Acts 9:32-10:48 (November 5, 2023)

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FBC Travelers Rest sermon from November 5, 2023 by Pastor Rhett Burns

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If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Acts chapter 9. We went part way through Acts chapter 9 last week.
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We saw the conversion and calling of Saul, and we're going to keep on going this week.
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Cover a good bit of ground, starting in verse 32 of chapter 9, and we'll go all the way through the end of chapter 10, where we see in this passage the expansion of the kingdom and the broadening of the church.
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So I want us to start with looking at verses 32 through the end of chapter 9.
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We have two stories here about healing and restoration in Jesus' name by the hands of Peter.
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So let's read that first story, verses 32 to 35 of chapter 9. Let me read those.
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Now it came to pass as Peter went through all parts of the country that he also came down to the saints who dwelt in Lydda.
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There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed.
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And Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.
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Then he arose immediately and all those, excuse me, and all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the
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Lord. So in this first story, this first encounter, we come across a man named
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Aeneas, and the only information we have about him is that he has been bedridden, paralyzed, lame for eight years.
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We don't know much of anything else about him. We don't know if he's a believer or an unbeliever. We just know that he's bedridden.
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And Peter says to him, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise, make your bed.
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Now, if this, this maybe will remind you of Jesus in Mark chapter two, where Jesus also heals a paralytic, someone who's been bedridden and lame, telling him, arise, take your bed and go home.
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And he does. And so Peter is doing the works of Jesus after him, and he's doing the works of Jesus in the name of Jesus.
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And when all those in Lydda and Sharon saw that, what did they do? They turned to the
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Lord. And what we see here is that the kingdom expands. From there, the story moves on to Joppa.
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We pick that up in verse 36. As at Joppa, there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated
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Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds, which she did.
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But it happened in those days that she became sick and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room.
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And since Lydda was near Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to them.
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Then Peter arose and went with them. When he had come, they brought him to the upper room, and all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which
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Dorcas had made while she was with them. But Peter put them all out and knelt down and prayed, and turning to the body, he said,
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Tabitha, arise. She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
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Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive.
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And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord. So it was that he stayed many days in Joppa with Simon, a tanner.
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Now if you're looking at a map, you would notice that we're moving from Jerusalem westward and northward.
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And so we would remember the words of Jesus in Acts 1 .8, he said, You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
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And so the plot of Acts follows this pattern. We're headed towards Caesarea today in our passage, westward and northward, up to Caesarea, a great city of the
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Gentiles, where important Roman officials reside. But first, Peter stops here in Joppa.
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Now we get more information about Tabitha than we do about Aeneas. Tabitha was a woman, she was full of good works and charitable deeds.
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She made tunics and garments for widows, and then we see that she became sick and she died.
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They put her in an upper room, which was a little bit odd, because normally custom would have it that you would move the body down, closer to the earth, where the body would be buried.
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But instead, they placed her in an upper room, which anticipates her being raised back to life.
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This story might remind you of other stories in the Bible. You have one in 1 Kings, chapter 17, where Elijah takes the widow's dead son and places him where?
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In an upper room, and he goes and raises him back to life. And then in 2 Kings, chapter 4, the
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Sunamite woman's son died, and she laid him in Elisha's upper room, and he came and raised him up, back to life.
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And then in Mark, chapter 5, Jesus went into the room where Jairus' daughter lay dead, and he took her by the hand, and he says,
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Talathakumi, which is translated, little girl, I say to you, arise.
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We see a lot of similarities in these stories, and one thing we can learn from that is that Jesus fulfilled the ministry of the prophets, and Peter is extending the ministry of Jesus.
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And that's the story of Acts, the continuation of the ministry of Jesus, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
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And that story's going to hit a major plot point in chapter 10, with the calling of Cornelius and the vision that he has.
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But before we get there, I want to point out one detail from the end of chapter 9 that is significant in anticipating what comes in chapter 10, and that is the very last verse, verse 43 of chapter 9, says,
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So it was that he stayed many days in Joppa with Simon a tanner. This is a curious detail, because tanners, for example, they would make leather for shoes and other things, and so they worked with dead animals, which would make them, according to old covenant law, would make them ceremonially unclean.
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It was dirty work. To be a tanner, it literally stunk with the stench of dead animals.
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And in fact, many at the time said that a wife of a tanner had grounds for divorce because of the unclean work of her husband.
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They were shunned from the Jewish synagogues, and yet Peter goes and stays with Simon a tanner.
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And this gives us a clue about what is coming. Peter is breaking with old Jewish traditions and is becoming ready to proclaim
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Christ to the so -called unclean Gentiles. That's where we pick up the story in chapter 10.
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And the Gentile at the center of the story here is a man named Cornelius. He's a Roman centurion, which is the equivalent of like maybe our army captain.
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In verse 2 of chapter 10, it says that he was a devout man, one who feared
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God with all of his household, who gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always.
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So Cornelius was a God -fearer. He was one who believed in the God of Israel, but he had not become a proselyte.
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That is, he had not joined the Old Covenant community. So in the
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Old Testament, the Old Covenant, Gentiles could be saved, and they could join the Old Covenant community,
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Israel, by becoming a proselyte, with men undergoing circumcision. In other words, to join the
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Covenant community, one had to become Jewish. And so a major question that's going to come up for this, for the early church, early
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New Covenant church here is, must Gentiles become Jewish to become Christians? Now when we get to Acts 15, we're really going to deal with that.
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It becomes clear there. But it's at play here in Acts 10. Because you have Cornelius, and though he feared
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God, though he prayed to God, though he gave alms generously to the people, he had not become a proselyte, he had not joined the
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Old Covenant community in that way. He was Roman through and through. In the Roman army. But God was working in his life to call him to himself, and we see the culmination of that work here in Acts 10.
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So Cornelius has a vision about the ninth hour of the day, and the Lord tells him to send to Joppa for a man named
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Simon Peter, who is lodging by the sea with one named
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Simon, a tanner. And being a devout, God -fearing man, he obeys immediately, and he sends his men to Joppa to go get
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Peter. Well, the next day, while the men are in transit, in Joppa, Peter, he's sitting on the rooftop to pray, about noontime.
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And while food is being prepared for him, he falls into a trance, and he saw a vision of heaven opened up, and a great sheet coming down, bound at four corners, descending to him.
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And on that sheet are animals, four -footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air.
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Clean and unclean animals, all on this sheet, coming down, and a voice from heaven comes to him and says,
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Peter, rise, kill, and eat. Now Peter hadn't eaten anything unclean his entire life.
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He's been fastidiously following the old covenant dietary laws, and so he protests, and he says, not so,
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Lord, for I've never eaten anything common or unclean. In verse 15, and the voice spoke to him again, the second time, what
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God has cleansed you must not call common. This was done three times, and the object was taken again into heaven.
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The voice tells him, do not call common or unclean what God has declared to be clean.
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God had instituted the dietary restrictions, the dietary laws that Peter had adhered to.
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They were given to mark out God's people from the nations and to teach them how to live in proximity to a holy
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God. And the God who gave those dietary laws is now the God who is revoking them and ending them.
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For you see, the ceremonial law of the old covenant, the dietary laws, the sacrifices, the ritual cleanness and uncleanness, all of those were fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
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And now that God is broadening the Christian church to the Gentiles and sending his spirit upon them, there's no need for such markers between Jew and Gentile.
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There's no need to mark out the Jews from the nations because in Christ Jesus, God is forming a new humanity made up from Jews and the nations.
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And so previously, the dietary law separated Jew from Gentile. See, the animals, they represented people. The animals represented people and the clean
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Jews did not share table fellowship with the unclean so -called Gentiles. But Christ is making all people clean.
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He's reconciling all peoples to himself. And that is the lesson that Peter is having to learn here in his vision.
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We return to the story. And so while Peter wondered what all this meant, Cornelius' men show up.
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They arrive in Joppa and the spirit told Peter to go down to them and so he goes. He greets them.
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They tell him their business. They explained to him what had happened to Cornelius, what he saw.
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And so Peter invites them in. He lodges them for the evening. And then the next day, he goes with them. Now Cornelius is excited.
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He's gathered his family. He's gathered his friends. He's gathered those close to him to come and hear from Peter.
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When Peter gets there, Cornelius starts to worship him. Of course, Peter says, you know, stand up.
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I myself am also a man. He refuses that worship. And then he begins in verse 28.
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He makes the connection between animals of his vision and the people, Gentiles, by saying this.
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You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation.
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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.
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I asked him, for what reason have you sent for me? He makes a connection there between the animals of his vision and the people that he's going to see.
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Don't call unclean what God has called clean. And so what does Cornelius do? He recounts his own vision back to Peter about how a man in bright clothing had told him that his prayers had been heard before God, that his alms had been remembered.
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But it's interesting here. The man in bright clothing, whether that be an angel or Christ himself, the man didn't tell him the gospel right then and there.
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You see, God could have saved Cornelius right then and there through his vision, but he didn't.
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Instead, he told Cornelius to go send for Joppa so that Peter could come to him.
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And he gave the vision to Peter to prepare Peter for the men coming from Joppa. And he arranged for Peter to go and travel to Caesarea, to the city of the
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Gentiles, to go to Cornelius' household and preach to them. For you see, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.
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And God in his wisdom, he has chosen to ordinarily use human vessels as the means by which people hear the word of Christ.
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And so I want to pause here for just a moment and remind us of the necessity of human proclamation of the gospel.
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This is how God ordinarily works to bring people to faith. He uses other people. In other words, you, we, are
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God's plan to bring people in our community to salvation. Now to be sure, we don't save,
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Jesus saves. But we are the means by which God has ordained that the people will hear of the gospel of Jesus who saves.
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And so the question for us at this point is, who is hearing the gospel from you? Who is hearing the gospel from you?
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I want to share an encouraging story from one of our IMB missionaries. We support the
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International Mission Board through our co -op program and our giving and through the Lottie Loom Christmas Offering which is coming up next month.
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And IMB Missionary writes, sometime around 2017, Aisha and her family showed up as refugees in our city.
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She quickly made friends who were believers and began coming to church in our weekly women's
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Bible study. Now Aisha is a Muslim, but she's coming to this church Bible study. She made it very clear that she was not interested in the gospel, but that she was there for the community and the fellowship.
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Sometimes she would even argue after our study about different things we discussed. She was very hard -hearted toward the gospel, but she was faithful to church and Bible study every week.
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When I took the kids to camp in 2019, her daughter came along, and on the first night I sat outside with only the light of the stars until 3 a .m.
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convincing her that she didn't need to go home. Just this morning, she was writing about a week or so ago, just this morning
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I got word that she recently had a dream of Jesus and committed her life to Him.
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Read this a week or so ago, this woman, she was baptized last Sunday. This is an incredible story of perseverance and love in evangelism.
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You'll often hear these types of stories from mission content where someone has a dream of Jesus, but I want you to notice something.
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She didn't only have a dream of Jesus, she also had Christians who were proclaiming the gospel to her. Because God ordinarily works, even when
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He's giving these dreams, God ordinarily works by sending people to proclaim the
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Excellencies of Christ. People to proclaim the gospel. That is how people are saved.
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Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. And so again I ask, who is hearing the
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Word of Christ from you? The means God has appointed for bringing people to salvation is other people.
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People like you and people like me. So maybe a better question is, who needs to hear the gospel from you?
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Who needs to hear the gospel from you? Returning to our passage, Cornelius says in verse 33,
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So I said 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.
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And then Peter opens his mouth, and he says this beginning in verse 34,
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In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation, whoever fears
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Him and works righteousness is accepted by God. The Word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ, He is
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Lord of all. That Word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which
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John preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit, and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.
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For God was with Him, and we are witnesses of all things which He did, both in the land of the
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Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed
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Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.
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And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
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To Him all the prophets witnessed that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sin.
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This is the message that Peter goes and delivers to the Gentiles. This is the message that Peter goes and delivers to Cornelius and his household.
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I want to walk through it just briefly. Verses 34 and 35 gets to the heart of the passage when he says,
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In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.
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This is the heart of the whole encounter between Peter and Cornelius, that when it comes to salvation,
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God is no respecter of persons. God shows no partiality. When it comes to salvation and inclusion into the people of God, God shows no partiality.
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There's no advantage for any group of people. There's no advantage for being Jewish, and there's no advantage for being Gentile. There's no advantage to being
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American. There's no advantage to being white. There's no advantage to being black. There's no advantage to being a man. There's no advantage to being a woman.
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There's no advantage to being old. There's no advantage to being young. God shows no partiality, and He's no respecter of persons.
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As the old preachers used to say, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. Now, does this do away with natural goods, natural realities, natural relations?
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No. We don't deny the existence and goodness of different cultures. We still recognize men and women as men and women.
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They don't cease to be men and women. Hierarchies still exist in human institutions, and nations are still good.
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What we are saying is that access to Jesus, access to His gospel, access to His church, access to His heaven is wide open to everyone who repents and trusts in Christ.
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Access is open to everyone who repents of their sin and turns to and trusts in Jesus.
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In Acts, the new covenant realities are being unfolded as the gospel is proclaimed in Judea, in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
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The kingdom is expanding. The church is broadening. The Gentiles are welcomed into the church, and they don't have to become
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Jewish in order to do so. They don't have to be circumcised. They don't have to have the dietary restrictions and laws and the ceremonial laws to follow.
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Rather, they follow Christ, who fulfilled every bit of the law, including the ceremonial aspects.
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In verses 36 -43, we read the message of salvation. And this message centers on Jesus Christ.
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Because there's no other name under heaven by which men must be saved. We saw that back in Acts chapter 2. And so in verse 36,
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Peter preaches that Jesus is Lord of all. Peter preaches that Jesus is
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Lord of all. That means Jesus has authority over all things. As the
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Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper said it, there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which
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Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine. He's sovereign over all of it.
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All of it belongs to Christ. Jesus is Lord of everything. There's no nation on earth outside of the authority of Jesus.
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There's no industry in the economy outside of the authority of Jesus. There's no educational institution outside of the authority of Jesus.
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There's no family outside of the authority of Jesus. You can go nowhere to escape the realm of King Jesus because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him.
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Christ is Lord. And that is the fundamental confession of the
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Christian. That's our fundamental confession, that Christ is Lord. And it's also our message to the world. Jesus is
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Lord of all. There is no neutrality. There is no middle ground.
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There is no escaping it. Jesus is Lord. And the fact that Jesus is Lord is not dependent upon what someone feels about that.
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Whether they accept it or not. Or even if they like it. It's not dependent. Jesus is Lord and that is a fundamental fact of the universe.
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He's Lord regardless. And the job of the Christian is to proclaim that fact.
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To proclaim that message, that truth that Jesus Christ is Lord. And invite people to adjust their life and their beliefs accordingly.
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To get in line. To come along quietly and to submit to King Jesus. Because Jesus is
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Lord. Because the reality is that no one ever escapes recognizing the
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Lordship of Christ. Philippians 2 says it like this. At the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Of those in heaven and of those on earth.
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And of those under the earth. And every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
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Father. The only question is whether one makes that confession in this life and to everlasting salvation.
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Or one makes it in the life to come to everlasting damnation. But Jesus Christ is
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Lord of all and every tongue will confess that. One question for you.
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Is there any area of your life where you are practically denying the
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Lordship of Jesus Christ? Even if you would assent that Jesus is
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Lord of everything. Is there any area of your life where you have not submitted to the word of Christ?
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Your finances. Sexuality. Your weekly schedule. Interpersonal relationships.
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Your need to forgive someone. Your language. Your humor. What is it? Jesus is
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Lord of all of it. Is there any area where you are functionally denying the
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Lordship of Christ over it? By not obeying Him. Peter then goes on in verses 37 -41 to give witness to the life of Jesus.
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We see that in verses 37 -38. The death of Jesus in verse 39. And the resurrection of Jesus in verses 40 -41.
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So when we proclaim the gospel. This is the very center of what we are proclaiming. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
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That Jesus lived a perfect life. Fully obedient to God. He lived that in our place. And that Jesus died a sacrificial death to pay for our sins.
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And He died that death in our place as our substitute. And that Jesus rose from the dead. So that you too could be raised to new and everlasting life.
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This is the gospel. The life, burial, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. In verse 42
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Peter proclaims that Jesus is judge of the living and the dead. Again, here we see the authority of Jesus.
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Back in verse 36 or so. It was Jesus is Lord of all. And then now down here in verse 42. It's Jesus is judge of all the living and the dead.
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You see one day every last one of us will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And we will give an account of the deeds done in the body.
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We will give an account before Jesus the judge. It is appointed unto man once to die and then comes the judgment.
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And at that time it will not be mama. It won't be your best friend. It won't be some stranger on the internet.
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It won't be a co -worker who will judge you. It will be Jesus Christ. So live to please
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Jesus Christ. He is the one we will stand before. And then bringing it back to the heart of this encounter.
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Peter says there in verse 43. That forgiveness of sin is available to all who believe.
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All who believe in Jesus. Forgiveness of sin is available. Again, God shows no partiality. The gospel is for all people.
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The kingdom is expanding. And the church is broadening. Verse 44. While Peter was still speaking these words the
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Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. Peter didn't even get done preaching. And the Spirit falls. And we learn two things from the fact that Peter didn't even get done preaching.
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Before the Spirit fell. First is that it's God who saves. It's not Peter. It's not any preacher. It's God who saves.
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Salvation doesn't depend upon human persuasion or intellectual argumentation. Though those things are both good.
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Salvation depends on God. And the Spirit blows where He wishes. Second thing we learn is that the
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Spirit works through God's word. While Peter is preaching the word, the
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Spirit falls. The word of God works. Excuse me. The Spirit of God works in tandem with the word of God.
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They work together. And so if you want the work of the Spirit in your life, you need the word in your life.
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This is why we read the Bible for our call to worship on Sundays. This is why we read the
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Bible to assure us of our pardon from sin. This is why we sing the Bible and pray the
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Bible and have the Old Testament reading and have the New Testament reading. While we preach the Bible. While we dismiss. You go out with a benediction from the
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Bible. A blessing from the Bible. Because the Spirit of God works through the word of God. Too many people want the
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Spirit of God to work in their life, but they don't want the word. So what they end up getting is counterfeit spirits that lead them astray.
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And so I would encourage you church. Hold fast to God's word. Because the
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Spirit works with the word. Last few verses of this passage.
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It says, And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the
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Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles. They're astonished. The Gentiles are receiving the Spirit. It means the Gentiles are included in the covenant.
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People. The community. They heard them speak with tongues and magnify
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God. This is another Pentecost event. The Holy Spirit falls. And Peter answered.
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Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? I support it there.
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Just as we have. There's no distinction between Jew and Gentile here. They are receiving the same Spirit just as they had.
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And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. And they asked him to stay for a few days.
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The Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles. And they were welcomed into the New Covenant community as Gentiles.
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You see, God was doing something new in this New Covenant. And being brought near by Christ and filled with the
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Holy Spirit, they were baptized in the name of the Lord. And there they were, Jew and Gentile, together in Christ's church.
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I want to end with one quick note on this passage as a whole. We've titled this series going through the book of Acts, Conquer in the
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Name of Christ. And we do that because the story of Acts is like the conquest of the
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Promised Land that we read about in Joshua. Except this time we're taking the whole world, not just a sliver of land in Palestine.
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And this time we're wielding the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, not swords of steel. And I want you to notice something here.
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The march of Christ's church that we read about in the book of Acts. You see over the last couple of chapters, we see the
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Word and the Gospel going out from Jerusalem. South to Gaza, by way of the Ethiopian eunuch. South to Ethiopia, Ethiopia and Africa.
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We see it going north to Samaria. We see it going westward to Lydda and Sharon, where the whole city's turned to Jesus.
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We see it going northward up to Joppa, where many believed in the Lord. And then to Gentile Caesarea, where a
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Roman centurion and his household believed. And throughout the book of Acts, we see the
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Gospel speeding forth and triumphing. And through the pages of history, we see the same thing.
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You see, in this passage we have the Roman centurion believing. And if you keep reading the history books, what you see later is the whole
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Roman Empire believing and turning to the Lord. And later, that kingdom expands to the
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New World. And eventually, it travels west. Such that this group of Gentiles here, we confess that Jesus is
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Lord of all. And we're filled with this Holy Spirit of God. And we're baptized and we worship
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God as full -fledged members of the New Covenant. We are sons of God and servants of Christ.
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The Gospel has sped forth and triumphed and is triumphing. And the kingdom has expanded and is expanding.
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And the church has broadened and is broadening. Let's pray. Our Father, may
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Your Gospel continue to speed forth and triumph among all peoples and all places. May Your Word go out and not return void.
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But Father, we pray that You would accomplish everything that You have ordained by the counsel of Your will.
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And that You will be glorified through Your Son, Jesus Christ, whose name we pray.