Standing in God's Way

I love this image of an elephant and a mouse.

In this image, the elephant is absolutely terrified of seeing a mouse.

It is funny because of how unbelievable it is.

How can an enormous 12,000 lbs elephant be afraid of a tiny mouse?

How can an elephant, who could stomp/smash the mouse be afraid of such a tiny creature.

The truth is, there is nothing for the elephant to fear…we should expect the elepahant to be fearless and not be afraid of a mouse.

The reason that I bring this up is that in the church of the first century…there were certain christians who were attempting to stand in God’s way.

Going back to the image, these christians who were mere mortals, mere humans, were attempting to oppose the work of Almighty God.

Just imagine, human beings thinking that they could stop God from doing his work of salvation.

The problem that was going on is that the jewish believers were upset at Peter for eating with non-jewish Cornelius and his family.

Acts 11:2–3 NIV

So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

Peter was eating with these new Christian believers, but there was a huge problem - these new believers were not jewish.

Therefore, Peter should not eat with them, he should not touch them, he should not even be in their homes.

If the jewish believers had their way, Cornelius and his family would likely never be invited to be part of the Christian church.

In fact, that is something that hapenned in the USA as recent as the 1950’s.

In certain areas of the south, there were churches were you could not be accepted into membership if you were black.

Some pastors would encourage black attendees to attend a black church.

Other pastors would insist that the church needed to accept black believers into membership and they were fired from their churches.

Can you imagine a church where you are not accepted simply because of the color of your skin or because you are not like the majority of the congregation?

When Peter saw that Cornelius and his family recieved the Holy Spirit after believing in Jesus Christ, he knew God was adding non-jews to his family, to the church of God.

Acts 11:15–17 NIV

“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 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?”

…so if God gave his Holy Spirit to these gentile believers, Peter dare not turn them away.

Peter could not disregard these believers.

He must accept them as true brothers and sisters in Christ.

Otherwise, he would be like that small mouse thinking he could stand in God’s way.

Rather than turning people away because they are not like us…we must praise God for saving all sorts of people, because God is glorified in reaching the nations with the single message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.