No Border Guards Required

Who is the gospel - the good news that Jesus has paid the price to set us free from sin - who is it for?

Is it for you?

Is it for me?

Is it for the people on your block?

How about for the person in government, maybe making decisions you disagree with?

Is it for the person struggling with drug addiction?

How about for the one who sells themselves?

What about those struggling with gender identity, or attraction to the same sex?

Who is the gospel for?

Series intro.

So what we want to press into - and perhaps for some of us capture or re-capture - is that Spirit-filled life that stands in word and action as a witness. My hope and prayer as we study how the early Christians experienced living life in the Spirit is that each one of us will have a “wow” moment with the Spirit of God; one among many in our lifetime

The Holy Spirit shows us that Jesus is for everyone

You may be asking, “what does this have to do with the Holy Spirit?” Everything, because God’s Spirit is our helper, given to every believer. Two precedent-setting moments in Acts that show us how the Holy Spirit is poured out not just on Jewish believers, but also on other peoples and races. The gift of the Spirit - given only to those who believe - shows us that Jesus is for everyone.

To the Samaritans

Acts 8:4–7 ESV

Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

Let’s start back with the first passage we looked at in this series: Acts 1 8

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

So we started by understanding how the gospel would go forward, first in Jerusalem, and then Judea - so still with the Jews - then onto Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. Then in Acts 2, the Spirit is poured out, and the apostles and believers begin to witness with their words and their actions in powerful ways. We see that despite opposition from the Jewish leaders, and problems inside the church as we saw a couple of weeks ago, the church grows, and is strengthened. Then, something happens. In Acts 7 Stephen, one of the men appointed to help feed the poor is arrested and put on trial. Before the whole Jewish religious leaders Stephen boldly proclaims Jesus, and for that they say he must be put to death. He is taken outside and stoned to death.

After this, we are introduced to Saul, this young fellow who is zealous about rooting out this upstart church movement thing. And at the beginning of Acts 8, we read:

Acts 8:1 ESV

And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

Remember how Jesus said that the gospel would go forward to the ends of the earth? This is when it really starts. All of a sudden all these Jesus-followers are displaced. And they begin to spread out, taking the gospel message with them. So we get to the story of Philip, and something profound happens:

Philip goes down to Samaria to preach to Samaritans. Let’s define “Samaritan” for a minute:

Samaritans were related to the Jews. They used to be the same nation, but then the 12 tribes of Israel split. Judah and Benjamin in the South went one way, and the other 10 in the North went the other way. They became the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Later in history, Israel was conquered and many of her people deported. Those who were left gained new neighbours - other people who had been conquered. Soon what remained of the people of the Northern kingdom intermarried with these other peoples and allowed much idol worship… but even worse than that, they added worship of the true God to their worship of false gods. Both intermarriage with foreigners and idolatry were strictly forbidden in the OT law. Couple this breakdown with much disagreement between Samaritans and Jews over Scripture, the Messiah, and the right place to worship, and you get two warring nations that hate each other. The Jews consider the Samaritans half-breeds, and heretical (NAC). Certainly unclean. They would literally take the long way to avoid walking in their land. So for Philip to be led by the Holy Spirit to go down to that region and start boldly proclaiming the gospel demonstrates God’s intention to unite people from every nation in the gospel. The Samaritans believe, the Holy Spirit is working because people are being saved. But… something important doesn’t happen:

Acts 8:14–17 ESV

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit has not yet been poured out on these Samaritan Christians! This doesn’t seem to be the normal pattern. Now, John 3 8 tells us

John 3:8 ESV

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The Spirit of God cannot be tied down in a box. At times in Acts He is given when the apostles lay their hands on people. But not always. Sometimes he is received before baptism, sometimes after… The common denominator is that He is given to all who believe.

So why do the Samaritans have to wait for this gift until Peter and John come? Is it because Peter and John are the only two powerful enough to give this gift? Or because they were Samaritans and considered half-breeds they could only get it after, or maybe in lesser form? Maybe they were an after-thought?

In truth, this is a profound moment in which God breaks through racism, through cultural barriers, through nationalistic crap, and demonstrates what Paul tells us in Galatians 3 28

Galatians 3:28 ESV

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

The Samaritans wait, and when the Jewish leaders come down to lay hands on them so that they might receive the Holy Spirit, God pours the Spirit out upon them just like He did on the Jews at Pentecost. This is amazing, and extraordinary. God chose to have the Samaritans wait, in this specific case, so that we could see how the gospel is more powerful than even the most powerful cultural or even family barriers we as people put in place. And the One who initiates and witnesses to this fact is the Holy Spirit, who unites us in the gospel and is poured out equally upon all.

The Holy Spirit is able to unite in the gospel even those peoples who have been estranged and despised for hundreds of years. To the Samaritan, the outcast, the one despised and living in defence of it, the gospel speaks life and God declares “you are mine!” The Spirit - our helper and gift to every believer - is given just as much to those who were part of the “chosen race” as those who were outcast.

To the Gentiles

This is not the end of the story. Let’s turn over to Acts 10, and as you do I’ll fill you in on what’s happened in the rest of chapters 8-9, and beginning of 10.

What we see in chapters 8-10 is the gospel’s powerful ability to cross geographical and cultural borders, and reach even the hardest of hearts. At the end of chapter 8 Philip meets the Ethiopian Eunuch, this man who wants to know God, has converted to Jewish religion as much as he’s able, and is trying to read and understand Scripture. The Eunuch believes, and is baptized! Then comes the story of Saul’s conversion. Remember Saul? That guy who was ravaging the church? Jesus meets him on his way to another place to grab more believers, and asks him:

Acts 9:4 ESV

And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

Saul spends three days blind, and then God sends Ananias (another believer) to him to restore miraculously his sight. From this story we see the old Saul is changed into this man who is zealous for the gospel. He begins to preach, and proclaim the gospel, starting first with Jews in the synagogues in Damascus. Problem is, the Jews didn’t like it when Paul was proclaiming Jesus boldly now as Lord and God, instead of siding with them and saying this movement had to be stamped out. So they try to kill him. Saul learns of the plot, escapes, and goes to Jerusalem, and tries to join the church there. Keep in mind this is the same guy who was trying to kill Christians not long before. So naturally folks are afraid, and unfortunately not really willing to have him join them. But another brother named Barnabas took Saul to the Apostles. Paul tells his story, and he was accepted by them. Then Saul begin to pick up where Stephen - the very one he approved of killing - had left off, disputing with the Greek-speaking Jews. Again, they try to kill him, so he is sent off to Tarsus. Then we read this ;

Acts 9:31 ESV

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Only God can take someone so vehemently against His people and change Him into the most impactful of apostles in the early church. We’ll meet up again with Paul later in Acts. Much of the New Testament was also written by Paul.

It’s after this that we turn back to following Peter’s ministry, and see how God through the Holy Spirit directly intervenes in the life of one man, and then one woman to continue bringing peace to the church.

This brings us to Acts 10. Keep in mind, what is the mission of the church?

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

And how is this accomplished?

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

So far we have seen the fulfillment of this as the gospel spreads outside of Jerusalem and Judea to the Samaritans. The gospel powerfully changes the lives of everyone from Simon the sorcerer to Saul and even the Eunuch.

Now, Acts 10 starts by introducing us to a guy named Cornelius, who lives in the city of Caesarea, 50 kms north of Joppa where Peter is staying. Cornelius is a Gentile.

A Gentile is someone who had no Israelite blood - they were everybody else. Greeks, Romans, Anglo Saxons, Egyptians. All the other peoples out there. Not only were they not ethnically God’s chosen people, but they were also pagans, participating in the worship of idols, and practicing things contrary to God’s Word.

But Cornelius is different. He feared God, and was so devoted that he prayed to God and was know for being generous. Though as a military captain he would have had to be part of the Roman’s idol worship, his God is the One True God. An angel visits him one night in a vision, and tells him to send someone 50 kms away to get Peter. Cornelius obeys.

Meanwhile, Peter is in Joppa and goes to the housetop to pray and eat. As he’s getting food, he falls into this trance, and God speaks to him. He sees heaven opened and this blanket full of all kinds of food come down. God tells him to “kill and eat” the food that was there. There’s a problem: Some of this food was forbidden for Jews. We could check out the laws behind that in the OT. They were forbidden from eating common or unclean food. Common, because everyone else could eat it, but not God’s holy people. Jews strictly maintained these boundaries. So for Peter to eat these forbidden things is going against His understand of Scripture. Yet God says to Peter:

Acts 10:15 ESV

And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

Three times this happened. God declares that He has removed the food-barrier. In fact, it was Jesus Himself who made it clear in Mark 7 that it was not what someone ingested that made them unclean, but rather the condition of their heart. The purpose with these restrictions was to set God’s people - a singular nation - apart in the OT. But now, God has made it clear that it’s not about what you eat, but the condition of your heart. Christ has fulfilled the old law, and established a new one. This is the law of grace, something that Peter was coming to grips with.

Then the man from Cornelius’s home comes to find Peter. Now normally, a Jew would never have entered a Gentile home, because it would have made them unclean, unable to enter the worship place. But Peter goes with them the next day and enters Cornelius’s house.

God is on a mission!

Let’s pick up the story in Acts 10:34-48.

Acts 10:34–40 ESV

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear,

Peter clearly understands the message God has given. God has removed the barrier - the gospel is for all! So Peter boldly shares the gospel with Cornelius and the rest of the household. Then we read this:

Acts 10:44–48 ESV

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

The Holy Spirit, the helper given from the Father through Jesus Christ is poured out upon these Gentile believers, testifying outwardly to saving faith. They exhibit the same signs as the apostle’s experience in Acts 2: They were praising God, speaking in tongues. Clearly, God has welcomed them into His family too. So Peter says “can anyone withhold baptism?” Baptism is a right of all who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and part of initiation into the Church. And these Gentile, foreign believers are just as much a part of the Christ’s church as the devout Jews, and the half-breed Samaritans.

This story is the final step in inaugurating the mission Jesus gave us. (Cornerstone p. 469). Not just Jews, or Samaritans, but even Gentiles who have no lot in the chosen people of Israel are welcomed into God’s family. The gospel crosses all borders, and the Holy Spirit testifies to the fact that God’s forgiveness is for every one, regardless of race, culture, or background. It does not matter where you’ve been or what you’ve seen. The gospel is more powerful than those who try to draw distinction based on political, ethnic, cultural, or even relational means.

Conclusion

The Holy Spirit shows us that Jesus is for everyone

To the Samaritans

To the Gentiles

How can we apply this today in our context? Through the Holy Spirit, the gospel can bridge the gap between all these different nations, cultures, and relationships.

Friends, the church - our church - is for people of every colour, background, and status. We see in Scripture that Jesus loves not just some, but the entire world. And offers to a world full of sin and hopelessness new hope, and new life. God’s Spirit is poured out on all who believe and give their lives to Jesus. One of the great moments as we consider the Holy Spirit’s person and work in Acts is the revelation of how God chooses to pour out His Spirit on all who will believe the gospel message about Jesus.

So let me ask you this: Who are you?

Are you a “Jew”? One who maybe grew up in a Christian family, has it all going for them, maybe things are great? You need Jesus, because no matter how good you are or how great things may be, you need a Saviour. Without Him, you too are trapped in this dark world that is headed for hell. To the “Jews”, Jesus says “come.”

Are you the “Samaritan”: Outcast, despised, rejected, and scorned? To the “Samaritan”, Jesus says “Come.”

Are you the “Gentile”: Foreigner, lost, seeking? to the “Gentile”, Jesus says “come.”

And to all of those, He washes away those distinctions and instead declares us brothers and sisters - heirs of an eternity with Him that far out weighs whatever we face here.

But let me ask you:

Who is your “Jew”? (Family, close friends)

Maybe this is family, those close to you, who are part of your tribe. Do they know Jesus? God has given them you as a witness, and equipped you with the Spirit to accomplish God’s plan.

Who is your “Samaritan”? (Weird person, or someone whose hurt you in some way)

We all have them: People in our lives we have rejected, steered clear of, considered lesser.

Maybe these people hurt us; forgiving them is much harder than we thought possible.

Someone you’ve deliberately tried to avoid because they make you uncomfortable.

Who is your “Gentile”?

Those that you don’t know, but they need to know about Jesus.

Those who are a different culture or ethnicity from you. (People who are so distant from you, homeless, hurting, not your comfort crowd)

Aboriginal?

White?

I’d like to end by sharing with you a vision I think God gave me during a retreat this past April. Katie and I were sitting in the truck, eating DQ. (Because where we were there was actually a DQ so we thought we’d better take advantage!). We began to talk about the church, about the people whom God has given us to love and care for. As we talked about the future, I got this picture in my mind of seeing this church full of people, even in the balcony. Lots of faces - kids, adults, older, younger. It was awesome. And there were many different ethnicities, many different “nations” to borrow the Bible’s language.

It’s not about the numbers, although I am prayerful God will continue to add to our numbers. But something that struck me was the different colours of skin united together in the gospel. A body of believers who were Spirit-filled, living vibrant lives for Jesus every day. And a church where the distinctions we face over race and culture ceased.

So, are you willing to let the Holy Spirit use you, even when you feel like the outcast, like the Samaritan? Will you submit to Him and get your pride out of the way, like Saul needed to do? Are you willing to receive the truth that, though you were a sinner, because of Jesus you can be saved, and made part of this family, brought together by one and the same Spirit?

And… are you willing to go to the outcast? Will you go to the foreign or foreigner? And will you love those who persecute you, because that is what Jesus did?

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.