Sunday, August 27, 2023 AM

Worthy of all of our singing today, our prayers of adoration, deserving of all of our thanks. There is not a rogue molecule in this universe. You sovereignly govern it all. What you do is good. You show us mercy.

You show us grace. We cannot move in any direction, think any thought, breathe a breath without encountering your grace. We come here today to praise you and we gather in a unity that we only have because of your son, Jesus.

Because of whom we may come to you as our father. You have given us your Holy Spirit by whom we call you, Abba, Father. And here today, you invite us to your table, the table of your son. Blessing upon blessing upon blessing, I pray that you would help us today as we look at your word.

We would bow the knee. To your son and our savior, our great high king, Jesus. And that everything that you have in your word for us today would find a rooted, resolute, remaining amen in our hearts by your Holy Spirit.

We pray these things for the sake of your son, Jesus Christ, with whom you are well pleased. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles with me and turn to Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10, we will read together, beginning in verse 21 through verse 33.

Acts chapter 10, verses 21 through 33. A nation in turmoil, a nation in turmoil, financial trouble, deep, deep division, deep division. One group blames another group, blames another group for all the problems.

And everyone's looking for someone who is strong and can fix everything, get us back on track to former glory. Of course, I'm talking about Germany in the 1920s, right? You thought I was talking about the 2020s.

That's what you thought. Now, Germany in the 1920s, that's what I was talking about. You know, Israel found out when they thought that a strong man would be the solution to all their problems. And they thought that Saul of Tarsus, head and shoulders above everybody else, was a good idea.

God said, fine, here's your judgment. I give you Saul, King Saul. You know, we are here today in a time that is not unique. There have been many, many more bleak generations than ours. There are good things happening today that are unparalleled by times before, because that's how good Jesus is.

He's a good shepherd. He's a good king. He's not failing. He's not failing. He's risen from the dead. He's at the right hand of the Father. He's not failing. And that's who we need to keep our attention on.

We're here today to have communion with our King of Kings, to sit together at his table and rejoice that he has saved us a seat and welcomes us to his table, though we deserve anything but a welcome, though each in our own way we are unable, with a traitorous name, we are all Mephibosheth, and yet we are welcome to the table of a true David.

As we read Acts chapter 10, we see opportunity for things to go awry, for focus to be placed upon men and man, for devaluation of people to occur and unfortunate elevation of people to occur. And it is only by keeping the attention upon the light of the world, Jesus Christ, that things are made clear.

I invite you to stand with me as I read Acts chapter 10, verses 21 through 33. This is the word of the Lord. Then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius and said, Yes, I am he whom you seek.

For what reason have you come? And they said, Cornelius, the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear words from you.

Then he invited the men and lodged them. On the next day Peter went away with them, and some brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And the following day they entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them, and he had called together his relatives and close friends.

As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up! I myself am also a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together.

Then he said to them, You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or to go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore I came without objection.

As soon as I was sent for, I asked them, For what reason have you sent for me? So Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour. And at the ninth hour I prayed in my house. And behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard.

And your alms are remembered in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa and call Simon here, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon a Tanner by the sea. When he comes, he will speak to you.

So I sent to you immediately, and you have done well to come. Now therefore we are all present before God to hear all the things commanded you by God.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Acts chapter 9 beginning in verse 32 to chapter 11 verse 18 gives us seven stories. And they're all interwoven and connected, and there's rich themes that span across them.

But at the center of each one of these stories is the word rise. Rise. Peter says to Aeneas the lame, Rise. He says to Tabitha, to her body as she has died. He says, Rise. A vision comes from the Lord to Peter.

A vision of a great sheet full of all kinds of animals and birds and creeping things. And it descends and lands before Peter. And the Lord says to Peter, Rise. Kill and eat. Gentiles come seeking Peter.

The Spirit says to Peter, Rise. Go down and go with them, doubting nothing. Every time we see that in this series of stories, the reason why Aeneas can get up off the ground, and the reason why Tabitha can come back to life, and the reason why Peter can eat unclean things, and the reason why he can go with Gentiles to preach the word to them, it's the same reason every single time.

It's because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. It's the one theme. It's the one truth that binds all of these stories together. It's the only explanation for why these men and this movement called the Way, following Jesus, is having any kind of impact at all in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and now on the coasts of the Mediterranean.

It's because Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus, after he rose from the dead, met his apostles and he informed them. All authority, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Because he rose from the dead, all authority has been given to him. That reality manifested in his ascension to the right hand of God, where he sits enthroned as King of kings and Lord of lords, with a name which is above every name.

And because he has risen from the dead and taken his place at the right hand of God and has authority over all things, over all things everywhere, those who bow the knee, who are alive in him by his grace, go forth and herald this truth, the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom, that Jesus Christ is indeed alive and he is king.

And this is the word we spread. It is a challenge to do so. Time and again, we are faced with trials of doubt. Should I? Can I? Will it even work? Do I have the right? Is this the proper time? And time and again, we are confronted with doubts as to whether or not we ought to herald the gospel of the kingdom.

But indeed, as we go through these scriptures, God is stripping away doubt after doubt, excuse after excuse is being stripped away from our, unfortunately, large repertoire of doubts and excuses. Lord comes to Peter, gives him a vision of all these unclean things.

Rise, Peter, kill and eat. He says, no, Lord. Like, that's even possible. He might have said, I don't understand, Lord. He might have said, why, Lord? But not, no, Lord. No, Peter, you don't understand.

Do not call unclean what I have determined is clean. And I will send this vision to you three times. And then three men show up and they ask you to go with them to preach the gospel to a Gentile by the name of Cornelius.

And so he does. He travels.

We find out later from chapter 11, verse 12, that six brethren from Joppa, remember the church was growing like wildfire in Joppa because of the preaching of the gospel after the miracle of Tabitha being raised from the dead.

Six brethren from Joppa go with Peter. Seven brethren from Joppa group up with these three from Caesarea. Ten men take a journey and they arrive in Caesarea at Cornelius' house a grand total of four days after the first vision that Cornelius received.

About 25 miles to the north of Joppa, which is, of course, Tel Aviv today. They arrive in Caesarea. Have you ever noticed that the Bible is just full of travels and wandering? People always on the move.

If we read about the patriarchs, we read about Abram going, the length and the breadth and the height and the width of the land. And everywhere he went, he built altars,.

Built altars to the Lord.

Between his witness and the witness of Melchizedek, priest of God most high, Canaan had an avid, ample proclamation of the true God. God was patient with them for 400 years before he sent the judgment of the Israelites upon them.

How much better, how much better is the new covenant temple? Seems to be something of a tabernacle, always on the move. How much better is the new covenant tabernacle than the old covenant one? It wandered around and around and around in circles in the wilderness.

This one just goes from town to town, from place to place, proclaiming, heralding the good news of Jesus Christ. What is the value of such traveling, all this wandering about, this going here and there?

Those of you who were at Red's memorial service yesterday heard a humorous story about how the whole gospel singing group and the preaching event took place in a little ghost town in Montana where only two deaf people showed up.

What's the value in that? What a misapplication of resources. Can't we do this thing more efficiently? Are there people there for Christ then? What else has the church of Jesus Christ done these last 2 ,000 years?

Why?

Because of the plight of men, because of the situation that men, all men are in. Think of Cornelius, faithful Cornelius, responding to the things that he knew. He's a God-fearer. He'd offer alms. He'd pray.

He'd fast. He'd try to support the Jews and what they did in their local synagogue. But God sends him an angel, a man in bright white clothing,.

And says,.

There's something you need. Send your servants to go get this Simon whose surname is Peter and have him come up here to tell you what you must do. There's one thing you lack, oh rich ruler. You may have alms and you may have fasting and you may have prayer and you may have generosity and good relations with the Jews, but you don't have one thing.

You do not have Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ, the Son of the living God. So Cornelius has sent his servants. His anticipation has been growing for four days. Notice how he's been readying. He's got his household ready.

He's got his friends there. He's got his extended family there. He's gathered everybody he can because he knows that this is the day that if the trip was all successful, that they should be coming. And he has pinned his hopes.

He has been reflecting upon the vision of the angel and he has concentrated all of his hopes on this Simon whose surname is Peter, that when he arrives, I will finally find out what I must do. It's somewhat understandable that when Peter arrives, that Cornelius goes out to him and falls down in front of him and begins to do obeisance to him, venerating him, worshiping him.

Was Cornelius delivered? No, he wasn't. Now, some people think that that'd be right and proper given that Peter was the first pope, but it's not right or proper at all. Cornelius ought not to worship Peter.

Peter is a mere man. Just a man like you, he says to Cornelius. Man worship does not deliver anybody from their plight. No one is going to get us out of the mess of sin. Corruption is a mess of sin. Addiction is a mess of sin.

Homelessness is a mess of sin. Divorce and adultery is a mess of sin. Sexual perversion is a mess of sin. We look around at all our world today and we sigh and groan at the condition of the things that are near and dear to our neighborhoods and what are we looking at?

We are not looking at failed policies. We are not looking at failed politicians. We are looking at the mess of sin. And it is growing. Now, the question is whether the burden about the consequences of sin and the mess that we see that's all around us, whether or not our burden will be shifted from, oh, this makes my life uncomfortable to burden for those who are entangled in the mess of sin.

We ought not to worship men. No one is going to save us except for Jesus Christ. Politicians are not going to save us. The talking heads on the internet and the TV are not going to save us. Preachers aren't going to save you either.

I'm just a man like you. Men fail us always. What was our Savior's attitude? In John chapter 2, we read that Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew what was in man. They were saying all sorts of wonderful things about him all of a sudden.

He knew what was in their hearts and he did not commit himself to them. He knew what was going on because he saw straight to the heart of it. In Matthew 10, verse 17, as he's giving his disciples a message, giving his disciples wisdom so that they would be harmless as doves and as wise as serpents, what does he say to them?

He says, beware of men. Beware of men because they're going to use the legal system to try to shut you up and shut you down. Whether they be using the Jewish legal system or the Roman legal system, beware of men.

He didn't say be afraid of men. He didn't say fear man. That's a snare. But he didn't say beware of men. So what does Peter say to Cornelius who's caught up in man worship? Oh, how flattering to Peter.

What does he say? He says, stand up. You know what the Greek word for stand up is? It's the same word we've been seeing at the center of every other story.

Rise.

Get up off your, well, fandom. Get up off your fandom. Peter's just a man.

Rise.

Why?

Well, the same reason why Aeneas could get up. Same reason why Dorcas came back from the dead. Same reason why Peter could eat unclean animals. Same reason why he could hang out with unclean Gentiles.

The reason why Cornelius ought not to be bowing down to Peter is because Jesus has risen from the dead.

Not Peter.

Jesus has.

Peter's not elevated to the right hand of the Father or anywhere close.

Jesus has.

So Cornelius needs to get up. Now, Christ's exalted authority does not erase all other hierarchy. Hierarchy remains. Give honor to those to whom honor is due. Submit yourselves to the governing authorities and pay taxes for they punish evildoers.

Wives, submit to your husbands in all things. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Hierarchy remains. But all hierarchy is subjected to Christ. So slaves honor their masters as unto the Lord.

And the masters relate to the slaves, remembering that they are just slaves of their master in heaven. And wives submit themselves to their husbands as unto the Lord. Children obey their parents in the Lord.

Right?

All hierarchy is now subjected to Christ. It doesn't cease to exist in his exaltation, but everything is subjected to him. Which is why when we talk with one another in the church, what do we say and what do we not say?

How did Jesus instruct? In Matthew chapter 23, verse 8, he says to his followers, he says, but you do not be called rabbi. Don't call each other rabbi.

Why?

For one is your teacher. One is your rabbi, the Christ, the Messiah. And you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father. Father so-and-so, father so-and-so, or the Latin word which we transliterate into Pope.

Do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father, he who is in heaven. And why do we have him as father? Because we have an elder brother named Christ. Jesus, who has brought us into relationship with God as our father.

Do not be called teachers, another word for teacher, meaning guide or master or leader, for one is your teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Just so we remember this, Christ is indeed far, far more than our rabbi. But that doesn't mean he's less than that, or other than that. He is our teacher, he is our leader, he is our master, as well as being our savior.

So, get up off your fandom, clear off all your pedestals. You may have very, very high regard and opinion for men, for people. Don't lean on that. To borrow an expression from the Old Testament, it's a broken reed.

You're going to stab your hand. There's only one hero, and if you know him and love him, you have his signature on your heart. What more do you need? So, we rise, we don't grovel before one another. We may stand and talk to one another, even if far varied in rank.

A Christian may give honor to whom honor is due, while standing and looking straight in the eyes of another man, of another woman, even though the ranks are different, because all hierarchy is subjected to Christ, and he is king of kings.

Now, look at verses 28 and 29. Then he said to them, you know how unlawful, this is Peter talking to Cornelius and his household, you know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or to go to one of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Peter had no conception of this. He wasn't ready for this. He still had the categories of clean and unclean people groups as he was on his way out of Jerusalem, down to Lydda, over to Joppa. Still had those categories firmly fixed in his mind.

There are the clean people, which are the Jews, and the unclean peoples, which are all the different nations, the Gentiles. Then he says, but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Why?

Because Jesus Christ himself confronted Peter in a vision.

And said,.

Do not call unclean what I have declared clean. Because Jesus Christ is the last Adam, has come and died, and he's the Savior for all men without distinction. Without distinction. Only Jesus could tell that to Peter.

Only God could tell that to Peter and have him change his mind. It's the authority of Jesus Christ, God himself. In the Old Covenant, there are all kinds of distinctions between that which was clean and unclean.

And that included people groups, clean and unclean. But now in the New Covenant, there is no such genetic, ethnic, familial divide. There's not an unclean people group out there versus a clean people group out there based on ethnicity, family, so on.

Peter says,.

This is what God has shown me. Now, normally I wouldn't even come, but God changed my mind. He showed me the real categories here. So I am here to preach the gospel to you. I can come into your house because God says it is good.

How do we make sense of all of that? Only through the light of Jesus Christ. John 1, verses 4 and 5 says, In Christ, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Could also translate, the darkness did not overcome it. Verse 9, speaking of Christ, that was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. Only one way to make sense of anything in this world for any of us, and that is to see everything in the light of Jesus Christ.

And so, in the Old Covenant, it made sense. The children of Israel, with the promise of the Messiah, clean. But in the seed of Abraham, all the families of the earth would be blessed. There was the need for the unclean to come into the clean.

But when Christ comes as the fulfillment of Israel, he's the clean. How clean is Jesus? Well, put it this way, he touched leprosy and the leprosy went away. That's how clean he is. So now the distinction is not between ethnic groups, the distinction is between whether or not you are in Christ.

Are you in Christ? You're clean. Are you out of Christ, outside of Christ? You're in need of cleansing. And Cornelius is eager to hear what God has to say. Eager to hear what God has to say. May we all be this eager.

Look what he does.

Cornelius is not even born again yet. Has not even heard the gospel yet. His heart has not been regenerated yet. And yet, look at what he's done. He's gathered together.

Who?

Well, he's gathered together his relatives and his close friends. He's also sent his servants and a Roman soldier, a devout soldier, out of his cohort to go get Peter in the first place. He's gathering everybody he can to hear this word from God.

Here we are all together.

He noticed he says,.

In the presence of God. This is another example of what Jesus said. Not in all of Israel have I found such faith. The Jew, the religious Jew, the religious zealot, if he had gotten a hold of Luke's manuscript here that he's sending to Theophilus and was reading through about how the new covenant temple is completely supplanting the old covenant temple.

If he even got this far, once again, he would be outraged to think that you could be in the presence of God in a Gentile's house. Only place you can be in the presence of God as far as that religious Jew is concerned is up on the highest point in Jerusalem, in the temple.

And yet, here, Cornelius and all of his relatives and Peter and the brethren from Joppa are all gathered together, notice, in the presence of God to hear what God has to say.

Praise the Lord.

Well, Peter does preach. Cornelius and his household, his relatives, they do believe. And then, no one seems to know what to do next. Wonderful revival. Wonderful spiritual awakening. Another Pentecost again.

And everyone's just kind of looking at each other.

Now what?

Well, hang on. Are they of us? Are they not of us? Are they a part of us? Are they not a part of us? Well, who are we to stand in the way of God? Time to baptize them and give the amen of what heaven has already said.

They're a part of us. They're a part of the church.

We're in communion together. The only reason why we're here today is because we're in communion with Jesus Christ. The reason why we're going to be eating of this meal is that we're in communion with Jesus Christ.

And we've said so. Been baptized. Said, I am one with the body of Christ. And there is a seat open at his table here this morning for you. We're here to rejoice together in the life that we have in Christ.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the time you've given us in your word. I thank you for the challenge that we receive that we ought to worship and glorify your son. Help us to do that now as we gather together for this communion, that we would reflect with joy and reverence and gratitude on the gift of your son, Jesus Christ, for us and for our salvation.

We pray these things in his name. Amen.