SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bible this morning, join me, please, in the book of Acts, chapter number 10.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter number 10.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to read and consider this whole very long chapter today.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that that excites you greatly for the incredible commitment of time that you're going to make into this service today.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 10, as we continue studying the book of Acts, we come to what is really a seismic passage of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 10 that underscores exactly what we're just saying that Christ came for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: If we're rich, he came for us.
SPEAKER_00: Or he came for y'all, I should say.
SPEAKER_00: But for some of us poor folks, we need to be reminded.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus paid it all, and thank God he did.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: This week, I had the opportunity to have lunch with an actual celebrity pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know that some of you were kind of raised and brought up to believe that all pastors are a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00: But this guy is a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know call his name, but he's a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: He's not the kind of person that you just call and say, Hey, can we grab lunch tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: You have to email his secretary.
SPEAKER_00: And then his secretary forwards that email to his ministry assistant.
SPEAKER_00: And then the ministry assistant forwards that to his executive assistant.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, Sure, I will give you 45 minutes for lunch six months from now.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of person, alright?
SPEAKER_00: Well, this week, my day came.
SPEAKER_00: And I was going to sit down.
SPEAKER_00: Now I was gonna I was gonna play it right too.
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna pay.
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna flex on a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's just one check.
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me take care.
SPEAKER_00: Power move, right?
SPEAKER_00: So the day comes and I don't know where we're supposed to eat, and I don't know what time I'm supposed to be there.
SPEAKER_00: So I made the mistake of texting him and saying, hey, looking forward to our time together.
SPEAKER_00: What time are we supposed to get together?
SPEAKER_00: Where you tell me where to go, and I'll be there.
SPEAKER_00: I assumed it wasn't Burger King knowing this guy, and so text him what time are we supposed to eat?
SPEAKER_00: Ten minutes later, he texts me back.
SPEAKER_00: I was in Pastor Kyle's office when he texts me.
SPEAKER_00: He texts me back and says, Hey, brother, I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_00: But I have to take my dog to the vet.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna need to reschedule.
SPEAKER_00: Now I was very cool about it, very pastoral.
SPEAKER_00: No worries, brother.
SPEAKER_00: I actually love my dog more than most people I know, too.
SPEAKER_00: So I get it, which is it's true, I really do.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, we will add uh mittens or whatever to the prayer list at church when we pray it, and I really do hope everything went out, came out okay.
SPEAKER_00: And I get it.
SPEAKER_00: We get busy, things happen, people have to cancel plans, right?
SPEAKER_00: But for a split second, I had this thought in my mind.
SPEAKER_00: I am not as important to this guy as his dog.
SPEAKER_00: Now, to be fair, I don't know the dog, it may be a really great dog, but I'm not as important to this guy as his dog is.
SPEAKER_00: And we all know what that feeling is like, right?
SPEAKER_00: The feeling like we just don't really belong, we're not really valuable, we don't matter, our voice isn't really heard.
SPEAKER_00: We know what that's like.
SPEAKER_00: We experienced that from childhood.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get picked for the kickball team in school.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you never got picked for the cheerleading squad, you didn't get the dream job that you wanted.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe more seriously, your parents projected that onto you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't measure up, you're not good enough for our family.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you went to school at certain points and you had teachers recognize your last name and say, Oh, you must be so-and-so's little brother or sister.
SPEAKER_00: We'll keep an eye on you.
SPEAKER_00: We we know what that's like.
SPEAKER_00: To feel like we don't measure up.
SPEAKER_00: Like what I'm saying to y'all is this I have been to England with this accent.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that when I talk, they're not exactly thinking, you know, he's really bright.
SPEAKER_00: We should listen to what he says.
SPEAKER_00: I know that.
SPEAKER_00: And there's sometimes even around some of y'all that are from away, you're from Ohio, or you're from Michigan, or these faraway countries in Yankee land, and I know when you hear me talk, you think, man, this hillbilly.
SPEAKER_00: Can he read?
SPEAKER_00: Well, barely, but yes.
SPEAKER_00: And we know what it's like to feel that.
SPEAKER_00: To feel like we're on the outside.
SPEAKER_00: We know it's ugly, we know it hurts, and we also know that that comes to church with us sometimes, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: And that sometimes we can even project that onto other people.
SPEAKER_00: That those people aren't like us.
SPEAKER_00: Those people maybe are equal, but it would be better if they were separate from us.
SPEAKER_00: Are we really for them?
SPEAKER_00: And all of those dynamics are going to come to play in this seismic text in Acts chapter number 10 that reminds us as believers that in our church we must be for everybody that Jesus is for.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: We must be for everybody that Jesus is for.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is looking for the people I look over.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: He's looking for the people that you look over.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're gonna read Acts chapter number 10, and then we're gonna dive in.
SPEAKER_00: We've got a lot to do today, and I promise I won't keep you all week.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 10, verse number one, and we're gonna read this entire passage, the better part of 50 verses.
SPEAKER_00: There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment, a devout man, and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people who prayed to God always.
SPEAKER_00: About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius.
SPEAKER_00: And when he observed him, he was afraid and said, What is it, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: So he said to him, Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, send men to Joppa and send for Simon, whose surname is Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He is lodging with Simon, a tenor, whose house is by the sea.
SPEAKER_00: He will tell you what you must do.
SPEAKER_00: And when the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually.
SPEAKER_00: So when he had explained all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa.
SPEAKER_00: The next day, as they went on their journey and drew nearer to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour.
SPEAKER_00: Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat.
SPEAKER_00: But while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened, and an object like a great sheep bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth.
SPEAKER_00: In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air.
SPEAKER_00: And a voice came to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean.
SPEAKER_00: And a voice spoke to him again the second time, What God has cleansed, you must not call common.
SPEAKER_00: This was done three times, and the object was taken up into heaven again.
SPEAKER_00: Now, while Peter wondered within himself what this vision, which he had seen, meant, behold, the men who had been sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate.
SPEAKER_00: And they called and asked whether Simon, whose surname was Peter, was lodging there.
SPEAKER_00: While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men are seeking you.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius and said, Yes, I am he whom you seek.
SPEAKER_00: For what reason have you come?
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Cornelius, the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear words from you.
SPEAKER_00: Then he invited them in and lodged them.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the next day Peter went away with them, and some brethren from Joppa accompanied him.
SPEAKER_00: And the following day they entered Caesarea.
SPEAKER_00: Now Cornelius was waiting for them, and had called together his relatives and close friends.
SPEAKER_00: As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up, I myself am also a man.
SPEAKER_00: And as he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said to them, You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation.
SPEAKER_00: But God has shown me that I should not call any man common nor unclean.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore I came without objection as soon as I was sent for.
SPEAKER_00: I asked them, For what reason have you sent for me?
SPEAKER_00: So Cornelius said, Four days ago, I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, Cornelius, your prayers have been heard, and your alms are remembered in the sight of God.
SPEAKER_00: Send therefore to Joppa and call Simon here, whose surname is Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He is lodging in the house of Simon at Tanner by the sea.
SPEAKER_00: When he comes, he will speak to you.
SPEAKER_00: So I sent to you immediately, and you have done well to come.
SPEAKER_00: Now therefore, we are all present before God to hear all the things commanded to you by God.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him.
SPEAKER_00: The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: That word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and beginning from Galilee after the baptism which 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, for God was with him.
SPEAKER_00: And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree.
SPEAKER_00: Him God raised up on the third day and showed 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: To him all the prophets witnessed that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins.
SPEAKER_00: While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.
SPEAKER_00: And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter answered, Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?
SPEAKER_00: And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Then they asked him to stay a few days.
SPEAKER_00: The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord abideth forever.
SPEAKER_00: One of the many things that the author of the book of Acts, Luke, is doing in this book, is he is writing an apologetic, that is an explanation or a defense of the Christian faith to non-Christians.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the book of Acts, for a lot of things that it is, is also a book written by a Christian, about the early Christians, to be read by non-Christians, to explain to them the growth and the beliefs and the community around the early Christian movement.
SPEAKER_00: And this is important because within just a few generations of the life of Jesus himself, Christianity, followers of Jesus, had spread to all parts of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And people were looking around their communities and thinking, a few years ago there weren't any Christians here.
SPEAKER_00: And now we can't get rid of them.
SPEAKER_00: Who are these people and where do they come from?
SPEAKER_00: And one of the big questions that people would have had was this: How is it that this Christian thing that started with Jewish people in a Jewish part of the world worshiping a Jewish Messiah who they preached fulfilled Jewish prophecies written by Jewish authors?
SPEAKER_00: How is it that it's all Gentiles now?
SPEAKER_00: How is it that Christianity outgrew the Jewish soil that it had been planted in?
SPEAKER_00: And Luke is going to explain that in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And that story starts here in Acts chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: With the conversion of this man by the name of Cornelius, the very first Gentile, like me, convert to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so today, this story of Cornelius' conversion is very long, it's very detailed.
SPEAKER_00: So Luke wants us to know everything that happened.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it's filled with important details and important lessons that we need to know for our lives and for our church as well.
SPEAKER_00: And so what I want to do today is this I want to tell you the whole story from verse 1 to verse 48, and then circle back and give you three very important lessons because I think you need to have the whole story in mind just to get the point.
SPEAKER_00: And so the story begins in verse number one, in the city of Caesarea.
SPEAKER_00: The city that's so nice, they named it after Caesar himself.
SPEAKER_00: And we're introduced to a man who is a soldier in the Roman army.
SPEAKER_00: Not just any soldier, but he is a centurion.
SPEAKER_00: That means he's an officer in charge of, you could probably guess, 100 soldiers of lower rank.
SPEAKER_00: He's important.
SPEAKER_00: He's successful.
SPEAKER_00: He's most likely Italian because he is leading a company called the Italian Cohort.
SPEAKER_00: These men that are very proud of their Italian ancestry and their Italian heritage.
SPEAKER_00: And they're stationed in Caesarea.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not, I mean, kind of, it's a far-flung corner of the world, but this is not an insignificant place.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Roman Empire fed itself on grain that they brought up from the breadbasket of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And that came through Caesarea.
SPEAKER_00: This is an important trade route.
SPEAKER_00: And the soldiers that were placed here were very important and very skilled.
SPEAKER_00: And Cornelio was one of the important commanders of those soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: But somehow, as Cornelius was around Jewish people, while he watched their customs and their way of life, he became convinced that their God was the true and the only true God.
SPEAKER_00: It's a remarkable fact for a man that had been raised to worship the Roman gods, a soldier who had probably been taught to pray, to Mars, the God of war.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, here is a man who, in spite of all of that, believes that the God of the Jews is the true God.
SPEAKER_00: And that seems to be working in Cornelius' life because Cornelius, the Bible tells us, is a man who fears God.
SPEAKER_00: He's a devout man.
SPEAKER_00: He gives alms.
SPEAKER_00: He pays his tithes.
SPEAKER_00: I really like this guy.
SPEAKER_00: He is a man of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He's a man, the text will say later, is well respected.
SPEAKER_00: He's generous.
SPEAKER_00: He's thought well of.
SPEAKER_00: He is a Roman army officer serving in occupied territory.
SPEAKER_00: And he's a man of such incredible morality and character that the people in the occupying country respect him.
SPEAKER_00: That's remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of throwing rocks or spitting at him, they say that's a good man.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good man wearing that uniform.
SPEAKER_00: We think a lot of him.
SPEAKER_00: Properly, Cornelius would have been known as what, would have been called a Godfearer.
SPEAKER_00: And a Godfearer was a Gentile who believed in the God of Israel, who maybe to some degree prayed into the God of Israel, participated in certain customs, but had never gone through the official process of converting to Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he's clearly a man who's hungry for truth.
SPEAKER_00: And God responds to that hunger and gives him a vision.
SPEAKER_00: He sees an angel while he's praying at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: And this angel says, Cornelius, I know you're hungry for truth, and there's a man by the name of Simon Peter who can tell you what you need to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Send somebody to get him.
SPEAKER_00: And so Cornelius does.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that he sends two of his servants and he sends a soldier.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice that?
SPEAKER_00: I think he sent the soldier because he's so serious about this that Peter's coming whether he wants to or not.
SPEAKER_00: That soldier has a sword and that sword has a point.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's coming.
SPEAKER_00: And so they send, they go to Joppa.
SPEAKER_00: Well, meanwhile, in Joppa, Peter is staying at the house of Simon the tanner.
SPEAKER_00: A tanner in the Bible is not somebody who goes too much to the tanning bed until their skin looks like a coach handbag.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is somebody who turns animal hides into leather.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is at this home and he's staying in the city of Joppa.
SPEAKER_00: Joppa is an ancient city in Israel that now has been basically swallowed up by the larger modern city of Tel Aviv.
SPEAKER_00: This is prime real estate.
SPEAKER_00: And evidently he's up on top of this roof praying at lunchtime, and he's looking out over the ocean.
SPEAKER_00: Man, he can see the Mediterranean.
SPEAKER_00: The salt breeze is blowing.
SPEAKER_00: He's in paradise and he's going to spend some time talking to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then what happens to Peter while he prays?
SPEAKER_00: He gets hungry.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just going to stop right there and tell you that I love the fact that Acts chapter 10 and verse number 10 is in the Bible as much as any other verse of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Because there are times when no matter how much I love Jesus, I'm trying to pray, and when my stomach grounds, it's over.
SPEAKER_00: And that's Peter.
SPEAKER_00: It's lunchtime.
SPEAKER_00: Lunch hitting ready yet.
SPEAKER_00: And he's hungry.
SPEAKER_00: Food is on his mind.
SPEAKER_00: And evidently food is on the mind of God too.
SPEAKER_00: Why Peter prays, he has this vision of a sheet.
SPEAKER_00: I think of it as a picnic blanket.
SPEAKER_00: And on that picnic blanket coming down from heaven is all kinds of animals.
SPEAKER_00: And you know that Peter, as an observant Jew, was not allowed to eat all kinds of animals.
SPEAKER_00: This is in Leviticus chapter number 11, where God gives the dietary laws.
SPEAKER_00: We typically refer to those today as kosher laws.
SPEAKER_00: And you know that observant Jews cannot eat certain things.
SPEAKER_00: They cannot eat pork.
SPEAKER_00: It's unthinkable, but they cannot eat barbecue sandwiches.
SPEAKER_00: They cannot eat shrimp.
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_00: They cannot eat catfish.
SPEAKER_00: No observant Jew has ever eaten a meat lover's pizza.
SPEAKER_00: And yet here's Peter, knowing this, having lived this his whole life.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden he has this vision that's like golden corral spread out on a picnic blanket.
SPEAKER_00: And this voice that he knows, the voice of Jesus, says to him, Peter, rise, kill, and eat.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, buddy, if it flies, crawls, or swims, you can eat it.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, Not so fast, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I've never eaten anything that's unclean.
SPEAKER_00: That happens three times, and the Lord finally ends with this conclusion that's key to the text.
SPEAKER_00: What I have called clean, you do not have the right to call unclean.
SPEAKER_00: You have to keep that in your mind to understand the story.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter's figuring this out, and then there's a knock at the door.
SPEAKER_00: I imagine the soldier knocks like a cop, you know.
SPEAKER_00: They come and they answer the door.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking for Simon Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Simon Peter comes down from the roof and says, Yeah, I'm Simon Peter.
SPEAKER_00: How can I help you?
SPEAKER_00: What is this about?
SPEAKER_00: They tell him the story Cornelius has had a vision.
SPEAKER_00: They go to Caesarea to see Cornelius.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder what this trip would have been like.
SPEAKER_00: Because you've got Peter the Apostle.
SPEAKER_00: Hope he's had something to eat by now.
SPEAKER_00: You've got two Jewish believers going with him.
SPEAKER_00: You've got two Gentile servants of Cornelius, and you've got a Roman soldier.
SPEAKER_00: And so you've got this weird half dozen people that are walking the day's trip from Joppa to Caesarea.
SPEAKER_00: What do they talk about?
SPEAKER_00: So, in the army, huh?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how's that been?
SPEAKER_00: No, I was a fisherman.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, then I met Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's a whole long story.
SPEAKER_00: They finally come to Cornelius' house.
SPEAKER_00: Peter walks in.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that Cornelius falls down at his feet and worships him.
SPEAKER_00: Probably as a Gentile, he would have thought that if kind of this Gentile pagan way of thinking, a messenger of the gods has certain divine qualities and is worthy of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, Stop, you're embarrassing both of us.
SPEAKER_00: Get up.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just a man like you.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says, By the way, what am I doing here?
SPEAKER_00: Cornelius tells the whole story of the vision again.
SPEAKER_00: Cornelius is so excited that evidently he's created a Facebook event for this conversation with Peter, because the Bible says that his family's there, the Bible says that his friends are there, the house is full of people, and Peter's looking around thinking, okay, what am I doing here?
SPEAKER_00: And then they say, We're hungry for truth.
SPEAKER_00: We you have something from God to tell us.
SPEAKER_00: And then Peter begins to speak.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what's happening in this passage, verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he says, to the Gentiles, you know how unlawful, how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation.
SPEAKER_00: But God has shown me that I should not call any common or unclean.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Peter says that vision was not just about food.
SPEAKER_00: That vision was about people.
SPEAKER_00: There's no more unclean food because of the gospel, and there's no more unclean people because of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And now it seems like all these neurons are starting to fire in Peter's mind.
SPEAKER_00: And he's remembering the verses that we just heard read early in our service, Genesis chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: God blesses Abraham to bless the nation.
SPEAKER_00: He's remembering the Psalms of David, Psalm 67.
SPEAKER_00: But all the nations be glad.
SPEAKER_00: He's remembering God constituting Israel in Exodus chapter number 19 as a kingdom of priests for the sake of the spiritual well-being of all the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Now he realizes that when Jesus was talking about another centurion, that one day people from east and west and north and south, like me, that they would come and sit with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the kingdom, and they would be welcomed into the family of God, even though they did not belong to ethnic Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Now Peter gets it.
SPEAKER_00: He gets it.
SPEAKER_00: Why does this matter?
SPEAKER_00: It matters for a couple reasons.
SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons for you is you're a Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: Like we take it for granted that people like us, white English-speaking people, have always been on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: Wrong! Peter would have looked at you and said, No, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not coming to eat your groceries at your table.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Jewish mindset looked at Gentiles the same way they looked at certain foods and said, you're unclean.
SPEAKER_00: And their preferred way of saying it was that you are a Gentile dog.
SPEAKER_00: A dog.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't mean like you're hypoallergenic golden doodle.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, you're just this cute beloved family pet.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Mangy, flea-ridden, disgusting vermin, a wild dog.
SPEAKER_00: That's you, to the mind of most people that would have lived in this world.
SPEAKER_00: You are a dog.
SPEAKER_00: Now Peter realizes God's a dog person.
SPEAKER_00: That when Jesus says in John 3.16, God so loved the world, that means a whole speaking bunch of people that don't look like me, that don't sound like you.
SPEAKER_00: God really loves all of these Gentile dogs out here and has made a place for them because of Jesus in the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so Peter begins to preach.
SPEAKER_00: He tells them the story of Jesus in a very Jewish way.
SPEAKER_00: But telling them the story of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has come, he's been baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And right at the end of his sermon, God interrupts the preaching.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a Gentile Pentecost as the Spirit of God falls on these Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And now Peter, the Jewish believers, realize Jesus is for these people and the Spirit of God is in these people.
SPEAKER_00: Let's baptize these people.
SPEAKER_00: Because they belong to the church of Jesus as much as we belong to the church of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful story.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful story.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what do we need to learn from it?
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you three lessons.
SPEAKER_00: These will be very, very quick, but you cannot leave here today without knowing these three things.
SPEAKER_00: First, going back to the story of Cornelius himself.
SPEAKER_00: Because God really loves Gentile dogs, even our religion needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Even our religion needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that is this Cornelius is a Gentile ethnically, but he is a good man.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows that.
SPEAKER_00: Jews and Gentiles alike respect him.
SPEAKER_00: People think well of him because he's generous with his money.
SPEAKER_00: He's a moral man.
SPEAKER_00: He's a virtuous man.
SPEAKER_00: He's an ethical man.
SPEAKER_00: He believes in the right God.
SPEAKER_00: He's patriotic.
SPEAKER_00: He is the kind of person that everybody looks up to.
SPEAKER_00: To the Romans, he is a servant and a hero.
SPEAKER_00: To the Jews, he is a good blessing to their community.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody loves him and he's hungry for truth.
SPEAKER_00: He's hungry for God.
SPEAKER_00: He believes in the God of the Bible, probably believes in the authority of Scripture, but he still needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is adamant that Cornelius, what you need is a savior that as good as you are, and as good as you have been, and as much as we appreciate your service in the military, and as glad as we are for your money, and as kind as you are, give me Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to tell you something today.
SPEAKER_00: The majority of my life, I've been around people like Cornelius.
SPEAKER_00: Good people.
SPEAKER_00: Now there have been a few others that sneak in every now and then.
SPEAKER_00: But most of you this morning are good people.
SPEAKER_00: You will do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: You're moral people.
SPEAKER_00: You love your country.
SPEAKER_00: You want to do well by others.
SPEAKER_00: When you have a little bit of extra money, you'll give it to a love offering to help take care of a family in Mexico.
SPEAKER_00: You're good people, but good people need Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Peter's saying in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Jesus came, and he preaches this specifically in Acts chapter 10 to Cornelius.
SPEAKER_00: He says, He came to grant the remission of sins.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need religion, you need forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be released from your sins.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus came to do.
SPEAKER_00: And it's important we see this, so important we see this, because there is this one mindset that many of us have.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if we're good enough, then it's good enough for God.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, No, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: You need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to be better, you need to be a savior.
SPEAKER_00: You need somebody from outside of you to come and do what you can't do for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: But also there's another mindset many of us have, because we are good people and we want people to think we're good.
SPEAKER_00: We have this idea of, you know, as long as people are sincere, and as long as people are basically decent, and as long as people are kind, you know, really all religions lead to God, right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, not for Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He said, no, Jesus leads to God.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus came from God.
SPEAKER_00: And no matter what belief or sincerity or faith or emotions or whatever you have apart from Jesus, you need Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because he has come for all people.
SPEAKER_00: But he's the only way any person can know God and have forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know it's popular to say, well, you know, you Christians are so judgmental and you're so exclusive, and you think everybody has to believe like you.
SPEAKER_00: But truthfully, every religion teaches the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: And every religion is popular, every religion basically tells us to be better, and every religion takes us to God, and we all just, you know, in this human family, we just all believe the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: And it's acceptable to say that to Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's popular to dog Christians today, and I've known some Christians who believe me, I get it.
SPEAKER_00: But do you know how profoundly insulting and ignorant that is?
SPEAKER_00: Like you can get Bible saying it to me because I'm, you know, a Christian pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Say that to a Muslim, and he will tell you, I don't believe the same things that Christians believe.
SPEAKER_00: Tell it to a Buddhist.
SPEAKER_00: We're all fascinated with Eastern religions, right?
SPEAKER_00: Tell it to a Hindu.
SPEAKER_00: You basically believe the same thing as those Christians.
SPEAKER_00: And a Hindu is going to tell you, no, I believe in like a million different gods.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe in that.
SPEAKER_00: We've got totally different scriptures, a totally different cosmology.
SPEAKER_00: Tell a Buddhist, you know, you basically believe the same thing as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: They'll say, No, we don't.
SPEAKER_00: We don't even believe in a God.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't want to fall into this kind of pluralistic hippie ignorance and say, well, you all believe the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, No, we don't.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that God loves sinners, but we are sinners and we need forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: And the only way God has provided that forgiveness is by coming into the world to die for our sins and rise again as the judge, judge in our place.
SPEAKER_00: And because Jesus is alive, one day he will judge the living and the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Peter makes the claim that all human beings' life come to their fulfillment at the feet of Jesus, the righteous judge.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't think there are many Muslims or Buddhists that are going to make that claim, but I'll make it today because I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And so you need to hear today that even our religion needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, I want to move quickly now.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to roll.
SPEAKER_00: Our rituals need Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is on top of a roof and he has a vision of all this meat coming down.
SPEAKER_00: And that can be problematic if you start to think.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you know you just think with your stomach and you're thinking ribs, then it's not really a problem.
SPEAKER_00: But if you think about scripture deeply, this might be a problem because the Bible does say in Leviticus chapter 11, you can't eat ribs.
SPEAKER_00: Like according to Leviticus chapter 11, you can't go to Baby Breeze for lunch.
SPEAKER_00: You just can't.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of a sudden you can?
SPEAKER_00: And yes, you can.
SPEAKER_00: And you maybe should.
SPEAKER_00: You should eat barbecue probably today for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're a Christian and because of Acts chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: This is a new covenant fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: But like did God change his mind?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says God can't change his mind.
SPEAKER_00: What's happening here?
SPEAKER_00: How do Christians work through their relationship to the Old Testament law?
SPEAKER_00: Not just the culinary laws, but the Old Testament law.
SPEAKER_00: That is a massive question that Christians have been working on for 2,000 years.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to become one of the dominant questions in the next five or six chapters of the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: It's the question in the book of Galatians.
SPEAKER_00: It comes up in the book of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: It comes up in Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: How do we as Christians relate to the Old Testament law?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there are a couple of very quick answers to that, and it's getting late, so I want to be quick.
SPEAKER_00: You've got questions?
SPEAKER_00: Call me, we'll talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't eat barbecues, the moral of the story.
SPEAKER_00: First, we should understand that the Old Testament law, we need to know what its function is.
SPEAKER_00: The function of the Old Testament law, one, is to really to make the world better.
SPEAKER_00: Like the world is better if we know, you know what, you really shouldn't murder people.
SPEAKER_00: That's good for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't have adultery.
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't steal things that don't belong to you.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that's good.
SPEAKER_00: But spiritually, the function of the Old Testament law is to reveal our sinfulness to us, to help us realize we, no matter how hard we try, we cannot climb the mountain of the law, and we need somebody who can live the life we can't live.
SPEAKER_00: The law will always crush us.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you have people in your life that think they're earning their righteousness by actually keeping the Old Testament law, then those people do not know the law and they don't know their own sinful capacities.
SPEAKER_00: Because they cannot keep the law.
SPEAKER_00: And so the law shows us our need for a savior and points us to Jesus and our need for grace.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the Old Testament law breaks down into different categories, right?
SPEAKER_00: You've got moral laws.
SPEAKER_00: Moral laws are things like thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal.
SPEAKER_00: All of those things are repeated by Jesus and by the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Christians understand the moral laws binding, but they're also Jewish ceremonial laws.
SPEAKER_00: Jewish ceremonial laws have to do with what you eat, feasts you celebrate, what you wear, all this kinds of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: We understand as Christians that the law was fulfilled in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that means a lot, but what it essentially means is that the law found its fullness and completion in Christ, who kept the law.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you can't eat a barbecue sandwich for lunch because Jesus didn't.
SPEAKER_00: He obeyed all of the laws, even the hundred you've never heard of or thought about.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus obeyed them.
SPEAKER_00: And so the law has found its fullness and completion in Jesus, the perfect man, the perfect Israel, who fulfills the laws of righteousness, takes the laws, curses into himself at the cross to bring the blessings of God to the Gentiles like us.
SPEAKER_00: Tell it to you like this.
SPEAKER_00: When I was 16, I started driving.
SPEAKER_00: I had a curfew of 9 o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: North Carolina had done the provisional license thing, so I had to be home at nine.
SPEAKER_00: I got a little bit older, my curfew became, I think, 11.
SPEAKER_00: But then I started working, and I was working at Domino's, delivering pizzas.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't even close till midnight, so I'd get home at 12:30 or 1 o'clock the next morning, and so my curfew just basically, you know, went away.
SPEAKER_00: Then I got married, and guess what?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have a curfew anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, the thought of being out at 10 o'clock at night is just awful to me.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm not in my home, in my bed at 10 o'clock, there's an emergency, something's gone wrong.
SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, I have freedom that I did not have when I was younger.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because of maturity and responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: The plan of God in saving the world has matured to its fullness in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so that we are no longer bound by the ceremonial laws.
SPEAKER_00: So again, go eat some shrimp and barbecue together if you want to.
SPEAKER_00: Third, third.
SPEAKER_00: Our relationships need Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like Peter, whether we want to admit it or not, many of us have prejudices and biases against certain groups of people.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us look at other people and we say, man, they don't look like me, don't talk like me, didn't come from the same part of the world, don't have the same melatonin levels in my skin in their skin that I've got, and I'm just not sure that, you know, I should be with them.
SPEAKER_00: And I know there are no racists here.
SPEAKER_00: I know that none of us are prejudiced, but you can get through all of that really quickly by just asking yourself the question that Peter had to answer.
SPEAKER_00: Who will I share a table with?
SPEAKER_00: Who's welcome in my home?
SPEAKER_00: Who will I break bread with?
SPEAKER_00: Peter believed that he could not do that with Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And he even says it's unlawful for him to do that.
SPEAKER_00: It's unlawful for Jews to go eat with Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's the odd thing about this.
SPEAKER_00: It was unlawful for Peter to eat pork and other unclean foods.
SPEAKER_00: It was not unlawful for him to eat with Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: But what he had done over the centuries of Jewish teaching and tradition, they had taken the revealed word of God, they had added traditions and customs and all kinds of stuff, and they had confused the traditions of men that were supposed to explain the word of God for the word of God, and so they were no longer connected to the missions heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell you something today.
SPEAKER_00: In churches, we do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: We think we're obeying God, we're just following cultural traditions, and those things keep us from experiencing the missionary heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: But, church, I want to tell you today, and I'm about finished, and you've been patient.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: The truth of the matter is, you cannot claim to be in obedience to God if you're not walking in obedience to the mission of God.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not obeying the heart of God to reach the nations, you cannot claim to be obeying the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought all week, like, okay, what's a concrete example of the way that from one generation the revealed word of God becomes traditions and then it just morphs into disobedience in the name of God?
SPEAKER_00: What's a good example of that?
SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking of all these negative examples.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to give you a positive example.
SPEAKER_00: Can I give you a positive example?
SPEAKER_00: And then I'm finished.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know that before I pastored here at Mud Creek, I pastored in Alabama.
SPEAKER_00: And I pastored a church in Alabama right outside of Birmingham.
SPEAKER_00: The church actually had a Birmingham address, but it really is right outside of Birmingham in the country.
SPEAKER_00: And our church was.
SPEAKER_00: You understand what I mean when I say this?
SPEAKER_00: It was a white church.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: What I mean when I'm not just talking about the color skin.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about people had church heydo.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all got that.
SPEAKER_00: Their dress shoes were made of rubber.
SPEAKER_00: That they wore to the Lord's house on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: They were white.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all think Hendersonville is white.
SPEAKER_00: Brookside, Alabama.
SPEAKER_00: White.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying to you is these people politically were nuclear red.
SPEAKER_00: Nuclear red.
SPEAKER_00: They believed in the Second Amendment.
SPEAKER_00: And our security team at that church was praying somebody to break in there so they could exercise our Second Amendment right.
SPEAKER_00: And you may not know this about Alabama, but Alabama does not have the greatest track record for racial equality.
SPEAKER_00: You may not have known that, but the 60s were not great for the city of Birmingham.
SPEAKER_00: Our church was about 12, 15 minutes, depending on traffic, maybe two hours, from the 16th Street Baptist Church that was bombed by white supremacists during the Civil Rights Area.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Alabama don't have the best track record.
SPEAKER_00: Where we were located, our little white church, was just down the street from a primarily African-American government housing location.
SPEAKER_00: And that church of white people, red voters, gun owners, work themselves to death trying to show the love of Jesus to that low-income housing center.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna tell you, that didn't have anything to do with me.
SPEAKER_00: They were doing that way before I got there.
SPEAKER_00: But they had a heart for those people.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted to love them and welcome them and say, we want to do everything we can to fellowship with you and worship with you and get to know you.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, one time, our church, while I was there, we had worked with the Jefferson County, that's the county Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama schools, that during summer, Jefferson County schools was going to come in.
SPEAKER_00: We were going to partner with them and we were going to provide meals for kids that didn't have enough to eat because they weren't in school.
SPEAKER_00: It's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Me and some of the other pastors and church folks, we showed up one day to feed lunch, and the school system didn't even show up.
SPEAKER_00: They just ghosted us.
SPEAKER_00: We were doing more than tax money was doing, all right?
SPEAKER_00: We were there on the front lines.
SPEAKER_00: We were giving out coats, we were playing basketball with the kids, of course, we never won, but we were in doing everything that we could.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the gospel compels us that we have to be for everybody that Jesus is for.
SPEAKER_00: Now, friends, Hendersonville is different than Birmingham.
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, God has put people in each of our lives that are different from us, and Jesus loves those people because he loves the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Like he really does.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Pastor Dave is preaching today, or did preach while we were in bed, in Ukraine this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I think we've got a picture if they can put it up there, maybe in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we are going to Hokusingo.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we prayerfully think about our missions budget because we really, really believe that Jesus, he really does love the world.
SPEAKER_00: That God really is a dog person.
SPEAKER_00: That all those mangy, flea-bidden, dirty, exiled, poor creatures like us, Jesus has made a place for them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's good news for us today because, again, a reminder you're, there's far as I know, there's only one family in our church with the last name Israel.
SPEAKER_00: There aren't many Semitic peoples here in our church today.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us are Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And according to the old covenant law, you and I would have been on the outside looking in.
SPEAKER_00: You and I would have been unwelcomed.
SPEAKER_00: You and I would have been unclean.
SPEAKER_00: But we believe and trust in the gospel of the Lord Jesus that reminds us that when the law would push us away, the gospel made a place for us at the table in the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so today, some of you have come into this place, had no idea, have no concerns about being Jewish or Gentile, none of that.
SPEAKER_00: But you've got the last name that merits suspicion.
SPEAKER_00: You've got the track record at the Henderson County Sheriff's Department.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe even our officer's been I and you because he said, I recognize you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you know what it's like to be on the outside and to think you're beyond the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I want to say to you today that it does not matter what kind of tracks are in your arm, it does not matter what kind of skin color you have, it does not matter what kind of past you have.
SPEAKER_00: God makes a seat for people like you at his table.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Come and welcome to Jesus.