Acts 10: 1-16 Two Visions, One Lord

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Pastor Steve Cooley, Acts 10: 1-16 Two Visions, One Lord

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Well, I don't probably pay as much attention to the order of service always as I should.
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I didn't pick the hymns on purpose this morning, but I couldn't help but notice that the first one was written by a man who was a slave trader.
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The second one, your hymnal says it was popular, I think they call it an
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American folk song. That's polite. I mean, it was really, it was really very popular among the slaves and as you read it, you can understand why.
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If you're a believer and you're enslaved in this life and treated like chattel, you certainly would look forward to the next life.
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And this morning, I'm going to address some of those issues with regard to partiality and racism.
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I'm sure that you've heard, many of you have heard this statement that you can make the Bible say whatever you want.
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Have you ever heard that? I know I have. And to a certain extent, it's true.
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So, if you use the wrong method of interpreting the
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Bible, you can make it say whatever you want. And it's certainly true that for hundreds of years, people who engage in racism, segregation, slavery, have used the
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Bible to justify their sins. In the religion that I was in,
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Mormonism, they justified not giving African Americans the priesthood by saying that they had the mark of Cain.
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The mark of Cain. And I went to GotQuestions .org and it says this about the mark of Cain.
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It says, in the past, many believed the mark on Cain to be dark skin. And they used that as justification for the
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African slave trade and discrimination against people with dark skin. Now that interpretation has no basis whatsoever in the
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Bible. Nowhere in the Hebrew Scriptures is the word there for mark ever used to refer to skin color.
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And the curse on Cain in chapter 4 of Genesis was just about Cain. Said nothing about his descendants.
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This will be a curse on you and all that come after you. None of that. Further, unless one of Noah's sons, one of his sons' wives, one of his sons' wives was a descendant of Cain, Cain's line was terminated by the flood.
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What was the mark that God put on Cain? Bible doesn't say.
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But whatever that mark was, again, it had nothing to do with skin color. That's an excuse that people use to explain their discrimination, their racism.
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I also went to the Huffington Post, liberal website. They said, and this is fairly typical.
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Unfortunately, the Bible is not very helpful when it comes to race issues. Many have found within its pages justifications for slavery, abuse of African -Americans and segregation.
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Unfortunately, listen, the divisions between the races are exacerbated, that is to say made worse, not diminished or lessened by Christianity.
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Is that true? Well, they go on to say, talk about Bob Jones University and how it was a fundamentalist university.
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Bob Jones, Sr., the founder, said this, white folks and colored folks, you listen to me, this is a long time ago, but he said, listen to me, you cannot run over God's plan and God's established order without having trouble.
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God never meant to have one race. It was not his purpose at all.
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God has a purpose for each race. Is that true?
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Is Christianity racist? Does the Bible teach us to separate on the color, on the basis of skin color, on the basis of nationality, culture, even language?
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In a word, no. Let's open our Bibles to Acts chapter 10. We're going to see the church really wrestle, when
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I say the church, the early church, the primitive church, the church of the book of Acts, wrestle with this issue for a few chapters here.
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And it begins here in Acts chapter 10. At Caesarea, there was a man named
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Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort, a devout man who feared
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God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God.
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About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision, an angel of God come in and say to him,
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Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and said, what is it
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Lord? And he said to him, your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
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And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with one
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Simon, a tanner whose house is by the sea. When the angel spoke to him or when the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him.
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And having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city,
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Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat.
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But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance. And he saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.
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In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him,
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Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said,
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By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
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And the voice came to him a second time. What God has made clean, do not call common.
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This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
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Now, the book of Acts or Acts of the Apostles or Acts of the Holy Spirit was written by Luke the physician under the inspiration of the
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Holy Spirit. His purpose was to show how the Holy Spirit worked through fallible men.
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And we're going to see the fallibility of Peter this morning. But he worked through fallible men to build the church and how that church would then cross cultural and ethnic lines.
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Jesus gives the Great Commission. He doesn't say just go to Israel wherever you find her.
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But that's how some of the apostles interpreted it. Go and find all the
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Jews, convert them. That wasn't correct. Last week, we saw
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Jesus perform two miracles through his apostle Peter. And as a result, many believed in what is known as the
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Sharon Plain in that area, also known as the Shephelah. You know, it's the prime farmland in between the
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Mediterranean Sea and the mountains. And we concluded with Peter in Caesarea or I'm sorry, in Joppa at the home of Simon the
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Tanner. Now, this morning, we will see two God given visions in order to see how
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God sovereignly ordained the church to contain both
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Jews and Gentiles and on equal footing. There's a lot of God here, a lot of Jesus here.
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Why? Because he is building his church. Now, this is the longest narrative in the book of Acts, this bit between Peter and Cornelius.
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And we're only doing part one here this morning. Why is it so long? It goes from chapter 10, verse 1 to chapter 11, verse 18.
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Why so much? Because he's dealing with important, even radical changes in the understanding of the church and particularly of Peter.
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Will Peter get it right? Will not without the help of Paul, as we saw earlier when
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I read from Galatians and even the Jerusalem Council.
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But that's coming in a few chapters. But this morning, we have, as I said in the title, two visions, the vision of Cornelius, the vision of Peter, and then the one
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Lord who gave both visions. So first, I mean, simple outline, right? The vision of Cornelius, the vision of Peter, and then the
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Lord who gives both visions. So first, the vision of Cornelius.
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Well, who was? And I'm going to ask the same questions of each one of these. Who was
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Cornelius? Well, he's a Roman centurion, and we can see that in the text.
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At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, a division of troops from Italy.
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Now, Caesarea had another name. I forget. I mean, it was
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Fort something. I mean, it was like Fort Hood or Fort something. You know, I mean, just it had a very plain name.
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And then it was given by Caesar to Herod the Great.
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Now that's a name that we're familiar with. And when we hear Herod the Great, I don't know about you, but when I think of the great,
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I think about Peter the Great, Alexander the Great, men who were known for conquering, for great military victories.
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Herod the Great, not so much on the military side. What he was known for, besides murdering a lot of people, was building a lot of things.
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And that's where he got his title, the Great, because he was the great builder, in effect.
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And in fact, this city that was really nothing, it was just a military outpost, it was a nothingville.
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When Caesar gave it to Herod in about 30
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BC. But he took this little town and he built theaters, a racetrack, a palace, of course, an aqueduct, a harbor, and several other public buildings.
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Now back to Cornelius, who was he? Because he's in charge here in Caesarea. He was a military man.
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The commentators say he was something of a non -commissioned officer. Not an officer, but a man with great respect among the troops and in charge of many, at least 100 and maybe as many as 600.
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And the Italian cohort was there in Caesarea to ensure domestic peace.
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If trouble arose, they were to respond and deal with it. Who else was he?
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Well, he was a God -fearer. Look at verse 2. A devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God.
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During his time in the military, we can kind of read between the lines and see that he'd run across the
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Hebrews, that he'd become favorably disposed to say the least to their religion.
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He liked it. And while he was not circumcised, he was serious about Judaism.
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He believed in the God of Israel. He was a God -fearer, one who understood God rightly. The wording here would lead us to believe that in many respects, he lived as an observant Jew.
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Even teaching those, notice, with all his household, teaching his own household to fear
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God. He was also engaged in giving alms, money to the poor, and constantly praying, praying as was customary of the
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Jews at least three times a day. Cornelius trusted God to do what was right.
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Some commentators suggest that he may have even been looking forward to the Messiah, the ultimate answer to sin, and that he may well have been praying about that very thing this day.
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Now what did Cornelius want? What did he want? Well, I think it's safe to say that he wanted a closer relationship with God.
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No matter how many times he went to synagogue, he was never going to be a Jew. Why didn't he become a full convert, a proselyte?
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Why didn't he get circumcised? We don't know. Maybe there was some prohibition.
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One can imagine that Roman soldiers probably wouldn't be allowed to become Jewish. But now we come to the heart of the matter.
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What did he see? What did he see? An angel, verse 3, about the ninth hour of the day, about three o 'clock in the afternoon.
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He's praying afternoon prayers. He saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him,
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Cornelius. Now, because he's a
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God -fearer and a Gentile, he would have read and heard the
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Old Testament, but he never would have experienced the supernatural before.
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He knew with familiarity with the Old Testament that God sends angels as messengers, but he never would have imagined being visited by one.
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He's praying, and the text tells us he sees clearly, which is to say, one dictionary puts it this way, in sharp visual focus, distinctly.
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In other words, there's no question about what he's seeing. This is an angel. This is not an illusion.
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It's not a delusion. This is a real angel, and he's calling Cornelius by name.
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And this experienced soldier, this man who's probably seen death most of his life, is afraid.
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Look at verse 4. And he stared, Cornelius stared at the angel in terror and said, what is it,
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Lord? Of course he's afraid. Men are always afraid when they're visited by the suit.
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This is not a normal, you know, three o 'clock in the afternoon event.
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He's standing or he's kneeling in prayer before someone holy. So he calls him
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Lord, the word kurie, or it's a variation of the word kurios, Lord.
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What was he told? That his offerings had been accepted by God.
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The God that he worshiped accepted his offerings. Look again at verse 4. And he, the angel, said to him,
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Cornelius, your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
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He went before the Lord to pray. He gave offerings to the poor. Why? Because it was the right thing to do and it reflected the generosity of his heart.
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Well, what does it mean that they went up as a memorial? Dictionary defines it as an offering that presents a worshiper to God.
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Cornelius could never go into the temple because he wasn't Jewish in order to make offerings.
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But what he had done, the offerings he had offered had been received by God.
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And God sent this messenger to him to tell him that. Cornelius loved
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God, but he didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ.
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He was an Old Testament believer in the New Testament age. And the messenger of God is about to make sure
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Cornelius comes to know the Lord Jesus. He's also told that he needs to send men to find
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Peter. Look at verse 5. And now send men to Joppa and bring one
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Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.
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Now again, the angel shows up. Why? In response to the prayers of Cornelius.
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But again, what had he prayed for? It's not recorded for us there. But let's just suppose for a moment that Simon Peter, the leader of the apostles, was the answer of Cornelius's prayers.
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Then what was Cornelius praying for? If the angel shows up and says, your offerings have ascended as a memorial, as a pleasing aroma as it were, to the
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Lord, what does that suggest? I'm here to tell you how to get your prayer answered.
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If Cornelius wanted to know God better, check, Peter could explain that.
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If Cornelius wanted to know how to have his sins forgiven, full and free, check,
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Peter could explain that. If Cornelius wanted to know who the Messiah was, who was spoken of in the
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Old Testament, check, Peter could reveal him as well.
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But did it have to be Peter? Couldn't it be Philip or one of the other men who was running around and preaching the gospel?
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I think it did have to be Peter for reasons that we'll see over the next several chapters.
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Now, notice the details the angel gives. He says, there are two Simons. You want the one known as Peter, and he's staying with Simon the
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Tanner. Why would he have to tell him that? Because there's no other way that these men could go to Joppa and find
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Simon Peter other than to know that he was staying with Simon the Tanner. Now how did
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Cornelius respond? What was the response of Cornelius to this heavenly visitation?
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Verse seven, when the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him.
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And having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. So as soon as the angel left,
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Cornelius obeyed what God through this angel had told him to do. He sent three men, including a soldier who was similarly devoted to God, like Cornelius, to Joppa to go find
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Simon Peter. Now why? Why wasn't
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Cornelius instructed to go? Go see Simon Peter.
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He's in Joppa. Why didn't he get told to send his men?
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In part, it's because a social boundary is about to be crossed. If you recall,
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Peter and John went to Samaria in Acts chapter 8, verses 14 and 15.
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Why? Why? It was to accept or to mark as accepted the
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Samaritans, to show that they were equal with the Jews who had believed.
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If you recall, and I'm sure you do, the Jews hated the Samaritans. Why? Because they were part
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Jews and they had a partly Jewish religion and they were really partly everything.
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But when they came to Christ, Peter and John went to Samaria to lay hands on them.
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Listen to verses 14 and 15 of Acts chapter 8. Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the
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Word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the
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Holy Spirit. When they did that, when they affirmed them as Christians, this barrier, this hatred that the
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Jews had for the Samaritans, was resolved, at least for those who were in Christ.
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Now the Lord was going to do the same for the Gentiles, and this is just unthinkable.
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And that's the barrier that we're going to see. So that's, first of all, the vision of Cornelius. Now the vision of Peter.
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Well who was he? Who was Peter? Well we know who he is, Peter. The one who's often referred to as the disciple with the foot -shaped mouth, right?
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Open mouth, insert foot. He would say things they ought not to say, they'd have to backtrack.
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He would do things, cut off a guy's ear, and the
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Lord would have to constantly correct him. But he's changed, right? I mean, he's the leader of the church.
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He's filled with the Holy Spirit. He's not the same guy any longer. He's not the guy to whom
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Jesus said, get behind me, Satan, you are a hindrance. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.
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He's not that man anymore, right? He's not the disciple who said he would not permit
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Jesus to wash his feet. And then when Jesus corrects him, says, okay, not my feet only, but all of me.
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He's not the one who said he would never deny Jesus, and then denied him three times in one night.
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He's not the same disciple who would fail to go to the crucifixion. His days of acting rashly and speaking rashly, those were over, right?
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What did Peter want in our vision? What was he after? Well, to pray.
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Look at verse nine. The next day, this is to say the day after Cornelius' vision.
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The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.
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So the representatives of Cornelius are en route from Caesarea to Joppa. It's about 30 miles.
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It's going to take them a while because they don't have a car or a horse or Uber, anything else.
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They're hoofing it. They're walking. And Peter knows nothing about this.
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He knows nothing of these three men who are coming to see him. And he's intent on praying about noon.
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That's the sixth hour. The counting of hours starts at 6 a .m., and so it's the sixth hour or noon.
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He wants something to eat. He's hungry. Look at verse 10. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat.
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Now, the pattern of eating for these folks would not work for me. Typically, I was talking to somebody the other day, and they said, you know, when you go on that cruise, if you want to hit the gym, you got to do it first thing in the morning.
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I go, before breakfast? I don't think I can do that. Their patterns are different.
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Typically, they would have kind of a late breakfast, almost like a brunch kind of thing. And then later on, a much heavier meal around 4 p .m.
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So if he's eating or if he's hungry at noon, this is not typical. Maybe he'd skip the earlier meal.
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We don't really know, but he's hungry. Well, what did he see? We asked that question about Cornelius.
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What does Peter see? Our text tells us that he goes into a trance. But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance.
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The it, of course, being the food that he wanted. Simon the Tanner's household, the servants, the women of the house, are preparing this meal for Peter, and he goes into a state of ecstasies.
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What does that sound like? Sounds like ecstasy, and that's the word, Greek word.
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And here it is given to mean a trance. He gets this vision.
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He's up on a flat roof. That's the nature of homes there. You would go outside the house, and there would be stairs up there that lead to a flat roof.
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And you can imagine, we said that before that, Simon the Tanner has a house on the
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Mediterranean, so he has access to a lot of water. So just imagine, you're Peter, you're hungry, it's around noon, you want to pray, and where do you go?
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A nice place to go pray and just think about the Lord up on this roof, overlooking the
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Mediterranean Sea, and that's where he goes. But today, he goes into a trance.
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What happens? He sees all manner of creatures on a sheet.
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Look at verse 11. And saw the heavens opened, and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.
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In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. Now some commentators suggest that there might be an angel holding each of the four corners of this kind of blanket as it's being let down.
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But why? I mean, how much does a vision weigh, right? I mean, could they be, yes, but it's not in the text, so I don't really want to go there.
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But some commentators suggest that the four corners of the sheet represent the four corners of the earth, maybe.
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But there is a universal message in this vision, that's for sure. The real key is what's on the sheet.
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It's kind of like Noah's Ark in reverse. If we think about Noah's Ark, where all the animals get on two by two, and then they rise up, you know, as the water goes up.
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Well, this is all those creatures being lowered on this sheet.
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Again, other than aquatic creatures, I mean, we certainly don't see, I don't know, random great white sharks, you know, on this sheet.
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So, other than those things living in the sea, this is every animal that exists, clean and unclean.
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In other words, those that the Jews were permitted to eat, and those that they were forbidden to eat.
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And if you've ever been to Israel or a really kosher area, sometimes it can get a little aggravating.
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When we went to Jerusalem, you could get pizzas with cheese, or you could get pizzas with meat, but you couldn't get pizzas with meat and cheese.
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Take, you know, take your pick. Or you could get a cheese pizza and then go to the side and, you know, put your own meat on.
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But there was no, you know, you can't go get a pepperoni pizza. Doesn't, doesn't happen.
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Now, what was Peter told? Verse 13. And there came a voice to him, rise,
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Peter, kill and eat. Essentially, you're hungry, Peter.
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Help yourself. Whatever you see, everything that's on this sheet is available to you.
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Eat whatever you want. How did he respond? In old school
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Peter fashion. Now this is God speaking to him, so we might expect humility, a kind of yes,
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Lord attitude. But that's what we saw at Cornelius. But Peter said, by no means,
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Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
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You lay down the law, God, and I have never violated that law. This is much like his refusal to be washed.
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This is the same old Peter. Why is he so firm? Leviticus chapter 20.
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Second part of verse 24 through 26. Leviticus 20, 24 to 26.
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Listen. I am the Lord your God. I am Yahweh, covenant keeper, your
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God, who has separated you from the peoples. You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean and the unclean bird from the clean.
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You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which
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I have set apart for you to hold unclean. In other words, keep away from unclean things.
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Everything that's coming down on the sheet, he sees the clean and the unclean together. And he says,
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I won't do the unclean because you told me not to. Verse 26.
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This is still the Lord speaking. He says, you shall be holy to me, separated to me.
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For I, the Lord, am holy and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine.
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That's what the law did. The ceremonial law, the dietary laws, separated the
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Jews from the nations that surrounded them. Peter's offended by the very idea that something he's learned since childhood would be changed.
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I mean, this is kind of like, you know, he grew up. Don't eat kosher food or non -kosher food and don't share meals with those who do, right?
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I mean, this is just kind of simple. This is elementary Judaism. And Peter was not going to voluntarily become a sinner or a hypocrite.
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In other words, he's teaching people. And the early Christians taught people that they still had to keep the
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Jewish dietary laws. This is going to be the case for, as I said, a couple more chapters. I think we hit the
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Jerusalem Council maybe in 15, chapter 15. And so they're wrestling with this.
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They would still be teaching people to obey the Jewish laws like that.
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A few years ago when we went to the United Kingdom, I'm waiting in line to pay for some food at a
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Scottish pub because you get beer everywhere. But anyway, we're at a—we didn't, but you can.
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So I'm paying for my food and I'm waiting in line. And this young woman in front of me says, you know,
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I'll have a vegetarian burger with cheese and bacon. Now, I wanted to say something.
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You know me. I wanted to say something, but I'm just like, you know. And the guy says, well, that's not very vegetarian, is it?
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And I just thought, no, it wasn't. But it was very funny, right? And so Peter's like, not wanting to be a hypocrite.
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He says, I teach this. How can I do that? But what did
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Jesus say? You know it well. Mark 7, verse 15.
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There is nothing—that's pretty universal. There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him.
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But the things that come out of a person are what defile him.
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It's not what goes into your mouth that defiles you. It's not sinful.
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He was declaring all things clean. But it's what comes out of your mouth.
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Why? Because what comes out of your mouth reveals what's in your heart. These dietary laws, as I said, were intentional barriers between the
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Jews and the Gentiles. They were to keep them separate. But the gospel was the great leveler.
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Jesus brought everyone together. There is no partiality with God.
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He is no respecter of persons. But God wasn't done with Peter in this vision.
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Look at verse 15. And the voice came to him again a second time.
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What God has made clean do not call common. This happened three times.
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And the thing was taken up at once to heaven. Peter wants to argue, so repetition.
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And repetition again. To underscore the fact that this is—we're done with all that.
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We're done with the dietary laws. Why is this so important?
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As I said, because this was the barrier. This was the wall. Kistenmacher says this. He says, It is simply not possible, especially in that day and age, to fully accept one with whom you are unwilling to share in the intimacy of table fellowship.
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I love you. You're my brother in Christ, but I won't eat with you.
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No, there was absolutely no way the church could fulfill the
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Great Commission without being willing to reach out to the Gentiles and without being willing to eat with them.
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Did Gentiles have to become Jews before they could join the church? Would they have to undergo circumcision?
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We heard what Paul said earlier. And that's what I mean. The church is going to wrestle with this for a while.
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But now we've seen these two visions, and God is very firm on what he wants.
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Now let's talk about the one Lord. Not in our text, but clearly throughout our text.
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As with Ananias and Saul, the Lord Jesus gave both of these men visions.
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The means are different, but they both come from God. He sovereignly brought
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Peter and Cornelius together, Jew and Gentile, working these circumstances together so they would come together.
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Well, what are the implications of this? What does it mean? In the immediate context,
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Peter will go and visit Cornelius, the Roman centurion's home.
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Now again, this is like going and visiting the Samaritans. It's not something a Jew would do, but he's going and doing this.
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Why? Essentially, he's putting his stamp, or he will put his stamp of approval on the faith of Cornelius and his entire household, because Cornelius and his household will believe.
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All Gentiles. All Gentiles. Thus signaling, in other words, the barriers are being torn down for all
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Gentiles. This is signaling that Christianity is for, as it says in Revelation 14 .6,
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every nation and tribe and language and people. Jesus will save both Jew and Gentile.
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Paul said to the Jew first, not to the Jew only. The gospel went to the
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Jews first, and then to the Gentiles. Whatever color or ethnicity they may be.
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Each one, each person has exactly the same problem. Why? Because we have the same father.
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Our father, Adam, sinned. He failed to obey God. As a result, each one of us is born with a sin nature and with sin itself.
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We're helpless to redeem ourselves. We cannot pay for our own sins, and we cannot obtain the righteousness that we need to enter into heaven.
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Only Jesus, truly God and truly man, by his sinless sacrifice, that is to say, his death on the cross, and his perfect life, can give us what we need, and we obtain that by faith, which is also
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God -given. It's the death and resurrection of life. By his death, he paid for our sins, and by his resurrection, he gave evidence that the
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Father had accepted payment for our sins. 2 Corinthians 5 .21
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tells us that his righteousness is imputed to us, and our sins were imputed to him.
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Now, what about talking about practical implications? What about visions today? I mean, there are churches who treat
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Acts as if it's a how -to book. It's a narrative. A narrative.
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I mean, what you won't walk into is churches trying to relive, say, for example, the
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Genesis narrative. Right? They're not trying to recreate everything with a word.
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They're not trying to walk through the Red Sea on dry land. They're not trying to do those miracles, but they think they can do these problems.
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There are no apostles today. There are no visions today. There are no angelic visitations today.
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Well, how can you say that, Steve? I don't. Well, I did.
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But the Bible says that. Peter himself wrote this by the power of the
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Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1 .2 -3 His divine power has granted to us, listen, all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.
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What do we need that we do not have? Nothing. We have
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Jesus Christ. We have His Word. We don't need anything else.
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So what should our response be? To worship the God of Acts. To be in awe that the
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Holy Spirit would so work in these sinful men as to draw a
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Gentile and a Jew together. To abolish the enmity that exists between Jew and Gentile, nailing it to the cross, which is to say, when
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Christ died, He put an end to this all. This is God's sovereign plan.
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To end even the thought of discrimination or racism because in Christ we are all one.
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We are all equal. Racism and discrimination are the results of fallen, sinful human thinking.
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Not God's design and not Christianity. And P .S.,
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Jesus was not white and did not have blue eyes. In case you were wondering, or in case you have a picture of Him at home where He's very white and has blonde hair and blue eyes, not true.
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Let's pray to our great God. Father, again and again,
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Your Word tells us the truth. It tells us the truth about You, Father, Son, and Spirit.
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It tells us the truth about us and how sinful our hearts are.
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How we even invent evil, like racism, discrimination.
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Ways of looking at each other as less than image bearers. Father, forgive us, help us to see one another as truly equal in Christ.
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Father, help us in light of the gospel to understand that each person we run into, regardless of their status, regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of the language they may speak, they have one problem, and that is sin.
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And there is one universal answer. Jesus Christ. Help us to preach