Acts 10:17-18 The Divine Blueprint of Salvation

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Pastor Steve Cooley, Acts 10:17-18 The Divine Blueprint of Salvation

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Well, we are at that week where every year I'm tempted to say, open your Bibles to the book of Numbers as we wander through the wilderness together.
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But only some of us will be wandering through the wilderness. Please take a Bible and open it to Acts chapter 10,
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Acts chapter 10. And just by way of warning, this is a part one of a two -part message.
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As I started working through this, I thought, there's no way I'm getting through. I wanted to, but there's no way
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I'm getting through all this. I'd have to skim over too much. So in preparing for this,
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I thought, you know what? I'm talking a lot about Jews and Gentiles, and some of us may not be familiar with what
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Jews today might believe. So I did what any self -respecting person would do, I searched for it online.
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And I found this interesting because it's a question between a Jewish woman and a rabbi.
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And she says, I'm a secular Jew, and I'm afraid of going to hell.
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And I thought, I already like this. This is good. She says, what does the
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Torah, which is the first five books of the Old Testament, say about hell? And will
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I go there simply because I don't observe the Sabbath, Jewish holidays, or the laws of kosher?
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In other words, I'm not really doing anything religious. She says, all in all,
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I think I'm a very decent human being. But of course, what? Nobody is perfect.
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So she put the ball on the tee. She said, rabbi, give it to me.
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Here's his answer. I hope you don't mind if I take issue with your first few words.
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You write that you are a secular Jew. I don't believe there is any such a thing.
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Now notice what he said there first. I want to stop here for just a second. I don't believe, what's he saying?
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In my opinion, not according to God's word, but in my opinion, there's no such thing.
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You see, the word secular means mundane or unsacred.
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A Jew, by definition, is holy. And you are just as Jewish as me.
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Your great -grandfather and Moses. In other words, you're as Jewish as anybody could possibly be.
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Perhaps not as observant, but just as Jewish. I truly mean that.
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I'm sure you're a great person. You probably live an ethical life and do many acts of kindness.
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You have done much to express your innate holiness. In other words, what you are on the inside, your inner holiness shines forth in what you do.
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Well, there's some truth to that. The problem is, she doesn't have any inner holiness. She has inner sinfulness.
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He says, the rabbi goes on and he says, that's exactly why you grow so much through taking on, or why you can grow so much, through taking on a few new mitzvot.
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A few new works of religion, religious duties. You can take your being a decent human being infinitely higher.
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Your goodness will be instilled with a godly touch. You write that you are not perfect, but then again, as you say yourself, no one is.
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And that's exactly why Judaism is not an all or nothing religion. It treasures the power of a single act.
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So I challenge you to take on one new mitzvah, religious duty. It's a mitzvah that happens only once a week, so it's not going to be too much.
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It takes only a minute, but it is powerful and you will find that its effect is profound.
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So what is this one religious duty that he wants her to take on? Jewish women have the special commandment to light the
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Sabbath candles each Friday afternoon. It brings light, holiness, peace and tranquility into the home.
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Give it a try. Check out our Sabbath candle lighting wizard for more information about the special mitzvah.
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And he concludes with this, now to address your question about hell, this is the essence of it, right?
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I have a soul. I want to say pastor, rabbi, I want to make sure
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I'm not going to hell. Rabbi says, you're probably expecting me to depict a haunting scene of ghosts and goblins, but the
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Jewish concept of heaven and hell cannot be more different than the description found in medieval
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Christian texts or cartoons. Yes, Judaism believes in punishment and reward in the afterlife.
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But in Judaism, hell is temporary. Hell is a therapy, not an imprisonment.
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Hell is a consequence, not a punishment. Hell is a washing machine, not a furnace.
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What does that sound like? Purgatory. That's what I thought too. Then he says, sound interesting.
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Click here to read all about this topic. Yeah, okay. Yours truly, rabbi, blah, blah, blah, blah. Is he right?
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Of course we know the answer is no. But I think in his response, we see some of the problems that eventually
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Peter is going to have to deal with by the power of the Holy Spirit. Please take your Bible if you've not already done so.
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I'm going to open to Acts chapter 10 and I'm going to read verses 17 to 35, 17 to 35.
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We won't get all the way to the end of the chapter today. We'll do that next week.
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Acts chapter 10 verse 17. Now, while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood at the gates and called out to ask whether Simon, who was called
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Peter, was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering the vision, the
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Spirit said to him, behold, three men are looking for you.
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Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.
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And Peter went down to the men and said, I'm the one you were looking for. What is the reason for your coming?
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And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God -fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole
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Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.
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So he invited them in to be his guests. The next day he rose and went away with them.
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And some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. And on the following day, they they entered
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Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
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When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him.
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But Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up, I too am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered.
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And he said to them, You yourselves do not or you yourselves know how unlawful it is for a
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Jew to associate with or to visit any one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should call that I should not call any person common or unclean.
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So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I asked them why you sent for me.
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And Cornelius said, Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour.
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And behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.
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Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon a tanner by the sea.
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So I sent for you at once and you have been kind enough to come. Now, therefore, we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the
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Lord. So Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly, I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
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Two weeks ago, we began what really is the longest single narrative, the longest single story in the book of Acts.
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And it contains all of Acts chapter 10 and continues to verse 18 and chapter 11.
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And the first 16 verses of chapter 10, we saw two God given visions to help us to understand how
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God sovereignly ordained the church to contain both Jews and Gentiles.
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He gives Cornelius a vision and then Peter a vision, Cornelius, a
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God fearing Roman. And as these three, as those three were traveling, Peter received a vision of a sheep being lowered.
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And on that sheep was virtually every kind of creature that's on the land or in the air.
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And Peter was told to rise, kill and eat. And if you recall,
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Peter's offended by this. He says, by no means, Lord, he doesn't want any part of it. Why?
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Because his whole life, he's never eaten anything non -kosher. This just seems like a bridge too far.
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This goes against everything in him. His conscience won't let him do that.
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So the vision is repeated three times. If you recall,
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I said something roughly about like this. The apostles had an understanding of what
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Jesus wanted them to do in the Great Commission. When he said that they were to go to all the nations, they thought they were just going to pick out the
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Jews. And if you think about what they had been doing so far, that's kind of what they'd been doing. I mean, there was the mission of the
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Samaritans. But that was kind of an asterisk because Philip had gone and proselytized these people before they went.
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If you recall, even the God -fearing Ethiopian eunuch.
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Again, Philip, not the apostles. There was really no program for reaching
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Gentiles. Because they've been taught since birth to avoid the
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Gentiles. So what we see in this text is the
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God of salvation was going to refine their understanding through Peter the apostle.
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About what the Great Commission really meant. This is really an amazing passage.
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Not only will we see next week the salvation of many Gentiles. But we will see the
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Holy Spirit guiding and teaching Peter in a way that's very unique. And it's not a stretch, really, to say that this passage impacts everybody in this room.
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If I were to ask a show of hands, how many Gentiles do we have here today?
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I won't ask, but I know. How can you know that, Jude? It's true, right?
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I mean, I'm a Gentile. I think most of us are probably Gentiles. But left to their own devices, the apostles may well have limited the mission field to Jews and Jewish proselytes.
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The idea of going out and reaching out to the Gentiles did not come easily to them.
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And we're going to see this developed over the next few chapters, really. And while this particular conversion event is not typical, there are some lessons for us.
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Let me give you a simple outline this morning. Super simple, like last week was super simple.
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We had two visions. This morning we have two meetings. We have a first meeting and a second meeting. I thought long and hard about that, but that's what
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I came up with. Big picture. This is divinely orchestrated so that the message of the gospel gets preached to a group of Gentiles who believe and forever change the church of Jesus Christ.
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It goes from being small -ish and Jewish to being much bigger, broader, and more
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Gentile. Now, Jews still get saved, but so do Gentiles.
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So, the first meeting. And for this, for the first meeting, I have seven
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Ps, seven Ps, and then six As. Don't ask me why. It just so worked out that way.
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So, first P, perplexed Peter, because that's right in the text. Look at verse 17.
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Now, while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision he had seen might mean.
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We just think about, he sees this sheet coming down out of heaven. He sees all these animals and these birds and,
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I suppose, bugs, every creature on it. Kind of, as I described it last week, sort of Noah's Ark on a sheet sort of thing.
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What's he supposed to do with that? Rise, kill, and eat. Do not, you know, declare unclean what
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I've said is clean. But what is he supposed to do with that information? You know, is this some sort of invitation to go out and kill something?
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Go hunting, get your bow and arrow, and let's go? So, from Peter's perspective, this vision does not seem very applicable.
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What's the takeaway? So, he's sitting there after this vision, says, inwardly perplexed.
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He's sort of just thinking, going, I don't understand what this means. He doesn't know what to do.
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Second P, persons at the gate, persons at the gate. While he's thinking about this, while he's trying to figure out what the application of this is.
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Second part of verse 17. Kind of porch area of the house.
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These men from Caesarea arrive, again, as I said, two of Cornelius' servants and a devout soldier.
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One who believes in Yahweh. He's kind of in the same boat as Cornelius. He's not a
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Jewish proselyte. In other words, he hasn't been circumcised, but he believes in God. And essentially, they're standing outside the house, and they just start, you know, hello, is
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Peter there? We've come to see Peter. Third P, personal instruction.
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This is really amazing on a couple of levels. Verse 19, and while Peter was pondering the vision, he's sitting there thinking about what he's seen.
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The spirit said to him, behold, three men are looking for you.
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Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them. This is wild.
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Because what would you think would happen if somebody comes to your house and knocks on the door, or rings the doorbell?
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Now, if you have a dog, you know, the dog starts barking right away. But if you have kids or whatever, somebody says, dad, mom, somebody's at the door.
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So in this case, what would we expect? We're at Simon the Tanner's house. Somebody comes out and says, hey, we're looking for Simon Peter.
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Is he here? You would think one of the servants would come in and go, hey, Peter, people are here looking for you.
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That's not what happened. The Holy Spirit handles this really mundane task.
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He tells him, these men are downstairs waiting for you. Now, this is not something within Peter.
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It's not his intuition. It's not his gut. He doesn't have this inner voice kind of telling him, you know, maybe
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I should go check the front door. This is the Holy Spirit communicating directly with Peter.
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The Holy Spirit tells Peter to trust these men, to go with them.
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They're not here by accident, by happenstance. They're not
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Avon representatives. They're here by divine appointment. The Holy Spirit sent them.
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And what sense did he send them? Well, he told the messenger, the angel who went and saw
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Cornelius. So this is from the Holy Spirit. And the
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Holy Spirit tells Peter to go with these men without hesitation. Now, that's kind of scary.
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Three dudes show up at your door and you just go with them. No matter where they're going, no matter what they say, go with them.
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Don't hesitate. Just go. Verses 1 to 16,
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God gave Peter and Cornelius different visions in order to bring these men together.
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And this is the first step of doing this. The three men from Cornelius come to see
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Peter. Peter's told to go with them. Fourth P, Peter's inquiry is questioned.
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Peter went down to the men, so he obeys the Holy Spirit. He goes downstairs. And he says,
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I am the one you are looking for. Now, if we just think about what Peter would do,
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I mean, just on the night when Jesus was arrested. People come up to him and say, you know, are you one of Jesus' disciples?
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I don't know who you're talking about. I don't know anything about him. Peter, without even being asked, because he's been told by the
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Holy Spirit, says, I'm the one you're looking for. It's me. No kind of misdirection, no denial, just it's me.
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And then he says, what is the reason for your coming? And he asked them, why are you here?
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Then our fifth P, the party replies. And they said,
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Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God -fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole
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Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.
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Now, we have an advantage because we're reading this narrative. We know what Luke is telling us. We know that Cornelius has had this vision.
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Peter doesn't know about it. Now he does. But before this, he didn't. All he knew was that the
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Holy Spirit told him to go downstairs after he's had this vision. But right away, just from what they've told him, he would know this about Cornelius, that he's a
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Gentile, which means non -Jew, right? He's a
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Roman centurion, a man in charge of between one and 600 soldiers. He's upright and God -fearing, meaning that he knows of Yahweh and believes in him, but he's not been circumcised.
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He's got a good reputation with the Jews of Caesarea, which right away should give
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Peter a little bit more of peace. I mean, God told him to do it, but he's got this good reputation.
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Who would brag about that? The answer is you wouldn't. As a
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Gentile, you wouldn't brag about it unless it was true. He's also someone, Cornelius is, someone who's visited by an angel.
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I don't suppose there are probably a whole lot of people roaming around that have had angelic visits, right?
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So you hear about somebody who has been visited by an angel, who's got a message from an angel, and I think that would probably lower any threshold of fear that Peter might have had.
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In fact, if I were
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Peter and knowing Peter, you know, just a little bit via the scripture,
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I would think he's getting pretty excited right now, realizing that God is leading him on an adventure the likes of which he's never been on.
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He's got a divine imperative to do this, and he knows that when he gets to where he's going, there's going to be somebody there who wants to hear the gospel.
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How many times have you ever thought to yourself, you know, I'm going to a family gathering. I'm going to some kind of meeting in town.
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I wonder if there's going to be somebody there who wants to hear the gospel. Peter doesn't have to wonder. Cornelius wants to hear what he has to say.
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This is a preacher's dream. Give it to me. This is, you know, Bob Muto, just like, whoa, somebody really wants to hear the gospel.
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Sixth P. Putting up the Gentiles. Not putting up with, but putting up the
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Gentiles. Look at verse 23. So he invited them in to be his guests. Now you think this is no big deal.
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They show up and, you know, come on in. But there's a few problems here. First of all, this isn't
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Peter's house. Some of you people probably would like to invite people to stay at my house, but this is, this is a little, it's a little different.
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So we, I mean, it's not in the text here, but we have to assume that Simon the
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Tanner is okay with this. But the
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Jews spend so much time back then, or they spent so much time, making sure they did not become unclean through their contact with the
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Gentiles. They didn't eat with them. That was pretty much not possible at all.
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They didn't spend a lot of time socializing with them. I mean, imagine it would be like if you worked with a
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Jew, let's say, at the factory. There were no factories back then, so it's a bad example, but I'll use it anyway.
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At lunchtime, they wouldn't hang out with you. And if you said, hey, let's go out and grab something after work.
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No. Can you and your wife come over for dinner? No. Why? Because they didn't want to become unclean.
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They didn't want to eat food that was unclean. So when
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Peter invites these men to spend the night, he's really crossing a line. And we know he's crossing a line, because in Acts 10, 14, he says,
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Peter said, by no means, Lord, for I've never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And he never had fellowship like this with Gentiles.
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It would be uncomfortable, were it not for the circumstances and for the word of the
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Holy Spirit. And looking ahead at Acts chapter 11, verses 2 and 3, this is how some of the
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Jews, when Peter goes to Jerusalem, how some of the Jews respond to his report.
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Listen to this, verses 2 and 3 of chapter 11. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party, the legalists, criticized him saying, you went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.
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I mean, this is just like, you can't be with us. You can't be around here.
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You're unclean. And our final
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P, pathfinding to Caesarea, because I couldn't figure out how to say they just went to Caesarea. So they're traveling to Caesarea pathfinding.
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Look at the second part of verse 23. The next day he rose and went away with them.
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And some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. So Peter goes with these three
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Gentiles and he takes some brothers with him. Now, when I read that, you know, my first thought was, well,
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OK, maybe Peter is a little bit nervous. Maybe he's taking some brothers for protection. You know,
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I want to make sure we have equal numbers or whatever. I mean, there's a soldier here. I don't know these guys.
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Why did they go? Well, they're protection of a sort, but they're really witnesses.
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Why? Because there were going to be, Peter knew that people were going to have questions about this.
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His Jewish brothers and sisters were going to have problems with this. How many are some?
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Well, we know from the next chapter, it's six. That's verse 12 of Acts chapter 11.
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So six brothers go with him on this short term mission back to Caesarea.
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So that's the first meeting. Just these three men and Peter in Joppa.
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The second meeting. And as I said, I have six A's for this.
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Six A's. One for each in the Eberendorff family. So first, first day, assembling the congregation, assembling the congregation.
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Verse 24. And on the following day, they entered
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Caesarea. So they pretty much would have traveled and had to spend a night somewhere and then traveled and arrived on the next day in Caesarea.
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Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
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Simon Kistemacher said this. Evidently, he, Cornelius, has lived many years in Caesarea for his extended family has come to reside there.
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He has been able to build up many lasting friendships with residents in the area.
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All these people respond to his invitation to meet Simon Peter and hear him proclaim
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Christ's gospel. Now, I would take issue with the latter because he doesn't quite know it's going to be the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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But he does know that God has a special message for them. And it's coming via Peter.
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Now, for a moment, just imagine being Cornelius. For years, you've kind of been on the outside of Judaism looking in.
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You participated in a lot of the meetings at the synagogue and whatnot. You believe in the
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God of Israel. You love the Jewish people. You like their customs. And you have a good reputation with them.
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But you've never been fully engaged because you're not circumcised. You can't do that. And I think that has to do with his being a
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Roman soldier. But you have questions as you study the Old Testament or as you hear about this
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Messiah. You think, well, who is the Messiah? Can I know him?
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Can my sins be forgiven once for all? And I think it's not very speculative to think that's the kind of prayer that Cornelius was making when he receives that vision.
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And that's why this is an answer to prayer. But now,
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Cornelius has received this angelic visit. God has heard your prayers. And he's essentially sending
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Peter to your home. And of course, you tell your friends and family, I mean, this is significant.
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This is exciting. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Can you imagine you get visited by an angel and you don't tell anybody?
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Well, first of all, you won't get visited by an angel. But secondly, if you did, you'd want to tell people.
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So he tells all his family and his friends and they all come. Our second
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A is arise. Arise, as in get up. Look at verse 25.
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When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter lifted him, saying,
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Stand up. I, too, am a man. Cornelius was a man of import, of stature.
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He had served in the Italian cohort for many years. Why did he fall down at Peter's feet and worship him?
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You know, was there a glow about Peter? Did he think, you know, I'm in the presence of somebody awesome?
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Did he think maybe that Peter was the Messiah? Text doesn't tell us.
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But I think it's safe to say that it's a combination of excitement. He's invited everybody. Everybody's there.
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And how do you greet someone that an angel told you to go get?
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Be kind of exciting. And I just think it's it was pretty overwhelming to him. So he he goes down and he and he prostrates himself.
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He worships him. Peter is more than a little uneasy, and he tells Cornelius to get up.
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I mean, it's almost as if you could see him like wanting to turn to the three guys that he came down with and said,
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I thought you said that Cornelius was God fearing. I thought you said that he was upright.
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Look how he's worshipping me. What is wrong with you guys? It feels very much like idolatry, like he is worshipping me.
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In fact, the new English translation says this about it or translates it this way.
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Stand up. I, too, am a mere mortal. And I thought that's good.
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Because what Peter's doing is saying, Cornelius, you and I are on the same plane. We're the same.
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I'm going to die just like you are going to die. I put my robe on one sleeve at a time, just like you do.
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Because they didn't put on pants, so I couldn't say pants one leg at a time. It's robe one arm at a time.
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I sin just like you. I struggle just like you. Stand up.
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Our third C, assessing the room, assessing the room. Notice how he greets everybody in verse 27.
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And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered.
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He goes into this room. You just think, you know, if you're Peter, what are you expecting?
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Well, you're expecting Cornelius and maybe some staff and whatnot there. I don't think
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Peter was expecting quite the crowd he got there. This is the Thursday, and let's just call it a church meeting.
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And he walks into essentially what is a packed house. It's, you know, standing room only.
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What do you do when you walk into a situation like that? I mean, the only thing I could really compare it to is you walk into a funeral beforehand.
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Sorry. And I do what Pastor Mike taught me to do.
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I try to smile a lot. Meet as many folks as I can before the service. Why?
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Because after the service, they might not like you. I can think of some funerals right here where the only people who would even look at me afterward were the saints who came here from BBC.
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Even though I thought, I remember one occasion, I'm just preaching away and I'm thinking to myself,
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I don't normally think about this, but I just thought, man, I like the way this is sounding, Steve. You said really compassionate.
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I mean, I'm talking to myself while I'm preaching and I'm thinking, this is really good. I like this. I'd like to listen to this. Believe me,
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I don't think like that most of the time. And like 90 % of the people would not even look at me as I was going out.
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But the people from BBC were kind and gave me a hug and everything. One person in particular, but I don't need to go down that road.
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But it was very sweet the way the saints were. But if I were
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Peter, I'd work the room, so to speak. I'd go around and meet people, smile and be friendly.
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Why? Because you don't know how it's going to go after that. What did
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Peter do? In the beginning, I get a little nervous for him.
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You know, it's funny. You're reading a book and you're reading the Bible and you think, I don't know. I'm a little nervous for this character.
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Verse 28. And he said to them, you yourselves know how unlawful it is for a
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Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation. What's he saying?
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It's kind of like, you know what, guys? I'm really not supposed to be here. You guys know this.
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You guys know it's forbidden for me to hang out with people like you. And it's almost like,
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OK, Peter, do you really want to go there? You know, it's starting to sound like, you know, the
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Peter with the foot -shaped mouth again. Then these two blessed words, but God.
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When you see that, you know, whether it's in Ephesians 2 or whether it's here, you know that something really good is going to happen.
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This is the way you would typically think things are supposed to be, that, you know, it's unlawful, that I shouldn't be here, that I shouldn't associate with people like you.
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But God has told me I should not call any person common or unclean.
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God has leveled the playing field. God has made it fine for me to be here.
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And the audience that day would have known because they've experienced all these things. They've known that Jews and Gentiles do not socialize because the
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Jews are afraid of becoming unclean. Peter's gone from being inwardly perplexed to now applying that vision.
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It's clicked in. He understands now. It's not really ultimately about the animals.
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It's about Jews and Gentiles being brought together into what, at this point, is almost entirely a
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Jewish church. Paul is known as the apostle to the
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Gentiles. Peter is known as the apostle to the Jews.
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But Peter's the first one to reach across the aisle, as it were, to reconcile with the
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Gentiles. The apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, wrote this in Ephesians 2, verse 13 to 19.
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And you can go over there if you want. Ephesians 2, verses 13 to 19. He said,
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But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off.
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He's talking to Gentiles. Far off in what sense? Far removed from God.
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Far removed from the law of God. Having no law other than the law that's written on your heart, right?
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You didn't have the written law. You were far off. He says, Have been brought near to God, implied by the blood of Christ.
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Verse 14, For he himself is our peace. Jesus is our peace.
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Our vertical peace. That is to say, our peace with God. Paul goes on to say,
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Who has made us both one. The Jews and the Gentiles. One. Has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall.
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The veil rent in the temple is the symbol of it. The law of God. The dividing law which separated
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Jew and Gentile. Made it impossible for Jews to socialize, to eat.
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To have harmony with the Gentiles. Interesting.
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Dividing wall of hostility, right? How do we know it's the law? Look at verse 15.
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By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. Not the ten commandments.
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Those are the eternal moral law that reflect the. Not only the authority, but the character and nature of God.
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But all of these little things that made the
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Jews unique. And separated them from the nations around them. Says by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances.
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That he, that is to say Christ, might create in himself. In Christ. One new man in place of the two.
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In other words, one new body. In the place of two.
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No longer Jew and Gentile, but Christians. The church. So making peace.
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Horizontal peace. Peace between Jews and Gentiles. And might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.
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Thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace. I mean, how many times do you hear peace here?
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So it's over and over and over again. Back to verse 15. One new man in place of the two.
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So making peace. And might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross. Thereby killing the hostility.
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And he came and preached peace to you who were far off. And peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one spirit to the
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Father. So then you Gentiles, church at Ephesus.
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Are no longer strangers and aliens. But you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
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This is what Christ has done. Back to Acts chapter 10.
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What else was Peter doing here? He greets all the people. And then he questions Cornelius.
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Verse 29, the second half of it. I asked then why you sent for me? Well, he knows that an angel told him to do that.
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But maybe why is it that Cornelius couldn't go to Joppa? Why? Because he wants to hear.
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Cornelius wants to hear what he has to say. But Cornelius answers with our fourth
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A. Which is again the vision. A repeat of the vision. I won't spend a lot of time here.
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In verses 30 to 32. And Cornelius said four days ago. About this hour.
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I was praying in my house at the ninth hour. And behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing.
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And said, Cornelius. Your prayer has been heard. And your alms have been remembered before God.
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Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon. Who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon.
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A tanner by the sea. So just to wrap up the timeline here.
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It seems Cornelius had a vision on Monday. And this was Thursday. By Middle Eastern reckoning.
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As with the resurrection. He's crucified on Friday. Spends part of Friday.
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All of Saturday. And then only a portion of Sunday in the tomb. It's three days. Same thing here.
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Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. That's four days. This is Thursday. The rest of this is a repeat of what we already know.
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But why are you here? Because that's what the angel told me to do. I was obedient to what the angel told me to do.
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Fifth day. Attention secured. Verse 33. So I sent for you at once.
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And you've been kind enough to come. Now therefore, we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the
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Lord. This is so good. Church on Thursday. Everybody wants to hear what the man of God has to say.
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The room is full of people eager to hear Peter. Not his rambling.
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But they believe what God has commanded him to say. It's as if Cornelius says, just kind of sits back and says, preach it preacher.
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Get on with it. Our sixth and last day.
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All are welcome in the body of Christ. All are welcome in the body of Christ.
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Look at verse 34. So Peter opened his mouth and said, truly I understand that God shows no partiality.
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But in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
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Now it's interesting as we think about it, about the intro that I read in the beginning.
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Religious Jews today believe that in some respect God does show partiality.
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If you recall, listen to what the rabbi told this woman. A Jew by definition is holy.
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And you are just as Jewish as me, your great grandfather and Moses. By virtue of your birth you are acceptable to God.
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It's not what the Holy Spirit says. It's not what Peter said. Anyone who fears
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God and does what is right is acceptable to him. Now you just think for a moment, you think, okay, can we do that?
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Can we fear God and do what is right? Can we do that?
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Or should we have the attitude of others and even, you can see it in Peter, how did the
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Jews then view Gentiles? They hated them. Why? Because if God passed over them, if God hated them, then surely the
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Jews should hate them too. But if God shows no partiality, if he doesn't play favorites on the basis of race, sex, ethnicity, then neither can we.
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We were once God's enemies. Right? It's only via Christ that we've been reconciled.
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What are we supposed to do for our enemies? We're supposed to pray for them. In fact, from the
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Sermon on the Mount, you know, we often hear this, verse 48, 548,
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Matthew 548, you therefore must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. But what comes before that?
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Verse 43, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
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Well, who would have said that? The rabbis. But I say to you,
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Jesus says, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your
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Father who is in Heaven. Does that make you sons? No, that reflects who owns you.
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That reflects your lineage when you pray for those who hate you. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust and on the campers.
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Verse 46, for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
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But this is what they were taught to do. Do not even the tax collectors do the same.
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The lowest form of Jew in society, those who collaborated, as it were, with the
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Romans. And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than the others? Do not even the
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Gentiles do the same? Then you, therefore, must be perfect as your
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Heavenly Father is perfect. Well, what does that mean? It means hatred of others on the basis of race is wrong.
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Hatred on the basis of how other people treat you is wrong. Can someone fear
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God and do what is right and acceptable to him? Yes, by trusting
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Christ and only by trusting Christ. 1
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John 2, 23 says, No one who denies the Son has the Father. You can't say that you love
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God, but deny the Son. Whoever confesses the Son has the
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Father also. All who believe in God will receive the
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Son and will never be lost. Jesus himself said, All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me
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I will never cast out. This is the mission that Peter was given.
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This is the mission that we have to proclaim the Gospel. That Jesus Christ, fully
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God, truly God, truly man, came to Earth, lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary death, rose victoriously on the third day, ascended and now reigns supreme.
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We need to pray and we'll go to the Lord's table. Father, we thank you indeed that you are no respecter of persons, that both
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Jew and Gentile are welcome in your kingdom.
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Because of the finished work of the Son, you have called us to both horizontal reconciliation and to vertical reconciliation.
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That is to say, you have reconciled us to your, to you, to yourself through the death of Jesus Christ and you have reconciled us to our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
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Help us to extend the offering of the Gospel to those who are not like us, who don't think like us, who don't look like us, and those who do.
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Everyone needs to hear about Jesus Christ. Everyone needs to hear the
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Gospel. The good news that Jesus Christ saved sinners.