Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts - 29

Acts 11:1-18

Introduction

The Old Testament prophet Jonah is one of my favorites.

His story is more well-known because of the whole ‘swallowed by a great fish’ thing.

Turns out that Jonah was a pretty terrible person.

God calls him to go the city of Nineveh, the capital city of wicked Assyrian Empire, to warn them of God’s impending judgment on their nation.

Jonah decides to go in the literal opposite direction.

Unfaithful.

Disobedient.

He boards a ship to head away from God’s calling.

Maybe he’s afraid of the Assyrians.

I mean, who really wants to go to the capital city of a terrorist nation and tell them God is upset?

Well, God still wants the job done by Jonah, so He sends a tumultuous storm at the ship.

To keep it from sinking Jonah offers to be thrown overboard, where he is swallowed by a great fish that the Lord had created.

He is in the belly of that great fish for 3 days.

Definitely easier ways for God to get your attention, but this one certainly works.

Jonah repents.

The fish vomits him out on the beach and Jonah goes to where he should have gone to begin with…Nineveh.

He preaches throughout the entire city…forty days and God will destroy you.

And it works!

Jonah 3:5-10 - 5And the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.

6Then the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, laid aside his mantle from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes.

7And he cried out and said,

“In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, animal, herd, or flock taste a thing.

Do not let them eat, and do not let them drink water.

8But both man and animal must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God with their strength that each may turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands.

9Who knows, God may turn and relent and turn away from His burning anger so that we will not perish.”10Then

God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, so God relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would bring upon them.

And He did not bring it upon them.

What an incredible event!

God is certainly going to be pleased.

And so should Jonah.

Jonah 4:1 - 1But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry.

That’s an odd reaction, don’t you think?

He should be doing cartwheels through the streets.

He should be praising God for His abundant mercy.

Instead, though, Jonah reveals why it is that he ran from God in the first place.

Jonah 4:2-3 - 2And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “Ah!

O Yahweh, was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land?

Therefore I went ahead to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil.

3So now, O Yahweh, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”

Pay close attention to what Jonah has just said.

The reason he ran away from God’s call to Nineveh, the reason he didn’t want to warn them of God’s judgment…was because he knew God was loving!

He knew God forgives.

And he did not want that to happen.

The Assyrians deserve death.

They are wicked and evil.

No forgiveness for them.

In fact, Jonah says, I would rather die than see them forgiven.

Mild overreaction.

If you want to summarize the attitude of the Jews towards the Gentiles, look no further than Jonah.

The Jews were the chosen ones.

They were favored and privileged.

God loved them.

They were holy.

But the nations, the Gentiles?

Nope.

They are unclean.

They are evil.

They aren’t loved by God…so they won’t be loved by us either.

Yet in Acts 10, Peter has just obediently taken the gospel to the Gentiles.

He is the gospel-antithesis to Jonah.

God called him to take the good news of salvation in Jesus to the nations…and he did.

God graciously, abundantly poured out His Spirit upon these pagan Gentiles and grants them salvation in Christ, just the same as He has granted salvation to the Jews in Christ.

But as they say, no good deed goes unpunished…Peter is now confronted with his actions.

Acts 11:1-18 - 1Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

2And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, 3saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

4But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence, saying, 5“I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from heaven, and it came right down to me, 6and when looking closely at it, I was observing it and saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the crawling creatures and the birds of the sky.

7And I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise up, Peter; slaughter and eat.’ 8But I said, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing defiled or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

9But a voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider defiled.’

10And this happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into heaven.

11And behold, immediately three men appeared at the house in which we were, having been sent to me from Caesarea.

12And the Spirit told me to go with them without taking issue at all.

These six brothers also went with me and we entered the man’s house.

13And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is also called Peter; 14and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’

15And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning.

16And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

17Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could prevent God’s way?” 18And when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”

OBJECTION (V.

1-3)

While Peter has done this incredible thing in taking the gospel to Cornelius, it is also highly controversial.

Word quickly spreads back to Jerusalem and to the entire region.

The Gentiles have received the word of God.

What?

How is that possible?

They are total pagans.

They are evil.

And now they have ‘received,’ a word that means welcomed, God’s offer of salvation?

You know when someone acts out of character and it throws you off a bit?

Maybe you know someone who is typically so gracious and kind, but then out of nowhere they blow up and yell at you.

Or maybe you know someone who is a jerk, but then randomly they did something that was really nice.

It’s weird when people act out of character.

That is how the Jews react to all this.

Wait a minute!

The Gentiles…the Gentiles accepted God’s word to them?

That is certainly out of character.

They don’t normally do that.

v. 2-3 - And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

Of course they took issue with him.

It is the same word used in chapter 10 when God tells Peter to go with the men sent by Cornelius…go without taking issue.