SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, my name is Karen. The Old Testament reading is found in Leviticus chapter 11, verses 44 through 47. I am the Lord your God. You must keep yourselves holy and be holy. Because I am holy. You must not make yourselves unclean by any swarming creature that crawls on the ground. I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God. You must be holy because I am holy. This concludes the instruction concerning animals, birds, all creatures that live in water, and all the creatures that swarm on the earth, in order to distinguish between the clean, the unclean, and the clean, and between creatures that can be eaten and those that cannot. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Hello, my name is Mary. Today we celebrate the global communion of saints across orders, people groups, and languages by reading the scripture in another language. I will be reading the New Testament passage, Acts 10, verses 9b through 17 in Swahili. You can follow along on the screen in English.

SPEAKER_03 3:58

If you're able, thank you, you've already stand for the reading of the gospel found in Luke 5, 29 through 32. Then Levi threw a great banquet for Jesus in his home. A large number of tax collectors and others sat down to eat with them. The Pharisees and their legal experts grumbled against his disciples. They said, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered, Healthy people don't need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn't come to call righteous people, but sinners to change their hearts and lives. The gospel of the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Yeah, I'll keep that. Thank you guys. Mary, that was so cool. Thanks for reading, Swahili. Let's pray. I don't know about you guys, but I can just feel today just feels like something special is happening. That the presence of God is maybe just closer, heavier. Undoing us in some way. Like we just say. God, we just pray for more of that. I pray for more of what you are doing. I pray for more of your spirit. God, I pray that your spirit would speak to us. God, that your Holy Spirit would open our eyes and open our hearts, God, and speak clearly and lead us. Jesus. Father, we pray for more of what you're doing. Holy Spirit, God. In Jesus' name. Amen. You guys can grab a seat. Oh, I was kind of a mess during worship. I'm going to pull it together here. I don't know if you guys realize how blessed we are to have a worship team like we do, and the intentionality and the care. And sometimes I have a three-sentence conversation with Micah, and then he picks these songs, and I'm like, yes, that's the perfect song to set this up. And so I just felt that this morning. Like the Holy Spirit is working and in so much, so much more, just in all the planning and the preparation. So for that, I'm just so grateful. Um, my name's Stephanie. I'm one of the pastors here. If I haven't met you, I'd love to meet you after service. Uh, again, if you are joining us online, if you're at home, if you're traveling, if you are in the hospital, we are glad you are joining us in this way. We miss you and we hope to see you back in person soon. I want to start with a story that I recently read. This story is about a bishop from the late 1800s, so like 150 years ago. He was convinced at that at that time that there wasn't much left to discover. And after dinner, one evening, he said to the person that he was eating with, he said, I think everything has already been invented. I'm pretty sure Jesus is going to return soon. And this man that he was eating with said, I respectfully disagree. I actually think we have a long way to go. In fact, I think that 50 years from now, people will be flying through the air. And the bishop said, No, no, no, no. That is not how God created people. Only angels can fly. And the reason this story is so memorable, why it was written down in the book I was reading is because this last, this man's last name was right with a W. And at home were his two sons, Orville and Wilbur, and they were boys who would grow up to change the world because they could imagine a future that their father couldn't. And sometimes our greatest obstacle isn't a lack of faith in God, but it's assuming we know how God works or what God is doing or will do. So today we're continuing in our series in Acts called Kingdom Movement. And today in Acts chapter 10, God is expanding the vision of his people. God is preparing his people to see that his kingdom is bigger, that his grace and his mercy reaches farther, and that his plans actually extend beyond what his people can imagine. And so this is personal for us because this is still our story as we desire God's kingdom to be present, as we ask God for his presence to be here, as we ask him to do new things and believe and trust in him to do that. So Acts chapter 10 is this major hinge point in the story of Acts. In fact, this narrative that we're gonna start today is the beginning of Acts 10 all the way through the middle of 11. And so just the fact that it's the longest narrative that we find in Acts shows that it's important. It was important to Luke, the author. It was important for the Holy Spirit who inspired Luke to have this story and to focus on it so much in this book. But before we get there, before we get to Acts chapter 10, I want us to go back a little bit because Luke, the author, he's so brilliant in how he sets this chapter up. So let's recap a little bit. After the church received the Holy Spirit, we see that this gospel message of Jesus, it's starting to spread. It's spreading like wildfire. Followers of Jesus, they're living out in this new way, their numbers continue to grow. But persecution follows the church, and we see that Jesus's disciples are dispersed, fulfilling what Jesus said would happen, that the gospel would come to Jerusalem, Judea, and to the ends of the earth. And we really start to see this happen in Acts chapter eight. I taught on this a few weeks ago. This is the story of the Ethiopian eunuch. He was a Gentile, and he had an encounter with God through a disciple Philip, and he met with Jesus and was saved and was baptized and received the Holy Spirit when he learned about Jesus. So that's Acts chapter 8. And then we get to Acts chapter 9, and we see we meet this new character, Saul, and he has this dramatic experience with Jesus in the middle of the day, one that will change church history. And then Luke pauses this story with Saul or Paul and he picks up with the apostle Peter. And we see at the end of Acts chapter 9 that Peter is doing amazing things through the Spirit. That he heals a man who's been bedridden for years, that he raises a woman, Tabitha, from the dead. So by the time we get to Acts chapter 10, Luke has primed us as the reader. And he is showing us that miracles are happening, that there is this new awakening to Jesus happening. So we open chapter 10, and we really shouldn't be surprised that something new is gonna happen again, that the spirit is gonna continue to do new things, and he's gonna use the apostle Peter to do it. So Luke starts this chapter with two parallel complementary visions. One with a Roman official named Cornelius and one with the Apostle Peter. Now, we've just seen something similar in chapter nine because there are also two visions that are complementary with Saul and with Ananias. And whenever we see this in scripture, where there's double visions experienced by different people, this is something to pay attention to because this is reinforcing their validity. And for both of these men in chapter 10 that we're gonna read in here in a second, I want you to see that God is preparing these men. He's preparing their hearts, he's doing a work in each of them individually before they even ever meet. He's at work in their lives. So let's open to chapter 10. We're gonna start at the beginning. If you have your Bible or your phone, you can open that to verse one. It says, there was a man in Caesarea. This is named after Caesar. If I'm saying that wrong, you come and tell me afterwards because I feel like there's like three ways to say that. There was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius. He was a centurion in the Italian company. And he and his whole household, they were pious, they were Gentile God worshipers. He gave generously to those in need among the Jewish people. And he prayed to God constantly. And one day at nearly three o'clock in the afternoon, he clearly saw an angel from God in a vision. And the angel came to him and said his name, Cornelius. And startled, he stared at the angel and he replied, What is it, Lord? And the angel said this to him your prayers and your compassionate acts are like a memorial offering to God. So send messengers to Joppa at once and summon a certain Simon, who's also named Peter. He is at, he's the guest of Simon the Tanner, whose house is near the seacoast. So we meet this man named Cornelius. He's a man of influence. He's a man of wealth. He likely oversees a hundred men. And Cornelius and his family, we learn they're Gentiles, but they're God worshippers, they're God fearers, which means that they weren't participating in the same idol worship that would have been so common in that time and in that place. And Cornelius and his family are regularly giving to those in need. His generosity has been seen from heaven. Isn't that a beautiful picture? That the way he has cared for people has not gone unnoticed. And he has this regular rhythm of prayer because he goes and he prays at three o'clock in the day. This was a fixed hour time of prayer. Who knows how long Cornelius had been praying regularly? I like to think that this had been a rhythm of his for years. Praying multiple times a day. Now, likely there were probably multiple times where nothing happened. He didn't know, maybe at times he doubted. Is God even hearing me? What do I even pray for? Does this even matter? I'm a Gentile. But he continued to meet with God in these regular times of prayer, and everything was about to change because of this man's devotion to God. And this is such a beautiful lesson for us to see that if we want God to do something new, we have to keep faithfully doing the present thing and be ready for God to surprise us. Maybe you can kind of resonate with this and you feel like I've been praying for something or someone for years. I don't know if it's working. I don't know if anything's happening. I don't know if my prayers are changing anything. But I want to encourage you, don't stop. Don't stop that devotion. Don't stop meeting with God. God sees your prayers. They are not going unnoticed. Maybe you have another practice that you've been doing on a regular basis and you're wondering: am I being transformed by this? Am I meeting Jesus in this space? Is anything even happening? Don't stop. Keep that devotion towards God. Because Cornelius did this. He kept doing what he was normally doing. He was faithful in this way that he had been faithful a hundred times before, trusting that God was there, trusting in God's faithfulness. And this is when an encounter with an angel happened. And I can't promise this will happen for you in your prayer time, but it happened for Cornelius. He had a dramatic encounter and had this presence come to him. And when this angel came, he was immediately obedient. And I think that that obedience that we find from Cornelius, he did write what the angel had said. I think this is because of his faithfulness, because of his devotion, because of those early hours that he got up. He was ready. He was prepared for what the angel had for him. So the angel tells him to send some servants down to Joppa and find this man, his name's Simon, but it's actually Peter, and he's actually in another man's house, also named Simon, they're by the sea. I mean, so confusing, right? But like, go find this man. And so the servants go. And Cornelius, he didn't have all the answers. He didn't know. He didn't know maybe even what was happening, why he was sending for this man, but he was obedient. He sent his messengers to go find Peter. And let's pick up in verse nine. So as these men, it says, at noon on the following day, as their journey brought them close to the city, these servants of Cornelius's, Peter, he went up on the roof to pray. And at this time he became hungry and he wanted to eat while others were preparing the meal. This is when he had a visionary experience. He saw heaven open up in something like a large sheet being lowered to the earth by its four corners. And inside the sheet were all kinds of four-legged animals, reptiles, and wild birds. And a voice told him, Get up, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter exclaimed, Absolutely not, Lord. I have never eaten anything impure or unclean. But the voice spoke a second time. Never consider unclean what God has made pure. And this happened three times, and then the object was suddenly pulled back up to heaven. Peter was bewildered about the meaning of this vision. So Peter's hungry. Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, they also met at noon in chapter eight. Saul, he met with Jesus at noon in chapter nine. It's funny sometimes how these things come up. At noon, it was the middle of the day, broad daylight. And not a ton happened at noon. It was the middle of the day. It was hot. It was uncomfortable. And it's so funny to think that Luke is the author, he's using this to say, hey, pay attention to this. This is happening at noon. This is important. And this story here, this vision that Peter experienced, this is one of those passages where it feels weird. It's easy to get caught up in the details. And there are scholars that even don't fully agree on exactly what happened with Peter and what he was seeing. And was it a tablecloth, or was it a sheet, or was it a sail from a boat in the distance? There are people that say we're not exactly sure, but this is the main point. This is the point that Luke wanted Peter or that God wanted Peter to see in that Luke as the author wants us to see. See, Peter had this experience with this sheet lowered from heaven, filled with clean and unclean animals. And when God tells him to eat, Peter refuses. And actually, this makes sense. Not because Peter was bougie, not because it was January and he was like doing whole 30 with one of his friends. Not because he was worried about like a weird like parasite on um raw vegetables. Um, if you've been reading the news, you know what I'm talking about. I haven't eaten any raw vegetables in the last two days. Ask your neighbor what that means later. Um, but this would have made sense for Peter to refuse because as a faithful Jew, he believed that if clean animals were mixed with unclean animals, the whole group would have become ceremonially unclean. Peter had spent his entire life obeying the food laws from Leviticus 11, which we heard earlier. And these categories of clean and unclean, they they weren't moral categories. It wasn't about good and evil, but it was meant at that time to distinguish God's people. From the surrounding nations, and to remind God's people, remind Israel that they belonged to God, that they were to be holy, they were to remain holy, they were to be remain set apart. That's the purpose of these. And so Jews would have followed these food laws, and many Jews would have suffered and honestly even died, then disobey these food laws, then violate these. And so over time you can imagine that this distinction really shaped their culture. It shaped their relationship with other people who were not Jewish, people who were Gentiles. And Jewish people often they would avoid eating or even entering the home of someone who was not Jewish to remain ceremonially pure. So whether they intended to or not, whether it was intentional or not, this was often experienced from Gentiles as exclusion, as separation, even as hatred. And so Luke wants us to see that this vision, this vision here, it was initiated by God. Something important here was happening for Peter. Scripture says that the heavens opened. This is the same, the same words, the same detail that's found in other writings. When Jesus is baptized, it said that the heavens opened. Before Stephen was martyred earlier in Acts, it says that the heavens opened. The heavens opened in this vision for Peter because God was doing something. This was a signal. God was acting, God was speaking. And the point that God was making wasn't about just changing the menu. It wasn't about just changing the food, but the food was significant. Because this difference between Jews and Gentiles, eating together was more than just sharing a meal. The same way it is for us. The same way eating together is so much more than just the food. Eating together for people, it represents acceptance, fellowship, relationship. But because of these purity laws for the Jewish people, they couldn't share a table with a Gentile, reinforcing this idea that Gentiles were outsiders. NT writes as this about this man Cornelius. He said, he didn't just want God or Peter to tolerate him. He wanted to be welcomed, to be forgiven, to be healed, to be transformed. He wanted to be able to come to that table where he wasn't allowed. When I was about 12 years old, I missed a lot of school and went through a variety of tests for multiple months and discovered I had just a whole slew of food allergies and symptoms that had come with that. And when I went back to school, sixth grade, middle school, middle school's tough, man. If you have a middle schooler, I'm praying for you right now. I would sit with a group of friends and they would make fun of me for the food that I was eating and offer me their food, kind of knowing I couldn't have it. And this isn't a teaching on choosing the right friends, which I wish someone would have helped me with when I was that age, but just this reality that coming to the table with people, it's so much more about food. It's about this relationship, it's about coming together. We don't merely want to be tolerated by others, we want to be welcomed. We want peace. This is what Jesus offers us. He offers us this peace. He heals our brokenness. He invites us to this table. This is all of our stories and what we're invited into. So see, Acts 10 here, it isn't simply about just declaring all food is clean, you can eat your bacon. It's about removing food laws as a barrier to fellowship. See, God is making it clear that what once separated Jews and Gentiles is no longer a reason to keep them apart. And Paul later says something so similar, and most of Romans 14 is about this, but in verse 17, he says, God's kingdom isn't about eating food and drinking. God's kingdom is about so much more. It's about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And we see this from the beginning pages of Scripture that the Father's mission, the Father's heart for us, it has always been his presence with us. It's been unity. It's about bringing us with him and others together, peace between people that were separated by sin and race and language and hostility. This is the heart of the Father. Have any of you been watching the World Cup? Yes? One girl in the front row has been watching the World Cup. If you have heard me talk or if you've met my husband, soccer is very important to our family. And so every World Cup game has been on in our house. Um we've been watching a lot of World Cup, which has been so fun. But one of the things I've honestly loved is some of the commercials. Have you seen any of these? There is such this point in the commercials and watching how the players from different teams interact and the fans that it's like different languages, different cultures, different histories, different flags, different colors. And for this moment, they're all coming together. And it's like this sense of unity and it's this beautiful thing that we get to watch. And it's it's not gonna fully last, but it gives us this glimpse that I think our hearts were made for. And my husband, Zach, he thinks that the world would be a better place if there was just more soccer. And maybe that's true. So, but back to Peter. So Peter, he sees this vision, he experienced this, this, and it says he was bewildered, he was confused, he was asking questions. Okay, what does this mean? That was weird. He's trying to understand this vision, and then the Holy Spirit speaks. The spirit speaks to him and tells him, There are men waiting for you at the gate, those men that had come from Cornelius. And the spirit tells him, Don't ask questions, just go with them, because I have sent them. Church, when the Holy Spirit speaks, our job isn't to have full clarity, it's to walk in faithful obedience, the way that Peter did. See, Peter was obedient to the Holy Spirit speaking. He didn't have the whole picture, but he moved forward in obedience. That's the kind of church that I want us to be. A church that doesn't just simply choose what's comfortable, but a church that's always saying, God, what is the new thing that you want to do? That we can follow Peter's example and say, I don't know what's gonna happen, but I'm gonna open this door in hospitality and I'm gonna be obedient because this is what the Holy Spirit spoke to me. A year ago, you know, we discerned as a church, as a leadership team, as staff and elders, that the Holy Spirit was speaking. And it was time for us to enter a new season as a church. And this past year, as communion of saints, it's been encouraging, it's been stretching. There have been beautiful things, there have been hard things, but it was God's leading, and it's not the last new thing that God wants to say to us as a church. It was not the last thing. So we need fresh words from God. We need the Holy Spirit to keep speaking. We need to be faithful people who are continuing to show up and say, God, what is the new thing? What is the next thing? How are you speaking to me? And how am I supposed to move forward even without having all the answers in front of me? I want us to be a church that can step out of our comfort zones into the new thing that God is doing, even if it's not comfortable. Even if we don't have all the answers. We need to be a people who continue to say yes when the Holy Spirit speaks and say yes, we will move forward and continue to pursue maturity in Christ, emotional, relational health in our relationships, in our marriages, in the discipleship of our kids and the next generation. We need to say yes, God, we will move forward and take that next step. I want us to be the church that says yes when the Spirit speaks, when it doesn't make sense to say, I'm gonna sacrifice something for the sake of what you're doing, God. We need the Holy Spirit to speak to people in our church, to people in our city, to people about generosity so we can find a permanent home for our church. This is the new thing that God wants to do, and we need to be a people that are saying, God, we're listening, we're ready, and we'll say yes when you speak. We need people to say yes, I'm not done. To serving with our kids' ministry, to saying, I'll hold a baby, I'll be with two-year-olds, to saying yes, to opening up their home to a meal group for the new people that we continue to have coming to our church. This is the kind of people that we get to be, people that say, yes, God, Holy Spirit, speak. Holy Spirit, come, your servant is listening. I will say yes, even if it means I will be undone in the process. I will be obedient to what you are saying. This is the kind of church that I want to be a part of. And I believe this is the kind of church that we already are, and the kind of church that we will continue to believe be. Do you believe that? Yeah. Okay, I'm done. So Peter says yes. He says yes to the Holy Spirit. He doesn't have all the answers, and he immediately is obedient as he's walking down the stairs and he invites these men in. He opens this door to hospitality to invite these servants in who are waiting at the gate because they were Gentiles, because they couldn't come in unless they were invited in. And then he goes back with them to Cornelius and says, yes to going back, maybe not knowing what he's fully walking into. And when he gets there, he says the most honest thing. You gotta love Peter. He says in verse 28, you all realize it's forbidden for a Jew to associate or visit with outsiders. However, God has shown me. The Spirit has spoken, and I have said yes. He says, and I should never call a person impure or unclean. And for this reason, when you sent me, I came without objection. I want to know then why? Why did you send for me? He's like, Why am I here? All I did was was obedient to the Spirit. Why am I here? Now, Jason is gonna continue with this story next week. So I'm gonna leave you with this today. Cornelius obeyed the vision that he received in his faithfulness. Peter obeyed the vision that he was still unpacking. Neither man had the whole picture. But they both took the next steps forward in front of them. This is often how God works. This is always how God works. Can I just say that? This is how God works. He doesn't always give us the full picture. But we usually want the entire thing, the entire roadmap before saying yes. But God usually only gives us the light to see that next step. So maybe your next step is like Cornelius, you're being called to just be faithful. Just keep showing up with your gifts, your talents, your resources, your home. Maybe your next step is more like Peter's. Maybe there's a person or a group of people or a conversation or a text that you've kind of quietly just written off. Maybe you need to say yes to one of those things. But before Peter ever preached the gospel, spoiler alert, that's what Jason's gonna talk about next week. Before Peter preaches the gospel to this man, he opens that door in hospitality. He welcomes strangers into the home. He was staying, he crosses this threshold into Cornelius' home. See, hospitality became the first act of obedience that prepared the way for the gospel. And God is asking us to do the same, to extend hospitality, to step out of our comfortability. Who is God asking you to invite to your table, into your home, into your life? How is God asking you to step out, perhaps in an uncomfortable way? What has God given you that he might be asking you to use? The kingdom of God, it continues to move forward when ordinary people like you and like me are just obedient in the next step. So I want to invite up the worship team. Today, if you are a follower of Jesus, you are invited to the table. This is the beautiful news about Acts 10. This is why this is deeply personal to us. Because this is the good news that what was once unclean can be made clean. What was once broken can now be made whole. What was once stained can now be made holy through Jesus Christ. And we find that in him and in relationship with him. So if you are a follower of Jesus, you are welcome to come to the table this morning. Would you pray with me? God, we pray for new things. God, we pray that we can be people that continue to be faithful, that continue to be faithful even when it feels like it's quiet or you're silent or we don't know what the next thing is, that we can continue to be faithful, God. And we pray, we beg, we plead, God, that your spirit would speak and that we would be listening. That we would have the heart to listen, the eyes to see what you are doing, God, and that we would be people that would step out in obedience and say, Yes. Yes. Holy Spirit, we ask you to continue to speak. Your servants are listening this morning. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.