Real change doesn't come easy

In a time where everyone is trying to be better than what they were. We look at a story of redemption and struggle, as Jesus most trusted and valued followers, we see the path to transformation as not one of just destination but of process, patience and time. The honesty to look at what is, and the desire to take the imperfections of learnt behaviour and put it at the cross, to receive greater insight to a predestined purpose.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Good morning everybody and welcome to Rima Reloaded with me, Sean Williams. It's an honor and a privilege to have you all with us another morning. Please, if you are enjoying the Bible studies, like, subscribe, share at Rima Bible Studies. Um, and you can also find my personal URL at Sean Williamsworld. Last week we were speaking on the subject Change Me First. We were looking at the story in Acts chapter 10 of Cornelius' vision, and um the angel speaking to him saying, Cornelius, your prayer life and your giving to the poor and looking after the destitute and those in need has come up before God, and we like what we're seeing. Um, and the angel then told Cornelius that there is a man residing in Joppa, the Apostle Peter, and that you are to send men to go and fetch him and bring him to you. He is going to tell you about the gospel of salvation. Um, as we were looking, we realized that the backstory meant that the Jews and the Romans, or I should say the Jews and everybody else, they didn't really mix. Okay. The term for a person that was non-Jewish in that time was called Gentiles. Cornelius, also a part of the Roman occupation because Jerusalem and the nation of Judea were in enslavement basically by Roman occupation. So even though they were being ruled by these people, their laws, um, as we know, we can follow the Levitical law handed to Moses all the way in the book of Exodus. That time period, which is just I think like two and a half thousand years, um they had been following that. So when we get to uh the New Testament and we are, we've just gone through the life and time of Jesus, the death, burial, and resurrection, Pentecost has happened, the birth of the church, which is what we are viewing and seeing in the book of Acts, is in full effect the church that has come out of what we know Judaism to be, okay? Um, because in these next scriptures is the first time that we hear the phrase Christian coined. Okay, the term Christian was not something given by Jesus to his disciples or his disciples to new believers as the word was starting to spread, and we know that the word started to spread into other areas because the church became or came under great persecution. We see this in chapters of Acts 7, 8, 9, 10, and basically throughout the rest of the book of Acts because it starts with Saul. Saul has a charge to go and find these Christians. At the time, they were called believers, and Christianity was called the way, and he was charged by the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and those in really high positions within leadership within the Jewish faith, to go and find these believers and discard them. So the church was under great persecution, which meant that them all gathering together in a couple of spaces, namely Jerusalem, they had to flee. They had to disband, they had to disperse. But what that meant was that the gospel was being preached in other places, in Syria, in Antioch, um, to the Grecians, um, it was just going Asia. It was going absolutely everywhere. So, what we see in this moment is that as the word is starting to spread, people who are starting to come into contact with um the believers, the disciples, the apostles, we see the first term um Christian coined. Now, I want to very quickly recap over just some of our key points from our last Bible study that will help us continue the thread into this week's Bible study. Now, I've named this Bible study Real Change Doesn't Come Easy. Okay, I'm gonna say that to you one more time. Real change doesn't come easy. Now, part one was change me first, and we put the basis of this because sometimes there are moments where we pray and we are crying to God and we are seeking him and we are begging him to change situations or get us out of situations, and there are moments where we're really praying for escapism, okay? And God is not trying to, though he can provide ways of escape, we are not dealing with an escapist God, we're dealing with a God that likes us to overcome, okay? To overcome means to go through a situation and come out the other end intact, okay. So, what we're seeing is that we are trying to move from the escapism element in that within our Christianity or our walk or our prayer life, and we're trying to move into the overcoming element, okay? Which is why the subject of change me first was so prevalent and so prominent, because when we take the responsibility away from the thing that we think is harming us, hurting us, making us feel uncomfortable, what we say to God is, God, elevate me above and beyond the thing I'm going through. I'm gonna say that one more time. When we ask God to change us first, we're basically saying, God, elevate me above and beyond the thing I'm going through because that thing is it's giving me what I call environmental knowledge. Let me qualify that. Environmental knowledge comes through your sensory detections, okay? So our five senses sight, taste, touch, smell, feel, feel, taste, touch, smell, sight. I think I've got those. If I haven't, get in the comments. Let me know which one I've missed out. Um, and what this does is it feeds to us the information of the world around us. Does that make sense? So then that means that a lot of the time we are going through situations on a reactionary basis. Why? Because we're not in charge of the information we're receiving according to that particular situation. But the word of God tells us that we are to take power and authority and to speak over things. Now, how are you gonna speak over something that you're allowing to overcome you? Oh, don't worry, I'm gonna give you a couple of seconds. I'll wait. Let's do a little countdown thing, but it'll only be five seconds. Five, four, three, two, doom doom, doom, doom. I'm only joking. But you understand my point. So, what we do within our spiritual walk, when we pray and we go to God and we say, God, change me first, then we use the word of God to build up our faith. Why? Because the Bible says that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing from the word of God. Why the word of God? Because the word of God is older than your ability to think. The word of God is older than the situation that is causing you distress. The word of God is firmer than the throne that God sits on. That's not me saying that, the Bible says that. So when you invest in what God says, what you say is that I am not going to be affected by the reactionary environmental information that's happening around me. I am going to, I'm gonna go to the anchor that is connected to my spirit deep within me, that connects me to the father who remember in the book of Jeremiah, the Bible says that before I form thee in the belly, before you and before me and your mum started to collaborate, I already set your schematics out. I set your blueprint, I knew you. Okay, so that's why we don't use the reactionary information of our sensory environment, but we use what's going on within us. That through our relationship with God, through prayer, through reading and meditating on his word, we then get to speak to our situation. Okay, so we put a couple of key points down. Change always requires change always requires a reason. Okay, we saw this. We knew that Jesus had not just come to die for the Jews, but he came to die for us all. The Bible says he was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our very peace was put upon him, and what? By his stripes. The Bible is saying by the wounds that he suffered, through the pain, the pain that he endured, he substituted us and put himself in there, right? So, real change requires a reason, and Jesus came not just to save the Jews, not just to fulfill the prophecy and the law, but he came to save everybody. We also got other hints of this, the book of St. John, chapter 4, where Jesus and his disciples traveled to Samaria. That was a Gentile place. That means that they were not Jews. However, the well of their forefather Jacob, to which the 12 tribes of Israel came, where was it built? Right there in Samaria. And what does Jesus do? He says to the Samaritan woman, he says, A time is coming where you won't have to worry about worshiping in Jerusalem and following these laws that are restrictive and rigid, and stop those that I want to, those that I want to have a relationship with, the door will no longer be closed. It will be open. So Jesus and his ministry came to save the world, and now we're seeing this in real time. We're seeing this centurion soldier who is having this spiritual experience and encounter with God, and now God is using his experience to change Peter's heart. Isn't it amazing that God will use someone else's experience to change your heart? Why? Because sometimes God wants you to sit on the peripheral of the situation before he substitutes you into the situation so you can see his plan, his promise, and understand how he's going to use you as a catalyst in that situation. How do you mean? Cornelius was a part of the occupation that was oppressing the Israelite people, but he found himself to be in righteous activity, and God uses his lifestyle and his situation to speak to Peter to undo decades and centuries of thinking in Peter's mind. How do we know this? Because the Bible says that a sheep came down, Peter saw all kinds of animals that they weren't allowed to kill and to eat. And at the time he was having this vision because he was hungry, he was waiting for food. And then after that, the angel comes to him and says, Peter, that vision you had isn't just because you're hallucinating because of how hungry you are. I am sending some men who are gonna come and ask for you. And if I hit that plant one more time, oh my gosh, I'm sending some men who are gonna come and they're gonna require of you the truth about the gospel of salvation. Okay. The next point that that takes us to is that change forces you to challenge what you know. Peter didn't want to go with those men. That's why God had to send an angel to be like, bruh, they're not coming to do a madness, they're not coming to arrest you. And how do we know that Peter kind of had these thoughts? Is because in a couple of chapters later we see Peter put into prison because Herod murders the brother of St. John. He murders James, and because the people are happy about it, he starts to look for other disciples, and we see that they actually catch Peter. That's for your reading a bit further on. But I'm trying to set the basis for you that change will force you to challenge what you know. Okay, then we move from Peter going to see Cornelius and the family, and when he comes into contact with them and he begins to preach to them, and the Holy Spirit falls, his heart is open. Change will force you to open your heart. Why? Because without an open heart, how can you receive and how can you give? In a visual conceptual way, sometimes this is how we expect God to penetrate our hearts when He's really asking us to take it from this to this. The reason why open is more valuable and it's more uh efficient is because that means there is a reciprocity, there is a flowing in and a flowing out. Right. I've set up um our previous Bible study enough. I'm now gonna jump into chapter 11. Okay, now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take you through the last couple of verses of chapter 10 so you can understand what's happening. Peter's got to the place where after he's finished preaching and telling them about the gospel of salvation, the Holy Spirit falls. And you've now got these Gentiles, but worse than that, you've got these Romans speaking in other tongues. Now, for Peter, and the Bible says that there was some of the when you hear the term circumcision, we're talking about traditional Jews. So Peter didn't just roll by himself to Cornelius' house, even though this angel was like, Go to Cornelius' house. Peter was like, Let me take a couple men with me. Just in case it gets a little spicy, and then we have to. Now we know Peter was active. And you're sitting there going, sure, what do you mean Peter was active? Was it not Peter that took his sword out and cut off the soldier's ear when they tried to take Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane? We know Peter was about that life. He loved Jesus, but if he had to get active, he would have got active. So the Bible tells us that there was some of the circumcision that was with Peter. And when the Holy Spirit started to fall, they're all looking at each other, and the Bible says they actually said, How has this been entrusted to the Gentiles as well? So immediately you can see that there was a little bit of bougie in their situation. Because as far as they're concerned, they were like, Jesus came to us, and they were feeling better because within Jewish structure and society, the disciples weren't at the top end of the food chain, they were they were fishermen. Yes, there were some scholars. Luke was a doctor, but by and large, they were simple men of simple passions, of simple understanding, and yet they're now seeing the plan of salvation happening in real time. How many times have you been in a situation and you thought you knew what was going to happen? And then all of a sudden, God starts to do something you haven't seen before. He starts to do something that you weren't expecting. And Peter's watching this, and he gets to the place where he's just like, Well, how can I deny them the baptism of salvation? They have the signs of the other tongues, they obviously believe, so they have this amazing revival in Cornelius' house, and also the part we can't see is that this was the birth of the church in Rome. Yes, we knew the apostle Paul was gonna go there, but you can now see that Christ's plan, even when he came, God had a plan for the world. He wasn't just sitting there saying, Okay, cool, even though I've promised my people that I'm gonna do these things and I'm going to deliver them and I'm gonna bless them, I didn't just make them, I made everyone. And sin doesn't just affect them, it affects everyone. And imagine in one moment, whilst God is changing one of his chief disciples' minds, he's also opening the door for a whole nation to know him. We get to the end of Acts chapter 10, and the Bible says that they were having such an amazing time like Peter, please don't leave. And Peter was like, ah, well, I guess I can hang out for a couple of days. So Peter stays for a couple of days, and this is where we pick it up in Acts chapter 11. As I go through the scriptures, I'm gonna be stopping at certain verses so I can expound it for you, um, and we can kind of have some some debate and some conversation. I know you're not here, but we're having debate and conversation. Well, I'm debating and conversating. We're taking down notes. But if you also want to get in the comments, please get in the comments, speak to me. So, Acts chapter 11, uh, we're gonna start from verse 1. I will read and then I will come back and we will go over points and pieces, and we'll just we're gonna examine a bit of the word. So it says in chapter 11, verse 1 the apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard, they heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. Imagine that, right? The guys that the chief staff members of the Church of Jesus Christ, they hear about the revival. And instead of saying, if you've heard about the revival, the things that have happened, right? So they're speaking in other tongues, they've been baptized, yet they are still calling them Gentiles. They are still referring to them in the derogatory way that they've always seen them, even though it's quite clear that the precious Holy Spirit is residing in these people, they see them as Gentiles. That's a note you want to take there. You can go through transformative change, but there are some people that will only see you as they've known you. I'm gonna say that to you one more time. You can go through spiritual transformative change, but there are some people that only have the ability to see you as they moan you. Verse 2. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, so he's obviously travelled from Joppa where he was, going to Cornelius to where he was, and now he's traveling up to Jerusalem. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers, so these are the original Jews, they criticized him. Imagine you just come from a revival, you've done seen the Holy Spirit work in an amazing way. And when you get back to your local church, okay, it's not parades and hey, have some bread and confetti and let's let's thank God for what's happened. The Bible says they criticized him, and the first thing they said to him, you went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them. If I was Peter, I would have been like, are you men alright? Are you alright? I went into the house with uncircumcised men and ate with them. Okay, and then this is what I love. Verse 4. I can tell that Peter had anxiety about this situation. We've all been in a situation or a position where we've been in a situation, right? Something's happened, something unexpected's happened. And the story is so crazy to us that we start rehearsing what we're gonna say to the people that we know is gonna be like, so what happened there then, eh? Alright, let me let me put this in in normal terms, right? So say you and your friends, okay. So if you're a girl or and you've got gone out of a group of your girlfriends, or if you're a guy, you're gonna have a group of your boys, and let's say there's a couple people that you don't mess with, right? You you don't talk to them, they don't talk to us, we just leave it the way it is. And you go out and have an amazing night, and all of a sudden you bump into this person at the bar, at the toilet, or wherever you may be, in the restaurant, and you realize I don't mind this person. I got this twisted. But you realize that the situation that happened to which your other friends have decided that you should never talk to these people, you know you can't explain this to them. This is what is happening here. The guys in Judea heard about the shubs going on over by Joppa, and they're like, Why did we hear that you were with Gentiles and Romans in the cut? We don't do that. Peter was so anxious, he spent the whole journey home going, okay Lord, how do I explain to these guys that I didn't decide to go to their house? I didn't just turn up, I wasn't trying to be their friends. There was so much anxiety attached to this amazing moment. How many times has God done amazing things in our lives? But we're feeling anxious about telling people. We're feeling anxious about explaining to people that have not come to help us why we're no longer in the worst situation we were in before. There is nothing bad that is happening in this scripture. Nothing, right? Firstly, Peter's safe. Secondly, they have an ally with a Roman centurion. If I'm trying to do some stuff for Jesus and I realize that the people that stopped me doing it are Romans, and I now have a guy on the inside that can help me, that would be a good thing. Right? But Peter has spent his whole time rehearsing the speech. Well, I was just in Jobba, I wasn't doing anything, I was minding my own business, I was just praying, and then this vision comes down, these men turn up, and all of a sudden I've got to go to Cornelius, and I'm and I know you listening to me right now, there have been moments where you've been trying to explain something to someone, or something amazing has happened, and you were trying to figure out the best way to explain to a person that wasn't there, that didn't help, so that you fit into their idea of what they think you should be doing. Let's keep going on. Verse 4 starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story. I was just saying this, guys. Follow this with me, and I'm gonna try and act it out a little bit for you. I was in the city of Joppa, praying. And I was in a trance. In fact, I saw a vision, lads. I saw a vision. Okay. I saw something like a large sheep being let down from heaven by its fore corners, and it came down to wherever I was. I didn't ask it to come down. It just landed there. Okay. And then he says, I looked into it and I saw them four-footed nasty animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds. Then I heard a voice. It wasn't me, lads. It was not. Okay. He said, I heard a voice telling me, get up, Peter, kill and eat. And I replied, No, uh-uh-uh, surely not, Lord. Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth. You can read this for yourself. You've got it on the screen. Verse 9. The voice spoke from heaven a second time, lads. This wasn't the same voice. Then another voice from heaven came, do not call anything impure that God has made clean. Pete is like, this happened not once, not twice, but three times. And then it was pulled up to heaven again. Right then, three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea. And Pete is trying to explain to them, lads, before I had time to understand the spiritual revelation, I had three men at my door knocking. I didn't even have time to go to Jesus and be like, what's happening, Lord? Romans. Romans. Okay. And he said, they stopped at the house where I was staying. And then the spirit, I love this. He goes, it wasn't me. The Holy Spirit then told me, do not hesitate, Peter. Go with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house. Now, here's the other thing. Okay, I love the ambiguity of some of how Peter is using his descriptions, right? Like he's not calling anybody by name, he's just trying to sit there and go, Listen, I was minding my business. You know, when you've been a situation the person's trying to drag you into their foolishness, you're like, brother, listen, sister girl, I was minding my business. I don't know what's going on over there. That's a craziness, right? Then he told us. Okay, so when he says that we entered the man's house, he is now talking about Cornelius. You know a situation's deep when you don't even want to call the person's name that's involved with the situation. They're like, Peter's like, if I tell them that I if if they know we're on a first name basis, they might wonder, so what have you been telling our Roman brethren, then, Peter? Okay? Not realizing that God is setting them all up. This is a divine setup. God is getting rid of some of Peter's prejudicial ideas. He's getting rid of the church's the leaders, the early leaders of the first church, he's getting rid of their prejudicial ideas. Why? Because the charge was in the book of Matthew, chapter 28. What did Jesus say? Go ye into all the world. The world is bigger than Jerusalem. The world is bigger than the world you know, the world is bigger than your street, it's bigger than your family, it's bigger than your friendship group, it's bigger than your comfort zone. Jesus said to him, Go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And he said, Who are we gonna preach to? The Jew, the Greek, and then he listed everybody else that he wanted the word to go to. Okay. So Peter's now said that we entered the man's house and he told us he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, Sent to dropped for Simon, who is called Peter, he will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved. So imagine Peter now is bringing in the identity and the purpose of their ministry. Peter is he's so nervous about what's going on. He's like, if I don't remind these guys, listen, this had nothing to do with me wanting to go to this Roman's house. This had everything to do with me listening to the angel of the Lord and going and speaking a word so that not just this man, but that his whole house would be saved. Why was this important? Because Peter was the one that preached the biggest sermon on the day of Pentecost when 3,000 souls were added to the church that day. So Peter was using connected words to help them understand that this was beyond his ability to do based on something that he had conjured up in his own mind. He was trying to explain to them, guys, I wasn't trying to go to the Romans, I wasn't trying to go and give them this sweet salvation that we have. But God was trying to show something more powerful. That even though he wants to change us, after we've gone through that change, there are always going to be little things in our lives that will niggle at the purpose and the plan. There will be little things in our lives that will chip away sometimes at our courage and our resolve and our faith. But the same way Peter was able to explain to the brethren, you have the ability to have that same conversation, not only with those around you, but with yourself. David said there were times where he had to encourage himself in God. Sometimes the person we need to talk to isn't the people around us, it's us. Sometimes we have to remind us that God has come and he's transformed the very thing that we didn't think possible. And that when we sometimes try and understand it in our own understanding and through our own power, that's when we find ourselves in moments of not only weakness but confusion and misunderstanding. Why? Because we're trying to understand something divine with a finite, limited mind. Okay, let me just get to the end of this. Um we're down where he's saying, Look, the angel told me to go. I entered this man's house, um, and the angel said to him that I was gonna come and I was gonna speak a message that would save his whole household. Verse 15. As I began to speak, watch what you say. Your words have life, your words are a creative force, your words have power. As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us. Key verse. This this was the catalyst. The Holy Spirit came on them. Talking about the day of Pentecost, as it had come on us, what verified their story? Peter was there on the day of Pentecost. He received the Holy Spirit so much so that Peter did what the others couldn't. He went outside and preached to the point that 3,000 souls were like, Yeah, I need to give my life. Peter was reminding his brethren, this wasn't just about something that you think I've done. No, no, no, no. There were things that happened in this moment that were beyond my control. I don't have the power to call the Holy Ghost down anywhere. I just began to speak. Sometimes you're blaming yourself for things that you're not in control of. It wasn't you. The Holy Spirit was orchestrating through you, around you, within you. Then verse 16, then I remembered what the Lord had said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Verse 17 so if God gave them the same gift he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God's way? Verse 18, and we're gonna wrap it up with this verse. When they heard this, they had no further objections. Good news is easy to swallow. The truth is even easier to stand upon. Good news is easy to swallow. The truth is even easier to stand upon. I'm gonna read verse 18 one more time. When they heard this, they had no further objections and praise God saying, So then, even to the Gentiles, God has granted repentance that leads to life. God has granted us the way that leads to life. The Bible says that Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can go to the Father except he come through me. Nicodemus said, How can a man be born again? He said, This born again is not of flesh and blood, but heart and mind, Nicodemus. God is asking you this morning, will you give him your heart? Will you give him your mind? We often give our heart, but we forget to change our mind, or we refuse to change our mind. We see it here even with his chief disciples. Everybody anyone can do but not everyone means it. In order to mean it, there has to be an alignment of heart and mind and spirit. Even when you don't understand, it won't stop you going. Even when it's scary, it won't stop you believing. Even when you can't see it, it won't stop you doing. I hope that you have had a wonderful time in this Bible study. Please read on. Any questions that you have, hit us. Put it in the comments. If this has touched you, share it, like it, repost it. Until next time. Have a great day, guys.