The Gospel For All

5.15.16

In Acts chapter nine we read about Peter and his travels. He visits believers throughout Israel to encourage them, pray with them, and in one case raise them from the dead. He is on a high in his ministry. He is a rock star of sorts, traveling and in demand. He is requested in Joppa where he stays with Simon the tanner. While he is there, God is moving in the heart of another man, Cornelius the Centurion. Acts chapter ten opens with Cornelius in prayer and a visit from an angel. The interaction between Cornelius and Peter provides a number of valuable lessons for us.

1. God initiates the spread of the gospel.

One day at about three in the afternoon he [Cornelius] had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”
Acts 10:3

This angel directs Cornelius to send for Peter who is in Joppa staying at Simon the tanner's house. God's directive begins a shift in focus for the early church - from Jewish/Jerusalem focused to Gentile/world focused. Cornelius obeys and sends for Peter.

2. New covenant, new rules. 

He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” 
Acts 10:11-13

Meanwhile back at the tanner's house...

Peter is tired and goes to lay down as he waits for supper to be prepared. While he is laying there he enters a trance and is challenged with a vision from heaven of previously "impure or unclean" animals to eat. The animals are presented on a sheet that is lowered into Peter's view from heaven. The voice from heaven tells Peter to not be so quick to judge these things as unclean, and that since God created them, they are now permissible. God is preparing Peter for a paradigm shift in his theology. The vision concludes with verification that he is to travel with the men coming to invite him to visit Cornelius. 

3. God can use even our reluctant obedience. 

You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. 

Acts 10:28-29

Peter, filled with some sense of self importance perhaps, and a sense of Jewish superiority in spiritual matters, reluctantly visits at the home of this Gentile. He announces this to the people waiting for him at the house of Cornelius. In this exchange, where Cornelius explains why he called for Peter, a directive from an angel, Cornelius is expectant of a word from God. Cornelius is so confident, that it says he called all of his household to hear from Peter.  These two men could not be more different. One, a Jewish fisherman, the other a trained and cultured Roman Italian Centurion. But it is the Roman, the pagan, the gentile, that is expectant of God and what He will do. The apostle, the follower, Peter, is reluctant to come and has apparently little to no expectations for the exchange. 

4. Peter realizes that the gospel of Jesus is for everyone. 

Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. 

Acts 10:34-35

Peter is humbled. It's not the first time. Sure not to be the last. His eyes are opened to the thing that God was showing him at the house in Joppa with the sheet and the directive to not call things (or people groups) unclean. It changes the game so to speak. Peter, a disciple of Jesus and founding father of the church is breaking new ground with this visit. 

Takeaway From Today

We must be prepared to accept others who are different into the church. 

We will interact with people that are similar to us. We will interact with people who are vastly different. In all, we will have to learn that the church is not for just us "saved" people, but for the broken, socially challenged, culturally different lost people of the world. We must be open to the idea that not everyone in the church or in heaven will act, look, and be like us. God is a god of diversity (look at nature), and his church will be too.