Sermon Tone Analysis

This is week number two in a short series about developing an outward faith.

I started this one last week with the observation that the New Testament writers assumed that people who came to embrace faith in Jesus would naturally share and express that faith with other people.

The Bible assumes that we would still be people like that today if we profess to have faith in Jesus.

But I also made this observation last week: we’re not very good at it.

Sharing our faith with other people who feel very detached and far away from God is a basic component of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

I want to pick up where I left off last week.

If you were not here last week—or if you were here but have no memory of anything I said last week—it will not be difficult to catch up with the next step forward we are taking today.

Last week I started us off in the ABC’s of outward faith with awareness.

A faith that is able to be expressed outwardly is a faith that has to be aware of where God is already at work in and around us.

And it is a faith that has to be aware of whom it is that God is placing in your path; someone who feels far from God, someone with whom you can have a relationship.

It begins with awareness.

Last Sunday I left us with the challenge to start praying for just one person or household you know who feels far away and detached from God. Begin with being aware of who those people are in the orbit of your everyday life.

the ABC’s of outward faith

awareness

boldness

The next letter in our ABC’s of outward faith is boldness.

A faith that expresses outwardly has to be ready to take some bold steps forward.

It is one thing to become aware of the people God is placing around us and to become aware of the ways God is at work in the world around us.

Awareness is where you start.

But even if you become aware of those things and then never ever take a step to do anything about it, then your awareness really doesn’t do any good.

Let’s start by taking a look at this story about Peter from the book of Acts.

And then we will consider what a bold faith looks like for us in today’s world.

Acts 10:9–19 (NIV)

Acts 10:28 (NIV)

Look with me at a few features we see happening in this story from Acts 10.

On the one hand, this seems to be a passage that nullifies Jewish kosher eating laws.

Peter sees a vision in which he is told to have a snack with a buffet of options that good law-abiding Jewish people would consider off-limits.

There were certain foods that Jewish people were not allowed to eat, and Peter’s reaction to the suggestion that he should eat from what he sees in his vision tells us that it must have been items that would have been considered impure.

I used to joke with my kids that this passage in Acts is the eleventh commandment: thou shalt eat bacon.

But of course, the vision itself is symbolic of something greater that God is showing to Peter.

Let’s open that up and then consider how this brings a moment of boldness into Peter’s faith.

what Peter had to learn — God is able to redeem anything that was once considered impure

First, look at the symbolism.

When God shows Peter a vision that reverses the impurity of Jewish dietary laws, Peter learns by the end of this story that, in Christ, God is able to redeem anything that was once considered impure.

If we look back in the ABC’s of outward faith, this could be identified as the moment of awareness.

God showed Peter something he had not seen before.

God opened Peter’s eyes to see where the Holy Spirit is at work in the world around Peter.

And prior to this vision from heaven, Peter was missing it; he was not aware.

But this week I want us to see the next step in the ABC’s of outward faith.

Peter is faced with a moment of choice that required his faith to be bold.

Peter is faced with a moment of choice that required his faith to be bold

It wasn’t enough, then, that Peter is simply aware of God’s activity to redeem what was once considered impure and unredeemable.

Peter comes face-to-face with the next step.

What is he going to do about it?

Peter responds with boldness.

Consider with me at what this boldness looks like, because there is a lesson here in what bold faith can look like for each of us too.

bold faith

Don’t miss this detail in the story.

Verse 16 tells us that the discussion between God and Peter in this vision happens three times.

That detail is incredibly significant.

What other conversations had taken place in Peter’s life in a repetition of three?

I can think of a couple.

It was three times that Peter denied knowing Jesus on the night of Christ’s arrest before the crucifixion.

After Jesus rose from the grave, it was three times that Jesus asks Peter, “do you love me?”

In order to reinstate him as an apostle with the instruction, “feed my sheep.”

a vision that reminds Peter of where he has been before

Here’s the point.

This vision that Peter sees not only reminds him of where God is moving next, it is also a vision that reminds Peter of where he has been before.

The scene in which Peter denies Jesus shows us one of the lowest points in Peter’s faith.

In spite of everything we could ever say about a faith that has boldness; the moment of Peter’s denial plainly displays the exact opposite of boldness.

The moment later on when Jesus pulls Peter aside on the lakeshore is a reminder for Peter that his past failure to live up to a bold faith is not held against him.

Peter had a moment on that night in the courtyard of the high priest when he could have stepped up and proclaimed an amazingly bold display of faith if he had only accepted and proclaimed his connection to Jesus.

But Peter failed back there in the worst possible way.

Peter has to confront his past failures and mistakes as part of the process in his steps forward towards boldness

The three-times nature of this vision in Acts would not have been lost upon Peter.

He would have known exactly what God was referencing in his own past by bringing this same conversation in front of Peter three times.

It illustrates something for us.

Peter has to confront his past failures and mistakes as part of the process in his steps forward towards boldness.

confront fears and past failures

That can be true for us too.

In fact, quite often that is true for us.

The thing that holds our faith back from being bold is a fear or a failure that keeps a grip on us.

That is absolutely a part of Peter’s story.

And I think it is a part of all our stories as well.

I didn’t go right from my college years into seminary.

It was quite a few years later that I went and did my seminary education.

Even in moments while living in Kalamazoo when that was repeatedly being placed in front of me, I completely ignored it as best I could.

Among all the reasons I kept holding onto in my mind about why I would not go to seminary, the biggest objection I had was the languages.

A pastoral degree from Calvin Seminary requires learning both Greek and Hebrew.

It wasn’t a laziness that I just didn’t want to put in the work—I was okay with doing the work.

And it wasn’t a lack of desire that I just didn’t care about biblical languages—I found it fascinated to learn about.

In the end it was about a fear that I couldn’t do it; that I would not be able to learn those languages well enough to pass and get my graduate degree.

It was a fear of failure that kept me away from taking that bold step forward.

have there been moments when fear has held you back?

naming fears and failures out loud helps to begin taking the next step

What about you?

Think for a moment about the opportunities that God has placed in front of you in your life to take a bold step forward.

Have there been moments when fear has held you back?

In this vision that Peter sees from heaven he is reminded of the time when his own fears prompted him to deny Jesus three times.

Fear held him back.

Don’t leave here today without giving some honest thought in your own life about times when there has been a fear that keeps you from taking that next bold step forward in faith.

Can you name it?

Can you put words around it?

Can you call out that fear and name those failures which put a lid on top of your faith and keep it from finding that next bold step.

Peter had to be reminded of it and confront those past fears and failures.

The same thing is true for each of us too.

Name it.

Call it out.

Identify it.

Sometimes just being able to name the fears and the failures and say it out loud gives us what we need to begin taking that next step past it.