him to go and so he goes without really understanding why, only that he must. This is an example of faith in action. God's intentions are veiled from Peter, he doesn't understand what God is going to do or what God wants him to do, but he steps forward in faith anyway.
Second interesting point about this situation. The vision was shown to him not just once, not just twice, but three times. Why is this interesting? If you are praying to your Father in Heaven and you think you see or hear something that might be from him, it is good to continue praying about it because He has ways of reaffirming the message. In Peter's case he got the same vision three times in succession and then lo and behold there were three people at the door looking for him with a confirmation in his heart that he needs to go with them. This is very clear and tangible confirmation. This is the exception when God plunks the answer in front of us, yes it's from me. Often times the answer is confirmed as we read the Bible, talk with other Christians, listen to sermons, or confirmed within our hearts as we continue in prayer.
The third interesting point is that three is an important and recurring number. In the English language if we want to emphasize something we will put 'very' in front of it but in Hebrew they use the word over again. So if we were to time travel back to ancient Egypt during the plague of frogs we might say, "there is a big heap of frogs" or "there is a very big heap of frogs," and we know that this heap of frogs is exceptionally large. In the Hebrew language, the language that Peter grew up with as his native tongue, if you want to draw special attention to something you use the word twice over. So you if we spoke Hebrew we could say "there is a heap of frogs" and we imagine, you know, a small mound of dead frogs. If we said "no no, you don't understand, there is are heaps heaps of frogs," we might be a bit shocked. It's not just a heap of frogs, it's a piles of frogs stacked six feet high! But if we were to repeat the word three times, this is the absolute strongest most intensive possible use of a word of which there is no English equivalent. If we were to say "no, no, you still don't understand, there is a heap heap HEAP of frogs," then we paint a different picture entirely. All of Egypt is buried in frogs. This heap of frogs is so big you can see it from orbit. There will never be a heap of frogs bigger than this heap of frogs because all of the frogs are already in this heap of frogs. I exaggerate a bit but you get the idea, three times in succession is the highest emphasis you can give something in the Hebrew language.
The vision came down three times in succession so this signifies to Peter that it is very important and most definitely from God, even though he doesn't understand what it means yet. This is also the second time in the Book of Acts that Peter's story has been told, first in Acts 10:9-16 and also now again to refresh our memory and draw importance to it for us the readers. The author of Acts could have written that Peter explained his vision and moved on, but instead the vision is recounted in detail for the benefit of the reader.
Why? What is so important that God shows Peter three times and the author of Acts writes it down twice? Because God is about to do something incredible and extremely important for us to understand. Let's continue the story. Peter keeps going with his explanation.
These six brothers also accompanied me, (read: you're not going to believe this but these guys will back me up on it) and we entered the man's house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?”
Here it is! God poured out the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles just as he had the Jews at Pentecost! God does not distinguish between Jews and Gentiles. This was the meaning of the vision, this is what God had in mind all along but Peter didn't see it until it happened. Peter was initially opposed to this, but realized very quickly that he could not and ought not to try to stand in God's way. Now continuing on with verse 18.
18 When they heard these things they fell silent.
Now let's stop here for a moment. That God shows no distinction between Jews and Gentiles was a shocking revelation. The Jews were God's chosen people and the expectations and understanding surrounding that was just shattered. The Gentiles did not have to become Jews in order to share in God's redemptive work in the world. What a shock shock this must have been. God accepted the unclean people of the world, they didn't need to follow the dietary laws, or the cleansing laws or, know Torah, or be circumcised: the divine symbol of Jewishness. How humbling. The circumcision group thought that because they held strongly to the law of Moses that they held special privilege with God and that everyone else needed to become like them before they could have salvation, but God is not boxed in by their expectations and extends salvation to the Gentiles.
We might be tempted to despise the circumcision group but they had sensible and biblically grounded reasons to believe what they did, but just like Peter, they didn't understand the full picture at first. God had revealed that he would do this centuries before bring it about through the Torah, but they still didn't see it. Let's just take a brief visit to some of these places to see what God said about including the gentiles.
Genesis 18:18; 22:18
All the nations of the Earth will be blessed through Abraham; In your offspring all of the nations of the earth will be blessed because you obeyed my voice.
Exodus 20:10; 23:12; Deuteronomy 5:14
God's rest and God's special blessings were for the Jews, their servants, their livestock, as well as the strangers (read: Gentiles) who lived among them.
God's care for Gentiles who put their faith in him: Hagar, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth.
1 Chronicles 16:24
God's glory was to be declared among the nations.
The Psalms 22:27-28, 86:9, 108:3
All of the nations will worship God together, Gentiles and Jews together.
Isaiah 60:1-3
The glory of the Lord will arise as a light in Israel and the nations will be drawn to the light.
Hosea 2:23
"I will say to Not my People, you are my people, and they will answer, You are my God."
Jonah
God tells his prophet to preach to Nineveh, they repent and are saved... Nineveh!!! Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian people who plundered every nation, including Israel, and who tortured their victims and dragged men women and children away to be slaves. God had care for even Nineveh!
Joel 2:28-29
“And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
Even with all of these examples and more it never occurred to them that God would accept the Gentiles and it was a shock to them. They thought they understood the Word of God in its fullness but they did not, and what appeared to be a breach in God's law was actually God enacting his law in its fullness. Continuing on.
And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
Even though they don't understand, even though so much of what they held as their cultural and theological identity was suddenly flipped on its head. Some were probably like Peter, amazed, others were probably disappointed, and most were probably still confused. Even so they glorified God and accepted what God had done.
This is what happened just under 2000 years ago.
Now what about us today?
First Point
Peter's message to Cornelius is the same message given to all of us today, here is Peter's message in the chapter previous Acts 10:34-43.
34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea,beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Acts 10:34-43
Did you hear that? Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name! God's plans, his salvation, his forgiveness, the pouring out of his Holy Spirit, the participation within his Kingdom, the wholeness and goodness and fullness that only God can give us is freely given to you. Through Jesus' sacrifice God extends his arms out to you. The same message that Peter had for Cornelius is the same message extended to you right now. That God raised Jesus up from the dead and appointed him to be judge of the living and the dead, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name! If you believe this, if you make the decision to follow Jesus then he will give you the gift of the Holy Spirit to enliven you, direct you, assure you, teach you, and enable you to live as God intends you to live.
Today is the day of salvation, if you hear His voice do not harden your heat against it. If you are moved by this message, and you feel what you think might be God calling into your heart please don't let it be, find someone who knows what it means to follow Christ and have the Holy Spirit in their life and ask them how it works and how you can get it too.
Second point.
Israel usually didn't get what God was doing in their midst. Jesus' disciples usually didn't get what God was doing in their midst. The religious leaders who knew the Torah inside and out didn't understand what God was doing in their midst. Even Peter, upon whom God would found his Church, having been Jesus' close companion for years, now having within him the Holy Spirit, and receiving visions didn't understand what God was doing. But us today, we have had centuries to think about and discuss the Bible and we have the Holy Spirit within us, surely we can fair better than God's people in the past!
No. God's ways are still not our ways, and we need to cultivate a spirit of humility. God is always doing something new, something unexpected, something that we don't see or understand even though he gives us plenty of warning. The circumcision group thought that the Gentiles had to become just like them, and for a lot of reasons that were widely accepted by God's people at the time, but God was not restricted by their vision or understanding. Depending on the day, that could easily be us. In order to be a Christian you need to... what? Dress a certain way? Speak a certain way? Hold certain political opinions? Exhibit a spiritual sign like speaking in tongues or blessings of health and wealth? Go to church on Sunday and read your Bible? (Both good things by the way) Need to be part of our denomination? Need to not do sin X,Y, or Z? We have all sorts of pre-conceived notions about who can be in and who is out. But do you know what? God doesn't care. He calls who he calls and his call goes out to every person which means that every person could potentially accept Christ and rightly be a Christian brother or sister.
Now how does this work? I'm not going to go into specifics to define the line between whether a person is a believer or a non-believer, that's a topic for another day. What I am saying is that we need to be prepared to welcome believers of every walk of life. Be prepared to work alongside believers of different social-economic status or who dress differently or who are part of different denominations or whose personal sin that they deal with is different than the personal sin that you deal with. The Jews were shocked when God included the Gentiles, we will be shocked when God includes others in our midst, it is inevitable. People who do the wrong things, think the wrong things, dress the wrong way, who don't know or appreciate how we do things. If God calls them, and they join, we must not stand in God's way, we must welcome them in the name of Christ of whom they have believed.
When it comes to who can be in God's Kingdom, right now, it is a free for all. Anyone and everyone can join. This does not mean that any and all behavior is appropriate for the citizen's of God's kingdom, but regardless of who you are today or what you have done, the invitation is open to you.
Now a word of how a follower of Jesus should behave, there are several locations in the New Testament that specifically address this, we will cover them very briefly. Jesus preached a number of topics such as the repentance of sin, hatred, sexual immorality, greed, and hypocrisy. The early Church in Jerusalem provided basic guidelines for how the new Gentile Christians ought to conduct themselves. The Apostle Paul wrote that we are to live according to the Spirit, which is the will of God and life to us, and resist the flesh, that is our earthly base desires that are sinful. Peter, James, and John also wrote on the topic. While each location is a bit different on the surface they all point back to Jesus and they all agree and intersect without conflict. This is not the topic of the sermon and so I am not going to go into specifics except to say that as citizens of God's Kingdom we must submit to the King's will. There are some things that the Bible explicitly identifies as against God's will such as lying, theft, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, greedy, hate, bitterness, etc. These are things that every denomination within the Church today can basically agree on. There are other things that there is continuous debate on and different denominations and even different churches will draw the lines in different places as their attempt to be God's Kingdom citizens within their time and area. So the questions of "is it ok to drink alcohol? is it ok to gamble? and even what exactly qualifies as 'sexual immorality'? may get you different answers depending on which Christian tradition you ask. But now we've run far afield.
Here's the point to take home. God calls everyone and even though we are not in a 1st century Jewish context the sort of people God calls will shock us but if we want to continue participating in what God is doing, you know, the purpose and privilege of being a part of God's Kingdom, then we must welcome them and work with them. This doesn't mean that their are no expectations for how new Christians ought to act but it does mean that God calls all types, even the types we wouldn't pick for whatever reason.
Third Point
Despite our best efforts though God will still shock us. We can be like Peter, spending time in prayer and seeking the Lord's will day by day or like the Circumcision group resting on the faith we grew up with when all of a sudden God calls us into something that we don't understand. This could be a word from God, it could be a situation we find ourselves in, or a new realization that we are uncomfortable with. God is in the business of growing things and we are both the plants that he wants to grow and bare fruit and the laborers in his kingdom who he sends to do his work.
Did you catch that? We are both the plants he wants to grow and the laborers who he sends out.
As his plants he wants us to grow into maturity so that we bare fruit and so profit the kingdom and the world around us. Now the best plants, those that are most hardy and bare the best fruit are the ones who encounter adversity, not the ones who have it easy. This is why gardeners prune their plants, they lop off new growth that is unnecessary so that the plant will put its energy into the growth that does matter. Depending on the plant the gardener may put it through a dry spell, or expose it to the wind so that it its roots grow deeper and its stem becomes stronger and more flexible. In this way when there is a real drought or a real wind the plant that has grown into maturity will not dry up for lack of water or snap or be uprooted when hit by the wind. In the same way that a gardener will tend its plants God tends us. Does the plant understand what why the gardener subjects it to pruning or dryness or the elements? Maybe that's a silly question. Of course not. Plants don't understand anything. But so to do we not understand when God prunes us, or puts us through a dry spell, or allows us to be exposed to the bitterness of the world. This is one of the ways that God will shock us, and when he does let us remember Peter, how he went up to a quiet place to pray and was obedient to the Lord even though he did not understand what was going to happen.
As his laborers God wants us to work in the fields so to speak. He wants us to plant seeds, tend crops, and bring in the harvest. I'll break from analogy for a second to explain what that means. There are people, all over the world, who either don't know or are resisting God's call in their lives, to be reconciled to God. He's done the work of redemption, where we failed, Jesus succeeded, what we lacked, Jesus provided, what rebellion we rise up against God, Jesus will forgive. Where we are entrapped by false ideas Jesus sets us free, where we are bitter Jesus can make us sweet, where we are damaged Jesus can restore us, where we are hard and cold, Jesus can make soft and warm, where we are dead, Jesus makes alive, where we are unloving, Jesus enables us to love. Jesus does the big work, but he still chooses to do it through us. We get to participate in God's working out of his redemptive work. For Peter, God had it in mind to use him in a new area. The Word of God and the goodness of Jesus was being preached to the Jews all over the place, but now it was to go also to the Gentiles, an entirely new frontier. Did Peter understand where he was going? Not at first, but after three visions, three visitors, and a direct call he finally got the picture. Did God equip him for the task and prepare the way for him? You bet He did!
Equipped how? Oh I don't know, how about living with Jesus, watching him, and listening to him for years, being a witness to everything that had happened, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and being the primary voice of the Apostles at this point to the Jews.
Prepare the way how? He sent an angel to Cornelius telling him to request Simon Peter in Jappa by name. Working in Cornelius' heart so that he already believed in God and would accept the good news that Peter would bring him. Mentally preparing Peter to go to the Gentiles by sending him 3 visions. This is not to mention the fact that they all got there without any problems.
If God sends us to do something, and he will, he equips us and prepares us and prepares the way for us, but where he sends us and what he wants us to do will shock us. If a younger Peter were told, God has chosen you to be his close personal friend while he walks on the Earth as Jesus and you will be his witness to the Jews and Gentiles about the salvation that God offers everyone in the world, he would think you've been out in the sun too long or maybe drinking salt water and go back to his fishing. God doesn't turn fishermen into world changing bannermen for his kingdom. Actually yes, yes he does. Fishermen and tax collectors and farmers and prostitutes and shepherds the lowest of the low called to incredible things. But not just the lowest in society, if Luke, the author of Acts and the Gospel that bares his name, could have been told that he would bare witness to God incarnate and that he would be one of the very few priveldged to chronicle his life and the amazing work of the Holy Spirit in the early Church what do you think he would say? What God had in mind was shocking, shocking beyond what was believable. Moses couldn't believe it when God told him that he was going to be God's messenger to Pharaoh and that he was going to lead the people of Israel out of Pharaoh's hand. Even Peter, having gone through everything with Jesus and having been the lead witness to the Jews was shocked that he would be sent to the Gentiles as well.
Now there's us. God has it in mind to use us for specific tasks in his kingdom. He is going to call us to go places and do things that we don't think we can do and if we could get a clear glimpse of those things beforehand they would shock us. God wants me to do what? He wants me to go where? I have to forgive what?! I am called to love who?! I have to do all this under those types of conditions!? Don't be surprised that God will surprise you in what he enables you to do but whatever he does call you to he enables you and prepares you and will look after you, it is our job to pray and obey.
The passage I want to cover is Acts 11:1-18. The events recorded here were a pivotal time in the beginning of the early Church. Jesus had been crucified, resurrected, and ascended into heaven. The apostles had received the Holy Spirit and had begun preaching in Jerusalem that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and that forgiveness of sins had been won by the blood of Jesus for all who put their faith in him. The Holy Spirit enabled them to speak with power and authority, performing miracles and driving out evil spirits. Many believed and the Holy Spirit moved among them convicting them of sin, provoking repentance, over filling them with joy and love for one another, and providing miraculous signs to the people. The Pharisees and teachers of the law who did not believe sought to crush the faith and persecuted the early church. Many believers fled the city taking the Gospel with them and so the Word of God spread among the Jews in every city and town throughout Judea and and the Mediterranean. Phillip preached the Gospel in Samaria and when the Samarians believed the Church sent Peter and John to lay hands on them and pray that they might receive the Holy Spirit, and they did! Saul, who spearheaded the persecution, had encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and was now also preaching in the name of Jesus and doing miracles. There were so many things going on it is as though the author of Acts can barely contain himself with recording it all. Peter received a vision to go to the home of Cornelius a Roman Centurion just as Cornelius receives a vision to specifically send for Peter, Peter comes to his house, preaches the Gospel, Cornelius and his family are overjoyed and believe and the Holy Spirit falls on them also and they are baptized. If you are a gentile then this is one of the most exciting points in the Bible. Now we have Acts 11:1-18.
Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?”18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
This is a very exciting story. God has poured out the Holy Spirit on both the Jews and the Gentiles, the Kingdom of God has become open to all people.
Let us go through the passage again, slowly now, and listen for what The Lord has for us today.
Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
This would have been confusing and possibly even unsettling news for the ancient Jews. They were God's chosen people, the promises and covenants of God were made to them, and up until this point any Gentile who wanted to participate in what was promised to the Jews would have to turn away from their pagan beliefs and become Jewish. In their understanding Jerusalem was supposed to be God's beacon to the world that the Gentiles would eventually acknowledge and come to.
The circumcision party were the nationalistic Jews who were following with what they thought God's plan was, that salvation would come to the world through the Jewish people and that the Gentiles would become Jews in order to participate in the Kingdom of the Jewish God. What Peter did, speaking with Cornelius, staying with him, and eating together with him was strictly against Jewish custom and Jewish law. The Jews were a holy people, set apart from the rest of the world, and they did not associate with non-Jews, especially a commander of the gentile nation currently occupying and oppressing the Jewish nation! This was part of following Torah, the law that God gave Israel through Moses and every Jew knew it. This was a breach in God's law and so the circumcision party were demanding an explanation, partly because of their nationalism, but I think also because they knew that you can not follow God by breaking his laws even if breaking his laws appears to benefit what God is doing.
Here is Peter's response:
4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.
Alright, so Peter begins his explanation by telling them that he was praying. He wasn't partying, he wasn't drinking, he wasn't sampling any weird herbs from foreign countries, he had gone up to the balcony on the roof to pray to God, and he saw a vision. It was commonly understood that God spoke through visions, although not all visions were from God. When the vision was going on Peter wasn't sure if it was from God or not. A sheet coming down from heaven with animals of every kind a voice telling him to kill and eat, that sounds like a pretty strange vision. It would have had special significance for a Jewish person though. God had commanded the ancient Israelites to only eat clean animals and every Jew was very aware of what they were allowed or not allowed to eat. But on this sheet coming down from heaven were both clean and unclean animals and the voice told Peter to kill and eat!
How strange. Why would God give Peter a vision where he is told to kill and eat what is forbidden for him to eat? Why would God tell him to do something that he had previously told him not to do? It's a theological conundrum and Peter protests, he calls out back to the voice saying "By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth." But the voice responds "what God has made clean, do not call common."
What does that mean? Was God telling Peter that he was changing the law he gave to Moses centuries ago? Was it now alright for Jews to eat pork and calamari? If so, why? That doesn't really sound like something God would do.
Once the sheet went back up to heaven you can bet that Peter was praying to God about the vision. "Um. Father? I just had this strange vision with a bunch of animals coming down from heaven and you told me to eat them because you had made them clean. Did you do that? Have I maybe been out in the sun too long? I am pretty hungry, maybe... Oh, oh. oh. It's coming back down now. It's the animals again..."
It happened a second time and then a third time and while Peter was still scratching his head and probably very confused and concerned he looked down and saw three men inquiring about him at the door of the house and he gets a clear message from the Holy Spirit that he needs to go with them and not make any distinction.
Now there are a lot of really interesting things going on here right now. Here's the first one. Imagine that you are Peter, you've had this confusing vision that you think is from God but it doesn't make any sense to you and now you get a clear message telling you to go with the people who are looking for him. Who are these people? What do they want? What does the vision have to do with this? Cornelius was a Roman commander, these could have very well have been soldiers and the early Christians were under persecution. And yet the Holy Spirit tells him to go and so he goes without really understanding why, only that he must. This is an example of faith in action. God's intentions are veiled from Peter, he doesn't understand what God is going to do or what God wants him to do, but he steps forward in faith anyway.
Second interesting point about this situation. The vision was shown to him not just once, not just twice, but three times. Why is this interesting? If you are praying to your Father in Heaven and you think you see or hear something that might be from him, it is good to continue praying about it because He has ways of reaffirming the message. In Peter's case he got the same vision three times in succession and then lo and behold there were three people at the door looking for him with a confirmation in his heart that he needs to go with them. This is very clear and tangible confirmation. This is the exception when God plunks the answer in front of us, yes it's from me. Often times the answer is confirmed as we read the Bible, talk with other Christians, listen to sermons, or confirmed within our hearts as we continue in prayer.
The third interesting point is that three is an important and recurring number. In the English language if we want to emphasize something we will put 'very' in front of it but in Hebrew they use the word over again. So if we were to time travel back to ancient Egypt during the plague of frogs we might say, "there is a big heap of frogs" or "there is a very big heap of frogs," and we know that this heap of frogs is exceptionally large. In the Hebrew language, the language that Peter grew up with as his native tongue, if you want to draw special attention to something you use the word twice over. So you if we spoke Hebrew we could say "there is a heap of frogs" and we imagine, you know, a small mound of dead frogs. If we said "no no, you don't understand, there is are heaps heaps of frogs," we might be a bit shocked. It's not just a heap of frogs, it's a piles of frogs stacked six feet high! But if we were to repeat the word three times, this is the absolute strongest most intensive possible use of a word of which there is no English equivalent. If we were to say "no, no, you still don't understand, there is a heap heap HEAP of frogs," then we paint a different picture entirely. All of Egypt is buried in frogs. This heap of frogs is so big you can see it from orbit. There will never be a heap of frogs bigger than this heap of frogs because all of the frogs are already in this heap of frogs. I exaggerate a bit but you get the idea, three times in succession is the highest emphasis you can give something in the Hebrew language.
The vision came down three times in succession so this signifies to Peter that it is very important and most definitely from God, even though he doesn't understand what it means yet. This is also the second time in the Book of Acts that Peter's story has been told, first in Acts 10:9-16 and also now again to refresh our memory and draw importance to it for us the readers. The author of Acts could have written that Peter explained his vision and moved on, but instead the vision is recounted in detail for the benefit of the reader.
Why? What is so important that God shows Peter three times and the author of Acts writes it down twice? Because God is about to do something incredible and extremely important for us to understand. Let's continue the story. Peter keeps going with his explanation.
These six brothers also accompanied me, (read: you're not going to believe this but these guys will back me up on it) and we entered the man's house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?”
Here it is! God poured out the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles just as he had the Jews at Pentecost! God does not distinguish between Jews and Gentiles. This was the meaning of the vision, this is what God had in mind all along but Peter didn't see it until it happened. Peter was initially opposed to this, but realized very quickly that he could not and ought not to try to stand in God's way. Now continuing on with verse 18.
18 When they heard these things they fell silent.
Now let's stop here for a moment. That God shows no distinction between Jews and Gentiles was a shocking revelation. The Jews were God's chosen people and the expectations and understanding surrounding that was just shattered. The Gentiles did not have to become Jews in order to share in God's redemptive work in the world. What a shock shock this must have been. God accepted the unclean people of the world, they didn't need to follow the dietary laws, or the cleansing laws or, know Torah, or be circumcised: the divine symbol of Jewishness. How humbling. The circumcision group thought that because they held strongly to the law of Moses that they held special privilege with God and that everyone else needed to become like them before they could have salvation, but God is not boxed in by their expectations and extends salvation to the Gentiles.
We might be tempted to despise the circumcision group but they had sensible and biblically grounded reasons to believe what they did, but just like Peter, they didn't understand the full picture at first. God had revealed that he would do this centuries before bring it about through the Torah, but they still didn't see it. Let's just take a brief visit to some of these places to see what God said about including the gentiles.
Genesis 18:18; 22:18
All the nations of the Earth will be blessed through Abraham; In your offspring all of the nations of the earth will be blessed because you obeyed my voice.
Exodus 20:10; 23:12; Deuteronomy 5:14
God's rest and God's special blessings were for the Jews, their servants, their livestock, as well as the strangers (read: Gentiles) who lived among them.
God's care for Gentiles who put their faith in him: Hagar, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth.
1 Chronicles 16:24
God's glory was to be declared among the nations.
The Psalms 22:27-28, 86:9, 108:3
All of the nations will worship God together, Gentiles and Jews together.
Isaiah 60:1-3
The glory of the Lord will arise as a light in Israel and the nations will be drawn to the light.
Hosea 2:23
"I will say to Not my People, you are my people, and they will answer, You are my God."
Jonah
God tells his prophet to preach to Nineveh, they repent and are saved... Nineveh!!! Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian people who plundered every nation, including Israel, and who tortured their victims and dragged men women and children away to be slaves. God had care for even Nineveh!
Joel 2:28-29
“And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
Even with all of these examples and more it never occurred to them that God would accept the Gentiles and it was a shock to them. They thought they understood the Word of God in its fullness but they did not, and what appeared to be a breach in God's law was actually God enacting his law in its fullness. Continuing on.
And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
Even though they don't understand, even though so much of what they held as their cultural and theological identity was suddenly flipped on its head. Some were probably like Peter, amazed, others were probably disappointed, and most were probably still confused. Even so they glorified God and accepted what God had done.
This is what happened just under 2000 years ago.
Now what about us today?
First Point
Peter's message to Cornelius is the same message given to all of us today, here is Peter's message in the chapter previous Acts 10:34-43.
34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea,beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Acts 10:34-43
Did you hear that? Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name! God's plans, his salvation, his forgiveness, the pouring out of his Holy Spirit, the participation within his Kingdom, the wholeness and goodness and fullness that only God can give us is freely given to you. Through Jesus' sacrifice God extends his arms out to you. The same message that Peter had for Cornelius is the same message extended to you right now. That God raised Jesus up from the dead and appointed him to be judge of the living and the dead, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name! If you believe this, if you make the decision to follow Jesus then he will give you the gift of the Holy Spirit to enliven you, direct you, assure you, teach you, and enable you to live as God intends you to live.
Today is the day of salvation, if you hear His voice do not harden your heat against it. If you are moved by this message, and you feel what you think might be God calling into your heart please don't let it be, find someone who knows what it means to follow Christ and have the Holy Spirit in their life and ask them how it works and how you can get it too.
Second point.
Israel usually didn't get what God was doing in their midst. Jesus' disciples usually didn't get what God was doing in their midst. The religious leaders who knew the Torah inside and out didn't understand what God was doing in their midst. Even Peter, upon whom God would found his Church, having been Jesus' close companion for years, now having within him the Holy Spirit, and receiving visions didn't understand what God was doing. But us today, we have had centuries to think about and discuss the Bible and we have the Holy Spirit within us, surely we can fair better than God's people in the past!
No. God's ways are still not our ways, and we need to cultivate a spirit of humility. God is always doing something new, something unexpected, something that we don't see or understand even though he gives us plenty of warning. The circumcision group thought that the Gentiles had to become just like them, and for a lot of reasons that were widely accepted by God's people at the time, but God was not restricted by their vision or understanding. Depending on the day, that could easily be us. In order to be a Christian you need to... what? Dress a certain way? Speak a certain way? Hold certain political opinions? Exhibit a spiritual sign like speaking in tongues or blessings of health and wealth? Go to church on Sunday and read your Bible? (Both good things by the way) Need to be part of our denomination? Need to not do sin X,Y, or Z? We have all sorts of pre-conceived notions about who can be in and who is out. But do you know what? God doesn't care. He calls who he calls and his call goes out to every person which means that every person could potentially accept Christ and rightly be a Christian brother or sister.
Now how does this work? I'm not going to go into specifics to define the line between whether a person is a believer or a non-believer, that's a topic for another day. What I am saying is that we need to be prepared to welcome believers of every walk of life. Be prepared to work alongside believers of different social-economic status or who dress differently or who are part of different denominations or whose personal sin that they deal with is different than the personal sin that you deal with. The Jews were shocked when God included the Gentiles, we will be shocked when God includes others in our midst, it is inevitable. People who do the wrong things, think the wrong things, dress the wrong way, who don't know or appreciate how we do things. If God calls them, and they join, we must not stand in God's way, we must welcome them in the name of Christ of whom they have believed.
When it comes to who can be in God's Kingdom, right now, it is a free for all. Anyone and everyone can join. This does not mean that any and all behavior is appropriate for the citizen's of God's kingdom, but regardless of who you are today or what you have done, the invitation is open to you.
Now a word of how a follower of Jesus should behave, there are several locations in the New Testament that specifically address this, we will cover them very briefly. Jesus preached a number of topics such as the repentance of sin, hatred, sexual immorality, greed, and hypocrisy. The early Church in Jerusalem provided basic guidelines for how the new Gentile Christians ought to conduct themselves. The Apostle Paul wrote that we are to live according to the Spirit, which is the will of God and life to us, and resist the flesh, that is our earthly base desires that are sinful. Peter, James, and John also wrote on the topic. While each location is a bit different on the surface they all point back to Jesus and they all agree and intersect without conflict. This is not the topic of the sermon and so I am not going to go into specifics except to say that as citizens of God's Kingdom we must submit to the King's will. There are some things that the Bible explicitly identifies as against God's will such as lying, theft, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, greedy, hate, bitterness, etc. These are things that every denomination within the Church today can basically agree on. There are other things that there is continuous debate on and different denominations and even different churches will draw the lines in different places as their attempt to be God's Kingdom citizens within their time and area. So the questions of "is it ok to drink alcohol? is it ok to gamble? and even what exactly qualifies as 'sexual immorality'? may get you different answers depending on which Christian tradition you ask. But now we've run far afield.
Here's the point to take home. God calls everyone and even though we are not in a 1st century Jewish context the sort of people God calls will shock us but if we want to continue participating in what God is doing, you know, the purpose and privilege of being a part of God's Kingdom, then we must welcome them and work with them. This doesn't mean that their are no expectations for how new Christians ought to act but it does mean that God calls all types, even the types we wouldn't pick for whatever reason.
Third Point
Despite our best efforts though God will still shock us. We can be like Peter, spending time in prayer and seeking the Lord's will day by day or like the Circumcision group resting on the faith we grew up with when all of a sudden God calls us into something that we don't understand. This could be a word from God, it could be a situation we find ourselves in, or a new realization that we are uncomfortable with. God is in the business of growing things and we are both the plants that he wants to grow and bare fruit and the laborers in his kingdom who he sends to do his work.
Did you catch that? We are both the plants he wants to grow and the laborers who he sends out.
As his plants he wants us to grow into maturity so that we bare fruit and so profit the kingdom and the world around us. Now the best plants, those that are most hardy and bare the best fruit are the ones who encounter adversity, not the ones who have it easy. This is why gardeners prune their plants, they lop off new growth that is unnecessary so that the plant will put its energy into the growth that does matter. Depending on the plant the gardener may put it through a dry spell, or expose it to the wind so that it its roots grow deeper and its stem becomes stronger and more flexible. In this way when there is a real drought or a real wind the plant that has grown into maturity will not dry up for lack of water or snap or be uprooted when hit by the wind. In the same way that a gardener will tend its plants God tends us. Does the plant understand what why the gardener subjects it to pruning or dryness or the elements? Maybe that's a silly question. Of course not. Plants don't understand anything. But so to do we not understand when God prunes us, or puts us through a dry spell, or allows us to be exposed to the bitterness of the world. This is one of the ways that God will shock us, and when he does let us remember Peter, how he went up to a quiet place to pray and was obedient to the Lord even though he did not understand what was going to happen.
As his laborers God wants us to work in the fields so to speak. He wants us to plant seeds, tend crops, and bring in the harvest. I'll break from analogy for a second to explain what that means. There are people, all over the world, who either don't know or are resisting God's call in their lives, to be reconciled to God. He's done the work of redemption, where we failed, Jesus succeeded, what we lacked, Jesus provided, what rebellion we rise up against God, Jesus will forgive. Where we are entrapped by false ideas Jesus sets us free, where we are bitter Jesus can make us sweet, where we are damaged Jesus can restore us, where we are hard and cold, Jesus can make soft and warm, where we are dead, Jesus makes alive, where we are unloving, Jesus enables us to love. Jesus does the big work, but he still chooses to do it through us. We get to participate in God's working out of his redemptive work. For Peter, God had it in mind to use him in a new area. The Word of God and the goodness of Jesus was being preached to the Jews all over the place, but now it was to go also to the Gentiles, an entirely new frontier. Did Peter understand where he was going? Not at first, but after three visions, three visitors, and a direct call he finally got the picture. Did God equip him for the task and prepare the way for him? You bet He did!
Equipped how? Oh I don't know, how about living with Jesus, watching him, and listening to him for years, being a witness to everything that had happened, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and being the primary voice of the Apostles at this point to the Jews.
Prepare the way how? He sent an angel to Cornelius telling him to request Simon Peter in Jappa by name. Working in Cornelius' heart so that he already believed in God and would accept the good news that Peter would bring him. Mentally preparing Peter to go to the Gentiles by sending him 3 visions. This is not to mention the fact that they all got there without any problems.
If God sends us to do something, and he will, he equips us and prepares us and prepares the way for us, but where he sends us and what he wants us to do will shock us. If a younger Peter were told, God has chosen you to be his close personal friend while he walks on the Earth as Jesus and you will be his witness to the Jews and Gentiles about the salvation that God offers everyone in the world, he would think you've been out in the sun too long or maybe drinking salt water and go back to his fishing. God doesn't turn fishermen into world changing bannermen for his kingdom. Actually yes, yes he does. Fishermen and tax collectors and farmers and prostitutes and shepherds the lowest of the low called to incredible things. But not just the lowest in society, if Luke, the author of Acts and the Gospel that bares his name, could have been told that he would bare witness to God incarnate and that he would be one of the very few priveldged to chronicle his life and the amazing work of the Holy Spirit in the early Church what do you think he would say? What God had in mind was shocking, shocking beyond what was believable. Moses couldn't believe it when God told him that he was going to be God's messenger to Pharaoh and that he was going to lead the people of Israel out of Pharaoh's hand. Even Peter, having gone through everything with Jesus and having been the lead witness to the Jews was shocked that he would be sent to the Gentiles as well.
Now there's us. God has it in mind to use us for specific tasks in his kingdom. He is going to call us to go places and do things that we don't think we can do and if we could get a clear glimpse of those things beforehand they would shock us. God wants me to do what? He wants me to go where? I have to forgive what?! I am called to love who?! I have to do all this under those types of conditions!? Don't be surprised that God will surprise you in what he enables you to do but whatever he does call you to he enables you and prepares you and will look after you, it is our job to pray and obey.